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.

Unknown pulp heroes, perhaps?

Here's a list I want everyone to look at very hard. They are names of some characters appearing in the Finnish pulp, Seikkailujen Maailma. I believe they are all from translated, American-origin stories. But the stories appeared with no author's names, so I'm at loss here. Can anyone help with these? The stories are hardboiled crime from the 1930's up to the fifties. I know this can be solved, since I already solved one such name: Mike Blair who also appeared in Seikkailujen Maailma without the author's name, but I know now that he was Hank Searls's hero.

Carrhart
Art Casey
Hap Collins [yeah, the same name Lansdale has!]
Matt Devon
Jones
Streak McShea
Pat Muldoon
Joe Portugal
Bulldog Ryan
Stevenson (detective for an airline)
Bill Thorne
Bart Trevor
Jeff Dixon
Sidney Gordon

Mustang Gray

The Finnish pulp mag, Seikkailujen Maailma, also published some comics. They had one or two Finnish-origin comics, but all the others were imported. Here's the last one to appear in the magazine, Mustang Gray.

Mustang Gray was done by Italian artists, but it was published in the UK mag, Western Picture Library. One of the artists was Camillo Zuffi (1912-2002). The main artist, however, was Armando Bonato who later on turned into fumetti, via Diabolik. From a quick glance, Mustang Gray seems similar to Tex Willer, the best known of the Italian Western comics.

This is the opening page of the comic series, from the Seikkailujen Maailma issue November, 1960.

Another Western comic

Here's another one from the Seikkailujen Maailma mag. I don't know the original source, but it's called "In the Trails of Incomparable Arrow". This one is earlier - it was published in 1955.

Mika Waltari writing as Kristian Korppi

(Now, finally to something I've promised almost a week ago. Well, maybe it was only last Wednesday.)

The world knows Mika Waltari as the writer of The Egyptian and some other historical novels that mix adventure, philosophy, occasional overwriting and literary themes. When Waltari published his The Egyptian (originally titled Sinuhe egyptiläinen) in 1945, he had been writing fiction (and drama and poetry and some non-fiction) for exactly 20 years. His first short stories came out in an otherwise forgotten magazine called Juttutupa/Story Shackle in 1925. He published short stories under the pseudonym Karl Detmold (it was sometimes typeset wrong, for example as Kaarlo Detmold). Some of the stories are already in the horror mold, some of them are pure adventure, while some are whimsy love stories. He wrote in his memoir that the publisher of Juttutupa paid better for the love stories.

In 1925, Waltari also published his first book, Jumalaa paossa/On the Run from God, which is a religious adventure story (of novella length, some 70 pages). Waltari was later ashamed of it, for a good reason - the story is clumsy and full of naïve religious propaganda. (It may've been the hand of the religious publisher. Waltari has only said that he had to rewrite the original manuscript to get the thing published. What I'd pay to see the first draft!)

In 1926, he published a collection of short stories under the byline of Kristian Korppi. He'd used the nom de plume also on some poetry he'd published in a collection of young poets, and he would use it for a year or two in short stories he wrote for the fictionmags of the time. It translates as "Christian Raven" and shows a direct Poe influence.

The collection is titled The Dead Man's Eyes, with the subtitle Stories From the Threshold of the Unknown, and in the book there are eleven stories some of which are quite readable even today - though Waltari later said he hoped the book would remain forgotten, and it remains unreprinted, save for three stories.

Those three stories are the best in the bunch. "Auringonlaskun saari" has even come out in English - in the book Johanna Sinisalo edited in 2005, The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy. "The Isle of Setting Sun" could've very well been published in Weird Tales or Adventure or some other pulp magazine of the period, and it might be reminiscent of, say, Clark Ashton Smith, if it were not for the fact that it precedes Smith's work by some years. Waltari's story is strong sword and sorcery, with fantastic overtones.

The other two stories that have been reprinted are "Muumio/The Mummy" and "Punainen kolmio/The Red Triangle". The former one is pretty standard fare, but still effective story-telling about a curse of a mummy a Finnish archeologist finds in Egypt. "The Red Triangle" is much stronger: it tells a story of a young student who buys a skull and a dagger from an auction and finds himself getting drawn into a mystery that involves a beautiful woman. The story is ripe with S/M eroticism, with the young student fantasizing about decapitated heads.

Both "The Red Triangle" and "The Isle of Setting Sun" have a mysterious triangle in them - in the latter Vikings find a mystery woman in a room in the shape of a triangle, and in the former the student gets obsessed with drawing a perfect triangle. One might notice there's influence of H. P. Lovecraft, but it's 99 % certain that Waltari never knew Lovecraft's name. (Someone should take up the Red Triangle and form a mythology around it...)

Other stories in the book are more standard. The most horrific is "Kirotut silmät/The Cursed Eyes" in which the protagonist drowns a newborn baby in a bog and afterwards chops the mother by axe. In a manner reminiscent of Poe, the protagonist narrates his own story with a maniacal tone.

Also adventurous is "Oopiumihoure/The Opium Dream" in which a strange man tells about his adventures in India, becoming a yogi and then falling in love with a beautiful woman... "Mustat orkideat/The Black Orchids" features a huge black dog, which seems to possess mysterious forces - this might also be the work of Lovecraft ("The Hound", 1924), but it also brings The Hound of the Baskervilles into mind.

As I said, only three stories of the bunch have been reprinted in Finnish (in a book called Lukittu laatikko ja muita kertomuksia/The Closed Box and Other Stories), but I don't see why the whole book has to remain unread. Some of the stories could've been written by many American or English authors, and in comparison Waltari has nothing to be ashamed of.

It has also been commented on as a rare entry in horror in the annals of Finnish literature, but even a quick look at some of the fiction mags of the 1920's reveals that there was lots of horror being written in Finnish. Some of the stuff made its way into books.

(Next: Waltari's humorous adventure novels as by Kapteeni Leo Rainio. Sorry, by the way, about the black and white scan of the Korppi book - I had to take a photocopy at the university library and they don't have colour copiers. The cover is, I presume, by Sylvi Kunnas.)

Lukemisto-lehteä sotavuosilta

(About a Finnish pulp mag.)

Olen lueskellut yliopiston kirjastossa Lukemisto-nimistä lukemistolehteä vuosilta 1943-1945 ja tehnyt indeksiä. Kirjoitin tämmöisen viestin Pulpetti-sähköpostilistalle ja muun postitettavan puutteessa ajattelin kokeilla sitä tännekin. Olen miettinyt, että perustaisin oman blogin lukemistoille ja niiden sisältöindekseille, mutta voi olla, että aika paljon saa vetta virrata myllyn alitse ennen kuin se tapahtuu. Tässä ei ole kaikkia lehtiä, palataan sitten niihin... Samoin kuin kuviin.

Tässä vielä maanantai-illan ratoksi indeksiä Lukemisto-lehdestä. Helkkarin mielenkiintoinen lehti - jutut vaikuttavat rennoilta ja hauskoilta ja jotenkin vetävämmiltä kuin monessa muussa vastaavassa kotimaisessa, ja kauhun ja puhtaan fantasiankin määrä ihmetyttää. Tässä on suomalaisen kirjallisuuden vaihtoehtoinen historia!

Kommentteja:

- olen aivan varma, että anonyymin kirjoittama "Vampyyrin orja" on Harry Etelän kirjoittama, juttu ei voi olla kenenkään muun kirjoittama!; Etelällä on lehdissä pari humoristis-romanttistakin juttua, joista "Villin kevään" päähenkilö on ammatiltaan jännityskirjailija!

- Turo Ahva ja Klaus Marno ovat ilmeisesti sama tyyppi, ainakin Kalevi Haikon arkistosta löytyneen summittaisen merkinnän perusteella; en ihmettelisi, tyyli on samanlainen ja silloin kun Ahva kirjoittaa kauhujutun, meininki on samanlaista kuin Marnon jutuissa; Dorton-jutut kertovat hullusta tiedemiehestä, joka keksii aineen, joka lähettää ihmiset toiseen ulottuvuuteen; "Punainen temppeli" on puhdasta fantasiaa, jossa kulkija löytää kadonneen kaupungin ja sen hullun kuningattaren - näitä kun voisi julkaista uudestaan!

- Leni Hoffrén on todennäköisesti Lennart Hoffrén, joka kirjoitti 60-luvulla pari sotaromaania ja julkaisi 60-luvulla omakustannepokkareita (länkkäreitä ja sotajuttuja); hänellä on novelleja 60-luvun Lännensarjoissa hyvin samantyyppisellä salanimellä, nämä ovat enemmänkin romanttisia juttuja

- Ossi Haimi on kaiketi oikea nimi, jos en väärin muista, hän kirjoitti myös salanimellä O. Kaskamo Riksin kirjoissa ilmestyneen Tunturipaholaisen; osa Haimin teksteistä on parodisia ja satiirisia runoja, varsinkin nuo Jali-jutut, joissa hän irvailee kohtuullisen hauskasti ajankohtaiselle politiikalle ja mm. Hitlerille

- Pertti Paakkanen ja Aarre Paakkanen voivat olla veljekset, en tiedä; Fennican mukaan Aarre Holger Paakkanen kirjoitti vuonna 1945 romaanin Kolme kultaista kirvestä (kustantaja Kivi; onkohan fantasiaa?) sekä upean kuuloisen kirjan Nepalin kadonnut rubiini (Pellervo 1948); Pertti Paakkanen esiintyi mm. salanimillä Erkka Kare ja Jack Rogers

- kiinnostava yksittäinen hahmo on Uolevi Kianto, Ilmarin poika! juttu on humoristista kauhua

- Ossi Valle Rahkonen on Osvald Rahkonen, joka jostain syystä pyrki peittelemään etunimeään, hän esiintyi nimillä Osv. tai Osvi Rahkonen

1/1944

Stephen Phillips: Valkoinen kissa
anonyymi [A. Paakkanen]: Partakoneenterä
James Sparrow: "Tervetuloa Floraan!"
Harlekiini: Aatami ja Eeva: draamallinen huvinäytelmä
anonyymi: Keinotekoinen Kalle ja muita koneellistettuja miehiä
Budapestin Juliska: Suuren suosion saavuttanut iskelmä elokuvasta Sininen naamio
Esko Helo: Kullanhimo
Heikki Seppälä: Irinan luostarinmatka
P. Paakkanen: Tri Jarmenin keksintö
Per Erik: Mr. Walsh erehtyy

2/1944

Calami: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo [pakinasarja]
Turo Ahva: Tulisilmän suurin nautinto
Viola Pallas: Angelan unelma täyttyy
Leni Hoffrén: Topin ranskalainen kihlaus
Turo Ahva: Salaperäisen Li Shon arvoitus
Per Erik: Liian hermostunut
A. Paakkanen: Partakoneenterä, osa 2
anonyymi: Kirje sinulle kultaseni
anonyymi: Idylli Nigeriassa
Pentti Kari: Kolmen kuukauden jälkeen
Ossi Haimi: Tyttöni, on jälleen kevät...
P. Paakkanen: Tri Jarmenin keksintö

3-4/1944

Calami: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Turo Ahva: Komisario Lane Scotland Yardista
Ossi Haimi: Terveiset kapteeni Juan Burolta
Per Erik: Trevor epäonnistuu
E.F. Benson: Home Sweet Home [klassikkokäännös]
Harlekiini: Elämän linja-autossa; Ampiainen ja minä
Leni Hoffrén: Jorman juttu
Kalervo Kujala: Sätki
Milli: Kestävyyskoe
Jep: Äidin luokse
Turo Ahva: Kaksi herrasmiestä
Per Erik: Kaulahihna
Leni Hoffrén: Kömpelöt kädet
P. Paakkanen: Tri Jarmenin keksintö

5-6/1944

Camali: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Turo Ahva: Aavehyena
Ossi Haimi: Kapteeeni Buron terveiset
Per Erik: Kuumetta
anonyymi: Vampyyrin orja [todennäköisesti Harry Etelä; kuv. ei signeerausta, Pentti Viherluoto?]
Milli: Virstan tolpalla
Leni Hoffrén: Karhu Ville
Ossi Haimi: Ihannevaimo
Milli: Pienen pääskysemon voitto
P. Paakkanen: Tri Jarmenin keksintö
Harlekiini: Carmen
Turo Ahva: Salaperäinen suomalainen [kuv. Ahva?]
Turo Ahva: Komisario Virtasen herrasmiehen maine

7/1944

Harry Etelä: Kummituspatsas
Ossi Haimi: Kapteeni Buron terveiset: Pasifisti sai urhoollisuusmerkin´
Turo Ahva: Kohtalon laukaus
Ossi Haimi: Siviilin kirjePer Erik: Kirottu vesisade
Ossi Valle Rahkonen: Laukaus kuului keskukseen
Ossi V. Rahkonen: Tapaaminen
Harry Etelä: Eriskummallinen yö
Turo Ahva: Vain pieni erehdysanonyymi: Kohtalo johtaa

Lukemisto 1/1945; kansi Pentti Viherluoto

Camali: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Turo Ahva: Kuoleman portti
Viola Pallas: Kihlajaisilta
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset 4: Equadorilainen kauneus kukkii Perussakin
Aarre Paakkanen: Sukeltaja
Klaus Marno: Hornansalin salaisuus. Professori Dorton-sarja: Kauhukertomuksia mielikuvituksen rajamailta
Leni Hoffrén: Paluu
Harry Etelä: Öisen myrskyn huminaa (kuvitus Pentti Viherluoto)
Pertti Paakkanen: Kadonnut kultakaivos 1

2/1945; kansi Pentti Viherluoto

Camali: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Harry Etelä: Kummituksen morsian
Turo Ahva: Olinko se minä?
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset V: Minulle yritetään kostaa
Tip-Top: Kauneusuni
A. Paakkanen: Palanut kirje
Ossi Valle Rahkonen: Paljastava rumba
anonyymi: Erään nuorukaisen rakkauskirje
Klaus Marno: Professori Dortonin pako
Pertti Paakkanen: Kadonnut kultakaivos 2
Ossi Haimi: Kirje Jalilta: Uni N:o 1
Pertti Sara: Silmälasit

3/1945

Camali: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Harry Etelä: Kummituksen morsian 2
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset VI: Tarkoitus pyhittää keinot
Klaus Marno: Professori Dorton nousee kuolleista
Pertti Paakkanen: Kadonnut kultakaivos 3

4/1945

O-La: Mies joka sai haastattelun
Harry Etelä: Villi kevät
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset VII: Lapsellinen juttu
Klaus Marno: Dorton-Wellmont - viimeinen erä
Ossi Haimi: Runoilija Jalin ilmestysuni sanomalehden yleisönosastosta
Pertti Paakkanen: Kadonnut kultakaivos

5/1945

Camali: Herra Eemeli Ounasketo
Ossi-Valle Rahkonen: Kaksi kevättä
Mirva Sammas: On kuollut kylmyys -
Klaus Marno: Dorton-Wellmont - viimeinen erä
Harry Etelä: Villi kevät 2
Paul John-Smith: Kuoleman mestari

6/1945

M.S.: Kukkii tuomet; Juhannusyönä
Leni Hoffrén: Amerikkalaista vauhtia
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset VIII: Ranskatar on ranskatar; I osa seikkailusta Näkemiin... kohtalo!
Uolevi Kianto: Vanha kummitus
Turo Ahva: "Hain" arvoitus; ilmoitus että Paakkasen jatkosarja Kadonnut kultakaivos lakkaa ilmestymästä
Ossi-Valle Rahkonen: Harmaasilmä

7/1945

Klaus Marno: Punainen temppeli
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset IX: Näkemiin... kohtalo 2: Minä hymyilen ääneen
Turo Ahva: "Hain" arvoitus 2
M.S.: Kesäyönä
Ossi Haimi: Jali kirjoittaa
Leo Landon: Valkoinen neliöanonyymi: Rosvometsän pojat

8/1945

Klaus Marno: Mestariampuja: kertomus Villistä Lännestä
Ossi Haimi: Kapt. Buron terveiset X: "Espanjan neito ja Espanjan maa... ja niin!": 3 osa seikkailusta Näkemiin.. kohtalo!
Turo Ahva: "Hain" arvoitus 3
Ossi Haimi: Jali kirjoittaa: Taistelurunoilija
Ossi-Valle Rahkonen: Erehdys
Harry Etelä: Kanarialintu (kuvitus Pentti Viherluoto)

The New Adam magazine

I was checking some stories out of the Finnish porn magazine called Uusi Aatami (New Adam) at the university library. Uusi Aatami used some stuff out of the American sleaze magazine Male and I was able to recognize some writers of the stories, such as Jim Harmon who's best known as a writer on old radio programs, but also some SF.

The Uusi Aatami magazine was quite ugly, with rough black-and-white photos and not much content beyond that. I was looking for a story that a friend of mine remembered having written in 1971 or 1972, but it seems that all the original Finnish stories were published without a byline. The magazine was published from 1965 to 1972 by one Aarre Grönlund, who was the premier publisher of the second-rate men's mags in Finland. (He also wrote one crime novel by himself - you can see it here.)

I'll post here some "interesting" ads and cartoons from the mag. These are not for kids! I don't really know whether they are suitable viewing for adults either, but here goes nevertheless. Some more Uusi Aatami covers (and other Finnish sleaze) here.

Not the Vampirella you're used to?

Now, this one is ugly. An artificial vagina, called Vampyrella, advertised by none other than the Warren company's great heroine. (Elina, reading over my shoulder, said that she first thought it's a car tire.)

Ossian Saarman's sex cartoon

Here's a two-page cartoon made by Finnish artist Ossian Saarman for the Uusi Aatami magazine. The story goes like this: A woman sees her husband having sex with another woman and thinks about revenge. She almost has a car-wreck and ends up having sex with the two men who are driving the car. She goes back to his husband and laughs at him in her mind.

Ossian Saarman is a legend and he published almost all of his comics in self-publications. Here's some discussion on him and some of his pictures on Kvaak.

Love Doll

And finally, an ad for a love doll. At least she's arrived! A wondrous, pumping Barbara. The baby doll for all the big boys at last in Finland. A normal sized adorable girl to last for years for little money!

Tarzan in a Finnish mag

Here's another example of a comic strip published in a Finnish fictionmag in the bygone days: the cover of Seikkailukertomuksia/Adventure Stories noting the beginning of the Tarzan strip in the mag. This is from 1957.

Misterix

Here's a scan of a page of an Italian comics superhero, Misterix. He says: "There's no fear of radium anymore. / Leave the girl alone!"

Here's some info on Misterix in English - it's not much, but all the other pages Google finds are in Italian which I don't speak very fluently, I must say. This seems a good place to start, though. The comic strip was published in Finland in the fifties in the Seikkailukertomuksia/Adventure Stories magazine that was one of the Ilmarinen publishing house's fictionmags focused on crime and adventure. They had lots of comic strips, this being some of the weirdest.