Now shipping: bare•bones #18

Inside the seventeenth issue of bare•bones, you will find:

• William Schoell tunes into Science Fiction Theatre
• An overlooked classic, No Grave for Us, reviewed by Bryan Kuriawa
• Larry Blamire hits the front lines to experience Combat first hand
• Curt Siodmak and His Dr. Patrick Cory Trilogy celebrated by Matthew R. Bradley
• Peter Enfantino highlights the best of Pre-Code Horror in Adventures Into Terror
• The Big Caper and Alfred Hitchcock Presents examined by Jack Seabrook
• Peter Enfantino delivers another Six-Pack of Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
• It’s time for destination: Quentin Tarantino in Duane Swierczynski’s Field Guide to L.A. Pulp
• S. Craig Zahler reviews some LitRPG . . . and more
• Can you stand to see what Peter Enfantino has uncovered in Sleaze Alley?
• Our very own David J. Schow portrayed Freddy Krueger — read all about it!
• In space, no one can hear styrene, in John Scoleri’s Monster Gallery

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bare•bones #18 - Spring 2024

Publication Date: May 27, 2024

Suggested Retail Price: $9.95

Trade Paperback - 108 pages

ISBN-13: 979-8323398935

Dimensions: 6 x 0.27 x 9 inches

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Now shipping: The Wild World of Off Beat Detective, Crime and Sleaze Digests by Peter Enfantino

Once upon a time, magazine racks overflowed with crime fiction. For thirty-five cents you could lose yourself in another world for a couple of hours while riding the train back home from your office, or sitting on the beach, or enjoying a bit of quiet time while the brats napped. The ‘50s and ‘60s were decades ripe for violent escapism in the digests, and Manhunt, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine each sold thousands of copies every month. 

But what if you were the kind of reader who wanted something a little naughtier; a little more taboo; a little more dangerous? You’d have to kneel down and look at the bottom row, way in the back behind the Farmer’s Almanac and Fate, to find such jewels as Justice, Keyhole Mystery, Keyhole Detective, Sure Fire Detective, and Off Beat Detective.

Crammed cover-to-cover with feuding JDs, greedy wives, adulterous husbands, and serial killers, the ‘sleaze’ crime digests were an acquired taste, and a bitter pill for the traditional mystery fan to swallow. Combining elements of Black Mask and Dime Mystery, the sleaze digests spit in the face of the old fuddy-duddies and dared readers to try something different.

Within these digests, you’ll make acquaintance with: a morally bankrupt high school teacher who impregnates one of his teenage students; the beautiful Renfreda, who’s being chased through the swamp by an evil marijuana harvester; the gorgeous Peggy Ann, who may be the notorious Ice Pick Murderer; the brave small-town reporter who investigates a local cult and risks her life (and her clothes) for a good story; the printer who unknowingly becomes a publisher of smut; and a young couple who discover their neighbors are Satan worshippers.

The Wild World of Off Beat Detective, Crime and Sleaze Digests is the second volume of a continuing series, in which Peter Enfantino breaks down each and every story that appeared in the pages of these five legendary titles. Now rare and fetching exorbitant prices on the secondary market, these magazines contained some of the most chilling and daring crime stories published at that time. So which issues are worth your hard-earned dollars? Open this book and find out!

Peter Enfantino is the author of The Manhunt Companion (Stark House Press), an exhaustive story-by-story discussion of the greatest crime magazine of all time. He was an editor of The Scream Factory (1988 - 1997) and bare•bones (1997 - 2001, 2020 - present). He is an obsessive collector of crime, horror, and western digests, and has written for all the major channels on the topics, including Paperback Parade, Mystery Scene, and The Digest Enthusiast. He lives in a sleaze alley known as Gilbert, Arizona.

Praise for The Manhunt Companion:

The story annotations are concise and well-written, and reflect a consistent critical standard . . . Enfantino is a tough, sometimes idiosyncratic critic.

— Jon L. Breen, Mystery Scene

The Manhunt Companion is not only a must for readers and collectors of the magazine, but for anyone interested in cutting-edge noir fiction of the 50s and early 60s.

— Bill Pronzini

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The Wild World of Off Beat Detective, Crime and Sleaze Digests by Peter Enfantino

Publication Date: May 16, 2023

Suggested Retail Price: $14.95

Trade Paperback - 178 pages

ISBN-13: 979-8324517861

Dimensions: 6 x 0.45 x 9 inches

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Now shipping: bare•bones #17

 

Inside the seventeenth issue of bare•bones, you will find:

• Larry Blamire on the classic television heyday of the working class criminal
• The Fugitive reimagined in print — reviewed by Tim Lucas
• William Schoell follows Craig Stevens in Man of the World
• Exhuming Federico Curiel’s Nostradamus cycle with Derek Hill
• Randall D. Larson on his early life as a fanzine publisher
• Four paperback originals by Marvin H. Albert explored by J. Charles Burwell
• Peter Enfantino downs another Six-Pack of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
• Destination: Santa Barbara in Duane Swierczynski’s Field Guide to L.A. Pulp
• S. Craig Zahler reviews two pair of titles from Marvin H. Albert and Ben Haas
• Fresh filth is unearthed in Sleaze Alley by Peter Enfantino
• David J. Schow on the origin of the Splatterpunk Awards
• And you’ll find Bats in Your Belfry in John Scoleri’s Monster Gallery

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bare•bones #17 - Winter 2024

Publication Date: February 22, 2024

Suggested Retail Price: $9.95

Trade Paperback - 108 pages

ISBN-13: 979-8871277881

Dimensions: 6 x 0.27 x 9 inches

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Now shipping: Selected Poems by John Farris

Cimarron Street Books is pleased to bring you the selected poems of award-winning author John Farris.

The photo of John Farris (at age 21) on the cover of Selected Poems was taken in May of 1958, three weeks before his graduation from Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College) and four weeks after the sale of his novel Harrison High, which became a multi-million copy best-seller, establishing a successful dual career for Mr. Farris as a novelist and writer-producer-director of films.

In its scope, ambition, and achievement, this volume of 158 selected poems illuminates an astonishing third career of the prolific author, of which nothing was known until now.

Of his poetry, Mr. Farris writes, “I realize that many poets would rather be accused of tax evasion or spousal abuse than to be considered other than ‘very serious artists.’ High seriousness will always have its place in poetry. But it isn’t beneath us to be entertaining while examining, subversively perhaps, certainly with a satirical eye, the social and political mores of the age in which we live.”

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Selected Poems by John Farris

Publication Date: January 4, 2024

Suggested Retail Price: $16.95

Trade Paperback - 334 pages

ISBN-13: 979-8871029732

Dimensions: 6 x 0.84 x 9 inches

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