Here it is. The smoking gun. Evidence of a hard-boiled meeting. Once in a lifetime.

To any reader of hard-boiled crime fiction this is an amazing photograph. This is the only photographic evidence of the two masters of pulp fiction Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Changler ever having met. The fact that it's from a dinner party at Black Mask magazine in 1936 only makes it even more awesome.
- Chandler second from left at back, Hammett far right, back.


Everyone in the photo:
Back, L-R: Raymond J. Moffatt, Raymond Chandler, Herbert Stinson, Dwight Babcock, Eric Taylor, Dashiell Hammett.
Front, L-R: Arthur Barnes, John K. Butler, W.T. Ballard, Horace McCoy, Norbert Davis

Pulp!

I ordered a couple of books! :D

The cover for "Dig me a Grave" is awesome! It's a pity book publishing houses make shit covers nowadays (well, most of them anyway). "Grave" and "The Evil Star" are written by "John Spain" who was in reality CLEVE F. ADAMS. The "Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers" book calls him, "The missing link between Dashiell Hammett and James Ellroy"! Most of his books haven't been reprinted since the 1950s.

More cool reprints from HARD CASE CRIME books

"BLOOD ON THE MINK" - By Robert Silverberg. This cool reprint from HARD CASE CRIME (2011) is the first reprint since the novel was originally published in the last issue of the American pulp magazine "TRAPPED" in 1960. I've just today received it. In the new afterword the author says he hadn't thought about that story for 50 years until the guy behind HCC found an old copy of the magazine. I love all HCC's covers. They're not old but new and made for these books. I wish more covers looked like in the 50s and early 60s. Covers today suck ass.

Boiled, please. Hard.

It's been a while since I last posted about new pulp novels, and since I know you're just dying to see what hardboiled trash from yesteryear that I pour my money into here's a couple of covers from today's purchase!

MICKEY SPILLANE's "The Delta Factor" I needed cos I recently bought HARD CASE CRIME's newly released "The Consummata" which is a follow up to "The Delta Factor". Spillane started writing the seqeul in the late 60s but he never finished it. Four decades later his friend MAX ALLAN COLLINS finished the book (with approval from Spillane). I'm trying to collect all releases from Hard Case Crime (but there's a long way to go yet!) so obviously I had to get "The Delta Factor" in order to read "The Consummata" properly. I saw a film poster (of "Delta") on eBay but I don't know anything about the film version.

"Sinfun Woman" was written by JAMES M. CAIN who did many hardboiled crime books, among others "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice". Needless to say, I have no idea how hardboiled "Sinfun Woman" is or isn't - but the cover looks great!

"The Consummata" by Mickey Spillane & Max Allan Collins (late 1960s + 2011)

I received the second latest book from every hard-boiled crime reader's fave publisher, Hard Case Crime; THE CONSUMMATA!! It was kicked off by Mickey Spillane back in the late 60s but he never finished the damn thing and then he croaked. Now his buddy Max Allan Collins has finished it and if nothing else the cover looks ...as always with Hard Case Crime... smashing! I paid £2.14 for my copy!!! It's brand new but has "review copy -not for sale" printed on the front cover (which is kinda neat me thinks). This is the first of the new books from HCC since their one year hiatus (due to being between publishers) that I see and the book format has (at least with this volume) changed from the small paperback size to slightly bigger and with a better binding (or at least so it seems). I'm not sure I'm all that happy with the bigger format, I mean the smaller paperback size is PULP size! But, anyhoo, the contents is the same I guess. But still. But ANYWAY I look forward to getting into this sucker despite size... but, uhhhhh, I've already got way too many unread books!! Argh.

Shell Scott shenanigans

"I was looking at the lovely blonde in the one-and-one-half-piece swimsuit, thinking that if she got any curvier she'd be banned, and then, just as if she knew exactly what I was thinking, she got up and started walking towards me. Possibly to slap me."

Ahh, the beginning of another Richard S. Prather novel. :D

Hardboiled on a Sunday

Boiled... hard.

True bliss probably comes in many shapes and forms but this morning it comes with the knowledge that I've spent the last couple of hours choosing which re-released OOP pulp fiction novels I should order from the Book Depository shop in the UK. I ended up with the 6 titles you see in the cover scans here. All are from the awesome HARDCASE CRIME BOOKS publishing label (located in the US).



For a while last year and during the early months of 2011 I feared HARDCASE CRIME BOOKS were calling it quits; I feared bankruptcy as so many other companies have closed down due to the recent recession. Most of their early books were going out of print and, actually, yes the label were in trouble as their publisher Dorchester publishing house folded 18 months ago.



Luckily HARDCASE CRIME BOOKS have recently (well, 6 months ago but the update pace here is slooow - as I'm sure you've realised by now) managed to strike a deal with Titan Books in the UK so from now on the books are gonna be UK editions (I have no idea if the coming releases are going to be published in the US simultaneously by Titan or if they're going to export the UK editions to the US or whatever and quite frankly I don't give a rat's ass. What is of major fucken importance here is that the old books are going to stay IN print and new ones are going to be printed (from November of this year). Which country they're going to be published in is not really important. New HARDCASE CRIME books! Yay!! Spiffy!!!



The books I've ordered from Book Depo are new editions but whether they are newly printed or from Dorchester's old stock I don't know. I guess I'll find out when they're here. If you're interested in old-skool hard-boiled crime fiction I can only recommend that you check out some of the releases from HARDCASE CRIME BOOKS. Out of the 60+ books they've released so far I have only got 11 of them so I can't really comment on how good they all are but if nothing else the covers are truly awesome!



Fortunately HARDCASE are gong-ho on old crime pulp mags and the covers certainly show!! Getting a book from HCCB is like stepping into a book store in 1957 and picking up a cool pulp mag. Hmm, it's 8:34 in the morning here but I already feel like giving one of my "Back From the Grave" or "Teenage Shut-down" records a spin to set the tone. You should do the same! xD xD xD
(and do check out my old entries labelled "pulp"!)



PS: most of the HARDCASE CRIME BOOKS are 30-50% off at Book Depository at the moment so there's a great deal to save + free postage anywhere in the world (and they take PayPal)!! :D

Nasty aliens attack!

Awesome cover! I'm positive this is how other lifeforms in outer space must look like (it's also how I picture certain members of certain message boards but that's a completely different matter). I found it on this cool blog.

"Vintage Hardboiled Reads" is back!

Awesome! I mean, like, awesome!!! The Vintage Hardboiled Reads blog is back!! I'm sure you remember I spoke about it a few months back, well, last year that is. And how the blog author one day said "I'll be gone for a couple of weeks" and then never returned. Well, now, a full year later he's returned and has started to write reviews on them ol'e pulp novels once again. And not a single word of explanation, nor a reply to any of the many who posted a "welcome back" in the comments' section. Haha.

Actually, he's been back since January but altho I kept checking regularly last year I kinda gave up on him a while back. Anyhoo, good to see he's back. Arrogant or not. LOL.

For the blog go here.

Hard-boiled reads for hepcats

Uhh, I luuuve covers from old hard-boiled crime books from the 40s and 50s. They just shit all over any new covers. Period! Those dames, those cats, those crooks, those stiffs, THOSE DRESSES, MAN!!!

Actually, I don't read much new crime literature (altho my STAPLE DIET of present day reading is - needless to say!! - James Ellroy. That man is a "Napoleon victorious amongst his spoils, a conquering Caesar parading his troops", A G-O-D AMONG BOOK WRITERS!!! I would wanna have his babies if he'd let me!!! Okay, I'm going overboard a little here but you get my drift).

I got all these coves from this blog called Vintage Hardboiled Reads which unfortunately is now another floater in the harbour. Now, that's sad of course but at least it died in GRAND style: The cat behind it was called August West (probably not his real name) and one day he just said "Hey, I'm just popping outside, I'll be back soon" ... but he never did!!!!! Is he THE STIFF in the alley? Is he in the BIG HOUSE?? Is he on the RUN??? IS HE OFF TO BUMP SOMEBODY OFF????
:-O








(click the covers for bigger size)

Pulp International

On Monday I suggested you check out the web-page/blog PULP INTERNATIONAL and I want to stress how much fun this blog is. Check out three of today's pulp covers (from Italy). Wauw!! Totally rad!! And there's more of the same. You gotta go there! (I can't link to the post so if you read this sometime in the future you gotta go to the "Shocking Blue" post from today's date).





(click the scans for bigger size)