V.O.N. Munchdriller index

The 10-part V.O.N. Munchdriller series is among the first known writing of Fredric Brown to be published professionally. All ten stories appeared in The Driller, which was published by Excavating Engineer Pub. Co., South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Driller is kept in bound volumes at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business branch. I checked all issues from Sept. 1933 through Dec. 1945 and confirmed that only these 10 stories exist.

There has been some confusion with another magazine called The Michigan Well Driller, to which Brown contributed Colonel Kluck columns in the late 1930s. The Michigan Well Driller was a separate magazine, as confirmed by a note in The Driller. The two magazines served different parts of the country.

Here is an index to the V.O.N. Munchdriller stories:

1) “V.O.N. Munchdriller solves a problem.” v. 10, no. 8 (Aug. 1936), p. 10.

2) “Munchdriller’s vacuum vengeance . . .” v. 10, no. 9 (Sept. 1936), pp. 14-15.

3) “V.O.N. Munchdriller finds a cold answer to a hot problem.” v. 10, no. 10 (Oct. 1936), pp. 14-15.

4) “V.O.N. Munchdriller sinks first horizontal well known to history.” v. 10, no. 11 (Nov. 1936), pp. 10-11.

5) “V.O.N. Munchdriller drills a portable well . . . .” v. 10, no. 12 (Dec. 1936), pp. 10-11.

6) “V.O.N. Munchdriller . . . fights fire with fizz . . . .” v. 11, no. 1 (Jan. 1937), pp. 10, 13.

7) “V.O.N. Munchdriller saves ‘Ozzie’ from digging clear to China.” v. 11, no. 2 (Feb. 1937), pp. 10, 22.

8) V.O.N. Munchdriller Gets Water.” v. 11, no. 4 (Apr. 1937), pp. 14-15.

9) “V.O.N. Munchdriller harnesses a thunderbolt.” v. 11, no. 5 (May 1937), pp. 10, 13.

10) “V.O.N. Munchdriller does it the otter way.” v. 11, no. 8 (Aug. 1937), pp. 10, 18-20.

Though the stories are unsigned, tearsheets were found decades ago in Brown's files. An editor’s note in the Feb. 1937 issue on p. 13 credits Fredric Brown with writing the V.O.N. Munchdriller stories; illustrations are by Argus “Doc” Leidy.