Favorite source for pulp villains?

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My campaign's dimension-hopping PCs have now landed in the Pulp Adventure dimension! It's currently 1939 there, but it's an alternate Earth, so I'm not especially beholden to real-world history. So I am wondering, what are your favorite sources for pulp villains of the era?

The system I'm using is Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, but I'm looking for ideas, not stats, so material from any rpg system, as well as non-rpg sources, is fine.
 
I'm fond of the Spider novels. The villains there tend to be even more larger-than-lie than your usual pulp antagonists, and many of which are flat-out supervillains of the variety that the golden age Batman might have faced in another universe.

As an example, in the third Spider novel Wings of the Black Death (the first written by Norvell Page - the previous two can be safely ignored), a criminal mastermind is blackmailing the wealthy, and those who don't pay are killed via the bubonic plague... sent by homing pigeons!
 
Can any of you pulp fans find me the name and author of a detective? I remember reading a short story of it in translation, when I was >12, and judging by what I remember, it should have been either darker pulp, noir, or just run-of-the-mill hardboiled crime fiction...but it did remind me of old pulps, so I guess it might pay to ask here before turning to ChatGPT:thumbsup:!

The protagonist works for a private insurance company and carries a Derringer as a back-up. In the story the (insured) diamonds of a rich man's wife were stolen, with her own help (blackmail, it was her lover) and, spoiler alert, he recovered them:grin:!
And he probably got something on top from her for his efforts and discretion, too:tongue:.
Well, some people died, including the perpetrator.
Other data: the protagonist's boss at the Insurance company was a guy he called Colonel or something. And the client (the blackmailed one) had a whistle on a zipper, which prompted a few comments from the protagonist.
Of course, "whistle blowing" ends in lots of false positives, mostly due to media reports.

I really want to check more works from the same author, mostly due to nostalgia. That might have been one of the first Western-written crime stories* that I've read. But the style of writing has either influenced me, or just clicked with my natural predispositions, since I was reminded of it recently while writing my own account of a session:shade:.

*They were usually considered "a corrupting influence" pre-1989, and I think the translation is from 1991-1992 (I didn't get to it immediately:gunslinger:).
 
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AsenRG said:
The protagonist works for a private insurance company and carries a Derringer as a back-up. In the story the (insured) diamonds of a rich man's wife were stolen, with her own help (blackmail, it was her lover) and, spoiler alert, he recovered them:grin:!
Click to expand...

It does not jive for me, but I tend to be in the Doc Savage, Shadow, Tarzan, Kinnison, end of the pool.
 
Ahh, pulps. :kiss:

Lessee... I vote for larger-than-life, almost supernatural, villains. I haven't read much of The Spider except for his comics, but definitely in that vein is my preference.

I am currently on a Jules de Grandin kick by Seabury Quinn, and that is predominantly supernatural villains of the more street-level sort. It is of its 1920s to 1930s times, and things resolve quick and formulaic enough to be a 5-30 page short story for a magazine (Weird Tales was predominant publisher), but the action and suspense are good and the villains are memorable.

Kolchak the Night Stalker is similarly in the same vein, but those supernatural encounters tend to be more of a misunderstood or beyond street-level nature. I bring it up because Moonstone Books leans heavy into Pulp comics and it does a fun revival of all these heroes and villains. They had a fun mash-up of pulp heroes versus classic monsters, too (Like 'The Black Bat vs. Dracula'). Its publishing makes a convincing allusion that Sherlock Holmes, Kolchak, and Buckaroo Banzai are in the same pulp vein, so less tied to a time period, more an atmosphere of human action against hard odds.

One of my favorite pulp villain scenes is Edogawa Ranpo's classic arsenic kiss; a villainess builds a mild tolerance to arsenic, then gets a lot of arsenic pills, pops them in her mouth, rows out her detective victim (Det. Kogoro Akechi) onto the river, and then crushes them at one moment with her teeth and attempts to plant a metal-graphite-shiny arsenic kiss on the detective before jumping into the river and rinse out her mouth. :heart::music: It's campy good fun!

The wiki pulp listing does seem English-focused (with a few stand outs like French Arsene Lupin and Fantomas), so you might have to scrounge for more pulp elsewhere around the world. There's been a relatively modern and fun adaptation of Gogol in Russia as a supernatural detective period piece tv series, going through his works as a threaded picaresque yet to be recorded by the unlikely detective-scribe of Gogol himself. I'd have to go back to see what besides Zorro and El Santo (luchador) would be considered as Spanish pulp. I'm sure there's so much more out there buried by the sands of time and language barrier.
 
Arch-enemies

Phantom's Brother, Kurt Walker: (who bedevils The Phantom and Tarzan... and is basically the Phantom). He has picked up mystical artifacts from time to time.

Air General Bordas (OC) (who bedevils Flash G and some flying heroes) with his ties to Aliens and those of the Phantom Empire. He has flying gear, a squadron of "special planes" and a flying airfield/ ship.

The Amber Dragon (OC) (A mystic of the Eastern Arts who bedevils Mandrake and some other mystic). He is also active in crime and is active in advancing China's place in the world. (This brings him into conflict with some British Agents).

The Shadowcat (OC) - a thief/ criminal with advanced tech from the Phantom Empire, where he is from. He messes with detectives for the fun and cowboys keep getting caught up in his plans.

Brighton Irons: Industrialist (munitions and railroads) who is tied to Aliens and the Phantom Empire. He wants to own the world, with wealth and power being his goals. He uses these characters to further his goals (and helps them some).

John Sunlight: Bedevils Doc Savage and Tarzan, He is an idealist who seeks to end problems such as war, famine, and bigotry by bringing the world under his control.

Shiwan Khan: would bedevil The Shadow (and I would think The Spider).

You could add Mr. Gorilla, a psychic gorilla from a hidden city in Africa. The Enigma (a cross between the Joker and The Riddler) who would be styming a caped detective in Gotham.
 
I ended up reading an article about what elements comprise pulp and how it could improve your writing. I had additional thoughts on this so I wanted to share the article and build upon it:

'Understanding Pulp Will Make You a Better Author'

Understanding Pulp Will Make You A Better Author

Pulp writing takes its name from the pulp magazines in which it appeared, and those magazines take their name from the cheap wood pulp paper on which they were printed.
www.standoutbooks.com www.standoutbooks.com

I love the elements, keywords of visceral, mass-appeal, and disposable. I want to add the word compelling, because things don't sit still and ruminate deeply on inner lives. And add the word controversial, because it is rarely about quotidian (everyday) life that people have visceral feelings about.

So I want to add upon the article's thesis by saying: Pulp is a visceral, compelling story dealing in popular controversies in a disposable manner. However, as all tings can slip into their worst selves, leading to its perjorative connotation: Pulp at its worst can end up being mindless action trash dealing in salacious hot-topics and bigotry.

Now I think this is useful because it reminds us that Pulp never left us. It is the Soap Opera melodrama & Tabloids of the 1950s to today. It is the Daytime TV Talk Shows & Real Housewives & Rapper Beefs & Social Media Cancellations. It's the gut-punch, nose-drag, pornographic, unmannered, pig-ignorant, disposable entertainment for the common rabble... if you want it.

And that's how you can write contemporary pulp insanities of our 2020s. Tap into those elements, go big, whirl it in a blender, and just throw it out there! Here's a few I whipped up if I had to make Today in a Pulp Universe:

The Karens -- Secret Cabal of Man-Hating Lesbian-FanFic-Writing Soccer Moms Infiltrating the Writers Guild of America!
vs.
Russkie Bots -- Fascist Russian Mesmerist Memesters Hidden in an Arctic Circle Orthodox Monastery as Monks!
:shock:

Carnist-Loving Cheagans who only do it for the Money :money:
vs
Soy Latte Sipping Lactose-Intolerant Keto Influencers who do it for Vanity
vs
Vanity, the Resurrected Mummified Prince & the Revolution singer out for accelerating Global Climate Change!
:shock:

Just go for it like you're off to Thunderdome! :thumbsup: Visceral, compelling, controversial, popular, and disposable. Bold & brassy & brazen, then bolt!
 
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