Atomic Age Treasury of Pulp Action

Atomic Age Treasury of Pulp Action: (Superhero Fiction)

By Mike Hall, Bob Elinskas, and Michael Wharton

Ape Books

ISBN #978-0974139807

Price $12.95 (Paperback)

112 Pages

Rating 3-Stars

An anthology featuring Bronze Dragon by Mike Hall; The Vengeful Ghost by Mike Hall; The Only Thing We Have by Bob Elinskas; and The Waking Deep by Michael Wharton. Interior illustrations are by David Ellis. The front cover is by Chris Martinez and patterned after the old pulp magazines. Rounding out the issue is an Introduction by Buddy Scalera.

         Bronze Dragon: The Crimson Devil and American Star are discussing Crimson’s latest issue of his pulp magazine, and he’s complaining the author is making him sound to violent. American Star tells him that the publisher is just trying to sell magazines. Crimson Devil goes for answers, and discovers that there is something fishy going on with the pulp magazine bearing his name. Someone is using code to “sink ships”. This leads him to a Japanese spy, the Bronze Dragon who is planning on escaping back to Japan with secrets. Not much of a plot, sadly.

         The Vengeful Ghost: The Crimson Devil is visiting the studio where American Star is filming a new serial. The director is almost killed when a huge light falls from the rafters, and The Crimson Devil thinks he saw a ghost force the light the fall. Pushing the director aside just in time, the mystery man is now under the falling light and is about to be crushed when American Star rises in the air and catches the falling object. Now the Crimson Devil must discover who is playing the part of a ghost, and what the mystery is about.

         The Only Thing We Have…: When America captures three German spies, Germany sends their best assassin, Der Vapor, to kill them. He does kill two, but fails to kill the third. He will have to strike again, but knows he will be successful on the second attempt. However, he hasn’t taken in account the mystery man known as Fear, and Der Vapor may fail one more time.

         The Waking Deep: Clayton Duncan Blair and Lila Montgomery are in Puerto Rico to see Romulo Covus, an old enemy of The Crimson Devil. But Covus knows that it will take The Crimson Devil and American Star to defeat the evil in the ocean, and bring the fish back to the waters. The pair head out to sea where they are supposed to meet soldiers of Mu, but when they reach the rendezvous the Muites appear suffering from madness and attack. They are taken below the ocean to Mu, but something else is in control, some evil long dead is alive again.

         The four stories were fun, but really only the last two had plots and good action. The first two were minor entries. Perhaps the reason this was the only issue ever published. But with better stories it might have succeeded. Advertised as pulp, our heroes and heroine are really superheroes more adaptable to comic books, than pulp magazines. The title and cover does look like pulp, but is misleading. However, it’s a shame the series didn’t continue, I think the final half of the book shows that they were headed in the right direction. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE COBRA