'Weird Tales' May-June-July 1924

[dem bones]

Andrew Brosnatch

H. Thompson Rich - The Crimson Crucifix: A Birthmark - An Innocent Kiss - and Disaster. As a child, she was warned by Father François that the brand on her breast would turn from brown to a livid crimson should she surrender her chastity before marriage. When her fiancé, Raoul, enlists to fight the Bosche, they share a first, fatal passionate kiss. "Guard well the crucifix, ma chérie." She does, but the treacherous birthmark changes colour ...

Howard R. Marsh - Youth: Storiette of Shattered Hopes "There is a rejuvenation of all body tissues and glands: in short, a return to youth." Martin Zucker, 69 and "approaching senile decay," has spent most of his adult life behind bars for a crime of passion. When a surgeon requests a volunteer to test a miracle restorative serum, Zucker leaps at an opportunity to win back those stolen years. Middling Conte Cruel, not a patch on his outrageous The Foot Fetish

[dem bones]

"As there is a heaven - and, I trust, a hell for such fiends - the image I saw reflected in the mirror was a part of my own exposed brain! And the diabolical monster held in his hand the upper hemisphere of my skull!"

Andrew Brosnatch

Otto A. E. Schmidt - The Death Clinic: Weird Revenge of a Great Surgeon. Master of brain surgery Prof. Jacowsky is not one to forget an insult. Furious at young Dr. Stannard's flippant remark, and knowing of his interest in amateur photography, he lures the fledgling surgeon to his private operating room on the pretence of unveiling a new invention. Stannard, flattered to be taken into the great man's confidence, duly blows out a date with fiancé Helen in favour of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Stay tuned for torture!

[dem bones]

Re: the "banned" issue.

R. M. Malley

"The reborn magazine resumed publication in November 1924. Giving the pulp a minor publicity boost was a boycott organized by several church groups in Indiana, as well as the Klu Klux Klan, over the publication of the story "The Loved Dead" by C.M. Eddy Jr. in the Anniversary issue.
Eddy, a friend of Lovecraft (who revised "The Loved Dead"), wrote a purple-prose, first-person narrative about a man who loved the dead. The narrator loved seeing the dead, living close to the dead, working in a mortuary with the dead, and even sleeping with a dead body in his bed ..... The minor hint of necrophelia (sic) didn't bother Weird Tales readers, but it angered several ministers in Indiana enough to complain to the local newspapers and the Klan. Wright relished the headlines, as they lured the curious to his magazine. Though oftentimes the pulp featured near naked women on its covers, the inside contents contained little sex ....

— Robert Weinberg, Horror of the 20th Century : An Illustrated History (Collectors Press, 2000)