smoking – SMB Noir

Summer 1953 issue ~ cover by Bill Stone

Summer 1953

cover by Bill Stone

photo repurposed from January 1952 issue Front Page Detective

March 1, 1935 issue ~ cover art by Walter Baumhofer

March 1, 1935 issue

cover art by Walter Baumhofer

better image than previously posted

Leslie T. White, “The Crimson Counterfoil” (Duke Martindel)

John M. Gregory, “Track Racket” (Jim MacCauley)

John Lawrence, “A Burial is Arranged” (Cass Blue)

Russ Meservey, “The Fourth Pharaoh” (Pokerface)

Cornell Woolrich, “Murder in Wax” (Angelface)

O.B. Myers, “The Case of the Footless Corpse” (Breck)

July 1948 issue ~ cover art by Rudolph Belarski

July 1948

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

July 1943 issue

July 1943

March 1947 issue ~ cover art by Robert Stanley

March 1947 issue

cover art by Robert Stanley

better image than previously posted

Francis K. Allan, “What Makes Sammy Kill?”

Thorne Lee, “It’s in the Bag!”

Jimmy Nichols, “Cops Are Born”

Robert Turner, “Party to Murder!”

John D. FitzGerald, “Too Mean to Live!”

Arthur Leo Zagat,“Death-Dance of the Broken Dolls”

Talmage Powell, “Blood in Your Eye!”

Cyril Plunkett, “Deadly Is My Sleep”

Wilbur S. Peacock, “Copperhead”

Dale Clark, “Corpses, Incorporated” (Socrates Bean)

Jhan Robbins, “The Waxwork Wake”

November 1, 1923 issue ~ cover art by L.L. Balcom

November 1, 1923 issue

cover art by L.L. Balcom

~ John Ayotte, “White Tents”, ‘Col. Edwards’, 7^th of 10 stories in BM

~ Frank Conly, “The Man Who Was Not”, ‘Can the dead be brought back to life?’, 1^st of 2 in BM

~ Henry W. Fisher, “Executioners I Have Met”, ‘1^st of 6 ‘true’ articles with various subtitles’

~ Dashiell Hammett, “It”, ‘private detective, 1^st-person narrator, not an Op tale’ according to Hagemann but reprinted in The Big Book of the Continental Op (Vintage, 2017), reprinted in Zigzags of Treachery: The Complete Black Mask Cases of the Continental Op, Vol. 1 (Steeger, 2023), 6th of 51 stories in BM

~ George C. Henderson, “Who Shot?” ‘Complete Novelette’, author’s sole appearance in BM

~ Stanley R. Hofflund, “The Third Rider”, ‘yarn set in Mexico’, author’s only story in BM

~ Margaret Alison Johansen, “Mrs. Vandam’s Diamonds”, author’s only appearance in BM

~ Herman Petersen, “One Dried Head”, 1^st of 3 parts, South Seas; issue also has brief article, “The Gentle Art of Drying Heads”, relates to “One Dry Head”, 11th and 12^th of 20 pieces in BM

~ Charles Somerville, “The Hand of God”, 18th of 47 articles in the ‘Manhunter’ series, 19^th of 49 total articles in BM

[note: at this time, Hammett does not yet merit mention on the cover]

June 18, 2015