"The Artists Who Make Argosy."

4 Nov 1922 Argosy cover by
Stockton Mulford

In advance of July's PulpFest in Columbus, OH, Mike Chomko gives a preview of "The Artists Who Make Argosy," the upcoming session with David Saunders that will celebrate the contributing artists to the legendary pulp magazine launched in 1882. The magazine's contributing writers included Max Brand, Norbert Davis, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert E. Howard, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Cornell Woolrich. Saunders is the son of illustrator Norman Saunders.

New pulp reprints from Altus Press.

I have ... a face like a gargoyle and the disposition of a tired tarantula. —Norbert Davis, May 1941 Argosy

A scene from Max Brand's
Champion of Lost Causes (1925)

Among the new releases of Altus Press, a specialist in pulp reprints:

• Doan and Carstairs: Their Complete Cases by Norbert Davis. Boozy PI Doan teams up with his lofty Great Dane, Carstairs.

• Champion of Lost Causes by Max Brand (introd. William F. Nolan). Samuel Loring takes up the cause of a woman accused of murder.

• Sabotage by Cleve F. Adams. Detective Rex McBride races to prevent the destruction of an important dam by an implacable enemy.

Happy birthday, Max Brand.

The multifaceted Max Brand, aka Frederick Schiller Faust, was born today in Seattle in 1892. Poet, creator of Dr. Kildare, celebrated Western author (Destry Rides Again, etc.), screenwriter, and, as this collection from Crippen and Landru reveals, frequent contributor to the pulps, Brand became a war correspondent and was killed in action in Italy in 1944. To see two Brand-related covers, go here.

About the photo: Lew Ayres in Calling Dr. Kildare (1939, dir. Harold S. Bucquet)

Recent releases from Crippen and Landru.

Virginia-based small press Crippen & Landru is always uncovering gems from writers known in other fields who "moonlighted" in mystery (such as Western icon Max Brand). Its latest release, A Little Intelligence, collects mystery short stories by two science fiction authors, Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett, who teamed up to write under the name Robert Randall.

Another recent release is The Minerva Club, the Department of Patterns, and Others by Victor Canning, in which the club, intriguingly, is made up of criminals involved in various, usually illegal, capers.