Thursday, June 30, 2022

NRV: Tag Team Elimination Tournament Round Three



Teen-Age Gangsters (1957)

Smut Peddlers

Touches a bit on the whole "smut creates serial killers and rapists" nonsense, but focuses on two molesters and child pornographers - millionaire inventor Ivan Jerome and Charles Guzik, son of gangster Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik. Ironically, or appropriately, Teen Age Gangsters is about the smuttiest thing I've read out of the 50s.

Street & Smith's Mystery Magazine (May 1940,v06n01)

Angel's Wings by Norvell Page



A Death Angel story. Angus "Death Angel" Saint-Cloud is a lethal boxer turned PI, here working an insurance case about stolen emeralds. After accusing, and spanking, the thief he's framed for murder and runs around evading the police and a mysterious sniper. This energy works for pulp action, but this is the dumbest mystery I've read, completely nonsensical. Clumsy prose, awkward action, and a chinese stereotype complete with a  "no tickee no washee" joke.

Complete Man (February, 1967, v7n01)

"Love Break" Girls: For Office Use Only by Jim Rossi

Prostitution and blackmail rings under the guise of corporate sales training courses. By this point the line between fake exposé and narrative fiction is completely blurred.

Soldier of Fortune (March 1985, v10n03)

Flying the Unfriendly Skies by Dana Drenkowski

El Salvador has an air force.

Startling Detective Adventures (December 1937, v19n113)

Trailing the Crimson Marauders of Monterey by Captain Salvador Arredonda Y Farfan and Murray W. Kramer

Mexican police hunt down a gang who killed an employee in a botched robbery. Unremarkable.

Savage Realms Monthly Volume 1 (January 2021)

The Tomb of Orthun-Rah by David Sims

An adventuring party encounter a pack of venomous giant lizards and the ghost of a sorcerer while raiding an ancient temple for treasure. Manages to make a D&D module feel relatively organic.

Like Playboy, I'm not sure anyone reads Soldier of Fortune for the articles, just the classifieds and gun ads. Soldier of Fortune is eliminated.

No comments:

Post a Comment