Pulp Art

As I was growing up, I read a lot of old pulps that were reissued as paperbacks.  Some of these were about the Rio Kid, featured above.  Others were about the Masked Rider (kind of a Lone Ranger character) and his faithful Indian companion, Blue Hawk.

I didn't really know what pulps were back then, but I loved the action-oriented stories and larger-than-life characters.  And I enjoyed the cowboy adventures.  Of course, after I discovered Louis L'Amour's books and the authenticity he brought to the genre, I mostly read those.  Interestingly enough, L'Amour was one of the big pulp writers too.

Today's kids don't quite grasp the concept of the cowboy hero, but the stories aren't far removed from many of the fantasy novels they read these days.  Fantasy focuses on magic sometimes, but you always have the two-fisted adventurer like Conan that refuses to die out.  And Conan wasn't that far removed from the wandering saddletramp riding for the brand.