CALLAN “Breakout.” Thames TV, UK, 10 June 1970 (Season 3, Episode 8). Edward Woodward (Callan), William Squire, Patrick Mower. Guest stars: Russell Hunter. Garfield Morgan. Teleplay by James Mitchell based on his own characters. Directed by Reginald Collin. Currently available on DVD and YouTube (see below).

   When a KGB agent named Lupin turns himself in to the police, it means that the men in the super secretive “Section,” who have been keeping tabs on him, cannot use their usual means of interrogation on him, which was the whole idea. The solution to the problem? Break him out of jail, posing as Russians, so he will go along with them.

   Complicating matters, and adding to their urgency, is the fact that Lupin has a list of all of Britain’s agents and aliases, and David Callan’s name is on it.

   And of course, as with most heist capers, things do not go smoothly.

   I chose this fast-paced episode to watch more or less random, but if it’s representative of the entire series, I may have made a mistake. It’s excellent, and I probably should have started at the beginning and worked my way through. (It ran for four seasons, and most of the episodes appear to be available on YouTube.)

   And in fact, I may just do that. The action scenes were often filmed without dialogue, so that was fine, but watching a British program without captioning and an indifferent soundtrack meant missing important incidental things, such as who was who and why. Some of the humorous bits were also of some difficulty to pick up on. I do indeed need to watch more.

   Of special note, if you watch this on your own, note how young and spry Edward Woodward was when he made this. I almost didn’t recognize him.
   

THRILLER “The Double Kill.” ITV, UK,  First broadcast either on February 18 or April 19, 1975 Series 5, Episode 2, Number 31 of 43. Cast: Gary Collins (Hugh Briant), James Villiers, Peter Bowles (Superintendent Lucas), Stuart Wilson, Penelope Horner (Clarissa Briant), John Flanagan, Hilda Fenemore, Griffith Davies, Michael Stainton, Gordon Salkilld, Norman Mitchell, Paul Nicholson. Series creator: Brian Clemens (1931-2015). Writer: Brian Clemens. Director: Ian Fordyce (1931-1988).  Currently streaming on Pluto TV and YouTube (see below).

   Clarissa Briant has it all: a stately home in the country filled with valuable artwork (with more to come), the great wealth that such possessions betoken, and Hugh, her American husband, to share it with.

   But Hugh seems more eager to share knowledge of Clarissa’s acquisitions with the world at large, especially at social occasions and even in the local pub to perfect strangers. He has become the incarnation of that old wartime adage about loose lips sinking ships, blabbing to one and all, for instance, about how their security systems are yet to be installed, puzzling behavior even for an American.

   Sure enough, it isn’t long before a burglar has a go at those objets d’art gracing the walls and mantelpiece, only to get caught by Hugh in flagrante delicto. You’d think that Hugh has laid a trap and an unsuspecting bug has fallen into it — and you’d be right; but you’d be wrong in assuming Hugh is going to do the proper thing and turn the burglar in.

   No, Hugh has big plans, and a common variety thief like this one just won’t do. Hugh needs someone who is willing to go much further than simply purloining stuff, someone with enough guts to go that extra step to murder . . . .

   “The Double Kill” fits snugly in the “perfect crime” subgenre, two fine examples of which are Double Indemnity (1944) and Dial “M” for Murder (1954). Although it comes closer to the Hitchcock film, “The Double Kill” excels in plot twists, enough to make Dial “M” look as uncomplicated as a typical investigation with Encyclopedia Brown.

   While Gary Collins (1938-2012) carries on the British tradition of importing American actors to boost international sales, he is very good here, veering from smug overconfidence to near desperation, his barely concealed anger and frustrations bubbling up from time to time. Although he appeared in a few movies, Collins spent most of his career on the small screen, starring, for example, in the Night Gallery spin-off series, The Sixth Sense (1972, 25 episodes). Along with another American, Donna Mills, he had the most repeat appearances (3) on Thriller.

   Similarly, Penelope Horner (born 1939) performed in both movies and TV, retiring in 1986.

   Another versatile actor who could handle drama and comedy equally well was Peter Bowles (1936-2022), the wily Superintendent Lucas, whose conduct during the investigation takes a surprising and almost Machiavellian turn.
   

THE CASE OF THE DANGEROUS ROBIN “The Tin Caper.” Syndicated / ZIV. 10 April 1961 [as aired on KNXT, Los Angeles] (Season One, Episode 26). Rick Jason (Robin Scott), Jean Blake (Phyllis Collier). Screenplay: Robert Lesllie Bellem. Director: William Conrad. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below but note that the picture quality is only fair at best, and the sound synchronization is way off).

   Robin Scott was a free-lance insurance investigator, which I’m going to say qualifies him as a PI. His usual fee is ten percent of whatever he saves the insurance company in that week’s episode. It isn’t particularly noticeable in this one, but his  primary gimmick is that he does not use a gun, only karate. His girl friend Phyllis Collier somehow gets mixed up in all of cases, either by hindering or on occasion (perhaps) helping.

   Gone missing in this one is a ship’s cargo of tin, dumped overboard, the captain and crew claim, during a violent storm that otherwise threatened to sink the vessel. Robin thinks otherwise. In the guise of wanting to elope and kidnapping Phyllis for a large ransom from her father as well, he wrangles his way onto the ship, gets both of them captured, only to escape, and gee it’s all too easy.

   And not very involving, either. Other episodes may be better, but on the other hand, I seriously doubt if many of them still exist. The Case of the Dangerous Robin lasted for one season of 38 episodes.

ELIZABETH BEAR & SARAH MONETTE “Boojum.” Short story. First appeared in Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Nightshade Books, 2008). Reprinted in three “Best of Year” anthologies edited by Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell; by Gardner Dozois; and by Rich Horton. Also reprinted in Cosmic Corsairs, edited by Hank Davis & Christopher Ruocchio (Baen, 2020).

   Nothing says “space opera” more than pirates in space, and that’s exactly what this story’s about. What’s somewhat unique (though perhaps not entirely) is that the pirates’ ship is a living organism, a boojum, a spacefaring vessel they have named the Lavinia Whateley. She is described as “a vast spiny lionfish to the earth-adapted eye. Her sides were lined with gasbags filled with hydrogen; her vanes and wings furled tight. Her color was a blue-green so dark it seemed a glossy black unless the light struck it; her hide was impregnated with symbiotic algae.”

   What is likely to be even more unique is that when the crew has finished plundering their latest prey, Vinnie finishes it off, hull, engines and all, by, um, eating it. Part of their loot in their latest score are some cylindrical metal containers containing human brains. Captain Song laughs it off, but Black Alice Bradley, a junior grade engineer, is not so sure about it. She is right.

   The cylinders were a shipment intended for the Mi-Go, and they want what they paid for. The Mi-Go come “from the outer rim of the Solar System, the black cold hurtling rocks of the Öpik-Oort Cloud. Like the Boojums, they could swim between the stars.” Black Alice likens them to “the pseudoroaches of Venus … with too many legs, and horrible stiff wings.”

   Black Alice likes living in Vinnie, and hopes someday Vinnie will respond in kind. Luckily she is on the outside of the ship on a repair mission when the Mi-Go show up … but you will have to read anything more than this on your own. This is as far as I go.

   I think that Black Alice, who is the primary protagonist in this one, could be played in a TV show based on it by the young lady who stars in Poker Face, which I reviewed on this blog a while back. She’s a most sympathetic figure, in a definitely non-conformist way.

   Other than the action that’s packed into this one, well, I assume you all recognized the Lewis Carroll reference. But what about the Livinia Whately (from The Dunwich Horror) and the Mi-Go (aka the Fungi from Yuggoth)? This gives the tale a whole new dimension, most certainly so.

PATRICK HAMILTON – Midnight Bell. Hardcover, UK, 1929. Little Brown, US, hardcover, 1930. Included in the 3-in-1 trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (Constable, UK, hardcover, 1935); republished by Vintage, 1998.

   Fact and fiction. Where’s the line? Even your dreams are drawn from your life. Your life drawn from your dreams. They seep into one another. Like liquor in a cake. Sweet and bitter. As the case may be.

   Patrick Hamilton, drawn from his life with little camouflage, pulls a draught, a drought, for the tolling of the Midnight Bell. ’Tis the name of a bar. The bar he tends. His name is Bob.

Bob falls for a young, pretty prostitute. Frail. And fallen. And he could save her. Maybe.

   He feels like he’s slumming. Like he’s bound for much greater glories. A great author to be. But he feels for Jenny, the wayward waif. She’s got an innocence that belies her life. Her life is a lie that lays beneath her virtue: an innocence that cannot be spoilt. And innocence and purity that none of her Johns can plunder. That only he can see.

   He has saved 80 pounds. By the hardest. And he asks her to go away with him. To flee, with him, this drudgery. ‘The glazed blue eyes of a carefree kleptomaniac.’

   And she agrees. My Bob, she says. My Bob, come to save me.

   She, thru the tried and true method of exchanging her bearing on every other meeting from warmth to coldness, she succeeds in extracting every last pound from ‘her Bob’. And leaves him flat. Preying on his prayers. Squeezing every last droplet of blood money from his innocence, his adoration, and his love.

   She was ‘born to toil but did not toil….for that reason bold, lazy, ruthless, and insensitive: that they were women of the street.’

   â€˜Possibly one of the peculiarly depressing situations in the world is this: to be a waiter who has once had eighty pounds, to have fallen incontinently in love with a blue-eyed young prostitute of twenty-one, to have arranged to meet her at Victoria so as to go away on a holiday with her, to have waited for an hour for her without result, to have decided to get wildly drunk, to have succeeded, to have had every penny of the last of your money stolen….to have been got to bed by the charity of another prostitute….and, finally, to wake up, trembling with cold, in a doss house, at the black bitter hour of half-past five, and slowly divine that all this has occurred.’

   â€˜Were there any lower circles, he wondered, to which he might descent in hell?’
   

PATRICK HAMILTON – Hangover Square. Constable, UK, hardcover, 1941. Random House, US, hardcover, 1942. Film: TCF, 1945 (scw: Barre Lyndon; dir: John Brahm).

   Patrick Hamilton would have his revenge. At least in dreams. In Hangover Square.

   Here he calls himself Bone. George Harvey Bone.

   Bone is in love. With Netta Longdon. Yet another wayward waif. Warm and cold. With greed.

   â€˜Netta. The tangled net of her hair-the dark net-the brunette. The net in which he was caught-netted. Nettles. The wicked poison-nettles from which had been brewed the potion which was in his blood. Stinging nettles. She stung and wounded him with words from her red mouth. Nets. Fishing-nets. Mermaid’s nets. Bewitchment. Syrens — the unearthly beauty of the sea. Nets. Nest. To nestle. To nestle against her. Rest. Breast. In her net. Netta. You could go on like that for ever-all the way back to London.’

   But while George Harvey Bone is ordinarily too soft, too British, to proper and repressed to dole out the punishment Netta deserves for her deceit, there is another George Harvey Bone. For Bone has broken into two. A psychotic break of which his proper personality is unaware. Except for the click of the switch.

   â€˜Snap…Click! — just like that…

   â€˜He was walking along the front at Brighton, in the sombre early dawn, in the deep blue cloudy not-quite-night, and it had happened again…

   â€˜Click!…It was as though his head were a five-shilling Kodak camera, and someone had switched over the little trigger which makes the exposure. He knew the sensation so well, yet he never failed to marvel at its oddity.

   â€˜Like a camera. But instead of an exposure having been made the opposite had happened — an inclosure — a shutting down, a locking in. A moment before his head, his brain, were out in the world, seeing, hearing, sensing objects directly; now they were enclosed behind glass (like Crown jewels, like Victorian wax fruit), behind a film — the film of the camera, perhaps, to continue the photographic analogy-a film behind which all things and people moved eerily, without colour, vivacity or meaning, grimly, puppet-like, without motive or conscious volition of the own…’

   In his periods of psychotic trance he moves ineluctably, intractably, towards the single minded purpose that he must kill Netta. Kill her and escape to Maidenhead, pastoral land of his childhood, on a rowboat with his sister, in the warmth of the sun. And braying sheep. At Maidenhead he’ll be safe. But first, he must kill Netta.

   So what we see thru the course of the novel is Netta jerking Bone around, yanking his chain when she needs money, insinuating her love, then coldly casting him aside when she gets it. Which only serves to deepen his adoration, his affliction — and his psychotic break.

   Midnight Bell is a well-drawn slice of life. Reminiscent of Barfly. But serves best as an aperitif for Hangover Square.

   Hangover Square is a terrific novel. One of the best I know. And what elevates the thing to a level with Simenon’s Stain in the Snow and Bataille’s Blue of Noon is its confluence with the rise of fascism in Europe. While George Harvey Bone is losing himself to psychosis, the threat of war is at hand. The climax of Hangover Square coordinates with the German invasion of Poland.

   Violent eclipse was coming home. Schindler’s List ends with the quote: ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.’ For George Harvey Bone, it’s the reverse.

EDWARD S. AARONS – Assignment Sumatra. Sam Durell #38. Fawcett Gold Medal M3139, paperback original; 1st printing, October 1974.

   I continue to be amazed at the geographic background Aarons was able to include in all of his CIA agent Sam Durell novels – the sights and sounds of each of the locations the stories take place in. It is possible, of course, that I’m always fooled – I’ve been in, for all practical purposes, none of them– but they all seem real to me, and if I am fooled, that Aarons was faking it all the while by going to library and taking out a huge stack of books, it’s in good way, and I don’t mind at all.

   There’s lots of local atmosphere in this one, which takes place, obviously, in Sumatra, where a Southeast Asia diplomatic conference is going on, and Sam’s assignment is to make sure the good Communist leader of one country is not assassinated and replaced by a body double while en route by a bad Communist leader of that country.

   Assisting him, and definitely against his wishes, as he prefers to work alone, is a girl named Lydia (blonde and beautiful) who is a trained assassin herself. What follows is a non-stop tale of twists and turns, captures and narrow escapes and deadly double- crosses, from beginning to end.

   There’s no need to go into them all. Either you will want to read this book without knowing anything more about it than this, or you’ve already read it and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

   Option C, that you aren’t interested in books like this, we won’t even bring up.

   It is too bad that the Aarons estate has been so difficult to track down. Several publishers specializing in reprinting old vintage tough guy novels such as this are very very interested. On the other hand, the books were extremely popular, back in the day, and for readers, used copies are still extremely easy to find.

POSTSCRIPT: I forgot to say that the conclusion of this one is as tough and hard-boiled an ending as any that I’ve read in a long, long time.

ERNEST HILL – Pity About Earth. Ace Double H-566; 1st printing, 1968. Published back to back with Space Chantey, by R. A. Lafferty, reviewed here. Cover art by Kelly Freas.

   In a future more than 30,000 years from now, man has lost his place in the universe, to the machines that have taken away even his humanity. The Publisher controls all forms of communication: TV, tapes, and papers that sell only advertising space.

   Archexecutive Shale represents mankind’s loss of feeling and does not know what it means to care. The hybrid half-ape Marylin he befriends is more human than he. The scientific laboratory’s experiments on living humans are something worse than black comedy. Is this any way to run a universe?

   Marylin takes the role of Publisher and initiates the slow process of restoring to man the illusion he controls [his existence]. Not very subtle, but tending to be both fascinating and dull.

Rating: ***½

Bibliographic Update: Ernest Hill was a British SF writer whose other two novels were published only in the UK: The G. C. Radiation (1971) and The Quark Invasion (1978). Of several dozen short stories, most if not all also appear to have been published only in the UK, many for New Worlds SF.

Intro: Those of you who have been following this blog for almost as long as I have must be wondering what happened to Walker Martin’s annual PulpCon / PulpFest report. He’s missed only one since the tradition began, and that was my fault. I was too busy with personal matters to get it up and running that year, and it appeared on Sai Shankar’s PulpFlakes blog instead.

   This year, though, Walker did attend but managed to catch Covid while there, and while he’s doing much better now, it took him a while to recover, and he never did manage to write up a report. As you may have surmised, “Martin Walker,” whose report follows, is a pseudonym, but I can guarantee the facts he relates are 100% accurate. Bill Lampkin, whose photos I used is real, however, and I thank both him and our anonymous reporter for this year’s annual PulpFest report, at last!

         *****

   Except for the year 2020, there has been a summertime pulp convention since 1972. First, it was Pulpcon, running through 2008. Next came PulpFest, beginning in 2009 and running straight through this year (except for that year lost to COVID).

   PulpFest 2023 got underway early on Wednesday evening, August 2, when the convention’s chairperson, Jack Cullers, opened the dealers’ room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry for vendors to set up for the convention. Many PulpFest dealers took advantage of this early setup to load in their wares and socialize with friends whom they see but once, twice, or thrice each year.

   According to PulpFest’s marketing and programming director, Mike Chomko, the DoubleTree staff went above and beyond to have the hotel’s exhibition hall ready and waiting for the convention’s dealers. He recommends that all PulpFest vendors take advantage of the convention’s early set-up hours to prepare their exhibits for the convention’s official opening the next day.
PulpFest 2023 officially got underway on Thursday morning, August 3, with the arrival of more dealers for unloading and setup. Early-bird shopping began around 9 a.m. and continued until 4:45 p.m. Most dealers reported brisk sales following the official opening of the convention.

   One of the highlights of the dealers’ room was the initial offering from the extensive holdings of longtime collector Everard P. Digges LaTouche. Ed Hulse, editor and publisher of Blood ’n’ Thunder, had several long-boxes of Digges’ pulps for sale, with many rarities among his stacks. Other dealers with substantial pulp offerings included Adventure House, Ray Walsh’s Archives Book Shop, Books from the Crypt, Jack Cullers, Doug Ellis & Deb Fulton, Heartwood Books & Art, Paul Herman, Mark Hickman, John McMahan, Peter Macuga, Phil Nelson, Steranko, Sheila Vanderbeek, and Todd & Ross Warren. You could also find original artwork offered by Doug Ellis & Deb Fulton, George Hagenauer, Jackie Pollen, Craig Poole, and others.

   With nearly 80 dealers registered for PulpFest 2023, the dealers’ room was a sell-out. And the exhibitors on hand didn’t disappoint. In addition to pulps and original artwork, you could find digests, vintage paperbacks, men’s adventure and true crime magazines, first-edition hardcovers, genre fiction, series books, Big Little Books, B-movies, vintage television shows, movie serials, Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, and pulp-related comic books, and more.

   Additionally, one could find contemporary creations including artwork, new fiction, and fanzines produced by The Burroughs Bibliophiles, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., Flinch! Books, Doug Klauba, Craig McDonald, Will Murray, Stark House, Steeger Books, Joab Stieglitz, Michael Tierney, Anthony Tollin, Mark Wheatley, and others.

   The third annual PulpFest Pizza Party followed the closure of the dealers’ room at 5 p.m. Over fifty pizzas were baked for the convention’s members, thanks to the generosity of PulpFest’s dealers. Since it was started in 2021, the annual pizza gathering has become a very popular fixture at PulpFest. The convention’s advertising director, Bill Lampkin, promises more pizzas in the years to come.

   Following opening remarks by chairman Cullers, the convention’s admirable programming line-up began with a salute to the centennial of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Edgar Rice Burroughs founded the corporation in 1923.

   Joining ERB’s Director of Publishing, Christopher Paul Carey, and Vice President of Operations, Cathy Mann Wilbanks, were authors Chris Adams, Win Scott Eckert, and Will Murray to discuss their upcoming Burroughs-inspired books.
Morgan Holmes — who has been called the world’s greatest expert on sword and sorcery — was up next with a look at sword and sorcery in Weird Tales. Also on hand was Chris Kalb, creator of “The Spider Returns” website. Joining him were award-winning authors Will Murray and Gary Phillips to talk about “The Master of Men” on the occasion of the character’s 90th anniversary.

   Jim Beard followed the Spider presentation with a look at Conan, “The Multimedia Barbarian,” while old-time-radio expert Karl Schadow, closed out the programming with a discussion of Weird Tales on radio.

   Despite a long day of buying and selling and an evening packed with programming, many conventioneers gathered in the hotel lounge to talk and reminisce about their favorite authors, cover artists, and pulp characters long into the night.

   There was more buying and selling on Friday, August 4. Competing for attendees’ attention were a couple of afternoon presentations. Chris Carey and Win Scott Eckert discussed “Doc Savage — The Man and Myth of Bronze.” Part of PulpFest’s celebration of the 90th anniversary of “The Man of Bronze,” it was also this year’s FarmerCon presentation. Since 2011, PulpFest has hosted FarmerCon, a convention that began in Peoria, Illinois, the hometown of Philip José Farmer.

   Following the FarmerCon XVIII presentation was a discussion of jungle fiction in the pulps, featuring Henry G. Franke III — editor of The Burroughs Bulletin — and Ed Hulse — editor of Blood ’n’ Thunder. The presentation was part of the 2023 ERBFest, another “convention within a convention” that’s held at PulpFest. An art show — hosted by Franke — was also part of this year’s ERBFest. It featured original comic strip art, paperback and limited edition hardcover artwork, and much more. Taking place in the early afternoon hours, the show was very well attended and garnered a good many compliments.

   After the dinner break came more evening programming, beginning with a look at PulpFest 2024, presented by committee members Cullers and Chomko. Afterward, Bob Deis and Wyatt Doyle — co-editors of “The Men’s Adventure Library” — offered a look at “Those Weird Men’s Adventure Magazines,” an exploration of supernatural stories and creature features that found their way into the men’s magazines of the late twentieth century.

   Up next, a trio of contemporary artists — Mark Schultz and Mark Wheatley, with Don Simpson moderating — discussed illustrating Conan for the commercial market, part of the convention’s salute to the character’s 90th anniversary. Pulp art expert David Saunders followed with a look at fantasy and adventure artist J. Allen St. John, best known for illustrating the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

   Finishing up PulpFest’s salute to the centennial of Weird Tales was a panel featuring Darrell Schweitzer and John Betancourt. Writers and editors, both men helped to revive the magazine in 1988. Since then, Weird Tales has, more or less, been published continuously. Moderating the panel was Tony Davis.

   Closing out Friday night’s programming was Nicholas Parisi — author of Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination — with a discussion of “The Sports Stories of Rod Serling.” Afterward, for those not ready to turn in, a “Barsoomian Bull Session” followed in the hotel’s lounge area.

   On Saturday, August 5, the dealers’ room opened yet again at 9 a.m. and brisk business continued. All told, nearly 400 people passed through the entrance to the PulpFest 2023 dealers’ room where they were tempted by 150 tables filled with thousands of pulp magazines, digests, vintage paperbacks, original art, and more.

   Once again, the “Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs” art show was open for viewing during the early afternoon hours. Afterward, Christopher Paul Carey, Henry G. Franke III, and Garyn Roberts paid tribute to “100 Years of The Moon Maid.” The first segment of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ trilogy was originally serialized in Argosy All-Story Weekly in 1923.

   Closing out the afternoon programming was “Doc Savage and His Offspring,” a panel presentation featuring writers Win Scott Eckert, Craig McDonald, Will Murray, and Gary Phillips. Moderated by Jennifer DiGiacomo — the former publisher of The Savage Society of Bronze — the panel explored the work of the writers, all inspired by Lester Dent’s “Man of Bronze.”

   Saturday’s evening programming began with journalist and pulp historian Michelle Nolan discussing the first sports pulp — Sport Story Magazine — with pulp collector Alex Daoundakis. Published by Street & Smith, Sport Story Magazine debuted 100 years ago in 1923.

   Following the convention’s final programming presentation, Walker Martin — who has attended every Pulpcon/PulpFest since the very first one in 1972 — announced the winner of the 2023 Munsey Award. Recognizing an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community — be it through disseminating knowledge about the pulps or through publishing or other efforts to preserve and foster interest in the pulp magazines we all love and enjoy — this year’s Munsey was awarded to Richard Bleiler, a bibliographer and researcher in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. You can read the full text of Richard’s acceptance speech on the PulpFest website.

   Closing out the evening was the convention’s Saturday night auction. It featured about 90 lots from the estate of Vermont collector Carl Joecks, over 80 lots consigned by Dearly Departed Books of Alliance, Ohio, and more than 100 lots submitted by PulpFest 2023 members.

   The highlights of the auction included the first eight volumes of the Tom Corbett juvenile series, a trio of early edition hardcovers by Robert A. Heinlein, the first authorized American edition of Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island, nine early edition hardcovers by E. E. “Doc” Smith, thirties issues of The Shadow Magazine and Weird Tales, the December 1939 Marvel Tales, a large lot of fanzines and related materials, and a set of Shadow paperbacks in very fine condition. Overshadowing all of the lots was a very scarce ink stamp pulp premium from “The Shadow Club.” Originally offered through The Shadow Magazinefrom April 1, 1934, to the end of August 1934, the stamp sold for $750.

   Nearly $12,000 exchanged hands during the auction. Afterward, those with change still in their pockets retired to the hotel lounge for a late-night session of “Fraternizing at FarmerCon.”

   Although the convention opened once again on Sunday, August 6, buying and selling opportunities were limited as dealers packed up and prepared for the drive home. Unfortunately, a number of attendees contracted COVID during the convention. Thankfully, most cases were relatively mild.

   PulpFest 2024 will take place August 1 – 4 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh — Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. The convention will be celebrating “Spice, Spies, Shaw, and More” in 2024. You can learn more by visiting pulpfest.com. I hope to see you there.

BLACK SADDLE “Client Meade.” NBC, Four Star Productions. 17 January 1959 (Season One, Episode Two). Peter Breck (Clay Culhane), Russell Johnson (Marshal Gib Scott), Anna Lisa (Nora Travers). Guest Cast: Clu Gulager (Andy Meade), Ned Glass. Director: Roger Kay. Currently streaming on YouTube (see below).

   The premise of this TV western series that ran for two seasons, the first for NBC, the second on ABC (*) was that when gunslinger Clay Culhane quit his gunslingers ways he turned instead to practicing law. There was more to his backstory than this, but all that was presumably covered in the first episode of season one. This is the second.

   Not yet having watched the first episode, I do not know the significance of his black saddle. Other than a carry over from his more wayward way of making a living, perhaps there was none. And of course even though he is now a lawyer, there are times when his guns are needed.

   Clay’s client in this one is Andy Meade (Clu Gulager), a drifter who is handy with a gun who is followed into town by three men with vengeance is their eyes toward him, but when the oldest confronts him, the man dies. A witness could verify that it was self defense, and he does at first, but when it comes time for a hearing, frightened for his family, he changes his testimony.

   This is the crux of the story, but for a tale that’s 30 minutes long, including time for commercials, there is a lot more action to come, including a break from jail, another shootout, and a recanting of the changed testimony, which comes too late for everyone to survive.

   As for the players, I hesitate to suggest this, but I think Clu Gulager had more onscreen charisma than Peter Brock and Russell Johnson combined (none), but maybe that’s just me. Anna Lisa, as the woman behind the front desk of the hotel, had little to do in this one.

   What this is, overall, as “adult” westerns on TV at the time so often were – and there surely were a lot of time – is a short little morality play. Don’t tell lies, and let the law be the guide. Done, and done, and most neatly so.

(*) Thanks to Mike Doran and his Comment #1 for the correction on this.

R. A. LAFFERTY РSpace Chantey. Ace Double H-56, paperback original; 1st printing, 1968. Published back-to-back with Pity About Earth by Ernest Hill (to be reviewed soon). Cover art by Vaughn Bod̩.

   Captain Roadstrun and his crew decide not to return ti Earth immediately after the war ends. Thus begins a wild, woolly and sometimes wonderful parody of the Odyssey. All the important episodes are evident, though coming out strangely different through Lafferty’s eyes and brain.

   The first and last chapters are the funniest, but the entire book is written to fit my idea of the Theatre of the Absurd. Would the story have been better if Lafferty hadn’t written himself (and the crewman) into situations where no escape was possible, but somehow they did, or is this the stuff of tall tales? Note: the cover painting and the interior illustrations by Bodé are excellent.

Rating: ***½