black mask magazine – Page 6

January 1939 issue ~ cover art by James Lunnon

January 1939 issue

cover art by James Lunnon

~ 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

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

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

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

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]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

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

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated 1/26/26]

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

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

[updated 3/1/26]

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

February 1928 issue ~ cover art by Fred Craft

February 1928 issue

cover art by Fred Craft

~ Tom Curry, “Under Cover”, ‘DeVrite, NYPD undercover ‘secret agent’, 1^st of 7, subtitled ‘The Receiver’, 20^th of 39 stories in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Yellow Shadows, 19th of 73 Ed Jenkins stories, in Chinatown with Helen Chadwick and Ngat T’oy; “headnote to story provides valuable data (background)”, 29th of 99 stories in BM

~ Dashiell Hammett, “The 19^th Murder”, last of 4 Continental Op stories that will go together to make up Red Harvest (Knopf hc, 1929), reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), 35th of 51 stories in BM

~ Charles T. Hickey, “Left Helps the Cops”, ‘Lefty McRae, crook’, author’s only story in BM

~ Victor Shaw, “The Tommy-Knocker”, Dan Craig & hard rock mining, 2^nd with Craig, 3rd of 5 stories in BM

~ David Thibault, “The Contract”, ‘Louisiana lumber swamps in Mississippi Delta, Irish dialect’, 1^st of 2 stories in BM

~ Everett H. Tipton, “Leather Mask and Cowhide Vest”, ‘Western’, 2nd of 7 stories in BM

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Soft Goods”, ‘Little Bennie, a hood, & Charlie Harmer, detective, in Center City’, 18th of 68 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

October 1951 issue ~ cover art by Albert Drake

October 1951

cover art by Albert Drake

better image than previously posted

cover repurposed for the January 1952 UK edition of Black Mask