THE PULP CALENDAR: December 1 -- featuring BELLOW BILL WILLIAMS in "THE RATS OF MAHIA"

Here's a remarkable 1934 Argosy in a less than remarkable copy from my own collection. This issue was a must-have for me because it has two of my favorite things in a pulp magazine: a Bellow Bill Williams story by Ralph R. Perry and a Tizzo the Firebrand tale by George (Frederick Faust) Challis. This is, in fact, the conclusion of Tizzo's two-part debut, The Firebrand, but that event is understandably overshadowed by the cover feature, the opening installment of Theodore Roscoe's seminal voodoo serial A Grave Must Be Deep! Roscoe, of course, is writing about Haitian zombies, not the kind that eat brains. He was no doubt inspired by recent voodoo movies, including Bela Lugosi's White Zombie and the Fay Wray vehicle Black Moon, but Grave shapes up on first impression as yet another "old dark house" story in an exotic setting. A starving artist's girlfriend and patron is an heir to a relative who died and left a fortune in Haiti. Accompanied by a well-spoken native lawyer, the couple travel to the "magic isle" and encounter a variety of grotesques -- and that's just in the old man's household. He's left a will putting the girl far back in the order of succession to his fortune, with a stipulation applying to all heirs requiring them to stay at his estate for a certain amount of time. Need I add that the girl moves a couple of steps closer to the big payday in this installment alone? Perhaps I should add that the old man also stipulated that he be buried Haitian style with all the safeguards against being turned into a zombie, while the lawyer blusters that he doesn't believe in such stuff. For some people Roscoe's writing will be irredeemably racist, but this is a story in which everyone but our hero and heroine is a grotesque caricature, be they black or white -- that extends to a German hanger-on whom everyone calls "the Nazi." It promises to be all quite deranged, and I look forward to catching up with the rest of it someday.

Meanwhile, Bellow Bill looks to be in a bad spot. He joins the chase after a high-class island dinner party is interrupted by a half-naked Melanesian crashing the party, cleaving the skull of a society matron and stealing her sapphire necklace. Diving after the savage, he sees the culprit getting into a boat and assumes, since the sea is still stormy after a hurricane, that the gang must be heading for a nearby island known by Bill as the haunt of Knife-Hand Foster, a notorious "blackbirder" named after the retractable bayonet he wears over a mutilated hand. He finds Foster in his own boat, having killed the Melanesians in "self-defense" but claiming that he saw the sapphire necklace go over the side during the melee. Bill doesn't believe it but has no real clue where the thing might be, and no idea of how to get at it except to go to the rat-infested isle of Mahia, where more human rats await him. Bill and his creator are in good form here as Perry emphasizes that our hero has rushed overconfidently into a situation where he may be out of his depth, pitted against not one but two blackbirders -- slave raiders to you -- who seem to be working together but may also have separate agendas that make them hard to predict. As usual, Perry excels at throwing obstacles in Bellow Bill's path, including the vicious, hungry little title creatures. Few pulp writers do action thrillers as well as Perry, and anyone who's become a Bellow Bill fan this year should enjoy this one.

It's not Robert Carse but Richard Wormser who writes this issue's Foreign Legion novelette. While Carse contributes a sea story about an officer who takes big risks in search of fame, even when situations don't necessarily require his intervention, Wormser writes something more like a detective story in a Foreign Legion setting. This makes a difference. The protagonist of "To Hell For the Devil" is a detective who hopes to make a name for himself by capturing one of the gang who kidnapped, tortured and mortally injured the heir to a prominent fortune. A combination of ambition and indignation over the fate of the victim drives the detective to pursue his man across the Atlantic and into Africa, where he finds that his quarry has enlisted in the Legion. This is a problem, since the Legion doesn't cooperate with American law enforcement. It depends too much on fugitives from justice for its manpower, and turning over a wanted criminal, no matter how heinous his crime, would discourage enlistments. Our detective sees no alternative to enlisting in the Legion himself in the hope of coming across the fugitive, even though the Legion is fully aware of his identity and purpose and is determined to keep him as far away from his man as possible. For a while it becomes a standard Legion story as the chubby middle-aged detective is whipped (not quite literally) into shape and almost loses track of his mission. But a big battle brings together many units and gives him the break he's looking for. Had this been a typical Legion story, the sort Carse, Georges Surdez or J. D. Newsom wrote, you might expect hunter and quarry to bond in battle, forcing a dilemma on the detective in the end. But Wormser is writing a detective story, and once the big battle is out of the way the detective grabs the fugitive and bolts for the border, knowing full well that he'll be shot for desertion if the Legion catches up with him. Wormser's unorthodox approach freshens up some of the familiar Legion tropes, and even if his story does end somewhat anticlimactically it's a good read.

Rounding out the issue are Hapsburg Liebe's short story "Kid Sheriff" and an installment of Ralph Milne Farley's sci-fi/horror serial The Immortals.  This is such a good issue overall that instead of scanning the Bellow Bill story alone, I've scanned and uploaded the whole thing. It's a hefty .cbz file that you can convert to a .zip and then adapt to suit your viewing or reading needs, but it ought to be a treat for any pulp fan. You can get it by clicking on the link below:

ARGOSY, December 1, 1934

And before I forget, this issue was sponsored by:

THE PULP CALENDAR: November 24

This 1934 Argosy introduces Tizzo the Firebrand, the red-haired axe-wielding Italo-British swashbuckler who took the pulp weekly by storm over the next year. George Challis was one of the many aliases employed by Frederick Faust (the best known being Max Brand). This one came to be identified with period swashbucklers, if not primarily with Tizzo. In 1935 the Firebrand appeared in two three-part serials and four novelettes from February to August. With each new story Tizzo got the cover -- an unprecedented push over so short a period. I actually wonder whether Faust switched from serials to novelettes just so he could get more covers for his character. Anyway, they're great stories or Renaissance intrigue and mayhem, and his debut had to become part of my personal pulp collection.

As for the rest, I like what I've read so far of Ralph Milne Farley's The Immortals, and Max Brand's Scourge of the Rio Grande, which wraps up this week, is an interesting tale of smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, with a somewhat sympathetic Chinese villain who's raised a white girl, a friend's daughter, as his own child. H. Bedford-Jones contributes a novelette in which a family melodrama plays out amid violence on the "Isle of Destiny," while J. Allen Dunn's "Samuel Slate Collects" gives us some nigh-omnipotent avenger punishing a ruthless businessman. Eustace L. Adams' "Dog Daze" is a short story in his comic series about a drunken demonstration pilot, while Hapsburg Liebe's "Hoss-Trade" deals approvingly with a hillbilly con artist. It was pretty entertaining overall, and it was sponsored by

THE PULP CALENDAR: August 24

Frederick Faust's last story about Tizzo the Firebrand -- written, like all the others, under the alias of George Challis -- was actually the first of the series that I read. It was the only complete Firebrand story in the unz.org Argosy trove, but it was impressive enough to inspire me to start a Tizzo collection of his original appearances. "The Pearls of Bonfadini" concludes a sequence of four novelettes (following three short serials) in which the half-English, half-Italian redhead -- who favors an ax despite the sword shown on the cover -- falls into then fights his way out of the orbit of Cesare Borgia. Tizzo enjoyed meteoric success as an Argosy character, appearing on seven covers between late November 1934 and this end point in August 1935. Whether "Pearls" was meant to close the series all along or circumstances prevented Faust/Challis from writing more, I don't know. Regardless, the series is a classic of swashbuckling.

In addition, Frank Richardson Pierce begins a three-parter, Silver Thaw, that can be had complete at unz.org, while Faust continues the western serial The Sacred Valley under his more familiar identity as Max Brand, and concludes The Blackbirds Sing under the even less familiar pen-name of Dennis Lawton. The issue's fourth serial is part two of Borden Chase's Bed Rock, another of his dangerous-job tales of tunnel-digging sandhogs. The only real standalone stories this issue -- admittedly, you can enjoy "Pearls," as I did, without having read the earlier Tizzo pieces -- are Foster-Harris's action piece "The Rattler Whirs" and a gruesome short by Houston Day, "Cure for the Headache." This issue may be a little Faust-heavy for some, but it's still another outstanding Argosy from what I consider the venerable weekly's peak period. Browse through it at your leisure through this link to unz.org.

THE PULP CALENDAR: August 3

It  should be obvious to regular readers of this blog that I own this issue for the Firebrand story by George (Frederick Faust) Challis. "The Bait and the Trap" is Tizzo's penultimate appearance. His curtain call comes in three weeks, in an issue scanned into the unz.org trove. Faust does double-duty this week as his "Dennis Lawton" serial The Blackbirds Sing continues. H. Bedford-Jones continues Riley Dillon, Masquerader while Robert Carse wraps up a two-parter and F. V. W. Mason starts one. That leaves James W. Egan's tennis story and Capt. R. E. Dupuy's novelette set in a Civilian Military Training Camp.

As of now this is the last 1935 Argosy in my collection, though I'm interested in piecing together The Blackbirds Sing. There are at least ten more from this banner year in the unz trove; they're definitely worth your time.

I was especially amused by a "kicking" letter in this issue's Argonotes section. It's always interesting to discover the contrarian opinions held toward now-canonical (or now-forgotten) pulp writers. As other readers of Argonotes can testify, Theodore Roscoe was always one of the most divisive authors. The "Haitian story about the zombies" referred to here was his 1934-5 serial A Grave Must Be Deep. To provide additional context, Loring (George F. Worts) Brent had killed off Peter the Brazen's longtime girlfriend Susan O'Gilvie in the 1934 serial Kingdom of the Lost, only to reveal that she had not died after all in Peter's final appearance, the novella "Over the Dragon Wall." Our correspondent, apparently a strong critic of female characters in general, was disappointed by this reversal. "MacIsaac" was Fred MacIsaac, a popular contributor nearing the end of his most prolific period.

You can't please everyone of course, and that was more true for general adventure magazines like Argosy than for more specialized pulps. I suspect that in 1935 more people were pleased than not. This issue was brought to you by:

Cigarettes that "Don't Get Your Wind." Whatever happened to them???

THE PULP CALENDAR: July 13

Here's the last of my run of four consecutive 1935 Argosy issues in my personal collection. The main attractions for me were the Tizzo the Firebrand cover story, by George (Frederick "Max Brand" Faust) Challis and another installment of F. V. W. Mason's serial Lysander of Chios. This issue also concludes Kevin Johnson's three-parter The Marines Having Landed and continues John Wilstach's Revolutionary War serial High Treason.

Joining the serial lineup is "king of the pulps" H. Bedford-Jones with Riley Dillon, Masquerader. Riley Dillon may be a rarity for Bedford-Jones, in that he created the gentleman thief under the pseudonym Rodney Blake -- a new one for the protean author --  for Mystery, a slick genre magazine sold exclusively at Woolworth's. When he brought the character to the Munsey mags (mainly Detective Fiction Weekly), Bedford-Jones took credit under his real name. He eventually brought Rodney Blake back to life as an author of westerns. Masquerader is Dillon's only appearance in Argosy; HBJ returned him to DFW and apparently grew tired of him early in 1936.As for the rest, Hapsburg Leibe's "Jaybird" is a hillbilly disaster story while Anthony M. Rud's "Monster of the Mud-Line" is another animal story. Somebody liked those, I guess. My to-read pile is becoming a to-read tower with these and the other pulps I'm continuing to accumulate. At some point, definitely during the second year of this blog when the Pulp Calendar is finished, I look forward to describing these stories in more detail. For now, this issue of Argosy was sponsored by:

And ...

 

Erle Stanley Gardner's experiment with a costumed crimefighter lasted for three stories, according to the Fiction Mags Index. Given that Perry Mason had just hit big, it's nice to see that Gardner wasn't resting on his laurels.

THE PULP CALENDAR: June 8

There's a copy of the June 8, 1935 Argosy in my personal collection but while that copy is in pretty nice shape overall the front cover is marred by a dealer's stamp, so I've taken an existing cover image off the net. John A. Coughlin's cover -- he did all the covers for Frederick "George Challis" Faust's Firebrand series -- illustrates a specific fight scene from "The Cat and the Perfume," the first of four long novelettes that wrapped up the series over the next twelve weeks. Tizzo, our redheaded hero, is about to bury his trusty fighting axe in a sweet spot in his armored enemy's helmet, after the antagonist has put himself off balance swinging wildly at our agile protagonist. This little fight to the death (almost) is staged by Cesare Borgia to test Tizzo's mettle. To bring newcomers up to speed, Tizzo, who had appeared in three short serials since the end of November 1934, is a half-Italian, half-English swashbuckler who has wrought havoc in parts of Italy and thus come to Borgia's attention. Cesare is too badass to be just plain "Borgia," however; he's "the Borgia," like a Renaissance Batman. As I've hinted, Tizzo passes the Borgia's test and is sweet-talked into joining Cesare's mission of uniting Italy. His English father is less easily taken in; the mercenary Baron Melrose can tell that Cesare's mission is less about Italy and more about the Borgia. Fearful that the old man will poison Tizzo's mind against him, Cesare takes a chance on poisoning Melrose while Tizzo is out carousing with the troops. He and his assassin Alessandro Bonfadini fail to reckon upon Melrose's stamina and smarts and before long Melrose, Tizzo and Tizzo's beautiful, brawling beloved Beatrice are battling their way out of the Borgia trap. Faust clearly loved Italy; he lived and worked there for some time and eventually died there as a war correspondent. His enthusiasm shows in Challis's Firebrand stories, which were later reprinted in book form and are still circulating electronically somewhere out there.

"The Cat and the Perfume" is all I've read of this issue so far, but let's see what else it's got:

I can vouch for the two of the serials, all the earlier chapters of which can be found in the unz.org trove, which is fairly well stocked with 1935 Argosy. Both Hulbert Footner's Sink of Iniquity and Borden Chase's Heading Boss are set in Latin America, a popular playground of the pulp imagination in those days. I haven't read any of Theodore Roscoe's War Declared! yet but he's pretty trustworthy in this period. In shorter form, we get a polo story by Howard R. Marsh -- again, polo doesn't seem like the stuff of pulp until you factor in the ambitious dreams of its readers, polo being the sport of the virile rich -- as well as an animal story by Anthony M. Rud and a novelette by William Merriam Rouse whose setting falls somewhat close to home for me, but not too close. The following week's issue, which continues the Footner serial, concludes the Chase and begins F. V. W. Mason's Lysander of Chios, is at unz.org. The four following issues are in my collection. For now, the June 8 issue is sponsored by:

THE PULP CALENDAR: February 2

The fellow making a hasty getaway is Tizzo, "the Firebrand," the Italian Renaissance swashbuckler created by George Challis. Challis was created by Frederick "Max Brand" Faust as a brand name for historical swashbucklers like the Firebrand series. Tizzo dominated Argosy in 1935 like no other character. First appearing in the November 24, 1934 issue, the turbulent redhead, whose actual favorite weapon is an axe, would get six covers the following year, beginning with this one. He starred in two serials (this one is The Great Betrayal) and four "short novels" during a blistering run that ended in August. You'll be seeing more of Tizzo on the Calendar because I own several of those issues, though not yet this one.

While Tizzo's print career was meteoric, that of Hashknife Hartley was far more enduring. Hashknife is one of W. C. Tuttle's comical western detectives, the star of a genre Tuttle pretty much had to himself. Tuttle wrote Hashknife stories for more than 30 years, starting in Adventure in 1919. As I've noted before, series characters like Hashknife belonged to their authors, for the most part, rather than any publisher. That meant that Tuttle could place a Hashknife story in Complete Western Book for Newstand Publications in October 1934, another in a December Argosy, then this one, and then another in Adventure the following month. Eventually, in 1938, Hashknife settled down at Short Stories, where new stories kept appearing until 1951. The prolific Tuttle would create a new character for Argosy later this month who would prove Hashknife's nearest rival in popularity; we'll attend to his birth in due time.

J. Allen Dunn was a big enough name that he could be billed by his last name only above the logo, like Boris Karloff was in Universal movies around the same time. "Magee of the Mounted" is, to take a wild guess, a Mountie story and a one-off. Another old-timer, William Merriam Rouse, contributes "The Shorn Lion," while F. Van Wyck Mason wraps up his Captain Long Knife serial. James Edward Grant, soon to go to Hollywood and make his name as a screenwriter, and Don Waters add short stories to round out what looks like a typical solid 1935 Argosy. Over the next few Tuesdays we'll look at some 1935 Argosies from my own collection; then I'll really know what I'm talking about.