This Popular Publications detective pulp was never very successful, having two short runs during the Thirties. This issue is from the second incarnation of DETECTIVE ACTION STORIES. The cover, which admittedly is pretty striking, is credited to someone named A. Nelson. This is the only listing in the Fictionmags Index for whoever that was. As for the authors inside, Ray Cummings is probably the biggest name, although Walter Ripperger was fairly prolific and popular, too. Also, one of the authors, William Moulton Marston, went on to create the iconic comic book character Wonder Woman a few years later. Other authors on hand are Victor Maxwell, Arthur V. Chester, William Corcoran, and Richard L. Hobart. Chester's story is featured on the cover despite the fact that he sold only five stories to the pulps and couldn't have been considered a big name. But the story inspired a good cover.
An issue of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY was the first actual pulp I ever owned, so I've always had a fondness for the magazine. This issue has a nice cover by Emmett Watson, who provided excellent covers for many Munsey pulps, and there's a strong line-up of authors inside: Donald Barr Chidsey (with a Morton and McGarvey story), Hugh B. Cave, D.L. Champion, G.T. Fleming-Roberts, Walter Ripperger (who was a very prolific author of detective and adventure yarns for various Munsey pulps but almost completely forgotten now, probably because apparently he never wrote any novels), and a couple of authors unknown to me, Lois Ames and B.B. Fowler. Like ARGOSY, DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY is a frustrating title for collectors because it ran a lot of serials, but there's plenty of good stuff in those pages anyway.
MYSTERY TALES is one of the lesser-known Weird Menace pulps, although you certainly couldn't tell that by the talent associated with this issue. The lurid cover is by the great Norman Saunders, and inside are stories by some top pulpsters, including Henry Kuttner, Wyatt Blassingame, John H. Knox, Walter Ripperger, Cyril Plunkett, and Hal K. Wells.
