{"id":352,"date":"2013-04-29T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T14:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:35:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:35:32","slug":"a-spy-named-the-red-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2013\/04\/29\/a-spy-named-the-red-finger\/","title":{"rendered":"A spy named The Red Finger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheWithin the hero pulp genre was the genre of secret agents. The best known was Operator #5<\/strong>. Lesser known (I had never heard of this character) is the Red Finger<\/strong>, who appeared in 12 short stories in the back of Popular Publications’ Operator #5<\/em> pulps, from 1934-38.<\/p>\n

Written by Arthur Leo Zagat<\/strong>, a lawyer turned pulp writer, the Red Finger is a mysterious costumed counter-spy who operated in the mid-1930s against various sinister foreign spies and saboteurs in pre-WWII America. While the counties these foreign spies worked for is never mentioned, it’s clear they are from Germany, Italy, Japan, and a few others (one appears to be Mexico).<\/p>\n

The Red Finger is really Ford Duane<\/strong>, an unassuming man running a little used bookstore. He gets mysterious coded messages from his boss, the unknown and unseen “T<\/strong>“, head of American Counter-espionage Service, and goes into action. The method of sending the messages changes with each story. All use the code phrase of “P.A.T” as identification.<\/p>\n

He stops the spy or saboteur, usually killing them, though not always without danger to himself. When in action as the Red Finger, Duane dresses in a gray hat and a gray mask covering his lower face (nose and mouth), and wears black gloves with the trigger finger in blood red (hence his name).<\/p>\n

The agency he works for is never named. These are not glamorous stories like James Bond<\/strong>, but ones of gritty urban adventure. When not in action, Ford is not hanging out with the rich and famous in casinos, but living a quiet life in the used bookstore. As these are short stories (about 15 pages long) there are little distractions from any secondary characters. A female agent of the same organization is introduced in one story, and appears in a couple of others. It appears that Duane has fallen for her (she is referred to as “Flower”).<\/p>\n

Altus Press<\/a> has put out a complete collection of stories, “The Hand of Red Finger,” which is how I found out about the character. In the collection, along with the 12 original stories, we get the original illustrations as well. Plus, we have a new story by Tom Johnson<\/a><\/strong> which sorts of wraps up the character and series. And there is a nice intro and author bio by Will Murray<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I do have to take Johnson to task for his story. He makes the mistake of claiming that “P.A.T.” identifies the Red Finger’s boss. It doesn’t. And Johnson makes him a bit emotional in rescuing “Flower” from the bad guys, when he didn’t act that way in prior stories featuring her. Johnson has also<\/em> used Ford and Flower in the origin story of his original New Pulp character, the Black Ghost<\/a><\/strong>. But you’ll have to read that story to find out how they are used.<\/p>\n

So check out this overlooked early hero pulp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within the hero pulp genre was the genre of secret agents. The best known was Operator #5. Lesser known (I had never heard of this character) is the Red Finger, who appeared in 12 short stories in the back of Popular Publications’ Operator #5 pulps, from 1934-38. Written by Arthur Leo Zagat, a lawyer turned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":{"highlight_sharing":"default","image_sharing":"default","headline_sharing":"default"},"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[1,135,14],"tags":[751,3,52,939,750],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pulps","category-reprints","category-review","tag-arthur-leo-zagat","tag-hero-pulps","tag-popular-publications","tag-steeger-books","tag-the-red-finger"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2013\/04\/hand-of-red-finger.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-5G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22919,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/22919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}