Thanks Jim. These sound interesting, and I'll definately try
to check them out. I guess its not so much the 'masked
detective' stories that I like as the hero pulps and weird
menace pulps. The Spider combines both of those genres pretty
well. Robert E. Howard's detective fiction is also good as
weird menace, sort of along the lines of Rohmer's Fu Manchu
but with a more action oriented hero.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "jimdohertyjr"
<jimdohertyjr@...> wrote:
>
> Chuck,
>
> Re your question below:
>
> > This probably not hardboiled, but Baen is
reprinting The Spider
> > stories by Gerald W. Page from the 1930s. I
just finished the
first
> > paperback 'Robat Titans of Gotham', and really
enjoyed it.
Nostalgia
> > Ventrues is also reprinting The Shadow. Are
there any other
writers
> > of this type of story that people might
recommend?
>
> I can't personally recommend them, since I have no
personal
experience,
> but two you might want to try to track
down:
>
> The second "masked avenger" sleuth, following in the
wake of the
> success of Street & Smith's The Shadow by just a
few months, and
> predating both The Spider and Doc Savage (Savage, of
course,
wasn't
> masked, but he is generally classed with the other
"hero pulps"),
was
> The Phantom Detective, who starred in his own
magazine. Another
of
> those "wealthy young men about town," who scratched
an itch by
fighting
> crime, his costume was a domino mask and a top hat.
His
adventures
> were by-lined "G. Waymon Jones," but, in contrast to
characters
like
> The Shadow, The Spider, and Doc Savage, who were
primarily
identified
> with a single creator, many different writers
contributed Phantom
> Detective stories under the "Jones" house name,
including pulp
> stalwarts like D.L. Champion, Norman Daniels, and
Norvell Page
> himself. One P/D writer who might be of particular
interest was
Alvin
> Schwartz, who also did a lot of work in the comics
field,
including a
> number of adventures about the mast famous masked
detectve of them
all,
> the Batman, particularly for the syndicated Batman
newspaper strip
of
> the '40's.
>
> Erle Stanley Gardner's contribution to the "masked
avenger" school
of
> pulp detective fiction was a character called "The
Patent Leather
Kid,"
> who wore a mask made of (wait for it) patent
leather. I think his
> stories appeared in DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY, but I
could be wrong
> about that.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
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