Friday, August 31, 2007

Bicarbonate Johnny

That's right, he's called "Bicarbonate Johnny", and he doesn't let a little dyspepsia keep him from discovering the mystery of the "Claw of the Kidnapped Idol". While not as physically challenged as other "defective detectives" (a sub-sub-genre of pulp mystery fiction); such as Inspector Allhoff, the double amputee, or Calvin Kane, The "Crab" detective; Johnny does have to frequently resort to chewing soda mints to keep his heartburn at bay, occasionally burping "impatiently" and "succinctly" despite these antacids.

Thanks to the Pulpgen site for digitizing this mystery by Marcus Lyons (a.k.a. James Blish) from Crack Detective Stories (Dec. 1947). While it's far from being top-notch detective fiction, it's esoteric value is phenomenal.

5 comments:

Burntdisk said...

Cool, thanks. Glad ta see ya postin' again. Bet Inspector Allhoff was a hell of a detective, too- after all, he had to get a leg up on the competition somehow...

Mark said...

Oh, that's bad, man. The Allhoff stuff is great, though. I actually picked up the complete stories at a used bookstore in Jersey. It's called, get this, _Footprints on a Brain_. Imagine trying to resist that when it's staring up at you from the shelves . . .

Burntdisk said...

He had no legs, so how's he leaving footprints? Shouldn't it be Stump-prints on the Brain?

Yeah, I tend to scan used book stores for Mythos stuff, though I did scarf some good 60s pulp superhero stuff the last time we were in Pitts...

Mark said...

Not as catchy . . .

I saw some of that stuff. Didn't you pick up a few volumes out of the Weird Heroes series? I have one of those (I think it's 7 or 8) that has a Walter Gibson piece in it.

Burntdisk said...

Think I got 4, 6 & 7. One has the hero "The Vulture" if I remember correctly. Lately I've been working my way through the Wizard of Venus, which I also grabbed there.