black mask magazine – Page 3

December 1931 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

December 1931 issue

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “The Javanese Mask”, 1^st of 2 stories in this issue by RFW, Jo Gar, 17^th of 24 Gar stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Strictly Personal”, 39th of 73 Ed Jenkins, ‘Jenkins’ return after death of his wife, Helen, which had broken him; out of hospital & in Chinatown with Lui Sing Fong’, [patriarchal master of Chinatown], last of 3 connected stories (7/1931 and 9/1931), 56th of 99 stories in BM

~ Ed Lybeck, “Leaded Ink”, ’debut of Francis St. Xavier Harrigan, reporter on Leader’, 1^st of 4 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Some Die Young”, 16th of 37 with Captain Steve MacBride and local reporter Kennedy, reprinted in Winter Kill: Complete Cases of MacBride & Kenney, v.2 (Altus, 2013), 37 of 67 stories in BM

~ Henry Wallace Phillips, “For Sale, The Golden Queen”, ‘Western; Agamemnon Jones & Hy, 1^st-person narrator, Golden Queen is a gold mine’, 7^th of 8 with Red Saunders, 11th of 12 stories in BM

~ Stewart Stirling, (possible pseud. of Stewart Sterling?), “600 to 1”, 5^th of 8 stories with ‘Johnny Hi Gear, a.k.a. K-5, Undercover Agent’ with ‘King Collis, Negro policy king; racial slurs’

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Unfair Exchange”, ‘Alan Van Cleve, wealthy sportsman, man-about-town, 5th (of 6) segment in The Skyline Murders series; printed as separate stories rather than conventional serial’; pub. as Killer’s Carnival (1932) under pseudonym of Temple Field’, 2^nd story in this issue, 53rd of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

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October 1930 issue ~ cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

October 1930 issue

better image than previously posted

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “Nagasaki Knives”, 2nd half of Jo Gar story, 7^th of 24 stories in BM, reprinted in West of Guam: The Complete Cases of Jo Bar (Altus Press, 2013)

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “The Dark Pack”, ‘Western’, 19th of 39 stories in BM

~ James Howard Leveque, “Nigger Loon”, bayou tale, sole appearance in BM

~ James P. Olsen, “’Shot!’”, 1^st of 6 Western stories in BM

~ Lester Reynard, “Ladies Love Diamonds”, ‘San Francisco setting’, last of 5 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Death in a Bowl”, 2nd of 3 serialized parts, ‘Ben Jardinn, Hollywood eye, & murder in Hollywood Bowl’, ‘(originally titled The Maestro Murder)’, published in hardcover in 1931 by Knopf, 42nd of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

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January 1939 issue ~ cover art by James Lunnon

January 1939 issue

cover art by James Lunnon

better image than previously posted

~ James Duncan, “Murder for Pennies”, last of 5 stories with The Parson, who lives on a ‘mythical’ (fictional?) isle, Cariba, reprinted in Murder for Pennies: The Complete Black Mask Cases of the Parson (Steeger, 2024), last of 10 appearances in BM

~ Steve Fisher, “Jake and Jill”, ‘Honolulu setting’, 7^th of 9 stories in BM

~ Jackson Gregory, “Dusty Death”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM, this the only original one (see 5/1951)

~ H.W. Guernsey, “A Thousand Iron Men”, ‘iron men’ = $1 bill’, 3rd of 4 stories in BM

~ Eric Howard, “The Doc and the Dame”, last of 6 stories in BM

~ Baynard H(ardwick) Kendrick, “Arson”, 9th of 14 stories with Mikes Standish (Stan) Rice, ‘The Hungry’[?], all set in Florida, ‘see p. 63 for note by BHK on story’

~ H.H. Stinson, “All-American Menace”, 10th of 27 stories in BM

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February 1940 issue ~ cover art by J. George Janes

February 1940 issue

cover art by J. George Janes

better image than previously posted

~ Maurice Beam, “The White Lie”, ‘see p. 29 for letter from BM about story’, (thought to be possibly a pseud. of Robert Leslie Bellem), 5^th of 7 stories under this name in BM

~ H.W. Guernsey, “The Last Pin”, ‘short-short’, last of 4 stories in BM

~ H.F. Howard, “The Corpse Takes a Wife”, see 12/1940 for Harvey Howard: Hagemann says ‘entirely possible HH and HFH one and the same’

~ Baynard H(ardwick) Kendrick, “Fisherman’s Luck”, 13th of 14 stories with Mikes Standish (Stan) Rice, ‘The Hungry’[?], all set in Florida, ‘Rice in South Florida’

~ Peter Paige, “Blackout!”, ‘spy story; set in Paris, early WWII‘, 4th of 12 stories in BM

~ William Tanquery, “Getting Maizie”, ‘Mac MacGrath & Jennie Komorawski, rival reporters’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Roger Torrey, “Murder for Your Money”, ‘last (of 14) in Pat McCarthy series, with Marge Chalmers often his “sidekick”; he is ex-NYC cop, ex-agency man (Chicago & St. Louis) who dislikes cops’, 42nd of 50 appearances in BM

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May 1921 issue ~ cover art by Archie Gunn

May 1921 issue

better image than previously posted

cover art by Archie Gunn

~ John Baer, “The Struggle in the Dark”, 5^th of 24 stories in BM

~ Walter De Leon, “Marked By the Moon”, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Paul Everman, “A Call at Carnagy’s”, ‘short-short’, 3rd of 4 stories in BM

~ Clinton [aka Charles] Harcourt, “The Reflection in the Mirror”, last of 6 stories in BM

~ Julian Kilman, “The Fugitive”, 5th of 6 stories in BM

~ William H. Kofoed, “The Foot on the Skylight”, last of 3 stories in BM [under this name?]

~ Robert K. Lennox, “The Price of Vanity”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Lloyd Lonergan, “The Hunch”, 1^st of 8 stories in BM

~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “ The Telegram”, and “Told By a Card”, 2 stories in this issue, 9th and 10^th of 29 stories in BM

~ Angus Perkerson, “Ether”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Hubert de Tavanne Roussel, “The Trap”, ‘short-short’, 4th of 7 stories in BM

~ Anthony M. Rud, “The Farson Enigma”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Harold Ward, “Out of the Jaws of Death”, ‘short-short’, 14th of 29 stories under this name in BM [21st of 46 stories in BM under three different names – Ward Sterling and H.W. Starr]

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April 15, 1923 issue ~ cover art by John Decker

April 15, 1923 issue

cover art by John Decker

better image than previously posted

~ Raymond J. Brown, “Phantom Bullets”, part 2 of 5, only work in BM

~ Ray Cummings and Gabrielle [2^nd wife], “Haunted”, only story by this pair in BM

~ Carroll John Daly, “It’s All in the Game”, ‘1^st-person narrator, preying on “leading lights of the underworld” e.g., Ed, The Killer’, 3rd of 71 appearances in BM

~ Drayton Dunster, “The Fruit of the Tomb”, ‘A Cemetery Tale’, 5^th of 9 stories in BM

~ H.M. Hamilton, “Vanishing Gold”, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Vengeance of the Dead”, 6th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 6^th of 49 total articles in BM

~ Joe Taylor, “The Meanest Thief”, ‘brief-brief’, 7^th piece of 13 tales in BM

~ Joe Taylor and G[eorge] W. Sutton, Jr., “Burnt Hands”, part 2 of 2 (subtitled, “A Splinter of Steel”), ‘GWS was then editor of BM’, 2nd of 2 appearances by this team in BM

~ Juliette Van, “At the Dragon’s Dip”, ‘Billed as “A Complete Double-Length Detective Mystery Novelette”’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Harold Ward, “The Turning of the Worm”, last of 29 stories under this name in BM [last of 46 stories in BM under three different names – Ward Sterling and H.W. Starr]

~ J.A. Young, “The Meanest Thief”, ‘brief-brief’, author’s sole appearance in BM

January 1938 issue ~ cover art by Raymond S. Pease

January 1938 issue

cover art by Raymond S. Pease

~ Dwight V. Babcock, “The Widow Regrets”, 1^st of 7 Beeker (“Beek”) stories, 15^th of 21 stories in BM

~ Thomas W. Duncan, “The Cat and the Corpse”, ‘Dan Macey’, author’s only story in BM

~ Steve Fisher, “No Gentleman Strangles His Wife”, ‘Kip I. Muldane, p.i. in Hawaiian’, 2^nd of 9 stories in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “Blood in the Fog”, 31st of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, ‘Black Burton in London’, 38^th of 39 stories in BM

~ Roger Torrey, “Relative Trouble”, ‘Shean Connell, private peep; last of 4 SC stories’, 32nd of 50 appearances in BM

~ Cornell Woolrich, “After-Dinner Story”, 9th of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM

November 1950 issue ~ cover art by Norman Saunders

November 1950 issue

cover art by Norman Saunders

better image than previously posted

~ John Bender, “Mayhem Patrol”, ‘prowl-car cop is 1^st-person narrator’, 2^nd and last story in BM

~ Richard Deming, “Five O’Clock Shroud”, Manville “Manny” Moon, 1^st-person narrator, 5^th of 6 stories in BM

~ William Campbell Gault, “Dead –End for Delia”, last of 9 stories in BM

~ Richard E. Glendinning, “Die, Gypsy, Die!”, ‘Lt. Oscar Daniels, homicide’, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Albert Simmons, “Disc-Jockey Dirge”, 2^nd of 2 stories in BM

~ Robert Turner, “Hell Is What You Make It”, 3rd of 4 stories in BM

~ Cornell Woolrich, “Of Time and Murder”, ‘reprint; not from BM; orig. pub., Detective Fiction Weekly, 15 Mar 1941’, 23rd of 24 (22 original) stories to appear in BM

September 1924 UK issue ~ cover art by L.L. Balcom

September 1924 UK issue

cover art by L.L. Balcom

most contents the same as US Sept. 1924

~ C.S. Montanye (Carleton Stevens), “The Dragon Fly”, 14th of 29 stories in BM [US Jan.’23]

~ Royce Brier, “Black and Blue”, ‘set in Mexico’, last of 5 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Accommodatin’ a Lady”, 1^st of 10 Bob Larkin stories, 1^st person narrator, author’s first appearance in BM under this name (see June, 1924), 2^nd of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “Women, Politics and Murder”, the Op [11^th of 25], reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), in The Girl with the Silver Eyes: The Complete Black Mask Cases of the Continental Op, vol.2 (Steeger, 2023), 18^th of 51 stories in BM

~ Francis James, “The Long Hand of Middleton”, Prentice, Harvard-trained criminologist turned policeman, 16th of 20 appearances in BM

~ Jud Pierce, “Sunrise”, ‘short-short’, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Ray Raymond, “The Curse of the Long Tooth”, ‘South Seas mystery’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Rough Diamond”, 33rd of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 34th of 49 total articles in BM

~ George A. Wright, “The Mountain Comes to Mohammad”, author’s only appearance in BM

December 1941 issue ~ cover art by Rafael DeSoto

December 1940 issue

cover art by Rafael DeSoto

~ D.L. Champion, “The Brand of Abel”, ‘desert setting’, 3^rd of 30 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Jade Sanctuary”, 68th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, ‘reader points out discrepancy in this story in Feb ’41 issue, p. 29’, 95th of 100 appearances in BM

~ Eaton K. Goldthwaite, “The Veiled Vampire”, ‘Duke Brian & Franny Steinmetz, ‘ex-felons from Philly’, now private dicks, more or less, Brian narrates’, 3rd of 5 stories in BM

~ Harvey Howard, “Red Friday”, see 2/1940 for H.F. Howard: Hagemann says ‘entirely possible HH and HFH one and the same’

~ Jim Kjelgaard, “Backfire”, ‘short-short; wilderness setting’, 3^rd of 6 stories in BM

~ Stewart Sterling, “Coat of Many Killers”, 2nd of 9 stories with ‘Special Squad (safe-and-loft)’, 5^th of 12 stories under this name in BM [Sterling and Stirling were pen names of Nathaniel Prentice Winchell, 20 total stories in BM]

~ H.H. Stinson, “North of the Border”, 9th of 14 with ‘Ken O’Hara, fighting reporter on Los Angeles Tribune’, 15th of 27 stories in BM