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The Paperback Kung Fu Phenomenon: Part 3 (Movie Tie-ins)

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The following column originally appeared in Justin Marriott's PAPERBACK FANATIC 49, which was published in November of 2024. You can buy a copy of it HERE . Do you remember a time just a few decades ago when it seemed like   almost every even moderately popular movie or television show regardless of   genre received a paperback tie-in   novelization? If you’re like me (and I   suspect you are), I grabbed those up whenever I saw them. Unfortunately, over   time most of them ended up lost, sold, or traded. Thanks to eBay, used   bookstores, and thrift/charity shops, I have successfully rebuilt much of that   collection from decades ago. As my recent columns for Paperback Fanatic have   clearly shown, I have a borderline   unhealthy obsession with the Kung Fu/Martial   Arts movie and paperback craze that ran primarily through the 70s, though some   lingered into the 80s.  This time around, I’d like to focus on some of the more pro...
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After: An Anatomy of Fracture (2024) by Drew Starling

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The world as we know it has ceased to exist. It has been   over a decade since the visitors first appeared. Though nature still   flourishes, humankind has been crushed and placed under the merciless genocidal   campaign of alien intelligence. Technology   has been ravaged by electro-magnetic   pulses. Humans are forced to wear oxygen converters that conceal their exhaled   breath, by which they can be located and destroyed. They now exist either in isolated   solitude or in fortified communes. The   sky is filled is giant discs that emit   howls as they communicate with each other while on the earth’s surface giant creatures   constantly seek the remnants of humanity to rend and tear apart in the claws   and teeth. Our main character, only ever referred to as “the woman,”   has chosen the life of isolated solitude, serving as a motorcycle   courier,   carrying messages back and forth between the communes (Comms), whe...
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Atomic Werewolves and Man-Eating Plants (2023) Edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle

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Through the tireless efforts of pulp-renaissance men Robert Deis   and Wyatt Doyle, the world is once again a brighter place for those with a predilection   toward the Men’s Adventure Magazines   (MAMs) of a bygone era. The duo’s ability   to mine the depths of the MAM archives to pull together these themed editions   is unparalleled and the riches of their efforts is a gift to those like myself,   who generally missed out on these magazines in their original incarnation. The hook this time around is an entire edition built around   stories that are much more clearly fictional with supernatural overtones. This   makes it similar in some respects to the authors’ earlier   Cryptozoology Anthology . Whereas much of the popular MAM stories at   least dipped a toe into the real world, albeit it in greatly exaggerated tales   of manly men and their adventures, often while at   war, this collection revels   in tales of sci-fi and...
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