The author of this short story from Thrilling Adventures (August 1940) might ring a bell. It’s a house pseudonym used by several authors writing pulps for Standard Magazines (whose bevy of titles included G-Men, Popular Western, Texas Rangers, Ranch Stories, Rio Kid and Masked Rider Western, Captain Future and Black Book Detective among many others). The most popular author associated with this handle was A. Leslie Scott who wrote many, many Texas Ranger stories featuring rangers Walt Slade and Jim Hatfield. Thrilling Adventures ran from December 1931 to November 1943 for 139 issues. If you want to read the entire magazine it is available here. The cover is below (restored by the generous scanner “sas”).
Lacey of the Legion is a good action tale, a bit short on character depth and Legion lore and background but it was funny in places and well written. It’s also a perfectly formulaic Foreign Legion pulp story that includes desert outposts, a strong and impulsive Anglo-American lead, funny and odd sidekicks, and a flustered senior commander. It also has the rebellious Tuareg tribe teaming up with Nazis to mess with the French outposts–so the classic Legion garrison tale is updated to the 1940’s.
NOTE: I apologize for slacking off from blog posting these past months. One pulp story a month is pretty lazy IMO. I had every intention on posting weekly during this year and even made a detailed plan back in January that scheduled my ready-to-post material and content out to 2024. I also built a reading list and movie list to follow. Alas, I’ve fallen victim again to a personal weakness my father pointed out to me when I was young–“you move from one damn thing to another!“. He was not being critical but was just pointing out that my interests would move too frequently from one subject to the next. One month I would be obsessed with the U.S. Civil War, then next month it was the Eastern Front of WWII, then Dungeons and Dragons, Pirates, WW1 air combat, French-Indian War, Spies, etc. I was too easily swayed in my interests. What I decided to read reflected this kaleidoscope in my head. It also showed up in the subjects of my drawings, movies I watched and my gaming tables (I was a nascent war gamer in the 70’s). Just before joining the Army I read nothing but police novels like Joseph Wambaugh, Robert Daley, and Ed McBain and then as a new private in an Infantry Brigade moved quickly to reading Vietnam memoirs. I don’t think I’ve ever grew out of this habit.
I mention this because a wayward attention span effects my posting regularly to this blog. Last year it was WW2 U.S. Submarines and the war in the Pacific Theater. This year it was the war in Ukraine that totally sidetracked me. Since February I’ve dropped all my other interests in order read books about Ukraine to better understand what happened in 2014 and the history of that region in general. Then there is the regular flow of news, videos, social media feeds, and think tank articles. I religiously follow the ISW reports as well as Euromaidan Press and several other websites. I can’t seem to get enough even though it has no practical use. Then, to really mess with my head, there was an important election this year (which ended horribly for my team) and I devoted much of any remaining time to keeping track of that. So, in summary, I blame Putin and ballot-harvesting Democrats (bastards!) for diverting me away from blogging about the French Foreign Legion.
…and that’s my excuse. I do hope to recover soon, make up for lost time and get back on my blogging schedule so stay tuned.
Mon Legionnaire 