"I Walked With A Zombie" (1943)

Like other films directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton, especially “Cat People,” this one excels in great black-and-white visuals and cinematography. Tourneur uses very atmospheric techniques to give the film a dark, brooding, moody feel that enhances the story he is telling. He uses light and shadow to create an unsettling mood and sense of dread. It's amazing how something as simple as a shadow cast across a wall is used to so effectively create an atmosphere of dread. Sound and music are also used to enhance the tension—the native drums and singing really bring the world of Caribbean voodoo to life.

When most people think about zombie movies, they think of films typical of George Romero or Wes Craven. This film instead focuses more on the voodoo aspect of zombie lore. Probably the most memorable character is the native zombie Carrefour, played by Darby Jones. With his skeletal figure and protruding eyes, he is easily the creepiest looking zombie ever filmed.

Excerpt from "Schermoscuro" Vol.I
"SCHERMOSCURO" Vol. I by Francesco Francavilla

Cheers,
Francesco

"Voodoo" (Mar 30, 1941)

Hello pulp-friends,

Welcome to first edition of Pulp Sunday Presents: Voodoo Month ! I am going to feature several episodes of the Shadow dealing with one of the most ancient magic, the one that is so powerful that can bring people back from the dead! And it will be not just about the Sunday Shadow radio-shows: I am going to add here and there (based on my schedule of course ;)) movies and other voodoo stuff.
Ok, enough of this mubo-jumbo, let's get down to business ;)

A trip down to an island not too far from the Georgia Coast; an island where the natives practice a voodoo cult which consists in worshipping the reptiles; a powerful amulet called the "snake stone" to be weared around the neck; a murder case (of course); and a guy called Sebastian who will turn out to be a key figure in this whole story.
That's the first episode I featured on this blog that starts with some sort of camp-fire, spooky/ghost story tales, with Margot and Lamont telling the adventure that saw them dealing with a massive crowd of vooddo followers and surviving to it.

Listen this episode from the Internet Archive and look forward for more in this "VOODOO MONTH"!!!

Cheers,
Francesco

Pulp Spotlight: Mandrake the Magician

Hello pulp-friends,

This month spotlight is dedicated to a less famous creation of Lee Falk (yep, the same Lee Falk who created the Phantom) but not less cool in my book: Mandrake the Magician.
An illusionist who I can safely say can beat the Shadow in the hypnotic tecnique, Mandrake travels the world fighting crime and injustice, accompanied by his faithful Lothar (the stronger main in the world). The travel aspect of their adventures gives a nice and cool exotic touch to the stories and adds popularity to this creation.
Such popularity has resulted in a cross media expansion of Mandrake: he went from the comic strips for newspapers, to comics, cartoons, serial, and radio shows. Possibly a movie will be added to this list pretty soon.

Sorry for keep this short, but I have some Zorro pages waiting for me. I promise I will be a little more "eloquent" when we get to the Phantom :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Pulp Spotlight is the monthly feature where I cover other famous characters that have helped to build the Pulp genre not just on the radio but also in the other media.

"House Of Horror" (Nov 17, 1940)

This is definitely one of the best and more enjoyable episodes I have been presenting on Pulp Sunday. We got all the needed ingredients plus some extra spices to make this a classic.

A mad scientist, to start, with an accent and a passion for talking in rhymes (scientist and ...poet! :D). A crazy plan to turn women in super-soldiers by mixing their brains with the gorillas'. Crooks who kill ruthlessly with two bullets in the front. Crazy angry gorilla. An evil fortune teller (Madame Santo) who tricks her female costumers to provide bodies to the mad scientist. Margo and Lamont investigating the case of a disappeared woman. And, of course, The Shadow who saves the day once again and he even gets to shoot this time (it's becoming an habit now ;))

I know, it sounds like a crazy recipe but everything works so delightfully. Listen to it and then tell me :)

Buon Appetito!

Francesco

Download from the Internet Archive

Pulp Sci-Fi Week: Amazing and Wonder Stories

I can't let this first Pulp Sci-Fi event go without mentioning the magazines that have been around since the '20s, that have been the cradle for so many famous Sci-Fi writers and many legendary fictional characters (including the freshly spotlighted Buck Rogers), and that have defined the Science Fiction as we know it today. The magazines I am talking about are Amazing Stories and Science Wonder Stories.

Amazing Stories was first published in New York back in April 1926. The antholgy format, collecting many short stories and novels, has been proven successful for years, even if the magazine has seen the end of his days just recently, in 2006, after 80 years of great stories that made all of us dream.

Science Wonder Stories (or simply Wonder Stories) was edited and published in 1930 by Hugo Gernsback, who was also the founder of Amazing Stories (but he lost control of it pushing him to create the new magazine). The ones showcased here are my humble tribute to recreate that kind of sense of fantastic and wonder you feel when looking at those covers of these pulp sci-fi magazines. They lack of the colors from those covers but I hope they don't lack of the magic :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Pulp Sci-Fi Week: Commando Cody

Hello pulp-friends,

Today installment of Pulp Sci-Fi week is dedicated to Commando Cody, a character relatively "younger" than the ones spotlighted in the past days, but that definitely has all the flavor of the ulp fiction we all love :)
I hope you all will forgive me if I borrow a little blurb (below) from Wikipedia as I am in the middle of a BIG project with tight deadline and could only find time to draw the illo above.
Hope you enjoy it :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Commando Cody was the hero in a 12-episode science-fiction serial made in 1952 by Republic Pictures entitled Radar Men from the Moon, which was followed up 1953 with the 12 episode Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe.

The strange character name "Commando Cody" was possibly an attempt to make children think they were going to see the adventures of Commander Corry, the hero of the ABC TV and radio series Space Patrol (1950–1955). The equally strange title "Sky Marshal of the Universe," was probably the studio's imitation of Corry's title, "Commander-in-Chief of the Space Patrol," proclaimed at the beginning of every Space Patrol radio and TV broadcast.

Pulp Sci-Fi Week: Buck Rogers

While surveying an abandoned mine, Rogers, a former United States Army Air Corps officer, falls into a coma after exposure to a leaking gas, and awakes in the twenty-fifth century. Together with his new comrades, the beautiful Wilma Deering and the intrepid Dr. Huer, he struggles to rid the world of evil warlords and "Mongol" hordes.
Created by writer Philip Francis Nowlan in 1928 for a couple of novels published on Amazing Stories, Anthony Rogers changed name in Buck Rogers when his stories were adapted in a comic strip format and published daily on newspapers.


Since then, the popularity of Buck Rogers has grown and grown and reached other media like radio shows (I might illustrate some of them later on ;)), novels, movies, tv series (famous the one from the '80s), and comics again, thanks to the recent move of Dynamite (a publisher well known to me ;)) licensing the character to bring it on the shelves again.
My little challange of the day was to try to make the classic (and a little silly) design of Buck's rocket ship from the '30s look cool. Let me know if I succeded, if you have a min to spare :)

Cheers,
Francesco