December 1929 issue x 2

December 1929 issue #1

December 1929 issue #2

both better images than previously posted

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Triple Treachery”, 30th of 73 stories with Ed Jenkins, with his wife Helen Chadwick, in LA, 2nd half of story with Ramsey, from previous issue, 47th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Maltese Falcon”, part 4 of 5 serialized parts before hardcover publication (1931), reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 38th of 45 stories in BM

~ Horace McCoy, “Renegades of the Rio”, 3rd of 14 stories with ‘Capt. Jerry Frost, Texas (Air) Ranger’, 4th of 17 stories in BM

~ Lester Reynard, “Saving the Double-Cross”, 4th of 5 stories in BM

~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Craleigh Comes to Life”, 2nd of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, 10th of 17 stories in BM as a couple

~ L.R. Sherman, “Reading Sign on the Sagebrush Kid”, Western, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Outside”, ‘Mal Ourney; part 1 (of 5), ‘The Crime Breeders’, presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial’, pub. in hardcover in 1930 by Knopf as Green Ice, 35th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

April 1943 issue ~ cover art by Emery Clarke

April 1943 issue

cover art by Emery Clarke

Kenneth Robeson, “The King of Terror”

better image than previously posted

as violent, bloody, sexist, sadomasochistic, racist, and lurid as the pulp covers were, this one has to be perhaps the most grisly of all…

December 1933 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

December 1933 issue

better image than previously posted

cover art by Fred Craft

~ John L. Chambliss, “The Contact”, NYC PI Schuyler Blake, only appearance in BM

~ Raymond Chandler, “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot”, his debut in BM, his first published writing, 1st of 2 with PI Mallory, 1st of 11 stories in BM, first book appearance in Five Murderers (Avon digest, 1944), reprinted in Red Wind (Tower hc, 1946), The Smell of Fear (Hamish Hamilton/UK hc, 1965), Midnight Raymond Chandler (Houghton Mifflin hc, 1971), The Black Mask Boys (Morrow, 1985)

~ Eugene Cunningham, “Chalk”, 2nd of 5 with undercover Texas Ranger Cleve Corby, 8th of 14 stories in BM

~ Tom Curry, “Clancy Takes the Air”, Clancy, NYPD 1st grade dick, author’s last of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Dead Men’s Shoes”, 53th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘The Phantom Crook’ with Ngat T’oy, 77th of 99 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Murder Again”, ‘L.A. County dicks; Hollywood story’, 65th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop