Speaking of Carroll John Daly and Black Mask, as I just was, yes, I got the memo on July 19 that Steeger Properties LLC had bought the rights to The Mask — and also acquired rights to the Daly backlog.
Since I guess Steeger is also, more or less, Altus Press, that’s good news — I have praised the first volume they released of the collected Race Williams yarns, so I figure there won’t be any road blocks to many more such collections.
May they rip along until the last roscoe sneezes Ka-Chow! and the last pill pings. . . .
In 2013 I did a little announcement for the previous corporate incarnation of The Mask, where they had a series of eBooks planned out. I didn’t keep track of how much they got done, but there’s a lot of ore in them thar pulps. One thing Altus has just announced that may interest people is a revival of Black Mask and a couple of other pulps, with some new stories, some reprint.
And I was very interested to see in their news that they had landed rights to the backlog of the late great H. Warner Munn, best known from his stint in Weird Tales and his later-in-life epic fantasy such as the novel Merlin’s Ring. I once visited Harold for a week in his home in Tacoma. Really great guy — he’s one of the people I’ve met who knew Lovecraft personally. Plus for purposes of more books — always more books — Munn has an impressive body of work.
