"A Magazine of Mystery, Romance and Adventure." -- The Black Mask's first slogan The Black Mask (the "the" was dropped in 1926), founded in 1920, was aimed squarely at the cheap seats, printed on paper so rough the pages sometimes sported splinters. It was intended as a quick, money-making side project by journalist H. L. … Continue reading They Also Served: The Men and Women Behind the Mask
Tag: Editing
They Also Served: Joseph “Cap” Shaw
EDITOR OF BLACK MASK (1926-36) "Shaw was the finest coachwhip I ever met in an editor's chair. In my thirty-five years of freelance fiction, no one stands out so."-- Lester Dent, in a letter to Philip Durham "We wrote better for him than we could have written for anybody else."-- Raymond Chandler, in a letter … Continue reading They Also Served: Joseph “Cap” Shaw