Pulphunter Pt 3 Blue Book Pulps

Here's the last batch of catch up pulps from my hunts around Wisconsin.  These came from a bunch of antique malls we looked at for a china cabinet, which ended up being bought on Ebay.  But the pulps were a nice find at the time.  Some of the issues came from a book store nearby. 

The Riverboat issue(July 1946) with a Stoops cover is like all the other issues and has a wraparound cover, very nice depiction of the Mississippi River shipping port.  Just a fantastic bunch of stories all 144 bedsheet pages.
 
 My Nephew Norvell by Nelson Bond  He twists the beard of Father Time and gayly shakes dice with Destiny. How can you beat a story with an intro like that?  A SF tale.  The Reluctant Rogue by Wilber S. Peacock, awesome illos by John Fulton ( who I'd like to talk about later on, in another blog.  I've talked to his grandsons and they have some neat stuff.) Its A Desperate adventure of that famous minstrel rapscallion Francois Villon.  I've read other tales with Villon and its great material.  Who would sell a farm and go to sea?  by Bill Adams, always good stories by a master storyteller of the sea.  H. Bedford Jones adds another tale of Red Sky over Theabes, another great storyteller, very prolific in Blue Book until the day he died 3 years from this issue.  I love these stories of Theabes and fantastic illos by Maurice Bower, I can't say enough about the art in Blue Book, OK. or the writers either.  Man, its a historical fiction piece on Egypt, The opening line is: The Sphinx Emerald appears again, shapes the destiny of Egypt, and again goes into hiding...Wonderful pulp reading.  The Watched House is by Allan Vaughan Elston, also sounds like a teriffic pulp read, As the police admitted Bill didn't fit the case. But when the money was found in his locker, he had to turn detective himself.  It goes on and on, The trail of the Crosses by Allan R. Bosworth with amazing 2 tone illos by Hamilton Green, etc. 

The Union Army is May 1950 good John Fulton cover art, Road to Granada by Anthony Fon Eisen Gypsies in the 13 century, sounds good to me.  A Friend in Ghostland by one of my favorite female writers Beatrice Grimshaw.  She had some excellent tales in early issues of Everybodys mag. about pearl hunters in uncharted islands of the Pacific.  Bush Pilot by William Byron Mowery beautiful illustrations by Hamilton Green ( who I'll get some of his art up on a future blog also).  The story is a northern, a pilot in the wrong place. 

The guy with the red shirt and rifle is an excellent cover of January 1949 by Benton Clark Great stories by Kenneth Perkins The Devil in Lucinda Jones, She could name the cards unseen... Cool sounding story.  Another Wilber S. Peacock Benevenuto and the Angel  An Artist goldsmith proves himself also an artist in steel and Roguery.  The Seven Tables of Justice by Walter C Brown Oriental Detective tales, with just terrific illos by John Richard Flanagan another artist I would like to know more about.

The Guy on the white pony is a cover also by Benton Clark for the Sept. 1948 issue.  I read this issue and found it an excellent read, even the war stories, some of which were based on true tales.  Hey and I paid a dollar for it too!  The Seventh Cavalry Staghound by Fairfax Downy was and excellent tale of the 1870'a,  Col, George Custer and his dogs!  Good storytelling.  The Minos Goes to Battle by Kenneth Cassens, The Ancient Cretans elected their rulers for 9 years and then put them to death, awesome story.  Really love his stories of historical fiction.  John D. McDonald shows up with a detective story called Nicky and the Tin Finger, a robotic shamus, good story.  Of course H. Bedford Jones puts in a story, The Gold Dust Wedding, Just great pulp writing. 

The Army guys crawling down the nets is by Stoops for Sept 1945  A complete novel Blue Murder by L L Forman, Pilot Bait by Eustace L Adams, H B.Jones puts in Grotto of the Nymphs buried treasure, love it, my kind of story. The drawing are by Maurice Bower, good stuff.  The Phenomenal Casimir by Georges Surdez about his French boyhood, more Bower illos.  Night Fighter by Arch Whitehouse, a story of the Black Widows, great air fighter storyteller. 

The last one is a John Fulton cover illo of Colonials for Feb. 1951 Toward the end of Blue Book as I know it.  Shield for Murder by William P McGivern, One crime begets another...A SF tale Beachead on theMoon, by Sidney Leland, great art too.  Black Magic by Nelson Bond.  The Viking Ship by John Clagett.  A tale of the Vikings, based on the ship they found in the Swamps of Oslo...

I could read Blue Book until the ends of the earth, but what fun would that be, when I have so may more styles of pulps to get to.  Next time the Westerns I got at the same bunch of stores!

Pulphunter pt2

Yesterdays listing of item bought at a Antique and Collectables mall listed one side of the street, on the other side was another one and with this I found the following, and not westerns this time.

Amazing Stories for June of 1949, nice Arnold Kohn cover painting for the Blade story. Also some good stories by Guy Archette: Twisted House and another by Robt Moore Jones :The Land of the Golden Men.  Not exactly your hard to find items but nice to see in the real world stores.

Amazing for July 1951 Joe Tillotson cover for We the Machine by Gerald Vance, also within a story by Frank Robinson : Good Luck Columbus!  Which sounds great. And, very interesting to me, interior illo's by Murphy Anderson and Dan Barry.  Both of my favorite comic book artists of the period.  Nice to see them doing work in another medium.  I once corresponded with Dan Barry back in the 60's as a kid and he did not seem to like his time in the comics at all, I guess his Flash Gordon newspaper strip time was more to his liking.  Wonder what he thought of doing pulp art?  As for Murphy Anderson, he did a ton of work for every publisher out there, a bunch for my favorite publisher Fiction House,  in Planet Comics, good stuff.  Of course my favorite stuff came later, Atomic Knights and inking over Infantino in Mystery in Space the Adam Strange Strip there.  Oh, and later came his work on Hawkman, all great.

Still later that week, I checked back at antique mall not far from me and have turned up pulps in the past, and found these items:

Astounding March 1952 with a nice novelette Man Down by Jack Williamson and Star Tracks by Sam Merwin with awesome illo's by Cartier

Astounding for Aug. of 1955 Cover by Freas and a novelette by Lester del Rey: Victory!

The Shadow Mag for Jan 1936 nice to see hero pulps turn up once in a while, OK, not the greatest of condition but a reader and not too bad of a price.  It features The Ghost Murders. 

Here too, for some reason I found Railroad pulps for about 5 bucks each that I passed on, may have to start a Railroad collection if this keeps up....

Pulphunter

A few weeks out on the road turns up the following great reads.  There must have been a bunch of western pulp readers out there in the real world as I turn up westerns at Flea Markets, Antique Stores and where ever!  These 9 all came from the same Antique Mall in the same case, nice cheap readers. 

Starting with my favorite on on the top.

Frontier Stories a Fiction House mag,  Winter 1953 the final issue, before Fiction House closed its comics and pulp door forever.  Its got a great lead novel story by Dan Cushman called Salvation Guns with awesome illustrations by Vestal.  What I like about the issue best is the cover by what looks like Alan Anderson, I would have bought that off the stands in a heartbeat!

The next one to the right is Best Western January 1953 a Red Circle Pub, a Martin Goodman  pulp with a wonderful Norm Saunders cover, action like that you can't beat.  It also has a lead novel by Lewis B Patten Called Man on the Stage, obviously the cover illustrates that.  It has a Harrison Colt novel  Trigger Trail of the XT and others.

The next one over is Big-Book Western Jan. 1953, a Popular Pub. Nice action cover, it contains 2 nice novels, No mans Guns by William Vance and, Mescalero Drums by John Jakes no less.  Looks like a great read, man, Jakes could write anything, SF, Fantasy, Mystery, and who all knows. 

Western Novels Jan. 1955 another nice Saunders cover and another Goodman Red Circle pup.Another Patton Story, Where the Backshooter Waits, 2 older reprints With plow-Hard Fists and Killer Colts by Raymond W. Porter and The gunman That God Reprieved by L L Foreman. 

Star Western  Dec. 1945 with Cold Decked by Walt Coburn, others by Harry F Olmsted and Norman A. Fox.  All good writers and have read some of this mag before.  And, the interior art looks a lot like Everett Raymond Kinstler who did a lot of comics covers and interiors over at Avon. 

44 Western July of 1945 a Popular Pub, 10 stories to boot.  Tom Roan, Gunnison Steele and Clifford D. Simak.  All look like good reads and a good action cover. 

Fifteen Western Tales Sept. 1952 A Popular Pub.  Contains 2 novelettes Bullets Wild at Bloodrun by Robert W Krepps and Devil Makes a Cowman by Charles W Tyler

Max Brands Western  March of 1953 Popular Pub, W H Scott Cover, odd that the guy wearing the star on his chest is the guy running away with the bank bag.  Very nice painting though.  Its a reprint mag with a bunch of good stories.

And Finally the Dime Western for Feb. 1949.  Gotta love the cover here and it contains Walt Coburn's Wanted!  Also George C Appell and Saten of the Sierras by Thomas Thompson. 

Am gonna jump into the Frontier Stories or the John Jakes story when I get the chance.  Oh, and the same mall contain 5 Ranch Romances from the fifties which I may have to go back and get when I can, nice pulps but like the RailRoad pulps I've been seeing a bunch of lately, not high on my list. 

Holiday images from the past

Here is a nice group of images from my collection of stuff, kind of gets me in the mood, maybe it does you too!
The Above original pen and ink drawing I got from Brad W. Foster, who was behind our table at one of the Chicago Comics Cons in the 80's, its dated 1985  Its a calender obviously, on the back is a note that the gal is Sandy Henson, nice ornament that. 

I bought the Foster because it reminded me a Virgil Finlay, who is one of my favorite pulp artists, his pen and ink drawing are outstanding.  He is one of his from an Astrological Mag, nice Holiday theme.  He said at one time he used his daughters as models.

Long as I'm talking about calenders, he is an Al Moore December page 1951 nice image here too!  If you can't read the caption it says:
December's queen is never mean,
But her kindness has its causes--
Would you believe the gifts she received

Are from a dozen Santa Clauses!

These 2 pages from the same calender , I'm not sure of the year or artist, nice bit of classic pin-up work, probably 50's.



Here is my last years Christmas read, had some good holiday stories and illo's too.  The art could be by Nick Eggenhoffer, he was know for great western art.  Front cover art by N F Soare. 

Lost and Found Paperback Science Fiction

Today's stash of Lost and Found comes from an antique store, I have always driven by, but never stopped at.  You know the kind, looks like it could be an interesting joint to take a look at.  This one happens to be the sister store of the one I found the copy of Top Notch #1, which is another story.  This place didn't turn up any pulp magazines but did have a nice box of 45 or so vintage 1960 to 1970 paperbacks in a large box.  I glommed on to that at a nice Christmasy 50% off!  It makes for a tough decision on which one to read first, you can tell by looking at all the covers that they make it even harder.  

The Asimov book has cover art by Berkey and reprints material from Fantasy and Science Fiction mag, Amazing, If, and The Saint Detective Mag.

The Gardner F Fox book has a cover signed JB, is from 1973 and has that notoriety of the Saturday night Live characters, one influenced the other. 

The Leigh Brackett has a cover by Grey Morrow, 1967, reprinting stories from Planet Stories, Startling Stories, Amazing Stories and Fantasy and Sciencefiction.  All great pulp stories

This one by Marion Zimmer Bradley has a cool looking cover by Jack Gaughan, who did a cover or two for my old fanzine Cloak and Dagger, as well as a bunch for my pal's Harry's mag Fantasy News.  It has interior illo's by Jack too, his tour-De-force was his pen and ink drawings I think. 

The Delany has a great cover and 400 and some pages from 1966.  The Dick book from 1974 looks like a good read from the back cover blurb, "he was a skilled mender-or, as he liked to think of it , healer-of ceramic pots.  In a mostly plastic world, he was unemployed"...Another cool cover too. 

The De Camp book is the third in a series, looks like, I'll be looking for the other 2 from 1977 or so, another well  done cover, signed at the bottom cut off  J. Ha-something.  The De Camp-Fletcher Pratt book The Incomplete Enchanter with the really fine Jeff  Jones cover, the fact that its a fantasy book, and because its a reprint of the May and August  1940 issues of The Unknown a Street and Smith pulp, make it my first choice to read.  Oh, and was dedicated to John W. Campbell too! The third  DeCamp-Pratt book with a awesome cover by Esteban Maroto and interior illo's by Edd Cartier, is from Oct. 1941 issue of Unknown Worlds, this would be my second choice for reading.  Its from 1979.

That's the first 9 of 25 covers I have of the 43 I bought, the next bunch tomorrow.  Any one have a favorite from these please give me your opinion, thanks!

Forgotten Bookmarks/Pocket Magazine

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were reviewing books and the one that stuck me was called Forgotten Book- Marks. A booksellers collection of odd things lost between the pages.  Its a photo collection of cool stuff left in old books plus the books they were left in.  I think the most unusual thing he found was razor blades and 2 tickets to a 1904 masquerade ball.  So, the odd thing I found in a magazine I picked up was gotten a few years back at a Flea Market here in Wisconsin.  It was a copy of The Pocket Magazine March 1898, a paperback size, 100 page, 5 cent magazine.  In it I found two nice bookmarks, a star with a name on it  ( Lillian something) and what looks to be a hotel plan with who was going to room with whom, one of which is Lillian, on the back it says "be grateful for this."  Not sure anymore which story they were stuck in.
The five stories are:
Eunice and the Doll by Mary E Wilkins
Prince Pavio's Love Cup by Osmond Shillingford
Key of the Broadway Gate by Percie W Hart and excellent historical fiction of New Amsterdam, NY He wrote in Sea Stories, Munsey's and other pulps as well, this tale would have in any of those mags as well. 
Nirvanna by Davis Turner
John Esterbrooke by Louis Vincent DeFoe Which is an early story of an Englishman in the old west, excellent story.  It appears he was a drama critic, and editor of the Chicago Tribune.  He also wrote  for The Red Book a pulp magazine from 1907 to 1913, mostly articles but some short stories.  He was as I said, a very fine teller of tales of the west.  His story would have fit in any of the days western pulps. 

So, any of you find any neat bookmarks, there must be a ton of  things that have been found, I always look for money as a bookmark, but no dice! 

Western Story Magazine articles on Western writers

I'd like to start out my blog with a find I made at the local Flea Market several years ago.  It was about 150 or so issues of Western Story Magazine form about 1925 to 1930 or so.  Wonderful covers and even more amazing stories.  From Max Brand to Johnston McCulley, some of the best reading you can find.  I picked up several of these mags at the Flea and asked if they had more, and go figure, they did.  So went out next week and you should have seen the kitchen table filled with stacks of Western Story, fantastic covers abounded. I've read many of these and found that in the Feb 11, 1928 issue,  D C Hubbard started writing articles about famous western writers. That issue featured George Washington Ogden.  That one was missing from the collection I bought, but, the next issue March 3, 1928 was present and featured Roland Krebs, Who seemed to be the master of the short humor story for WSM, he started out in Argosey 1923, went to Detective Story 1924, graduated to the slick, The Saturday Evening Post for 1925 and 1926, and then hit off a long relation with Street and Smiths WSM, until 1936.  He had a few issues of Popular and Complete pulps also form S&S toward what seems to be the end of his writing career for the pulps, 1937.  But, from Krebs' interview  of which I post here, with a nice drawing of him also, he lived a very interesting life as an artist, reporter ( in St. Louis), and at the time of the article was living in the Ozarks of Mo.in a cabin of some sort.  Says he gets inspired from newspaper articles he reads and goes from there!

His story in the March 3rd,1928 issue is a good one, all of 3 or 4 pages and talks of free lunch at a prohibition bar in Montana.  You have to love an up to day western story, really a pretty neat story of cowboys, food and near beer! 

Over all the articles seems to promote the writers in the magazine, but gives them a human face instead of a name on the cover, which to me I find very interesting.  The are about 12 more of them, the next issue, March 24, 1928, featuring Clem Yore interview, writers Austin Hall( Silvertip), Ray Humphreys(Shorty McKay)  and others, great reading.  

Next up would like to talk abut the Spicy Mystery I'm reading, especially one of the interior artist  contain there in, and like to talk about food, trucking, comics, illustrators and what all ever comes to mind!