The Crimson Mask Volume One
(Crime Fiction)
By Terrence McCauley, Gary
Lovisi, C. William Rosette, and J. Walt Layne
ISBN #978-0615909639
Airship27 Productions
Price $15.29
172 Pages
Rating 5-Stars
“Pulp Hero Returns In New
Adventures”
In this anthology
containing four new stories featuring the Crimson Mask, a character pulp that
originally ran from August 1940 to January 1945, created by Norman Daniels but
written by various pulp scribes for 16 tales. The hero is pharmacist, Doc Bob
Clarke, who put on a red domino mask to bring justice to criminals after they
kill his policeman father.
Terrence McCauley brings us
The Crimson Mask Takes Over, a nice yarn, with a solid feel of the time period.
Then Gary Lovisi brings us an interesting yarn, The Mystery Man, about a bank
robber with deeper plans. C. William Rosette’s story, The Blood of The Mob has
good action, and keeps us turning the page. The final story, J. Walt Layne’s
Carnival of Lost Souls was a bit muddy, and very little action from our hero,
though an interesting tale.
All in all, the stories
were pretty good, and I’m glad to see the Crimson Mask back for new adventures.
Since this is volume one, I’m hoping there will be a volume two down the road.
There were some minor problems with this volume, but nothing too extreme. I
wasn’t sure when some of the stories take place. Rosette’s story included ex
Army Rangers, which was curious, as Darby’s Rangers were started in 1942, so
for us to have ex Army Rangers you would figure it had to be after 1945. Could
be, but curious none-the-less. The lack of action in Layne’s story was a bit of
a drag too. The story actually begins in the winter of 1932, eight years before
the Crimson Masks began (hmmm). The cover by Andy Fish was pretty nice, but the
interiors, though good art, left a bit to be desired. Most of the scenes
illustrated were non-action scenes. The pulp interior art always featured our
hero in action, not standing around talking or otherwise. I liked the art, but
think the artist illustrated the wrong scenes too often.
Overall, this is a fine
anthology of Crimson Masks short stories, and highly recommended.
Tom Johnson
Detective Mystery Stories
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