While my siblings, friends and I grew up after the Age of Serial Films, many of them ran on the New York City network-affiliated stations. These shows aired before the prime time hours, or late Saturday mornings after the cartoons.
I remember watching some episodes of Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon, and probably a few others I can’t remember; along with listening to a few episodes of The Shadow which our hometown radio stations brought back on the air for a bit.
The show that caught our attention the most when we were little kids was Our Gang/The Little Rascals. One or more of our pet dogs would follow us around on our own misadventures, and we often tried building similar contraptions—go-carts, tree forts and the like—based on what the rascals did in the series. Often with the same calamitous results.
Then as we got a bit older we got into The Bowery Boys (previously known as The Dead End Kids and East Side Kids). We use to tussle around in our back yards and re-enact the fight scenes of the most recent episode we watched. I guess the idea of fighting bad guys (as the “light side” Bowery Boys) in and around New York City appealed to us pre-teen Upstate New Yorkers.
But our lives didn’t just revolve around what was on the “boob tube.” We read the comic book versions of pulp magazines, primarily Conan the Barbarian, and Solomon Kane.
Although our moms were a bit leery of the Vampirella comics we read as teenagers, they didn’t outright forbid us from buying any issues.
Anyway, spicy adventure stories aside, sometime between buying my last issue of Vampirella and the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I got into wargaming and role-playing games.
While my main focus is on historical, science fiction and heroic fantasy, I have a few pulp action games in my collection.
I bought Fortune and Glory and the two boxed expansion sets shortly after they were released.
A few years ago, I stumbled across a copy of Justice Inc at Half Price Books.
After last month’s shopping therapy session, I added Rattrap Productions’ .45 Adventure (1st Edition).
Eventually, I’d like to get my Fortune and Glory pieces painted, but in the meantime, my friend Peter finished the handful of pulp action figures for me.
While writing this post I took the time to concoct a title using my Comic Life program:
What follows is my Gallery of Pulp Heroes from Reaper Miniatures (Modern), somewhere on the grimy streets of Midnight City (you may have to scroll down on the linked pages to see the unpainted figure):
...rear view:
2. Sister Maria, front view...
...rear view:
...rear view:
5. The Black Mist, front view...
...rear view:
6. Rex (Dark Future Hero), front view...
7. Meanwhile, Frank Buck, adventurer, is exploring some remote part of the world, front view...
...rear view:
Uh-oh. Looks like Frank got more adventure than he bargained for...
The "giant" snakes are some cheap kids' gag toys I bought years ago for just such occasions.
Here's a group photo:
Well, it seems like Frank made it back from his Adventure in the Cave of the Giant Snakes, but Agatha Fox must have disappeared on one of her clandestine missions. (Translation: I forgot to include her).
When the chips are down, my gang of heroes aren't above to plagiarizing catch-phrases:
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