Despite having "Thrilling" in the title, as far as I know THRILLING STORIES was not part of the Thrilling Group. Instead, it was a short-lived adventure pulp from 1929-30. This is the fourth and final issue with a cover by an artist I'm not familiar with, John Hoff. His three covers for this pulp are his only credits in the Fictionmag Index. Likewise, the authors inside are mostly unknown to me. I recognize Achmed Abdullah and Bob du Soe, and that's it. The others are Owen Atkinson, W.P. Gardner, Kenneth Duane Whipple, Arthur Styron, Allison W. Ind, Jasper B. Sinclair, and Edward F. Medosch. Their stories may be good for all I know, but it's doubtful that I'll ever find out because I don't expect to have a copy of this pulp in my lifetime.
I've read quite a few stories published originally in Street & Smith's TOP-NOTCH, but never an issue of the pulp itself. I don't own any, as far as I recall, but there are a number of issues available on the Internet Archive. Not this one, though. That cover by William Soare caught my eye, as did the fact that the lead novel is by Thomas Walsh, an old pulpster who was still active and writing for ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE when I was reading EQMM in the Sixties. Also on hand in this issue are Philip Ketchum, William Merriam Rouse, Bob du Soe, Bruce Douglas, and Harold F. Cruickshank. That's a pretty good bunch of writers.
The cover on this issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES was done by Emmett Watson, an artist I associate more with the Munsey pulps, but it's a fine, dynamic Foreign Legion scene that I like quite a bit. Inside this issue are stories by Johnston McCulley (his first Whirlwind story; I have the Altus Press volume that reprints the entire series and really need to get around to reading it), Oscar Schisgall, Allan K. Echols, Bob du Soe, George Allan Moffatt (really Edwin V. Burkholder), Ralph R. Fleming (who published only a handful of stories), Captain Kerry McRoberts (probably Norman A. Daniels), and house-name Jackson Cole. I'll bet if I had a copy of this issue, which I don't, I'd enjoy the stories every bit as much as the cover.
That's a very effective, evocative cover by Don Hewitt on this issue of FAR EAST ADVENTURE STORIES. I certainly would have picked that one up off the newsstand back in 1931, and the authors inside probably would have prompted me to slap down a couple of dimes if I had them: H. Bedford-Jones (with part of a John Solomon story), two stories by Hugh B. Cave (one under his pseudonym Geoffrey Vace), a yarn by Bob du Soe, and stories by forgotten pulpsters Chester L. Saxby, Sgt. Herbert E. Smith, A.L. De Burgh, and T.S. Southwick. De Burgh has only two credits in the FMI, Southwick only one, and that always makes me suspect the names are pseudonyms for better known authors, but who knows? All I know is that this looks like a very enjoyable pulp, and it's the final one of the year in this series. But I'll be back next week in a new year, if all goes according to plan.
This issue of SHORT STORIES features a good French Foreign Legion cover by Pete Kuhlhoff, although he's credited as E.H. Kuhlhoff. He was a good artist, as you can see here, but he's best remembered as a gun expert who contributed scores of articles and columns on the subject to various pulps. This issue has an excellent group of writers inside, as well: Clarence E. Mulford, Frank Richardson Pierce, J. Allan Dunn, James B. Hendryx, Bob Du Soe, Richard Howells Watkins, Henry Herbert Knibbs, and forgotten pulpsters Perry Adams, Alexander Lake, and Don Cameron Shafer. Plenty of good reading in those pages, I'll bet.
This cover by William Reusswig provides further proof, as if we needed it, that pith helmets just attract trouble. You don't even have to be wearing one. Just having it on your raft is enough. Just as knowing that this is an issue of SHORT STORIES is enough to tell you there are some great authors inside. In this case, H. Bedford-Jones ("Tiger Blood" is a great title!), Jackson Gregory, Bennett Foster, Bob du Soe, and Bertrand W. Sinclair, along with a few lesser-known writers. Any time you see a blood-red sun on the cover of a pulp, you know you're in for excitement.
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.
A classic "red sun" SHORT STORIES cover by Frank Spradling, and inside can be found stories by H. Bedford-Jones, Gordon MacCreagh, James B. Hendryx, Cliff Farrell, Jackson Gregory, Bertrand W. Sinclair, Bob du Soe, and more. Classic is nearly always the right word to describe an issue of SHORT STORIES.
