As I’ve noted in the past, we often overlook “pulp” that appeared overseas. Britain has a similar group of fiction outlets like the pulps, with magazine, story papers, penny dreadfuls, boys’ weeklies and the like.
Out of these came Sherlock Holmes and Raffles, but we also got was a slew of copies like Sexton Blake, Dixon Hawke, Nelson Lee, and others, as well as a many more original characters. Some became quite popular for years, such as Sexton Blake and Dixon Hawke. Others, less so.
One of these, though not long-running, was Night Hawk. He appeared in the Nelson Lee New Series boy’s weekly in the 1930 and ’31 for several stories. Nelson Lee, a detective similar to Sexton Blake (if Sexton Blake was the “poor man’s Sherlock Holmes,” then Lee has been called the “poor man’s Sexton Blake”), was published by the same company that published Blake.
Night Hawk was really Thurston Kyle, a rich scientific detective hero, similar to Batman (which he pre-dates by several years). Kyle invents a winged suit of armor that allows him to fly, which he uses to fight crime. Unlike Batman, he doesn’t have a qualm about killing. Kyle is aided by Nelson Lee and his young ward Snub Hawkins in confronting crime, though Snub is more a houseboy than an assistant like Robin.
His stories run over several issues. Four stories appear in 1930. Then in 1931, 14 straight weeks of stories. Another hiatus, then later that year there is a 15-part serial, “The Phantom Foe.” And that’s it.
Now, Joseph Lovece has reprinted four of the original stories (from the 1931 period) along with four new stories he wrote (set within the second hiatus and before the serial). This is part of his “Dime Novel Cover Series” that I reviewed previously. The four reprinted stories are taken directly from the original magazines, including the illustrations.
The stories are:
• “Hovering Doom” (#53, Jan. 24, 1931) has the Night Hawk, along with Nelson Lee, dealing with a dangerous gang of criminals from the U.S. now operating in the U.K. calling themselves The Destroyers. The Night Hawk wipes out the leaders and sends the rest packing. He also recruits a former boxer, Scrapper Huggins, who brings a bunch of his buddies to help take out the gang. They decide to call themselves “Mr. Kyle’s Kittens,” and will appear in future stories. This story continues from the prior one, but we get a background of what happened in the first chapter.
• “A Fight for a Throne” (#57, Feb. 21, 1931) has the Night Hawk and associates (including Nelson Lee, Snubs, and Scrapper and his “Kittens”) helping restore the rightful ruler of Bhuristani to the throne. It’s not clear where this country is located, but it seems certain it’s somewhere in the area of Afghanistan. This is a continuation from the previous story, which told of their adventures getting there. Kind of a different story, instead of dealing with crooks and the like. After restoring the ruler, they must face the journey home, which is what happens in the next story.
• “The Radium Robbers” (#59, March 7, 1931), unlike the others, has the Night Hawk operating alone, with just some assistance from Snubs, in tracking down a dangerous gang of radium thieves. They are doing so on behalf of a foreign power. But unlike what you’d think (remember, this is 1931), it’s for American commercial interests which cannot get enough in the U.S. It’s not being done by a government and not for military purposes, like for a bomb. Unlike the prior stories, this story is complete in one.
• “The Lost Explorer” (#62, March 28, 1931) has the Night Hawk and Snubs in Paris when they run into the lieutenant to an expedition to the Congo lead by a friend of the Night Hawk’s: Sir John. The expedition searched for the lost city of Nagir and had not been heard from in months. But the man claims not to be who he is and soon the Night Hawk is on the case. With the help of Sir John’s daughter, he soon finds Sir John is a prisoner of his lieutenant, who is keeping him in an asylum and trying to extort the location of a treasure he found in the lost city. But the Night Hawk takes care of the lieutenant and rescues Sir John. The following story appears to be the Night Hawk and his “Kittens” heading to Nagir themselves to solve the mystery of the Treasure.
The four new stories are set after these. The first has the Night Hawk dealing with some Spanish criminals who have created a similar flying suit as his, and are calling themselves “Los Vampiros del Aire.” The second has the Night Hawk heading out to Cornwall to investigate stories of a robot roaming around, which soon robs a bank. In the third, the Night Hawk receives visitors from Bhuristani, bearing a special monkey for him to train. You’ll have to read it to find out for what. The fourth story was a strange one about a headless horsewoman.
The new stories was close in style, but not quite right. I felt the original Night Hawk was a harsher, harder character in the originals than was captured in the new. Also, we don’t get the involvement of the other characters like Nelson Lee, Scrapper, and the “Kittens” in the new stories.
Overall I thought the character was pretty interesting. I would like to see more stories of his, both original and new. The serial sounds interesting, maybe it will be reprinted. Hopefully if there is enough interest, that will happen.
