The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril. By Paul Malmont
In
the 1930s, the heyday of the pulp era, magazines like "Thrilling
Detective," "Amazing Stories" and the like kicked ass, took names, and
shaped the morals of millions of American readers. The writers who
created the heroes like Doc Savage and The Shadow worked under
impossible deadli
nes
for pennies a word to give us tales of the fantastic, of Oriental
criminal gangs, dens of vice and iniquity, weird villains, two-fisted
heroes and dames to be ornamental and rescued. At its height, as a
pre-Scientology L. Ron Hubbard reminds us in "The Chinatown Death Cloud
Peril," 30,000,000 pulps were bought every month. It took the paper
shortages of World War II to knock them down, and they were finished off
by television in the ‘50s, but they left us a legacy of heroes that
include Conan and Tarzan, cult favorite H.P. Lovecraft, and provided the
seed that spawned science-fiction and fantasy.Return with me, now, to
those thrilling days of yesteryear, with the help of Paul Malmont, who,
according to his bio, works in advertising and lives in Brooklyn with
his wife and two kids.I'm firmly convinced that, at night, he slips out
of his brownstone in Park Slope and roams the wilds of Manhattan,
battling the forces of evil with mad crimefighting skillz he learned in
the mountain fastnesses of Bhutan.Either that, or he's a pulp fiction
fan who did a wonderful job of researching the era, and clever enough to
cast as his heroes the writers Walter Gibson, Lester Dent, Hubbard
(known as "The Flash" because he was quick at the typewriter), with
guest appearances by Lovecraft (oh, how I want to tell you how he
appears. It's so appropriate!), E.E. "Doc" Smith and Orson Welles.As for
the story, well, the title gives it away, and I'm not going to say
more. If you're going to read this, it would just spoil the fun. But if
you're still on the bubble, I'll say this:Malmont writes about the pulp fiction world, but the story is told straight. Neat. No purple prose.
The plot makes sense. It's creepy and scary, but doesn't rely on the supernatural.
The writers may have created two-fisted heroes, but they aren't. That's part of the fun.
Malmont plays fair with Hubbard. I'm no fan of Scientology, but I was glad that Hubbard is presented just as you would expect him to be at the beginning of his career. He's ambitious, proud, something of a blowhard, but great sidekick material.
To say more would give away the fun, so let me just say that, if you have any affection for the pulp era, if you smile at the thought of a "GalaxyQuest"-type story set in New York of the Depression-era, or just want a rousing tale without the literary baggage, check out "The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril."UPDATE: Thanks to Kaja Foglio, the co-creator of the fabulous "Girl Genius" comic, I found out that Lester Dent's Zeppelin tales are being republished.
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