Snappy Mystery Stories

Following the initial success of Spicy Detective Stories the publishers attempted to reserve the "Spicy" adjective for themselves by producing ashcan issues for two proposed companion titles, Spicy Mystery Stories and Spicy Adventure Stories. §§Simultaneously, the same publishers (Harry Donenfeld & Frank Armer) produced three more ashcan issues, for a parallel line of "Snappy" titles. Each of these issues was 12 pages long and was dated July 1934. In 1985 a set of all five issues was found and a limited run of facsimile reprints was made available. §§Within a year both of the proposed Spicy titles had appeared on newsstands. The three Snappies never did achieve real publication but, for reasons unknown, a second set of ashcan issues was prepared and copyrighted. They were a bit more substantial than the first issues (36 pages) and were all dated May 1935. §§One presumes that if Snappy Mystery Stories had achieved real publication, it would have been a horror title, like Spicy Mystery, and thus the ashcan issues would be of some interest here. As it is, however, the first issue contains what appear to be reprints from Harry Donenfeld's sex pulps, and is thus irrelevant to this index. The contents of the second issue are not known; the Library of Congress can no longer find its copy, and no other has yet surfaced.