Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dime Adventure Magazine, December 1935

Popular Publications had big successes with DIME DETECTIVE and DIME WESTERN, but DIME ADVENTURE MAGAZINE doesn't seem to have done nearly as well. Maybe the competition from ADVENTURE, ARGOSY, BLUE BOOK, and SHORT STORIES was just too much. But DIME ADVENTURE had some good covers, like this one (pith helmet alert!) by Hubert Rogers, and good authors, as well, such as Luke Short, Carl Jacobi, Samuel W. Taylor, and L. Ron Hubbard in this issue. Also on hand were lesser-known authors Alexander Key, John Amid, Donald S. Aitken, Gerald V. Stamm, and Arnold Jeffers. Admittedly, out of those last five guys I only vaguely remember seeing the names of Key and Aitken on pulp TOCs, and I don't think I've read anything by them. Looking at the listings of the other issues in the Fictionmags Index, that seems to be a trend: two or three well-known authors and half a dozen from the lower ranks of pulpsters. That may well explain why DIME ADVENTURE MAGAZINE didn't run as long as its fellow magazines from Popular Publications.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Trails, February 1948

This issue of WESTERN TRAILS features another fine, dramatic cover by Norman Saunders. As usual with the Ace Western pulps, this issue has two stories by J. Edward Leithead, one under his own name and one under his most common pseudonym Wilson L. Covert. I'm a big fan of Leithead's work and there are some other fine authors in this issue, including Walker A. Tompkins, Joseph Chadwick, D.B. Newton, weird fiction icon Kirk Mashburn, Cliff Walters, and Dan Kirby. I don't own this issue and haven't read it, but with that cover and author line-up I have no doubt that it's very good.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: Kingdom of Blue Corpses - Brant House (?)

“Kingdom of Blue Corpses”, from the December 1935 issue of the pulp SECRET AGENT X, is one of the more oddball entries in the series. It’s very comic-booky (if that’s a word), with a master villain who calls himself the Blue Streak and wears a blue rubber suit, somewhat like a frogman’s outfit, emblazoned with a lightning bolt. His minions – every self-respecting master villain has to have minions, of course – wear black rubber suits that look even more like frogmen and drive around in a sinister black hearse. The Blue Streak’s weapon in his campaign of terror is an electrical cannon that fires lightning bolts, and as a side effect, the corpses of the people struck by it turn bright blue. No explanation is forthcoming for this side effect, but that’s all right. This yarn isn’t very rigorously plotted, even by pulp standards.

Which doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun, as Secret Agent X tries to bring the Blue Streak to justice in a series of extremely fast-moving, action-packed confrontations. As usual, “X” employs several different disguises, and his girlfriend/assistant, beautiful blond reporter Betty Dale, even gets in on the act this time, as “X” disguises her so she can take the place of a young woman he suspects of being involved with the Blue Streak.

The actual identity of the author behind the “Brant House” house-name on this one hasn’t been established, as far as I know. The first part of the story reads like it could be by Paul Chadwick, the creator of the Secret Agent X character and the principal author in the series in its early years. The style changes somewhat during the course of the story, becoming more terse and action-oriented, which has led some readers to speculate that maybe Chadwick started the novel and from some unknown reason, another author finished it. This seems possible to me as well, but at this point, we just don’t know. Whoever wrote “Kingdom of Blue Corpses” did a good job of keeping things moving, even if they don’t always make complete sense.

(Since this post originally appeared in a somewhat different form on May 28, 2010, "Kingdom of Blue Corpses" has been reprinted twice, once by Adventure House and once by Altus Press. The Altus Press edition includes several other Secret Agent X novels. In the comments on the original post, there was some discussion about who actually wrote this one. Some pulp scholars lean toward G.T. Fleming-Roberts, while others think it might be the work of Paul Chadwick. Based on my reading of the story at the time, I even suggested that Chadwick may have started it and Fleming-Roberts completed it. I honestly don't know the answer, but you pays your money and you takes your choice!)

Review: Lost Empire (Sam and Remi Fargo #2) - Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood

A while back I reran the review I posted 15 years ago for SPARTAN GOLD, the first novel in Clive Cussler’s series about married treasure hunters and adventurers Sam and Remi Fargo. I never got back to the series, but reading that review again prompted me to do so. I picked up the second book, LOST EMPIRE, once again written by Cussler and Grant Blackwood and available on Amazon in e-book, audio, paperback, and hardcover editions. Cussler had several collaborators on the Fargo series, and I’m assuming they did the bulk of the actual writing, with Cussler contributing to the plots.

LOST EMPIRE is actually kind of a hard book to describe because it really has a kitchen sink plot. It opens with a ship sailing from London in 1864, jumps to Sam and Remi finding the bell from a sunken ship off the coast of Zanzibar, then back around the world to Mexico where the newly elected president of the country sends a sinister assassin after the Fargos. From there, the action bounces back and forth from California to Madagascar to Krakatoa (which is actually west of Java, not east, no matter what the movie title says). We get a bunch of running, jumping, swimming, car chases, fighting, and an underground encounter with a den of crocodiles that’s a pretty good scene. Not surprisingly, there’s even a cameo appearance by Clive Cussler his own self as he gives Sam and Remi a hand in their adventure. The whole thing revolves around a 19^th Century British secret agent, cryptography, a lost Confederate ship, and the origins of the Aztec Empire.

As I’ve mentioned before, Livia and I have a saying whenever we’re watching a movie or TV show where the plot gets so convoluted and silly that you have to just accept it for it is: “Sure. Why not?” LOST EMPIRE is a “Sure. Why not?” book. I guess the plot makes sense, but I don’t really know because eventually I stopped trying to keep up with it and just went along for the ride. The action scenes are well-done, the settings are colorful, Sam and Remi are very likable protagonists, and the villains are suitably despicable.

I’ve been told by several friends that the entries where Cussler collaborated with Thomas Perry are the best books in the series. Maybe I’ll skip ahead to them. The next book appears to be a direct sequel to this one, though, and I have just enough OCD to feel like I ought to read it. We’ll see. For now, I enjoyed LOST EMPIRE and am glad I read it, but it didn’t win me over completely. Take that for what it’s worth.

Movies I've Missed Until Now: Showdown at Boot Hill (1958)

SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL is another Western that I’d somehow never watched or even heard of that I saw recently. From 1958, it’s considered to be Charles Bronson’s first starring role, although I believe there’s some disagreement about that. But either way, it’s pretty obscure. Bronson plays a deputy U.S. marshal who shows up in a small town to arrest an outlaw. The ensuing shootout results in a dead owlhoot, but Bronson doesn’t care since he can collect the reward money whether his quarry is dead or alive. Unfortunately, he has to have proof that the man he killed is the same one on the reward poster he carries, and nobody in town will confirm that for the record. Because, you see, the dead man was well liked thereabouts and carried out all his crimes elsewhere.

Well, that’s an odd but intriguing setup, no doubt about that. What follows is a rather set-bound piece with a lot of talking and psychological angst (Bronson’s character became a bounty hunter because he’s short and was picked on) and a few bursts of action. The title showdown doesn’t amount to much, either.

Don’t get me wrong, though. SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL is an interesting and enjoyable little film. The black-and-white photography is excellent, the exteriors were filmed at Old Tucson, which is my favorite Old West town location, and Bronson does a good job. Veteran character John Carradine shamelessly steals the whole movie as the town’s doctor/barber/undertaker. He turns in a restrained, excellent performance, one of the best I’ve seen from him.

SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL is no lost classic, but I think it’s worth watching as an example of a 1950s psychological Western. And I’ll always watch Charles Bronson. I’m glad I finally caught up with this one.

Review: The Tripods #2: The City of Gold and Lead - John Christopher (Samuel Youd)

A couple of weeks ago I read the first book in British science fiction author John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy, THE WHITE MOUNTAIN. As you probably recall, giant machines inspired by the Martian fighting machines in H.G. Wells’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS have invaded Earth and subjugated humanity by means of mesh caps they place on people’s head to control them. The world has devolved to a medieval, feudal society ruled by the Tripods. It’s unknown whether the Tripods are intelligent machines or simply vehicles for another race of invaders. Here and there are pockets of uncontrolled humanity who harbor dreams of fighting back against the invaders. One such group is located in the White Mountains (clearly the Alps) and the first book finds our heroes, narrator Will Parker and his cousin Henry (from what used to be England) and their French friend Jean-Paul, a.k.a. Beanpole, escaping to this enclave.

The second book, THE CITY OF GOLD AND LEAD, centers around an espionage mission in which Will, Beanpole, and a new character,  Fritz, infiltrate the Tripods’ stronghold, the title city, which seems to be located somewhere in Germany near the North Sea. Beanpole has to be left outside the domed city, but Will and Fritz make it inside. Once there, they discover the true nature of the invaders and learn of a sinister plan that threatens all of humanity. Then it’s up to one of them to escape and carry this vital intelligence back to the resistance in the White Mountains.

I enjoyed the first book quite a bit, although I had a small issue with the ending, and this one is even better. It does bog down a little in the middle, venturing into travelogue SF as Christopher (whose real name was Samuel Youd) provides an abundance of information about the city and the invaders who inhabit it. At the same time, there are some genuinely creepy scenes that are very effective, and Will is such a thoroughly human protagonist that you can’t help but root for him. There’s one more book in the trilogy, and the story expands to such an epic scope in this one that I’m not sure how Christopher is going to wrap it up in a single volume, but we’ll see. I should be reading the third book soon. (There’s also a prequel volume, but we’ll have to wait and see if I decide to read that one.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, July 1936

I'm not that familiar with the work of Charles De Feo, but he did a pretty good job on this cover. ADVENTURE always featured good authors and this issue is no exception. Inside are stories by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Donald Barr Chidsey, William E. Barrett, Henry Herbert Knibbs, Commander Edward Ellsberg, Andrew A. Caffrey, and William S. Wells. Chidsey is one of my favorites, Wheeler-Nicholson and Barrett were always top-notch, and Knibbs is well-regarded although I don't recall ever reading any of his stories. The others I'm not familiar with but I'm sure they're well worth reading.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Dime Western Magazine, March 1952

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. I don’t know who did the cover art. Robert Stanley did a lot of covers for DIME WESTERN MAGAZINE during this era, but I feel like this one isn’t Stanley’s work. But as always when it comes to art, I could be wrong!

The lead novella, “Killers in the Canyon!”, is by John M. Cunningham, best remembered for writing the story on which the movie HIGH NOON is based. “The Tin Star” appeared in the December 6, 1947 issue of the slick COLLIER’S. As in that classic story, the protagonist of “Killers in the Canyon!” is also a lawman, but he’s not the stern, upright sort like Will Kane. No, he’s a reformed outlaw, and his old gang wants him to throw in with them again and help them loot some gold shipments. Our hero’s old flame, now married to one of his former partners in crime, wants him to turn crooked again, too, and she has some blackmail material to hold over his head and force him to do so. This is a fairly traditional plot, but it has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, Cunningham doesn’t do much with it except for scene after scene of people standing around talking. Yes, the prose is very slick and smooth, but I kept waiting for something to happen and it doesn’t until the last few pages of the story. Even then, the action is low-key and unsatisfying. Also, the title must have been slapped on by an editor at Popular Publications, because it has nothing to do with the story. I read all of this story and didn’t give up on it, but in the end it’s a clear miss for me.

Will C. Brown was the pseudonym of Clarence S. Boyles, the other famous writer from Cross Plains, Texas, and a classmate of Robert E. Howard although Boyles was a few years older and they weren’t in the same grade. Nor has his reputation and popularity endured nearly as long as Howard’s has, but even so, Boyles had a long and successful career as a Western pulpster and novelist under the Will C. Brown name. His story in this issue, “He’s Death on Nesters!”, announces its Texas origins right away with a reference to the Cap Rock, the escarpment that angles down across Texas and separates the state’s central region from its western one. In this yarn, the hard-nosed foreman of a big ranch confronts three nesters who have started a small spread on the edge of the big one, only to find that there’s more going on there than he expected. This story has a really nice voice to it, along with interesting characters and a well-done bit of action. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read by Boyles/Brown in the past, and this one is excellent.

Dee Linford was a prolific contributor to the Western pulps all through the Forties and early Fifties and published one novel, MAN WITHOUT A STAR, which was made into a well-regarded movie starring Kirk Douglas. I haven’t read the book, but I have seen the movie, which apparently wasn’t very faithful to the source material. A lot of people like the movie, but I didn’t care for it. But I digress . . . Linford’s novelette in this issue, “Sudden John’s Ghost Herd”, is a reprint originally titled “Railroads Are Hell on Cattlemen!” when it was published in the October 1940 issue of DIME WESTERN MAGAZINE. It’s part of a series Linford wrote about range detective Sudden John Irons. The plot is the well-used one about rustlers stealing cattle and blaming their crimes on the local Indians, but it’s well-written, has a great opening, some nice action, and a fine protagonist in Sudden John. I don’t think I’ve read anything else by Linford, but I enjoyed this one a lot and will be on the lookout for his work in the future. If you’d like to know more about him, there’s a great article on the Pulpflakes blog.

“Baptism of Fire” is a rather uninspired title for a gritty, well-written tale of the cavalry versus the Apaches written by Clifton Adams. The young officer in command of a patrol is looking for a fight with the Apaches because he wants to avenge the death of his older brother. Things don’t go exactly as planned. Adams was a fine writer, but he could be almost as bleak as H.A. DeRosso and Lewis B. Patten at times. This is a good story, but its downbeat ending meant that I admired it more than I actually liked it.

I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read by Robert L. Trimnell. His story in this issue, “Return of the Vargas”, is a modern-day Western and is narrated by an American veterinarian who is sent with a Mexican army escort into a former stronghold of Pancho Villa to vaccinate cattle against hoof and mouth disease. Old grudges lead to violence. This is certainly an oddball plot, but Trimnell was a good writer and things don’t turn out exactly as I expected, which is always a bonus.

Bennett Foster was a pretty big name as a Western author during the Thirties, Forties, and the first half of the Fifties. He wrote for the top pulps and also published quite a few stories in the slicks. His novelette in this issue, “One-Man Horse”, is a reprint from the March 26, 1938 issue of ARGOSY, where it was published under the title “Wedding Gift”. A young cowboy makes a horse trade with the father of the girl he’s in love with, and it has unexpected repercussions. This story is told in a smooth, folksy, entertaining style, heavy on the humor and romance, but Foster does get some action in, late in the proceedings. I don’t recall reading anything else by Foster, so I don’t know if this is typical of his work, but I enjoyed it enough I’d like to read more and find out. I own several of his novels. I ought to go ahead and read one.

That wraps up the fiction in this issue. My dislike of Cunningham’s novella, which takes up almost half of the page count, makes it difficult for me to rate it very highly, but on the other hand, the stories by Will C. Brown and Dee Linford are very good and the other stories are entertaining. So don’t rush to your shelves to see if you have a copy, but if the opportunity arises, you might find it worth dipping into. And of course it’s always possible you might like Cunningham’s story a lot more than I did. I always want to be fair about these things.

A Rough Edges Rerun Review: The Sun Smasher - Edmond Hamilton

The opening of this novel reminded me a bit of the sort of set-up that Cornell Woolrich used in many of his stories. A young man named Neal Banning, who works as a publisher’s rep in New York City, pays a visit to his Norman Rockwell-esque hometown in Nebraska – but when he gets there, he finds a vacant lot where the house he grew up in should be. Not only that, but the neighbors are different and insist that there was never a house on the lot, that they don’t know Neal, and that the aunt and uncle who raised him never existed. Naturally, with his world upended like this, Neal goes to the police and tries to get to the bottom of what he thinks is a conspiracy, only to be locked up because everybody thinks he’s crazy.

Of course, in the hands of the master of space opera, Edmond Hamilton, things play out a lot differently from there than they would in a Cornell Woolrich story. Veteran readers won’t be surprised when a mysterious man shows up, breaks Neal out of jail, and tells him an incredible story about how he’s really the Valkar, the former leader of a galactic empire whose enemies captured him, had his brain wiped clean, and implanted false memories of his life as Neal Banning. Neal’s rescuer is one of his former followers who has finally tracked him down and now wants to return him to his home planet so his memory can be restored and he can lead a rebellion against the New Empire and restore the Old Empire to power. How’s he going to do that, you ask? Simple. Even though he can’t remember it at the moment, Neal is the only one in the cosmos who knows the location of a super-weapon called the Hammer of the Valkar, which will give whoever possesses it the power to rule the galaxy.

If all that doesn’t get your heart pounding . . . well, then, you probably didn’t grow up reading and loving this kind of stuff like I did. There were few authors better at it than Edmond Hamilton. Super-weapons, beautiful haughty empresses, spaceships with fins . . . sure, there’s a certain degree of silliness to it all, but I don’t care. I hadn’t read this novel before, and I found it highly entertaining. Hamilton was never much of a stylist. His prose is simple and direct and very fast-moving, although there are definite touches of poetry here and there, especially when he’s describing things like the vastness of space. This novel rockets (no pun intended) along to a twist ending that probably won’t surprise very many readers but is still quite satisfying.

The thing is, they still write stories like this, only now it would be a 500,000 word trilogy stuffed to the gills with back-story, angst, political intrigue, sex, and realistic-sounding science. Hamilton spins his yarn in less than a tenth of that wordage. You pays your money and you takes your choice, and I know that many modern readers would rather have the fat trilogy than the 110-page Ace Double. As for me, I’m gonna go smash some suns with Ed Hamilton.

(This post originally appeared on May 21, 2010. Since that time, there's been an e-book reprint of THE SUN SMASHER that's still available on Amazon. I need to read more by Edmond Hamilton.)

Review: Men's Adventure Quarterly #12: The Private Eyes Issue - Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham, eds.

I’ve been a fan of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY since it began, and it’s a real pleasure and honor to have an article in the latest issue, #12, The Private Eyes Issue. My contribution is about detectives in Western fiction, and I hope it’s both entertaining and informative, but I’m here today to talk about the rest of the contents. Which, of course, are absolutely top-notch, as I’ve come to expect from editors Bob Deis and Bill Cunningham.

For starters, there are stories from two of my favorite authors featuring two of my favorite fictional private eyes: Michael Avallone and his iconic character Ed Noon, and Frank Kane and his equally legendary private eye Johnny Liddell. The Avallone story is “Make Out Mob Girl”, a Book Bonus condensation of the first Ed Noon novel THE TALL DOLORES, from the October 1962 issue of MAN'S WORLD. David Spencer, author of THE NOVELIZERS, provides a fine introduction to Avallone and his career, and Mike's son David Avallone contributes a touching essay about his dad. As a long time fan of Mike Avallone and his work, I'm really glad I got be his friend-by-correspondence for many years. 

Frank Kane’s “Party Girl” (KEN FOR MEN, May 1957) is a retitled reprint of the story “Frame” from the August 1954 issue of MANHUNT, the great crime fiction digest. This story was also reprinted in the paperback collection JOHNNY LIDDELL’S MORGUE from Dell. Both are really strong stories, and if you’ve never read any Ed Noon or Johnny Liddell stories or novels, this would be a fine place to start.

But of course there’s more. Honey West is probably the most famous fictional female private eye, and this issue includes the only Honey West short story, “The Red Hairing” by G.G. Fickling, actually the husband and wife writing team Forrest (“Skip”) and Gloria Fickling. This one appeared originally in the June 1965 issue of MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE. In addition, there’s an article about the TV series HONEY WEST featuring numerous photos of its beautiful star, Anne Francis. I was a fan of the show when it aired originally in the Sixties and am always happy to revisit it.

Walter Kaylin, one of the best authors who wrote for the men’s adventure magazine, contributes “I Had to Amputate My Leg to Save My Life!”, the tale of a private detective trapped by a mad killer, and it’s every bit as harrowing and gruesome as the title makes it sound. It’s also lightning-fast, compelling reading. Kaylin was a master, and this story is a good example of his work.

A story from a short-lived men’s adventure magazine actually called PRIVATE EYE features detective Adam Baxter in “Sing a Song of Sex-Mail”. It’s an entertaining yarn written in a fast-moving, breezy style. The story was published anonymously and I have no idea who wrote it, but I had fun reading it.

There’s also a non-fiction reprint from Alan Hynd called “The Case of the Murdering Detective” (CAVALIER, September 1956) about a real-life murder case from 1910 and the clever detective who solves it. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a fan of true crime stories, but Hynd does a fine job with this one and kept me flipping the pages to find out what was going to happen.

New articles in this issue include the one by me on Western detectives that I mentioned above, a look at some of the latest Sherlock Holmes pastiches, both literary and TV, from Holmes scholar and fan Paul Bishop, and film critic John Harrison on detectives in science fiction films. Plus a feature on early Sixties TV series 77 SUNSET STRIP and HAWAIAN EYE, both of which were favorites of mine, especially 77 SUNSET STRIP. I never missed an episode back in those days. If you're the right age, you can hear the show's theme song in your head right now, can't you? I miss the Sixties just thinking about all this stuff!

I know I’ve said it before, but this is the best issue yet of MEN’S ADVENTURE QUARTERLY. You can find it on Amazon, and I give it my highest recommendation.