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A Darker Side
Dirty Work
The Crime Cult by Maxwell Grant
This is the twelfth Shadow story. It originally appeared on July 1, 1932 in the classic pulp magazine. It was reprinted as the sixth book in the Pyramid paperback series in 1975 with cover artwork by Jim Steranko.
This time out the Shadow battles a mysterious crime cult that is systematically eliminating anyone who questions the doctrines of its leader. The victims are murdered through strangulation. The only evidence left behind is a faint white line barely visible on their throats and a strange, round burn marked on their foreheads.
The killer heats the ring he wears and presses it against the skin of his victims, searing its mark into their flesh. As I read about this strange signature I couldn't help thinking about the Spider, who debuted about a year after this novel was first published. The Popular Publications' crime fighter was created to compete directly against Street and Smith's Shadow Magazine.
The story features several of the Shadows agents. Cliff Marsland infiltrates a gang the crime cult hires to wipe out a police raid on the cult's headquarters. Harry Vincent investigates the disappearance of a wealthy businessman, but is captured by one of the gangsters and finally rescued by the master of darkness. Clyde Burke, ace reporter for the New York Classic, gains the confidence of NYPD's Joe Cardona and passes on the confidential information he learns to the Shadow.
As usual Grant (aka Walter B. Gibson), dishes up a rich ensemble of gangsters, crooks, and a fitting criminal mastermind to pit his shadowy hero against.
If you're interested in sampling the Shadow, check out the latest reprint series from Anthony Tollin's Sanctum Books. They're available by subscription as well as individual issues. Check out the links to the many Pulp Fiction Sites on our Links Page. Reprints of the Pyramid and Bantum series are available at used book dealers like Powell's, Alibris, etc.
Zine of Bronze #5
edited by Jim Main
The love of adventure stories and pulp fiction has fueled the rise of a growing movement of modern-day pulp fictioneers. Outfits like Mottimorphic, Dark Worlds, Airship 27, and the Age of Adventure to name a few, are producing brand new stories designed to capture the same spirit of excitement and morality that flourished when the pulps ruled the newsstands.
Main's Zine of Bronze #5 continues its editorial mix of articles and artwork about Doc Savage and brand new pulp fiction. However, this time out the mix is skewed toward the story side. Fictioneer Arthur C. Sippo MD, MPH turns in another terrific yarn about two career military men called Andy and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Set during the first world war, the story includes great characterization, historical context, adventure, and nicely crafted prose. As the title suggests, it's not all serious and Sippo includes plenty of humorous incidents as well as send-ups to popular culture.
The original pulp fiction has held up extremely well in most ways. The number of anthologies and reprint titles on the market today continues to grow, proving the long-term appeal of these yarns. The one area that doesn't hold up well is the disturbing stereotypes that sometimes detract from an otherwise enjoyable story. Sippo does his part to correct these slanders of the past by expertly balancing traditional pulp heroics and adventure with a modern-day perspective of respect and recognition.
Next up, Dennis Kininger returns with reviews of three of Bantam's mid-60s Doc Savage reprints written by authors other than Lester Dent. His favorite of the trio is book #14 The Fantastic Island by W. Ryerson Johnson. Kininger posits Dent worked more closely with Johnson on this particular story and the result was a tale with a fresh perspective that doesn't loose sight of established characterizations and mythos.
Jeffrey Vavra reviews the Doc Savage hardcover reprint series produced in 1975 by Golden Press in a package similar to the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift.
The issue also includes a short introduction by editor Main on the contents page and a two page letters column. Zine of Bronze #5 is 24 b&w pages, plus a full color cover. It's 8.5" x 11", POD, with saddle-stitch binding. Aritsts this issue include: Richard Johnson Jr. and Allen Freeman (cover), Terry Pavlet, Lawrence DuCheny, Kevin Duncan, and Scott McClung (back cover). Production management by Richard Sullivan. It's available for $5 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.
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Dead Street by Mickey Spillane
When Mickey Spillane died in 2006 he left behind four novels. One was finished, an adventure story called The Last Stand. The three unfinished works were Dead Street, a crime novel; and two Mike Hammers, The Goliath Bone and King of the Weeds. The unfinished works were turned over to his long-time colleague and fan, Max Allen Collins. Collins worked through extensive notes and conversations with Spillane before he died and was able to finish the incomplete books.
Dead Street was the first of the four novels to be published. (The Goliath Bone was issued in hardcover earlier this year). A New York police Captain named Jack Stang enters retirement only to find the love of his life really didn't die all those years ago. Trouble is if Jack could find her, so could the powerful gangsters that tried to kill her the first time. Now blinded and with no memory of her past life, Jack races against time to rekindle her love for him and discover what she knew that was worth the price of her life.
The story is split between an old, deserted dead street in New York laden with history and a booming new retirement community in Florida flooded with retired cops. Spillane wrote eight of the chapters with Collins pitching in to wrap things up in the final three.
Dead Street is the final crime novel written by the king of pulp fiction. The cover of this Hard Case Crime edition was painted by Arthur Suydam.
Double Z by Maxwell Grant
Double Z was actually the eleventh Shadow novel originally published in June 1932. The Pyramid edition I read is the fifth in their series, from Feb. 1975, and sports another Steranko cover painting.
This time out the Shadow battles a mysterious villain who communicates with the police and his choosen victims through typewritten notes signed with his trademark ZZ signature. At first he only warns the police of impending crimes, but as time goes on he becomes bolder and begins a rampage of murder striking down the rich and powerful leaders of industry and influence.
When the ace crime reporter for the New York Clarion, Joel Caulkins, learns the real identity of Double Z, he's cut down before he can reveal the information to the police. His editor is doubly impacted by the loss, personally and professionally as he scrambles to replace the man behind the Clarion's popular The Wise Owl column. Part time Clarion contributor and agent of the Shadow Claude Burke steps into the role and uses it to gain inside information for his mysterious master.
The Shadow drafts a new agent to his team in this yarn as well. Millionaire Rutledge Mann, proud member of the Cobalt Club, lost his fortunes when his investments soured. Buried in debt he sees no way forward and is snatched from the brink of a desperate suicide by the man shrouded in black. The price of his way back is unswerving obedience at any time the Shadow calls him. He agrees and is immediately assigned to help unravel the mystery of Double Z.
Grant injects the story's most gripping scenes when Harry Vincent, Cliff Marsland, and finally the Shadow battle the mastermind, Loy Rook, and face the riddles of his shifting walls, deadly gases, and a bottomless pit.
You can still find this volume by searching for it on Alibris, Powell's, eBay, and at other used book dealers.
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
This is the second book in the Dresden Files series. Another modern-day version of an adventure pulp magazine—in novel form. It's half murder mystery and half adventure hero. In fact, as I was reading this one it struck me that Butcher's series owes a tip of the hat to both of Ditko and Lee's heroic creations, Dr. Strange and Spiderman. Dresden is a powerful wizard, but his personal and professional lives are a wreck. He's filled with angst, relationship issues, and he's constantly having conversations with himself about whether or not he should share what he knows or take action as a loner or part of a team.
This time out the world's most powerful misfit wizard encounters a powerful werewolf that nearly get the better of him and the people closest to him.
Fool Moon is 342 pages, published by ROC and first published in January 2001. $7.99 at bookstores. Jim Butcher's website.
Dirty Work by Stuart Woods
Attorney Stone Barrington hires a freelance photographer to snap some incriminating photographs of an extracurricular rendezvous between an heir apparent and a beautiful woman who is definitely not his wife. Unfortunately, she wants to do him in a way more permanent than the way he wants to do her. And did I mention the photographer turns out to be a bigger amateur than advertised? His ineptitude set off a chain of events that drives this fast-paced mystery forward in further unexpected directions.
Barrington is an ex-cop turned lawyer who loves liquor, fast cars, and women. He's not exactly Bond, but he does have a way with the ladies and he's usually one step ahead of everyone else.
In Dirty Work, Woods constructs a solid plotline with strong storytelling, unexpected twists, and at least the requisite body count. My favorite character was Dino, Stone's ex-partner. Dino only seems motivated when there's a payoff in it, like a free dinner or trip on Barrington's expense account. But when things really counts he shows he's smart, capable, and more than able to jump into the fray with both feet.
This is the eighth or ninth book in the series. Woods also writes two other series: Holly Barker and Will Lee. A good escapist fiction option for your next airplane trip. Website.
A Darker Side
by Shirley Wells
The second murder mystery novel with forensic psychologist Jill Kennedy and Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Max Trentham follows Into the Shadows, from 2007. As the story opens Jill is taking a break from detective work, but soon finds herself tangled in a web of mystery when a seventeen-year-old schoolboy is reported missing.
Wells weaves an intriguing tale of mystery with false leads and a surly cast of prickly suspects, each with their own disagreeable backstories they feel worthy of covering up. The main story progresses briskly and Wells adds a nice mix of subplots. Foremost of which is the fragile relationship between Jill and Max; that colors their every thought and action.
Wells lives in Lancashire, where the story takes place. She brings the warmth and richness of the English countryside to the tale, flavoring it with the local culture, customs, and language.
If you like your mysteries with an anxious romantic subplot entwined with the twists and turns of a gripping hunt for a killer, you'll enjoy this fast-paced, well-written crime novel. Published by Soho Constable, it's available in hardcover or Kindle edition from Amazon and other booksellers. Shirley Wells' blog.
Hands in the Dark by Maxwell Grant
I loved the opening of this classic pulp fiction yarn: a single line of cryptic marks written on a scrap of paper. A secret message that could be worth a fortune—and so a murderous trail of deceit begins with intercepting the note and the quest to learn its meaning.
Not only does the master of disguise, the Shadow, use impersonation to gain the upper hand in this tale. His adversaries kidnap the heir of a wealthy businessman and employ an elaborate charade to replace him with one of their own. The impostor then infiltrates the dead man's circle of friends to learn the secret of the coded message.
The story is loaded with secret rooms and death traps that the Shadow must uncover and defuse. One of them, in the heart of Chinatown, was designed by the infamous Wing Toy. This time out the Shadow operates nearly solo, with only minor support from his agents Harry Vincent, Claude Burke, and Burbank.
Hands in the Dark is the 10th Shadow novel, originally published in the May 1, 1932 issue of the pulp magazine. It's the 4th in the reprint series from Pyarmid Books published in 1975 with a Steranko cover painting. This collector's reprint may be found through Powell's, Alibris, Amazon, or other second-hand books resellers.
Zine of Bronze #4
edited by Jim Main
Editor Jim Main has produced another great issue of this small press zine for fans of Doc Savage. This issue provides a short introduction and letters page to get things started. Then the main features begin with Julián Puga V.'s article that compares similarities between the lost Arabian city of Ubar and Lester Dent's Phantom City featured in the tenth issue of the Doc Savage pulp magazine. Puga lays out strong evidence to support his case that the fabled Ubar served as inspiration for Dent's hidden city. It's fascinating to read Puga's account of what was eventually fact versus the fictitious city Dent crafted from what little was known about Ubar in 1933. The article features an excellent full page illustration by Christian Diaz.
Serving as a short break between longer pieces is a new feature: Cover to Cover. Proposed by artist and ZOB reader Mike Tuz, it presents same-story covers from the original pulp magazine and the Bantam paperback reprints. This issue compares the covers for The Purple Dragon. The page also includes results of a poll to vote for your favorite Doc Savage Aide conducted by Rob Smalley.
Arthur Sippo's original story 'Long Tom' Robber is the issue's longest feature. Fans of the original pulp fiction mags should love this story. Sippo has done a wonderful job capturing the tone of the era and created an action-packed war story set in WWI that is a pleasure to read. He's even added some extra surprises just for pulp fiction fans. His story includes several nice spot illustrations by Tim Faurote.
Jay Ryan's report on Doc Con X provides a intimate view of the tenth gathering of the dedicated fans of bronze hosted by Rob Smalley in Chandler, Arizona. Ryan's report and photo coverage almost makes it feel like you were there.
Dennis Kininger's review section called Super Amalgamations wraps up another fine issue of ZOB. Kininger covers the DC Comics Doc Savage mini-series that came out in 1987-88 by Dennis O'Neil and Adam & Andy Kubert; The Incredible Radio Exploits of Doc Savage from 1982; and the Bantam reprints of The Phantom City, Fear Cay, and Quest of Qui. As a longtime fan of bronze, Kininger's reviews provide a basic plot synopsis and thoughtful observations drawn from his knowledge of Doc Savage history.
In addition to those already mentioned, other fine illustrations for this issue were drawn by John Lambert and Kevin Duncan. Production and layout was provided by Richard Sullivan.
Zine of Bronze #4 is 28 b&w pages, plus a full color cover by Christian Diaz. It's available for $4.50 (postage paid) from Main Enterprises.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher
The Harry Dresden series may be the closest thing to a pulp magazine on the newsstands today. It combines all of the heroic, fantasy, and criminal elements common in the heydays of characters like the Spider and the Phantom Detective, and updates them to a modern day setting.
I first heard about the character from watching the TV series, The Dresden Files. Another short-lived—rare, but genuine hit—that aired on the Sci Fi channel. Paul Blackthorne was brilliant playing the scruffy freelance wizard-for-hire. Unfortunately, the show wasn't renewed for a second season.
While browsing the newsstand, I discovered the novels and was pleased to learn they weren't based on the show, but rather the TV series was drawn from them. That was enough incentive to give the first one a try.
There's no doubt the show influenced my enjoyment of Storm Front. I already knew the characters and could picture the well-cast TV personas as I read the book. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this murder mystery with a spellbinding twist. I also really enjoyed the backstory of the character's lives and histories that connects the novels beyond the excitement of the current edition.
I always enjoyed Ditko's Dr. Strange and although Harry Dresden the man, is nothing like the good doctor; as a wizard he recalls the magic and excitement of those wondrous realms of good and evil. If you're a fan of the old pulp magazine heroes, The Dresden Files offers you a glimpse of what it may have been like to pick up the latest title back then and lose yourself in its pages.
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