Unvarnished Gary Phillips: A Mondo Pulp Collection

Gary Phillips has been a community activist, labor organizer and delivered dog cages. He’s published various novels, comics, short stories and edited several anthologies including South Central Noir and the Anthony award-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Violent Spring, first published in 1994 was named in 2020 one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer/co-producer on FX’s Snowfall (streaming on Hulu), about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central where he grew up. Recent novels include One-Shot Harry and Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem. He lives with his family in the wilds of Los Angeles.

• 1) Demon of the Track 2) Comstock’s Edge3) The Kwanzaa Initiative4) Thus Strikes the Black Pimpernel5) No Room! No Room!6) Fangs of the Fire Serpent7) The Darklight Gizmo Matter8) Shaderoc the Soul Shaker9) Grag’s Last Escape10) Bret Khodo, Agent of C.O.D.E.11) Enter the Silencer   12) Tobin and Gagarin13) Matthew Henson and the Treasure of the Queen of Sheba14) Tacos de Cazuela con Smith & Wesson15) Desal Plant No. 916) I, Truck17) Phantasmo and the Vault of Heaven

High Praise for The Unvarnished Gary Phillips“Phillips (One-Shot Harry) carves out a niche for himself in this eccentric collection. . . . Readers looking for action-heavy popcorn entertainment will certainly find it here.” —Publishers Weekly“The Unvarnished Gary Phillips is a fabulous exploration of the career of a true trailblazer in the crime fiction universe. Gary paved the way for a lot of us writers of color with his fearless artistry and sharp dialogue and his endless wit and wisdom. A magnificent collection.” —S.A. Cosby, best-selling author, Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland“The Unvarnished Gary Phillips is a blast of a collection by the wizard of pulpy crime stories set in the past and far into the future. Phillips gives us smart-ass characters punching their way through kick-ass action scenes. An incredible read!” —Rachel Howzell Hall, New York Times and Wall Sreet Journal bestselling author “Chaotic, funny, insightful and faster than a blast of speeding bullets. Into pulp fiction? Unvarnished is your Shangri La.” —Joe Ide, best-selling author, the IQ Series“Few people know pulp like Gary Phillips, who is not only a student of the genre, but a master. The Unvarnished Gary Phillips shows him in top form and with the verve and grit that are essential to the best pulp and hardboiled tales. I had a blast reading these. You will, too.” —Alex Segura, best-selling award-winning author, Secret Identity“Pulp is the jazz of literature, and Gary Phillips is it’s impresario—riffing and improvising on themes from mean streets to the phantasmagorical in seventeen compositions designed to flip your wig!” —Christopher Chambers, author, Scavenger, StandalonePast Praise for Gary PhillipsFor One-shot Harry “For thirty years Phillips has been a must-read writer.” —Lee Child“Phillips is a storyteller first, and the social chronicling never becomes didactic or overtakes the narrative.” The New York Times Book ReviewFor Matthew Henson and The Ice Temple of Harlem“A wildly entertaining extravaganza.”―Booklist (Starred)For The Obama Inheritance“Cheerfully strange and purposefully bizarre.” ―The Washington Post“So sly, fresh and Bizarro World witty, they reaffirm the resiliency of the artistic imagination.” ―Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh AirFor Astonishing Heroes: Shades of Justice“Gary Phillips is the man. . . . Hand-to-hand combat action, demons and magic to boot, internal dialogue, buckets of high-caliber bullets, plus scantily clad women and the heroes they love. Add a Black Dynamite blaxploitative filter and you’re in.” —Ebony“A book for anyone who remains nostalgic for the golden age of Toei films, blaxploitation movies, and lusty grindhouse cinema.” —Superhero Novels