An interesting series of works that I have previously posted on is Joseph Lovece‘s “Dime Novel Cover Series.” The series makes use of various “dime novel” works from the U.S. and overseas. What is great about this series is it shows the wide variety of such works.
Joseph has added to the series. I have already given reviews on some of them. So I update what is out there, and give information on the newer volumes.
So far, the series consists of the following:
- “Denver Doll, the Detective Queen”
- “Six Weeks in the Moon”
- “Hank Hound, the Crescent City Detective”
- “Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper”
- “Hercules, the Dumb Destroyer”
- “Night Hawk”
- “Sexton Blake: the Mission Millionaire”
- “Lord Lister, Known as Raffles, Master Thief”
- “The Witch Hunter’s Wards”
- “Jack Wright, the Boy Inventor”
- “The James Boys and Pinkerton”
- “Harry Dickson The American Sherlock Holmes: Escaping a Terrible Death”
- “Jörn Farrow’s U-Boat Adventures: The Sea Monster”
- “Sexton Blake: A Christmas Crime”
- “The Silent City”
For those who missed the first posting, I’ll briefly go over all of these volumes.
Denver Doll is a western female detective. Joseph has used her in his original “Steam Man of the West” series (see my reviews). She was a very short-lived serial character, four works only. This volume has two stories. One is a reprint of the original Denver Doll novel from 1882, and the second is Joseph’s rewritten version.
“Six Weeks in the Moon” is similar to the various “boy inventor” stories, but appears to be a one-off story. Published as by “Noname,” which was used on stories by various authors. It is assumed to have been written by Luis Senarens who also wrote the Frank Reade Jr. and Jack Wright series. The original novel is included in the volume, along with a re-written version. I did a full review in my original posting.
“Hank Hound” concerns a New Orleans detective helping a family besieged by a gang known as The Owls. Like several others, it includes the original and a re-written version.
“Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper” is an interesting story. This is not a story by Conan Doyle, but an unauthorized pastiche that was written in Germany. I had mentioned this in my posting about Harry Dickson, as this is the beginning of this character. When this series was reprinted into Dutch, Sherlock Holmes was renamed Harry Dickson, and his assistant Harry Taxson renamed Tom Willis (Watson was not used). This story was translated into Spanish, and it is this Spanish translation that is the basis for this version. This volume contains Joseph’s translation of the story, as well as the Spanish version. I assume this story was reprinted as part of the Dutch Harry Dickson series, but no idea if it was also included in the French series, as many of the Harry Dickson stories would later be improved, then replaced by new works by Jean Rey.
“Hercules, the Dumb Destroyer” is another western from the dime novels, and has a trio of heroes who patrol the West and foil the plans of the villain Black Diablo: the title character, mute Hercules, the Dumb Destroyer; the young Dare Devil Dick; and border detective Skylark Sam (who has a batwing-like parachute he glides to the Earth with). As with others, we get the original novel and Joseph’s revision.
Night Hawk is an English character published in boy’s adventure papers (kind of like pulp magazines explicitly aimed at boys), a rich playboy who creates a flying suit with wings and fights evil, similar to DC Comics’ Hawkman. This volume, “Night Hawk,” has four original stories from the 1930s, along with four new ones by Joseph. I have done a full review in another posting.
Sexton Blake is another English character, a popular one that started out as just another detective character before being given several Holmes-like characteristics, but was never a pure pastiche. There have been several collections of original stories made available in the U.S. recently and I have a posting on him soon. “Sexton Blake, the Missing Millionaire” is the first Sexton Blake story, and “A Christmas Crime” the second, and we get a reprint of the title stories, along with a revision of them in each volume.
Lord Lister is very popular German pulp character. He is also Raffles, Master Thief, and has various adventures in the style of A.J. Raffles (who seems to have inspired the name of the character), or other gentleman-thieves who fight bad guys. Despite being popular throughout Europe, he’s never been translated to English. So we get a translation of the first story “Lord Lister, Known As Raffles, Master Thief,” along with the story in its original German. I have also covered this character in a separate posting.
“The Witch Hunter’s Wards” is set in Puritan Salem. A witch hunter accuses his wards of being witches in a scheme to grab their fortune. Will he succeed or will they turn the tables? As with the others, we get the original story and a modern revision.
“Jack Wright, Boy Inventor” was another very popular “Edisonade,” or boy inventor/adventurer, such as Frank Reade Jr., et al, that lead to the later Tom Swift. This is a reprint of the first novel, along with a re-written version of it. Because of his long popularity, I plan on devoting a separate posting for him.
“The James Boys and Pinkerton” is what it appears to be: an early western dime novel using the two James brothers, Frank and Jesse when they are younger and showing them as early western detectives for Allan Pinkerton. though Pinkerton never authorized them to do so! A total work of fiction using real people, this work is apparently a bit of screwball comedy in their portrayal of the James Boys.
As noted above, I’ve written about Harry Dickson, the American Sherlock Holmes. “Escape from a Terrible Death” is the first Harry Dickson story (though it was probably the 24th German Sherlock Holmes story), translated for the first time into English from French.
“Jörn Farrow’s U-Boat Adventures” is a German dime novel series, a spin-off of another series. Launched in 1932, it ran nearly 400 issues over five years. The series stars Jörn Farrow and his father, Hans, a commander of a WWI U-Boat who refused to surrender after the war. They and their crew sailed the South Pacific looking for adventure. This story, “The Sea Monster” is from issue 13 of the series.
“The Silent City” is one of the various “lost race” novels of the time period, and this one was apparently very popular, being reprinted several times after first published in 1892. The story focuses on a small group of young men who, using an airship one of them built, embark on an adventure to find a city only seen in mirages. In addition to the original story, Joseph also includes a new story.
The next volume is “Mack-Wan the Invincible,” which I know nothing about other than what little I can glean from the Internet. The character is a Spanish-language character (not sure from what country) who appeared in a series of pulp-like booklets. How many stories we’ll get in this volume I have no idea, but looks interesting.
While not everything in the series will appeal to everyone, I think there would be something for everyone. Joseph has also launched a companion series focused on penny dreadfuls, with one volume out so far.
