Meteor House, which has been putting out several Philip José Farmer-related books, has put out another one: Greatheart Silver and Other Pulp Heroes, which collects several Farmer short stories inspired by pulps and pulp heroes. All have been reprinted in a few places, but not all in one place. We get six works overall.
First up are the three Greatheart Silver stories. These first saw print in Weird Heroes in the 1970s, later reprinted in the ’80s by Tor in a single volume. Greatheart Silver is a former zepplin pilot, now a one-legged detective, being trained by someone who might be The Shadow.
Yes, Silver lives in a world were zepplins are still a thing. Due to an accident, he lost his leg and position as First Mate. Now, with an artificial leg, he becomes a PI.
The first story, “Greatheart Silver in Showdown in Shootout,” has a scene set in an old town in which a wide range of pulp heroes and villains show up for one final confrontation. I sat down as an early pulp fan and wrote down all the characters and their real identities. I should probably dig that up (or recreate it), and post it here.
Next are two stories more from Weird Heroes. The linked “The Grant-Robeson Papers” and “Savage Shadows.” I’ve always been sadden that we never got the second story promised, or that someone wasn’t able to use Farmer’s notes (if they exist) to write it.
In “The Grant-Robeson Papers,” we learn that Maxwell Grant (author of The Shadow) and Kenneth Robeson (author of Doc Savage) met and decide to write stories about each other. Yes, yes, these aren’t real people, but house names for others. In “Savage Shadow,” Grant writes a story with Robeson as the hero. The planned second story would have flipped that. We also learn that Jimmy Dale, the former Gray Seal, was the person behind this and that 16 stories had been commissioned, with many set in the 1970s.
“Skinburn” is the final work in the book, which stars detective Kent Lane, hinted to be the son of Kent Allard (who was The Shadow) and Margo Lane, but who also suffers from a strange medical condition. It first appeared in 1971 in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and has been reprinted a few times.
In addition to these, we get an introduction by Garyn G. Roberts that gives a good overview of Farmer’s pulp-inspired works and how these six fit into these all.
While I have all these works in various volumes, it’s nice to get them all in one book. And the intro is just an added bonus. If you’ve not read these, get this volume.
