A Rambling Interview with Robert S. Napier, Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of our senses-staggering bull session with Bob Napier, you can catch up by clicking right HERE. And if you're one of the few remaining earthlings yet to order your copy of his latest book, The Toyman Rides Again, you can do so below.

Last time we yapped about Bob's days in comics fandom, leading up to his arrival on the mystery scene. Got your seat belt fastened? Let's go.

ME: As you mentioned last time, you moved from comics fandom directly into mystery fandom. And that means Dapa-Em (a twisted acronym for Elementary, My Dear Amateur Press Association) Could you explain, for those unfamiliar with it, how Dapa-Em works?

BOB: Well, there was a three-year hiatus when I wasn't in any kind of fandom--my lost years. Dapa-Em is a mystery apa (Amateur Press Alliance/Association). An apa has a limited membership and each member is responsible for producing a small zine for the mailings (or issues). Enough copies of each person's zine are produced to cover the number of members plus a few extras. Those zines are mailed to the Official Editor, Central Mailer, Ramrod, or Big TOE--whatever the title might be. He or she collates each person's zine into a large zine, or mailing. The mailing is then sent to each member and includes his zine as well as everyone else's. There are usually dues to cover postage costs and a minimum number of pages a member must submit to stay on the roster. In Dapa-Em, minimum activity (minac) is four pages every other mailing, and mailings come out six times a year. I ramrod a Western apa called OWLHOOT* that is quarterly.

ME: How was Dapa-Em born? Who were some of the principles involved? Were you there at the beginning?

BOB: I wasn't there at the beginning. A woman from New York named Donna Balopole started it. I don't know the year, but around '74 I'd say. Art Scott mentioned its existence when he was in APA-5 but I wasn't reading mysteries then so I didn't think anything of it. By 1979 I was at loose ends and wanted to be in an apa again. I wasn't reading comics, but I knew of Dapa-Em and by now Art Scott had taken the helm. I joined and my mystery knowledge grew exponentially from there. Some of the people who are or were members include Bill Crider, Barry Gardner, Don Sandstrom, Marv Lachman, Bruce Taylor, Steve Stilwell, Janet Rudolph, Sue Feder, Steve Lewis, Beth Fedyn, and some guy named Dave Lewis.

ME: I recall someone (I think it was that Dave Lewis guy) once describing Dapa-Em as “a cross between a religion and a disease”. I understand the apa recently celebrated its 200th mailing, but now appears to be winding down. Is it true this mystery institution may soon go the way of the dodo?

BOB: We're looking forward to #212 as we speak. Art Scott will give up his job as Official Editor in January 2011. Either Dapa-Em will die then or it will continue on for 17 more mailings under me. I've volunteered to keep it alive if certain conditions are met. I'm pretty sure that even if it continues with me for 17 more mailings it will end at that point. I might mention that a large number of Fan Guests of Honor at Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime came from the ranks of Dapa-Em.

ME: Dapa-Em has generated an incredible amount of valuable material related to mystery fiction. Has there been serious talk about a series of "Best of Dapa-Em" anthologies, or creating a website to share some of this info with the world?

BOB: Kate Derie wanted to copy the entire run to CD or DVD but that isn't likely to happen. A "best of" wouldn't be a bad idea but I don't think anyone wants to do it. Also, much of what goes on is casual. Other than reviews you won't find much sercon material. Where would you sell it, and to whom? Who would produce it? Mystery fandom isn't really very fannish and I'm not sure there would be a market for such an endeavor.

Coming soon: Part 3

Below: Cap'n Bob in days of yore with his two darlings. The one on the left now attends the University of Washington, the one on the right has a bun in the oven, and the guy in the middle has a new pair of glasses.

*OWLHOOT is devoted to wide-ranging discussions of western fiction, movies, TV, pulps, history, OTR, comics, music and more. The current roster includes: Fred Blosser, Bill Crider, Paul Dellinger, Frank Denton, Dale Goble, Jim Griffin, A.P. McQuiddy, Richard Moore, Bob Napier, Laurie Powers, Richard Prosch, James Reasoner, Thom Walls, Joseph A. West and me. Interested? Comment here or shoot me an email.

The Art Gallery: The Rio Kid

1948

1950

1947

Movie Editions: The Long Goodbye

I suppose it's time I saw this movie again. I hated it when I saw it in the 80s. Altman-Schmaltman, as an interpretation of Philip Marlowe, it sucked. The only thing I liked about it was the Jack Davis 1-sheet and the bit of (non)acting by Jim Bouton. I was a BIG fan of Ball Four and Ball Five, a couple of the funniest books I ever read. 

(click to enlarge, of course)

"Zorro" by Mitch Miller and the Sandpipers

I've been in a Zorro mood of late, so I thought I'd give you a listen to my favorite version of the Disney theme song. Mitch Miller (some years before his singalong show) is leading the orchestra, while the singing is provided by the Sandpipers. Are these the same Sandpipers who later did "Guantanamera"? I don't know.

Golden Records released this on both 45 (as shown) and 78 (remember those little yellow records?) with Part I on one side and Part II on the other. Here you get both parts, and you don't even have to flip over your computer.

"Zorro" by Mitch Miller and the Sandpipers

Hail to The Hof

Laurie Powers is featuring some Walter Baumhofer covers today over at Laurie's Wild West, so I thought I'd join the party with this fine effort from 1933.

The Art Gallery: John Wayne Westerns

1936

1932

1937

Forgotten Books: Mr. Strang by Carroll John Daly

Oops.  When I pulled Mr. Strang off the shelf last week, intending to read it for this review, I was certain sure it was one of the many Carroll John Daly novels offered for download at the Vintage Library site.  And I kept on being sure until I started writing this, and popped over to Vintage Library to get the link. Oops.

This book, I discovered, is one of the very few Daly novels missing from their list. And since it’s never been reprinted, it’s a tough book to come by. The best news I can offer is that WorldCat shows it to be in the collections of five U.S. libraries who might be persuaded to release it on InterLibrary Loan.

Daly has been belittled in mystery circles - grudgingly acknowledged as the inventor of the hardboiled detective, then swept under the rug to make way for shrines to Hammett and Chandler. Daly was never in the same league with those two, it’s true, but he didn’t try to be. Though his stories appeared in detective pulps and his characters sometimes solved crimes, he wasn’t really writing mystery stories (at least not in the 30s).  In plot, style, action and dialogue his work is much closer to that much admired in the hero pulps.

Mr. Strang clearly illustrates that point because he makes no pretense at being a detective.  He’s a vigilante, pure and simple, in the tradition of The Shadow and The Spider.

This novel first appeared in three 1935 issues of Detective Fiction Weekly - as three long novelettes that form a relatively seamless story. Daly accomplished this by squaring Strang off against (and killing) one of the kingpin’s chief gunmen in each of the first two parts, saving the big cheese for the finale.

Strang’s mission here is to destroy the Parole racket. The city’s crime kingpin, you see, uses political influence to have criminals released to his bidding. Whether a job calls for a safecracker, a forger or a ruthless killer, he always has the perfect man on ice in the state pen. Strang’s parents, we learn, were victims of this racket, and he carries a bullet imbedded at the base of his skull as a reminder of the occasion. He refuses to have it removed until his mission is completed.

Daly’s stories at this stage of career were stuffed with melodrama. Every room, it seems, has a convenient alcove hidden by heavy curtains, just right for heroes and villains to hide behind. In 9 out of 10 shootouts, the hero shoots the villain smack in the center of the forehead, the exception being when the villain happens to be talking at the time--and takes the slug through his open mouth.

While the prose is often hokey, it’s always entertaining--far more lively than the relatively flat style employed for adventures of the Shadow, the Avenger, G-8, Secret Agent X and the Phantom Detective.  Daly’s writing has more personality, livelier than the work by Frederick C. Davis and Emile Tepperman in Operator 5 at least as compelling as that of Norvell Page on The Spider. (It’s hard to even compare him to Lester Dent, because I see Dent as a really fine writer who was slumming.)

Mr. Strang returned to Detective Fiction Weekly in 1937 in a four-part serial called The Legion of the Living Dead. The title refers to Strang’s cadre of assistants, men and women with incurable illnesses whose greatest hope is to die fighting in a good cause before succumbing to disease. This novel was reportedly published in Canada in 1947 by Popular Publications, leading me to believe it may have been a paperback. I have the serial, but have never seen the book. If anyone has more info on it, or maybe a scan of the cover, I’d sure like to see it. 

I’m sorry I can’t send you over to Vintage Press for a PDF copy of this book - but if Mr. Strang sounds like your cup of tea, I can recommend the two Satan Hall novels offered there: The Mystery of the Smoking Gun and Ready to Burn. Though Frank “Satan” Hall is officially a police detective, he’s firmly in the Pulp Hero mold - just like Mr. Strang.

The ringmaster for this week's collection of Forgotten Books is George Kelley. Visit him for links.

The Art Gallery: Dime Detective

1937

1936

1934