Jonathan Bowden - Pulp Fascism: right-wing themes in comics, graphic novels, & popular literature

P ULP F ASCISM

R IGHT- W ING T HEMES IN

C OMICS, G RAPHIC N OVELS, &

P OPULAR L ITERATURE

by

J ONATHAN B OWDEN

E DITED BY G REG J OHNSON

Counter-Currents Publishing Ltd.

San Francisco

2013

Copyright 2013 by Counter-Currents Publishing

All rights reserved

Cover design by

Kevin I. Slaughter

Published in the United States by

C OUNTER- C URRENTS P UBLISHING L TD.

P.O. Box 22638

San Francisco, CA 94122

USA

http://www.counter-currents.com/

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-935965-63-3

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-935965-64-0

E-book ISBN: 978-1-935965-65-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bowden, Jonathan, 1962-2012, author.
Pulp fascism : right-wing themes in comics, graphic novels, & popular literature / by Jonathan Bowden ; edited by Greg Johnson.
1 online resource.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-1-935965-65-7 (epub) -- ISBN 978-1-935965-63-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Comic books, strips, etc.--History and criticism. 2. Graphic novels--History and criticism. 3. Pulp literature, American--History and criticism. 4. Fascism in literature. I. Johnson, Greg, 1971- editor. II. Title.
PN6710
741.5'9--dc23
2013009034

C ONTENTS

The Heroic in Mass & Popular Culture

Comics & Graphic Novels

Robert E. Howard

Pulps

Dystopia

Popular Drama

A PPENDIX

Self-Criticism

E DITORS F OREWORD

Jonathan Bowden was an avowed elitist and aesthetic modernist, yet paradoxically he had a vast knowledge of and great affection for such forms of popular entertainment as comics, graphic novels, pulp magazines and novels, even Punch and Judy shows, which not only appeal to the masses but also offer a refuge for pre- and anti-modern aesthetic tastes and tendencies.

Left-wing elitists like Theodor Adorno denounced such products of the culture industry for their reactionary philistinism. But Bowden was a Right-wing elitist, which is the key to his appreciation of popular culture. Bowden was drawn to popular culture because it was rife with Right-wing themes: heroic vitalism, Faustian adventurism, anti-egalitarianism, biological determinism, racial consciousness, biologically based (and traditional) notions of the differences and proper relations of the sexes, etc.

The present volume collects Bowdens principal statements on Right-wing themes in popular culture, drawing primarily upon works he wrote for the Counter-Currents web and print journal North American New Right .

Jonathan was an enthusiastic supporter of Counter-Currents, penning 35 original pieces for North American New Right between August 2010 and October 2011. Jonathan also sent us previously published pieces to be reprinted. He was always searching for wider audiences and took particular pleasure when two of his pieces that appeared on Counter-Currents were translated into Czech.

In February 2012, just a month before his death, Jonathan gave a speech, Western Civilization Bites Back, at a Counter-Currents event in California. He also recorded an interview before flying home in which we discussed his interest in popular culture. Excerpts from that interview are reprinted below. The full interview as well as the speech will appear in another volume from Counter-Currents entitled Western Civilization Bites Back , which will appear later this year.

The essays and reviews Jonathan wrote for Counter-Currents were generally short, none of them over 3,000 words, some as short as 600. He told me that he would go to a local public library, where he would check out a computer for a specific period of time. He would open his Hotmail account and address an email to me. Then, without books or notes, he would write out his pieces from memory, as if they were timed university exams, and hit the send key.

On June 23, 2011, it occurred to me that a many of Jonathans essays explored Right-wing themes in popular culture, so I suggested a collection of essays on this theme entitled Pulp Fascism . Jonathan replied the next day, Yes, I like this idea. I will try and provide another five, six, or seven essays to round out the volume along the lines that you suggest.

He went on to write seven more essays, including Judge Dredd, The Incredible Hulk, Conan the Barbarian, Solomon Kane, Rogues in the House, Doc Savage and Criminology, and The Hour of the Dragon , and it was clear that he was just getting started. In October 2011, however, he took a break.

During his time in California, we talked about finishing the project. The only additional essay topic I recall him mentioning was James Bond. Unfortunately, as far as I know, he never resumed work.

After Jonathans death, the idea of bringing out a book called Pulp Fascism never occurred to me. If I had been asked why, I would have said that there was simply not enough completed material. But in December of 2012, Richard Spencer called me about using Pulp Fascism as the theme of a special issue of his journal Radix . That got me thinking, and in January of 2013, I opened a file, arranged some titles, added up their word counts, and the present book pretty much fell together.

This volume contains 23 pieces directly related to the Pulp Fascism theme: 18 essays from the original outline, an excerpt from Jonathans last interview, transcriptions of three of Jonathans speeches, and an excerpt from an earlier book provided by Alex Kurtagi.

The Appendix consists of nine pieces of Self-Criticism: Jonathans credo Why I Write and eight reviews of his own books written under the pen name John Michael McCloughlin. Since most of his books draw upon popular as well as avant-garde literary forms, and all of them are fascistic, I judged this material a good fit.

This is not, of course, the same book that would have appeared if Jonathan had lived, but it is a worthy vehicle for his thoughts nonetheless.

I wish to thank Michael Woodbridge, Jonathans literary executor, for his blessing on this project; Michael Polignano, for his help in recording Jonathans last interview and then in recovering it from a broken flash drive; V. S. and S. F. for transcribing Jonathans last interview; all the individuals who recorded and made available Jonathans lectures; John Morgan and Michael J. Brooks for locating a complete recording of Jonathans lecture on Robert E. Howard, published here as Robert E. Howard and the Heroic; John Morgan and V. S. for transcribing the Howard lecture; V. S. for transcribing Pulp Fascism, the title piece, and The Real Meaning of Punch and Judy; Alex Kurtagi for providing The Comic Book as Linear Energy; Richard Spencer for inspiring me to revisit and revive this project; Matthew Peters for his careful proofreading; Jef Costello for his photos of Jonathan clowning around with a .44 Magnum; Kevin Slaughter for his always excellent design work; and all the friends and supporters of Counter-Currents without whom this book, and all of the others, would be impossible. I also wish to thank Alex Kurtagi, Ted Sallis, and Richard Spencer for their promotional quotes.

It is with pride tinged with sorrow that I offer this volume in memory of Jonathans untimely death on March 29, 2012.

Jonathan Bowden said that greatness lies in the mind and in the fist. Nietzsche combined both forms in the image of the warrior poet. For Jonathan, it was the image of the cultured thug. I give you Jonathan Bowden: cultured thug.

Greg Johnson

San Francisco

February 24, 2013

P ULP F ASCISM

I would like to talk about something that has always interested me. The title of the talk is Lon Degrelle and the Real Tintin, but what I really want to talk about is the heroic in mass and in popular culture. Its interesting to note that heroic ideas and ideals have been disprivileged by pacifism, by liberalism tending to the Left, and by feminism, particularly since the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. Yet the heroic, as an imprimatur in Western society, has gone down into the depths, into mass popular culture. Often into trashy forms of culture where the critical insight of various intellectuals doesnt particularly gaze upon it.