Why Pulp? Why Now?

Get ready for a whopper of a story.

I’ve been trying to cut back on late-night screen time—no computer, no TV, no phone. So I started listening to “books on tape.” And because I’m cheap (I mean resourceful), I dove into the public domain. That’s where I found my old pal Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I loved reading the Tarzan books back in my 40s. The movies did him dirty—Tarzan’s actually brilliant, multilingual, and emotionally complex. So when I saw the library had recordings of Burroughs’ sci-fi work, I hit play.

First chapter of The Gods of Mars: our handsome hero wakes up naked on Mars and immediately battles monsters. He teams up with a Martian fighter—also naked except for a sword and cape. They explore a dark cave holding hands so they won’t lose each other.

STOP. No one told me Edgar was gay.

I asked my AI. It said nope, married with children. But it also explained that hyper-masculinity and nudity were metaphors for truth, vulnerability, and having nothing to hide. Villains, meanwhile, were robed and adorned. It suggested I look up the art of pulp fiction.

Flashback to earlier that day: a friend asked what I was working on. I said I was at a crossroads, waiting for inspiration.

DING.

The queer coding baked into these stories? It’s a natural fit for me to exploit. So get ready to see Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Jonny Quest—all reimagined through my lens. And even though these stories and characters might be over a hundred years old, most of them showed up in our Saturday morning cartoons. It's a simple and satisfying storytelling form that keeps us coming back for more adventures. I’m still starting from my photo inventory, but now these are fleshed-out characters with relationships, histories, monsters, and villains. The titles, taglines, subtitles and fonts tell you exactly what kind of story is about to unfold.

For the next couple of months, I’ll probably be creating these daily or every other day. Check back often to see how the pulp evolves.