Created by Hugh Lessig
“He stormed out, knocking paperweights off desks as he went, calling the Frisco Foil  ‘a cheap, rotten, dickless rag.’
Personally, I didn’t think we were that cheap…”
— Alamo calls ’em as he sees ’em.
ALAMO BARNES is another reporter for The Frisco Foil, a sensationalist tabloid that proudly offers “Truth and Mayhem and not always in that order.” Alamo’s kind of a successor to Hugh Leesig’s other series sleuth, fellow Foil newshawk Picasso Smith, who roamed the streets of San Francisco in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. The difference is that Alamo is very much a turn-of-the-millennium kinda guy.
Like his esteemed colleague from that bygone era, Alamo (“My mother believed in lost causes and I followed in her footsteps”) is appropriately cynical, always handy with a wisecrack, and usually on the prowl for a way to pump up his line count. His quest usually has him bumping into the usually colourfully named characters, including a truck-driving man named Shirley, a homeless man called Harpoon Harold, and a dead real-estate developer called Harry “The Plague” Bubonic, whose remains gets mailed to the newsroom in a refrigerator box.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Hugh Lessig, besides being a contributor to this site, is a newspaper reporter himself, in the Richmond, Virginia area, who writes fiction in his spare time–mostly to blow off steam. His stories honor the spirit of the hard-boiled newspaperman, including his hero Kennedy of the Free Press, the hard-drinking reporter created by Frederick Nebel, but add Lessig’s own quirky sense of humour. Great stories, all. Now if only you could find ‘em… sadly, many of them appeared originally online, and are no longer available. Anywhere. Hugh?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hugh Lessig, besides being a contributor to this site, is a newspaper reporter himself in the Richmond, Virginia area. He writes fiction in his spare time — mostly to blow off steam. His stories honor the spirit of the hard-boiled newspaperman, including his hero Kennedy of the Free Press, the hard-drinking reporter created by Frederick Nebel, but add Lessig’s own quirky sense of humour. He writes about another Foil scribbler, Picasso Smith, and his son, Picasso Smith, Jr. Alamo’s stories, like most of Lessig’s fiction, are scattered all over the internet—now if only you could find ‘em.
SHORT STORIES
- “What About Mickey?” (1999, The Pulp Foil)
- “Special Delivery” (April/May 2000, Thrilling Detective Web Site)
- “False Fronts” (September 2000, Blue Murder)
- “Sudsy Dudsy” (2000, The Pulp Foil)
- “An Inside Story” (2000, The Pulp Foil)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- The Pulp Foil: Tales of Hardboiled Newsmen
Sadly defunct, this was the home of The Frisco Foil, a newspaper that was dedicated to “Truth and Mayhem–and not always in that order.” Here were all of Alamo Barnes‘s adventures, as well as those of Hugh Lessig’s other fictional reporters, including Picasso Smith and Picasso Smith, Jr. A well-done, affectionate tribute to the hard-boiled newshawks of the pulps. Too bad it’s gone.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
