Raymond Palmer Unearthed: Part 2 — Palmer’s Fate Fate Magazine and the Emergence of UFO Subculture This week’s Rocketeer Podcast: “Raymond Palmer Unearthed: Part 2 — Palmer’s Fate,” is part two of my series about Ray Palmer. Explore the controversial…
Raymond Palmer Unearthed: Amazing Editor, Shaver Shocker, UFO Trailblazer (Part 1) This week’s Rocketeer Podcast is about Raymond Palmer, a living Venn diagram of a man who overlapped the history of science fiction and fantasy, UFOs and other unexplained phenomena,…
For the next Rocketeer Podcast dated 1/28/2026 This brief passage dates from the early 1930s, but it was written to be heard, not skimmed. The humor lies less in the situation than in the phrasing: the rhythm of address, the…
Wonderfulness is not simply amazement or escapism. It is the experience of leaving one reality so fully that the world you depart ceases to exist while the story holds you. Even amid danger, catastrophe, or cosmic threats, characters in stories of wonderfulness are engaged, capable, and not victims of a universe too vast for them. This quality, celebrated by Lowndes in 1956, differs from anxious speculation about the world — or from modern social-media doom cycles — because it expands the imagination rather than narrowing it. It is a recoverable imaginative capacity, not nostalgia, and it is what allows stories to carry us into truly new realms.
"Weird Tales" was built for stories that didn’t fit anywhere else. In this episode, we explore how Catherine Lucille Moore’s “Shambleau” emerged from that space—launching a career, redefining the space rogue, and introducing a psychological and erotic horror that pulp fiction had never seen before.
A continuing inquiry into science fiction’s editorial origins and alternative futures. In 1926, Amazing Stories became the first magazine devoted entirely to what its publisher called “scientifiction.” Over time, it helped define not just a body of stories, but a…
Happy New Year 2026, space explorers! January first already? It’s hard to believe. I’m not going to spend too much time on the usual 2025 wrap-up and stated intentions for the new year. If you’ve been following my Lucina Press…
Pulp Archaeology Researchers, historians, and collectors all share a common activity: the amassing of collections for a specific purpose. Those purposes vary, but the underlying process—gathering, comparing, and interpreting material—remains consistent. My own book and magazine collection is organized around…
Before The Matrix: Henry Kuttner’s Forgotten 1947 Sci-Fi City of Illusion What If the World Isn’t Real? A Psychological Pulp Classic from Astounding Stories. Happy Christmas Eve 2025! It sounds so futuristic, doesn’t it? And we’re closing in on 2026…
Buck Rogers and the Living Future Today, we mark the passing of Gil Gerard, the actor who brought Buck Rogers to television audiences in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979–1981). Gerard’s death, announced today, December 17, 2025, closes a…
