THE PULP CALENDAR: July 27

Another boffo 1935 Argosy, featuring Eustace L. Adams's novelette "The Winged Jinx," the conclusion of F. V. W. Mason's Lysander of Chios, and the start of a Robert Carse two-parter, Glory Road, about the Foreign Legion in Africa. "Winged Jinx" is great hard-boiled fun. The hero, a test pilot and sometimes mercenary airman, survives a plane crash but has one of those deadly pieces of metal slowly moving toward his heart, which only makes him slightly more fatalistic than normal. Most of his old buddies are already dead, after all. The crash ruins his company's chances of landing a plane contract with a Latin American banana republic, not to mention the U.S. military. In short order, he makes a sentimental visit to the repaired plane, bashes a stranger over the head with a fire extinguisher only to find that it's his business partner and best pal, resolves to fly himself and friend (presumed dead) into the ocean, and then gets hijacked by a stowaway who reveals that she sabotaged the plane and caused the crash to prevent that banana republic from gaining air supremacy over her small nation, but now wants the plane so she can bomb the enemy's invading army. Oh, and by this time our hero's buddy has awakened -- he mistook his pal for an intruder -- and it looks like a love triangle is in the works in the middle of what Adams calls a "banana war." In other words, if (like me) you thought Adams's Anywhere But Here was cool, you should enjoy this smaller dose of Adams, which is conveniently available, along with the entire July 27 issue, at unz.org.  There are also serials by H. Bedford-Jones and Dennis (Frederick Faust) Lawton, along with another adventure in the Aluetians by H. H. Matteson and a comic piece by Kevin Johnson. Check it out.

THE PULP CALENDAR: June 2

Here's another Argosy from my own collection. This 1934 issue begins a three-part serial by Eustace L. Adams, one of my favorite pulp writers. The Terror is a change of pace for Adams, a specialist in hard-boiled aviation stories. It finds him in apocalyptic mode, as if he were trying out for The Spider. The title menace is what we'd call today a terrorist rather than a terror. He commits mass murder with chemical weapons, including an attack on New York City, as part of a global extortion racket. In a detail that would have made Lon Chaney Sr. drool, the Terror isn't just missing an arm, as shown in Robert A. Graef's cover, but is also legless, requiring a giant minion to carry him around on his seaplane. I don't think Adams was really comfortable with the scale of the story, nor do things improve as the action gets confined to the seaplane with our heores and hostages. But for readers who identify pulp with the fantastic The Terror might serve as an introduction to Adams, if not an inducement to try his more rugged, realistic work.

For me, of course, the main attraction of this issue was "The Scar," a Bellow Bill Williams novelette by Ralph R. Perry, which I'll discuss at greater length later this week. The other serials, F.V.W. Mason's The Barbarian and Evan (Max Brand) Evans's Montana Rides Again, are pretty good. The longest story in this number is Walt Coburn's Fenced Off, a typical range-war novelette noteworthy for including a heroic Chinese cook, though he'll be marred for modern readers by the inevitable dialect dialogue. Houston Day's "Murder in the Rif" is an amusing Foreign Legion story and a riff on the old pulp trope in which the white hero exploits native superstition to discover a murderer by inventing a magical test to expose the guilty party. Day appears to have been Sam Houston Day, a newspaperman and the brother of Dorothy Day, the famous Catholic social activist who has been proposed for sainthood. Houston Day's pulp career seems linked to his 1928 arrival in New York to join the staff of the Journal-American, where he became managing editor in 1941. Presumably he had grown busy enough already by the end of 1936 that his pulp career came to an end. A number of Who's Who type volumes from later in S.H. Day's career, as well as William D. Miller's biography of Dorothy Day, note that he once published fiction under the shorter version of his name. Finally, there is John H. Thompson, author of the comic Bill and Jim series about two "drifters," as this issues table of contents describes them. "Winner Take All" is a three-pager, a short-short by Argosy standards, in which one of the heroes tries to rescue their valuables, most notably a case of "Indian oil," from a burning rooming house, while the other makes good outside. It's short enough not to wear out its welcome. I'll reserve final judgment on this issue for my post on "The Scar," so stay tuned!

The June 2, 1934 Argosy is sponsored by:

THE PULP CALENDAR: May 11

If memory serves, "Hell Island," this 1935 Argosy's cover story, was the first story by Eustace L. Adams I ever read. It won Adams a 21st century fan. "Long Novelette," as the thing's described inside, is truth in advertising; at 48 pages, it'd be a "Short Novel" if not just plain "Novel" in other pulps. "Hell Island" is a typical Adams product of this period, throwing a world-weary American adventurer into Latin American mayhem. For someone whose main gig was writing aviation stories for kids, Adams did this more mature, hard-boiled stuff very well. The story and the entire May 11, 1935 issue are available at unz.org, and here's your direct link to "Hell Island." I regret to say the Adams story is all I've read from this issue, though I have Richard Wormser's novelette, "You Have to Learn Sometime" on my e-reader somewhere. Theodore Roscoe and George F. Worts continue serials, the latter featuring ace defense attorney Gillian Hazeltine, while Anthony M. Rud is probably the best known of the short story contributors.It may not have the most stellar lineup of authors, but since Argosy was arguably at the height of its powers in 1935 I'm sure it's another solid issue. When you consider that "Hell Island" takes up approximately one-third of it, you can hardly go wrong.

THE PULP CALENDAR: March 24

Here's another Argosy that's available at unz.org. I don't know if The Gold Coffin is, indeed, Gillian Hazeltine's strangest case, but having read one installment I'll concede that it is strange. The high concept is that a popular Hollywood actor, someone in the James Cagney-Clark Gable "caveman" mold -- he pushed an actress's face into a half-watermelon in one picture -- who made such a big hit playing a lawyer in another picture that he was admitted to the bar, asks to be hired by Hazeltine, for the moment still the nation's best known defense attorney -- the clock is ticking, though, for the first Perry Mason novel had been published recently -- as a publicity stunt designed to intimidate the studio that had been ripping him off to offer him a new contract appropriate to his studio-saving popularity. This guy is a regular Lon Chaney, as actors in pulp fiction usually are, making his entrance in weird old man disguise for no good reason. While Hazeltine can't figure out this (superficially) thuggish thespian's appeal to women -- both his wife and his secretary are smitten -- his own sensationalist impulses lead him to take the lad on. Then the story proper begins, which has something to do with a mean old miser who's hoarding gold in spite of FDR's order and hurting the already damaged U.S. economy. Unz doesn't have the other two installments, but I have the conclusion in my own collection, so maybe I'll let you know how it all turns out. For me the highlight of the issue is the ill-described "Air" novelette, Eustace L. Adams's "Hideaway Island." It has a scene in which characters in the story travel by airplane, but in fact it's a vigilante story of the sort then in vogue, in which a quartet of war veterans, the wealthiest of whom had received a kidnap threat, turn the tables on gangsters by kidnapping them and imprisoning them at the title location. For extra measure Adams hits the island with a hurricane. It's an okay story but really has too many heroes, with not enough personality, for its own good. Meanwhile, the rival kings of pulp, Max Brand and H. Bedford-Jones, each continue serials, Brand's Brother of the Cheyennes and HBJ's Jungle Girl, the latter really more about the man who finds the jungle girl and thus disappointing for anyone expecting a precursor to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. The "Sports" novelette is Richard Howells Watkins's racing story "Dirty Driving," but since it's a sports story I skipped it. Wrapping up the lineup is William Merriam Rouses's story of the 19th century Adirondack wilderness, "The Witch of Silverwood," and another of John H. Thompson's series of shorts about his two tramps, Bill and Jim. From "Cappers" I learned that a capper is something like a shill, someone who pretends to win a big prize in a carnival game to entice others to play and lose. It's not a bad racket but Bill and Jim tend to screw up any racket they get involved in. Their misadventures are brief enough to amuse without growing annoying. This is a relatively weak issue from a peak Argosy year but when it's free reading you can find some things worth your while. Check it out through the link below to judge for yourselves:

ARGOSY, March 24, 1934

PULP READING: Eustace L. Adams, "ANYWHERE BUT HERE," Part Three

From the tremendous February 23, 1935 issue of Argosy, here's the third and concluding installment of Eustace L. Adams's serial, Anywhere But Here. International, commercial and romantic intrigue all reach a climax amid a typical fictional Latin American revolt carried out in classic pulp style. If you've been following along week to week, click below for the conclusion.

Eustace L. Adams, "Anywhere But Here," Part Three

ARGOSY, February 23, 1935

And for those waiting to read the whole thing in one gulp, here's the complete serial in one convenient package:

Eustace L. Adams,

ANYWHERE BUT HERE (complete!)

THE PULP CALENDAR: February 23

The February 23, 1935 Argosy is as loaded an issue as you're likely to see. For starters, it concludes Eustace L. Adams's serial Anywhere But Here, which I'll have ready for you to download later this week. And as Adams wraps up his story, George F. Worts launches a Singapore Sammy serial. Worts was one of Argosy's superstars in the first half of the Thirties, with Sammy and ace defense attorney Gillian Hazeltine being two of the pulp's most popular recurring characters, and that's not even counting his side gig as Loring Brent, the creator of Peter the Brazen. Singapore Sammy Shay is the best of Worts/Brent's creations: a slightly disreputable globetrotting treasure hunter with a grudge against his devious deadbeat dad. While Worts would close up the Loring Brent shop with a final Peter the Brazen novelet later in 1935, Sammy would get three serials, counting this one, over the next two years before his creator jumped to the slicks and got boring.

Now that I've covered the serials, let's see what else this issue has to offer.

Two top pulp hands introduce new characters this issue. "Spy Against Europe" is the first of three H. Bedford-Jones stories about a spy who comes to be known as The Sphinx. To be honest, I can understand why the series didn't last long after reading this one. More of a milestone is W. C. Tuttle's contribution, "Henry Goes Arizona." To explain the apparent illiteracy, one "goes Arizona," presumably, the way one "goes Hollywood." Henry, to introduce him fully, is Henry Harrison Conroy, a relic of vaudeville who finds himself heir to a ranch in Wild Horse Valley, Arizona. Dismissed as a dude and a drunk, and decried as "The Shame of Arizona," Henry's sardonic intelligence, and a little help from his eccentric new friends, always gets the better of the bad guys in the modern but still wild west. Perhaps the ultimate embodiment of Tuttle's specialty, the comic western detective story, Henry was an instant hit with Argosy readers, and proved popular enough to justify an M-G-M adaptation of this issue's origin story, only with Frank (Wizard of Oz) Morgan in the title role rather than the too-obvious W. C. Fields, though Fields alone, as both actor and writer, could have done the part real justice. Before 1935 was over Henry got his first Argosy cover, and from that point forward his red-nosed rotundity fronted any issue that started one of his serials. Henry survived the collapse and near-demise of Argosy by moving to Short Stories, where his adventures continued to the end of the 1940s.

While Henry's debut makes this an historic issue and the two serials are terrific, the true highlight this week, for me at least, is Ralph R. Perry's "Fangs of the Fetish," an appearance by my own favorite Argosy character, Bellow Bill Williams. I'll be spending a large part of this week proselytizing for Bellow Bill: scanning "Fangs" for your reading pleasure and linking you to other tales while compiling a preliminary checklist of the tattooed pearler's career that will expand greatly on the Fiction Mags Index's inventory. Argosy hardly gets more pulpy in the blood-and-thunder sense than when Bellow Bill roams the South Sea islands, as you'll find over the next few days.

Once I make the Adams and Perry stories available, most of the contents of this issue will accessible to non-collectors in one way or another, as the Bedford-Jones and Tuttle stories have recently been republished by indispensable pulp-fiction preservers Altus Press, while RadioArchives.com recently issued The Monster From the Lagoon in its entirety as an e-book. If I'm feeling generous I'll scan the Kenneth Gilbert and Frank Triem stories, one an animal story, the other a western short, so that pulp fans can collect a virtually complete issue of the venerable weekly from somewhere near the peak of its powers. For now, I leave you with a word from this issue's sponsor:

PULP READING: Eustace L. Adams, "ANYWHERE BUT HERE," Part Two

In old-time serial fashion, here's your weekly dose of Eustace L. Adams' 1935 Argosy serial Anywhere But Here, in which American aviators are embroiled in international intrigue in a fictional Central American country. Poor Al Burke has to worry about his kid sister and fellow flyer falling in love with his buddy Bat Gillespie, while Bat's old girlfriend from San Lorenzo starts to make moves on Al on the rebound. But as the illustration promises, Adams doesn't stint on the mayhem amid the romance. The concluding installment is part of an incredible Feb. 23 Argosy we'll peek at next Tuesday, and a few days later you'll be able to finish this story, or get the entire serial complete in one file. For those who can't wait for this week's episode, click on the link below and enjoy.

Eustace L. Adams, Anywhere But Here, Part Two,

ARGOSY, February 16, 1935.

PULP READING: Eustace L. Adams, ANYWHERE BUT HERE pt.1

From my battered but unbroken February 9, 1935 issue of Argosy, here's the first of three installments of Eustace L. Adams's serial Anywhere But Here. Check out my Feb. 9 Pulp Calendar piece for more info about the story. Adams was a wartime flier -- publicity placed him with the legendary Lafayette Esquadrille -- whose main gig was a series of aviation adventures for kids featuring Andy Lane. Pulps were his adult writing and he rose to the occasion with crisp action-adventure tales that are part hard-boiled and a little part Lost Generation in their world-weary attitude. Adams broke into Argosy in 1928 and, apart from flying pulps, that remained his main pulp market, with Short Stories running a distant second. He also wrote for such slicks as The American Magazine, a monthly from the makers of Collier's, and Cosmopolitan when it was more fiction-oriented than it is today.

This is a good-sized, thirty-page opening installment graced with the spot illustrations of the main characters with which Argosy broke up the monotony of text in 1934 and 1935 -- an enhancement it made no sense to abandon. Rest assured that I own the February 16 and 23 issues, so as long as they're cooperative you can expect to get the complete three-part serial if this installment gets you interested. Begin now this combination bromance and romance in turbulent Central America by clicking the link below:

Eustace L. Adams, ANYWHERE BUT HERE, Part One,

ARGOSY, February 9, 1935

THE PULP CALENDAR: February 9

This 1935 Argosy is one of the rattier items in my pulp collection. I acquired it in part because it has a chapter of one of George Challis's Firebrand serials, but mainly because it had the opening installment of another serial, Eustace L. Adams's Anywhere But Here. Adams was an action writer who more or less specialized in aviation stories, though he could do without the flying quite nicely. Anywhere But Here is a buddy story about two fliers who cut quite a swath through Latin America back in the day, having helped out with a revolution or two. Al Burke and Bat Gillespie had had enough of soldiering-of-fortune and had moved to New York, only to be dragged back to the nation of San Lorenzo, whose president they'd helped to install, to look after an American company's interests that are being challenged by French and German rivals. Complicating matters are Al's kid sister Mickey, now a famous aviatrix in her own right, who to Al's alarm is falling in love with Bat, and Carmencita, a San Lorenzo lady over whom Al and Bat had been romantic rivals in the past. These are all hard-living, hard-drinking, hard-boiled folks, for all the romance that develops, and Adams strikes just the right tone for this sort of story. I've liked a lot of what I've read from Adams and I may do you a favor and scan the serial into a little novel you'll all probably enjoy. But let's look at what else is inside this issue:

As was often the case in this period, Frederick Faust has multiple stories in an Argosy, including the Challis serial and the cover story under his most famous pseudonym. Max Brand's "Rifle Pass" is a meandering "complete novel" of 36 pages in which a sheriff's underachieving son is deputized in order to pressure him into proving himself by catching a notorious outlaw. The son has skills but hardly seems to give a damn about anything, and is soon suspected of turning outlaw himself. Western fans can probably figure where this is headed but it's a fair page-turner just the same.

As for the rest, Faust's great rival for productivity, H. Bedford-Jones, contributes a short story about his old series character, the Cockney detective John Solomon, while Theodore Roscoe's "He Floats Through the Air" is a grim little circus story about a paranoid aerialist. H. H. Matteson's "Perils Loose on Memamloose" is a comical tale of the Aleutians in which a white man's awful cornet playing stirs up the natives, and Jack Allman's "High Rigger" is a standard, readable lumberjack story. This issue covers a lot of territory and all of it feels like pulp rather than rejects from the slicks like a lot of latter-day Argosy. I'm not the most knowledgeable Argosy fan but my feeling is that 1935 saw the venerable weekly at its peak. I plan to submit more evidence for this claim over the next few Tuesdays. There are 23 1935 Argosy issues in the unz.org trove so feel free to explore for yourself before coming back here for more.

This issue of Argosy is sponsored by: