TOP-NOTCH looks like it was a good adventure fiction pulp. I've never read an issue, although I've read a few things that were originally published there. This issue has a nice cover, a novella by J. Allan Dunn, and a novel by Leslie McFarlane that's part of the Snow Hawk series. I never heard of that one, but McFarlane was the actual author of many of the early Hardy Boys novels, so I was a fan of his work when I was a kid without even knowing it.
TOP NOTCH started in 1910 in the dime novel format but soon changed to the standard pulp size of 7 by 10 inches. During the teens and twenties many of the stories were slanted toward the teenage boy market which I found difficult to enjoy. Especially Burt Standish sport type tales.
ReplyDeleteBut in the late twenties and thirties they upgraded the quality to adult adventure like this issue in 1933. But the depression finally killed it and the title died after 600 or so issues in the late 1930's.
One of the more interesting series was Speed Dash the Human Fly by Erle Stanley Gardner. There were about 20 novelets in the 1925 to 1930 period.
I like the early 30's issues quite a lot. I see I will have to update my records to see just how many I do have.
ReplyDeleteMr. Reasoner,
ReplyDeleteI'd enjoy a review by you of this one if you get around to it---J. Allan Dunn is good in his Adventure adventure output and in the case of Barehanded Castaways very good. I'll get around to exploring this magazine eventually---I think RE Howard has some tales in there, and maybe the excellent Carl Jacobi---but I've got so many Adventure, Argosy, Weird Tales, Spider, and Operator #5 issues on deck, I'm not sure when I'll delve into this one.
From 1930 till its demise in 1937, TN featured a variety of great pulp fiction and some of the best covers going, particularly with the "rainbow" look or the early 30's. The Kroom and Ozar series appeared there, Robert E. Howard's Kirby O'Donnell, Charles Willard Diffin's Tarzan-like prehistoric stories, jungle adventure tales, lost world thrillers, hunts for fabulous treasures, you name it. I've always considered it a prototype for a pulp magazine. About the only thing it didn't have much of was futuristic fiction. Mike
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