Triple Detective #2 (Spring 1956)
Back for another issue, this time featuring the following stories. DOCTOR DEATH RETURNS by Steve Mitchell: Twenty years before, a sinister madman held the world at bay, using the twin powers of science and sorcery to unleash a crimson tide of murder and destruction that swept across America and Asia. Then he disappeared—leaving no clue as to his final fate. MURDER MUSEUM (featuring The Phantom Detective) by K.G. McAbee: The Phantom Detective, that nemesis of all evildoers in New York City, takes on the uncanny powers of the sinister Dr. Darkness! And CRIME’S LAST STAND (starring The Masked Avenger) by Tom Johnson: Will evil win out? Can even The Great Masked Avenger survive the final battle with the city’s underworld when crime makes its last stand!
January 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Am confused. Are these new stories with these characters? I have never heard of that Doctor Death story.
I know you’ve reprinted the first 4 DD short stories. How about reprinting the later 5 DD novels (the 3 published and 2 unpublished)?
January 14th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Triple Detective #1 was a collection of old stories which were rewritten by Tom Johnson to restore them, as best as possible, to their original versions (for example, the Black Bat & Phantom Detective stories were rejected by Standard and later appeared in print, with all traces of the two characters removed). Triple Detective #2 and the forthcoming #3 are new stories by current writers.
A collection of the five later Doctor Death stories, eh? That’s a good idea…
January 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Thanks. I got the idea of TD #1, which I think is great. There are a few ‘lost’ pulp stories out there, some of which got re-written. I know that the second Captain Hazzard story was rewritten as Secret Agent X #39. And I think Wild Cat Books did another re-edit for their Captain Hazzard books.
What can be frustrating with reading many of the hero pulps is the wide range of publishers who have done some, but not all, of the stories. And worse, who sometimes re-print what another publisher has recently done (or not bother to re-print because another publisher has done). So sometimes you can’t find a reprint because its rare/costly, or have 2-3 copies from multiple publishers.
With Doctor Death, I am only aware of Corinth doing the first 3 novels (now hard to find. I was lucky to find one many years ago). the fouth was published in Nemesis, Inc #28-30, which I don’t have and have no idea how to find. the fifth was published in Pulp Vault #5 & 6 which I don’t have, but think I was able to get a photocopy of the DD story.
Some it would be nice if one of the modern pulp reprint houses would do a new collection, even if it had to be 2-3 volumes.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Ok, I hate to sound like an idiot, but I have no idea who the “Masked Avenger” is. the artwork shown is from the Fall, 1941 “Masked Detective” pulp. Is the Masked Avenger a renaming of that character?
March 11th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You’re not an idiot; that’s a retro-pulp character created by Tom Johnson. But I think it fits well with the other stories, don’t you?