The Pulp Heroes
From 1931 through 1953 the single character pulps
dominated the newsstands. I’ve already mentioned Doc Savage and The Shadow in
previous posts. They were undoubtedly the most popular of the pulp heroes. But
they were not the only ones. Fanzines, like BRONZE SHADOWS, were the first to
introduce the “other” heroes to a new generation in the 1960s, a decade after
the character magazines ceased publication. Nick Carr was the first to
chronicle many of them in essays in his book, THE PULP HERO in 2001. I will
talk about a few of these this week, and more in the future.
The Phantom Detective was the second single character
hero pulp to hit the stands, following close behind The Shadow. His first issue
was dated February 1933, but likely appeared in December 1932. It would become
the longest running of the pulp character titles, ending in the Summer 1953
issue, with 171 novels. The Phantom, as he was more commonly called, was
Richard Curtis Van Loan, a millionaire man-about-town, who was bored with his
idle lifestyle and wanted excitement in his life. His friend and mentor, Frank
Havens suggested he try to solve a vicious crime that was baffling the police.
Van Loan, a WWI pilot, was familiar with danger, and within a few days walked
into the police station with the killer in custody. Not knowing who he was, the
police called him the “phantom detective”, and the title stuck. He became a
master of disguise, and the police or Frank Haven’s, publisher of a string of
newspapers, soon began calling on him for difficult cases. His stories were
bylined originally G. Wayman Jones, then Robert Wallace, but his exploits were
written by the major pulp writers of the day, many stories have yet to be
identified by author.
Secret Agent X came out a year later, dated February
1934, but probably released December 1933, the Agent was an ex WWI intelligence
officer, and now worked for a mysterious government official known as K-9. His
job was to uncover and battle domestic crooks and foreign spies. Unlike the Phantom
Detective, he did not have police approval; in fact they considered “X” a
master criminal. Extremely popular today, he may not have been in the ‘30s. His
run ended in 1939, with only 41 novels. There was no name associated with him,
and he was always in disguise. A war wound in his side, the scar resembling a
crude “x”, gave him the code name of Secret Agent X. The house name given to
the author was Brant House, but Paul Chadwick created the series, then numerous
writers took over after his contract expired.
The Ghost Super Detective, later changed to The Green
Ghost was a latecomer to the character pulps, the first issue dated January
1940, but probably released in late ’39. The novels were originally narrated by
the main character, George Chance in first person, but were later changed to
third person. Chance was a master magician, raised in the circus, and taught
many things, including knife throwing. He seldom carried a gun because he
couldn’t hit the side of a barn – from the inside. He usually used magic tricks
to catch the killer. The author was G.T. Fleming-Roberts, a popular writer of
the pulps. Sadly, the series only lasted 7 issues in his own title, and then
relegated to THJRILLING MYSTERY and THRILLING DETECTIVE for another 7 issues,
and then ended. But the paper shortage due to WWII caused many magazine
cancellations, so this may not have been due to a lack of popularity for the
series. The character just drew the short straw, and was dropped.
