In early 19th century England and US., books or magazines containing sensational serailised stories of crime and romance became very popular among working class men and women. The stories had lurid and colorful illustrations.
Since they cost a penny in England and a dime in the US., they were referred to as penny dreadfuls’ and dime novels’. The books were printed on paper made from very cheap wood pulp and haphazardly cut and bound. Each book had just ten pages but publishers came out with new issues every week.
Though dismissed by educated readers as ‘pulp fiction’, film scriptwriters often found them an inspiration and many jumpstarted their writing careers by contributing stories for these books and magazines.
Penny dreadfuls and dime novels were succeeded by pulp magazines or pulp which were 128 pages long and cost ten cents apiece. Those printed on better quality paper were called glossies or slicks and cost 25 cents each.
Many respected authors wrote for the pulps. The stories had characters like Doc savage, Phantom Detective and The Shadow and were considered forerunners of the superhero comics like superman, Batman and Spiderman.
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