Wed 10 Mar 2021
Reviewed by Walker Martin: PETER ENFANTINO & JEFF VORZIMMER – The MANHUNT Companion.
Posted by Steve under Magazines , Reference works / Biographies , Reviews[12] Comments
PETER ENFANTINO & JEFF VORZIMMER – The MANHUNT Companion. Stark House Press, softcover, March 2021.
During the early 1950’s there was a science fiction magazine boom which saw dozens of titles published, most of them to eventually die, only to be remembered by obsessive collectors. Yes, I am one of those bibliomaniacs who collect such magazines. We sometimes forget that there was also a crime fiction magazine boom which started with the publication of Manhunt in 1953. This magazine was such a best seller that dozens of imitators appeared during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
These magazines are rare and expensive nowadays but I have managed to track down most of the Manhunt imitators with titles such as Guilty, Trapped, Off Beat, Pursuit, Homicide, Justice, etc. It’s still possible to put together a set of Manhunt without robbing a bank because so many copies were printed and the magazine had the reputation of being the best of the hard boiled crime fiction magazines.
In fact, a decade ago, I wrote of my adventures collecting Manhunt and describing how I managed to find 39 of the 114 issues during one weekend at the Windy City Pulp convention. Here is the link to the article. Unlike the imitators, the prices were reasonable and I spent only $8 to $11 for each copy.
I have spent decades reading and collecting the magazine and have put together more than one complete set as I traded off sets due to temporary insanity. I have come a long way from my teenage years when I had to make a choice between buying SF magazines and buying crime fiction titles. My allowance only went so far back then. But now we live in a golden age with stimulus checks raining down on us. If you don’t want to spend your checks on food and paying bills, then you can buy books and back issues of magazines!
However, maybe you are not a magazine collector and don’t want to fill your house with thousands of pulps, slicks, digests, paperbacks. Maybe you don’t want to drive your non-collecting spouse crazy. Maybe you don’t want to add another hard boiled addiction to your drugs of choice like alcohol, drugs, gambling, chasing women. Then you are in luck because Stark House Press has already reprinted the best Manhunt stories in two volumes titled The Best Of Manhunt and The Best Of Manhunt, Volume Two.
Now we have the third Stark House volume dealing with Manhunt, and it is titled The Manhunt Companion. A great magazine deserves a great companion and fellow book lovers, this is it! Over 400 pages and the price is $19.95. The book starts off with an eight page history of the magazine, including the infamous court case charging Manhunt with being lewd and obscene.
This is followed by almost 300 pages discussing every story in every issue, all 114 issues. Each story is rated on a 4 star system, with the best fiction receiving 3 or 4 stars. The word count is also listed followed by a summary and discussion of each story. At the end of each year, there is a list of the best stories.
Then follows over 100 pages indexing every story, article, and author, including pseudonyms. There also is an alphabetical index by series and a listing of the TV episodes based on Manhunt stories.
If you read or collect Manhunt, this is a must buy. We must support this effort and encourage Stark House. Perhaps Peter Enfantino and Jeff Vorzimmer can be convinced to edit a collection of the Manhunt imitators and another companion, only this time on the other crime fiction magazines!
March 10th, 2021 at 8:00 pm
A diverse lineup of writers too, in any given issue you might find Mickey Spillane, Richard Prather, Harlan Ellison, Frank Kane, Henry Kane,Evan Hunter, David Goodis …
Most of issues now are in e-book form, but I can recall picking up handfuls in second hand book stores as late as the Nineties for twenty five cents a piece.
March 10th, 2021 at 10:49 pm
At one time, the primary reason I would have bought this book immediately is the finely done indexes that comprise a huge chunk of it: firstly, the contents of MANHUNT issue-by-issue, then by author, by story, by series, and even ending up with a list of TV episodes that were based on MANHUNT stories. Even though much of this information can be found elsewhere, here it is all in one place. I can only shake my head in admiration thinking about the amount of work that had to have gone into putting it all together.
But you don’t have to be a collector of MANHUNT to enjoy the rest of the book, and that’s what you can’t easily find anywhere else: Peter Enfantino’s reviews of each and every story, with 1 to 4 star ratings, with what I consider cutthroat honesty in saying why: “This has the most abrupt ending I’ve ever come across.” “Not a bad set-up when done right. This isn’t done right.” “Surely this story could have been told in half the space.” And some four star reviews too! There is a reason why MANHUNT is still remembered and highly collected today.
But what’s more, Peter adds a lot of biographical information about a lot of the authors, including their work at novel length and their series characters, but of course not bothering to do any of this for the utterly obscure ones. These resumes are often short, but always to the point. This for me is the big reason why I’m happy to say I already own a copy of this one.
March 10th, 2021 at 11:28 pm
Yes, it is a great example of what a magazine companion should be. I was so impressed I even left a 5 star review on amazon.com.
Peter Enfantino has been working on these story ratings and comments for many years. He published many of them on his Bare bones e-zine blog and then reviewed several of the early Manhunt issues for Digest Enthusiast, so it is nice to get them all together in one book.
And the ratings are tough and honest. He doesn’t pull any punches with his hard boiled comments. Sort of fitting for Manhunt since it was the greatest of the hard boiled fiction digest magazines in the 1950’s.
March 10th, 2021 at 11:35 pm
David mentions picking up many copies in the nineties. I still see a lot of copies at the pulp conventions. I’ve heard that some of the early Manhunt issues had high circulations of 300,000 to 500,000 per issue, so that’s why we still see so many copies available. Unlike the imitators who had far lower circulations and thus are very rare and hard to find today.
March 11th, 2021 at 12:55 am
The oversized “bedsheet” issues of MANHUNT are also hard to find today, and can sell from $50 to $100 each. But otherwise as Walker says, the rest of the run can be picked up fairly easily. If you can’t get to pulp conventions, eBay would be a good way to find ones you’re missing, or of course if you’re just starting.
March 11th, 2021 at 2:12 am
The large size bedsheet issues are indeed hard to find and they must have sold poorly for them to be so rare nowadays. There were around a dozen of the larger issues. I’ve manage to track them down but an even harder task is to find the large size issues of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I still lack most of them.
March 11th, 2021 at 8:47 am
Tempting to buy this, though it’ll cost me more to ship than to buy.
My Manhunt obsession started almost a decade back when i purchased a job lot of magazines on EBay. I used to get these as samplers, especially if they were coverless; could easily buy them without breaking the bank. Sometimes it took 2-3 issues of a magazine turning up in these samplers to convince me to start collecting it, and sometimes only one to turn me off it permanently.
With Manhunt i got a fifties issue with a Jack Ritchie story in it. I read three stories and knew immediately that i had to collect it. Thank god i didn’t stumble on a sixties issue. Fast forward to the current day, and I’m still obsessing over the one remaining issue i need to complete the run. Maybe I’ll never get it. And meanwhile Walker keeps buying and selling sets.
For everyone else who hasn’t read it, The Best of Manhunt is an easy way to get a good sample. If you like hard-boiled crime, you’ll end up collecting Manhunt and you’ll get that Companion.
March 11th, 2021 at 9:08 am
Weirdly, I used to find the occasional issue in England, and always bought them. I’ve read the BEST OF MANHUNT and have the second one, and I will definitely be buying this one.
March 11th, 2021 at 9:36 am
As Sai and Jeff point out, collecting Manhunt is addictive once you read an issue. Of course the 1950’s have the reputation of being the very best hardboiled fiction. Except for the dozen large size issues they are not that hard to find and prices are reasonable.
Of course Sai had to ignore my advice and move back to India. I mean which is more important, books and magazines or family? Right, since we are all bibliophiles we know the answer…
You have to be hardboiled like Manhunt!
March 11th, 2021 at 8:26 pm
Walker-
Thanks for the kind words and, of course, for being such a big supporter going all the way back to the dawn of this project over ten years ago. Now… if you’d like me to jump into The Best of Guilty and Trapped, let’s talk about you selling me the issues I don’t have (smiley face).
And Steve-
Thanks for giving this project a shout-out. It’s much appreciated!
March 11th, 2021 at 10:18 pm
Thanks to you and Jeff, Peter. You guys did a great job.
March 12th, 2021 at 12:12 am
Peter, it has been a long time since you started your project of reviewing all the Manhunt issues. But this book makes it all worth while. A great achievement!
Also, for readers who want to read more about Guilty and Trapped, buy Robert Silverberg’s ROUGH TRADE which reprints many of his novelets for the two magazines. Also SLEAZY READER #9 available on amazon reviews several issues of the Manhunt imitators.