EASTERN STANDARD TIME

One Thousand and One Nights in Japan.

Above is the cover of a Japanese magazine that caught our eye not only because of the extremely high quality of the art, but also because of its romantic style. We’ve had it sitting on our hard drive for a while, but decided to post it today because for some reason it makes us think of New Year’s Eve. We first saw the magazine on Mudwerks, Blonde Zombies and several other Tumblrs, but with no information as to its nature. But that’s what we’re for. We can tell you it’s called One Thousand and One Nights (the symbols translate literally as “night,” “over,” and “one thousand”), and it’s an erotic comic book with assorted steamy stories and random bits of humor. It was published from the late 1940s through early 1950s, as far as we can tell, with the latest issues we’ve seen appearing in 1951. Whether the contents are the same as in the enduring Islamic text One Thousand and One Nights, aka Arabian Nights, we can’t say for certain, but it’s probably a good bet. As a year-end note, we’re happy to say that Pulp Intl.’s traffic is up because of all of you out there, so thanks for taking time to drop by our dusty little corner of the internet. Assuming the Maya aren’t right about the whole Earth switching its polarity thing, you can expect more and better in 2012. Happy New Year.  

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains nearly 2,800 stars.

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

1969—Allende Meteorite Falls in Mexico

The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.

Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.
Rare Argentinian cover art for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

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