‘The Lost Adventures of Captain Hawklin,’ Vol. 1

Captain Hawklin is a New Pulp hero written by Charles F. Millhouse. He is a former World War I fighter pilot, later becoming an adventurer and inventor, and is rich from those inventions.

In the novels, he had moved to Crown City, located on the west coast of the United States.

To me, he is more like the aviation pulp adventurers like Bill Barnes than Doc Savage. Hawklin is assisted by Hardy Regan Miller and Oscar (Oz) Lyman.

So far, we’ve got a series of 10 novels set in the 1930s, one for each year. There was also a trio of short stories, two in Pulp Reality and another in a stand-alone volume.

Then we got a set of five short stories, many from other authors, offered as online works on Amazon under the line of “The Lost Adventures of Captain Hawklin.” Thankfully they have been collected into a printed volume as Volume 1, which means we should see more. All of these are set in the 1930s in between the novels.

Brian K. Morris‘s tale “The Skyhook Remnant” is set in 1939 after the Skyhook Pirates. While Hawklin and friends had stopped Skyhook, one of his henchmen had escaped the island with one of the rocket packs. Home in Crown City, he falls in with a Professor Greta Wolffe. And she has a plan to use the pack. I wonder if we’ll see her again in a 1940s novel? Morris wrote a prior Hawklin tales in Pulp Reality #2.

Clyde Hall, who created and writes the B-Man stories in Pulp Reality, has “The Banshee Barnstormer.” Sent in 1934, it makes use of a real event when the Army Air Corps had to handle airmail for a period of time. Hawklin is asked by an old pilot buddy from WWI to help him with his squadron, which is having difficulties. This is made worse by an apparent ghostly barnstormer. Can Hawklin help and more so put an end to the barnstormer? Keep in mind that magic does exist in the work of Hawklin.

Bobby Nash, who created Lance Starr and wrote a couple of stories teaming him up with Hawklin in Pulp Reality, gives us “Smuggler’s Run.” Set in 1931, a longtime friend of Hawklin’s, Jack “Cannonball” Canton goes missing. He captains a tramp steamer and is in the South Pacific when his ship disappears. Hawklin goes looking for him, tracing him to a small island called Smuggler’s Run. Along the way, he runs into a girl looking for her missing people. Can Hawklin get both groups out?

Creator Charles F. Millhouse provides “The World Asunder,” set in 1932, a madman is sinking ships in the North Atlantic going between the U.S. and the U.K. Calling himself “Grayville,” he will soon give his demands. But Hawklin thinks he has figured out who he is and heads east on a train with his associates. But Oz has gone missing, and Hawklin is snatched. Can Hardy come through, and can all of them stop this madman before it’s too late? What are his demands, and how does he hope to achieve them?

Finally, Marlin Williams has “The Night Raiders,” set in 1937. A sinister man named Columbo has grabbed Desa Wintergreen and uses her as leverage to get Hawklin to assist him. He is being plagued by a group of sky pirates, led by a Louise Bankhead. He has vital cargo that needs to get to Barbados, and he wants Hawklin to provide cover. Hawklin does, using a jet pack. But what is the cargo, and will Hawklin succeed and get Desa out of danger?

There are several interesting characters introduced in these stories, both good guys and bad. Will we see any of them in future stories? A few deserve a return appearance, I think.

Overall, these are all enjoyable stories. I’m not sure when we’ll see more Hawklin stories, either novels or short stories, set in the 1940s. I look forward to whatever we get.