black mask magazine – Page 3

July 1950 issue ~ cover art by Norman Saunders

July 1950

better image than previously posted

cover art by Norman Saunders

~ Charles J. Beckman, “Satan’s Step-Daughter”, cop Mike O’Connell, only story in BM

~ Harmon Bellamy, “Shutterbug’s Long Shot”, only story in BM

~ Owen Couey, “Bring Your Own Body”, only story in BM

~ Westcott D. Gouldner, “All Work and No Slay”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ John D. MacDonald, “Jukebox Jungle”, last of 6 stories in BM

~ Robert Martin, “Lost in the Shrouds”, 5th of 6 stories with ’Dr. Clint Colby, medical detective’, 7th of 8 stories in BM

~ Hank Searls, “Nice Girls Don’t Murder”, ‘Pete Butler, San Francisco private eye’, 2^nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Robert Turner, “Nine Kills to Paradise”, 2nd of 4 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[post updated 6/1/24]

May, 1939 issue ~ cover art by J. George Janes

May, 1939

cover art by J. George Janes

better image than previously posted

~ Carroll John Daly, “Murder Made Easy”, ‘Clay Holt’, 68th of 71 appearances in BM

~ Frank Gruber, “Funny Man”, 8th of 10with ‘Oliver Quade, The Human Encyclopedia’, ’Quade in Hollywood; see p. 5 for letter from FG on OG’, 12th of 14 stories in BM

~ H. Randolph Peacock, “Bare Facts”, ‘nudist camp setting; epistolary style’, last of 4 stories in BM

~ Stewart Sterling (pseud. of Prentice Winchell), “Strictly for Suckers”, 1^st of 3 stories with Vince Mallie, debut in BM, 1^st of 12 stories

~ Emile C. Tepperman, “Death of Sale”, ‘vacuum cleaner salesman’, last of 3 stories in BM

~ K. Webster, “Prison Break”, 2nd of 3 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

March 1944 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

March 1944

better image than previously posted

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

~ D.L. Champion, “Death for a Dollar”, 13th of 26 with Sackler, reprinted in Murder Costs Money: The Complete Black Mask Stories of Rex Sackler (Steeger, 2020), 15^th of 30 stories in BM

~ Leslie Charteris, “Murder Goes to Market”, 2^nd of 2 Saint stories, last appearance in BM

~ Dale Clark, “Hands Down”, 16th of 28 with house dick Mike O’Hanna story, at San Alpa Resort hotel, 18^th of 32 stories in BM

~ C.P. Donnel, Jr., “Clues in the Night”, 14th of 16 with Colonel Walter (Doc) Rennie, USA Medical Corps, 17^th of 20 stories in BM

~ Clyde Morehead, “Tears for Little Willie”, ‘short-short’, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Ted Stratton, “Call the Undertaker”, ‘Trigg’, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

February 1929 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

February 1929 issue

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

better image than previously posted

~ Tom Curry, “The Taste of Blood”, 16^th of 23 with Macnamara (Mac), NYPD 1^st grade dick, ‘small-time crook develops into killer’, 27^th of 39stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Bracelets for Two”, 25th of 73 stories with Ed Jenkins, with his wife Helen Chadwick, 38th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Black Riddle”, last of 4 Continental Op stories that will go together to make up The Dain Curse (Knopf hc, 1929), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 39th of 51 stories in BM

~ Carl L. Martin, “Still Buzzards”, Deputy Lon Havens, Drew County, Bayou country, and friends in the delta, 5th of 6 in BM

~ Earl and Marion Scott, “Brewed at Benetti’s”, 1^st of 6 stories with ‘Phil Craleigh, once brilliant lawyer, now a drunk, given to bouts of reform’, 4th of 17 stories in BM as a couple

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “On the Spot”, ‘Gary Greer; 1st (of 9) in the Laughing Dead series, presented as separate stories rather than conventional serial; pub. As Five (1931) under the pseudonym of Temple Field’, 26th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]. Reprinted in Laughing Death (Steeger Books, 2021).

[updated 6/4/24]

November 1929 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

November 1929 issue, Joseph T. Shaw, editor

better image than previously posted

cover painting by J.W. Schlaikjer

Frederick Nebel, “Hell-Smoke” (Capt. MacBride novelette)

Dashiell Hammett, “The Maltese Falcon” (part two of the serialized novel before publication as a novel – first appearance of this section- not even mentioned on the cover)

Earl and Marion Scott, “The Second Spartan”

Carroll John Daly, “The Silver Eagle” (Race Williams novelette)

Erle Stanley Gardner, “Brass Tacks” (Ed Jenkins novelette)

Tom Curry, “The Man from Headquarters”

Henry Wallace Phillips, “The Demon in the Canyon”