A closer look at The Moon Man

One of the more different pulp heroes is Ace Magazines’ Moon Man. Written by Frederick C. Davis, he appeared in Ace’s anthology title Ten Detective Aces from 1933 to 1937 for a total of 38 stories. The same number as Wade Hammond, who also appeared in that pulp, but fewer than Secret Agent X, who had 41 stories.

The Moon Man was really Det. Sgt. Stephen Thatcher, son of Great City’s Police Chief, Peter Thatcher. As the Moon Man he wore a globe of Argus glass (one-way mirrored glass) that gave the appearance of the moon, hence his name.

Not really a vigilante, the Moon Man was more a Robin Hood-like character, who took from the unjust rich and gave to the poor of Great City. In this he was aided by former boxer Ned “Angel” Dargan.

His main opponent was his boss Det. Lt. Gil McEwen, who worked to capture the Moon Man. However, he often went up against other crooks, and found himself caught in the middle between the crooks and the police, and having to explain his disappearances as the Moon Man to his fellow cops.  Sue McEwen, Gil’s daughter, was engaged to Steve Thatcher, and is another constant character.

Until recently, getting access to the original Moon Man stories was hard. The only complete collection was a pair of expensive volumes from the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. Now Altus Press is putting out a complete collection of stories, and the first volume reprints the first seven stories (though it doesn’t include any interior artwork, which I know exists.)

These are all great stories.  I thought they’d be a bit repetitive, but they are not.  They show the Moon Man getting out of tight jams, making sure that he doesn’t give away his identity. In the first story, he leaves behind a thumbprint, thus putting a shadow over him in later stories. In several stories, the Moon Man must go after other crooks, like the one who tried to frame him for murder, another who tried to turn him in for the reward. In the seventh story, the Moon Man finally exposes his real identity to Angel Dargan, and Sue is left in the clutches of a criminal! Also in this story, Dargan must flee over the state line, and Steven must hide his Moon Man disguise underwater. It will be interesting how the next stories take this. All of the new Moon Man stories has Sue knowing Steve’s identity, so at some point she learns it, as she doesn’t know it in these stories.

Comic Books

The Moon Man also appeared in comics. Sort of. Ace Magazines had their own comic-book line, Ace Comics. But for some reason they renamed the Moon Man to “The Raven.”  And renamed all the other characters as well.  Steve Thatcher became Danny Dartin, Sue is now Lola Lash and she is the daughter of Police Chief Lash, and Angel is now Mike. Stories appeared in all issues of Sure-Fire Comics, which was renamed Lightning Comics that ran from 1940-42. Apparently the first story was based on the first Moon Man story, but I have no idea if the other stories were original or based on other Moon Man stories.

The Moon Man also has a story in the recent third All-Star Pulp Comics issue.

New Pulp

The Moon Man has been used in several New Pulp stories. Airship 27 published a novel of the Moon Man, but the author allowed it to go out of print. They later did a novel with the Moon Man going up against Doctor Satan (The Hounds of Hell), as well as a collection of new stories, and this are still in print. He has also appeared in a few other works as well, usually with the other heroes thinking the Moon Man is really a villain.

I look forward to seeing more volumes of original Moon Man stories. Altus Press plans a series of seven volumes to collect them all, and I plan on doing reviews on further volumes.