Hey, lady, look out for that skull with the glowing eyes! I don't know who painted this cover, but it sure caught my eye when I was scrolling through the Fictionmags Index. FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY didn't actually publish five novels in each issue; the stories are all novellas or novelettes in a variety of genres. But plenty of good authors and fine fiction appeared in its pages. In this issue there are stories by one of my favorite authors, L.P. Holmes, along with John Murray Reynolds (who wrote the first Ki-Gor novel), L. Ron Hubbard, Reg Dinsmore (don't know him), and Edmond Du Perrier (not familiar with him, either). Hubbard was a regular in this pulp and I don't believe much has been reprinted from it except for his stories. I'll bet there are plenty of good ones there that would be worth reading.
This issue of ADVENTURE isn't exactly loaded with big names. The cover is by Ray Dean, who was much more prolific as a pulp cover artist and interior illustrator under his real name, Stockton Mulford. With the first issue of a serial called "The Sea Plunderers" in this issue, the cover is pretty effective. Speaking of "The Sea Plunderers", its author, Berry Fleming, wrote this serial and a handful of other stories, but that's the extent of his pulp career. I don't know a thing about him. The most well-known of the other authors is probably William Chamberlain, a long-time pulpster and, in his spare time, a general in the United States Army. Also on hand are John Murray Reynolds and Robert E. Pinkerton, two names that are at least recognizable to pulp fans, and lesser-known Tex O'Reilly, Palmer Hoyt, Alfred Batson, Eddy Orcutt, and Andrew A. Caffrey.
