This guy might pass for Bellow Bill Williams except that Bill is more completely tattooed on his upper body and favors fine-cut chewing tobacco over cigars. Our cover boy for this 1932 Adventure is the creation of Gerard C. Delano. Take him as the generic brawny South Sea sailorman. The big stars this issue are Talbot Mundy, who offers a story about the Indian con man Chullunder Ghose, and J. D. Newsom, whose work I'll take on faith. Also on hand are L. G. Blochman, who could do some good exotic adventures, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a founding father of DC Comics, and A. E. Dingle, better known to pulp readers by his rank of Captain, as well as the industrious but not very distinguished Allan Vaughan Elston. Throw in Searchers author Alan LeMay co-writing a non-fiction piece and this is a pretty decent if not overpowering lineup to start off a new month.
My favorite story in this issue was by L.G. Blochman who was one of the better short story authors. "Blow-Down" is the title and it's about a banana plantation in South America run by a drunk in his 50's and told from his viewpoint. Unusual quality for the pulps and slicks.
ReplyDeleteMy impression is that Blochman shifted his focus to India at some point. At least his Argosy stories that I've read tend to be set there, with erratic results.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the Pulp Flakes blog for a detailed review of this issue.
ReplyDelete