Paul Bishop's Blog, page 2

THE LAPD MUSEUM

THE LAPD MUSEUMWhile touring the LAPD Museum yesterday. I came across a display with the above 20 gauge shotgun pistol officially carried (in that long ass holster) by LAPD's elite Robbery Homicide detectives in the 1950s. 

It is not a sawed-off or modified shotgun, it was actually manufactured as a pistol and legally retains that designation. I am now convinced more than ever that I was born in the wrong era.

The other two photos are of the museum's new Adam 12 and Dragnet displays...There were also a number of interesting real life collections such as the SLA shootout, the Onion Field assassination (still sobering after all these years), the North Hollywood bank robbery shootout where over 1,500 rounds were fired over a 45 minute period, and more...It's a small museum housed in the old Northeast Division police station built in 1925, but it's definitely worth visiting if you get the chance...

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCAST���EPISODE ONE

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCASTEPISODE ONEWEST OF THE IMAGINATIONThe debut of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast Episode One with co-hosts Paul Bishop and Richard Prosch is available now on all major podcast platforms. This episode includes a feature on The Cowboy And The Cossack and Western wordslinger Clair Huffaker, reviews of current and vintage Westerns, a roundup of other Western genre related information, and shoutouts of appreciation to the folks who helped get the podcast in the saddle and galloping with six guns blazing.

Check back every other Monday for a new episode of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast with Paul and Rich discussing, sharing, and exploring all aspects of the Western genre. Also be sure to check out the Six-Gun Justice Podcast���s flagship website (www.sixgunjustice.com) for regularly updated reviews, interviews, features, profiles, and other Western genre related content.

You can also listen to Episode One using the link below or on the podcast player app at the top of our website sidebar. The Six-Gun Justice Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, TuneIn Radio, Alexa, and most other podcasts apps.  Please let us know what you think via our email: sixgunjusticewesterns@gmail.com/ 

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCAST—EPISODE ONE

SIX-GUN JUSTICE PODCASTEPISODE ONEWEST OF THE IMAGINATIONThe debut of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast Episode One with co-hosts Paul Bishop and Richard Prosch is available now on all major podcast platforms. This episode includes a feature on The Cowboy And The Cossack and Western wordslinger Clair Huffaker, reviews of current and vintage Westerns, a roundup of other Western genre related information, and shoutouts of appreciation to the folks who helped get the podcast in the saddle and galloping with six guns blazing.

Check back every other Monday for a new episode of the Six-Gun Justice Podcast with Paul and Rich discussing, sharing, and exploring all aspects of the Western genre. Also be sure to check out the Six-Gun Justice Podcast’s flagship website (www.sixgunjustice.com) for regularly updated reviews, interviews, features, profiles, and other Western genre related content.

You can also listen to Episode One using the link below or on the podcast player app at the top of our website sidebar. The Six-Gun Justice Podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, TuneIn Radio, Alexa, and most other podcasts apps.  Please let us know what you think via our email: sixgunjusticewesterns@gmail.com/ 

THE RICHARD PROSCH NEWSLETTER FEATURING DAN SPALDING

THE NEW DAN SPAULDING THRILLER
NEEDLE DROP
COMING FEBRUARY 19 Stu Heinrichs was the kind of guy who drank beer with your dad and let you drive his DeLorean. He took you to baseball games and bought you lunch and didn't yell when you puked in his car. But he wasn’t a good guy then, and he’s not a good guy now—something ex-state cop Dan Spalding always knew but kept forgetting on purpose.
Now when a twenty-year old porn star takes a deliberate header off Stu’s luxury yacht with Dan as a witness, he’s caught in a web of murder and media outrage with more questions than answers.
Answers that just might leave Dan cold and dead at the bottom of Carnal Cove.
As the body count mounts, the blitz is on, and Dan Spalding puts his life, love, and passion for vintage vinyl records on the line in a wild gambit to blow up the past and gain a future.
TO PRE-ORDER CLICK COVER BELOW
[image error]
A NEW FREE CRIME STORY
FROM RICHARD PROSCH
THE LUCK OF FRANKIE IRISH 
November 9, 1965: More than 53 years ago, my mom—six months pregnant with me—was stuck in JFK International Airport when the lights went out. Nobody expected the grid to be down for long, but the blackout stretched through the night into the next morning. At JFK, people drove cars up to the windows to shine headlamps into the terminal. Mom remembered a nice elderly couple who stood up and insisted she sleep on a bench while they watched over her.  The old guy rolled up his jacket as a pillow, and his wife shared her candy. Mom had several stories from that night, all good, all filled with the kindness and reasoned ingenuity of strangers. She never tired of telling about it. Me, I was in the dark anyway.
A few years ago I read Herbert Asbury’s terrific book, The Gangs of New York—which inspired a mid-century wiseguy character named Frankie. He bounced around between stories for a while until one day, I realized Frankie was at the airport on November 9.
I had to write the following story to find out why he was there. 
TO READ THE REST OF THE STORYCLICK HERE

WESTERN PAPERBACKS—THE BIG FIFTY

WESTERN PAPERBACKSTHE BIG FIFTYFRANK O'ROURKE With more than sixty novels to his credit, Frank O'Rourke (1916-1989) was an accomplished writer of mysteries and sports fiction. Arguably, he's best known for his gothic-tinged western paperback originals, stories at which he excelled. 


His work was adapted for the screen at least twice—The Bravados in 1957—starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins, and A Mule for the Marquesa, which was film as The Professionals in 1966—starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, and Jack Palance. In the 50s and 60s, he turned out at least two westerns a year under his own name and pseudonyms, including Kevin Connor, Frank O'Malley, and Patrick O'Malley.

To say that O'Rourke worked in a time of literary transition is an understatement. Two World Wars had chopped away the early 20th century's Victorian values, clearing the way for a rush of moral relativism and jaded introspection. 

The slick magazines had little to do with flowery melodrama and a lot to do with tight, terse, prose echoing the anxiety of the day, a style that spilled over into the emerging world of genre paperbacks. 


What was glamor for the pulps seemed corny and out of touch, and the purple prose of old westerns became downright unsalable. O'Rourke walked the grubline between literary styles, which is clearly illustrated in his 1955 novel, The Big Fifty.


Falling somewhere between his 1953 novel Latigo— wordy land grab procedural—and 1957's The Bravados—an action-packed manhunt—The Big Fifty retains the romantic language of its predecessor while hinting at the complexity of character and action of the latter book. However, whereas The Bravados made a heart-thumping motion picture, The Big Fifty would only have made a nifty Poverty Row Saturday matinée.

The story takes place in 1878, already the end times for the grand buffalo hunts of yesteryear.  Old Colonel DeLight can see the writing on the wall. Not only have the thundering black herds been whittled down to near extinction, but the market itself has lost most of its honor. Rather than face the near impossible prospect of scraping out a messy, gut-wrenching living from acquiring their own hides, bad men simply steal from the few remaining good guys—sometimes with deadly consequences. 

Not only does Old (always Old) Colonel Delight suspect hes been a victim of one of the most notorious thieves of all, he believes big Jan Schmidt murdered his son. To learn the truth and bring the big villain to justice, Old Colonel Delight decides to infiltrate Schmidt's hunting party. Too sick to do the job himself, and rightly convinced Schmidt would recognize his hired man, Lance McGowen, the withered Confederate graybeard calls in a Yankee named True Benton. 


When names like Old Colonel Delight and True Benton are stated in full each time they appear in the narrative, you know you're in for some prose on the lower end of the color spectrum. Naturally, OCD has a lovely daughter (Celia) who Lance wants to wed.  As expected, she only has eyes for our hero, True Benton.

Left there, The Big Fifty might be relegated to the Max Brand/Zane Grey rip-offs of the ‘20s and ‘30s, but O'Rourke's genius pulls it to a higher level. He does this mostly through depth of character, but also by using his working knowledge of hunting and butchering bison.I

The book takes its name from the fifty-caliber rifle slugs the hunters use to harvest their animals, and spends a good amount of time describing the life lived by hide-dealers at what was the end of the 1870s, a controversial era. A few pages aren't for the squeamish, but it’s clear both True Benton and Jan Schmidt recognize the moral dilemma of their work, and lament the passing of the buffalo. These aren't callous men with no regrets. 

O'Rourke cleverly paints three-dimensional portraits of heroes and villains, both caught in time, both struggling with inner demons, both finding common ground with one another. It's this mutual respect that the author exploits so well. 

When the inevitable climax occurs, when True Benton's betrayal comes to light, its a heartbreaking revelation for everybody involved, including the reader. Dont misunderstand, Jan Schmidt deserves what he gets, but like so many of the post-war paperback villains, you're not necessarily happy to see him get it—satisfied, maybe, but not happy.

O'Rourke is always a solid writer who rarely phones it in, and with The Big Fifty he delivers a thought-provoking piece disguised as an old-fashioned oater.

Best Purple Prose: Her mouth was wide and full and alive, her hair clubbed up behind her ears. With tiny curls about the temples that shone in the candlelight, with the blackest of black, with ebony tints even deeper than black. She met True Benton's gaze with a sober nod and dignified silence, but remained beside her father in the few moments it took True Benton to see so much and wonder why her kind came but once in a man's lifetime; and then he recalled his situation and his manners.

RICHARD PROSCH'S NEWSLETTER FEATURING DAN SPALDING

RICHARD PROSCH’S NEWSLETTER FEATURING DAN SPALDING  In an age when we binge-watch our favorite TV shows via streaming services, it's easy to think in terms of story arcs and seasons. Last fall, Wolfpack Publishing assumed the helm of my Dan Spalding mystery series, publishing Dead Beat and Deep Tracks, the fifth and sixth series titles, as part of their Dan Spalding Mystery Collections. 

VOLUME ONE and VOLUME TWO are both available in economical digital formats. And now, for the first time in January of 2020, all six of my original Dan Spalding novels are also available in print.

Each of the stories can stand by itself as a suspenseful read, but taken together, Answer Deaththrough Deep Tracks forms a six-part arc—or season—with recurring characters, romantic cliffhangers, and plenty of action. 

And stay tuned for the first Tuesday in February and the cover debut and first chapter sneak peek for the seventh Dan Spalding novel, a 70K-word epic called Needle Drop.

CAPITOL OFFENSE IN DOWN & OUT MAGAZINE 
My new short police procedural, Capitol Offense was published at the end of 2019, in Vol. 2, Issue No. 1 of Down & Out Magazine. I'm happy to join Brendan DuBois, Walter Satterthwait, Edgar Award-winning author Sylvia Maultash Warsh, and others in this terrific issue. 

AMAZON
DOWN AND OUT BOOKS

FREE CRIME STORYFOOL ME TWICE
As he entered the flow of traffic streaming around Omaha, Dr. Dale Martin was not in a hurry. Soft jazz floated through the beige cabin of his Toyota Camry, and the air through the dashboard vents was cool and clean-smelling. He wore prescription sunglasses, a crisp white business shirt, and casual khaki trousers. His jacket rode behind him on a hanger. The mid-afternoon sun flickered through the trees on his right, and Dale hummed along with a tenor sax on the radio. His tires on the road were a brush-like percussion. The car ahead of him rolled smoothly into a line of commuter traffic.
Sandy was in that car.
With him—Ernie the fleabag... 
READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

ON THE FRINGE

ON THE FRINGEAND OTHER UNCOMMON
TALES OF GOLF!
GREGORY G. BARTON 
I uncovered this classic collection of short stories by pure chance, but enjoyed every page. Barton is wildly inventive and his love and respect for golf comes through in every tale. The stories are smoothly written with engaging characters and situations. I'd very much like to see what kind of work Barton would produce working at novel length. Great stuff.
Take an extraordinary tour: From the Ryder Cup to the Bermuda Triangle and worlds beyond—Fly with an RAF pilot as he buzzes a golf course that no one else can see; Come across a magical golf club that can change lives; Have your bag carried by a clairvoyant caddie: Play a round for the hand of a beautiful girl: Find out what heaven's really like; Ride the devil's own train; And get caught on a haunted links after dark.
This is an eclectic and adventurous anthology of off-the-wall tales of life, golf, and mystical mysteries, all filled with original and inventive storytelling.

MORE THRILLING GOLF

MORE THRILLING GOLF STORIES FROM THE SPORTS PULPS Here is a sample listing of the many other golf stories and their sizzling teasers to come out of the sports pulps between the 1930s and 1940s...
W. H. TEMPLE Birdie In Hand Sports Novels (April 1947) Willy was Mr. Blow-up of the big money circuit—but take away his guts and you had a golfer!
Siege Gun Kid New Sports (February 1948) Together, they fought down the last tough fairway—a guy with a hunger for glory and groceries—and a champion with nothing left but a crown!
Par Buster New Sports (April 1948) Finley’s the name, mister. The spook you’re gonna play tomorrow. I may be sayin’ good-bye to the tournament trail after the game, bum, but before I go, I’m gonna blast you off the fairway—for keeps!
Putt And Pray Fifteen Sports Stories (May 1948) There wasn’t a golfer who could beat him—nor a gallery that couldn’t!
Sudden Death Fairway Sports Novels (June 1948) Before you can win like a champion, you’ve got to learn a much harder thing—how to lose like a gentleman!
Par Master Sports Novels (July 1950) This was where he belonged, he knew—on a sudden-death green, with a putt, a prayer, and an impossible par to bust for a dewbird’s last challenge—or a champion’s blazing round!
Green Shy New Sports (October 1950) Some guys are born to the long green—some to win on that last big putt. But the make-believe champ from Saugatuck was born to fight to the last holeout—for a million other duffers’ dreams!
Trouble Green Fifteen Sports Stories (February 1952) There are lots of ways to win, but just two ways to lose, Sandy MacLean found—and a champ may lose to a course, but never to a better man!
Iron Master New Sports (February 1950) The fairway is for fair-weather guys, champ. We’re battling this one out in the rough—where the iron in your heart is worth six in your bag—and a sudden-death green calls—fight!
WILLIAM CAMPBELL GAULT Heartbreak Fairway Sports Novels (May 1950) One stroke down to destiny, he faced a hundred invincible opponents–the phantoms of golfdom’s great, who mocked him, “Any fairway bum can give his all for a legend, are you champ enough to be one?”
Birdie In Hand Fifteen Sports Stories (April 1951) This Is the big time, Denny—where a good shot counts just one stroke, an’ the bad ones cost you plenty. You gotta stand up there an’ slam ‘em on the line–or pack up your dreams forever!
Little Mr. Murder Fifteen Sports Stories (July 1950) This was a sentimental tourney, but Sam, the money man, was out for the long green, the short putt—and a sudden-death gamble for golfdom’s strangest prize!
JACKSON V. SCHOLZ Power, Confidence, And Control Sports Story (1stSept 1929) Mel Burk failed to see any relationship between a paint brush and a golf club, but circumstances combined to convince him they had much in common, for him!
Putters And Sling Shots   Sport Story (2nd August 1935) Doc Dill eased himself off a bad spot with putters and sling shots!
The Little Guy Sport Story (2ndSeptember 1935) Sure, he was little—but Jimmy Larkin knew how to cut down the big ones!
Boss Hazard Sport Story (1st November 1935) A caddy plays a long shot to help Stanley Carr overcome the boss hazard!
Caddy Cure Sports Story (1st Sept 1936) Pat Faraday gave old Klum plenty of what was needed!
Candid Golf Sport Story (2ndOct 1937) Joe Marsh gave Rance Shotter plenty of what was needed!
Duffer Bait Sport Story (2nd Nov 1937) Ray Keef set out after the thing he wanted—even if he had to resort to duffer bait!
Miracle Clubs Sport Story (1st June 1939) Little Archie Pendergast fights ridicule and inferiority complex to gain himself a place in the sun!
SAM MERWIN, JR. Ace In A Hole Sports Novels (May 1948) A kid with too much brass . . . an oldster with magic in his brassie . . . a spine-tingling duel on the long eighteenth—the green where champions are made!
GILES A. LUTZ Tee-Off Terror New Sports (Dec 1948) He was a never-guy par-buster who couldn’t find himself—or the greens—until a links king called for a showdown to carve out a better man’s glory—or snuf out a has-been’s comeback!
ROSS RUSSELL The Man Who Called His Shots All America (Mar 1937) On the comeback trail, Walter Hogan’s biggest challenge wasn’t overcoming his injuries, but overcoming his legendary reputation!
Old Rubber Wrist Sport Story Magazine (Mar 1938) Jim Hardigan always played to win when he could, but lost when he had to!
Gag Golfer Port Story Magazine (Mar 1941) Tournament play goes haywire as a trick-shot artist lets loose.
WALTER MARQUISS Golf Machine Thrilling Sports (Jan 1937) Some telepathic current ran through the crowd, telling them this was a grudge match! Tournaments—and a barrel of trouble—make a man out of Mike Malone!
THEODORE J. ROEMER Par Buster Sports Novels (Oct 1941) When the field is knotted and the birdies are hard to find, and you stand at the last windswept tee with only one more par between you and golfdom’s greatest crown, you can remember—“You can lick any bad break in the world, bub, but you gotta lick yourself first.”
The Brassie Kid Sports Novels (October 1949) The king was a champ to the end—matching the kid’s brass with a magic brassie—and proving once and for all that the greatest shot in golf is not always the winning one!
HUGH PENTECOST Murder Plays Through EQMM (Sept 1954) Match play can be murder in a tournament where a tour rookie sets the fairways ablaze with vengeance!
HANK WILLARD Last Hole-Out Sport Novels (July 1949) To these eager kids, the eighteenth was just another tough hole; but to Larry it was the final test every fairway bum dreams of—where you sink all your hopes in one, or hang up your battered clubs forever!
Loser Take All Fifteen Sports Stories (Sept 1949) A kid with a built-in chip on his shoulder—a champ with his chips on the green...and a last grim holdout for golf’s strangest trophy!
LIONEL E. I. DAY Fairway Feud Sports Action (August 1942) Desperate golf wouldn’t cut Mark’s handicap, and now at the seventeenth green, he’s need to make up for his faltering drives with sensational putts!
JOHN WELLS Par Spoiler Fifteen Sports Stories (Nov 1948) A birdie in hand was worth two off the fairway—to a has-been whose eagles no longer screamed their sudden-death challenge to a par-buster’s glory!
WILLIAM TAMPA Poison On The Tee Fifteen Sports Stories (March 1950) You’ll learn more about a man in eighteen holes than you will in twenty years—especially when the course is parred for masters, trapped for fools, and designed for poison on the tee!
LANCE KERMIT High Drive Guy Fifteen Sports Stories (Sept 1948) Every dewbird likes to turn—but it takes more than courage to call for a fairway showdown for more than glory—and nothing less than oblivion!
Sudden-Death Blaster Fifteen Sports Stories (Sept 1950) Holly was a fifth wheel on the Trent College foursome, the little guy who didn’t belong—til that last danger fairway when he matched his iron against sudden-death lightning—for a payoff on a champion’s last green!
ROBERT N. BRYAN The Long Eighteenth Sport Story (1stAugust 1930) Bobby Clayton finds that love and golf are both full of traps!
Keep Your Eye On The Bull Sport Story (2ndNovember 1938) Chet Lane was treed. The bull was beneath him, glaring malignantly. Also, that bull meant to stay there. It pawed the ground with its forefeet, snorting and growling. Chet was marooned!
KINGSLEY MOSES An Accidental Cupid Sport Story (1stJuly 1927) It was a terrible moment when the caddie walk in front of Tom Burke’s best niblick shot, and no wonder Dorothy stood speechless in her tracks!
WILLIAM DE LISLE Death At The Eighteenth Hole Dime Sports (July 1935) Under a jungle sun, before a spear-bristling gallery, Crazy Farraday laid his last deadly stymie in a strange golf duel.
TOM TUCKER Golf Is A Gentleman’s Game Thrilling Sports (September 1948) Chip Dawson has the Indian sign on Johnny Trang, but Johnny comes right back at him with links logic!
FRANK KANE Putt It There     Complete Sports (January 1950) Caddy champ he’d be if he holed out now, sure, but there was more at stake than that for Johnny Evers as he addressed that final three-foot putt!
RICHARD BRISTER Par None Ten Story Sports (July 1953) Biff had put all his knowledge and skill into his younger brother, Eddie. But now it seemed Eddie was going to be a choke-up player in the last rounds!
Fairway Fiend Action Sports Fiction (Aug-Sept 1955) Sure, golf and nothing but golf could likely win for Johnny, grooving the fairways, using his irons smart, sinking twenty-foot putts. But try and do that against a tournament terror like this Bray!
JACK KOFOED No Luck Dime Sports (April 1938) Unknown, unheralded, Duncan McGregor lashed a golf ball down a fairway lined with gold, studded with peril toward that last bitter eighteenth fairway—and he had to break par to win a national crown which had been overdue for thirty years!
RALPH ROEDER The Mud Duffer Sport Story (1stAugust 1924) The famous banker—the millionaire who made Wall Street eat out of his hand—was a ‘duffer’ on the golf course. His friends tried every way imaginable to help his game. Then one day there was a fight among the road laborers!
HELEN HICKS Blazing The Fairways Thrilling Sports (March 1939) Behind the scenes: An expert golfer tees up for a whale of a drive!

THRILLING GOLF

THRILLING GOLF! STORIES FROM THE SPORTS PULPS This was where he belonged, he knew – on sudden-death green, with a putt, a prayer—and an impossible par to bust for a dewbird’s last challenge—or a champion’s blazing round! Par Buster by W. H. Temple, Sports Novels Magazine—July, 1950
Exploding out of sand traps filled with purple prose, the action packed golf stories of the early sports pulps enraptured readers for over thirty years. From the late-twenties to the mid-fifties, these short melodramas, complimented by over-the-top teasers invariably ending with an exclamation point, are the inspired ancestors of today’s golf fictioneers. However, along with all genres of pulp magazines, the once widely popular sports pulps have long been extinct.
Paperbacks and hardcovers, of course, have more than adequately filled the fiction void left behind by the pulps. And, within these modern tomes, sports-centric genre fiction continues to find a wide audience.
Prior to the millennium, baseball dominated the pantheon of sports novels. In the eighties, football rightfully took over the silver medal position. Boxing stories, track tales, hockey yarns, and even basketball novels were forced to trail far behind. What the purveyors of baseball and football fiction failed to notice was the competitor coming up on their arrogant blind side. Mirroring the explosion of golf’s public popularity, the post 2000 output of fictional links and fairways dramas was threatening to snatch the sport fiction crown.
The once immortal edict from baseball’s Field of Dreams—build it and they will come—had changed to, write it with a fairway, a bunker, a hole, and a flagstick, and readers will flock to its pages. Today, Hardbellies, The Green, The Foursome, Scratch, Missing Links, The Big Tour, and uncountable other golf novels have found fans in ever increasing numbers.
Mystery novels employing golf as a background are becoming an epidemic. Cut-Shot, Take Dead Aim, Deadly Divots, and Final Round, are only four entries in the birdies-and-murder sweepstakes, which has a documented history of over six hundred titles.
One stroke down to destiny, he faced a hundred invincible opponents—the phantoms of golfdom’s great,who mocked him, ‘Any fairway bum can give hisall for a legend, are you champ enough to be one? Heartbreak Fairway by Roney Scott Sports Novels Magazine—May, 1950
The success of early mythical golf tales such as The Legend of Bagger Vance, Golf in the Kingdom, or The Greatest Player Who Never Was, was matched by rude-and-raucous golf novels, which can all trace their conception back to Dan Jenkins’ seminal—and hilarious—Dead Solid Perfect.
All of these novels, however, still owe their existence to the overly dramatic, yet extremely readable golf yarns from the now forgotten pages of the sports pulps.  Monthly publications of such titles as Street & Smith’s Sport Story Magazine, Fictioneers’ Sports Novels Magazine, Popular Publications’ Dime Sports, and over fifty other sports specific pulps enthralled the nation from the late 20s until the death of the entire pulp genre in the mid-50’s—passing quietly away as the result of a fatal dose of television.
Produced on cheap pulp paper with ragged edges, their covers exploding with primary colors, the sports pulps blew off the newsstand shelves in record numbers. Readers willingly parted with small change to be thrilled by stories of comeback teams, championship drives against all odds, underdog competitors, and big game finales. While many of the stories were traditional sports tales, the hyped-up teaser to each story always promised high drama and deadly consequences.
He was a never-guy par-buster who couldn’t find himself, or the greens, until a links king called for a showdown to carve outa better man’s glory—or snuf out a has-been’s comeback! Tee-Off Terror by Giles Lutz New Sports—December, 1948
Unlike their some of their contemporaries, the sports pulps have been almost lost to the public consciousness. By comparison, the history of the better known and highly collectible hardboiled detective pulps—such as Black Mask, Dime Detective, Phantom Detective, and a hundred others—has been meticulously documented. The same collectability and documentation has been applied to the adventures of such pulp heroes as The Shadow, Doc Savage, The Spider, and dozens more.
Pulp collectors have driven the prices of original issues from these genres into the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars. Collector interest has also produced numerous reprints, especially for early stories written by icons such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Louis L’Amour, Giles Lutz, Max Brand, Robert H. Howard, and John D. MacDonald—all of whom started out being paid by the word in the pulps.
There were pulps produced for every interest imaginable. Aside from detectives and heroes, the sports pulps also battled Western pulps, romance pulps, war pulps, flying pulps, and hundreds of other genres for the reader’s attention. At the height of their popularity, there were over six hundred individual pulp titles produced monthly—approximately fifty of which were dedicated solely to sports fiction.
Golf in the pulps started as a difficult sell. Bringing the inherent, overblown drama needed to write tantalizing stories was easier with a baseball or football setting. Golf with its slower pace and lack of physical confrontation was not tailor-made fictional fodder. Gradually, however, tales drawing their suspense from both the inner game of golf and the tension of tournament play began appearing.
When the field is knotted and the birdies are hard to find,and you stand at the last windswept tee with only one more par between you and golfdom’s greatest crown,you can remember, ‘You can lick any bad break in the world, bub, but you gotta lick yourself first!’ Par Buster by Theodor J. Roemer Sports Novels Magazine—October, 1941

MEN'S ADVENTURE—THE AQUANAUTS

   MEN'S ADVENTURE THE AQUANAUTS Of all the paperback original men’s adventure series to hit the spinner racks in the 1970s, The Aquanauts is possibly the best example of a brilliant series concept sabotaged by moribund writing. In my opinion, the depths of the writing mediocrity of the series is as deep as the Marianna Trench, and it’s incredibly frustrating. I really want to like this series. I’ve tried several times to like this series. I’ve tried starting with different books in the series, but each time I simply can’t get past the first few chapters.
The series was written by journeyman scribbler Manning Lee Stokes under the pseudonym Ken Stanton. Prior to The Aquanauts, Stokes made his bones in the men’s adventure genre writing the initial novels (and many other entries) for The Expeditor series and the classic superspy Nick Carter series. Among numerous other pulp-based mysteries, sci-fi, and sleaze novels, he also wrote the eight books in the cult favorite Richard Blade series—which combined a heady mix of science fiction and adventure. Prolific: Check…Competent: Check…Entertaining: Check…Above Average: Rarely if ever...This is my checklist—other reader’s mileage may vary.
The Aquanauts are a team of highly trained operatives (is there any other kind?) who make up the elite Secret Underwater Service. Led by William Martin, codename Tiger Shark, the SUS is tasked with neutralizing terrorists planning to strike at America from the sea, or who plan to attacking U.S. Naval underwater facilities across the globe. This mission involves preparing the personnel who can handle the extreme difficulties of underwater battle, and carrying out those battles when ordered by the president.
The men chosen for the SUS begin their training designated as Minnows. Once they prove their suitability, they are promoted to the coveted designation of Shark. The top fish is the deadly Tiger Shark and is empowered to complete the missions of the SUS at any cost, including assassination.
When the series starts, the first Tiger Shark had been killed in action. To replace him, the President has promoted Navy lieutenant William Martin. Referred to informally as Bill, Martin is an Annapolis graduate and a decorated war hero, having been awarded a Navy Cross with oak leaf cluster. An imposing figure standing 6'2, the 30 years old Martin is (of course) in perfect physical condition—a rugged, fearless man who always puts the demands of the mission before any personal considerations.
The SUS has provided Martin with a top-secret one-man sub known as a KRAB, which he uses to take on Russian submarines, various criminally controlled ‘sea monsters’, and the plots of underwater megalomaniacs. Tiger Shark’s mission take him under the Iron Curtain, under the Bamboo Curtain, Under the noses of Chinese villains, and into the depths of everywhere from the North Pole to Australia and Cuba.
Sounds freaking fabulous doesn’t it? It should be freaking fabulous—but it’s as lumbering as a leaky lifeboat. The squandered potential of brine, barnacles, bombs and bimbos just kills me. The series was original published by McFadden/Bartell. Manor Books took over the series in 1971 dropping The Aquanauts series titles in favor of rebranding the series Tiger Shark...an anchor by any other name.
As long as you don’t dip into the prose, the cool cover art makes the series worth collecting. The covers all feature Tiger Shark—sporting the rugged profile of Steven Holland, aka: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Paperbacks—in diving gear being chased by sharks, subs, battleships, and sea monsters while brandishing his deadly diver’s knife.
  THE AQUANAUTS COLD BLUE DEATH Devilfish was the code name for a vital operation in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Someone was out to destroy the mission but Tiger was there to save it.
TEN SECONDS TO ZERO American submarines were becoming sitting ducks to the Soviet's new anti-sub missile called the Sea Serpent. Tiger must steal the secrets behind this dangerous weapon.
SEEK, STRIKE AND DESTROY When a Chinese captain with a strange underwater craft lobs a missile at the U.S., the danger from the Bamboo Curtain becomes clearer but what of Madame Hee?
SARGASSO SECRET A marine biologist has come up with a way to feed starving millions but someone is not pleased with his success. Tiger must keep alive him and his daughter, Poppy.
STALKERS OF THE SEA The man behind savage attacks on U.S. interests is a Soviet spy of American origins. Tiger must track him down from icy northern waters to hot foreign bordellos.
WHIRLWIND BENEATH THE SEA Secret agent Tiger Shark and the underwater service are off to Australia to solve the mystery of an undersea eruption, a rising land mass and beautiful babes.
OPERATION DEEP SIX On her maiden voyage, the Navy's newest supersub, the J1, just disappeared. Now its sister ship, the J2, is ready for launch and Tiger is on site to keep an eye on her.
OPERATION STEELFISH The Soviet villain from Stalkers Of The Sea is back, trying to get his hands on the newest weapon the Navy is testing in the Caribbean. Tiger must find a way to stop the theft.
EVIL CARGO The Mob has stolen a Russian submarine in Cuba to smuggle drugs into the U.S. Tiger is sent to stop them but he is told for diplomatic reasons not to damage the sub.
OPERATION SEA MONSTER Some creature of monstrous proportions is randomly striking the underwater American sea lab and Tiger is ordered to find and eliminate the creature.
OPERATION MERMAID The report was that a Chinese sailor was attacked by a mermaid. As crazy as that sounded, Tiger is sent to find the truth. So too were several Soviet agents.