A look at the Thrilling pulp heroes

In the next in this series of articles, I take an overview of another of the major pulp publishers, the Thrilling Group, and their pulp heroes.

Thrilling was probably the second or third major publisher of hero pulp characters, depending on how you view them. Strangely, “Thrilling” is not the name of the company! Ned Pines established Pines Publications in 1928, and would publish both pulps and comics. They seemed to use similar company names over the years. For pulps, it was Beacon Magazines (1936-37), Better Publications (1937-43) and Standard Magazines (1943-55) until Pines shut down the pulps. The pulps had the byline “A Thrilling Publications” on the covers, plus several were named Thrilling this and Thrilling that (Thrilling Adventure, Thrilling Detectives, Thrilling Love, Thrilling Western, Thrilling Wonder Stories, etc), hence the name Thrilling (or Thrilling Group) for the overall line. The pulps were edited by Leo Margulies, a well-known editor, who later ran his own publishing company.

The comics were usually known as Nedor Comics for most of their existence. Starting in 1939 as Beacon and Nedor, the line was renamed Standard Comics in 1949, to be replaced by Pines Comics in 1956, around the time the pulps were dropped. Pine Comics lasted a few more years publishing licensed properties. A few of the Thrilling pulp heroes would appear as Nedor Comics characters.

Before he shutdown his pulps and comics, Pines had started in 1942 paperback publisher Popular Library, which used a pine tree for its logo. This publisher would reprint Thrilling’s Captain Future. In the late ’60s, the publisher would be sold off and over the years would be owned by Fawcett and later CBS (yes, the broadcast network) over the years.

Thrilling pulp heroes

Following are the pulp heroes from the Thrilling line.  A few of them I’ve posted articles for and plan to do more.

• Mr. Death (1932): Their first pulp hero was the short lived Mr. Death. More of a serialized novel, this vigilante hero set the tone for later Thrilling heroes. Altus Press has reprinted the whole series.

• Dr. Coffin (1932-33): The short-lived and unusual character Dr. Coffin popped up soon after. Sadly, he didn’t last long.  Some stories have been reprinted, and I posted on them.

• Phantom Detective (1933-53): In 1933, Thrilling started their long-running character, the Phantom. He is notable for outlasting the more popular Shadow and Doc Savage. The Phantom was like many other Thrilling heroes: more of a detective and master of disguise than a vigilante. Sadly, again like other Thrilling heroes, the villains he faced were more average than the supercrooks or over-the-top villains that other pulp heroes faced. There have been several reprints of a few stories over the years, and Sanctum Books has started a reprint series starting with the first one.

• The Whirlwind (1933-35): Soon after, Johnston McCulley, creator of Zorro, created a similar, but short-lived character: Whirlwind. Altus Press has reprinted the complete series.

• The Bat (1934/35): The short-lived Bat was apparently written by McCulley. A detective framed for a crime he didn’t commit, his execution is staged, freeing him to go after the bad guys. He used a gas gun and wore a sack-cloth hood with a bat emblem (both McCulley elements). Altus Press has reprinted the series.

• Green Ghost (1934-35): Around the same time, McCulley did the short-lived Green Ghost (also reprinted by Altus Press). This Green Ghost was a former cop accused of being corrupt, who fought bad guys with a green sack-cloth hood and green gloves.

• Diamondstone (1937-39): G.T. Fleming-Roberts created the short-lived Diamondstone in 1935. He is a magician-detective, being a retired stage magician who now solves crimes for the fun of it. Altus Press has reprinted the series, and Pro Se Press has started putting out new stories under their Pulp Obscura line.

• The Black Bat (1939-53): In 1939, Thrilling rolled out their second most successful character: The Black Bat. He was popular enough to last almost as long as the Phantom. Former DA Tony Quinn, blinded by acid, has his sight secretly restored by an operation that gave him new eyes, and ones that an see in the dark. Going into action in a black outfit, he fought crime with the assistance of “Silk” Kirby, Carol Baldwin, and “Butch” O’Leary.

After the Black Bat appeared, in 1940 Thrilling rolled out several new pulp characters, a few in their own magazines, tho not many lasted too long. Strangely, Black Bat creator and scribe Norman Daniels had a hand in most of them, either writing all of their stories or most of them before others took over.

• The Eagle (1939-40): The first of these new characters was the spy The Eagle, with ran in 1939 to 1940 in Thrilling Spy Stories, all by Daniels. Altus Press has reprinted them, and new stories are from Pro Se.

• Green Ghost (1940-44): The interesting Green Ghost/Ghost Detective was created by Fleming-Roberts, and was another of the rare magician-detective pulp heroes (Fleming-Roberts having created another a couple of years prior for Thrilling), though he disguised himself as the bizarre Green Ghost (originally called the Ghost Detective). Published in his own magazine, it was first named The Ghost, Super Detective, next The Ghost Detective, then The Green Ghost before being relegated to Thrilling Detective. Sadly, no one has come out yet with a reasonably priced reprint of this interesting series.

• Crimson Mask (1940-44): The Crimson Mask is really pharmacist, master of disguise, and amateur detective Robert Clarke. His father, a cop, was slain in the line of duty. While studying to be a pharmacist, he also studies other topics that helped him as a detective, because this is what future pharmacists do. He lasted about a dozen or so stories in Detective Novels magazine, along with the Candid Camera Kid (also by Daniels, though he got a few more stories during the same length of time). Altus Press has starting a complete reprint series of this character.

• Captain Danger (1940-43): Captain Danger is an air-war character. Captain Allen Danger leads a group of airmen called Aerial Commandos against the evil Axis powers. He, too, lasted about a dozen stories, and yes, Daniels did some of his stories.

• Masked Detective (1940-44): Masked Detective is really crime reporter and la savate expert Rex Parker. While a crime reporter, he is also a master detective. His stories appeared in his own title, which lasted about a dozen stories or so. Altus Press has also started a complete reprint series of these stories.

• Captain Future (1940-51): Captain Future is probably Thrilling’s third best-known series. A science-fictional hero with elements of Doc Savage, Captain Future patrolled the future solar system with The Brain (the bodyless brain of scientist Simon Wright in a floating crystal box), Gragg a giant robot and Otho an android, fighting evil. Gragg and Otho created the Ham and Monk dynamic. Haffner Press is doing a complete reprint of this series, which was mostly written by sf author Edmond Hamilton.

• Thunder Jim Wade (1940): A Doc Savage-inspired character, the short-lived Thunder Jim Wade was created by sf author Henry Kuttner, but lasted only five stories. All have been reprinted by Altus Press, with new stories coming from Pro Se Press’s Pulp Obscura series.

• Purple Scar (1941-43): The last Thrilling character was the weird and short-lived Purple Scar, who was a plastic surgeon who created a mask of his slain brother’s acid-stained face to fight crime. Altus Press has reprinted the whole series, and Airship 27 will be coming out with a series of new stories soon.

Nedor Comics

As noted, some of the Thrilling pulp heroes appeared also in Nedor Comics.

The Phantom Detective got his own comic book series in one of their titles that lasted many issues. You can see some of them reprinted in Altus Press’s Phantom Detective Companion volume.

The Green Ghost, as well, got his own series, probably outlasting his pulp title. The Green Ghost was revised for ABC’s Terra Obscura series, published by DC/Wildstorm.

The Black Bat had a series, but because of the controversy with DC Comics and its Batman, the character appeared as The Mask in stories adapted from the pulps. You can read a few in Altus Press’s Black Bat Companion volume.

Captain Future faced something else. Nedor published a long-running series with a Captain Future, but this character had nothing to do with the pulp character. The first Captain Future pulp story was adapted for comics, but in it he was renamed Major Mars.

Hopefully this will introduce people to these set of characters. I may have left out some, as I’m not up on the western, air-war, or G-Man characters (like Dan Fowler).

I should point out that Altus Press is reprinting many of the Thrilling heroes, as well as associated series like Dr. Zeng, and most of them use a consistent cover style, which is pretty nice. The Johnston McCulley collections have their own style, though. Check them out!