Cover Cavalcade

  JULY IS GUNNER & SARGE & POOCH MONTH!!!

From 1962, with art by Jerry Grandenetti.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Crime Classics:"John Hayes: His Head and How They Were Parted" 10/28/53

In the early 18th Century, a British soldier pays a bounty to end his enlistment early. He goes home to his lovely wife. This does not end well.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Short Story Genre Survey, Part 8

 

cover art by A. Leslie Ross

Sports

Adventure

Mystery

Crime

Horror

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Western

War

Adventure Novels and Short Stories was a pulp magazine that could not make up its mind. It started as Smashing Novels Magazine in 1936, but changed to Adventiure Novels Magazine for one issue in 1937, then finished up with a couple of issues titled Adventure Novels and Short Stories before closing up shop with the January 1938 issue.

But despite its inability to settle on a name (probably in an attempt to boost sales of the relatively short-lived publication), it published some pretty nifty stuff. And we will turn to that last issue to mark "Adventure" off our genre list.

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"The Smart One" was written by Samuel Taylor, a frequent contributor to pulps during the 1930s and 1940s. This story is a short but well-written tale about a guy who thought he was smarter than anyone else. To get the girl he wants, he has to commit a murder and frame someone else for that murder. His scheme is a little complicated, but that should be no problem. Fox Phillips is confident that he's the smartest man in the Yukon.

Taylor shows himself to be an expert storyteller. He sets up the situation and introduces Fox is just a few quick paragraphs, but his prose flows along in a natural manner and doesn't seem rushed at all. We learn that Fox, who owns the local trading post, is--well, he's less than honest. There's a girl he wants to marry, but the girl's father doesn't like Fox and won't give permission.

But then someone else steps into the picture and Fox--who is, remember, convinced he's smarter than everyone else--quickly conceives his murder/frame-someone-else plan. He puts that plan into effect, convinced that nothing can go wrong.

Well, something can go wrong. Will Fox outsmart everyone when things go wrong? Well, the story can be found HERE, so learn for yourself. It's a skillfully written adventure tale and well worth reading. 

One more genre to go and our Short Story Genre Survey comes to an end. Next week, we'll tackle a horror story. 

Basil The Royal Cat Returns!

 

cover art by Tom DeAngelo

The second Basil story from Basil the Royal Cat #1 (January 1953) starts off rather innocently. When the royal kitchen is out of fish, Basil decides it would be fun if he goes fishing himself. Soon, he's at sea in a small boat, but he's not getting a bite.

The unknown writer and artist Tony DeAngelo use this to jump-start another charming and funny adventure. Basil decides to head home, but his outboard motor is out of gas. Fortunately, a plane flies by and Basil signals it by writing SOS in whipped cream on the surface of the sea.

The plane is heading for America. Basil is thrilled by this--he's always wanted to visit America.

But Basil isn't good at planning ahead. Once in the USA, he discovers he can't get food without paying for it. And, by golly, no one takes him seriously when he tells them he's a king!

He gets a job at Coney Island, but is soon mortified to discover the job requires him to regularly get dunked in a tub of water as part of an arcade game. 

But Basil isn't completely hapless. He rigs the trap door he drops through so that it won't open. Unfortunately, that gets him fired. The story ends with a nice bit of symmetry--Basil is again fishing and again not catching anything.

Like the Basil story we looked at last week, this tale has charm and humor brought to life by DeAngelo's pleasant pencil work. Funny animal stories were once an important and perpetually entertaining part of the medium of comic books. It's really a shame they have disappeared from that medium. 

Will Basil ever get a meal? We'll look at the last story from this issue next week and perhaps we'll find out. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JULY IS GUNNER & SARGE & POOCH MONTH!!!

A 1962 cover by Jerry Grandenetti.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Chase: "Penny-Pinching Boarding House Owners" 2/8/53

You might think that stealing money from a dead man would be a safe way of getting rich, but you'd be wrong.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Short Story Genre Survey, Part 7

 

Cover artist uncredited

Today, we turn to a life of crime.

Sports

Adventure

Mystery

Crime

Horror

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Western

War

In the 1950s, there was a surfeit of writers who could turn out crackerjack hard-boiled crime stories on a regular basis. It was a Golden Age for the genre.

One of those writers is Gil Brewer. His story "With This Gun" is an example of how good he was. Published in the March 1951 issue of Detective Tales, the story is just eight pages long. Within that eight pages, Brewer introduces and defines the key characters, sets up the situation and brings it all to a satisfying conclusion.

Danny is a man who had done some petty thefts when he was young. His older brother Tad was already a crook, but didn't want Danny going down the same road. So he beat the crap out of Danny.

After a stint in the army, Danny opens a bar and does okay for himself. But then he meets the sexy bombshell Joan. Soon, Danny is in love with her, but she wants more out of life than what Danny can give her. The small bar isn't enough. But what if Danny robs the weekly receipts of a swanky beach club that's near his bar? THEN Joan will be happy and they can get married.

That Joan is a double-crossin' femme fatale is obvious to any reader. So you read along expecting her to either run out on Danny with the money or kill him. But her plan is actually more complex. And perhaps Danny's brother Tad might have a role to play in all this.

It's a great story, siccinct without being rushed with an unexpected twist at the end. It's a prime example of exactly why the 1950s was indeed a Golden Age for hard-boiled fiction.

I'm afraid I don't have a link to find this one online. It is included in the superb anthology of Brewer's fiction Redheads Die Quickly.

Basil The Royal Cat

 

cover art by Tom DeAngelo

Like Travelin' Toughy; like Beanbags; like Sir Spot the Lion-Hearted Leopard; like Tommy the Time-Travelin' Cat; like Super Rabbit. Basil the Royal Cat had a tragically short career (4 issues) before disappearing into Comic Book Limbo.

Basil's first issue (January 1953) starts off with a fun story that effectively introduces us to the protagonist. Basil is king of a nation of cats. He wants to impress the Princess, because he likes her.

He shares his concern with Fagin, his prime minister. Fagin, though, sees this as an opportunity to do away with Basil and take over the kingdom. He proposes that the king fight Leo the Unbeaten Lion in the Arena. But he won't really fight Leo. Instead, Fagin will put on a lion costume and throw the fight.

Of course, Fagin is planning on allowing the real Leo to fight the unsuspecting Basil.

Basil, who doesn't come across as the brightest bulb in the lamp, falls for this. He enters the Arena during the Games, announcing that he will fight Leo armed with only a chair. Fagin doesn't even wait for the seemingly inevitable conclusion. 

Basil wins via pure dumb luck. He does indeed impress the Princess, then (still having no idea Fagin set him up) goes back to the palace to see Fagin. Fagin's parrot rats out the rotten prime minister. Fagin runs for it. Basil finds out he fought a real lion and faints.

The unidentified writer and artist Tom DeAngelo gave us a charming, funny tale with a protagonist who might be less than competent but is certainly likeable. Basil's career, as I said, will be short. But like so many other short-lived comic book characters, the world is better because of his existence. 

Next week--oh, what the heck. I like Basil. We'll take a look at another of his adventures next week. 

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

February 1976: The Avengers cover is by Gil Kane and the JLA cover by Dick Giordano.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Black Museum: "The Canvas Bag" 1952

A woman makes an unwise decision regarding what man she runs off with.

Click HERE to listen or download.