Murania Press has recently put out the Johnston McCulley Omnibus, a collection of stories with three of Johnston McCulley‘s serial characters: The Black Star, The Spider, and The Thunderbolt. Two are villains, while the other is a hero. The original plans were to issue this as three separate works, but due to poor sales of the Black Star volume, it was decided to combine all three into one volume.
I have previously posted on both The Black Star and The Spider, so I’ll just give a high-level overview, and focus more on The Thunderbolt.
As I have noted in previous postings on McCulley, he seems to have a few themes or tropes that he repeats in many of his series, and this is seen in these as well. Also, all of these stories appeared in issues of Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, where many of his stories appeared. And these particular stories were later reprinted by S&S’s Chelsea House in hardbacks.
First up is The Black Star, one of few outright villains that McCulley created. The Black Star is a “gentleman thief.” He and his men steal, but do not kill. Instead they use gas guns and knock-out gas. They wear black full-face hoods, with The Black Star’s having a jet star on the forehead. Interestingly, he wears a eye mask under his hood, but the interesting thing is he is only The Black Star. He is not a well-known member of society who must fear being unmasked. So when he is captured and ‘exposed’, it actually turned out to be no big deal, unlike other such villains.
Opposing him is Roger Verbeck, an idle millionaire and amateur criminologist who decides to challenge The Black Star. He is aided by his servant and friend Muggs, a small, tough, former crook that Roger saved from suicide. And Roger has a fiance, whom he can’t marry until he deals with The Black Star. So we have the “master and man” trope, along with the “can’t marry until his mission is complete” trope.
Here we get The Return of Black Star, which included the seventh, eighth, and eleventh stories, which appeared in 1917-18. I would like to see a more complete reprinting of all 16 stories. The front cover of the Omnibus reprints the cover from a later Black Star story, and on the back cover, we get a reprint of one of the other covers.
At the end of the prior set of stories, the Black Star has been captured, put on trial, and is expected to be sentenced to prison. But thanks to his criminal network, has been freed and is on the loose in these stories. The first story tells of his escape and making his foes look like fools. The second story has him rebuke a rich man for having a “Black Star” party, stealing his guests’ jewels along the way. The third story has the Black Star trying to indulge in his hobby of gambling at some of the local gambling dens, with the chance of being caught.
The Spider, who followed The Black Star, is a different villain. Having been injured during World War I and confined to a wheelchair, he runs a criminal network from his office: “The Spider’s Den.” Also living with him is his niece, Silvia, who has no idea what he really does.
The main character of the stories is not The Spider, but John Warwick, who is part of The Spider’s network. He, along with his man Togo, does most of the action in the stories, another “master and man” pair. However, Warwick is summoned to The Spider’s Den in the first story to learn that his “friends” have swindled him and he has just $5,000 to his name. To survive, he works for The Spider now, to avoid losing his position in society. He soon falls in love with Silvia and wishes to marry her, but cannot as long as he works for The Spider and could be caught for his criminal actions.
And strangely, not much crime is actually committed. It seems The Spider spends most of his time dealing with traitors or thwarting other criminals. In the last story he shuts down his network after taking revenge on the man who crippled him, giving John and Silvia the chance of marrying.
Here we get the first three (of 12) stories, which appeared in 1918, reprinted as The Spider Spins His Web. There is no complete reprinting of the series as yet.
Finally, we get The Thunderbolt, who is a hero, but is more what is known as a “vengeance hero” mixed with the “Robin Hood” trope. And we get another “master and man” pairing.
The Thunderbolt is really well-off bachelor John Flatchley, who is a war veteran, big-game hunter, and the like. His last living relative, an uncle, passed. But he discovered that the money he received is tainted, having been taken by deceit from others. Returning the money to its rightful owners, he goes after the six financiers involved in the swindle to get the rest. So he creates The Thunderbolt, wearing a full face mask with a lighting-bolt on the forehead, a yellow zigzag with a ball of flame. After that, he will marry the girl he loves and retire.
He is joined in the first story by Saggs, a down-on-his-luck former valet, who now becomes Flatchley’s valet and assistant. Opposing the Thunderbolt is Detective Radner, who knows Flatchley and comes to suspect he’s the Thunderbolt but can’t prove it. This is similar to other characters like Thubway Tham, Crimson Clown, and others. In fact, to a degree having Saggs join Flaterly reminded me a little of how Silk Kirby became The Black Bat‘s valet.
Another item that I thought interesting is when the police detective in The Thunderbolt story made mention of The Black Star as a real individual! I’m not aware of other mentions in McCulley’s works of his other characters until Thubway Tham and the Crimson Clown team up. This may be first in pulp fiction.
Here, we get the first three of six Thunderbolt stories, which appeared in 1920, with the series wrapping in 1921. These were reprinted as The Thunderbolt Strikes, and the final three appeared in another book. I would really like read the whole series to see how it works out, as in each story he deals with one of the six financiers. In the second story we meet his love interest (who has figured out that he is the Thunderbolt) and apparently he proposes to her in the final story. I also thought it interesting that the first story was titled “Master and Man.”
So if you’re interested in reading more of Johnston McCulley’s serial characters, get this volume. Hopefully this will encourage others to reprint more of them so we can read the complete series of these characters.
