Pulp Fiction
Pulp fiction magazines were the main source of everyday entertainment for the masses during the first half of the 20th Century. These magazines delivered action and heroes that were some of the most creative in literary history. Pulp heroes and their authors have influenced every medium including comics, movies, and television.
The Pulps delivered stories for every possible genre, including detective, western, adventure, spicy, spy/military, as well many other, smaller niche genres. The Pulps were also responsible for the creation of the hardboiled detective story as well as the sci-fi genre.
The pulps emerged out of the cheap “dime novels” of the late 19th century. From 1900 to 1920, the newspaper like dime novels evolved into the well known magazine format. Magazines such as Argosy, All-Story Weekly, and Blue Book dominated the field with general fiction stories. Tarzan and Zorro are two classics from this era come to mind qucikly.
The 1920s saw the transformation from general fiction to genre fiction. The general fiction magazine Black Mask evolved away from standard fiction and cozy style mysteries into the home of Dashiell Hammet and the Hard Boiled Detective. Meanwhile, Weird Tales the Unique Magazine provided an outlet for weird and fantastical writings which launched the fantasy and horror genres for writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and many others. Soon came along Astounding Stories and Astonishing Stories which launched the Golden Age science fiction and speculative fiction.
The 1930s saw an explosion in terms of number of magazines and genres. This decade was the prime period producing some of the best (and worst) pulp fiction that impacted American entertainment then and continues to reverberate today with derivative works. The writing careers of Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and many others began in the pulps.
With the 1940s and World War II, paper shortages and changing readers the pulps began their decline. The paperback industry was begining to take hold. The Radio and Movie industry had been tempting away talent and competing for audiences for some time.
But the end for the pulps came in about 1952. Television was in its infancy and about to captivate a nation. But a collapsing newstand distribution network effectively end the pulp fiction era.
Although the pulps were incredibly popular during its day most were destined to be forgotten quickly. Much of the innovation and creativity that occurred in the pulps has been forgotten or attibuted to later mediums, authors and characters.
On the verge of extinction something incredible occurred. A band of fans during the 1950s and into the 1960s began to slowly organize through fanzines and conventions. The fanzines recorded pulp history and the conventions provided a means for the fans to get together, collect and perserve pulps, and to continue the hobby.
The late 1960s and 1970s saw a number pulps reissued as paperback reprints including the Doc Savage paperback run bringing in a new generation of fans. During the 1980s, the pulp community continued to grow in both numbers of fans as well as the start of a small press publishing network for pulp reprints.
The 1990s and the internet generation allowed the pulp community to move online. During late 1995 we approached Joel Frieman and Bob Weinberg at Argosy Communications who owns the rights to a number of the Popular Publications magazines. We obtained a license to begin reprinting their hero pulp stories online in electronic format.
On May 10, 1996, the Vintage Library opened its doors for business. We currently have over 150 stories available for immediate download. But the power of the internet has gone much farther than just electronic downloads. Its brought together a fan base and created a market where we’ve encouraged a number of small press publishers to create a regular stream of pulp reprints and to constantly improve quality. The result…
Today we are experiencing a pulp fiction revivial where new fans are coming into the hobby in large numbers and we have more and more books, magazines, reprints and replicas available than ever before. Adventure House, Girasol Collectables, and Wildside Press are some of today’s top publishers keeping us awash in pulp fiction.
Katy Perry’s Famous Vintage Pinup Style
Her breakthrough single “I Kissed a Girl” established Katy Perry in the music world. However, her fashion caught the attention of designers even before she released the song that became a world-wide hit. Born as Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in California US, Katy Perry (as she likes to be called) is distinguished for wearing unconventional style of dresses, often combining colors and vintage fashion, as well as associating outfits with fruits.
The young pop star has generated as much controversy with her songs, particularly “Ur So Gay” and “I Kissed a Girl”, as much as she did with her costumes, some as weird as ice-cream cones and carousels. What’s remarkable is that Katy pulls off the craziest of outfits flawlessly and they look fabulous on her. An established singer-songwriter and musician, Katy can be as effortless in facing millions of her fan over a guitar as she is posing as a pin-up girl in flowery outfits teamed with sexy high heel stilettos, her dark tresses styled in soft Dita von Teese curls to give her a timeless seductive look.
Katy’s famous vintage style
Katy Perry is very stylish but she is always in the eyes of the fashion police. According to the songstress herself, she “doesn’t mind being a regular on the worst dressed lists”. As long as she is experimenting she is “totally OK with ending up in the ‘worst dressed.’ It’s happened many, many times, but I’m proud of those outfits,” Katy claims.
The singer describes her unconventional fashion style as “a bit of a concoction of different things”. Though she also claims, “I have my own look, which I call ‘Lolita meets old Hollywood Glam.’”. She pompously names actress and burlesque performer Dita Von Teese and Cyndi Lauper as her icons. “I’m a big fan of Dita Von Teese, because she does it all herself. That is her job: to look fabulous going to the grocery store.”
Her stylist Johnny Wujek, who’s worked with her for album and magazine covers, red carpets, and music videos, describes her style as “very colorful and vintage”. She is not afraid to make a statement. If there is something that Wujek thinks would be too much; Katy would be like, “Amazing idea!” The celebrity stylist during an interview stated, “I think it’s cool that Katy’s so free-spirited and just kind of loves fashion as an art form.”
“A nice dose of sexiness” makes a person look stylish according to Perry and says she likes to wear dresses that are fun, colorful and happy. According to some fashionistas, the most enchanting facet of Katy’s fashion sense is that she can look ravishingly sexy and innocent at the same time. While many pop stars try hard but miserably fail to achieve this look, but with Perry, you get the sense that it’s no act.
Her fruit fixation
A peculiar aspect of Perry’s style is her noticeable fixation for fruit accessories. “It started with my obsession of the 1940s and cherry charm bracelets and strawberry and cherry pattern baskets on women’s dresses,” explains the star who “loves anything fruit”. You can often notice her eclectic get-up complimented with fruit-shaped accessories such as strawberry barrettes, watermelon earrings or sequined bananas. For her performance at the Grammy’s, Katy chose a bedazzled, fruit-encrusted mini-dress complete with watermelon-shaped bra cups. Stylists often comment that fruits accessories have become a staple of Katy’s dressing.
Her affinity for shoes
Fashionistas who have watched Perry’s fashion sense closely claim that the pop sensation loves clothes, shoes and accessories possibly even more than recording a number one single. If you observe her pictures, you can easily notice that Katy is head over heels about high heel shoes. Perry’s selection of shoes is often appreciated by the accessories watchers. The color, style and heels of her shoes gel naturally with her costume and other accessories. If you just take a look at the choice of her shoes, you can observe just how sexy the right pair of shoes can look.
According to experts, Katy’s preference of shoes displays the influence of old school pop-rockers such as Cindy Lauper and Pat Banatar. The ‘Ur So Gay’ singer’s immaculate taste in shoes shows that Perry is well aware of the fact that the key to looking great is on paying attention to all the details.
Katy’s fondness for a fabulous pair of stiletto shoes is famous. Her sporty colorful high heel stilettos always seem to do justice to her funky and often jaw-drooping outfits. Pumps, court shoes, ankle strap sandals and t-bar shoes appear to be her favorite style provided they are fitted with spindly stiletto heels. Perry can often be seen sporting shoes by Christian Louboutin and Sonia Rykiel. Her favorite shoe designers though are Nicholas Kirkwood and Steve Madden. Katy often adorns her fancy feet with their vibrant and exotic creations.
This Article is written by Glena Jess to know High Heels, Stilettos, Sexy Shoes and Boots Styles of popular celebrities.