Unused Finnish cover for Jason Starr's Fake ID

Can't believe I haven't posted this earlier.

Remember when I used to edit the noir paperback series for a Finnish publisher, with books by Duane Swierczynski, Christa Faust, Scott Phillips and others? Well, the story didn't end well, since the line was canceled after six books. The format was changed into hardcover, but that didn't help.

I'd already translated Jason Starr's excellent Fake ID over years ago and it was scheduled to come up next in the series, in hardcover. Ossi Hiekkala made this very nice cover illustration to go with it, but the book never came out, due to many reasons. I can't really tell you how sorry I'm for this.

David/Day Keene: The Queens of Death?

I bought this old Finnish paperback (published in 1947) with three short stories in it several months ago, mainly because it has a Zorro story in it. If I'm right, this is the only real Zorro story by Johnston McCulley published in Finnish. It's probably one of the later Zorro stories that were published in pulp magazines, such as West. I believe these stories have never been reprinted.

I didn't read the Zorro story in the book, but I read the two preceding stories. The first one that also gives the book its title is written by "David Keene". The title reads as "The Queens of Death". Now, there's no David Keene who has written any kind of crime novels or stories that I can find. I can't find any trace of a story called "The Queens of Death". Of course it's possible that this story was published in a pulp magazine no one has ever indexed, but somehow I don't think that's right. I got to thinking it might be possible this is really by Day Keene. The Finnish publisher may have thought that "Day" is not a right name for an author and changed him to "David". These things happen. And Day Keene happens to have a pulp story called "Three Queens of the Mayhem", published in Detective Tales in February 1946, so it's entirely possible that this story found its way to Finland and got published as part of a three-story anthology.

There are three old women in David Keene's story. They are old ladies living together. They were once famous singers called The Beverly Sisters, but getting caught in a murder case ruined their career. Now one of the sisters asks private eye called Tom Doyle to try to find a girl one of the sisters was forced to give away to an orphanage. The story is fun, mildly parodist in tone and plot. It's written strictly in the zany school of hardboiled writing, reminiscent of Robert Bellem, Richard S. Prather and others. So, is it "Three Queens of Mayhem"? Anyone? Or is it some other story by Day Keene? Or is there a David Keene?

There's also another short story to stir up interest. It's called "Kadonnut sävel", which means "The Lost Tune" or some such. The hero of the story is troubleshooter of some sort called Hannibal Smith. He's a former sports coach, but now makes his living selling used stuff, giving loans and doing services to people. Hannibal Smith is a fat man, but he's also resourceful and intelligent and quick with his mouth. Now, there's a Hannibal Smith story called "Down Among the Dead Men" published in Dime Detective in 1945, written by C. William Harrison, who's best known for his paperback westerns. (I've read one, it was pretty good.) I'm pretty sure this story is by the same C. William Harrison. Can anyone confirm? The story is funny as Hannibal Smith is asked to take a photo of a cow somewhere in the fields. He does exactly that, but fast he realizes he maybe shouldn't have, since he's being suspected of a murder...

The great Finnish cover is by Poika Vesanto. Probably - I can't find his signature in the cover.

New Finnish covers for ERB's Mars books

The small publishing house Into is bringing new editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars books in Finnish this Spring. The books have been out-of-print in Finnish for almost thirty years and some of the old editions command quite high prices.

My friend Ossi Hiekkala did great covers for the first two, see the link here. I think they are up there with the best.

Two Finnish pulp magazine covers

I took two (well, pretty lousy) snapshots of two Finnish fiction mag covers earlier today at the university library, where I was researching stuff for a book. (Have to say I got ideas for half a dozen books.) Here they are, both are from the Lukemista Kaikille/Reading For Everyone magazine that was published by Ilmarinen from the twenties to 1960.

The first one is by Martti Masala, who was really versatile and talented. He did lots of illustrations for the Ilmarinen publishers, week by week, and I'm sure he burned out, since he vanished from sight in the late fourties. Not much is known about him, but his illustrations are knock-outs.

The second one is by Poika Vesanto, about whom Timo Kokkila and Ville Hänninen made a good book a year ago.

Poika Vesanto's western covers

Poika Vesanto (1908-1950) was one of the best Finnish cover illustrators and comic artists of the bygone days. He's always been known and admired by the cognoscenti, but his name has been hidden from wider audiences. My friends, Timo Kokkila and Ville Hänninen, compiled an exhibition of Poika Vesanto's works (it's at display at the Rupriikki media museum in Tampere) and Ville has been writing a short book on Vesanto.

Here are some of Vesanto's western covers from the 1930's and 1940's. Most of them are for juveniles, but the C.K. Shaw book is for adult audiences (no no, it's not porn). C.K. Shaw was one of the forgotten pulp authors of her day - this may be the only instance where she's got a book publication. The book contains also a short story by Walt Coburn, one of the best known pulp western writers. Gil Dennic was a Finnish author called Olavi Linnus (yeah, I know, Buxom is a pretty weird choice for a name), and Arvily was really Arvid Lydecken, one of the first practitioners of the western genre in Finland. Bertil Cleve, I believe, was a Swedish writer, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: Only just now I took a look at the Fictionmags Index and noticed that C.K. Shaw was a woman. I took the bibliography of her short stories and posted it to Pulpetti's Bibliographic Section. Follow the link.

Edit No. 2: Timo Kokkila reminded me that the exhibition is at the Rupriikki museum, not Vapriikki. Sorry 'bout that! He also informed me that the Poika Vesanto booklet is 40 pages and in full colour.