A VERY, PULPY CHRISTMAS!

Before the paperback book.  Before comics.   There were the Pulp.   They were named for the cheap pulpwood paper on which they were printed.  But they were famous for their exciting, often lurid covers.  The covers really sold these magazine.  So, like many other mags, when Christmas rolled around, they’d attach a Christmas theme to the covers.  But, being pulps, it never was quote as simple as that.

See some great examples after the jump.

This 1937 Argosy cover sells a bit of yuletide sex along with the stories.

Here Western Story goes a bit comic and bit classier than some of its brethren.

 

An adverturous spin on Santa for this issue of  “The Popular”.

Aiming for a feel of the higher end mags.   Here “The Popular” tries some family appeal.

“Dective” also tries a fairly straight forward approach here.

Perhaps because a year earlier, they’d offered this bit of menace.

And speaking of menace, Adventure piled it on thick for this absurd and wonderful cover.

But when it came to weirdness, Galaxy really took the cake.

They never missed a bet to make Christmas an alien experience.

Or to take Santa into space.

And to the moon!

Or to find a place for our little green friends.

Or even the blue ones.

But green really is better.

Other Sci-fi mags got in the act too.

Romance pulps kept things coquettish.

But it was the sci-fi mags that really sold it.