Capt. Hazzard
Capt. Hazzard proved to be a one-shot attempt by MagazinePublishers Magazine Publishers to ape StreetandSmith Street and Smithís popular DocSavage Doc Savage. Hazzard was a rich adventurer, based in New York, and had a team of aides, with whom he could communicate telepathically. Unlike Doc, Hazzard packed a pistol and was not unwilling to unleash a magazine of machine-gun fire to kill bad guys.
Background
Capt. Hazzard was blind his first 15 years, giving him the opportunity to enhance his other senses — including his mental powers — far beyond that of the average human. His years spent studying hypnotism and other Oriental mysticism prepared him for crimefighting after surgery restored his sight.
Capt. HazzardHis adventures, research and inventions earned him amazing wealth and the honorary rank of captain in the Army and Navy Air Corps.
Hazzard pulled together a team of scientists and adventurers, some skilled in the art of telepathy. Among his aides are mathematician Washington MacGowen and cowboy Jake Cole.
He and his team operated out of Hazzard Laboratories, a Long Island complex of massive buildings that housed scientific and mechanical labs, as well as aircraft hangers.
The contributors
Credited to HawksChester Chester Hawks, the actual author of the only published Capt. Hazzard story, “Python Men of the Lost City,” is unknown. Speculation gives credit to ChadwickPaul Paul Chadwick, who also wrote a few of the SecretAgentX Secret Agent X adventures and a wide variety of stories for a range of pulp magazines.Hazzard is clearly a DocSavage Doc Savage knockoff, created to capitalize on the popularity of the Man of Bronze. But why only one issue of the magazine was published is lost to history.
Comments/trivia
- “Python Men of the Lost City” has been reprinted twice before: in 1974 by Robert Weinberg; and in 2003 by Adventure House.
- The latest version of “Python Men of the Lost City,” published in 2006 by Wild Cat Books, was actually rewritten by author Ron Fortier, based on the original story.
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