The Aircraft of Bill Barnes, his Friends & his Enemies Barnes  Homepage Later  Good Guy Planes Old  Good Guy Planes Bad Guy  Planes Eaglet & Transport Miscellanies 3 Vus and Models Tinsley Covers Site Homepage Mail & Bill Barnes club Evanescent Goodies write me

I've been getting some mail  in the interest of restarting a Bill Barnes Club, it would be interesting to post some excerpts in hopes of starting up some conversations. Unless we start a mailing list, I'll just edit and post anything that arrives in my e-mail. So send me stuff at dannysoar@att.net.

Thank You Hector Peiteado. Hector is as  responsible for the web page as I am. I started this with just a dim memory and a stack of old prewar model airplane magazines.  He sent me many of the Pictures and plans and explained to me  most of what I know about the series. He is embarked on a number of Spanish language projects that I confess I don't completely understand. He is not completely comfortable in English but he can be reached at this new address hectorma@sinectis.com.ar   He was having trouble with the old one

Jim Norfolk's Lancer Jim Norfolk  built a neat stick and tissue model  of the Lancer. he had it at the Durham Field  Flying Aces meet and writes. Bill Barnes Plane did get one excellent flight witnessed by Dannysoar! Several modellrs gave compliments on the effort and flyability of this plane. It did indeed. Behold! the top & bottom  pix thanks to Jim Norfolk Center pic dannysoar

Gordon Codding drew excellent blueprints of all (or most of all) the Good Guy Aircraft. Many showing model airplane construction.

Mordicai Murphy

I'm a fan of this fine Bad Guy . I love the pic I posted on the Bad Guy Page. Who said Tinsley couldn't draw people? Although some times I don't think he cared..There is also a plan, by the great Walt Mooney for a peanut model of his Dart  on the plans page. I asked Hector Peiteado what he knew about him. and here is his answer  from the return letter.

1) Apparently, this character appears in Bill Barnes´ novel Nº 51 "The Crest of the Cordillera" (we haven't read it because it has not been published in Spanish), it was published in "Air Trails" April 1938. We know it because of information provided in subsequent numbers.

2) Mordecai Murphy reappears with another name, Cherry O´Leary, in Nº 52 "The Saver of Souls". We could read this one in Molino Argentina edition. (He is Mordicai Murphy in the English edition. Is there a reason his name was changed for the Spanish readers? d/s)

3) He appears again, with the same name, in Nº 54 "Bill Barnes takes Holiday". This one was also published in Spanish.

4) In Nº 61 "Dead man's return", he confronts Bill as Chester Cassel, a Belgian millionaire (It is know that he is Mordecai Murphy!). It has also been translated.

Perhaps he appears again. It is probable, since at the end of the last novel Bill suspects that Murphy might not be dead..

An exchange about Political Correctness

I post this in some trepidation and do not want to encourage political diatribes.

I wrote Hector about the Morales of Samerra remarking that as an older and longer Pulp Story it explained the motivation of the characters better than some of the later ones, but that "I found the easy racism of the story unpleasant."

Hector wrote back
"Morales of Samerra" here was called "Conspiración en el trópico" and I read it when I was about 14. After so many years, I cant remember what you mention about racism. Ill check again and Ill give you my opinion later. Anyway, take into account what was happening when it was written: in the middle 30´s, times of the "New Deal", the "Big Stick", etc; while in Europe fascism was very important; America was shut in itself; neutralism and nonintervention... It wouldn't surprise me that there is something of what you say or a certain paternalism towards your "back yard"...

I told told hector it was a shame Bill Barnes never went South of the tropic of Capricorn: why not a journey to Antarctica...Hectors answer was to ask me to write such a novel, and it touched a weakness of my own: since childhood I've wanted to write it... I'm not sure it will ever be finished, but I've seen maps, read about the place, and noted down any ideas about such an adventure.

I imagine there might be other such stories.

And then there is this...
Dear Danny,
Came across mention of your Bill Barnes website in the alt.pulp newsgroup. Please keep me informed if the BB Club ever gets resurrected as I think I should join.
Regards,
Bill Barnes
(Yes, that is my real name)

Perhaps we can talk him into Secretary Treasurer

Good Words & Schemes

Sergio Montes is interested in the idea Bill Barnes Club idea, in fact I think it may be he that proposed it and  suggests I prevail on Hector to design a T shirt. What do you think

"Thanks for fostering this fantastic site. Who would have believed that BB would
resurrect in the way he has?"

Hector again
Thank you for giving my address to Alfredo Herbon from my country. It is a relief to be able to speak with another friend in my
language, what makes the dialogue more fluent.

And finally
felicitaciones por su página sobre Bill Barnes que fué mi héroe en mi adolescencia. Congratulations  Federico Pradas..

I think this might be a problem. This last note is about as much Spanish as I can read.

There isn't space for the fine P40 action shot. But it is special. The shark looks half alive and quite ferocious.
He includes the following URL, but I must warn you It crashes my Netscape
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=61893

Angel Ferrer sent me several notes that encouraged me to get bizzy. The following is edited from his series of letters.

Yes!

By all means!

We need to get the various fans of Bill Barnes together,
even if it's only in a chat column. Your site is wonderfully
complete.
 

It was a great experience to find your web site. I am an old
Bill Barnes fan and have been looking for a short while for
other fans or anyone who has copies of the Spanish
translations published by Editorial Molino....

I would appreciate any information you can provide as to
where I could look for the Spanish publications.
 

Did you know that one of the Bill Barnes, early on, was
written by the author of the Doc Savage series. Needless to
say, that story was a little different from the rest.

In my recollection, the Eaglet went through at least one
transformation. When it first appeared, at the time Barnes
was flying the airplane known as "Abejorro" in Spanish, the
Eaglet I remember  was a biplane. Later on it was shown with
one high wing, resembling the Scarlet Stormer.