The pirate issue of Isku

My self-published fiction mag Isku is soon coming out with the great pirate issue. It has five stories, with two classics, one by Arthur Conan Doyle himself and one by the Finnish legend Marton Taiga. The rest three are by me, Petri Hirvonen and Petri Salin. (I tried hard to get other writers, but it seems that people think it's hard to write about ships and all that. It didn't matter in the 1930's, did it, now?)

Well, the illos are great. Here are the cover by Jukka Murtosaari and the illustration by Timo Ronkainen for my story about Joe Novak and the lost treasure map. (I think it's one of the best Novak stories ever.)

By the way, if you speak Finnish, check out my other blog. I'm humiliating myself completely by publishing something I wrote at the age of 15 or 16. It's an experimental novel or what's left of it now. Joe Novak makes an early appearance, which I didn't remember.

German paperbacks

I was doing layouts all night and came up scanning some interesting German paperback covers. First batch is about two pirate novels. It's said that the covers are better than the text... German paperback fiction doesn't have a good rep, even though the industry there has been large.

The titles: Black Cargo and Under the Wrong Flag.

Cliff Coppers

Here are some covers for the German Western series that was published in Finland as Cliff Copper. The original series was called Red Rock Ranch. The hero of the series was Finlandisized and given a Finnish background, but not very inticingly. The titles are great: Horses Don't Whinny at the Graveyard, The Bloody Hard Ground, Blood Pudding for the Vultures... (The Last Draw of Breath doesn't hold up in that company!)

BLOOD-SEARING ACTION!

They are building a new house just next to us. As I sit here and type, I see the machines digging up earth and drillers clawing into the ground - and explosions! They are granading away huge pieces of ground rock. The traffic stops, loud beeps announce there's danger in the air - and then - BOOM! the smoke rises above the ground and big pieces of plastic (truck tyres spread open?) fly in the air. You don't see this kind of King Action in the middle of day very often. Keep up the good work, guys!

Weekend

Just a quick post:

on Friday, at the university library checking out some old pulp stories, then rush off to Tampere to a party that was held for the contributors of the Valo weekly; Elina's dad got sick and Elina couldn't come; lots of booze and The Crash live (they are much better than HIM and Nightwish (I still don't get why they didn't break up sooner)); I also had a quick chance to check Libris, my favourite used book store in Tampere and find some interesting paperbacks;

on Saturday, off to Nokia to see Markku and have lunch with him (thanks again for the food!) and then to see my dad and pick up books and old VHS's from him (will write about these later), he had also found a neat stack of old children's napkins for Elina's and my collection; we also had a quite long and not very friendly chat about grammatological things; then to Hämeenlinna where Kauto and Elina were;

on Sunday, back to Turku and then Ottilia came to us for Fathers' Day, which amounted to lots of noise between her and Kauto and finally to some small conflicts, but also some nice moments of warmth and friendship; then at seven o'clock I took Ottilia back to her mother and said that we'll have to rearrange some of the meetings next Spring since I'll be having a job (she said: "It's good for you to have some kind of a job"; well, does anyone reading this think I don't do work?) and then back.

Ottilia had made a very nice tie for me as a present out of felt with Kauto's picture (!) on it. The best part of Fathers' Day was, though, when Kauto behaved nicely after I'd got back and started to babble in his own way, saying words that sound like "buoy". Just imagine a small boy, sitting by himself, playing by himself, saying over and over again: "Buoy buoy buoy!" We almost started to cry, after all the commotion today.

And then I said to myself: "I don't feel like opening the computer any more." Here I am. Had to make corrections to the latest issue of Pulp which is almost mainly about British stuff.

Banalologies

I had finally some time yesterday to pick up the copies of Banalologioita, my latest self-publication. See the cover. (Oops, the scan seems to be pretty bad. Don't mind that. Just admire my AD skills...)

I read it last night. It could've been shorter (it's 42 small pages now), since there are one or two essays that now read like reader's letters to the editor. But there are some bona fide classics, such as the one about eating your lunch in public places or the one about sneezing. The one about wanking and its impact on the economy (or rather the other way around: economy's impact on the amount of wanking) is still disputed by academics all over the world.

Not.

But I am serious. I'm glad this finally saw the light of day, even as a self-pubbed book that has a limited distribution.

Lord Lister

Here is a cover of another pastiche that those German guys, Matull and Blankensee, made. Lord Lister was modeled after the British Raffles.

Great name, that Lord Lister, doncha think?

More of faux Doyle

One of the Harry Taxon stories I wrote about earlier has been published in English. Anthony Boucher picked up a story from the Spanish anthology called Memorias Intimas del Rey de los Detectives and translated it and used it in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. This was later reprinted in Allan Barnard's anthology The Harlot Killer in 1953. The story is about Jack the Ripper (as is the whole antho). The Taxon story has Jack kill his 37th victim.

Faux Conan Doyle

I wrote a small piece for the Finnish Whodunit Society's Ruumiin Kulttuuri magazine on two Finnish-language books that have been published as by Arthur Conan Doyle, but are not vintage Doyle.

The other one is one of the German Conan Doyles that were written by two guys, Kurt Matull and Theo Blankensee. It's already apparent from the outset that it's not a real thing - Watson has been replaced by Harry Taxon, young man who is an apprentice of Holmes. The Holmes is no real Holmes either, since he has loads of technical apparatus at his help. The German Holmeses appeared in 1907—1911, and Harry Taxon had his own mag, too, called Harry Taxon und sein Meister. It was published in 1908—1909. The Noble Thief is the one below.

The other one is a real mystery. The Victim of a Blood-Sucker a historical novel, set in the late 18th century and features one Luc de Kerjean. Baron Luc is setting up a conspiracy against the King. It sounds more like Alexandre Dumas or Ponson du Terrail than Conan Doyle.

The Victim of a Blood-Sucker (great title, huh?) was published in Wisconsin in 1907 in two parts by a American-Finnish publisher. I've been toying with the idea that this is a trunk novel that Doyle was able to sell only to the Wisconsin-based publisher to be translated into Finnish.. but then again, probably not.

My new job

I visited today Helsinki to see my future boss in TV. I've worked with her before and while that experience wasn't altogether successful to me, I was able to get more sense out of her this time. I also met my colleague and friend, Manu, who will also be doing the show. I also heard that Tero, who's taken photos for Elina's and my talkkuna book and some of our magazine articles is doing some inserts for it, too. This calmed me down a bit, even though it seemed that they didn't really know what they were going to do. We are shooting a test pilot on next Tuesday. The real pilot will be shot in December.

Maybe all the TV shows are done like this. No one knows what is going to be done and some just lean back and relax and say: "Hey, don't worry!" Me, I'm an amateur and don't know how things go. But it seems they really have confidence in me, since I heard there were some 20-30 people running for the job.

Someone asked me if I'll show up in tabloids from now on. FAMOUS TV FACE ARRESTED FOR SPEEDING UP CRACK! TV ANCHOR SHOOTS NEIGHBOR! ELINA AND JURI: "WE ARE NOT GOING TO BREAK UP!" JURI: "I'LL GIVE UP DRINKING!"

Blogit ja parodia

Lueskelin sattumanvaraisesti paria suomalaista blogia Sediksen linkkien kautta. Uusi maailma aukeni: maailma, jossa ei ole muuta kuin blogeja ja niiden semanttista pyörittelyä. Huomasin miettiväni, eikö kukaan huomaa, että blogien häviö on jo lähellä. Mielessä nimittäin käväisi vanha totuus, jonka mukaan parodia ja varsinkin itseparodia ovat merkkejä siitä, että jokin ilmiö on menossa mailleen. (Toisaalta parodia on aina säilyttävää, konservoivaa, ja sikäli se on myös merkki siitä, että jokin ilmiö halutaan säilöä sellaisenaan.)

Stuff on the other blog

Let me remind you there's an article on Seikkailujen Maailma in English on my other blog.

I also put the rest of e.e. cummings's poems in there. In Finnish, that is.

Cover for a Finnish pulp

This is a cover for Seikkailujen Maailma, the Finnish pulp that lived 1937-1963. In this issue, there's a story by "Charles D. Hammer", who's better known as Robert Silverberg. It will be included in the forth-coming collection of his early crime stories. Quite bad cover, I must say.

Other stories include Ron Garret's crime-themed juvie Motorcycle Murder and Westerns by Reuben Jenner and John Harrison McLean. There are also some anonymous stories. I'm thinking that Ron Garret could actually be Silverberg's buddy, Randall Garrett.

The blurb says: "The year for mavericks has begun!" (Or something to that effect.)

I got it!

I got the TV job!

Well, that's how I figured it. I was pretty flabbergasted when they phoned me earlier today and announced that they had liked me. I'm going to shoot the test pilot next Tuesday and the first real show - well, that went past me since I was in such a mess during the conversation. It seems, though, that they don't yet really know what they are going to do with the show, but I've decided that I won't mind. It pays the bills.

Now I just have to get new glasses. The current ones show reflection.

Vow! What a man!

This is an old magazine illustration by one Martti Masala, who did lots of book covers and other illos in the thirties. That swimming suit is a knockout! And the guy isn't bad himself either! (It's from a magazine called Reading for Everyone.)

Weekend

Ottilia came to us for a weekend. It was All Saints Day on Saturday and everything was close. Which didn't mean much, since the rain was coming down hard all day and we didn't get out. We had a friend of ours and his daughter come by. Kauto went pretty wild over two girls at the house. Ottilia left today early with her mother to a concert and we spent a nice evening with Kauto. He's much calmer when there's no one else around but Elina and me (and we don't just sit at the computer). He wants so much of Ottilia's attention that when she's not in the mood or is too tired to play and run around, Kauto gets pissed off. Well, not pissed off, but irritated. He performs stunts just to get attention - he for example threatens to walk off the sofa.

Today he tried to kill himself and both of us. He put a little toy box beside the television which is on a small desk and tried to get up on the desk. He tried to pull himself up by pulling from the cords... And he didn't do this only once, but at least 15 times.

It's great he's so energetic and clever, but it does eat us at times.

What else happened? Nothing much. I read some pages of Clarke's Jonathan Strange. I'm still not getting to it, but it seems to have its moments. I'm reading Moomins for Ottilia for bedtime stories. I strongly suggest everyone read Moomins. They were once voted the second best books in the Finnish literature and I won't say anything against this. Very delicate, very funny and sad at the same time, devoid of the so called wisdom that rots most of the children's classics, and also very adventurous. A note should be made of this: Jansson's books appeal to a wide range of readers, not just girls or boys.

I spent one hour of my precious life and tried to watch Perdita Durango by Alex de la Iglesias, from Barry Gifford's novel. What a waste! I mean, I'm not prudish and am the last person to claim any moral for a piece of art, but there should be at last a sign of humanity in the characters. This was too wicked even for my taste. I've seen another previous film by de la Iglesias who was a find of the Almodovar brothers. Accion Mutante was its title and it was just as "evil" and "wicked" and boring as this.

Watch out: there's an article on the Finnish Seikkailujen Maailma on my other blog. In English, so it's a treat.

Osmo Pata

Osmo Padan eli Toivo Vuorisen Sannan suudelman (Kirjamylly 1945) kansikuva. Vuorinen kirjoitti myös nimellä Topi Tuisku: novelleja lukemistolehtiin sekä 70-luvun alussa vakoiluromaanin Kolauta kohtuullisesti. Jälkimmäisen julkaisi Iltakirjat-niminen pulju. Kumpikaan kustantamoista ei käsittääkseni julkaissut mitään muuta. Mietinkin, että ne saattoivat olla liikemiehenä toimineen Vuorisen perustamia one-off -kustantamoita ja kirjat käytännössä omakustanteita.

The cover of Sanna's Kiss (1945) by Osmo Pata (= Toivo Vuorinen, who also wrote pulp stories and a late paperback as by Topi Tuisku). Nice outfit! Gotta love that tank top!

Sorry about the B&W photo - it's scanned from a xerox.

Suomeksi blogeista

(Sorry, as this is about blogging culture in Finland, I thought I'd better write it in Finnish.)

Ajattelija Karl Krausilta kysyttiin joskus, miksei tämä, nerokkaana lohkaisijana tunnettu mies, ole ikinä sanonut mitään natseista. Hän vastasi: "Ei tule mitään mieleen."

Tämä tuli mieleen, kun luin Anssi Miettisen juttua Hesarin Kuukausiliitteestä. (Aiheena siis yleisesti blogit, jos joku ei tiedä.) Jotenkin tuntui, että vaikka Miettinen oli perustanut oman blogin, antanut kommenttien lentää, laittanut juttunsa eri versioita luettavaksi ja kommentoitavaksi, jutusta ei jäänyt mitään käteen. Ihan kuin Miettinen ei olisi keksinyt mitään sanottavaa. Ei tullut mitään mieleen.

Tämä johtuu ennen kaikkea siitä, että kaikki mitä blogeista voidaan sanoa on kauhean ennustettavaa. Yhteisöllisyys, uusi journalismi, kansalaisjournalismi, narsismi, julkisuushakuisuus, kaikki tämä tulee mieleen jo viiden ensimmäisen minuutin aikana. Jos liioittelen, niin olisin voinut ilmoittaa Miettisen jutun lopputulemat jo ennen kuin rupesin lukemaan sitä. (Tosin siinä ei ollut kunnon lopputulemia - ehkä se johtuu siitä, ettei aiheesta tule mitään mieleen.)

Blogikulttuurissa ei siis ole - ainakaan omasta mielestäni - mitään kiinnostavaa sinänsä, on vain joitain yksittäisiä blogeja, jotka ovat kiinnostavia (enkä ole varma, onko omanikaan sellainen). (On tietysti joitain blogiryhmiä, joita seuraa, vaikka ne eivät olisikaan mitenkään erityisen kiinnostavia; itselleni tällaisia ovat useat amerikkalaiset rikoskirjailijoiden blogit, joissa yleensä kerrotaan työn etenemisestä tai luetuista kirjoista. Jolloin niiden lukeminen kuuluu enemmänkin työn piiriin.)

Blogeista ei tule mitään mieleen. Tai jos tulee, se on niin banaalia, että sitä ei viitsi sanoa. On erikoista, että Hesari ei saa blogeista mitään irti (mikä ei ole ihme), mutta kuitenkin samaan aikaan se perustaa monta blogia toimittajilleen ja ulkopuolisille (Mikko Rimminen). Siinä on varmaan takana se, että blogit tekevät varsinaisetkin mediat kiinnostaviksi mahdollisille lukijoille - eikö se ole vähän banaali lähtökohta?

Robert Viby's covers

Robert Viby is a Danish illustrator who made some paperback covers in the fifties. Some have been used in Finland. I am putting them here, since I was scanning them for an article in the forth-coming issue of Pulp.

The first one is for Edward Aarons's Sam Durell book,
Assignment - Madeleine, that was published by Fawcett Gold Medal in 1958. Quite a striking cover, I must say. Viby has lately done covers for children's and juvenile books and has left the world of pulp sadism.

Prather with Viby

This is Viby's cover for Richard Prather's Strip for Murder (Fawcett Gold Medal 1955), one of the best entries in the Shell Scott saga. In the climax Scott flees the nudist camp naked with a balloon and lands on top of the city hall.