General Fiction - Argosy, Adventure, Short Stories, Blue Book & more 0

[Scrooge]

Generalist pulps published some of the best fiction coming out pulps.

Argosy - December 6th. 1930 - the start of Mundy's Elephant Sahib -

[Scrooge]

Argosy - December 20th. 1930 - 

[Scrooge]

Here's the issue from the week in between -

Argosy - December 13th. 1930 - 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Scrooge

[Pat Calhoun]

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Edited July 31, 2020 by Pat Calhoun

[OtherEric]

Now that the thread is here, I'll start with a few random issues:

[OtherEric]

[OtherEric]

And end for now with this "Rapidly becoming a classic cover 85 years after the fact" gem:.  I'll go through my Argosies and try to find a few that I never wound up showing in the Pound you to a pulp thread later this weekend.

[Pat Calhoun]

[OtherEric]

Here's a bedsheet Blue Book for you... July, 1947.  What makes it of interest to me is that it has a Science Fiction story by John D. MacDonald, several months before his first story in Astounding that the Bookery guide lists as his first SF story.

[RedFury]

Argosy, October 5, 1918

1st appearance of the early hero character Peter the Brazen. 

Peter the Brazen was an adventure hero operating in the far east.  He was a ship's radio operator by trade, but his adventures took him all over the ports of Asia and put him in opposition to a steady stream of Fu Manchu like villains.

George F. Worts wrote the stories under the pseudonym Loring Brent.  When the first six adventures were stitched together into a novel in 1919, Worts used his own name on the book.  

• Princess of Static (1918)
• The City of Stolen Lives (1918)
• The Bitter Fountain (1918)
• The Dead Spark (1918)
• The Golden Paw (1918)
• The Gray Dragon (1918)

There was one further adventure in 1919, so long that was serialized over 6 issues.

• The Golden Cat (1919) six-part serial

And then Worts retired the character and moved on to other ideas.

Eleven years later, Argosy editor A.H. Bittner wanted to bring back lost readership and hatched a plan to revive some of the most popular characters from Argosy's past.  Worts agreed, and over the next 6 years wrote 13 more Peter the Brazen stories

• The Sapphire Smile (1930)
• The Man in the Jade Mask (1930)
• That Cargo of Opium (1930) two-part serial
• The Hand of Ung (1930) two-part serial
• Vampire (1931) two-part serial
• Chinese for Racket (1931) two-part serial
• Cave of the Blue Scorpion (1931)
• Sting of the Blue Scorpion (1932) six-part serial
• The Master Magician (1933)
• The Sapphire Death (1933) six-part serial 
• Kingdom of the Lost (1934) five-part serial
• The Octopus of Hongkong (1934)
• Over the Dragon Wall (1935)

There is speculation among pulp fans the Peter the Brazen was an inspiration to Lester Dent when he was creating Doc Savage.  "Brazen", after all means "made of brass", besides its more familiar meaning of "bold".

 

[detective35]

The only Argosy I have.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by detective35

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, detective35 said:

The only Argosy I have.

 

 

 

Is your copy that bright in person?  Wow.

My copy is perhaps slightly brighter than the scan I showed back there, but not by much.  Nothing like yours.

[detective35]

On 8/2/2020 at 1:50 AM, OtherEric said:

Is your copy that bright in person?  Wow.

My copy is perhaps slightly brighter than the scan I showed back there, but not by much.  Nothing like yours.

Yes it is, with the red background behind the title probably even deeper in

 color than on the picture.

[Scrooge]

Here's a later Argosy - December 31st, 1938

Cover is for a story of Old California by McCulley illustrated by George Rozen who also drew the illo for the Black Grandee story. Also appearing inside are Captain Hornblower and Young Doctor Kildare -

Edited August 8, 2020 by Scrooge

[Scrooge]

Argosy - December 27th. 1930 - Argosy providing what I am looking for: stories in the Amazon (MacIsaac's Balata), India (Mundy's Elephant Sahib), South Seas Chinese pirate (Wirt's He's my Meat!) and a story in the stars (Cummings' Tama of the Light) sandwiched with short Christmas stories -

[Scrooge]

Argosy - August 5th 1933 -

This period's format is better for collecting: fewer serials and more novelettes / short stories.

I gravitated to this issue because of the cover and the topic: Monte Carlo.

Madame Storey is Rosika Storey, penned by Hulbert Footner in a series of novelettes in Argosy in the '20's and '30's.

Rosika Storey and her secretary Bella (the story's narrator) head down to Monte Carlo for a vacation and get begrudgingly involved in an affair threatening the reputation of the Principality of Monte Carlo. Women from high society are black-mailed after their involvement with a ring of gigolos. Once Raoul d'Aymara, a gigolo, is thrown off La Turbie from trying to escape the syndicate, Rosika springs into action. The cover scene shows the syndicate abducting Rosika to send her a strong message. She then leaves town only to come back in disguise. She enlists a young American's help to become a gigolo and infiltrate the ring (it also conveniently avoids the writer having Rosika cavort with an actual gigolo through the story). Through a couple of twists and turns, she unmasks the mastermind and disbands the ring.

The story moves along very well and the author either visited the Riviera or did good research before penning the story. It was enjoyable. There were "threats" to Rosika and Bella but none that would get you on the edge of your seat (this is Argosy, not Terror Tales after all) and the solution to the case followed a logical path.

In the story, Rosika stayed at the Hotel de Paris, which still exists, a cornerstone of Monte Carlo. Check out this current pic of a suite at the Hotel and compare it to the cover. Nice job by Stahr! -

[RedFury]

That photo compared to the cover is really cool.  Maybe Stahr was there, or at least saw photos. 

[RedFury]

Argosy All-Story Weekly, Aug 7 1920

I just ticked this one off the long-running wish-list, a nice copy of the first part and cover story of A. Merritt's The Metal Monster.

[Scrooge]

On 7/31/2020 at 6:46 PM, OtherEric said:

And end for now with this "Rapidly becoming a classic cover 85 years after the fact" gem:.  I'll go through my Argosies and try to find a few that I never wound up showing in the Pound you to a pulp thread later this weekend.

 

On 8/2/2020 at 2:36 AM, detective35 said:

The only Argosy I have.

 

 

 

Peer pressure got to me. In today's mail -

[OtherEric]

39 minutes ago, Scrooge said:

 

Peer pressure got to me. In today's mail -

Welcome to the club!  How long did it take you to track down a copy, or was it a target of opportunity?