Dr. Paul Hirsch is the award-winning writer of Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism. He has won major support for his work from organizations including the National Science Foundation and the Library of Congress. Paul is a frequent guest on National Public Radio and podcasts like Marvel’s Declassified and BackStory and has been interviewed in the New York Times and the Times of London.
His work, including Funnyman: The Tragic History of a Crime-Fighting Comedian, has won awards from groups as diverse as the American Historical Association and the Robert B. Silvers Foundation.
Paul is an amputee, and his physical disability inspires him to write about men and women on the historical margins. His current historical book project, The Accidental Killer: The Man Who Destroyed the World, tells the incredible and true story of the physically disabled scientist whose discoveries modernized America and the world, but also shattered the earth’s ozone layer and its environment after he died a mysterious death.
Paul is also working on a forthcoming novel, Meat on the Hook, based on his own remarkable and often harrowing experiences as a disabled person. The novel traces the relationships among a group of disabled criminals that both commit and solve crimes in Austin, Texas.