“From the estate of the American artist James Lunnon, this is an unsigned proposed Black Mask pulp cover painting which was slated for publication in May of 1940. The yellow left side field is a telling trait and was unique to the title – this format was used between January 1937 to April of 1940, with many of these covers painted by James Lunnon. There was no May, 1940 issue, as the title was sold to Popular Publications right after the April 1940 issue and when the magazine appeared again in June of 1940, it had a completely redesigned look. Our guess is that this painting was intended as the cover for the 5/40 issue, but with the change of publishers causing that issue to be skipped, and the then resulting change in cover design, it was never used.”
~ Carroll John Daly, “Under Cover”, 1st of 2 parts, Race Williams, 11th of 53, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 19th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “The Triple Cross”, 5th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, 11th of 99 stories in BM
~ Joseph Gollomb, “Vienna’s Scholarly Detectives”, 5th of 6 articles
~ Dashiell Hammett, “The Gutting of Couffignal”, the Op [18th of 25], reprinted in The Return of the Continental Op (Dell mapback, 1947), reprinted in The Hard-Boiled Detective (1977), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 25th of 51 stories in BM
~ Donald MacGregor, “The House of Flashing Lights”, ‘concerning a vaudeville actor’, 7th of 10 stories
~ Benjamin Michalek, “The Invisible Order of the Living Dead”, “advertised as ‘strange and weird story’”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “Trapped”, 45th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 47th of 49 total articles in BM
~ J. Paul Suter, “The German Field Glass”, 8th of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, 11th of 19 appearances in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “Half-Breed”, 16th of 53 with ‘Race Williams among the Oklahoma oil-rich Indians’, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015), 24th of 71 appearances in BM
~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Money, Marbles and Chalk”, 11th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘still a ‘crook’, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (Vintage, 2007), 19th of 99 stories in BM
~ (Charles John) Cutcliffe Hyne, “The Guns for Cuba”, 1st of 8 yarns with Captain Kettle, author’s debut in BM
~ Don Livingston, “The Awakening of Bash Langley”, ‘modern-day Western’, 1st of 2 stories in BM
~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Grain to Grain”, ‘Corson & Gleason, ex-gangster and ex-boxer turned dicks’, reprinted in Street Wolf (Altus Press, 2014), 2 of 67 stories
~ Lt. Col. J.H. [John Henry] Patterson, D.S.O., “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”, 2nd of 7 serialized parts of this ex-British Army officer’s account of building a railway in Kenya, 1898-1899; book published in 1927
~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Delivered Goods”, ‘aviator hero; see headnote for data on RFW’, 7th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]
~ Curtis Cliff, “You’ll Never Die Rich”, 2nd of 3 with Honolulu PI Johnny Ford, 1st person-narrator, 2nd of 4 stories in BM
~ Richard Deming, “The Man Who Chose the Devil”, Manville “Manny” Moon, 1st person narrator, private eye with an artificial right leg due to WWII, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010), 1st of 6 stories
~ G.T. Fleming-Roberts, “Pattern for Shrouds”, ‘Red Morgan, newspaper editor; politics & murder’, 5th of 8 stories in BM
~ W. Lee Herrington, [also published in BM as Alan Farley], “Your Funeral – Not Mine”, 2nd of 4 stories under this name in BM
~ Day Keene, “No Match for Murder”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ George F. Kull, “Death Is No Bargain”, Eddie Gates, private eye wearing glasses, 1st person narrator, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
~ Carroll John Daly, “The Face Behind the Mask”, 6th of 53 with Race Williams, reprinted in Them That Lives By Their Guns: The Collected Hard-Boiled Stories of Race Williams, Vol. 1 (Altus Press, 2015) 14th the of 71 appearances in BM
~ James Parker Long, “Twice to Make Sure”, “‘Cautious, conservative business man’ as sleuth”, author’s sole appearance in BM
~ Harold Freeman Miners, “Topango Takes a Long Shot”, last of 4 ‘Topanga John, ancient desert rat’, last of 5 stories in BM
~ William Rollins, Jr., “Treasures That Dead Men Guard”, part 1 of 3, last of 3 stories with Jack Darrow, 10 of 23 stories in BM
~ Charles Somerville, “The Death Ship”, ‘schooner Mary Beatrice & Chinese, see important headnote (p. 118) and editorial note (p.125) relating to series’, 37th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 38th of 49 total articles in BM
~ J. Paul Suter, “The Loud Voice of Time”, 3rd of 15 stories with The Reverend McGregor Daunt, ‘clergyman by profession and detective by choice’, ‘Daunt & one of his problems’, 6th of 19 appearances in BM
~ Kenneth Duane Whipple, “Tainted”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM
SMB Noir 
