Jim Anthony, Super-Detective, Vol. 4

A new book I've illustrated is now on the market: Jim Anthony, Super Detective, Vol. 4, published by Airship 27.

As publisher Ron Fortier points out in his press release, "Aside from the western pulps Jim Anthony was the only modern pulp adventurer with a Native American heritage; something several of our writers enjoyed exploring in their stories.”

The collection features four stories I illustrated (I didn't illustrate the cover). From the press release: From Mexico, where he encounters a Nazi spy ring to the streets of Manhattan where he hunts down a brutal serial killer, Jim Anthony proves once again why he is one of the most exciting and original heroes ever created in the golden age of American pulps.

The book is now available on Amazon in both hard copy and for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Anthony-Super-Detective-4-Joel-Jenkins/dp/0615896332/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380549079&sr=1-1&keywords=Jim+Anthony+Super+Detective+Volume+4

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Recently Read: Argosy Magazine, February 16, 1918

A few thoughts and notes on this issue, which begins with the first part of Lenivers Carew's "A Kashmir Abduction" - one of the better stories in the issue, with characters and banter similar to a good, pre-code film. Like many of the stories herein, WWI was an integral part of the plot. I could find no biographical info on Lenivers Carew online.

A complete novel (really, a novella), "The Sixth Domino", by Reese James was next. I found it tedious in places, partly due to too many characters (suspects) to keep track of and partly due to not caring about the characters. James creates a private detective, Rutherford Jones, whom one suspects James hoped would carry over many stories (and maybe he did), but I found the character dull. Again, I could find no biographical info on Reese James online.

Achmed Abdullah's serialized "The Trail of the Beast" is an okay political intrigue set in Paris, which makes the "bad guys" those who are trying to upset France's imperialistic ventures. Also included are the last part of a western that I found nearly unreadable, "All Man", by Rex Parson, and a section of an average action thriller, "Odds And the Man", by Varick Vanardy (Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey, famous for writing Nick Carter stories).

The best of the serialized novels was another chapter of Victor Rousseau's "Fruit of the Lamp", a very funny and fast paced whimsical fantasy that could have been the inspiration for 'I Dream of Jeannie". Rousseau is better known today for his early science fiction and Jim Anthony novels, but he's superlative at comedy here. (I recently illustrated a book collection of new Jim Anthony short stories - more about that soon.)

The accompanying short stories are of varying degrees of quality, as was always true of Argosy and similar magazines. They range from character studies to murder mysteries and jingoistic propaganda. My favorite was "A Grass Orphan", a story in which a young guy on the make discovers to his detriment that the young girl he "picked up" in the park wasn't as naive as he anticipated. It's interesting that the term "flapper" is used in the story. I thought this word wasn't coined until the '20s, but it appears to have been used, with varying meanings, for many decades previous. Likewise, I thought "hep" was a '30s or '40s-coined word, but "The Sixth Domino" features this startling sentence: "Well, early this morning he put me hep to all the headquarter's dope."

As might be expected, the protagonists are all white. Non-whites are relegated to either subservient or villainous roles. This is exasperated by fiction's tendency at the time to explain or portend people's action and character by their physical attributes - non-whites get the suspicious sounding physical descriptions. This tendency to define characters (regardless of race or ethnicity) by their physical attributes is seen in literature as worthy as Henry James' and as low as the the cheapest magazine. The patronization and derogation of "the other" even goes as far as dissing music that's not of western European origin. In "The Captain and the Miracle", Edna Wahlert McCourt describes, "From a dance-hall somewhere up the street floated insidious rag-time." and in "A Grass Orphan": "A "Jazz" band squealed and hammered..."

The letters page, as always, is insightful and entertaining, with several readers commenting that they're glad Argosy is now a weekly. One gets the impression many readers were living in isolated rural areas, giving their weekly reading of Argosy, with its exotic and varied locals, a crash course in world traveling.

I'm hoping it won't take as long to find time to read the February 23rd issue, which I don't own. Anyone have a copy for sale?

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Jim Anthony: "Neighborhood in Peril"

An illustration I drew for Airship 27's upcoming anthology of Jim Anthony short stories. More details soon!

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New Jim Anthony Art

Art drawn yesterday for a new collection of Jim Anthony stories to be published by Airship 27.

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Jim Anthony, Adventurer New Pulp Sneak Preview

A sample illo of the work I'm producing for Airship 27's upcoming new collection of Jim Anthony short stories.

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New Jim Anthony Art

Drawn for "Under a Comanchee Moon" for the new Jim Anthony anthology published by Airship 27. More details as we get close to the publication date.

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Jim Anthony, Pulp Adventurer

A charcoal pencil study for the new Jim Anthony illustrations I'm working on for Airship 27. Bold, two-fisted pulp action!

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