Pulp International

Feb 2 2022

I resent the accusation. First of all, puffy sleeves are in style. And second, no, there's nothing up them.

Here's a look at a couple of the items we found back in November while exploring the maze of roads and streets comprising Cadiz. These westerns were written by José Mallorquí and were published in 1974 as part of Ediciones Favencia's Colección El Coyote. Titled De tal palo... and Un caballero, these were half a euro each, and here's the bonus—the cover art on both is by Jano, aka Francisco Fernandez Zarza-Pérez, one of the better movie poster illustrators from Spain during the mid-century era. Check here to see a prime example. There's also some interior art by Carlos Prunés. They're just ink sketches but some of them are nice. We haven't read these, but we'll get around to that. We just got in a stack of rare crime and sleaze novels, so the cowboys will have to wait their turn.

Spain Cadiz Ediciones Favencia José Mallorquí Jano Francisco Fernandez Zarza-Pérez Carlos Prunés cover art literature

Intl. Notebook

Nov 19 2021

Walk a city's streets and you never know what you'll find.

We were wandering around town earlier today, and what did we spy outside a sundries shop but a stack of vintage reading material. Wedged between English teaching books and bags of sawdust was a stack of José Mallorquí and Keith Luger paperbacks, and there were even more inside. All of which reminded us that we had posted something from Luger—aka Miguel Oliver Tovar—years ago, which can see at this link. We didn't buy any of today's pile, but we may mosey back round that way another morning and pick up a few. After all, why not? They're cheap as hell. Also, we want to know why people buy bags of sawdust, and we can only find out by going back to the store and asking. The overarching theme, though, is this: it's nice to be living in a city where we can find a bit of pulp style treasure just by taking a stroll. For years that wasn't the case.

Spain Cadiz Editorial Bruguera Ediciones Favencia Keith Luger Miguel Oliver Tovar José Mallorquí cover art literature

Intl. Notebook

Aug 26 2020

We're on top of the world and the view is fine.

We're back online. Did you ever doubt us? Truth is, this was not a seamless move. Problems cropped up in almost every area. Internet acquisition was very tough. Our workloads (again, we actually do have jobs) have piled up to dangerous levels. Travel problems linger, which is to say we haven't yet determined how to get the indispensable Pulp Intl. girlfriends here. And don't even bring up the health thing—one of us caught something before leaving, but had a negative virus test just days before traveling. Whatever that thing is has not gone away fully, so hopefully there aren't a lot of false negatives with these nasal swabs they give you. We'll work it all out somehow. Advice: don't move during a pandemic, and especially don't do it during a dangerous surge in virus cases. But we had to. Just look at our new view. That's worth any amount of discomfort and inconvenience.

Spain Cadiz intermission

Intl. Notebook

Aug 17 2020

Pulp Intl. takes a long day's journey into the night of Spain.

It's intermission time. But wait—didn't we just have an intermission? Indeed we did, but this next one can't be avoided, because we're moving. We mean physically, not online. This is going to be a long, tricky journey that delivers us to our new home—Cádiz, Spain, which you see above, and below, night and day. Once we arrive there we'll have to contend with getting internet set up. The provider (who we've only spoken to by phone) has been comically overconfident, but we're experienced in these matters, and we know—even if they don't—that they'll botch it somehow or other.

We're looking forward to this move. Cadiz is an intimate, active place, with an excellent nightlife and a world famous carnival, which we hope to enjoy if the killer virus is somehow vanquished. But even if that takes a long time or forever, Cadiz is still a nice city to walk around in, a visually inspiring place with numerous old buildings, a maze of streets, and at least a hundred outdoor terrace bars. This outdoor lifestyle is what attracted us—if the virus lingers and we can never go indoors again, we'll still be in good shape.

We know what you're thinking. Isn't undertaking a major move during a pandemic imprudent? Well, we're impulsive like that, and hope to pull it off without contracting anything. Assuming all goes according to plan, we'll be back online with new inspiration, new material, and—crucially—a new scanner to help us get back into the swing of posting old tabloids. Figure seven to ten days, end-to-end. Wish us luck. Meantime, we have some fun posts to help build the anticipation for our glorious return. Look below the photo.