Seven Slayers x 5

1946 Chartered digest paperback original

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1950 Avon paperback original, 1st printing, seven stories originally published in Black Mask Magazine

Black” (May 1932)

Red 71” (December 1932)

Parlor Trick” (July 1932)

One, Two, Three” (May 1933)

Murder in Blue” (June 1933) – “Murder Done in Blue” in the original magazine

Pigeon Blood” (November 1933)

Pineapple” (March 1936)

1987 Black Lizard reissue

cover art by Kirwin

1987 Blood & Guts hardcover reissue

cover art by Joe Servello

February 2012 Centipede hardcover

cover art by Ron Lesser

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

November 1948 issue ~ cover art by Peter Stevens

November 1948 issue

cover art by Peter Stevens

better image than previously posted

~ Fredric Brown, “Cry Silence” – his only appearance in BM, reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (Vintage, 2010)

~ Curtis Cluff, “Overdose of Lead”, NYC PI Chuck Conrad, last of 4 stories in BM

~ Mel Colton, “Dead Men Can’t Welsh”, ‘Jimmy Rock, p.i.’, 1st of 2 stories in BM

~ William Campbell Gault, “The Bloody Bokhara”, ‘the carpet business!’, 8th of 9 stories in BM

~ Don M. Mankiewicz, “Odd on Death”, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Tom Marvin, “Harm’s Way”, last of 3 stories in BM

~ Coleman Meyer, “Gun in His Back”, ‘cop story’, 2nd of 2 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

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

September 1931 issue

cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer

~ Carroll John Daly, “Death for Two”, 42nd of 53 with RW, Race ‘Williams pinch-hits for his friend, Sergeant O’Rourke’, reprinted in Shooting out of Turn: The Collected Hard-boiled Stories of Race Williams, v.3 (Altus, 2017), 54th of 71 appearances in BM

~ Erle Stanley Gardner, “Promise to Pay”, 37th of 73 Ed Jenkins, with Lui Sing Fong, patriarchal master of Chinatown, 2nd of 3 connected stories (7/1931 and 12/1931), 54th of 99 stories in BM

~ Nels Leroy Jorgensen, “The Sound of Guns”, 16th of 32 with Stuart “Black” Burton, ‘square-shooting gambler from the Southwest, often entangled with the law’, ‘set in NYC’, 22nd of 39 stories in BM

~ Frederick L. Nebel, “Pearls are Tears”, 6th of 15 stories with ‘tough dick Donahue of Interstate’, reprinted in Tough as Nails (2012, Altus), 34 of 67 stories in BM

~ Stewart Stirling, (‘possible pseud. of Stewart Sterling?’), “Pushover”, 4th of 8 stories with ‘Johnny Hi Gear, a.k.a. K-5, Undercover Agent’, ‘…& boxing fix’ [Sterling and Stirling were pen names of Nathaniel Prentice Winchell, 20 total stories in BM]. Reprinted in Boomerang Dice: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Johnny Hi Gear (Steeger Books, 2020).

~ Raoul [Fauconnier] Whitfield, “Red Terrace”, ‘Alan Van Cleve, wealthy sportsman, man-about-town, 2nd (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’,  50th of 67 stories in BM [see also 24 stories as Ramon Decolta]

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

September 1935 issue ~ cover art by Rudolph Belarski

September 1935 issue

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

better image than previously posted

~ Dwight V. Babcock, “Death Goes Free”, ‘G-man Chuck Thompson’, 2nd of 7 CT stories, 7th of 21 stories in BM

~ Paul Cain, “Chinaman’s Chance”, Johnny Gay, Hollywood reporter, reprinted in The Complete Slayers (2011 Centipede Press), 14th of 17 stories in BM

~ James Duncan, “Runaround Murder”, last of 3 with Ivor Small – investigations, “He was fat without being fat enough to gain a livelihood as a professional fat man”, 3rd of 10 stories in BM

~ Big announcement that Erle Stanley Gardner & Ed Jenkins return in the next issue

~ Sinclair Gluck, “Double for Danger”, ‘Ted Murray, reporter in Hollywood, 1st-person narrator’, only appearance in BM

~ Theodore A. Tinsley, “Ticketed for Death”, ‘13th (of 25) Jerry Tracy capers, columnist on the (NYC) Planet, ‘mixer with poor and rich, the crooked and the straight, trailer of trouble and happiness’, reprinted in Murder Maze: The Complete Black Mask Cases of Jerry Tracy, vol.2 (Steeger 2022),14th of 26 stories in BM

©Seattle Mystery Bookshop

September 1935 Canadian edition