Steeger Books in the summer of 2025 came out with a new expanded edition of Don Hutchison’s The Great Pulp Heroes (1996, 2007, 2025). This work has long been an excellent introduction and overview of the world of pulp heroes.
It started as a series that appeared in The New Captain George’s Whizzbang that I previously posted on. In 1996, Mosaic Press brought out the first edition. In 2006, Book Republic Press brought out another edition with a different cover. This new edition has been cleaned up and corrected by Hutchison, and includes new chapters.
We start with a nice introductory chapter setting things up. We then have several chapters that each focus on a different pulp hero: The Shadow, Doc Savage, G-8, The Phantom Detective, The Avenger, Captain Future, and Operator #5. These chapters give a good overview of the character and his associates, information on the stories, as well as information on the authors of the works.
The Shadow and Doc chapters have information on the comic book and reprint works done, but they make no mention of the more recent Sanctum Books reprints, nor the new works by Will Murray. Thankfully, there is no mention of the new James Patterson works.
The minor Thrilling characters like The Black Bat, The Green Ghost, The Masked Detective, The Crimson Mask, and The Purple Scar are covered in one chapter. As these characters were all written (or mostly written) by Norman Daniels, he is a sort of focus as well.
Another chapter covers the various villain pulps like Doctor Death, Doctor Satan, Wu Fang, and The Octopus/Scorpion, etc. And the various flying characters — Philip Strange, The Griffon, Bill Barnes, The Lone Eagle, and many others — get a chapter. Jungle characters, Tarzan, and his many clones, get another.
A further chapter wraps up with other minor characters like The Skipper, The Whisperer, and so on, up to the final pulp hero, Captain Zero.
This new edition adds three additional chapters. One focuses on the various G-Men pulp characters, such as Dan Fowler, The Suicide Squad, G-X, the Phantom Fed, and several others. Next is one on various western pulp heroes like The Rio Kid, Pete Rice, The Masked Rider, Jim Hatfield, and more.
The final chapter is a collection of correspondence that Don received in the 1970s and ’80s from pulp professionals like Harry Steeger, publisher of Popular Publications; editor Alden Norton; and authors Frederick Davis (Operator #5, et al) and Norman Daniels (The Black Bat, et al). These were interesting pieces. I wonder if Al Norton ever wrote that history of the pulps?
In comparing this edition to the Mosaic Press one, I see that the Frank Hamilton art pieces were brought over, but most of the other artwork in that edition, including ads and interior artwork, was not. I really wish this had been done, as several chapters have no artwork, and it would have been nice to see at least a couple of pieces. They could have added additional artwork, such as pulp covers of many of these characters.
This is still a great overview of the pulp heroes, and it’s great that we got a new print edition. Even if you have the prior editions, this is a volume worth getting.
