The Day Science Fiction Decided It Was Too Important for You

In the olden days, American genre fiction belonged to the people who actually read it. They bought cheap magazines printed on rough wood pulp paper at newsstands by the millions. Inside they found detectives, cowboys, and spacemen adventuring through grimy cities, trackless deserts, and strange worlds.

It’s a lasting testament to the popularity of the pulps that the legends of the writers who made their names there are with us to this day. Edgar Rice Burroughs gave readers John Carter and Tarzan. Robert E. Howard unleashed Conan. Walter B. Gibson turned the Shadow into a defining hero of American pop culture.

Far from obscurities indulged as guilty pleasures by small circles of niche enthusiasts, these characters dominated mass entertainment. We would not have Elric without Conan or Batman without the Shadow.

In the early 1930s, the pulps were a decidedly mainstream American entertainment medium. The Shadow became successful enough to spawn not just a hit radio show, but a whole wave of hero magazines. Weird Tales introduced generations to Howard and Lovecraft.

Imagine the popularity that Batman, Spider-Man, or the Avengers enjoy today. Back in the monoculture of the 30s, there were pulp characters with even greater cultural reach.

The pulps had a good thing going.

But one day, it all changed.

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