Monday, January 31, 2011

Another Corpse by Carter Brown

From Four Square Books in the UK. This August 1966 edition is a photo cover.

The Desired by Carter Brown

Al Wheeler joins forces with a labor leader's luscious daughter in her fight to get an injunction against a killer

1959 Horwitz Edition
When the nation's leading labor boss is subpoenaed to appear before a Senate committee investigating the misuse of union funds, his treasurer shows up dead in the trunk of a car that just missed sending Police Lieutenant Al Wheeler to the morgue. The driver of the car turns out to be the labor leader's tipsy daughter. She convinces Al that she knows nothing about the wayward corpse. Al tried to bargain for all the kisses and she agrees to deliver them on one condition, that Al will clear her father's name. Even if it means signing a death contract for a killer.

Later Horwitz Editions
Robert McGinnis Covers
Barye Phillips Cover
Last Signet Edition
 
 
Printing History
Horwitz Editions
Numbered Series #83 1959
International Edition #15 1962
International Edition #68 1970
International Edition #68 1977
 
Signet Editions
1st (1764) Jan 1960
2nd (Canada)
3rd (D2654) 1965
4th (Canada)
5th (Q5985) 1974

Four Square Edition
#480 April 1966

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Living Death by Jon Messman

A new kind of enemy. A new kind of destruction. As Nick Carter becomes the decoy in a deadly game of biological warfare.

1972 Award Edition
The Target: The best scientific minds in the world.
The Weapon: Secret, undetectable, and always fatal.

Tandem Editions
Seven of the world's most brilliant scientists had suddenly become vegetables. Living dead men whose brains had been butchered by an unknown source. This was a new enemy. Experimenting with germ warfare. Doing its horrifying work with brutal effectiveness. It was Nick Carter's job to find out who was behind this terror. Even if it meant using himself as bait for an unseen opponent whose lethal discoveries might well condemn him to The Living Death

Award Editions
As usual Nick Carter was prepared for action and primed to kill, But this time killing was the easy part. The action was something else. It came in the form of an English Blonde, a stacked sexual Italian, and a sultry Swiss packages that could drive any man wild or out of his mind. Or in the case of Nick, give him a definite head start towards certain death. 


Printing History
Written by Jon Messman

Award Series
1st (A496X) Sept 1969
2nd (A922S) Jan 1972
3rd (AN1103) 1973?
4th (AQ1561) March 1976
Charter (unkn) 1981

Tandem Editions
1st (426 4247) 1969/1970
Reprint (unkn) 1971
Reprint (unkn) Dec 1972
Universal Reprint (426 17312) 1977

Notes
Award missed the 3rd printing information in the 4th printing fly sleeve. It looks like the first UK printing was in 1970 as mentioned on the UK copyright page from 1977, but the  US edition mentions a joint 1969 Award/Tandem first printing.


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Deadly Miss by Carter Brown

Max Dumas is in Acapulco when is approached by a brunette.  The brunette is Virginia Long and she has a proposition for Max. But before he can accept her offer he is contacted by a Elias Castanello to have Dumas fly some cargo to Ecuador for seventy five thousand pesos. It turns out the cargo is guns. Virginia make an appearance before Max and his sidekick, Benny take off the next morning. She double crosses Castanello by shooting him while taking off. In the end enemies turn out to be allies and a revolution does not happen. Thanks to Max Dumas.

Horwitz Edition
Deadly Miss was published in 1958 by Horwitz Publications and was the 65th entry into the Numbered Series.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Cobra Kill by Manning Lee Stokes

The high price of dying on an ultra lethal assignment

Early Award Editions
For openers, it cost Nick $10,000 just to find out that his quarry, once the most powerful communist in Indonesia, was hidden in the Malayan jungle. Then there was the added expense of physical energy bedding the nymphomaniacal daughter of Malaysia's top intelligence minister. Just to find out that her information was not nearly enough. Plus the loss of a lot of valuable sleep wondering whether his sultry guide was interested in him for sex or simply to lure him on for the kill. And the closer Nick came to completing the assignment, the surer he was that the ultimate balance would have to be paid with his life.

Early Tandem Editions
It took the lure of the wild, bizarre manhunt to get Nick Carter out of Hong Kong and into Malaysia. It took an exotic nymphomaniac to give Nick the information he needed to start his murder mission alive. It took a the savage native seductress to lead Nick through the Malaysian jungle to find his quarry, Lim Yang, the famous Red Cobra. And it took Nick no time to realize he was deep in hot action, deadly coincidences, and enough double crosses to plunge him straight into a death trap.

1974 Award Edition



United States Printing History

Award Books

1st (A495X) 1969
2nd (A924S) 1972
3rd (AN1244) 1974












Universal Reprint




United Kingdom Printing History

Tandem Books

1st (426 4239) 1969/1970
Reprint (426 5418) 1971
Reprint (426 7376) Dec 1972

Universal Books

Reprint (426 17355) 1977

Star Books

Reprint (352 30665) 1980, 1981, 1985




Star Edition

Note: The first person perspective became standard with The Cobra Kill

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Lover by Carter Brown

The bearded Prophet might be a phoney but the nude corpse on his alter was very real

1958 Horwitz Edition
The Prophet wore a loincloth and a deep tan. He was the pet of the society set who flipped over his doctrines of sun worship, fertility rites and sacrifices. The religious kick netted him a pretty profit until one of his sun loving followers left an offering on his alter. A very beautiful, very nude and very dead blonde. The corpse sends free wheeling California police Lieutenant Al Wheeler on a whirlwind chase, A chase that brings him into close contact with a torrid blonde, a sizzling brunette, and a cold killer.

New American Library Editions
The Prophet was the guy in the loincloth who was assisted by.....Eloise, the brunette who sent the shrine donations rolling in even faster for........Ralph Bennett, who was the Prophet's business manager. he figured he owed something to.....Charlie Elliot, the lush whose whole world was centered in the nearest unopened bottle and turned up at the party given by........... Stella Gibb, the blonde who loved men. All men except her husband.......Cornelius Gibb, the only sun worshiper who thought the Prophet was a screwball, not like......Edgar Romair, the retired Broadway actor, who could not find an audience in......Peter Pines, the poet whose talents were chained to a faucet sending....Al Wheeler to Candy Logan, the gorgeous brunette widow. She was having trouble with.....Harry Weisman, the sharp man, too sharp for his world.

New English Edition

Printing History

Horwitz Editions
Numbered Series #72 1958
International Edition #3 1960
International Edition #60 1969
Double Edition #6a 1980


New American Editions
Signet #1620 (1st) January 1959
 Signet (2nd Canada) unkn
Signet #2742 (3rd) 1964


New English Editions
Four Square Books #790 1963
Cover by Martelmans






The Lover was first published by Horwitz Publications in 1958 as #72 in the Numbered Series.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Human Time Bomb by William L Rhodes

Nick Carter faces the most bizarre enemy of his career. A powerful army of men and women who are neither dead nor alive.
Award Editions
A Nightmare Assignment
Something strange was going on at the Reed-Farben chemical plant. Something that threatened the United States' entire defense system, something evil. No one outside knew what it was. And if they, did they would not talk. And if they talked, they did not live long. If AXE did not have answers soon, it would be too late. That is when Nick Carter moved in: on a mountain girl with the right connections, on a beautiful Germany scientist with highly classified secrets, on an impossible mission where violence and murder were standard operating procedure and the horrible resemblance between persons living and dead was everything buy coincidental. Nick is to match wits with his arch enemy, Mr Judas. The Human Time Bomb is William Rhodes final Nick Carter adventure.
Tandem Editions
Charter Edition


Printing History
Written by William L Rhodes

Award Edition
1st (A456X) July 1969
2nd (A456X) August 1970
3rd (AQ1474) July 1975
Charter (441-34909) August 1981

Tandem Edition
1st (4167) 1969
Reprint (5426) 1970
Reprint (7405) 1971
Reprint (unkn) Dec 1972
Reprint (426-17320) unkn

Notes
Mr Judas returns yet again



Late Tandem Edition



Monday, January 24, 2011

Cutie Takes The Count by Carter Brown

Sports columnist Ed Hunter is after a follow up story about a boxing event and is involved with a girls murder. The girl was murdered eight hours before and she was carrying his business card. A bribe later and he finds out the murdered girl was connected with his recently written article. In the end, Ed finds the murder but not before he is caught with the oldest gag in the books. Cutie Take The Count was published by Horwitz Publications in 1958 and is the 66th entry in the Numbered Series.

1958 Horwitz Edition

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Berlin by Jon Messman

A beautiful woman is Nick Carter's only lead in the hunt for a "new" Hitler, ready to seize power again.

1976 Award Edition
The first man knew too much. So they shattered his body in a thousand pieces before he could give a shred of information.

The second man lived in terror. Death had pursued him through a lifetime devoted to espionage. When they pumped a bullet through his throat, he was not even surprised.

The third man was a lot tougher to knock off. His name was Nick Carter and he was ordered to pursue the assignment that had killed the other two.


This time around, Nick Carter had to destroy the fanatic leader of Germany's neo-Nazi underground. A man wearing a known and trusted face. And hell bent on becoming the next Fuehrer. For Nick the assignment begins with a blonde doing a strip-tease in a bedroom of an ancient castle on the Rhine.




Tandem Reprints



Sex, money, and death were closely  linked in this Nick Carter assignment. 

Sex meant Helga, the beautiful blond Nick fished out of the Rhine more dead than alive. 

Money, billions of dollars, fueled the activities of the neo-Nazis. But whose money? Who was spending a fortune to help another Fuehrer grab power in Germany? 

Death ended the careers of two US agents. And it followed Nick relentlessly  from the minute he arrived. From the back alleys of East Berlin to a stinking dungeon hidden somewhere in West Germany.



Printing History
Written by Jon Messman    

Award Series
1st (A455X) 1969
2nd (A455X) 1970
3rd (AQ1604) 1976

.Tandem Series
1st (426 4159) 1969
Reprint (426 5442) 1971
Reprint (426 7456) December 1972

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Carter Brown Comic #1

Here we have one of two comics published by Horwitz around the first part of 1958. I picked this up on E-Bay around 4 years ago. Features three new stories in pictures: Redhead Means Murder. Killer For Cocktails, and Blonde on the Rocks. Blonde On The Rocks will be published in 1963 by Horwitz but with a different character, Rick Holman.

Friday, January 21, 2011

The Sea Trap by Jon Messman

A crazed scientist challenges Nick Carter to a death duel at the bottom of the sea

Star Reprint
A monster weapon hidden at the bottom of the sea: It could destroy nuclear subs as if they were  children's toys. It had already crushed four subs with their crews trapped inside.
A brilliant scientist with an insane sexual obsession: He would work for anyone so long as they gave him a never ending supply of virgins to debauch. 
An island stronghold guarded by a string of hard-core convicts: It held an opulent palace from which a madman issued an ultimatum. The World in his grasp or the simultaneous destruction of every American nuclear sub!
Award 2nd and 3rd printings
It was an incredible, fantastic, and bizarre threat. But too possible to ignore. The United States assigned its super-secret espionage network, AXE, and their top operative, Nick Carter, to hand the assignment. It turned out to be a Top-Priority manhunt for his arch enemy Mr Judas. Nick had to beware of Judas' personal bodyguard. A giant Mongol programmed to kill on sight. And a harem of lovely young ladies kept on drugs. All this and destroy an undersea arsenal used against intruders.

Tandem Reprint

Printing History
Written by Jon Messman


Award Series
1st (A442X) 1969
2nd (A648X) 1970
3rd (A921S) 1972


Tandem Series
1st (unkn) 1970
Reprint (unkn) 1971
Reprint (426 7317) Dec 1972
Star (426 7317) 1979


Notes
Mr Judas returns

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Carter Brown Doubles

New American Library and Horwitz Publications jointly published seventeen Carter Brown double mysteries from mid 1978 until early 1983. Almost all the titles published were originally published as separate volumes by Horowitz except two (The Savage Sisters and The Pipes Are Calling) which were published by New American Library in 1976.


Double #1

 
Double #2

Double #3

Double #4

Double #5

Double #6
Double #7

Double #8
Double #9

Double #10
Double #11

Double #12 and #13 
Double #14 and #15
Double #16 and #17
Publishing History
Double #1 September 1978
Double #2 November 1978
Double #3 December 1978/January 1979
Double #4 August 1979
Double #5 December 1979
Double #6 March 1980
Double #7 September 1980
Double #8 December 1980/January 1981
Double #9 May 1981
Double #10 September 1981
Double #11 May 1982
Double #12 July 1982
Double #13 September 1982
Double #14 November 1982
Double #15 December 1982
Double #16 December 1982/January 1983
Double #17 February 1983

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Amazon by Jon Messman

Blood curdling violence erupts across the tropical hell of the Amazon as Nick Carter battles the enemy

Award Editions

The jungle of death. It was a bizarre scavenger hunt and the scavengers were more than willing to kill for the prize. The prize was a small, vital electronic brain lost somewhere in the Northern Amazon Delta. Nick Carter's job was to stay alive long enough to be the first one to find it. And that was not going to be easy. Not in a steamy uncharted snake pit of a jungle like Amapa. Not the Russian in front of him, and the Chinese in back of him, and a sadistic free lance agent setting traps every inch of the way. And definitely not with a luscious native guide who had learned the ways of the jungle from her forefathers and the wiles of a women from Eve.

Printing History
Written by Jon Messman

Award Books
1st (A441X) 1969
2nd (A647X) 1970
3rd (A928S) 1972

Tandem Books
1st (3850) 1969
Reprint (5776) 1971
Reprint (7309) Dec 1972

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Death On The Downbeat by Carter Brown

1958 Horwitz Edition
The blonde was able. The brunette was willing. And Police Lieutenant Al Wheeler was ready for love. Until three cool corpses got in his way. The free wheeling unorthodox California cop found the first body in a jive joint run by a sultry blonde singer who called the tune when it came to music and men. The second corpse turned up in a back street rooming house that was a front for dope peddling. The third, smack on his own doorstep. Suddenly Al was up against a plug happy killer who was out to make a cop his fourth corpse. A cop named Al Wheeler.
1958 Signet Edition                                 1965 Signet Edition
Wine, women, and jazz. That's Al Wheeler's idea of a night out. So he takes Annabelle Jackson, the sheriff's/commissioner's secretary, to the Golden Horseshoe. The star was Midnight at midnight with a murder thrown in for good measure. So Al is the cop on the spot. On the sheriff/commissioner's orders he starts to solve the case in his unusual unorthodox way. He soon finds himself out of a job with another corpse to keep him company.
1975 Signet Edition                            1969 Horwitz Edition
Death On The Downbeat was published in 1958 by Horwitz Publication and was the 57th entry in Horwitz's Numbered Series. This title was published by New American Library under the title The Corpse in December 1958 under the Signet imprint. Horwitz published this title in the International Edition as number 62. A note. Al Wheeler's boss is either a commissioner (Australia) or sheriff (USA), depending on where read.
Printing History

Horwitz Publications
as Death On The Downbeat
Numbered Series #57 (1958)

As The Corpse
Long Story Magazine #13 (Aug 1960)
unknown (1961)
International Edition #62 (1969)

New American Library
Signet Books
1st Printing #1606 (Dec 1958)
2nd Printing (Canada)
3rd Printing #2714 (1965)
4th Printing #6468 (1975)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Peking/The Tulip Affair by Arnold Marmor

Peking
He had never looked forward to killing, but it was different know. When a man isn't human, when he has a frozen face and steel claws for hands, when he has planned a blood drenched path of destruction, when his name is Martin Bormann. Then Nick Carter's emotions about killing take on a new dimension. Somewhere in Peking, Martin Bormann is working on a terrifying mind altering drug. A drug that could snuff out lives quickly and more gruesome than any atomic bomb. Nick has to get Bormann. The lethal hunt takes Nick from a bizarre Red Chinese bordello to a laboratory manned by robots. And to an opulent HQ of a macabre neo-Nazi movement. 

The Tulip Affair
Nick Carter is ordered to destroy a former AXE agent now working as a spy for Peking. Nick's only ally is a Chinese beauty too dangerous to left alive.

Tandem reprints

Peking and The Tulip Affair was written by Arnold Marmor. Marmor was one of those forgotten, obscure pulp guys of the early and mid 50s. He also wrote for varous crime and science fiction magazines at that time. Marmor wrote Peking and it came up too short and rather than expand it he wrote a short story to go with it, The Tulip Affair. This was his only Nick Carter he wrote.

1st Award Printing



Printing History
Written by Arnold Marmor

Award Series
1st (A424X) 1969

Tandem Series
1st (unkn) 1969
Reprint (unkn) 1972
Reprint (426 12183) Jan 1973
Reprint (426 17478) unkn

Notes
There could be more Award printings with the same book number. I only have the one book.