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Anticipating a slabbed All Story Tarzan.

"Digest" has two applications, I think: 1. Size: digests are wider than typical paperbacks (4.25" x 6.375"). Digests are 5" wide or more. 2. Publication Status. "Digest" most commonly refers to periodicals, whereas "paperbacks" are books, not periodicals.

Collier's, May 7, 1932. Another cover by W.T. Benda (but looks like it is signed "Bendoc"). Interiors by Flanagan.

Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu sagas were possibly the most pulp-like series to ever run in the slick magazines. Unfortunately, the covers of Collier's rarely featured the characters from this long-running series, the editors preferring instead light, silly, humorous covers that have no appeal today. The March 8, 1930, cover is one of the exceptions. It is painted by W.T. Benda. The interior illustrations are by John Richard Flanagan, the true inheritor of Joseph Clement Coll (the original illustrator of Fu Manchu).

According to this article: "I don't think there can be any doubt that 'The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt' was ghostwritten. The question is, who was the ghostwriter? I would like to nominate Otis Adelbert Kline for that title. Whoever wrote the story was well versed (or mostly well versed) in the history, language, and geography of fantasy, adventure, historical, and weird fiction. Kline fit the bill in that way. Kline was also a manuscript reader, workhorse writer, sometime editor, and partway agent for Weird Tales. He seems to have been a real go-to guy for Henneberger and Baird. In early 1924, the two men at the head of Weird Tales would have needed ghostwriters for Houdini's coming stories. Kline would have been an obvious choice for the first. Lovecraft of course came last."

I wonder if any readers at the time noticed that Houdini writes just like Lovecraft?

Personally, I think most of Senf's covers are ill-conceived rubbish, but I agree that this is one of his more effective ones. Under Satrap Pharnabazous's editorship, the best story in the issue was almost always passed over for the cover illustration, so good to see Two-Gun Bob prevail here. Always amusing, also, to see a world famous name from literature (Alexandre Dumas) added to the author roll on the cover -- as if to give the impression that Dumas actually wrote for "the unique magazine"!

I do like that CGC is giving them consecutive numbers, like comic books. It's good to know at a glance that the October 1, 1936, issue of The Shadow is #111, rather than "Volume 19, Number 3," which is a now-meaningless jumble of numbers.

The Man From Nazareth is a little out of place there.

Early pre-cleavage Avon. Crude compared to their later covers, but charming in its own way. Looking forward to reading this. The only other Merritt I've read so far is Burn Witch Burn.

Strangely, Matt Fox cited Alex Raymond as his biggest inspiration. I can't think of an artist more unlike Raymond than Fox.

Heritage's description of The One Between by Arthur Adlon (Beacon, 1962) is ludicrous: "The One Between dates to what's called the "golden age" of the lesbian pulp genre. These books used the public's appetite for erotic, lurid, and sensational stories to create space for representation of queer characters not allowed elsewhere in mainstream American culture and are highly collectible today." Beacon's strategy in publishing was purely and simply to peddle cheap thrills and sleaze to the prurient interests of men. Heritage knows this, of course, but decides instead to rewrite history to retroject a false motive of "inclusion" on the publisher's part. I hate dishonesty in advertising.

8.5 ... highest graded pulp so far?

Will CGC Note Pedigrees on Pulp Labels? Just curious.