Thu 14 Jan 2021
A Pulp Magazine Review by Paul Herman: BLACK MASK, October 1936.
Posted by Steve under Magazines , Pulp Fiction , Reviews[7] Comments
After reading Steve’s recent review of “No Rest for Soldiers,” the first story in the October 1936 issue of Black Mask, I pulled out my copy and just finished reading it cover to cover. Not a stinker in this issue. Giving a rating of four stars for the highest, I rate them as follows:
“No Rest For Soldiers†– John K. Butler – 4.
“Jail Bait†– Roger Torrey – 3. Although a complete rip-off of the The Maltese Falcon without the “Falcon†to look for (main tec’s partner is killed and he’s going to find the killer, though they didn’t like each other), this is still a pretty good story. I’m not a great Torrey fan but this story works for me.
“Heat Target†— Russell Bender — 4. Really well written! I don’t think I’ve ever read a story by Bender. I’ll now go see what else I can find that he wrote for Mask.
“Sail†— Lester Dent — 4. I can’t count the times I’ve read this story over the years. I still wish that he had written more than two stories for Mask before Shaw got the boot. As good as it gets!!
“A Ride In The Rain†— W.T.Ballard — 4. One of my favorite Mask writers. If anyone out there has not read Ballard, do yourself a favor and try him. Holds up continuously, time after time!
I really think this is a top issue of Mask from beginning to end. Steve, let us know how you feel after you finish your copy.
Added later: Just checked on Russell Bender. He only wrote two others for Mask, though lots more for other titles: October 1938 and July 1940. I have both and will be checking them out soon.
January 14th, 2021 at 7:17 pm
Ditto on Ballard who was consistently good over a long career as Balland, Todhunter Ballard (he was a cousin of Rex Stout and they shared the middle name), Neil McNeil, and other names in the hard-boiled and Western genres and also penned a good mainstream satire of early television based on his days writing the 1951 DICK TRACY series with screen Tracy Ralph Byrd.
January 14th, 2021 at 7:24 pm
Couldn’t agree more about “Sail”. I’ve read it five or six times myself.
January 14th, 2021 at 7:38 pm
At this point Shaw left the magazine in 1936. I’ve heard that he was forced out because the circulation was taking a dive but I’ve also heard he decided to quit because they refused to give him a raise in salary. He decided to become an agent and helped many pulp writers place stories in the magazines.
But this 1936 issue shows he still was producing a top quality detective fiction magazine even after 10 years of hard work.
Concerning Lester Dent, he was proud of his two stories in Black Mask but admitted that he simply could not afford to spend so much time revising and working on the stories in order to meet Shaw’s requirements. He was used to quickly writing a story in one draft while Shaw kept demanding revisions and changes, etc.
January 14th, 2021 at 9:01 pm
As Paul suggests, ever since I reviewed the Butler story in this issue, I have been planning to work my way through the whole magazine myself and reporting on what I find as I go. Paul has beaten me to it, obviously so. I’m only halfway through the Torrey story, and I seem to have stalled out, with too many other things having taken precedence in the meantime. Shame on me.
But I still intend to, though. Don’t go away!
January 15th, 2021 at 12:19 am
Paul,
Happy New Year, a great beginning with a review from you, and of course it had to be Black Mask.
Russell Bender was an actor who wrote for the pulps. He claimed to have written over 2 million words for magazines before WW2; with only 25 known stories to his credit, that must be hyperbole. Photo of him on his IMDB page:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0070511/bio#overview
He also wrote scripts and screenplays for a few movies and some episodes of various TV series. Wonder if any of them were based on the pulp stories.
January 15th, 2021 at 12:32 am
Thank you, Sai. I’ve seen Bender’s name in many a detective pulp, but if I read any of the stories, I sure don’t remember them. From his IMDb page, I see he started his new career as an actor in 1952. From the titles of the movies he was in, and the TV series he was on, I must have seen him hundreds of times, but if I did, most of them must have been very small parts. All in all, though, he had quite a double-barreled career.
February 12th, 2021 at 1:22 pm
[…] Some other information about Bender can be found in the comments following Paul Herman’s recent overview of the entire issue of the October 1936 Black […]