As a group of us from last year’s PulpCon walked through the World War I section of the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Bill Mann asked if I’d read any of Robert J. Hogan’s The Red Falcon series. “No,” I had to admit. I’ve not read much in the way of air war pulps, except a few stories of G-8.
Bill highly recommended them. Clearly those stories have been on Bill’s mind recently. He has started a pulp-reprint publishing imprint, Age of Aces Books, and introduced its first book, Captain Babyface: The Complete Adventures. It’s a collection of stories about Capt. Jed Garrett, a pilot for the American Special Agent’s Corps with the unflattering nickname of Captain Babyface. The 10 stories, which appeared in Dare-Devil Aces, were written by Steve Fisher who is probably best known for his hard-boiled fiction in Black Mask Magazine.
“I always loved the air war pulps, especially Dare-Devil Aces,” Bill says. “There were some terrific hero series that ran in short stories or novellettes throughout the ’30s and ’40s. Characters like The Red Falcon, Chinese Brady, Smoke Wade, The Three Mosquitoes, Clipper Stark.
“I decided that others might enjoy reading them also without going through the time and expense of tracking down the original magazines. So I started Age of Aces Books to do just that.”
Joining him in the venture are Chris and David Kalb (who also were on the Air Force Museum excursion last summer). “I was thrilled to have Chris join up with me in this new venture…. We also recruited Chris’s brother David to help us out in future releases,” Bill says.
Why Captain Babyface? “I started with Dare-Devil Aces for two reasons,” Bill said via e-mail. “First, that’s where many of the characters I enjoyed the most were printed. And second, the copyright status was clear. It was just a matter of getting permission from Argost Communication to reprint them.
“With ‘Captain Babyface,’ (Fisher) tells the tales of Jed Garrett and his dog Click the hellhound as they battle the evil German genius Mr. Death. It is World War I, and Death has been horribly disfigured by American bombs. He has sworn vengeance against all Americans, but especially Babyface Garrett. The 10 stories appeared throughout 1936.”
Next up for Age of Aces Books is a four-volume reprinting of The Red Falcon series. “I already have in the pipeline a collection of The Three Mosquitoes stories (and) Chinese Brady stories,” Bill says.
Boy, it’s a terrific era for pulp magazine fans, with so many reprinting pulp stories.
– William
A few years ago, I thought that the internet was just another nail in the coffin of the pulps. Instead, it’s brought pulp fans together (I’ve never met another pulp fan personally, only online), and it’s increased the flow of new material: both reprints and newly written homages and pastiches are now more easily available to us. It’s a GREAT time to be a pulp fan.
Hi Bill,
Speaking of flying heroes, we are in production at
Airship 27 Productions for our first volume of
FLYING ACES…which will feature four new stories
starring…
Captain Midnight
Kerry Keene – The Griffon
The Three Mosquitos
Lance Star – Sky Ranger
Look for it some time this summer or early fall.
Ron