THE PULP CALENDAR: September 22

This 1934 Argosy is part of the unz.org pulp trove and gives me an excuse to a piece I wrote a couple of years ago about the cover story, Theodore Roscoe's "That Son of a Gun, Columbo." It's an early example of Roscoe's fascination with the Caribbean undead as well as a perhaps unpatriotic account of Christopher Columbus. Speaking of the dead, this issue concludes George F. Worts' Peter the Brazen serial Kingdom of the Lost in stunning fashion, with the death of Peter's longtime love Susan O'Gilvie. Readers in 1934 may have known already, however, not to trust an author's account of a death plunge like the one Susan takes without confirming a dead body at the bottom. They may not have been surprised to see Worts take it back and explain how Susan survived in the final Peter story, published the following year. Meanwhile, A. Merritt continues his long, long awaited (and final) serial Creep, Shadow!, while W. Wirt continues a Jimmie Cordie three-parter, The Assassin. Erle Stanley Gardner contributes a Jax Bowman novelette, John H. Thompson puts his comic drifters Bill and Jim through another wringer and Jay Lucas offers a tale of the Himalayas, "Shula Set." Sample the issue at your leisure using this link. We'll stay in 1934 for the next two Thursdays so I can show off some more Argosy from my own collection -- including the return of Bellow Bill Williams on October 6!