Professor Stone, Man of Granite

Professor Stone is Wayne Skiver‘s take on a Doc Savage-like pulp hero.

Not a pure pastiche, such as characters like Doc Atlas, Prof. Stone is more a mix of elements of Doc and other characters such as Indiana Jones, with some unique elements.

The main collection of Prof. Stone stories is “Prof. Stone: The Eye of Re,” which was a revised reprint of the first collection of Prof. Stone stories which came out in 2006 through Lulu (“The Island of X and Other Stories”), but adding the longer “Eye of Re” novella. This was meant to be the first volume in a series of Prof. Stone collections, but this didn’t happen.

I believe the next use of the character has been in two “Prof. Stone Adventure” “magazines” put out by Wild Cat Books. Since then, Wayne started his own small press, Age of Adventure, but has been too busy to write more Stone works, or even be an editor/publisher. And Wild Cat Books is now largely defunct, and many of their works are no longer available. I’m not sure where else the character has appeared.

Prof. William Henry Stone is an archaeologist and adventurer and inventor. His edge is the “Granite Disciple” that makes his skin invulnerable for a few minutes. This he learned from Hok Fu, his assistant and aide. When Stone’s father died, he was taken to a temple in the Himalayas and trained in mind and body. His adventures are set in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s.

The first story in the collection has him deal with a possible revived Egyptian god, and the second with a lost island of Incas and dinosaurs, and a crazed Russian scientist. The third introduces a female character in a story about an invasion of England by robot Nazis (stopped by Stone), and she is a main character in the next story, dealing with a crazy psychologist. All these stories are set in the 1930s.

The “Eye of Re” novella is a sequel to the first story, and gives some background on Stone and information on his father, explorer Major Clarke Stone. For some reason, the female assistant doesn’t appear.

After this volume, the Prof. Stone Adventure magazine was launched, with new stories of Prof. Stone and others. Only two issues appeared (though a third was promised). In the first issue, a long Prof. Stone story appeared, “The Piasa Bird,” set near St. Louis, involving a monster from Indian legends. The second issue had two Prof. Stone stories. The first was written by Scott Cranford, and pitted the Professor against a magician. The second, very short, was by Skiver and pitted the Professor against the Yeti.

The unpublished third issue promised “The Curse of Lo Pan,” but I’m not sure if it was written.  Skiver put out Thrilling Adventures under his Age of Adventure concern that had only 2 issues.  The first used to cover planned for the third Prof. Stone Adventures, but the promised story didn’t appear.  Instead we got a Prof. Stone comic book story written by Skiver.

The Professor Stone volume may still be available, but the magazines doesn’t seem to be easily available. Would be nice to see a complete collection of all the Professor Stone stories, but who knows when that will occur, if ever.  Skiver has left the New Pulp movement and shut down his publishing, which used to be on Lulu.