Pulp Fiction Art: Cheap Thrills & Painted Nightmares

This 2005 documentary by filmmaker Jamie McDonald is the first documentary I’ve heard of dedicated exclusively to the world of pulp art: those gloriously tawdry two-fisted illustrations of sneezing roscoes, hulking ghouls, granite-jawed dicks, slimy space monsters, scantily clad babes in distress and other wild and wonderful miscreants that graced the covers of the pulps in the first half of the twentieth century.

McDonald prowls pulp art historian Robert Lesser’s vast collection of pulp art and lives to tell the tale, offering an in-depth look not just at a slew of wonderful examples of pulp art (some of which, due to their content, are now rarely seen) and interviews some of the surviving artists themsleves.

Winner of the 2006 Best Documentary award at both the Dragon*Con Film Festival and The International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival.

FILMS

• PULP FICTION ART: CHEAP THRILLS & PAINTED NIGHTMARES | Buy on DVD
  (2005, Jamie McDonald Productions)
  Written by Jamie McDonald
  Directed by Jamie McDonald
  Produced by Jamie McDonald
  Executive producer: Jamie McDonald

RELATED LINKS

• Pulp Fiction Art
  The official web site, complete with trailer, gallery, etc.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

---