…not really very melodic
The Doclopedia #2,368
Average Joes: Joe Adams, Pulp Author
NAME: Joe R. Adams
AGE: 74
LOCATION: Astoria, Oregon
DESCRIPTION: At 74, partially bald and gray haired, Joe Adams looks like somebodies grandfather, which he is, 9 times over. 5’9”, a bit on the chubby side, and with a full handlebar mustache, he is married to Joyce, his bride of 55 years. They have 4 children.
“Oh yeah, I wrote for a bunch of the pulps. Started out in 1929 when I sent in a couple of Western stories and they sent me a check for 50 bucks, and asked for more stories. Well, I quit my job at the gas station, asked Joyce to marry me, then we packed up and moved from Cleveland to New York. It was a hell of a way to celebrate turning 19, I tell ya.
We got a tiny apartment and Joyce went to work at Macy’s while I cranked out about one full length story and a couple of short fillers every week or so. By the time 1930 rolled around a few months later, I’d written everything from westerns to detective to sports stories. Then, Phil Battles over at Road & Jones hired me, Sol Levitz, Peggy Monroe, and Frank DiGeorgio to start writing for a bunch of new pulp mags he had coming out.
Those mags were Secret Operator 3, The Watchman, Sally Rose: Matchmaker, and Doc Justice. All three of them were big hits, and we’d take over for each other, just to get a mental break. I mostly wrote for Doc Justice, of course, but I covered all of them. It was a real hoot writing for Sally Rose, because I’d get ideas for romantic stuff from Joyce.
So, yeah, the 30s and early 40s were a good time for us. I wrote 190 out of the 240 Doc Justice yarns. When the mag folded in ’44 and pulps were almost gone, I packed up the family and moved out here to Oregon. I kept writing, but now it was mostly hard boiled detective yarns for paperback originals or magazines. In the mid-fifties, I wrote for comics and some cheapo horror and science fiction movies.
And then the 60s rolled around and they start reprinting those hero pulps. By ’68, Debbie Mason over at Road & Jones starts asking us old pulp writers if we can crank out some new adventures. Those of us still alive jumped at the chance.
So now I’m cranking out a new Doc Justice story every couple of weeks and I’m hitting the convention circuit. As I told Joyce, it’s a hell of a retirement, but I love it.”
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