The Spider Slaughter, Incorporated

Originally slated to appear in The Spider Magazine in the 1940s, "Slaughter, Incorporated" was ultimately shelved when that magazine was cancelled. Never before published directly from author Donald G. Cormack's original manuscript, this edition has been faithfully reconstructed as an exact copy of the never-published February 1944 issue of The Spider Magazine, complete with vintage interior illustrations. In addition, The Spider: Slaughter, Incorporated (Facsimile Edition) marks the first publication of the never-before-published lost Red Finger story, "Red Finger and the Murder Trio," penned by Arthur Leo Zagat. Also including a story by longtime Spider author, Norvell Page. Rounded out by an introduction by Spider scholar, Will Murray, The Spider: Slaughter, Incorporated (Facsimile Edition) is the most important pulp publication of the year.

The Spider Slaughter, Incorporated (Pulp Reprint)

By Grant Stockbridge (Donald G. Cormack)

Altus Press www.altuspress.com

ISBN #978-1618273178

Price $19.95 (Paperback)

96 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

This was the last Spider novel written in 1943 for Popular Publications, scheduled for publication February 1944. It was obvious that PP had decided to drop the series, as the main author, Norvell Page, was working for the government now. They had hired Donald G. Cormack to write the final entry, but the series ended before Slaughter, Incorporated was published. There wasn’t much of a plot; it was all about the ending. The Spider and Richard Wentworth in a fight to the death. It was a plot to kill The Spider once and for all, and as the story ends we see The Spider dead and Richard Wentworth standing victorious above him. Even Police Commissioner Kirkpatrick buys the finale. I had read this story years ago when Robert Weinberg published it in paperback under the title of Blue Steel.

It took many years, but Altus Press has finally published this important novel in the style of the old pulp magazines, including interior artwork, with short stories in the back pages. One of the short stories is an unpublished Red Finger story that was rejected during the pulp period, Red Finger And The Murder Trio, so readers are not getting just one unpublished story, but two in this lost volume featuring The Spider. There is also a Norvell Page and Wayne Rogers short story in the back. This book is a must for any pulp fan, and highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE BLACK BAT COMPANION

The Spider: The Doom Legion

When a weird meteor crashes in the heart of Central Park on Halloween night, its uncanny light attracts the attention of Richard Wentworth—alias The Spider! Investigating, the millionaire criminologist encounters a maelstrom of madness in the making. Drawn, too, are two sinister figures from the past—international master criminals who join forces to harness the power of the pulsing meteorite. Alone, The Spider confronts his greatest challenge, but he is not alone this time. For the unholy power of the meteorite draws James Christopher, alias Operator 5, and another government agent from the past, known only as G-8…. Together, this heroic trio must battle a pair of powerful adversaries intent on harnessing and unleashing the malevolent power of the Green Meteorite. But how can they work together when one of them is branded an outlaw?

The Spider: The Doom Legion (Pulp Fiction)

By Will Murray

ALTUS PRESS www.altuspress.com

ISBN #978-1618273550

Price $24.95 (Paperback)

360 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Author Scores Another Hit”

A month after Machines-guns Over The White House, and almost twenty years after WWI, Herr Stahlmaske and Count Carmine Calypsa show up at a Halloween costume ball where Richard Wentworth and Nita Van Sloan are in attendance. Stahlmaske is after his old helmet from WWI, while Calypsa wants to kill Police Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick. Neither villain is aware of each other yet. Before anything can happen a green radioactive meteorite crashes into Central Park and starts turning people into zombies. Calypsa and Stahlmaske join forces and use the terror caused by the zombies for their own purposes.

Jimmy Christopher, Secret Service Operator 5, is assigned to the case, while Diane Elliot covers the situation for her paper. Z-7 is also present. Captain George Gate, better known as the WWI Master Spy G-8, is assigned by G-2 out of Mitchell Field. Alas, poor G-8. Twenty years after WWI he is still a captain in the Army Air Corps. I would think he should be a general by now, or at least a colonel, but he remains a lowly captain in G-2. Ronald Jackson and Ram Singh are also present, but this story revolves around The Spider, Operator 5, and G-8, as they battle Stahlmaske and Calypsa.

Typical of The Spider series, New York is devastated with thousands killed as the zombies turn others into the mindless dead. Buildings are burnt to the ground; police must kill police, as they become walking dead men. In the meantime no one can get close to the green meteorite without turning into a zombie, so it remains in Central Park pulsing out its deadly rays. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE COMPANION

Mr. Calamity/The Valley of Eternity

TWO DOC SAVAGE ADVENTURES IN ONE VOLUME! Prospecting in the Wyoming badlands, Patricia Savage spies a man swimming in circles––high in a cloudless sky! After he falls to his death, the dead swimmer is discovered soaked to the skin. Who is he? How did he manage to swim through thin air? These are the questions Pat sets out to answer when her cousin, the famous scientist-adventurer Doc Savage, diagnoses her account as a hallucination caused by altitude sickness. But when the bronze-skinned girl vanishes, the Man of Bronze is forced to take action. A letter from Doc’s long-dead father presents him with a life-changing challenge that brings him to The Valley of Eternity….and the Man of Bronze does the unthinkable: he ditches his loyal aides in favor of his cousin, Patricia––the only one who can help him succeed in the most perilous quest of his entire career.

Mr. Calamity/The Valley of Eternity (Doc Savage)

Wild Adventures of Doc Savage

By Kenneth Robeson (William Patrick Murray)

ALTUS PRESS

ISBN #978-1618273185

Price $29.50 (Paperback)

Price $7.99 (Kindle)

Rating 5-Stars

“Another Exciting Adventure of The Man of Bronze”

In “Mr. Calamity” Long Tom Roberts has inherited a ranch in Wyoming. Not a particularly large one. But it does have a milk cow and some horses, and a crusty old foreman to go with it. Pat Savage learns that there might be gold and jade hidden in the mountains in Wyoming, and decides to become a guest of the Circle Bolt Ranch, even if it does irritate the famous electrical genius. For Long Tom is at the ranch to work on electrical experiments, and doesn’t want to be bothered.

In the meantime, Pat is doing some prospecting when she meets a fellow named Hud who’s on his way to a swimming hole. Later, she sees Hud swimming in circles in the sky, then see’s him fall out of the sky. Discovering his broken body, she rides into town and calls the ranch to get Long Tom as a witness to everything. She has a mystery to solve. Unfortunately, things start happening fast. The body disappears, and Long Tom is almost hanged by men wearing flour sacks over their heads, and Pat encounters a funny little guy who shoots at her with a double-barreled shotgun. When she awakes, her horse has a broken leg and they are high up a mountain where there were no paths for her or the horse.

With all the weirdness, it’s time she called her cousin, Doc Savage to help her solve the mystery. Wow, I don’t know if it’s just that I haven’t read a Doc Savage in a long time, or they are just getting better all the time, but this one captured me from the beginning and wouldn’t let me go.  This is definitely one of my favorites. It has great mystery, good action from start to finish, and great supporting characters, including a couple of cowgirls who sling lead before asking questions.

“The Valley of Eternity” is the second novel in this huge volume. It is definitely different. In fact, I’ve heard from some that they didn’t like this story, but I found it a fun romp, even if it was unlike most Doc Savage adventures. Doc receives a letter from his father long after his death, telling his son that he needs to marry and sire a son to carry the Savage name forward. This throws Doc for a loop, and he starts dating, which causes riots and legal problems, then he gives his detective a list of names of women he’s known in the past that might be suitable mates. While this is going on he receives word from the Valley of The Vanished that the last shipment of gold is on the way, and there will be no more to help him in his battle to save the world from evil. This requires a quick trip to see what’s what, and he takes Pat with him, after all there is lovely Monja waiting for him in the Valley of the Vanished. And Pat is going to play matchmaker.  The hi-jinx of the situation is what this story is about. No great adventure, but I think Doc fans will enjoy it. I know I did. Highly recommended.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE GUNS OF THE BLACK GHOST

Fighting Crime One Dime At A Time

Fighting Crime One Dime At A Time (Hero Pulp Fiction)

By Ed Hulse

Murania Press

ISBN #978-1976273452

Price $24.95

220 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

This 8.5 x 11 inch production is a fun read, covering the hero – or single-character pulp titles that began with The Shadow in 1931 and dominated the newsstands until 1953, 22 years that saw good versus evil in literature, and good always triumphed. The heroes began after the Roaring Twenties, when readers were fed up with gangster rule, and the Depression laid low the working class in our society. Aimed at young audiences, they offered masked crime fighters who sometimes wore colorful or eclectic costumes that intrigued youthful minds. Their reign would end only after a world war, and an economy bouncing back from the abyss, and youngsters grown and looking for more mature fare. This book discusses the rise of story papers to dime novels, and eventually the pulp magazines, and finally the pulp hero. Most of it has been written before by earlier researches, but the writers involved visit the history again, in their own way, and I enjoyed every page.

Edited by Ed Hulse, who also writes the Introduction and some of the articles; we have these subjects: “The Great Transition: Story Papers and Dime Novels Yield To Pulp Magazines by Larry Latham; The Man In The Black Cloak: Did This Story Paper Character Influence The Shadow? By Joe Rainone; Reminiscences of Nick Carter: The Dime-Novel Precursor of Pulp Heroes by John Coryell; The House of Heroes: Street & Smith’s Single-Character Pulps by Ed Hulse; The Hero-Pulp Revolution Continues: Standard, Popular, Ace, and Fiction House Titles by Ed Hulse; Dithering Over Doc: Launching One of The Most Famous Hero Pulps by Will Murray; Disposable Heroes: Pulpdom’s Forgotten Crimebusters by Mark Trost; Archie Bittner and The Spider: The Case of the Missing “Master” by Will Murray; How Not To Write A Hero Pulp-Novel: Anatomy Of A Phantom Detective Outline by Mark Trost; Masked Rider of The (Pulps) Plains: A History of The Lone Ranger Magazine by Albert Tonic; The 20 Most Underrated Shadow Novels: Overlooked Entries From The Long-Running Series Chosen by Blood ‘n’ Thunder’s All-Star Panel of Judges; The Strange, Sad Story of Zarnak: The Pulp Hero Everybody Hated by Mark Trost; Three Aces In One Draw: Pulp Heroes In Comic Books by Mark Trost; Last Hurrahs: The Twilight of The Hero Pulps by Ed Hulse and Mark Trost; Appendix: Four-Color Fakery Reprinting Two Comic-Book Stories Adapted From Hero Pulps: The Mask and Major Mars.

It was nice seeing familiar names like Larry Latham and Albert Tonic in new publications once more. Their names were part of pulp fandom for many years. Will Murray and Joe Rainone have continued to be involved through the years, while Ed Hulse and Mark Trost - who began the Blood ‘n’ Thunder fan magazine in 2002 - have published ever since. Perhaps what is missing from the book are credits – there are many research books that preceded this tome that details Story Papers, Dime Novels, and the Hero Pulps, and should have been mentioned, if not credied. However, I highly recommend this book for any fan of the Pulp Heroes, be they Doc Savage fans, or Shadow fans, or any of the other heroes. It’s not only a good read, it gives insight to some of the happenings behind the scenes, and that’s always fun.

Tom Johnson

Author of THE BLACK BAT COMPANION