Stormgate Press, publisher of Captain Hawklin and Pulp Reality, has started a new series of booklets called “Quick Reads.” All are written by Charles F. Millhouse, who is the man behind Stormgate.
These are short, digest-size booklets, all about 40 pages, publishing short stories of their various pulp-inspired characters. Three volumes have been published so far:
- The Purple Mystique
- Night Vision
- Zane Carrington
All have excellent covers by Jeffrey Ray Hayes, who has been doing other New Pulp covers of late.
The first volume on the Purple Mystique, reprints the two stories starring this character from Pulp Reality #3. She is similar to the Green Hornet, wearing an outfit in purple and using a unique gas gun, with only the assistance of her driver, Danny Brocko. She has been going after minor thugs, now she is going after a mobster, Bobby Two-Tone, who has kidnapped a young girl. We don’t yet know her background or origin, or who she is. Hopefully, this will come out in future stories, especially as there is some kind of connection to Bobby Two-Tone.
The second volume, featuring Night Vision, reprints his appearance from Pulp Reality #4. He is a New Pulp hero set in the same world as Capt. Steven Hawklin. While this first story is set in 1935, he has been operating for six years.
College professor Simon Rook has a curse. He is shown visions of soon-to-be victims of violent crimes. He has been going out at night to stop the crimes and save the victims. But this time, he deals with a new threat — almost his opposite number. It will be interesting to see where this goes after he finds out who is behind this threat. Might we see him encounter Hawklin or others connected to him?
The third volume, with Zane Carrington, gives us a new story of this character set in Shanghai in 1936. Carrington first appeared in the Hawklin stories, a tramp steamer captain with a mysterious past. Here he is at a poker game in a seedy bar. When the bar owner is kidnapped, Zane gets pulled into a plot for revenge by a beautiful woman with a connection to the bar owner. Will Zane be able to resolve the mystery before it’s too late and save his friend?
We are promised further stories with these three characters. I know plans are to have some new Carrington short stories and possibly a novel, and when there are enough, they will be collected into a larger volume. Whatever we get, it would be great. Also, if you are a Captain Hawklin fan, look for the new Captain Hawklin at War novel. Review coming.
