Paperback Warrior Primer - Mack Bolan

In March of 1969, Pinnacle published a paperback titled War Against the Mafia. It was written by Don Pendleton (1927-1995), a U.S. Navy veteran who entered World War II at the age of 14. The novel became a success for Pinnacle/Pendleton, eventually earning literary prominence as a major catalyst for men's action-adventure paperbacks. Don Pendleton's 170-page vigilante yarn spawned a character universe that grew to a staggering 900 books across multiple publishers, authors, and titles.

The fifth podcast episode explored Bolan's publishing world, and numerous reviews exist here at Paperback Warrior covering the series. However, many readers new to the character may prefer a brief outline of the series. That's the point of this article, a Paperback Warrior Primer on this shifting, gritty, and violent experience known as The Executioner.

Mack Bolan's origin begins with Don Pendleton. As I alluded to earlier, he served in the U.S. Navy during WW2. Additionally, he served in the Korean War before becoming an air traffic controller for the FAA and an engineering administrator at NASA. Pendleton turned to writing at the age of 40.

In War Against the Mafia, the essential origin tale, readers are introduced to 30-yr-old Bolan. He's a U.S. Army Master Sergeant serving a second tour of duty in the Vietnam War. With 12 years of military service, he's a skilled sniper, holding an official record of killing 32 high-ranking North Vietnamese and 63 Viet Cong leaders. Bolan and his mother Elsa, communicate twice a week and she sends him care packages. Bolan's father is Sam, a steel worker he respects “as indestructible as the steel he made.” Bolan's two siblings are 17-yr-old Cindy and 14-yr-old Johnny. 

Elsa explains in a letter that Sam had a heart attack, and, due to lost wages, the family was in a financial bind. On a fateful day in August, Bolan is summoned to the base camp chaplain's office, where he's informed that his parents and sister are dead and his brother is in critical condition. On emergency leave, Bolan arrives stateside and learns about events leading to their deaths.

Sam borrowed money from a mob-run loan shark. Despite paying off the loan with interest, the mob puts the squeeze on Sam and requires him to endlessly pay them money. Under the financial stress, Sam cracks and fatally shoots his wife and daughter in a murder suicide. Johnny is critically wounded in the exchange.

There are a number of iconic and pivotal moments in the Mack Bolan universe, but in my opinion, none compare to the first sequence of events in Bolan's vigilance. The character purchases a Marlin .444 rifle, camps in front of the loan shark office, then shoots and kills five of the corrupt employees, thus setting off a violent rampage that will become his way of life for decades. He declares his mantra in War Against the Mafia:

"Life is a competition, and I am a competitor. I have the tools and the skills, and I must accept the responsibilities. I will fight the battle, spill the blood, smear myself with it, and stand at the bar of judgment to be crushed and chewed and ingested by those I serve. It is the way of the world. It is the ultimate disposition. Stand ready, Mafiosi, The Executioner is here."

By most standards, the first four installments are considered the essential building blocks of The Executioner series - #2 Death Squad, #3 Battle Mask, #4 Miami Massacre. After 15 novels, Pendleton and Pinnacle experience a dispute and the publisher releases the 16th novel, Sicilian Slaughter, without Pendleton's involvement, instead settling on William Crawford's writing (using the name Jim Peterson). Pendleton returned to the series with the 17th installment, ignoring events that transpired in Crawford's book.

37 of the first 38 The Executioner novels were all written by Don Pendleton and considered the "Mafia Wars" story arc. The covers for many of these novels were painted by Gil Cohen, who began working with Pinnacle on the title with the 11th installment, California Hit (1972). The publisher was so impressed with Cohen's paintings that they had him paint covers for reprints of the series' first ten installments. Cohen would continue painting over 100 Bolan novels and companions, making his name nearly synonymous with that of Mack Bolan. Men's Adventure Library, published by New Texture, offers an amazing collection of Cohen's Mack Bolan artwork titled One Man Army: The Action Paperback Art of Gil Cohen. Get the book HERE.

There's a 1977 stand-alone companion piece called Executioner War Book. According to Linda Pendleton, it was a collaborative effort stemming from Pinnacle Editorial featuring Stephen Mertz, Mike Newton, Don Pendleton's son Greg and daughter Melinda doing the research and putting the book together. The book has some letters written by fans to the author as well as drawings of Bolan's battle van and firearms. 

After the 38th novel, Satan's Sabbath, there is a major shake-up with Bolan and the publisher.

Pendleton, who grew complacent with the Mack Bolan character, sold the licensing rights to the Harlequin publishing group. Under Harlequin's Gold Eagle brand, the series continued as The Executioner, but utilized bold fonts stating Mack Bolan on the paperback covers. The iconic face of Bolan at the top of each book was replaced with a small circular font that stated The Executioner and the series installment number. 

The first paperback of this new enterprise was #39 The New War (1981), the second book of the series to be written by someone other than Don Pendleton. Gold Eagle's investment in the series brought a rotating assembly of writers who would utilize Pendleton's name. However, Pendleton was adamant about listing the writer of the books on the inside copyright page, a feat that isn't often used in the cutthroat paperback publishing business of that era.

With The New War, the character and premise of the series changed. After 38 novels of Bolan fighting the Mob, this new 80s decade warranted a different type of enemy. Global terrorism began making headlines in the 1970s, spurred by horrific events like the “Black September” Munich massacre, and rising organizations at the time consisting of the Japanese Red Army, the Symbionese Liberartion Army, and the Weather Underground.

In The New War, readers learn that Bolan, once a fugitive wanted by the F.B.I. and C.I.A., is now working for the U.S. government to combat global terrorism and international crime. Mack Bolan's new name is John Macklin Phoenix and his headquarters is a covert operation in Virginia called Stony Man.

The Executioner would run from 1981 through 2020 with a total of 464 installments authored by a variety of writers. The most respected of the series' writers was Stephen Mertz, although Mike Newton, Dan Schmidt, Jerry VanCook, Chuck Rogers, and Mike McQuay wrote the majority of the series, collectively 181 total installments. 

The other major changes and additions that began after The New War included an expansion of The Executioner title. Because of the many allies that serve Stony Man and Bolan, Gold Eagle took the opportunity to launch companion titles.  

Collaborating with Gold Eagle, Don Pendleton created the titles Able Team and Phoenix Force and “helped” write the series debut installments. Able Team consists of allies previously seen in Death Mask and Bolan's California infiltrations. The title ran 51 installments and two Super Able Team novels, using rotating authors using the house name Dick Stivers. Phoenix Force consists of international special operatives hand-selected by Bolan. The title ran 51 installments and four Super Phoenix Force special editions. The series was written by rotating authors using the name Gar Wilson.

Both of these titles were featured in a giant crossover of Bolan and allies in the 1983 novel Stony Man Doctrine. This impressive “giant-sized” novel served a couple of purposes. 

First, it was the first of the Super Bolan paperbacks published by Gold Eagle. These were double the size of the The Executioner books and had a higher price tag of $3.95. These Super Bolan novels worked in the same fashion as the standard The Executioner title and featured a revolving door of authors. 

Second, Stony Man Doctrine also served as the first of the Stony Man books, a series that would take off in 1991 after Able Team and Phoenix Force stopped publication. Stony Man combined both of the teams with other Bolan allies for a massive 140-book run through 2015. The start of the series in the early 90s also paralleled a marketing change for men's action-adventure novels – a shift to more epic, technical thrillers that honed in on the Tom Clancy marketplace share. Covers featuring good guys with guns morphed into generic covers of satellites, military installations, and fighter jets. 

In addition to paperbacks, there are four issues of the short-lived The Executioner Mystery Magazine (Ackerman Productions), a 1993 four-issue comic adaptation of War Against the Mafia (Innovation Publishing), a 1996 black-and-white comic adaptation of Death Squad (Vivid Comics), and a 2008 five-issue comic titled Don Pendleton's The Executioner: The Devil's Tool (IDW). 

There's no denying that Marvel Comics' The Punisher is a direct descendant of the Bolan character and series. In June of 1993, Advance Comics interviewed Don Pendleton about the comparisons between The Punisher and The Executioner. In it, Pendleton says, “Let's just say The Punisher has taken a lot of liberties with my work. Anyone who knows the history of The Executioner has known that all along. I elected many years ago to just let it pass, feeling that there is room for both of us in the industry.”

Audio books exist on cassette through DH Audio and Books in Motion. Cutting Edge Audio published The Executioner and Stony Man novels between 2004-2006.

You can get most of the Mack Bolan universe using this LINK.

The Burial of the Rats

One year before Bram Stoker's penultimate work, Dracula, his short story “The Burial of the Rats” (1896) was published in Lloyd's Weekly News. The story would be collected for the first time in book format courtesy of the George Routledge and Sons 1914 hardcover Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories, complete with one of Thomas Handforth's greatest illustrations. Since that date the story has appeared in hundreds of magazines, anthologies, and audio narrations. The story was adapted into a 1995 film titled Bram Stoker's Burial of the Rats by Roger Corman's film company. 

Surprisingly, despite the morbid title, “The Burial of the Rats” isn't quite a horror story. It is more of a dark, man-on-the-run flavor that would find its readership in the pages of a men's action-adventure magazine than a horror anthology. It would be 28 more years before Richard Connell Jr. set the standard for “men hunting men” in his marvelous romp "The Most Dangerous Game", but Stoker's early effort helps shape the formula. According to oldstyletales.com, predating both Stoker and Connell Jr. was the man-on-the-run thriller “An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, “The Suicide Club” by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling's “The Man Who Would be King”.

In Stoker's rather simple story, an unnamed British narrator wants to marry his sweetheart. However, the parents want him to spend a year apart from her, a 12-month journey that places the dejected narrator in Paris. He finds himself in a bad part of town where trash is heaped and the poverty-ridden populace squats in makeshift, unconventional housing. It is here that the narrator sees six veteran soldiers, now tattered in rags and scruffy uniforms, watching him like a hawk.

Lost, he stops to ask for directions from an old woman. She tells him of her life, and, while she talks, the narrator sees large rats swarming all over. She explains a horrible personal experience of venturing into the sewer once to retrieve a lost ring and of the rats there that would suck flesh from bones in an instant. Vaguely, the narrator then hears (or thinks?) the woman call out to the soldiers to help her kill the young traveler. In a quest to survive the night, the narrator then takes off on foot through this kingdom of rubble and trash to escape his pursuers.  

Stoker had a unique fascination with rats and used them quite often to set a type of warning that man's existence is perpetually haunted, or hunted, by a predator. Rats scurrying about is a frightening and disturbing image, but even with this appalling element, Stoker manages to eek by with a storytelling ability that is wholly steeped in an adventure. The story's second half is a furious run as the narrator attempts to escape the clutches of this maddened group of scrawny and starved ex-soldiers. The atmosphere and visual imagery of the city – this wasteland of debris and its King and Queen Squatters – is a character all to itself. For me, this is the real highlight of the book – the visual imagery of this awful place. 

You can get this story and others by Bram Stoker HERE.

The Lurking Fear

H.P. Lovecraft's serial “The Lurking Fear” was originally published between January and April 1923 in Home Brew. The stories appeared with interior illustrations by Clark Ashton Smith. The serial was reprinted as a novelette in the June 1928 issue of Weird Tales. Since that date, the story has appeared in numerous magazines and horror anthologies by publishers like Avon, Panther, Arkham House, and Del Rey. Now in the public domain, one can find numerous audio presentations of the book from free narrators like HorrorBabble, Gates of Imagination, and Voice Voyage. The story was also adapted into several film adaptations including Bleeders (1997), Dark Heritage (1989), Lurking Fear (1994), and The Lurking Fear (2023).

“The Lurking Fear” is a stand-alone story that doesn't fit Lovecraft's vast Cthulhu mythos. It begins with an unnamed narrator exploring Tempest Mountain, a supposedly cursed region in New York's Catskills. This narrator, a monster-hunter of sorts, and his two male companions, are responding to reports of creatures attacking people in the nearby area. Central to the narrator's investigation is a derelict mansion void of any residents. It is here that the trio take refuge to wait out the night. But, in the deep recesses of the dark, the narrator is awakened to see a large shadow on the chimney wall and the disappearance of his two companions. 

The narrator leaves the mansion and, after several days, returns to the mansion again with a journalist named Munroe. This time, the duo take shelter from a rainstorm in a nearby shack near the mansion's grounds. It  is here that Munroe is killed by a terrible mauling and the narrator searches for answers in a discarded diary the two had previously located.

In the story's second half, the narrator reveals the history of the mansion and a reclusive family known as the Martenses that turned to inbreeding in their rural isolation. Thinking he has found the answers to the creatures, and their mysterious attacks, the narrator returns to the property again and begins to dig up the grave of Jan Martense. Under the casket he locates a labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the creatures. But, like any good horror story, the clash between man and beast brings resolution.

“The Lurking Fear” has a disjointed presentation which Lovecraft himself was disappointed with. The  reason may have been the serial nature of the story and the need to expand it into several issues. Regardless, I enjoyed the aura of isolation, the unbridled tragedy affecting this early American family, and the narrator's gusto to confront the monstrosities despite the prior casualties that closely affected him. There's an atmosphere of foreboding that permeates the abandoned mansion and grounds. There's also this idea that death itself can reveal answers, apparent in the very physical need to look beneath the casket for answers. 

In terms of legacy, I can see shades of this story in film franchises like Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn, the classic 1981 film Hell Night, as well as stories by Stephen King like “Graveyard Shift”. Lovecraft, who remained an “unknown” in his lifetime, touched so many generations of horror fans. His influence on the genre is seemingly endless.

Wraiths of the Broken Land

S. Craig Zahler (born January 23, 1973, in Miami, Florida) is a multi-talented artist: a screenwriter, film director, composer, cinematographer, novelist, illustrator and heavy metal musician. After studying film at NYU, he built a career behind the camera and on the page. Zahler gained acclaim for hard‑bitten, violent dialogue‑driven films such as Bone Tomahawk (2015), Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017), and Dragged Across Concrete (2018), all of which he wrote, directed, and scored. Alongside his cinematic work, he’s penned several novels and graphic stories—his debut western, A Congregation of Jackals (2010), earned Spur and Peacemaker award nominations

2013’s Wraiths of the Broken Land stands as Zahler’s second western novel. It’s a relentless, genre-blending journey: half-pulp western and half-extreme horror. Beyond its popularity with readers, the novel drew Hollywood attention—20th Century Fox acquired film rights in 2016 for a film adaptation that has yet to happen.

It is 1902 and the book begins rather shockingly with an opium-addicted young woman named Yvette being held against her will as a forced prostitute in Mexico. The living conditions are grotesque, but resistance is futile due to her debilitating addiction. Soon thereafter, the reader meets her sister, Dolores, also an enslaved prostitute being held in a separate room by the same psycho Mexicans.

We then meet Nathaniel Stromler, age 26. He’s an erudite dandy of a gentleman in serious financial dire straits who has taken a job to ride along with the men of the Plugford family on a mission: recover the family daughters, Yvette and Dolores.

Nathanial is needed because he is bilingual and can pass for a gentleman john. He’s their ticket inside the kidnappers’ lair as a prospective client seeking to defile some captive white girls. The search for the sisters takes Nathanial and Team Plugford into the depths of Mexico from one promising lead to another in search of the brothel from Hell.

The scenes leading up to the rescue attempt are rather satisfying but the getaway’s immediate aftermath is less compelling. Pages upon pages of bickering among the Plugfords became tiresome as the novel’s secondary mystery of how the girls wound up as human sexual chattel is explored.

Things pick back up again with the backstory of the girls’ enslavement and a climactic confrontation between the opposing parties, but there was too much time on the road and scenes with characters waiting for something to happen.

To be clear, there’s plenty to enjoy about Wraiths of the Broken Land and Zahler is one of the great storytellers of our time. The problem is that this novel vastly pales in comparison to his other western, A Congregation of Jackals and his masterpiece crime novel, The Slanted Gutter. Those paperbacks spoiled me with their greatness while Wraiths was just good. If you’re trying to read them all (and I am), prioritize the other two first.

Get S. Craig Zahler books HERE.

The Shadow Guest

Hillary Waugh was a successful author that wrote numerous novels including a police procedural series starring a Connecticut Police Chief named Fred Fellows. His stories were published in mystery magazines like Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen and the slicks like Cosmopolitan. Like so many accomplished authors like Gil Brewer, Jon Messmann , and Dean Koontz, Waugh delved into the gothic-romance and suspense marketplace in the 1970s. His novel The Shadow Guest was originally published in 1971 by Victor Gollancz in the U.K. and Doubleday in the U.S. However, Dell capitalized on the book by marketing it as a gothic paperback in 1972.

Waugh introduces readers to a prosperous 34 year-old New York architect named Howard. He meets a 20 year-old actress, Angela, and the two develop a relationship and eventually marry. However, Angela develops a mental condition that spirals into paranoia and depression. After working through the debilitating condition, Angela begins to get well and Howard moves the couple to London to work on a large building contract. But, it is Howard's turn to become ill after suffering a heart attack.

Angela finds a seaside cottage on the western shore of England and convinces Howard, who's now in a rest and recovery mode, that the two should move there. Hesitantly, Howard agrees and the couple move in to a previously abandoned home titled Heather Cottage. But, the house has a haunting history.

According to various townsfolk, Heather Cottage is haunted by an “angry man”. Three years prior a young couple had died in a horrendous car wreck on the winding road leading to the house. Howard is quick to dismiss the claims, but the two have a housekeeper named Beverly that is a rumored psychic. She has an incident upon first entering the home. But, the bulk of Waugh's narrative concerns sinister events that haunt the couple.

Howard typically is awakened each night by the sounds of macabre laughter downstairs. There's also a mystery surrounding the home's attic with a light that consistently turns itself on. Angela is haunted by nightmares and visions of a bloody man wearing an Army coat. Howard eventually sees the same man on the couple's front lawn. What is happening at Heather Cottage?

It is debatable on whether The Shadow Guest is a genuine gothic. It has the familiar tropes – vulnerable people moving into a rural dwelling and experiencing supernatural or mysterious events that are difficult to explain to side characters that aren't eye witnesses to these events. That's the mainframe of gothic-suspense paperbacks. However, Waugh mixes it up by having two main characters instead of one. There's also the structure with Heather Cottage being a much smaller house than the typical vast estate or mansion. Additionally, instead of just having one character experiencing strange events, there are two. These make the book a little bit different and unique compared to the standard gothic fluff. 

Whether it is gothic or not doesn't influence the quality – The Shadow Guest is a wonderful reading experience with a prevalent mystery that left me guessing until the very end. The book's finale and afterthought left me fully satisfied. The narrative breezes by with Waugh's easily readable prose and each detail in the novel ultimately pays dividends in the book's finale. 

You can watch a video of me and Nick Anderson of The Book Graveyard reviewing the book in great detail HERE. Also, you can purchase the book HERE. 

Con & Ginty #01 - Coral Reef Castaway

British writer Arthur Catherall used his own name and a variety of pseudonyms to write adventure novels and stories marketed for young adults. One of those was Peter Hallard, a name Catherall used to write Coral Reef Castaway. The book was published in England by Phoenix House Ltd. in 1958 and in the U.S. by Criterion Books. The American edition, in hardcover, contains illustrations by Terence Greer.

As I've alluded to in my reviews, and discussed on a podcast feature, Catherall's writing was certainly marketed to teen boys, but in reality there's nothing that floats it too far from the adventure buoy established by the likes of Ace, Bantam, or Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks. Often a younger character is featured as the protagonist which aligns with a teen consumer. That connection is prominent in Coral Reef Castaway.

The book begins with a young man named Con Murray aboard a pleasure schooner in the Pacific. With trade winds blowing from the Queensland Coast, the voyage is sailing peacefully northwards inside the Great Barrier Reef. Due to a whaling accident, Con is accidentally thrown overboard and left behind. When a search of the waters fails to discover Con the ship's crew assumes he is dead. But, little do they know that the ravaged and weary young man has found a cay for sanctuary.

On this small little island Con is saved by another castaway, an old man named Ginty. After nourishment and rest, Con learns that Ginty experienced a ship wreck 21 years ago and he's been on this island since. But, now that Con is there he has a plan to escape the island with hundreds of thousands of dollars in valuable pearls. Shortly before his shipwreck, Giny had invested his time in pearl culturing – deliberately placing a small pebble inside of an oyster so they grow the pearl. Pear farming is explained masterfully by Catherall through his character. I found it nothing short of fascinating and now I want pearls. 

Con and Ginty can now work together to dive to the ocean depths to harvest the pearls. One man to crank the air pump and another to dive. Also, the two can successfully paddle boat the 30+ miles to civilization. But, like any good rags to riches tale, the endeavor introduces a criminal element that shakes the narrative and spins the moral compass of key characters.

Coral Reef Castaway is an enjoyable diving adventure that includes some tense moments in deep water. There's the obligatory ordeal with sharks and razor-sharp coral, but Catherall's leading duo experience the most trouble on land fighting the two-legged predator. There's diving rivalries, gunfire, survival elements, and the aforementioned underseas adventure to keep readers engaged for 200 pages. The central highlight is the old man of the sea mentoring the next generation. Catherall is an experienced journeyman and lived an exciting life of adventure. His resume of fishing, diving, and surviving in exotic locales inserts itself intentionally into the makeup of these characters and how they behave in harsh conditions.

If you love Catherall's writing as much as I do then you'll find plenty to like here. Don't let the cover and young adult stigma fool you. This is a recommended read. If you like both of these characters, Catherall wrote at least one more book starring the duo, Barrier Reef Bandits, published in 1960. I can't locate enough information to determine if Guardian of the Reef from 1961 includes these same characters. You can get these books HERE.

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 123

In this episode, Eric explores the transition of vintage pulp stories and heroes from magazine format to mass market paperbacks in the 1960s and 1970s. He also celebrates GarbAugust by highlighting three of the worst books he’s ever read. Stream below, download HERE, or watch on YouTube HERE.

Listen to "Episode 123: Pulps in Paperback" on Spreaker.

Conan - Conan of Cimmeria

The tenth of the Lancer Conan paperbacks, Conan of Cimmeria, was published in 1969. The publisher reprinted it in 1970 through 1973. Ace took over the publication in 1977, after Lancer's bankruptcy. The paperback was also published by Sphere Books in England in 1974. The book's contents is disappointing considering that Robert E. Howard's sole work, “The Frost Giant's Daughter”, “Queen of the Black Coast”, and “The Vale of Lost Women” only make up three of the eight selections. The rest are written by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter either together, solely, or with the aid of Howard's prior unpublished work. However, Frank Frazetta's cover painting is one of the most iconic of Conan culture.

The book begins with the obligatory map of the world of Conan in the Hyborian Age followed by an introduction authored by de Camp regarding Howard's short-lived life, the pseudo-history of Conan's world, and the fictional biography of the titular hero.

The highlight of the paperback is “The Frost-Giant's Daughter”. This was originally published with different characters as “The Gods of the North” (The Fantasy Fan #7, March 1934) after being rejected as a Conan story by Weird Tales. “The Frost-Giant's Daughter” version was first published in The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press, 1953). 

In the story, the hero has returned to his homeland in Cimmeria, but grows a hunger for battle. He decides to participate in a raid into Vanaheim with his old barbaric friends the Aesirs. As the narrative begins, Conan is the last remaining combatant of the Aesirs and an enemy named Heimdul is the sole member left of Vanaheim's fighting forces. They both lock into battle and Conan kills Heimdul, but collapses from exhaustion on the hard frozen ground. Conan awakens to feminine laughter and then sees a beautiful ivory-skinned woman in front of him. She's naked and barefoot, yet dancing on the snow. Lusting for this cold-weather maiden, Conan trails the woman for miles through the frozen wastelands. Growing tired, he suddenly realizes that the woman has led him to her two brothers, savage frost giants. 

“The Frost-Giant's Daughter” has a special kind of frosty ambiance and a dreamlike presentation that is unique for a Conan story. I'm surprised it wasn't picked up by one of the publishers of that era in its original form, yet I can foresee how they may have perceived Conan in this odd sort of icy trance. In the end, it all worked out for readers and fans as this story is one of Howard's finest stories. 

The other iconic Howard story in this paperback edition is “Queen of the Black Coast”. It was originally published in Weird Tales (May 1934) and then reprinted in Avon Fantasy Reader (#8, Nov. 1948). It's ranked in the higher echelons of Howard's Conan offerings for a reason. 

The story begins with Conan fleeing the law in Argos. Conan, in an effort to avoid his pursuers, demands passage on the Argus, a trading barge. When the Argus crew refuses to allow Conan to board, he threatens to kill the captain and his crew. Conan then befriends the ship's captain, a guy named Tito. 

The story's title comes to fruition when Belit arrives, a gorgeous female pirate commanding the Tigress. Her clashing with Conan's crew in Kush is a violent, epic struggle as the Argos crew is annihilated by Belit's black pirates. However, she finds Conan's fighting skills to be superb, peaking her interest in the adventurer. Belit is sexually attracted to Conan and soon the two become lovers as they ravage Stygian coastlines.

On the river Zarkheba, Conan and Belit discover an ancient tower in the jungle. After rotating the tower, they find a wealth of treasures, including a cursed necklace for Belit. Soon, subhuman creatures (hyena men?) and a winged demon appear to slaughter the Tigress's crew. The necklace creates madness for Belit and after Conan's lone departure to kill a monster, he returns to find her corpse hanging from the ship. 

“Queen of the Black Coast” presents something unusual for Conan – a true love. While readers don't partake in the relationship itself, they are there for the beginning. Belit's attraction to Conan is nearly hypnotic, submitting to the hero despite the number of crewmen she commands and the overall superiority of her ship. Conan instantly feels the attraction and is magnetized by this “She-Devil” as are readers.

The other sole Howard offering here is “The Vale of Lost Women”, estimated to have been written in 1933. It was never published in Howard's lifetime, only seeing a release much later in Magazine of Horror (Spring 1967). There was never any indication that the story was submitted to the pulps.

“The Vale of Lost Women” takes place after the events of “Queen of the Black Coast” and Belit's death. Conan has joined the Bamula tribe in the jungles of Kush, becoming their new tribal king. In an effort to propose a possible truce, Conan visits a rival tribe called The Bakalah. It is here that he meets a white female prisoner named Livia. He learns that both Livia, and her brother, are scientists from Ophir that were captured by Bakalah warriors. Livia's brother was tortured to death, and she's certainly next to die. 

Livia suggests to Conan that she is a virgin, and after he refuses to free her, she offers him her body. Conan then agrees to help her escape. Later that day, she sees Conan walking towards her carrying the bloody severed head of the Bakalah's tribal chief. In fear that Conan, now drenched in crimson, is coming for her, she escapes on horseback into the jungle. 

Livia falls from her horse and discovers she's in a beautiful valley that is home to a tribe of black lesbians! But, the lesbians are using poisonous orchids to create a hallucinogenic effect, placing Livia in a trance. She finds that these lesbians are sacrificing her on an alter to a giant black bat! Thankfully, Conan has trailed Livia and fights off the giant bat thing. Livia, fearing that Conan will attempt to claim her, becomes frightened. However, Conan simply advises her that he made a mistake in accepting her proposal to give herself to him. Arguably, he is suggesting there is no honor in that. Instead, he agrees to guide her to the Stygian border where she can eventually find passage to Ophir. 

There isn't much to Howard's story, which probably contributes to the possibility that it was never submitted for publication during the author's lifetime. The imagery of Conan slowly walking through carnage holding a severed head is memorable, but aside from that there isn't a whole lot to highlight. But, the story does present a rarely seen moment of the hero's life as the Bamula leader.

The best of the de Camp and Carter stories featured in the paperback is “Lair of the Ice Worm”, an original story published for the first time here. 

The story picks up after the events of "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" as a twenty-something Conan is trudging through the snowfall in Aesir. A short distance away, Conan sees a young woman being attacked by savage men resembling Neanderthals. Soon, Conan is slicing his way to the woman's rescue, but his horse is killed in the battle. In an eerie premonition, the girl warns Conan of something ominous called a Yakhmar, but Conan (and readers) isn't sure what that is.

Finding shelter in a cave, Conan makes love to the girl by the firelight. He awakens to discover the girl is no longer in the cave. With the icy conditions outside, Conan fears something may have happened to her. Outside, he follows a trail that leads to two skeletons, one of the girl and another of his horse. Both have been picked clean of all flesh and oddly enveloped in ice. Conan begins to think that this Yakhmar thing is actually a Remora, a giant vampire-like worm. Feeling responsible for the girl's death, Conan tracks the worm's trail to an icy cave. Will he escape this fiendish assault of Remora?

An eerie atmosphere and ambiance prevails throughout this short fantasy story. There's the obvious elements of horror, complete with a worm-like creature squirming under the icy tundra. The early battle with the savages was written well and contained the sweeping adventure that REH's Conan stories frequently possessed. As an aside, the brawny hero had no resistance in bedding down the beauty of the story, another obvious trope of Conan storytelling. 

Other stories in the paperback:

“The Curse of the Monolith” - an original de Camp & Carter story
“The Bloodstained God” - originally an unpublished Kirby O' Donnell story, reworked by Carter & de Camp
“The Castle of Terror” - originally an unfinished Howard manuscript, completed by Carter
“The Snout in the Dark” - originally an untitled fragment not finished or published, completed by Carter & de Camp.

Johnny Liddell #02 - Green Light for Death

Frank Kane's private-eye character Johnny Liddell appeared in 29 novels and a number of short stories in the pulps and digests. The second Liddell full-length novel published in book format was Green Light for Death. The first magazine publication of the novel was Crack Detective Stories' July 1949 issue. In 1949 (could be 1950?) there was a Readers Choice Library (N.8) edition of the book with a cover by Wayne Blickenstaff. My version of the book is the 1956 Dell paperback with a cover by Victor Kalin.

The novel begins with Liddell arriving in a small town called Waterville. His client was named Nancy Hayes, a young woman recently found floating in the water. Her death is deemed a suicide by the local homicide detective, a guy named Happy Lewis. Liddell finds some discrepancies in the story and begins to fish around town for answers. 

His investigation leads to Nancy's roommate, a sexy lounge singer that Liddell refers to as “Red” through the narrative. Red reveals that Nancy was in a panic prior to calling Liddell and hints that she may have been in some trouble. By teaming up with the local press, Liddell hones in on clues that Nancy came to Waterville searching for her younger brother. When Liddell goes to Red's lounge he learns about a unique colored lighting system that identifies certain patrons. From the title, one can assume that the green spotlight is fatal. 

Frank Kane writes Liddell as the standard competent private-eye that loves trouble, sarcasm, and women. The mix thrusts the hero into precarious situations that outmatch the small town police force. In this case, Liddell suspects the town's Chief is paid to allow a criminal network to flourish, thus there's a good side story with Detective Lewis looking to overthrow the Chief to regain the town's trust. I particularly enjoyed the physical aspects of Liddell fighting a couple of Chief thugs in a jail cell. There's plenty of gunfire and fisticuffs to match Liddell's determination to honor Nancy even in death.

If you love this era's Mike Hammer and Mike Shayne then you will surely find plenty to enjoy about Green Light for Death. Get the original vintage edition HERE. Or, HERE in digital.

The Phantom Coach

Amelia Edwards (1831-1892) was a British writer and artist that was deemed the “Godmother of Egyptology”. Her fascination with Egyptian culture led to a successful travelogue titled A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Her most famous novel is Barbara's History, published in 1864. However, she appears in several horror anthologies and digests with her frightening tale “The Phantom Coach”. The story first appeared in All the Year Round in 1864 as “Another Past Lodger Relates His Own Ghost Story” with the author unnamed. My version of the story is in The Phantom Coach: Thirteen Journeys into the Unknown edited by Peter C. Smith and published by William Kimber in 1979. 

The story's narrator is a young attorney named Murray. He is relaying an event that happened to him twenty years ago, an event he has never disclosed until now. Murray, newly married, is vacationing in the English countryside. He goes hunting (against his new bride's wishes) in the rural moors and forests during a snowstorm. After a few hours, he realizes he has become lost as the snowfall increases. Thankfully, Murray flags down an older gentleman in the wild. This stranger isn't helpful, and advises Murray that the nearest town is twenty miles away. Murray, desperate to live, sort of forces his will upon this old man, Jacob, and accompanies him back to the cottage where Jacob's master lives.

The master of the manor isn't thrilled to find Jacob has returned with an unwanted guest. After a bit of a verbal tussle, Murray sits with Jacob's master to have some dinner. It is during this conversation that the master advises Murray that he has been away from society and his colleagues in the scientific and technological industry. He wants to learn more about Murray's worldly experiences and, in doing so, he reveals to Murray that he has a fascination with the supernatural.  

Eventually the master encourages Murray to leave that very night to meet the mailman's coach that will be within five miles of the cottage. The mailman can then return Murray back to his wife at the Inn. But, this requires five miles through the dark snowfall on an abandoned coach road. On the journey, Jacob explains to Murray that a horrible accident happened on the old coach road nine years prior. He then leaves Murray with instructions on how to find the mailman's coach at a type of crossroads between the old road and the new one. To reveal any other details would ruin the thrill of this Victorian ghost story.

Amelia Edwards writes with a heavy handed descriptive approach that steers clear of an archaic prose. This is a smooth atmospheric tale that uses the dark moors, forest, and isolation to present a ghost story. Edwards has the ability to reveal very little about Jacob and the master, yet still somehow marries the two characters to the reader flawlessly. Every word they speak in this story hinges on some soon-to-be revelation that will affect the unfortunate protagonist. There's a great deal of mystery on just what awaits Murray on this old coach road. Once the terror reveals itself, Murray and readers are plucked from this out-of-the-way seclusion into a stuffy and cramped space saturated in doom and death. It's a wonderful scene switch that sets the story's finale. 

The Phantom Coach should be easily accessible as a free read. It is worth the effort to hunt it down. Recommended!

Buy an ebook version of the story plus others HERE.

The Joy Wheel

Paul Warren Fairman (1909-1977) was the founding editor of the science-fiction magazine If and the editor of Amazing Stories, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and Fantastic. As a prolific novelist, Fairman authored the spy series The Man from S.T.U.D. (as F.W. Paul) and contributed to genres like westerns, gothics, crime-noir, young-adult fiction, and television and film tie-ins. 

My first experience with Fairman's writing is his crime novel The Joy Wheel. The book was originally published as a paperback by Lion in 1954. Stark House Press imprint Black Gat Books chose to reprint the book in a new edition as their 73rd release.

Eddie is a high school kid growing up in the 1920s in Chicago. Prohibition is in full-swing and many average blue-collar men are now making a side hustle running the moonshine gauntlet through rival criminal networks and the crack-down police force. Eddie's Uncle Frank, an alcoholic that comes and goes throughout Fairman's addictive narrative, is a moonshine boozer that is near death due to the physical toll of alcoholism. 

Frank's daughter Helen is forced to live with Eddie and his family. This creates a sexual tension between the two cousins. Helen is consumed by inner turmoil with the breakup of her family due to Frank's alcoholism while Eddie is a tenth-grade hormonal time bomb. The two highly-charged emotional states are drawn together to create an irresistible passion. But, this is just one issue affecting Eddie's young life. 

This coming-of-age tale presents a timestamp on an era of American history marked by financial ruin, heightened criminal activity, and new discoveries for Americans searching for opportunity. Eddie quits school to pursue entry level opportunities in the gambling and moonshine racket. He routinely fights with his older sister Gloria, the most mature family member. She's on the cusp of marriage and a new life out west. However, Eddie finds fault with her relationship with their father, a man that Eddie idolizes but soon realizes is emotionally and ethically scarred.

Eddie's journey through sexual revolution, criminality, domestic difficulties, and a fevered concern for tomorrow makes for an enthralling read that is delightful in presentation and meaning. Fairman, while known for his far-flung science-fiction adventures, certainly had a knack for charming crime-noir. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read with a memorable end-of-innocence experience. Highly recommended. Get it HERE.

School Mistress of the Mad

Bruno Fisher often used the name Russell Gray or Harrison Storm to write graphic horror stories in the early to mid 20th century. Many of these stories were published in pulp magazines like Terror Tales, Dime Mystery Magazine, Sinister Stories, and Spicy Horror Stories. I've read a number of these including "School Mistress of the Mad". It was originally published in the January-February 1939 issue of Terror Tales. 

Doom is the name of a town nestled in the mountains populated by an inferior race of idiots looked down upon by the good people of nearby Amton. Chet is on sabbatical from his city job chilling out in sleepy Amton when he meets a beautiful woman named Linda driving through town headed into Doom. Stopping to ask directions, she discloses that she’s been hired as the new schoolteacher for the Town of Doom. As she drives deeper into the mountains, Chet can’t get her off his mind.

Chet learns that Doom was settled during the American Revolutionary War by a family named Gring who have reproduced and lived there ever since with no contact from the outside world. Generations of inbreeding have made the Gring clan into beast-like idiots.

The idea of the Grings hiring a beautiful schoolteacher in an illiterate town without a school defies logic. Meanwhile, several young women from the town of Amton have become missing lately. Could the Grings be taking some illegal measures to increase Doom’s genetic diversity? Chet sets off to Doom to investigate and maybe save Linda from the hillbillies fifteen miles away.

The author does a great job of building the dread and suspense for the reader who’s left wondering how bad it could be in Doom. I’m happy to report that the Grings clan is worse than you could imagine. This story is chilling and frightening if you enjoy crazed hillbilly stories in the vein of Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes. It’s hard to believe that the story 82 years-old and still packs such a visceral punch.

You can read this story and other Fischer horror tales in the collection Hostess in Hell and Other Stories. Get it HERE.

Dig Me No Grave

The February 1937 issue of Weird Tales featured Robert E. Howard's horror story “Dig Me No Grave”. The iconic Texas author was paid $100 for the story shortly before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1936. The story was later published in The Dark Man and Others by Arkham House in 1963, Fawcett's Eight Strange Tales in 1972, and Zebra's Pigeons from Hell in 1976. My version is from the Baen 1996 paperback Beyond the Borders.

The story begins when John Kirowan is awakened from his sleep at midnight by his good friend John Conrad. Conrad is in a panic state as he explains that a man named John Grimlan has just died (what is it with all the “Johns”?). A conversation ensues between Kirowan and Conrad over Grimlan's bizarre life living in a world of mysticism and the occult.

Grimlan had lived abroad for many years and rumors circulated that his physical appearance seemingly never aged. Conrad explains that a Count had once stated that Grimlan is a very old man, yet his appearance is youthful. Years ago, Grimlan had asked Conrad to look after his body upon his death. He provided a sealed envelope containing specific instructions. Now, Conrad wants Kirowan's assistance in returning to Grimlan's house and following the instructions laid out. It's here that Grimlan's corpse lies undisturbed just hours since his death.

“Dig Me No Grave” possesses a vivid atmosphere and mood that is draped in this wickedly dark tapestry. Howard, this late in his writing career, had perfected the horror story and he puts his talent to work describing Grimlan's dark house on the hill, the bleak midnight hour, and offers a delightful buffet of descriptions about the evil forces at work within Grimlan's life. The central portion of the story's narrative is the bizarre instructions left behind by Grimlan, orders that the contents of his estate be left to...the Devil! Interesting enough, Howard includes Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu references as well as his own Shuma-Gorath entity (first mentioned in Howard's “The Curse of the Golden Skull”) and Kathulos of Atlantis (found in the author's 1929 novella Skull-Face).

These two characters, Kirowan and Conrad, have been featured in other Howard stories, shorts like “The Children of the Night”, “The Haunter of the Ring”, and “The Thing on the Roof”. All of these have Cthulhu references.

“Dig Me No Grave” was adapted into comic form by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in Marvel's Journey Into Mystery in 1972.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Bill Gulick

Grover C. Gulick (1916-2013), known as Bill Gulick, wrote a ton of western stories in the pulp magazines in the 1940s and 1950s. His career is laced with both fiction and non-fiction, marked by winning two coveted Spur Awards, earning him a two-year presidency of Western Writers of America, and receiving accolades from the Cowboy Hall of Fame. I covered Gulick's life and career in a podcast HERE, but wanted to provide a visual text outlining his life and literary work.

Gulick was born in 1916 in Kansas City, Missouri. As a child, Gulick was an avid reader with weekly trips to the library. By the age of five he was reading Zane Grey and pulp western magazines. In high school he wrote a story modernizing Julius Caesar with a gritty underworld of Chicago gangsters. He graduated high school in 1934, a time when America had been thrust into the Great Depression. Gulick delivered newspapers, did collections on delinquent utility bills, and worked at a drug store to help the family make ends meet. 

Gulick enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, played baseball, and as a sophomore he entered a writing competition and saw his poem win top prize. During college, Gulick worked as a power line installer and also took a job selling appliances for Montgomery Ward. Both of these jobs expanded Gulick's world and allowed him to see a good portion of the Midwest. Hoping to achieve a career in writing, Gulick entered a Professional Writing School in 1940 and he sold his first story for $10 to a law officer magazine titled The Peace Officer. He then reached out to Popular Publications in New York about a western story he wrote. They published the short, “The Kid That Rode with Death”, in New Western Magazine and paid him $30. At this point Gulick considered himself to be a full-fledged professional writer. 

Gulick moved to Brownwood, Texas to be a caretaker for a couple's cabin on Lake Brownwood. It was here that he had the opportunity for solitude, a time he used to polish up on his writing and to get completely devoted to his style. He wanted to write for the slick magazines. He later spent a lot of time with pulp writer Foster Harris. It was Harris that encouraged Gulick to use his experiences installing power lines to write stories about hardened blue-collar working men. Harris explained that he used his own work experience in the oil fields to pen stories in Argosy, Blue Book, and Adventure. Gulick took the advice to heart and wrote a story titled “You Gotta Be Hard” about a lineman who saves a fellow worker from being electrocuted. He sold it to Adventure for $75 and it was published in their August 1942 issue. These stories are what Gulick refers to as his "high-line stories" about the dangerous industry and hardened men that worked on the power lines. That same year he had his story “The Saga of Mike Shannon” published in Liberty Magazine. The publisher paid him $350 for the story, which was his biggest payout to date. 

Gulick was classified as 4-F during World War 2 due to his bout with Polio years before the war started. In 1943, Gulick moved to New York City so he could be closer to the editors and publishers he was dealing with. By this point Gulick had sold stories to Big-Book Western, .44 Western, Ace-High Western, Texas Rangers, 10 Story Western, Liberty, and Adventure.  

Gulick became acquainted with Rogers Terrill who was working as an editor for Henry and Harry Steeger, the owners of Popular Publications. At the height of the pulp boom the Steegers had 33 magazines circulating. Each magazine sold on average 200,000 newsstand copies for a dime each, so the difference between showing a profit and incurring a loss was small. According to Gulick's autobiography, the Steegers were earning about $300 net profit per month on each magazine. Their top western writer was Walt Coburn. He had a story in just about every western magazine - either a 25,000 word novel, a 12,000 word novelette, or a 5,000 word short story. 

Rogers Terrill once sent Gulick a letter stating that his stories were good and that they would continue fetching on average of $280. He explained they were competent but not terribly original. He encouraged Gulick to stop writing run of the mill pot-boilers and to use his talent to write better work. Gulick went back to thinking of himself as more of a slick writer and found more stories being published in Liberty and Saturday Evening Post through the 1940s and 1950s. He was also published in Esquire, Blue Book, Collier's, and Nation's Business. By 1944, Gulick found that he had enough of New York and had met and introduced himself to enough publishers and editors. He first moved to Oklahoma before relocating to Tacoma, Washington. From there he continued to sell to Liberty magazine making $750 per story. The rejects from Liberty funneled down to the pulp magazines at less money. 

In 1946, Gulick discovered something really interesting about a Lone Ranger comic strip that was running in Seattle's Post-Intelligencer paper. The Lone Ranger story was plagiarized from a Gulick short published in 10 Story Western Magazine. He cut out the strips each day until he had the whole story and then mailed it to Popular Publications who agreed that it was plagiarism. Eventually, the Lone Ranger's legal firm settled with Gulick paying $250 both to him and Popular Publications. In a funny send off to the settlement, Gulick volunteered to write Lone Ranger stories but his request was ignored. 

Gulick met his wife while working as a house manager for a Tacoma Theater Company and the two moved to New York. After meeting with the editor of Saturday Evening Post, Erd Brandt, Gulick was pitched the idea of writing his first serial. Gulick knew that was huge money as Ernest Haycox and Luke Short had both earned upwards to $50,000 for a serial. Brandt wanted a historical Pacific Northwest setting for the serial. In his research, Gulick became fascinated with the history of the emigrants into the Washington and Idaho Territories from the Oregon Trail Days. Gulick used the concept to write an 80,000 word novel titled Bend of the Snake. It was Gulick's first full-length novel, however when he pitched it to the Post as a serial they rejected it for being too long. He submitted the novel to Doubleday but it was rejected for a lack of violence. Houghton Mifflin published the book in 1950 and Gulick received a $5,000 movie option. Universal-International bought the film rights, changed the title to Bend of the River, and cast James Stewart in the lead role. 

Gulick settled into writing more full-length novels including A Drum Calls West and A Thousand for the Cariboo. Around this same time an anthology of Gulick's mountain man western short stories was collected into an omnibus paperback titled The Mountain Men. 

In 1953. Gulick joined the Western Writers of America, the brainchild of author Nelson Nye. In 1955 Gulick ran for President of the organization, a position he held in 1956 and 1957. 

Up until the late mid-1950s, Gulick's novels were being published as hardcovers. But, Popular Library offered Gulick the opportunity to write paperback originals. The author wrote Showdown in the Sun, a paperback purchased by Famous Artists, a Hollywood Film company that paid $13,500 for the book. Gulick also began selling rights to his short stories to television shows. In 1961, Gulick sold his story "Where the Wind Blows Free" to Saturday Evening Post for $2500. Gulick wrote novels for Doubleday including They Came to a Valley, which won the Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Award as Best Western Historical Novel of the Year and Hallelujah Trail, which the Mirisch Brothers bought film rights for $85,000. The movie was released in 1964 and starred Burt Lancaster, Donald Pleasance, and Brian Keith. 

Gulick also flourished in the non-fiction realm as well. He wrote the books Snake River Country and Chief Joseph Country as non-fiction historical accounts. Gulick also wrote a western for Doubleday titled Trails West about a gold mine in Hells Canyon and anti-Chinese riots in the 1880s. The book, which was published in 1979, did well but hinted to Gulick that the western book market had dwindled significantly. 

In 1988, Gulilck's western trilogy was caught up in a publishing feud between Doubleday and Gulick. The publisher wanted each book to be trimmed from 100,000 words to 85,000. The publisher also disagreed with Gulick's overall title for the trilogy as Northwest Destiny. Doubleday published each of the books in 1988 - the first in May titled Distant Trails, the second in June titled Gathering Storm, and the third in July titled Lost Wallowa. The publisher sold 5,000 copies of each book to libraries without any promotion and then let the books go out of print. Gulick was able to have the rights reverted back to him from Doubleday. With permission, Berkley published the books in paperback format.

Bill Gulick died at the age of 97 in 2013 in Walla Walla, Washington. In his autobiography, his final conclusion stated this:

"What the world of writing will be in time to come, I cannot predict, other than to say it will change, as it has in my lifetime. Despite the proliferation in the methods of communication that has taken place during the last sixty-four years, the nation as a whole is no more literate now than it was then, when almost everybody who had gone to school at all could read at the fourth-grade level, whereas now we have students in college who cannot do as well. Back in the 1950s, when I complained to Carl Brandt, Sr. about the way the TV monster that had invaded our living rooms was threatening to replace my beloved Saturday Evening Post, he said, 'Don’t worry about it, Bill. What you should understand is that the American public has a great capacity for accepting a new medium of entertainment without forsaking the old.' In any event, it is time for a new generation of writers to replace mine. All I can say is, 'I wish you well'."

Gulick's last published short story was in 1982 and his last book was published in 2008.

You can obtain many of Bill Gulick's vintage books HERE.