Most pulp fans know Weird Tales magazine as the long-running occult/horror/fantasy pulp that published such greats as H.P. Lovecraft, Seabury Quinn, and many others.
While it did have some continuing characters like Quinn’s Julies de Grandin and Manly Wade Wellman‘s characters, it’s only foray into the world of “hero pulps” (or in this case “villain pulps”) was their short-lived series staring villain Doctor Satan, written by pulp scribe Paul Ernst (better known for The Avenger), who would be featured on the cover. Now Altus Press has released “The Complete Tales of Doctor Satan” so all can enjoy them.
Doctor Satan has the distinction of being the longest running of the pulp villains! He lasted for eight stories over the course of a year, from August 1935 to September 1936. During that time he appeared on the cover two times, with the first and seventh stories. Sadly, it appeared that the readers of Weird Tales did not take to the character. Despite the fact that WT had run prior occult detectives stories (the aforementioned Jules de Grandin, who lasted about 90 stories), the readers complained when Doctor Satan appeared, claiming that WT was changing.
The stories of Doctor Satan were pretty basic. All of them pitted the evil Doctor Satan against Ascott Keane, an occult detective. We know that Keane was independently wealthy and acted as a dilettante. He was aided by his secretary/assistant Beatrice Dale. Both Satan and Keane used occult powers — not fakery or the like.
The threats Doctor Satan had where both occult and technical: things like plants that grew from men’s skulls, using re-animated corpses to pose as kidnapped men, a ray that turned skin transparent, and much more. Sadly, Doctor Satan just used these as a means to extort money, even though it seems he really doesn’t need the money. For him, it’s just a means of terrorizing people. Kind of a missed potential.
Doctor Satan wore a red cloak with a red mask that covered his face, and a red skull cap with horns on it. We never learn who (or what) he is, though we get hints that he was rich and bored, so turned to a life of crime. Doctor Satan was assisted by the monkey-like dwarf Girse and the legless giant Bostiff. But being an assistant for Doctor Satan is dangerous. About mid-way through the series of stories, one of his assistants is killed, and the other one is killed off a couple of stories later. However, as Doctor Satan has found the means to restore people to life, he could possibly bring them back.
The introduction by John Pelan discusses Doctor Satan and some of the problems with him. I agree that making him a rich playboy who turns to crime due to boredom is kind of weak. It’s also interesting that the visual image that most people have of Doctor Satan is not quite correct. In the stories he has a full face mask, but most of the modern usage have him with a half-face mask (like the front cover), sometimes adding a Van Dyke. Also, in several stories he would wear a black hat and cloak over his outfit to be less seen.
Doctor Satan has fallen into the public domain and has been used as a character in several New Pulp works. Keep an eye out for reviews of some of those soon. In particular, Barry Reese has used Doctor Satan (and Ascott Keane) several times in his Rook series. Reese has dropped the idea that Satan is just a bored rich man, hinting at a more darker origin, which I think makes better use of the characters’ potential. And he drops the nonsense of having Satan just extort money from people, having his goals be much more sinister.
It’s great that Altus Press has reprinted the stories, but I do have some minor complaints about the collection, as compared to past Altus ones. Doctor Satan appeared on the cover of Weird Tales two times. We get edited versions of two covers on the front and back of the book. Sadly, no interior artwork is included. I assume there was such in the original magazine appearance. Altus is usually pretty good about including that. I’ve always enjoyed the fact that Altus includes these in their collection, which puts them in the top tier of reprint publishers.
But despite these issues, I encourage everyone to check out this collection.
[Corrected]
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