Art Gallery: Bloodsuckers

1931

1936

1943

1944

Forgotten Books: Flash Casey 519, Sam Spade 230 -or- "Silent Are the Dead" by George Harmon Coxe

Flash (short for Flashgun) Casey, tough-guy photographer for the Boston Express, was born in Black Mask in 1934, and went on to make more appearances in other media than any other graduate of the magazine, including the runner-up, Sam Spade.

Here's the scorecard.
Pulp magazine stories: Casey 21, plus two serialized novels. Spade appeared in one serialized novel.
Slick magazine stories: Casey 0. Spade 3.
Paperback collections: Casey 1. Spade 1.
Hardcover novels:  Casey 5 (plus one written under a pseudonym by Edward S. Aarons). Spade 1.
Movies: Casey 2. Spade 2.
Radio shows: Casey 444. Spade 221.
Television episodes: Casey 40. Spade 0.
Comic books: Casey 4. Spade 1.

In terms of volume, Casey smoked him. But these days, while Spade is an Icon and Hammett almost a god, Casey is a Forgotten Character, and George Harmon Coxe is rarely read. Tsk, tsk.

Still, posterity got it right. That one Spade novel is better than all the Casey stories and novels put together, both Spade films are by all accounts far superior to the Casey flicks, the Spade radio show was a lot more fun than Casey's, and even the single comic book (an adaptation of The Maltese Falcon) was better than the Casey series. The only place I'd give Flash the edge is in the story category, because the Spade tales from the slicks are pretty lame.

Silent Are the Dead (1942), the first Casey novel, was serialized in Black Mask between September and November 1941. Sad to say, Casey is not quite as tough as he was during his years with Joe Shaw (1934-1936). This, I suspect, was because Coxe had put Casey on the back burner, devoting most of his time to a kinder, gentler Boston news photographer named Kent Murdock. By the time Silent Are the Dead appeared in hardcover, Coxe already had nine Murdock novels under his belt.

Silent Are the Dead is still a pretty good read, but if you're new to Flash Casey, I'd suggest you read a couple of the pulp stories first. You'll find "Murder Mixup" in Shaw's Hard-Boiled Omnibus. "Murder Picture" was reprinted in The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, and "Fall Guy" in The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories. And the vintage paperback collection Flash Casey - Detective (reviewed HERE) is not impossible to come by.

More Forgotten Books at pattinase.

Art Gallery: The Frankenstein Family

Overlooked Films: Johnny Yuma Meets Frankenstein

In 1965, Academy Award Nominee and former Rebel star Nick Adams joined the ranks of such honored thespians as Raymond Burr, and accepted a role in a cheesy Japanese monster movie. Ouch.

I've never seen this one, and not sure I could stand it. The posters and pics are almost too much to bear. On the other hand, Adams reportedly had a fling with his co-star Kimo Mizuno (with whom he also made the Godzilla flick Invasion of Astro-Monster, better known as Monster Zero, which I have seen), so chances are he had a better time making these turkeys than anyone did watching them.

Kumi Mizuno in her Monster Zero outfit.

Links to more Overlooked Films at SWEET FREEDOM.

Art Gallery: The Series from the Black Lagoon

1954

1955

1956

Attention Nick Graniero: I have your book, and I'm keeping it.

When I pulled the Flash Casey novel Silent Are the Dead (1942) off my shelf to begin reading it, I came across this cool bookplate. Just wanted you to know, Nick, it's MINE now, and if my name rhymed with "zero" I'd scratch yours out and write mine in.

You are, however, invited to tune into Forgotten Books this Friday and read my comments. Cheers!

Forgotten Books: Satan Hall in "Ready to Burn" by Carroll John Daly

Last month I reread and reviewed the first Satan Hall novel, The Mystery of the Smoking Gun (that's HERE), and enjoyed it so much I was anxious to revisit the second book, Ready to Burn.

Well, I have to admit, I liked the first book better. Not because it was a better novel, because none of Daly's books are truly novels, but because it was pulpier. The Mystery of the Smoking Gun was composed of five complete novelettes, while Ready to Burn was made from three not-quite-so-complete short novels. Simply put, Smoking Gun has more action, more intrigue and more shootouts.

Satan Hall, in case you haven't been introduced, is a New York police detective who just happens to look like Old Nick, and has a disposition to match. He solves crimes by shooting the bad guys dead. The hardest part of his job is tricking the villains into shooting first, so he can snuff them in self defense.

By the time the three connected stories that became Ready to Burn appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly, Daly already had nine and half books under his belt (including six featuring Race Williams) and most, if not all, employed the same technique his Mask-mate Dashiell Hammett used to construct Red Harvest and The Dain Curse.

It seems clear that Daly intended these three tales, published in 1934 and 1935, to be recycled in book form, but it was a long time coming. The book Ready to Burn did not appear until 1951, and then only in England. This time out, Daly was trying harder to set up a plot that would not be resolved until the third story, but in doing so he took some of punch out of part two - originally published as "Satan Laughed."

Actually, Our man Satan didn't have much to laugh about in that one, because he promises the police commissioner he will not kill ruthless gunman Eddie Jerome. Instead, he'll bring the guy in alive, so the State can burn him in the electric chair. For Satan, that proves to be just about the toughest case of his career, because his normal solution is to put a bullet smack between the bad guy's eyes. Though it nearly kills him, Satan succeeds, and Eddie Jerome gets a reprieve until part three, "Ready to Burn."

The head villain of the piece is a blubbery mass of flesh named Hollis Daggett, who controls judges, politicians and an impressive criminal empire, but has the misfortune to fall for a clean, pure society gal named Nina Radcliffe. When Nina falls for Satan instead, Daggett turns to trickery and threats to win Nina's affections. And when she still won't come across, he resorts to a bullwhip. No kidding.

Anyway, here's the bottom line. Read The Mystery of the Smoking Gun first. A pdf version is available HERE from Vintage Library. If you like Satan Hall, you''ll want to read Ready to Burn too, which is also offered by Vintage Library. A third Satan novel, "Satan's Vengeance," appeared as an eight-part serial in 1936. That one remained unreprinted until just this year, when The Battered Silicon Express Box published The Compleat Satan Hall, a huge volume containing all three novels and all 21 other Satan Hall adventures (for more info on that collection, click HERE.)

Don't forget: More Forgotten Books at pattinase.

A SPICY DETECTIVE eBook from Black Dog

Black Dog Books has just issued shiny new eBook editions of three of their still available trade paperbacks, and one of them is Killer's Caress, a novel by Spicy Detective author Cary Moran, featuring Spicy Detective character Johnny Harding.

Killer's Caress is especially alluring thanks to this full-page ad than ran in all the Spicy mags back in 1936. I mean , who can resist a hero whose motto is Don't shoot until you see the whites of their thighs?

Don't beat around the bush! Get Killer's Caress for your eReader today!

  And don't neglect these: 

Bonus: A virtual cover by the great Rudolph Belarski!