Ron Goulart
Ron Goulart (born January 13, 1933) is an American pop-culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author.
In his fiction-writing, Goulart is best-known for his humorous crime and science fiction, especially that dealing with robots; his crime fiction often involves historical Hollywood figures, such as Groucho Marx. His first professional publication was a reprint, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, of a parody of a pulp magazine readers' letters column, originally published in the University of California, Berkeley college humor magazine the Pelican.
Goulart's fiction is characterized by several themes, notably technology gone wrong (usually through incompetence rather than malice), heroes with superhuman powers, and wicked humor. His early career in advertising has influenced much of his work. In the early 1960s, Goulart wrote all the text for several issues of "Chex Press": this was a parody of a newspaper, "published" on the back panel of boxes of cereal (Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, Corn Chex) manufactured by the Ralston Purina company.
Among his pop-culture historical writing, Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazines (1972) might still be his most famous book-length work, though his The Hardboiled Dicks: An Anthology And Study of Pulp Detective Fiction (1967) has also been influential. He has also written, on comics and many other topics, for the nostalgia magazine P.S. and many others, and has conducted the book review column for Venture Science Fiction.
In the 1970s, he wrote several Phantom novels featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom for Avon Books, using the pen-name "Frank Shawn". Goulart have also written comic book stories and short stories with the character for Moonstone Books from 2003 and beyond.
Goulart ghost wrote the popular TekWar series of books credited to the actor William Shatner (Shatner is said to have written the outlines for the books, although that is in dispute). He has also ghosted novels featuring the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and the pulp character the Avenger. In addition, he has written scripts for a number of comics including the Star Hawks comic strip he created with artist Gil Kane, as well as the comic book version of TekWar.