“Pulp Detectives” is another great collection from Altus Press of stories by Tom Johnson, a long-time pulp fan, author, and publisher. These stories are new stories by Tom featuring classic characters (and a New Pulp one).
We have The Black Bat in “Murder Under the Big Top”; Phantom Detective in “Satan’s Minions”; Masked Detective in “The Masked Detective’s Deadly Trail”; Secret Agent X in “The Spider’s Web”; The Lone Eagle in “The Nazi Spider Staffle”; The Black Bat in “Guns of Vengeance”; and Nightwind in “Mystery of Haunted Range.”
Then two further short stories with pulp influences, “Fangs of Death” and “The Mystery Book Club.”
The Black Bat was a fairly popular character from the third wave of hero pulps. He came out around the same time as Batman and wore a similiar outfit. He was really a district attorney blinded by acid, who (thanks to a secret eye transplant) could not only see again, but see in the dark. He ran 60-plus stories for 14 years starting in 1939. Altus Press has started to reprint the complete series of Black Bat stories.
The Phantom Detective was one of the most longest-lasting of the hero pulps. He came out in 1933, ran 170 issues for 20 years, outliving The Shadow and Doc Savage. He was a rich playboy who fought crime as “The Phantom” and was a master of disguise. Sanctum Book is now starting a new reprint series of the original stories.
The Masked Detective was shorter lived, coming out in 1940 and lasting only 13 issues over four years.
Secret Agent X was one of the few “secret agent” hero pulps. We never learn Agent X’s real name or see his real face. He was a master of disguise. His stories ran five years and 41 issues, starting in 1934. Altus Press is doing a complete reprinting of these stories, and is up to four volumes of a planned nine or 10. If you want to read new Secret Agent X stories, check out the volumes from Airship 27. The story in this collection is set during WWII, after the original series.
The Lone Eagle is an air war hero. His stories ran 10 years and 76 issues, starting in 1933. An interesting thing is the story in Secret Agent X actually continues into Lone Eagle. They are standalong stories, but the background is connected.
Nightwind, an original New Pulp character by Tom, is a masked western hero inspired by early pulp hero Zorro.
Several of the stories have hints of other characters and series. I’m not sure if everyone will get them. I was surprised by the apperance of the Phantom Detective in the second Black Bat story, and felt it was kind of wasted. (You’ll see why.)
Like all of Tom’s works, these are a great addition to any hero pulp fan’s library.
I do have to point out that I was disappointed with some of the editing of the book. Some misspelled words, extra line spaces, and — worse — several pages had words needlessly italized. Altus Press is usually better at this, so was surprised by the mistakes.
