Happy Halloween!

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Dime Mystery, July 1936

Have to go with a Weird Menace pulp on the day before Halloween. This issue of DIME MYSTERY features a cover by Tom Lovell and stories by several masters of the genre, including Norvell Page, John H. Knox, Paul Ernst, and Wayne Rogers. Pretty spooky stuff, I imagine.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Short Stories, February 1953

This issue of WESTERN SHORT STORIES starts off with a Norman Saunders cover, and inside are stories by some of the top Western authors ever: Louis L'Amour (writing as Jim Mayo; this is one of the few L'Amour stories I remember seeing outside of a Thrilling Group pulp), Lewis B. Patten, John Jakes, Wayne D. Overholser, Ray Gaulden, Will C. Brown (the other writer from Cross Plains), William R. Cox, Joseph Payne Brennan, H.C. Wire, and more. This is one of the Stadium Publishing pulps, which are not that highly thought of, but it would be hard to beat that lineup for what was regarded as a salvage market.

Forgotten Novellas: Murgunstrumm - Hugh B. Cave

I usually try to read something creepy for the Friday closest to Halloween, and Hugh B. Cave's novella MURGUNSTRUMM certainly qualifies. It's arguably Cave's most famous story, has been reprinted numerous times, and serves as the lead story in the World Fantasy Award-winning collection MURGUNSTRUMM AND OTHERS.

Originally published in the January 1933 issue of the pulp STRANGE TALES OF MYSTERY AND TERROR, with a cover by H.W. Wesso based on the story, MURGUNSTRUMM is different right from the start. It begins after the point when most horror stories from that era end, with the protagonist, Paul Hill, locked away in an insane asylum because he's witnessed something so hideous, so horrifying, that it's blasted his mind to bits.

Or has it? Unlike the largely ineffectual protagonists in stories by other famous authors (*cough* Lovecraft *cough*), Paul knows that, yeah, he's seen something pretty bad, but he's not nuts, and more importantly to him, neither is his fianceé Ruth, who has also been committed to an asylum. And he's going to do something about it. With the help of Ruth's brother, he escapes, then sets off to the small backwoods town of Rehobeth, near the Gray Toad Inn, where the dreadful incident that resulted in their being committed took place. Taking along his future father-in-law's husky chauffeur, he lures the two doctors who signed the commitment papers to the village, takes them prisoner, and forces them to accompany him to the sinister inn, which is run by the deformed title character, Murgunstrumm. Paul's plan is to force the doctors to see that he and Ruth aren't crazy, so they'll have to intercede and get her released. But once they get inside the inn, they can't get out again, and then bad things happen . . .

The pace never really lets up for very long in this yarn, and the atmosphere is hot, sweaty, and terrifying from beginning to end. MURGUNSTRUMM is pure blood and thunder, as grotesque as many a more modern yarn, and to my mind, at least, even better because it also has that wonderful headlong sense of pulp action. I haven't read the rest of the collection yet, but I know it's good because Cave never disappoints. He was one of those rare authors who could write anything, and write all of it extremely well. If you're looking for a great horror tale to read on Halloween, look no further than MURGUNSTRUMM.

Voting

We went and voted this morning. No line, just walked right in and got down to business. The first presidential election I voted in was 1972, and I've missed only one of them since then. I thought seriously about skipping this one, but there's also a local bond issue on the ballot I actually wanted to vote on.

My parents took the concept of a secret ballot very seriously. When I was growing up, my dad might make an occasional comment that might give you a hint of who he was going to vote for, but it would just be a guess. I don't recall my mother ever making a political comment. And if you asked them outright, they wouldn't tell you who they voted for. It was nobody else's business. Nor would they even think of asking someone else who they voted for. It was none of their business. I've tried to follow their example. So I hope all of you who are eligible go and vote, if you haven't already. But who you vote for is none of my business.

Tuesday's Overlooked Movie: Hocus Pocus

I'm not sure why we never saw this movie when it came out in 1993, but with Halloween less than a week away, it seemed like a good time to watch it. It's a nice little horror comedy, less cute and whimsical than you might think. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy (who seems at times to be channeling Lou Costello) play three witch sisters who are hanged in Salem back in 1693. But of course there's a way for them to come back to life, which they do in 1993. They're actually pretty evil. Things never get too creepy, though; this was marketed as a family-friendly movie, after all, although to me it seems a little dark for that. Nor is it a great film, by any standard. Midler, Parker, and Najimy chew the scenery relentlessly, and the script provides some good action but not many laughs. The movie looks great, though. It might have been better as a straight horror thriller. As is, it's a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours and just spooky enough to be effective at this time of year.

Punished, Book 3: Bayou Voodoo - Jackson Lowry

Hanged twice, but still . . . undead.

Vincent Bayonne’s luck may have run out at last. The former plantation owner must find William, the freed slave who placed the zombie curse on him, if he wants to avoid the unholy fate of a living death. To reach William in New Orleans, he makes his perilous way across the untamed American frontier while escaping from US Army patrols, dodging lawmen and railroad detectives after the reward on his head, and trying not to get killed by those who hate him because of his cruel rule over Dark Oaks Plantation.

Bayonne's quest for revenge is now a fight for sheer survival. The medicine he needs to hold back the slow coarsening of his body and mind, turning him into a zombie, is long gone. His only hope is to find William, and to do that he must first get Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, to befriend him. His only allies are a beautiful woman from his past and his own incredible strength while under the curse. With the choice of becoming totally undead or begging those he hates most for aid, Bayonne plunges into the darkest recesses of black magic, hoping for a cure—and redemption.

(The final volume of this Weird Western trilogy by Jackson Lowry--really Robert E. Vardeman--is just as entertaining as the first two books. If you haven't checked out this series, it's the perfect reading for the Halloween season. Highly recommended.)

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Blue Book, August 1936

Yep, that's Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Sandburg his own self appearing in a pulp magazine. Of course, BLUE BOOK wasn't really a typical pulp magazine, and not only because it reprinted a number of Sandburg's poems. This looks like a fine issue with an Arms and Men story by H. Bedford-Jones, part of a Kioga serial by William L. Chester, a Tiny David story by Robert R. Mill, and other stories by Leland Jamieson, Fulton Grant, Richard Howells Watkins, James Francis Dwyer, and others. It's generally hard to beat the line-up of authors in any issue of BLUE BOOK, and that's certainly true here. Plus a good Foreign Legion cover by Herbert Morton Stoops, who provided top-notch covers month after month.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Story, July 25, 1931

Traveling by stagecoach must have been really dangerous. They're always getting chased by owlhoots! Inside this issue of the legendary pulp WESTERN STORY are two stories by Frederick Faust, one as by George Owen Baxter and one under his John Frederick pseudonym. Also present are popular author Jackson Gregory (with the first part of a serial) and lesser known writers Kenneth Gilbert, E.C. Lincoln, and Joseph F. Hook.

Forgotten Books: The Long Arm of the Mounted - James French Dorrance

I'm always in the market for a good Mountie yarn, so when I came across a copy of THE LONG ARM OF THE MOUNTED, published by Macaulay in 1926, at Half Price Books, I bought it even though I wasn't familiar with the author, James French Dorrance. Even after more than fifty years of reading pulps, and reading about pulps, from time to time I still run across an author from that era who's new to me. Such is the case with Dorrance, who produced dozens of stories for the pulps during the first three decades of the Twentieth Century along with a number of novels, many of them Northerns with protagonists from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

This novel is actually more Western than Northern, because the hero, RCMP Sergeant John Childress, is working undercover for practically the entire book, pretending to be a horse rancher just across the border from Montana. Rustlers from the States have been crossing to border to raid the herds of the Canadian ranchers in the area, and it's Childress's assignment to break up the gang and bring its leader to justice.

That job is complicated by a couple of beautiful young women, one the daughter of the rancher just west of the spread Childress takes over, the other the young widow who owns the ranch to the east. Both of them fall for Childress, he's torn between them, and that romantic triangle takes up a considerable portion of the book. Childress never completely loses sight of his assignment, though, and eventually he uncovers the hidden mastermind behind the rustling (whose identity will come as no surprise to anybody who's ever read many Westerns).

Dorrance's writing style is on the old-fashioned side, as you'd expect from a book published ninety years ago, and to be honest, this novel could have used a little more action. The story flows along pretty well, though, and there are a couple of nice slam-bang scenes late in the game. Dorrance wastes an opportunity for an even better climax, however, giving the reader a rather limp ending instead. All that said, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. I like putting myself in the mindset of readers from previous eras, as should be obvious from all the old books I read. I can see why Dorrance wasn't a big name but also why he had a fairly long and productive career. THE LONG ARM OF THE MOUNTED is a mild but pleasant diversion from real life. These days, most of the time I'll take that and be grateful for it.