Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Double-Action Gang Magazine, April 1938

Here's a non-Western pulp cover by A. Leslie Ross. I think he was more at home on the range, so to speak, but his non-Western covers are okay. DOUBLE-ACTION GANG MAGAZINE was part of what eventually became the Columbia pulps, so there are at least two house-names here, Mat Rand and "Undercover" Dix. Pierson Bryan, who wrote the cover story, has only this single credit in the Fictionmags Index, so I'm suspicious that might have been a pseudonym, too. Also on hand are Margie Harris, a top gang pulp author, the prolific Thomas Thursday, Robert Martin, who would go on to be a well-respected author of hardboiled private eye novels, and Bertrand L. Shurtleff. I'm still not very well-read in the gang pulps, but this looks like an okay issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Crack Detective Stories, March 1944

I'm always a sucker for a good-looking redhead, especially one with a gat like the dame on this issue of CRACK DETECTIVE STORIES. I don't know who did the art. There are some mighty good authors inside this issue, too, including Bruno Fischer (as Russell Gray), T.W. Ford, Robert Turner, G.T. Fleming-Roberts, Robert C. Blackmon, Tom Thursday, and Henry Morton. I don't own this issue and haven't read it, but it's probably another example of editor Robert W. Lowndes providing a quality product on a low budget.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Outlaws, December 1929

Walter Baumhofer is one of my favorite pulp cover artists, and I like this whimsical depiction of a harmonica-playing cowboy fending off an empty tomato can hurled at him by some listener, but I'm not sure how appropriate the scene is for a pulp subtitled "A Magazine of Hair-Trigger Hombres". But maybe that description refers to the music critic instead of the fella with the harmonica. I'd expect something more hard-bitten from a magazine called WESTERN OUTLAWS, but hey, owlhoots can enjoy a tune now and then, too. The best-known author in this issue is William Colt MacDonald, one of the big names of the pulp era and all the way through the Sixties, really. Chart Pitt and Thomas Thursday are on hand, too. Other than that, the writers are all unknown to me: Wolf Wilson, Willard E. Hawkins, Albert Wm. Stone, J.R. Johnson, Al H. Martin, R.T. Barkley, L. Simpson Turner, Charles P. Gordon, and Ludwig Stanley Landmichl. I may have heard, vaguely, of one or two of those, but I don't know anything about them. Still, I like the cover, a little odd though it may be, and MacDonald was always worth reading.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Fast Action Detective and Mystery Stories, January 1957

As you can see right on the cover (which is by the always excellent Norman Saunders, by the way), FAST ACTION DETECTIVE AND MYSTERY STORIES was a retitling of SMASHING DETECTIVE STORIES, making it one of the last detective pulps. Other than Richard Deming and Thomas Thursday, all the authors in this issue are unknown to me: Harlan Clay (I take that back, I've seen this name in Columbia Western pulps), Francis C. Battle, Saul Anthony, Peter Norcross, and Marc Miller. Although I'm sure the Deming story is good, the Saunders cover may well be the best thing about this issue.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Famous Detective Stories, August 1951

Never trust a guy in a gas mask, that's my motto. This blonde certainly shouldn't have. I don't know the artist on this cover, but I like it. Arthur J. Burks is probably the biggest name in this issue, followed by T.W. Ford, Seven Anderton, and Thomas Thursday. Columbia house-name Mat Rand is also on hand, along with a bunch of writers I've never heard of, such as Betty Brooks and D.A. Kyle. I'm not sure if anybody in this issue of FAMOUS DETECTIVE STORIES deserves the FAMOUS label, but that doesn't mean the stories aren't good. (Burks, Ford, and Thursday still have work in print.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Smashing Detective Stories, December 1952

That's a striking cover on this late detective pulp from Columbia. As usual, editor Robert Lowndes has assembled a good-looking pulp with some very good authors inside, even on a low budget. In this case, that group includes Richard Deming, Robert Turner, Seven Anderton, Thomas Thursday, and Richard Brister. Those guys are nearly always worth reading.

UPDATE: Lowell Wilson points out this cover is a swipe from Ray Johnson's cover for CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON. I assume that Johnson did this SMASHING DETECTIVE cover, as well. I've seen several mentions of Johnson's work lately. He was an excellent cover artist.

 

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Crack Detective Stories, May 1946

I think it's the expression on the blonde's face and the look in her eyes that really make this cover work. James Blish (writing as Marcus Lyons) and Tom Thursday are the only authors in this issue of CRACK DETECTIVE STORIES whose names ring a bell, although of course Cliff Campbell is a house-name and could be anybody. But other than that we have Frances Beck and Ken Lewis, neither remembered much today. I like the skeleton hands, and in that situation, I think I'd feel just about as dubious as the blonde looks.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Smashing Detective Stories, December 1951

What a great cover on this issue of SMASHING DETECTIVE STORIES. A mummy-bandaged guy with a Luger and a sexy nurse . . . I'd be buying that as fast as I could slap down a quarter on the newsstand counter, assuming I had a quarter, of course. Inside are stories by a couple of guys better known for their Westerns, Roe Richmond and T.W. Ford, plus Robert Turner, E. Hoffmann Price, and Thomas Thursday.