The story of how comic books came to be is often tied to giants like Marvel and DC, but the roots of this medium extend far beyond these two major publishers. The comic book industry as we know it today owes much to the pulp magazines of the early 20th century. These cheaply produced, highly sensationalised stories fuelled the public’s appetite for adventure, horror, crime, and fantasy. Over time, pulp stories evolved into the comic book format, with many publishers jumping into the fray before the eventual dominance of Marvel and DC. This is the untold story of the pulp origins and the creation of comic books outside the two big names.
Pulp Fiction: The Wild West of Popular Storytelling
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pulp magazines were the dominant form of mass entertainment. Named after the low-quality wood-pulp paper on which they were printed, these magazines were cheap and accessible, making them immensely popular with working-class readers. The pulps covered every genre imaginable—horror, crime, detective stories, adventure, science fiction, and fantasy—and provided escapism for readers living in the harsh economic realities of the time.
Notable pulp magazines included Weird Tales, Argosy, and Amazing Stories, which introduced readers to dark, supernatural worlds and futuristic realms. The success of these stories was largely due to their action-packed plots, serialised storytelling, and bold characters. The protagonists of the pulps were often larger-than-life figures, blending heroism with flaws, which created compelling, action-driven narratives. These characters would serve as direct inspiration for comic book heroes, even for publishers beyond Marvel and DC.
Non-Superhero Genres and Their Influence on Comics
While the superhero genre would eventually come to define comic books, early comics were heavily influenced by the pulps' range of genres. The most popular genres in the pulp era often mirrored the themes that would later surface in early comic books outside the superhero realm.
Western Stories: Pulps like Western Story Magazine created a demand for cowboy heroes and tales of rugged, lawless frontiers. Publishers like Fawcett Comics, Lev Gleason Publications, and Dell Comics brought the same wild adventures to comic books. Titles such as The Lone Ranger and Red Ryder became household names, bringing pulp-inspired Western heroes to the forefront of comic storytelling.
Crime and Detective: Pulps were known for their gritty, hardboiled detective stories featuring street-savvy investigators who dealt with corruption, gangsters, and murder. Comics publishers like Lev Gleason Publications capitalised on this with titles like Crime Does Not Pay. This comic, first published in 1942, was a pioneer in the crime comic genre and offered an unflinching look at criminal activity. It borrowed heavily from pulp crime stories, emphasising realism and morality, often delivering a “crime doesn’t pay” moral message.
Horror: Perhaps one of the most significant contributions of pulp fiction to comic books was in the horror genre. Pulps like Weird Tales and The Spider were filled with macabre stories, grotesque villains, and terrifying scenarios that would later inspire the horror comics of the 1950s. EC Comics, for example, became famous for its horror anthology titles like Tales from the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear, which were directly influenced by the lurid and shocking tales found in pulp horror.
The Rise of Independent Comic Publishers
As the pulp market began to decline in the late 1930s, publishers saw an opportunity to shift to a new format: comic books. The visual dynamism of comic strips, combined with the rich storytelling of pulps, created a perfect hybrid form of entertainment. While Marvel and DC would eventually become the dominant forces in the superhero space, many other independent comic publishers thrived in the early years of the comic book industry.
Fawcett Comics
One of the most important publishers outside of Marvel and DC, Fawcett was known for Captain Marvel, but its other publications, like Hopalong Cassidy and Bulletman, catered to readers who loved pulp-influenced adventures. These comics blended the high-energy storytelling of pulps with the new visual medium of comics.
Lev Gleason Publications
Known for Daredevil (not the Marvel character) and Crime Does Not Pay, Lev Gleason was a trailblazer in crime comics. The latter became infamous for its no-holds-barred approach to crime and violence, breaking new ground in storytelling.
Quality Comics
Famous for titles like Plastic Man and Blackhawk, Quality Comics embraced the spirit of the pulp era by delivering action-packed, larger-than-life characters. Blackhawk, for example, followed a squadron of fighter pilots battling enemies in pulp-style aviation adventures, bridging the gap between war stories and superhero tales.
EC Comics: Before its infamous horror comics came to the forefront, EC was known for educational comics. But it was the pulp-inspired horror, science fiction, and crime anthologies that made EC Comics a cultural phenomenon. Series like Weird Science and Crime SuspenStories drew from pulp storytelling’s sensationalism, delving into dark, forbidden topics and pushing boundaries far beyond what other publishers were willing to explore.
The Pre-Code Era: Pulp Sensibilities in Comic Books
The pre-code era of comic books, before the Comics Code Authority was implemented in 1954, was marked by a near-complete lack of censorship, allowing publishers to explore mature and controversial content. This was the golden age for pulp-inspired genres such as horror, crime, and romance. EC Comics, for example, used the freedom of this era to introduce its horror anthologies, with grotesque illustrations and dark themes reminiscent of pulp fiction's most sensational stories.
Comics during this time were filled with violence, moral ambiguity, and boundary-pushing content. Characters from these stories often met gruesome ends, and the themes of justice were more complex than in typical superhero comics. This era created a space for publishers like Fiction House, which specialised in jungle and adventure comics (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle) and Avon Publications, known for its horror and crime comics, to thrive.
The Decline of Pulps and the Rise of the Comics Code Authority
The mid-1950s marked a turning point in both pulp fiction and comic books. As pulp magazines dwindled due to the rise of radio, television, and comics, the comic book industry faced its own crisis. Public outcry over violent and sexual content in pre-code comics led to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954. The CCA imposed strict guidelines on what could and could not be shown in comic books, leading to a sanitized, heavily censored period in comic history.
The implementation of the CCA spelled the end for many pulp-inspired comics, particularly in the crime and horror genres. EC Comics, for example, was hit particularly hard and was forced to discontinue most of its titles, pivoting to the more tame Mad Magazine.
Beyond Superheroes – The Legacy of Pulps in Comics
While the superhero genre dominates mainstream comic book culture today, the influence of pulp fiction on the medium cannot be overstated. Long before Marvel and DC defined the landscape, publishers like Fawcett, Lev Gleason, EC Comics, and others used the foundation laid by pulp magazines to create diverse and daring comic books. The gritty, fast-paced, and often boundary-pushing stories of pulps found new life in the comic book format, ushering in the Golden Age of Comics and, later, the pre-code era.
Though the pulps may have faded from popular culture, their DNA lives on in the non-superhero comics that emerged from the golden age of the medium, influencing genres and storytelling techniques that are still explored by independent publishers and creators today.
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