Twelve parts, now finished. I wrote them for people who remember the great action-paperback era with real fondness and want to go back without either cringing or kidding themselves about it. Each piece stands on its own, but they're all pushing the same argument: the best of these stories welded speed and competence onto something heavier, the wounds, the codes, the loyalties, and the cost that came due after the shooting stopped.
-
Part 1 of 12
The War Against the Mafia Begins
There is a moment near the beginning of every long-running action series when the hero still has a way back.
-
Part 2 of 12
What "Men's Adventure" Really Meant
Walk into a drugstore or bus station in the 1970s and the books told you what they were before you opened them.
-
Part 3 of 12
The Paperback as a Machine
A good action paperback does not feel short. It feels fast.
-
Part 4 of 12
Competence, the Genre's Secret Pleasure
The gun on the cover got your attention. The man checking the exits kept it.
-
Part 5 of 12
Vietnam Came Home in a Paperback
The veteran in a 1970s action paperback often returned from Vietnam twice.
-
Part 6 of 12
The Vigilante's Moral Ledger
Every vigilante story asks the reader for permission.
-
Part 7 of 12
Guns, Bodies, and the Truth About Action
Action is not the same thing as violence.
-
Part 8 of 12
The Men Who Couldn't Go Home
The mission ends. The rescued return to their families. The hero leaves before breakfast.
-
Part 9 of 12
Women, Desire, and the Genre's Blind Spots
There is no honest way to discuss men's adventure fiction without discussing the women on its covers and in its pages.
-
Part 10 of 12
Heroes, Villains, and the Wider World
The paperback warrior went everywhere.
-
Part 11 of 12
The Long Series: Myth, Formula, and Burnout
The first adventure changes the hero's life. The fiftieth risks becoming his job.
-
Part 12 of 12
What the Paperback Warriors Left Behind
The paper was cheap. The inheritance was not.