Pulptober!
- Scott Chantler
- Nov 10
- 2 min read
October is always a big month for artists on social media. Inktober, a drawing challenge in which people follow a list of daily prompts, eschewing digital tools in favour of old-fashioned ink and paper, was created in 2009 and became an annual tradition. In recent years, people got mad at its creator for whatever reason (I can't remember what the "scandal" was, but pick your favourite from the ever-spinning Online Wheel of Shame.) In its place, dozens of alternative challenges popped up. Witchtober, Linktober (Legend of Zelda themed), Rocktober (rockstars), Pouchtober (characters with lots of pouches on their costume), X-tober (X-Men characters), etc.
One of the most popular was legendary comics artist Chris Samnee's Batober, in which he'd create the most intricate and professional-jealousy-inducing images of Batman every day. I played along with him on that for a few years when I had the time, and also tried switching to Superman one year in September ("Supetember") because I thought the Man of Steel deserved some love (and because I enjoy drawing me a retro, Golden Age Superman.)
Starting last year, though, I thought I’d really indulge my classic adventure sensibilities and created Pulptober, devoted to swashbucklers, spacemen, femme fatales, cowboys, barbarians, masked vigilantes, freaks, villains, and other weirdos from the (roughly) early- to mid-20th century “pulp” era, or any character who inspired or was inspired by them. It’s a pretty wide umbrella, but also a very specific vibe. I’ve drawn everyone from Allan Quatermain (created by H. Rider Haggard in 1885) to Buster Scruggs (created by the Coen brothers in 2018.) It’s not the algorithm buster that a month of daily Batman drawings is, but it’s a lot of fun, and a refreshing change from characters who’ve been done to death.
An increasing number of other artists have taken up the challenge each year, which has been fun to watch, especially given their range of styles, experience, age, etc. Most of them aren’t simply aping what I’m doing, but bringing their own thing to it. I love it.
I’ve added a selection of favourites from both years to this post, but you can see them all over at my Instagram (the only social media I’m still — reluctantly — using.) The original, ink on Bristol line drawings for many of these are for sale over at my online store.
Not sure yet if we’ll do a third Pulptober in 2026. My schedule, which is usually pretty busy, will be the deciding factor. But I’ve always got a new prompt list in progress, and I think I can get one more year out of it without having to repeat any characters. We’ll see. But in the meantime, enjoy these ones, and check out the hashtag on Instagram to see what everyone else did.
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