BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950.

In the final installment of his explorations into the Unkown, Mr. Blakeslee relates the story of Amy Robsart, the ill-fated wife of Robert Dudley, a favorite suitor of Queen Elizabeth I, whose ghost was said to haunt Cumnor Hall until it was demolished in 1810. Now it prowls Cornbury Park, and it is said that those who encounter her ghost are doomed to die within ten days! From the October 1950 issue of 15 Mystery Stories it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: A Ghost Gets Revenge!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: A Ghost Gets Revenge
by Frederick Blakeslee (15 Mystery Stories, October 1950)

BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950. This time around Mr. Blakeslee relates the story of Burton Agnes Hall, built by Sir Henry Griffith during the first decade of the 1600’s. When his youngest daughter lay near death, she requested that her head be preserved in the walls of Burton Agnes Hall and if it were to ever be removed she would unleash unholy hell upon the manor until it was returned!

From the August 1950 issue of 15 Mystery Stories it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: The House of the Screaming Skull!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: The House of the Screaming Skull
by Frederick Blakeslee (15 Mystery Stories, August 1950)

“Haw-w-w-w-w!” That sound can only mean one thing—it’s time to ring out the old year and ring in the new with that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors—Phineas Pinkham.

For the past week von Speiler’s circus has been right over Allied heads—strafing doughs that we’re trying to get up to the front. The bridge near Framerville had has so many Pfalz crates in the air every day that the engineers haven’t got any further with the job than to look at the blueprints. When the Boonetown marvel is downed near Souilly, a chance meeting with a Yankee dough, two poilus, and a Senegambian give him an idea to how he can get von Speiler out of the way! From the pages of the November 1936 issue of Flying Aces, it’s Phineas Pinkham in “C’est La Ear!”

“The first hundred ears are the hardest!” So quoth Carbuncle when he met Sambo Jambo, razor-welding pride of the Senegambians. But though a pair of galloping dominoes threatened to put poor Sambo on the Five Ear Plan, it was the No Ear Plan that had Herr Hauptmann von Speiler worried.

• Download “C’est La Ear!” (November 1936, Flying Aces)

Editor’s Note: Joe Archibald’s Phineas Pinkham stories are a product of their times, reflecting attitudes toward certain races and cultures commonly held in America in the 1930’s. As such, these tales can sometimes be rife with derogatory or racially insensitive words or stereotypes which would scarcely make it into print today. We have chosen to present the stories as they were written some 80 years ago in the interests of authentically preserving this bit of Pulp history. Age of Aces Books means no disrespect by including this potentially offensive material. Quite the contrary. It is the respect we have for our discerning readers that demands we present Archibald’s fiction unexpurgated.

STARTING in the October 1933 issue of Sky Fighters and running almost 5 years, Terry Gilkison’s “Famous Sky Fighters” was a staple of the magazine. Each month Gilkison would illustrate in a two page spread different Aces that rose to fame during the Great War.

Although Gilkison was probably better known for his syndicated newspaper work, he also provided black and white story interior illustrations for pulp magazines. His work appeared in Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Gilkison provided similar features in a few other Thrilling Publications—there was “Famous Soldiers of Fortune” and later “Adventure Thrills” in Thrilling Adventures, Famous Crimes” in Thrilling Detective, and the fully illustrated air adventure stories of Buck Barton “The Flying Devil” in The Lone Eagle! He signed most of this work with only his initials “T.G.” to maintain a low profile and preserve his reputation as a syndicated newspaper cartoon artist.

The December 1934 installment, from the pages of Sky Fighters, Features Lieut. Joseph Wehner, Major Gabriel D’Annunzio, and shout outs to Napoleon and Belgium’s Willy Coppens!

Next time in “Famous Sky Fighters,” Terry Gilkison features Lieut. Colonel Robert Rockwell, Belgian Ace Willy Coppens and Capt. Clyde Balsley of the Lafayette Escadrille! Don’t miss it!

BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950. This time around Mr. Blakeslee covers the Foxes and the “haunting” of their house in Hydesville, NY—an event which led to the rise of the spiritualist movement in America.

From the June 1950 issue of 15 Mystery Stories it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: The Corpus Delecti!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: The Corpus Delecti
by Frederick Blakeslee (15 Mystery Stories, June 1950)

THIS week we have a story by Raoul Whitfield! Whitfield is primarily known for his hardboiled crime fiction published in the pages of Black Mask, but he was equally adept at lighter fair that might run in the pages of Breezy Stories. We’ve posted a few of his Buck Kent stories from Air Trails. While the Buck Kent stories were contemporary (1930’s), “The Ceiling Ace” from the August 1930 issue of War Aces is set in The Great War.

Every time the ships of the black cross ripped their lead at him he ran to the ceiling. They called him yellow, but that day when the heavens shrieked at man-made fury he held the fate of the squadron on his wings.

• Download “The Ceiling Ace” (August 1930, War Aces)

BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950. This time around Mr. Blakeslee tells us about the grizzly murder of a newborn baby in 1577 and it’s spirit’s spectral revenge that results in the creation of another ghosts which has continued to haunt the area to this day.

From the April 1950 issue of 15 Mystery Stories it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: The Ghost of the Burning Baby!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: The Ghost of the Burning Baby
by Frederick Blakeslee (15 Mystery Stories, April 1950)

BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950. This time around Mr. Blakeslee tells us about the ghostly echoes of the bloody first battle of the English Civil War that continue to play out over the Edgehill fields! From the February 1950 issue of 15 Mystery Stories it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: The Phantom Battle of Edgehill!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: The Phantom Battle of Edgehill
by Frederick Blakeslee (15 Mystery Stories, February 1950)

ORTH is back! Silent Orth had made an enviable record, in the face of one of the worst beginnings—a beginning which had been so filled with boasting that his wingmates hadn’t been able to stand it. But Orth hadn’t thought of all his talk as boasting, because he had invariably made good on it. However, someone had brought home to him the fact that brave, efficient men were usually modest and really silent, and he had shut his mouth like a trap from that moment on.

Orth asks the C.O. for extra flying time—he figures he only really feels comfortable in the air on the hunt and the more Boche he can take out the sooner the war will be over! Unfortunately, Orth—living up to his name—doesn’t tell anyone why he wants the extra time. Before you know it one event leads to another and Orth is accused of being in league with the Germans! From the pages of the December 1934 Sky Fighters, it’s “The Devil’s Ace!”

Silent Orth, Hellwinder of the Crimson Skies, Gets into a Whale of a Jam—and All Because He Asks for Extra Flying Time Without Giving Reasons!

• Download “The Devil’s Ace” (December 1934, Sky Fighters)

STARTING in the October 1933 issue of Sky Fighters and running almost 5 years, Terry Gilkison’s “Famous Sky Fighters” was a staple of the magazine. Each month Gilkison would illustrate in a two page spread different Aces that rose to fame during the Great War.

Although Gilkison was probably better known for his syndicated newspaper work, he also provided black and white story interior illustrations for pulp magazines. His work appeared in Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Gilkison provided similar features in a few other Thrilling Publications—there was “Famous Soldiers of Fortune” and later “Adventure Thrills” in Thrilling Adventures, Famous Crimes” in Thrilling Detective, and the fully illustrated air adventure stories of Buck Barton “The Flying Devil” in The Lone Eagle! He signed most of this work with only his initials “T.G.” to maintain a low profile and preserve his reputation as a syndicated newspaper cartoon artist.

The November 1934 installment, from the pages of Sky Fighters, Features General William Mitchell, Lieut. Colonel Pinsard, Lt. George Madon, and the incomparable Max Immelmann!

Next time in “Famous Sky Fighters,” Terry Gilkison features Lieut. Joseph Wehner, Major Gabriel D’Annunzio, and shout outs to Napoleon and Belgium’s Willy Coppens! Don’t miss it!

BACK with another of Frederick Blakeslee’s “Adventures Into The Unknown!” Blakeslee published fourteen installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the Unknown between March 1948 and October 1950. This time around Mr. Blakeslee tells us about the SS Watertown, a gasoline tanker, that was haunted by two crewmen who perished on board in 1925 and were buried at sea. Their heads were clearly visible just off the bow, following the ship as it continued on it’s course! From the December 1949 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: The Haunted Tank!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: The Haunted Tanker
by Frederick Blakeslee (Dime Mystery Magazine, December 1949)

THIS week we have a short, but gripping tale from the prolific pen of Arch Whitehouse! Whitehouse gives us Len Stallard, a natural pilot and a keen hunter. He had a one-track mind and, once mounted in an active service squadron, he went to work with inevitable results—Four Huns the first week, a citation and a Croix de Guerre. Unfortunately, as good as he was in the air, he was equally poor on the ground—and found himself unable to mix with the rest of the gang at No.76. He discovers how his fellow pilots feel about him when his plane goes down behind enemy lines! From the August 1936 issue of Sky Fighters, it’s Arch Whitehouse’s “The Hun Hunter!”

Hated alike by friend and foe, Len Stallard lights out for Boche territory to end it all!

• Download “The Hun Hunter” (August 1936, Sky Fighters)

IT’S no secret that we’re big fans of the work of Frederick Blakeslee here at Age of Aces Books. He did the covers for all of Popular Publications’ big Air titles—Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Aces, Battle Birds, Fighting Aces, Dusty Ayres and his Battle Aces, and, of course, G-8 and his Battle Aces. In addition he did the interior art for Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Birds and Fighting Aces. But Blakeslee did art for other titles as well.

Last year we featured the first seven installments of Blakeslee’s Adventures Into The Unknown. That was just the first half of the series. This October we’ll be presenting the remaining seven installments. First up, Mr. Blakeslee relates a story of an innocent man cursing the very ground over his grave—stating before being hung, that in proof of his innocence no grass would grow on his grave for a generation! And sure enough, no grass would grow over his grave for one hundred and twenty years! From the October 1949 issue of Dime Mystery Magazine it’s “Adventures Into The Unknown: Death Above and Below!”

ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN: Death Above and Below
by Frederick Blakeslee (Dime Mystery Magazine, October 1949)