Issue Review - Blue Book magazine, January 1936

Thought I’d begin this year with a review of Blue Book, another of my favorite magazines. It’s easy to overlook it, most of the covers are not spectacular. However, in the 1930s Blue Book was definitely better illustrated than Adventure magazine, and generally had high quality fiction spanning many genres – science fiction and humor included.

This issue is representative of the quality of the issues in 1930s overall. In the 1940s, Blue Book changed to a bigger size, and I hope to have a review of one of those issues later this year.

Blue Book - January 1936 - cover by Herbert Morton Stoops

The Blue Book Magazine [v62 #3, January 1936] ed. Donald Kennicott (The McCall Company, 15¢, 144pp, pulp, cover by Herbert Morton Stoops)

Robert R. Mill – Journalist, Author

This is another in the series of articles about authors that appeared in Blue Book magazine. Robert R Mill was a journalist who was a reporter for many newspapers, including the Syracuse Herald Tribune. He covered a lot of crime investigations with the New York State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

Using this background, he also wrote two series of stories for Blue Book – one was a light-hearted series about the New York State Police troopers with the misnamed “Tiny” David as the protagonist, and another was about Agent Duke Ashby of the FBI – a G-Man feared by evildoers everywhere. I enjoyed the Tiny David stories for their humor; the FBI stories not so much.

Robert R. Mill - Newsman, Author (1895-1942)