History Main / TwoFistedTales

* [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld Zeppelins]]

* ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'' is a Hong Kong take on this, with a practicing MD who moonlights as a badass action hero getting sucked into a [[JungleOpera jungle adventure]] involving curses, HumanSacrifice, and demons. It plays out like a mix of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' and ''Film/EvilDead2'', but with more martial arts.

* SpaceOpera, where people get around in {{Retro Rocket}}s and other ShinyLookingSpaceships, and everything is [[RaygunGothic smooth-lined and chrome-plated]]. You may also find {{Green Skinned Space Babe}}s or outright HumanAliens, and the possibility of BoldlyComing isn't far off. Combine this with the above ProtoSuperhero and you get CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth

* {{Bold Explorer}}s discovering [[LostWorld lost civilizations]], usually including a JunglePrincess, LivingDinosaurs, and maybe a TempleOfDoom or two. These are usually located either in a place considered "exotic" by western readers, such as a HungryJungle, ThirstyDesert, MysteriousAntarctica, [[TheShangrila the Himalayas]], or BeneathTheEarth.
** Fanciful depictions of actual civilizations are also fairly common. AncientEgypt, DarkestAfrica, and MysticalIndia were all popular subjects. Expect a lot of ValuesDissonance here, too: most of these stories (though not all) take it for granted that the world is a playground for [[MightyWhitey white heroes]] to [[AdventureFriendlyWorld have adventures in]]. If the EvilColonialist does show up as a villain, the emphasis will be put on his personal cruelty, rather than any systemic critique of colonialism itself. Odds are also good that he'll be from [[CreatorProvincialism a country other than that of the assumed readers]], thus drawing a distinction between the "bad, cruel" colonialism of the rival powers and the "good, humane" colonialism that we're doing (whoever "we" are)
* [[TheMafia Gangsters]], usually of the type that wear pinstripe suits and wield tommyguns

* DuringTheWar: Stories about military life or important battles were very popular. They'd usually emphasize [[WarIsHell the horrors of war]], while at the same time [[WarIsGlorious celebrate the bravery of those who had endured it]]. Given when these magazines were being published, it was safe to assume most of the male readers were themselves veterans, so [[ArmiesAreEvil unflattering depictions of the boys in uniform]] was right out; this also meant these stories needed to be [[ShownTheirWork unusually well-researched]].

* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: The men's adventure subgenre had a lot of "man versus [[WildWilderness wilderness]]" narratives, in which ActionSurvivor heroes were tormented by animals ranging from the [[ScaryAnimalsIndex usual culprits]] like [[BearsAreBadNews bears]], [[PantheraAwesome big cats]], [[ThreateningShark sharks]], and the like, to the truly [[PleasantAnimalsIndex improbable and harmless]], as in the infamous ''Man's Life'' story "Weasels Ripped My Flesh!" [[note]]Yes, that's where Music/FrankZappa got the name[[/note]]

* [[MadScientist Mad Science]] and/or WeirdScience

* [[LostWorld Lost civilizations (and often dinosaurs with them)]], usually including a JunglePrincess
* [[TheMafia Gangsters]]

* Plenty of [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] to be punched out. Most of them will be the source of, exploiting, or ''trying'' to exploit [[StupidJetpackHitler either Mad / Weird Science]] or [[{{Ghostapo}} the Occult]]. In later material, DirtyCommies (often overlapping with the above YellowPeril) would sometimes take their place. Because of when these magazines were published.
* {{Ace Pilot}}s

* DuringTheWar: Stories about military life or important battles were very popular. They'd usually emphasize [[WarIsHell the horrors of war]], while at the same time [[WarIsGlorious celebrate the bravery of those who had endured it]]. Given when these magazines were being published, it was safe to assume most of the male readers were themselves veterans - which also meant these stories needed to be [[ShownTheirWork unusually well-researched]].

Related to DieselPunk and JungleOpera. Often the subject of a GenreThrowback. See also NinjaPirateZombieRobot, TwiceToldTale which requires a specific tale. Also see SwordAndSorcery for a similarly campy style of adventure narrative that was popular around the same time. [[ADateWithRosiePalms A novel you read with one hand]] is something else entirely.

Related to DieselPunk and JungleOpera. Often the subject of a GenreThrowback. See also NinjaPirateZombieRobot, TwiceToldTale which requires a specific tale. Also see SwordAndSorcery for a similiarly campy style of adventure narrative that was popular around the same time. [[ADateWithRosiePalm A novel you read with one hand]] is something else entirely.

Related to DieselPunk and JungleOpera. Often the subject of a GenreThrowback. See also NinjaPirateZombieRobot, TwiceToldTale which requires a specific tale. Also see SwordAndSorcery for a similiarly campy style of adventure narrative that was popular around the same time.

** Another Hammer movie that fits here is ''Film/OneMillionYearsBC'', a joyfully silly [[OneMillionBC cavemen-and-dinoaurs movie]] featuring Creator/RaquelWelch as probably the single most iconic NubileSavage in pop culture history, being menaced by an entire menagerie of Creator/RayHarryhausen beasties.

* ''Film/Batman1989'' largely falls into this style with its pulp-noir aesthetic. The film, about superhero Franchise/{{Batman}} (Creator/MichaelKeaton) fighting to prevent clown gangster the Joker (Creator/JackNicholson) from terrorizing Gotham City, is set in an AmbiguousTimePeriod with some TheForties-style touches in the costumes and architecture. The sequel, ''Film/BatmanBegins'', mixes in some 1920s GermanExpressionism stylings, with a few aspects of GothicHorror.

* ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'' is a trilogy of exactly this kind of story, being largely an action adventure series with the supernatural giving it more of a horror element than most. Taking most of its plot cues and title from ''Film/TheMummy1932'', it has more in common tonally with ''Film/TheMummysHand'', a 1940s semi-reboot that also belongs squarely in this genre.

* ''Film/Batman1989'' largely falls into this style with its pulp-noir aesthetic. The film, about superhero Franchise/{{Batman}} (Creator/MichaelKeaton) fighting to prevent clown gangster the Joker (Creator/JackNicholson) from terrorizing Gotham City, is set in an AmbiguousTimePeriod with some TheForties-style touches in the costumes and architecture.

Then, people started looking back on the pulp era nostalgically, and when they did, they usually locked onto the over-the-top stories of ProtoSuperhero characters like ''Literature/TheShadow'', ''Literature/DocSavage'', and ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom''. Many point to ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' and the sequel ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movies, which took 1930s pulp adventures as an inspiration, as the keystone of the pulp resurgence, but whatever kicked it off, pulp has recaptured the heart of many a geek.

* ''Literature/AndrewDoran'': Andrew Doran is a Doc Savage-esque GeniusBruiser and square-jawed hero, even if he's more obnoxious and prideful than the majority of pulp heroes. He's up against Nazis, evil cultists, and monsters. The books are done in a deliberate episodic pulpy style reminscent of old serialized fiction.

* ''Adventureman'' by Creator/MattFraction, featuring an {{Expy}} of Literature/DocSavage passing on his powers to a single mom and her sisters.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'', a Prohibition-era story with gangsters, serial killers and immortal alchemists, told in ''Film/PulpFiction''-style AnachronicOrder.

%%* ''LightNovel/{{Gosick}}'' loved its occult.

%%* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', particularly the [[SlidingScaleLongName more idealistic]] {{manga}} version.

* ''VideoGame/ValiantHearts'' deconstructs this by placing it in the real-world context of World War 1. The early game focuses on the RagtagBunchOfMisfits tracking down a [[AristocratsAreEvil Diabolical German Baron]] who has kidnapped TheChick's ReluctantMadScientist father and used his genius to engineer devastating super-weapons in the name of German Imperialism. However, even once the apparent BigBad is defeated, the War itself continues on and the game shifts focus to the GrayAndGreyMorality of the situation and the extreme personal toll of the war on the protagonists.

* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: The men's adventure subgenre had a lot of "man versus [[WildWilderness wilderness]]" narratives, in which our heroes were tormented by animals ranging from the [[ScaryAnimalsIndex usual culprits]] like [[BearsAreBadNews bears]], [[PantheraAwesome big cats]], [[ThreateningShark sharks]], and the like, to the truly [[PleasantAnimalsIndex improbable and harmless]], as in the infamous ''Man's Life'' story "Weasels Ripped My Flesh!" [[note]]Yes, that's where Music/FrankZappa got the name[[/note]]

* ChandlerAmericanTime: The pre-war thirties is a popular time frame. As noted above, lots of this stuff was still being published well into the '70s, but even by then it had a very retro-'30s or '40s sensibility, as evidenced by
the fact that Nazi villains remained a staple, whether the stories were period pieces set DuringTheWar or not.

* ''ComicBook/MarvelNoir'', especially the ones that involve powers like Spider-Man.
** The ''Deadpool'' mini was called ''ComicBook/DeadpoolPulp'', rather than ''Noir''.
* The Moonstone relaunch of ''ComicBook/{{Airboy}}'' focuses heavily on this.

* Plenty of [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] to be punched out. Most of them will be the source of, exploiting, or ''trying'' to exploit [[StupidJetpackHitler either Mad / Weird Science]] or [[{{Ghostapo}} the Occult]]. In later material, DirtyCommies (sometimes overlapping with the above YellowPeril) would sometimes take their place.

* ChandlerAmericanTime: The pre-war thirties is a popular time frame. As noted above, lots of this stuff was still being published well into the '70s, but even by then it had a very retro-'30s or '40s sensibility, as evidenced by the fact that Nazi villains remained a staple, whether the stories were period pieces set during the war or not.

* WildWilderness - The men's adventure pulps were often seen as the "outdoors" equivalent to the more "sophisticated", indoors magazines like ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''. Their heroes were often rugged, outdoorsy types living in [[BleakBorderBase small communities on the edge of the wilderness]] or leading safari tours into the SavageSouth, shipwrecked sailors in lifeboats or on some DesertedIsland, or other varieties of tough guy on some kind of {{Robinsonade}}. This was the perfect environment to meet [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever the improbably violent animals]] and cryptids mentioned above, though some of these stories would temper the carnage with a GreenAesop.

* WildWilderness - The men's adventure pulps were often seen as the "outdoors" equivalent to the more "sophisticated", indoors magazines like ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}''. Their heroes were often rugged, outdoorsy types living in [[BleakBorderBase small communities on the edge of the wilderness]] or leading safari tours into the SavageSouth, shipwrecked sailors in lifeboats or on some DesertedIsland, or other varieties of tough guy on some kind of {{Robinsonade}}. This was the perfect environment to meet [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever the improbably violent animals]] mentioned above, though some of these stories would temper the carnage with a GreenAesop.

Once upon a time, there was [[PulpMagazine pulp]]. Pulp was a style of writing that emerged onto the scene in the 1920s, featuring a variety of stories printed on cheap paper (hence "pulp"). Back in the day, pulp content ranged from the {{Cosmic Horror Stor|y}}ies of Creator/HPLovecraft to the [[FilmNoir noir pieces]] of Creator/RaymondChandler and from the over-the-top action of ''Literature/DocSavage'' to the HeroicFantasy of ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'' and even the RaygunGothic of Hugo Gernsback's Magazine/AmazingStories. The pulp era died down by the late '50s, when the leading distributor of pulp, the American News Company, went bankrupt, although there was a resurgence in the '60s and '70s in the form of the DarkerAndEdgier "men's adventure magazines", which straddled the line between pure pulp adventure and ostensibly-true LuridTalesOfDoom, all with a RatedMForManly aesthetic. These are today best-remembered as things to read as the barber shop while you waited for your turn.

* ''TabletopGame/FortuneAndGlory'', one of many AdventureBoardGames by Fighting Frog Games: players take on the roles of pulp archetypes - an AcePilot, an IntrepidReporter, a MadScientist, a GreatWhiteHunter - in a globe-trotting adventure to recover [[McGuffin mystical artifacts]] before a NebulousEvilOrganization gets them first.