Category: News

From 1949 until the end of Radio drama in 1962, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was a stalwart of radio drama. This book, “The Who is Johnny Dollar Matter” provides a different look at Johnny Dollar – as if he were a real investigator. “The Who is Johnny Dollar Matter” starts with a mini-biography and then provides a detailed recap of each YTJD program.

The detailed case analyses catalogs the details of each story, including cast, expenses, writers and directors, and cross-references to programs that used the same script with a different name and cast.

The detailed index catalogs each story, case location and the cast of each program. The books also contain a detailed listing of cases by insurance company and the expenses for each of the 6 Johnny Dollars updated to 21st century dollars. Also included are recaps of programs which only exist in the KNX collection of the Thousand Oaks, California library.

“The Who is Johnny Dollar Matter” is the definitive reference work for the cases handled by Johnny Dollar, both those currently available electronically, but also those available only in the KNX collection of the Thousand Oaks, California library.


Want to know how this book ties into Moonstone Monday?? go to http://www.moonstonebooks.com/ and type ‘Johnny Dollar” in the search bar..or better yet..read this next review!!

TIPPIN’ HANCOCK’S HAT-Pulp Reviews by Tommy Hancock
PARTNERS IN CRIME
by CJ Henderson and Joe Gentile
Published by Moonstone Books
2009, 187 pages

There are some wonderful things about pulp these days.   One of those things is the opportunity to mix and match your favorite classic characters with modern original creations in all new tales.  All the writers, artists, even publishing companies are having a grand ol’ time doing just that, spinning their own brainchildren in with the likes of the Black Bat, the Purple Scar, Moon Man, ad infinitem.   What makes it even better is when someone not only has those two fields to play in, but they also hold certain licenses to more recent fan favorite characters and throw them into the mix as well.  Yup, you heard me.


Moonstone does a pretty good job of that.  One of the leading publishers of licensed characters as well as utilizing characters from the public domain, Moonstone has a little gem in its archive by the title of PARTNERS IN CRIME, written by CJ Henderson with an able assist by Moonstone CEO Joe Gentile.  There is so much wound into this time spanning cosmic tale with ties into the seedier side of fiction that I’ll let the original copy for the book tell the tale-


An original novel, with spot illustrations, that teams up Kolchak, Johnny Dollar, Boston Blackie, Candy Matson, Pat Novak, Blackshirt, Lai Wan, and Jack Hagee, and Mr Keen all in one great adventure! In the final days of WW2, a sinister plan to defeat the allies using black sorcery orig price thwarted, only to be resurrected today in a form even more terrible than before. Now, over six turbulent decades, across multiple continents, and through the darkest alternate dimensions, a force of unimaginable power stands poised to subjugate all of mankind.


Yeah, you read that cast right..and that’s not even everyone you’d recognize!!  Henderson and Gentile put together characters that many people would never think of tangling up and most of us fans would love to see together.  And these interpretations stay true to the roots of most of them, even down to Blackie’s original addictions (yeah, if you haven’t read the original books or any of the Moonstone Boston Blackie stuff, you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about!).  The plot is good, the interactions between the characters on target for the most part, and the twists and turns thrown in work overall.   Henderson and Gentile lend a good voice to the work, making it cohesive even though it was sort of split into parts with ‘teams’ of characters working different angles.


One of the coolest parts of this book, however, is also its greatest weakness.  The book, a fast paced action paced pulp thriller, creaks and groans at times under the weight of its sizable cast.  Each character here, from Novak to Hagee to Kolchak to Dollar and beyond have carried their own stories previously and very well could carry this plot almost by themselves.  Some of the players don’t get the due they should and in places where a couple do share center stage, they almost clash more than blend.  The book ties up all the loose ends of the plot, but with so many fully fleshed out characters involved, it does leave one feeling a little untied still.


THREE OUT OF FIVE TIPS OF HANCOCK’S HAT-Definitely worth a read if you like supernatural mixed with your pulp mixed with your action.

NO CLIFFHANGER FICTION TODAY DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES….WILL BE FEATURED AT SOME POINT THIS WEEK AS SOON AS THE SORT OF EIC CAN FIGURE OUT JUST HOW TO FIX THESE DIFFICULTIES HE REALLY DOESN’T UNDERSTAND….