STEVE CARROLL WRITES

The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's  Paperback Fanatic 46 , which was published in January of 2023. You can buy a copy of it  here . While   the martial arts have been a deeply ingrained part of various Asian cultures   and their literature for centuries, their influence in western culture was   a   direct result of military exposure to Eastern fighting forms during World War   II in both China and Japan and later during the Korean War. Servicemen   brought   an interest in these esoteric fighting styles back home with them and soon   their influence found its way into the collective psyche. Shortly   thereafter,   the Hong Kong movie scene exploded in the late 60s and spilled over into the   rest of the world in the early 70s. Suddenly Kung Fu was   everywhere from the suburban   neighborhood cinema to TV screens, comic books, and even Top 40 commercial pop   radio ( Everybody w...

The following column was originally printed in Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatic 46 , which was published in January of 2023. You can buy a copy of it here . The Horror! The Horror! Men's Adventure Meets Horror I've always been a sucker for a good genre mashup. Give me some   sci-fi in my spy thrillers, or a serving of steampunk in my crime noir, or throw   some   heist elements into my sword and sorcery, and definitely mix some Kung Fu into  my westerns. When done well, a new kind of genre is created as a   result of the   mashup. The 70s and 80s saw the proliferation of the men’s adventure novels   overtake the paperback marketplace as every major (and   minor) publisher tried to   capitalize on the popularity of  The   Executioner ,  The Destroyer ,  The Penetrator , and all their various   imitators. Soon we had   imitations of the imitations, ad infinitum. So, a new   angle was sought and for a handfu...