Guns of The Black Ghost by Tom Johnson is
available on Kindel for $2.99, and as a paperback from the author at fadingshadows40@gmail.com for $16.95
I recently got in trouble with a comic book
reviewer that read one of my Black Ghost stories in a
previous anthology. Basically, he said my character didn’t deserve the cape he
wore since he couldn’t fly or leap over tall buildings. My response was that my
character is not a comic book super hero, but a pulp crime
fighter who wears a costume. Now, I admit there are a lot of similarities
between comic book super heroes and pulp crime
fighters, but there is a difference.
After the financial Stock Market crash of ’29,
the reading public was discouraged with the Roaring Twenties, and the popularization
of the American gangster. They were looking for heroes, and the popular media
of the day, the pulp magazines, gave them that change.
In 1931, The Shadow hit
the stands and was an instant success. In early 1933, The
Phantom Detective followed from another publishing house. By 1933,
the market place was flooded with pulp heroes: The Spider, G-8, Doc
Savage, and many others. Most wore some weird costume, laughed eerily, or
sported a domino mask. Most were copies of The Shadow. They
were all a lot of fun.
Walter Gibson, the man who gave us the character
of The Shadow, drew from several sources in creating the
character; turning New York City into a dark and forbidding locale like that of
London in the period of Jack the Ripper, and then dressing our hero like the
popular vampire of the movies, Dracula, black cape, hypnotic eyes, a sinister
voice, et al. Gibson, himself a magician, put magic in his stories, both in
atmosphere and in creativity. The character came alive. He appeared in 325
magazine novels, plus a 1960s updated paperback series from Belmont, and two
short stories, plus a long running radio drama, several movies, a number of comic
book series, and a Saturday Matinee serial. He was extremely popular.
When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created their
comic book super hero, Superman, they drew heavily from The
Shadow & Doc Savage. Bob Kane and Bill Finger gave us the character
of the Bat Man shortly after the appearance of Superman,
and they also drew
heavily from The Shadow. By
the 1950s, the pulp magazines were dying, being replaced by the comic book as
the popular reading material of young adults, but the comic books had pulled
heavily from the pulps. The main difference was the super abilities
of the heroes. In the pulps, our heroes were tough, could swing a hard fist,
were usually an expert in disguise, and carried heavy automatics in which to
battle 1920s type gangsters on dark streets. The super heroes
of the comics could jump over tall buildings, run faster than a speeding
building, and even fly!
I admit it I was a fan of the comic books. In the
mid 1940s, I was reading Batman, Superman, and all the rest.
But when I created the character of The Black Ghost, I
drew from the pulps, especially the character of The Shadow. So
the reviewer was correct, my character cannot jump tall buildings or fly, but
he didn’t get his cape from the comic books. His cape came from much earlier,
the pulp costumed crime fighter!
For readers who are not familiar with my Black
Ghost stories, they take place in a modern city (never named), which could
be anywhere. He fights crime with a pair of .45 automatics and a sinister
laugh, while wearing all black to blend with the dark streets where crime
dwells. His costume includes a black hood, which completely covers his head,
and a black cape over his shoulder – not to fly, but more in keeping with
Dracula of the movies. A martial arts expert, he often has to battle criminals
who are also trained to kill with their hands. The stories are full of action,
but I also work on plot and characterization, so that the stories are not just
mindless action and gun battles.
One difference in my modern hero and those in
the pulp era, the crime fighters of the 1930s and 1940s could never marry as
long as they wore the mask of the hero. The Black Ghost, however,
was married early in his career, recorded in a story entitled, “Hunter’s Moon”
(later rewritten as “Murder Town”), and his wife has often donned the guise of
the crime fighter to confuse the enemy.
To date, I have written eleven adventures of The Black
Ghost. If you like fast action, with a lot of gun battles along with a good
mystery, I think you will enjoy the stories in this volume. Seven of the eleven
adventures are included. Only missing is “The Black Ghost”, an early adventure
when he was still a young boy. Also missing is “Hunter’s Moon”,
which was co-written with Debra Delorme, and features him as a young adult. “The
Spider’s Web” is a novel, and sequel to “Highways In Hiding”, one of the
stories in this volume. Then a short novel, “Carnival of Death” is included in
the collection, PULP ECHOES. I am always available for comment and discussion.
Just don’t ask me why my character can’t fly!
