Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: All-Adventure Action Novels, Spring 1939

ALL-ADVENTURE ACTION NOVELS was a Fiction House pulp and ran for only three issues in 1937, ’38, and ’39, not finding success even though it had good covers and some fine authors appeared in its pages. I don’t own any of the issues and have never even seen any copies, but I do own the Adventure House facsimile reprint of the third and final issue from Spring 1939. I read that reprint recently and really enjoyed it.

Although all five stories in this issue are listed as novels in the Table of Contents, we know what that means. They’re actually novelettes and novellas. The first one is “Drums of the Desert” by Thomas J. Cooke. It’s about an American adventurer in Egypt who has gotten his hands on the sacred flag of the Mahdi, which is worth a fortune. A schemer who knows about the flag forces a beautiful French girl to lure the hero into a trap, which winds up with him being the prisoner of a Taureg band. A deserter from the French Foreign Legion figures in the plot, too. It’s a well-written yarn with enough action to be satisfying. I don’t know anything about Cooke, except that he wrote eight stories which appeared in various Fiction House pulps. I have a hunch it might have been a pseudonym, but I have nothing on which to base that except a gut feeling.

A couple of brief discussions here on the blog and on Facebook made me realize I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by George Bruce, even though he was a major pulp author for a long time. He’s best remembered as a writer of aviation and air war yarns. His novella in this issue, “The Iron Man of Devil’s Island”, has an aviation element to its plot, but it’s also a prison tale, as you’d expect from the title. The two storylines—an American airliner forced by bad weather to land in the South American jungle and a former French flying ace from World War I escaping from Devil’s Island—run in parallel for a while before coming together. When they merge, it’s with a predictable twist that’s still very effective. Not as effective as the ending, though, which, as Maynard G. Krebs used to say, made me get all misty-eyed. It took me a little while to warm up to this story. Bruce’s style isn’t exactly long-winded, but he does tend to go on, and while I think a lot of modern writers take the whole “show, don’t tell” thing too far, Bruce goes to the other extreme at times. Overall, though, I really enjoyed “The Iron Man of Devil’s Island”. It drew me in and had me turning the pages and makes me look forward to reading something else by George Bruce.

Albert Richard Wetjen wrote South Seas stories about several different characters including Stinger Seave (who I teamed with G-Man Dan Fowler for a story in a recent anthology, DOUBLE TROUBLE), Shark Gotch (one of the great names of pulp fiction, as far as I’m concerned), and Typhoon Bradley. “Red Typhoon”, the Wetjen novelette in this issue, is actually an unacknowledged reprint of the first story in the series, “Captain Typhoon”, which appeared originally in the September 1931 issue of ACTION STORIES. It reads like the first story in a series, too, introducing us to Captain Typhoon Bradley, his brother Bob, and their search for a mysterious island that’s not on any of the charts. They have to team up with some shady characters in order to find what they’re looking for, and of course double crosses and action ensue. Bradley gets his ”Typhoon” nickname, another indication this is actually the first story in the series. One thing I really like about Wetjen’s work is that all his series are connected. Supporting characters from one, and even sometimes protagonists, will show up in a different series. He never seems to have done much with the concept, but it’s still a nice touch.

John Starr was a Fiction House house name. He’s credited with the French Foreign Legion yarn, “Riders of the Burning Sands”, in this issue. Based on the idea that a house name was often used to keep an author from having two stories in the same issue, I’d say the most likely suspect in this case is Victor Rousseau. George Bruce was a big name; you wouldn’t waste one of his stories by putting a house name on it. The Wetjen story is a reprint. Cooke is a possibility, too. But having read “Riders of the Burning Sands”, I’m convinced it’s by Rousseau. Stylistically, it reads just like him. It’s a good story, too, about an American who winds up in the Foreign Legion because of a misunderstanding and a murder, and how he has to survive not only a brutal sergeant but an attack by natives as well. Lots of good action in this one and a satisfying resolution.

Victor Rousseau appears under his own name with “Ruby of Revolt”, a story of political intrigue set in India. Rousseau, one of the early practitioners of science fiction before it was even called that, wrote tons of adventure stories for the Spicy pulps under several different names, and he was a top-notch storyteller. This involves an American working for the British Secret Service in India, trying to track down a magnificent ruby known as the Eye of Kali, which will determine who rules one of the country’s provinces and whether or not there’s a bloody uprising. There’s a beautiful, mysterious dancer involved, too. I don’t know if Rousseau ever read Talbot Mundy or Robert E. Howard, but starting out, this story reminded me of Jimgrim and El Borak. Then, halfway through, it takes a sudden, bizarre twist that brings in a science fiction/horror angle to the plot. It’s goofy, but Rosseau makes it work, probably because the whole thing races along at such a fast pace. Rousseau was no Mundy or REH, but this is a very entertaining story.

In fact, every story in this issue is entertaining, either very good or excellent, and I was impressed with ALL-ADVENTURE ACTION NOVELS. The reprint is still available on Amazon if you’re a fan of pulp adventure fiction and want to check it out.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, May 1934

Here's another pith helmet cover, this one by Duncan McMillan. I like the colors on this one. This issue of ADVENTURE has some excellent writers in it, including Gordon MacCreagh with a Kingi Bwana story. Also on hand are W.C. Tuttle, Albert Richard Wetjen, Gordon Young (with a serial installment), and a couple of lesser-known writers, Andrew McCaffrey and James Stevens.

Cannibal Isle - Albert Richard Wetjen

“Cannibal Isle” (ACTION STORIES, June 1941) is the sixth and apparently final story in the Stinger Seave series, and oddly enough, it takes place earlier in the Stinger’s career than any of the others. The story begins by filling in the history of Seave’s first meeting with Big Bill Gunther, who becomes his best friend and occasional first mate despite captaining a South Seas trading ship of his own at times. This part of the story is an action-packed account of the mutiny that brought Seave and Gunther together for the first time.

The remainder of the tale focuses on Seave’s attempt to rescue Gunther when the man is taken prisoner on an island full of cannibals. There’s some action in this part, as well, but for the most part it’s more a matter of author Albert Richard Wetjen building suspense very effectively.

This is a very good story, but it’s kind of a letdown, anyway, since it’s the last one and Wetjen leaves so many of the tales he hinted at in the course of the series untold. There’s an epic adventure novel to be written about Stinger Seave. Unfortunately, we won’t get to read it. Wetjen continued to write for ACTION STORIES for a couple of years after this, so I have to wonder if the editor, Malcolm Reiss, told him to lay off with the Stinger stories or if he was just tired of writing about the character. I suspect we’ll never know the answer to that. Ultimately, the Stinger Seave series promises more than it delivers, but I enjoyed reading the stories and think it was time well-spent, especially since they can all be found on-line.

Atoll of Death - Albert Richard Wetjen

“Atoll of Death”, from the April 1941 issue of ACTION STORIES, is the shortest yarn in the series, a simple tale of Stinger Seave venturing to an isolated island to track down a brutal trader who owes him a small debt, less than five pounds, for some supplies he took but refused to pay for. Oh, and the guy shot the Stinger’s clerk in the arm when pressed for the money. That was a mistake.

The first half of this story reads almost like an undeveloped outline, with Wetjen doing a lot of telling rather than showing, but it picks up considerable steam once Seave reaches the island where his quarry has gone hunting a gold mine and gotten in trouble with the natives. (Again with the gold mine! I had no idea those South Seas islands had so much gold on them.) The ending is pretty satisfying.

This is definitely the most minor entry in the series so far, though. None of the supporting characters appear (Big Bill Gunther is mentioned once), and there are few, if any, hints of the bigger storylines that Wetjen evidently never got around to writing. But there’s some nice action, the setting is vividly drawn, as usual, and it’s worth reading because the Stinger is such a good protagonist. There’s only one more story in the series, and I’ll be getting to it soon.

The Devil's Ransom - Albert Richard Wetjen

“The Devil’s Ransom”, a novelette from the October 1939 issue of ACTION STORIES, is considered the third story in the Stinger Seave series, but actually, Seave is more of a supporting character in this one. It’s an epic tale in which author Albert Richard Wetjen brings together several of his series heroes. Seave, Typhoon Bradley, Jack Barrett (Captain Hi-Jack), and Big Bill Gunther join forces to rescue an old friend and mentor of theirs who has discovered gold on a remote island in the South Seas. (I didn’t know there was gold in the South Seas, but okay, I can go along with that.) That old friend has been double-crossed and taken prisoner by a group of villains who have plagued our heroes in the past, and they’ve even brought in the German government and involved a German battleship in their evil scheme.

It takes an action-packed, Dirty Dozen-like mission to set things right. Typhoon Bradley is in command, and this is more his story than Seave’s. Bradley is an excellent protagonist, too. I’m going to have to see if I can hunt up more of the stories featuring him. In this case, everything works out quite satisfactorily, and I like the way Wetjen establishes connections between his various series. Someone needs to do a big reprint collection of these connected stories.

I’m halfway through the Stinger Seave stories now and plan to read the next one soon. They’re great for working in between bigger books and projects.

Davy Jones' Loot - Albert Richard Wetjen

“Davy Jones’ Loot”, the second Stinger Seave story from Albert Richard Wetjen, appeared in the December 1938 issue of ACTION STORIES. This is a flashback to the early days of Seave’s career as the fast-shooting skipper of a trading ship in the South Seas. While stealing some pearls from an island lagoon under Japanese jurisdiction, Seave encounters another sea captain who will become a long-running enemy of his. The clash between the two of them, which goes back and forth in this tale, finally resolves in a particularly satisfying manner.

The plot in this story isn’t as complex as in the previous entry in the series, “Terror Island”, but once again Wetjen hints at a much larger story going on. It reads as if the tale of Stinger Seave’s career might turn into a real South Seas epic. Whether or not Wetjen actually gets around to spinning those yarns, or just continues to drop tantalizing hints at them, we’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose. While “Davy Jones’ Loot” isn’t as good as “Terror Island”, I enjoyed it a great deal and will keep reading. You can find this one at the Pulpgen Archive, too.

Terror Island - Albert Richard Wetjen

Albert Richard Wetjen was a prolific author of mostly nautical and South Seas adventure yarns for the pulps. Several different series characters appeared in his stories, including the wonderfully named Shark Gotch and Typhoon Bradley. “Terror Island”, in the October 1938 issue of ACTION STORIES, introduces another Wetjen series character, Stinger Seave, the ultrahardboiled skipper of a trading ship in the South Seas.

In “Terror Island”, Seave, his first mate Big Bill Gunther, and the rest of the crew have put ashore in a cove at an isolated island to scrape barnacles off the hull and make other repairs. While they’re there, two more ships show up, one in pursuit of the other, and in one of those coincidences that drive the plots of so many pulp stories, the two people on the ship being chased are known to Seave, and they bring up dark, tragic memories from his past when they beg for his help against their ruthless pursuers.

Coincidence or not, Wetjen makes the plot work just fine, and he also throws in one angle that makes this story really stand out from the usual pulp adventure fare. He sets up a dilemma that isn’t really resolved in this story, and that makes me eager to read the other five stories in this series, to see whether or not he can pull off this unique twist. The Stinger Seave series has never been collected, as far as I know, but all six stories are available at various places on line. If you’re a pulp adventure fan, you should give “Terror Island” a try and see if you enjoy it as much as I did. You can find it here, along with hundreds of other pulp stories.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Action Stories, January 1927

ACTION STORIES published a lot of Westerns, and the covers reflected that, especially from about 1930 on. But it also published all the other genres of adventure fiction and that can be seen on some of the early covers such as this one by H.C. Murphy. The stories in the January 1927 issue include the cover-featured Alaskan yarn by Chart Pitt, an author I'd managed never to hear of until now, despite the fact that he had a 30-year career in the pulps, plus a jungle tale by Frederick Nebel, a historical by A. deHerries Smith, and nautical adventures by Albert Richard Wetjen and Bob Du Soe. That's a pretty good mix of exciting stories.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Adventure, May 1952

What says "adventure" more than a skull wearing a pith helmet? This late issue of ADVENTURE the pulp features a dandy cover by Monroe Eisenberg and stories by F.R. Buckley, William Chamberlain, W.L. Heath, Gordon McCreagh, Albert Richard Wetjen, and John Prescott. This is long past ADVENTURE's glory days but still looks like a pretty darned good magazine to me.