I'll pound you to a "Pulp" if you don't show off yours! 23 23

[Surfing Alien]

Just unboxed this 212 page fattie with a classic cover. If this was a comic book I probably couldn't afford it.

[OtherEric]

4 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

Just unboxed this 212 page fattie with a classic cover. If this was a comic book I probably couldn't afford it.

That one's going on my want list...

[OtherEric]

And my freshly unboxed arrival today.  Two classic Stanley G. Weinbaum stories in this one, in addition to The Red Peri it has The Adaptive Ultimate under a pseudonym:

[mstrange]

Cool Torture bondage cover

 

[sagii]

1 hour ago, mstrange said:

Cool Torture bondage cover

 

If that's the one that was on the 'Bay recently, i hemmed and hawed too long on it. Congrats!

Thing is being new to these, i'm not experienced yet as to what is priced 'too high'. So even though a cover really grabs me, i hesitate sometimes.

...but that subject matter on the cover should have 'registered' as a no-brainer 

[Robot Man]

All you got to ask your self is what would it worth if it were a comic cover? Makes for a quick decision...

[mstrange]

2 hours ago, sagii said:

If that's the one that was on the 'Bay recently, i hemmed and hawed too long on it. Congrats!

Thing is being new to these, i'm not experienced yet as to what is priced 'too high'. So even though a cover really grabs me, i hesitate sometimes.

...but that subject matter on the cover should have 'registered' as a no-brainer 

Couldn't pass it up.  Other than the chip in the corner book is in excellent condition with  nice page quality. Most of the stories have a horror theme as well.

[Sarg]

13 hours ago, OtherEric said:

And my freshly unboxed arrival today.  Two classic Stanley G. Weinbaum stories in this one, in addition to The Red Peri it has The Adaptive Ultimate under a pseudonym:

This is an early use of the term "science fiction." Everything I've seen from the late '20s/early '30s says "scientifiction."

[Sarg]

I've read somewhere that the Operator #5 pulps are supposedly well above of their peers in literary content. Can anyone confirm that?

Edited May 12, 2020 by Sarg
removed quote

[RedFury]

1 hour ago, Sarg said:

I've read somewhere that the Operator #5 pulps are supposedly well above of their peers in literary content. Can anyone confirm that?

As far as literary content, I don't think any of the hero pulps could stand up to stories you would find in Adventure, Argosy, or books like that, or the sci-fi in Astounding or the weird stories in Weird Tales or Strange Tales or Unknown, but as far as hero pulps go Operator #5 is pretty good.  I've only read a few Operator #5 issues, but I thought they were on par with The Shadow and Doc Savage.  Fast paced heroic action adventure stories with lots of chases, captures, escapes, and fights.  Jimmy Christopher (Operator #5) is kind of a James Bond-like character, except he's an American agent.  The 13 part Purple Invasion story-line consists of 13 novels telling one over-arching story of America's resistance to a foreign invasion, which was unusual for the pulps at the time, although Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds did the same thing 2 years earlier.

 

 

[sagii]

12 hours ago, Robot Man said:

All you got to ask your self is what would it worth if it were a comic cover? Makes for a quick decision...

 

11 hours ago, mstrange said:

Couldn't pass it up.  Other than the chip in the corner book is in excellent condition with  nice page quality. Most of the stories have a horror theme as well.

Great rule of thumb 

And yes, you tell it's a gem!

[OtherEric]

5 hours ago, RedFury said:

As far as literary content, I don't think any of the hero pulps could stand up to stories you would find in Adventure, Argosy, or books like that, or the sci-fi in Astounding or the weird stories in Weird Tales or Strange Tales or Unknown, but as far as hero pulps go Operator #5 is pretty good.  I've only read a few Operator #5 issues, but I thought they were on par with The Shadow and Doc Savage.  Fast paced heroic action adventure stories with lots of chases, captures, escapes, and fights.  Jimmy Christopher (Operator #5) is kind of a James Bond-like character, except he's an American agent.  The 13 part Purple Invasion story-line consists of 13 novels telling one over-arching story of America's resistance to a foreign invasion, which was unusual for the pulps at the time, although Dusty Ayres and His Battle Birds did the same thing 2 years earlier.

It depends a lot on who was writing, I think.  Frederick C. Davis wrote the first 20 issues, Emile C. Tepperman wrote 21-39, and Wayne Rogers wrote the last 9.  I would put the Davis issues as slightly better than the average hero pulps taken individually, but if you read more than a couple they get repetitive even more quickly than hero pulps usually do.  The Tepperman issues are hard to judge for me, taken individually they're not that impressive but taken as a whole the Purple Invasion is just an insane achievement.  The Rogers issues are probably the best on their own terms, in part because of just how different they are: the US does NOT instantly reset to normal after the Purple Invasion is repulsed, so you're dealing with a weird, post-war environment where they're trying to rebuild the country.  Having an alternate history to work with lets the series go interesting places.

Calling the character James Bond-like is a bit of an understatement.  The very first scene he's in in the first issue, he introduces himself as "Christopher. James Christopher."  Which is almost enough to make you wince, until you realize it was published nineteen years before the first James Bond book.  I sometimes wonder if Ian Fleming ever saw the series, there were definitely UK reprints in the 30's.

Edited May 12, 2020 by OtherEric

[Yorick]

21 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Just unboxed this 212 page fattie with a classic cover. If this was a comic book I probably couldn't afford it.

Does it provide a credit for the cover artist?  WHO??!!!  I must know.

[sagii]

Okay, so it's missing the back cover, and the front cover has some condition issues too, (it's had a long road since 1934) but i couldn't pass it up.

What a brutal cover. So much for more 'innocent times' 

[Surfing Alien]

41 minutes ago, Yorick said:

Does it provide a credit for the cover artist?  WHO??!!!  I must know.

Robert Gibson Jones. He did many of the Fantastic Adventure covers in this time. 

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, sagii said:

Okay, so it's missing the back cover, and the front cover has some condition issues too, (it's had a long road since 1934) but i couldn't pass it up.

What a brutal cover. So much for more 'innocent times' 

Never any reason to complain about condition when we are talking pulps. As long as the cover is nice and all pages are there and supple, I'm in. Like many pulps, I have never seen this one before and I have been buying them for MANY years. So much to discover. Kind of like collecting GA before the Gerber Books. A new discovery every day!

[Sarg]

4 hours ago, OtherEric said:

It depends a lot on who was writing, I think.  Frederick C. Davis wrote the first 20 issues, Emile C. Tepperman wrote 21-39, and Wayne Rogers wrote the last 9.  I would put the Davis issues as slightly better than the average hero pulps taken individually, but if you read more than a couple they get repetitive even more quickly than hero pulps usually do.  The Tepperman issues are hard to judge for me, taken individually they're not that impressive but taken as a whole the Purple Invasion is just an insane achievement.  The Rogers issues are probably the best on their own terms, in part because of just how different they are: the US does NOT instantly reset to normal after the Purple Invasion is repulsed, so you're dealing with a weird, post-war environment where they're trying to rebuild the country.  Having an alternate history to work with lets the series go interesting places.

Calling the character James Bond-like is a bit of an understatement.  The very first scene he's in in the first issue, he introduces himself as "Christopher. James Christopher."  Which is almost enough to make you wince, until you realize it was published nineteen years before the first James Bond book.  I sometimes wonder if Ian Fleming ever saw the series, there were definitely UK reprints in the 30's.

 

Thanks for your highly informed answer.

[Sarg]

4 hours ago, OtherEric said:

It depends a lot on who was writing, I think.  Frederick C. Davis wrote the first 20 issues, Emile C. Tepperman wrote 21-39, and Wayne Rogers wrote the last 9.  I would put the Davis issues as slightly better than the average hero pulps taken individually, but if you read more than a couple they get repetitive even more quickly than hero pulps usually do.  The Tepperman issues are hard to judge for me, taken individually they're not that impressive but taken as a whole the Purple Invasion is just an insane achievement.  The Rogers issues are probably the best on their own terms, in part because of just how different they are: the US does NOT instantly reset to normal after the Purple Invasion is repulsed, so you're dealing with a weird, post-war environment where they're trying to rebuild the country.  Having an alternate history to work with lets the series go interesting places.

Calling the character James Bond-like is a bit of an understatement.  The very first scene he's in in the first issue, he introduces himself as "Christopher. James Christopher."  Which is almost enough to make you wince, until you realize it was published nineteen years before the first James Bond book.  I sometimes wonder if Ian Fleming ever saw the series, there were definitely UK reprints in the 30's.

How is the Purple Invasion "just an insane achievement"?

[Ricksneatstuff]

I just had to break down and get this. Not an uncommon book but an iconic one for sure.

Yakima pedigree. Have to thank Dave for working it out with me.

 

[Mmehdy]

7 minutes ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

I just had to break down and get this. Not an uncommon book but an iconic one for sure.

Yakima pedigree. Have to thank Dave for working it out with me.

 

classic and adds to your other caption future collection...hope you can get them all..very strong buy.