While I was looking for information I found this blog on old time radio detectives.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
This is seriously impressive. Potentially disturbing images in the video, as the article explains.
They need to make the box heart-shaped.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! Comics and Games for Everyone!
I used to listen to WOXY.com; It was the future of rock-n-roll! RIP WOXY
A couple of days ago I read Tim Holt #34, from Magazine Enterprises. The issue has five stories. Two are "Tales of the Ghost Rider" horror stories (the Ghost Rider does not play a role in the stories, and they are not west-set). One, the cover story, is a straight Tim Holt story (he is portrayed as a deputy sheriff, not an actor). In the remaining two Holt is also the star, but he has a double identity as a masked hero, Redmask. The comic was retitled "Red Mask" from #42. In #34 he wears a mask over the lower half of his face (and red hat and shirt, red pants with a yellow stripe, and black boots), but he later switched to wearing a red domino mask. I like the first look much more. A history of the comic can be found here (scroll down).
The three Holt stories in #34 were illustrated by Frank Bolle. The first one (one of the Redmask tales) has a particularly nice splash page. The GCD tentatively attributes the two horror stories to Dick Ayers.
In addition to her appearances in Tim Holt/Red Mask, Magazine Enterprises tried her out in a single issue of her own comic. According to the GCD many of Magazine Enterprises’s comics were double-numbered as part of the publisher’s A-1 series, so the issue was both Black Phantom #1 and A-1 #122.
The Black Phantom’s background and partnership-like relationship with Redmask reminded me of Madame .44, who appeared in Johnny Thunder’s feature in the final issues of All-Star Western. I haven’t read any of the latter lady’s stories, but she appeared on the covers as “Johnny Thunder” was the cover-feature. Her appearances are attributed by the GCD to Gardner Fox, who also wrote for Magazine Enterprises, so it’s possible she was consciously modelled after the Black Phantom. The GCD tentatively attributes the Redmask/Black Phantom story in Tim Holt #41 to Fox, but I can’t say if that’s more than a guess.
Madame .44 wore an all-white outfit, and a mask that covered the lower half of her face. The name had been used earlier, in a 1953 episode of Ford Television Theatre starring Yvonne De Carlo titled “Madame 44”.
Another story in Tim Holt #41 featured the return of a character from Tim Holt #11. I was surprised to see that kind of continuity in a story from this period. In addition to three Frank Bolle Redmask stories the issue has a Ghost Rider story that the GCD attributes to Fox and Dick Ayers.
Redmask lost covers of the final issues of Red Mask to a magician cowboy hero called the Presto Kid. I've not read any of his stories yet, but the covers are worth checking out. I think he qualifies as a forgotten superhero.
The name had been used earlier, in a 1953 episode of Ford Television Theatre starring Yvonne De Carlo titled “Madame 44”.
Wow, that would be interesting to see.
The question of whether the Presto Kid counts as a superhero got me thinking about the fact that we don't usually take masked western heroes into account when we discuss 50s superheroes. One might argue that if Redmask is a superhero, so are the Lone Ranger and Zorro. Also, that it's natural to class a character like Redmask with Johnny Thunder, who didn't wear a costume but did maintain a double identity. On the other hand, if Ghost Rider or the Presto Kid were modern day characters fighting crime in New York we'd call them superheroes (and Redmask too, although he doesn't have a schtick aside from his second identity and red costume, which incidentally included red boots later on). So it could be argued that a full discussion of the superheroes of the 50s would have to take the western masked heroes into account.
Margery Allingham Traitor's Purse
Eric Ambler Epitaph for a Spy
Nicholas Blake The Sad Variety
John Buchan Castle Gay
John Buchan The Courts of the Morning
John Buchan The House of the Four Winds
John Buchan The Power-House
Leslie Charteris Enter the Saint
Leslie Charteris The Saint in New York
Erskine Childers The Riddle of the Sands
Manning Coles Drink to Yesterday
Robert Harling The Enormous Shadow
Anthony Hope The Prisoner of Zenda
E.W. Horning The Collected Raffles
Geoffrey Household A Rough Shoot
Geoffrey Household Watcher in the Shadows
Sax Rohmer The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu
'Sapper' The Black Gang
'Sapper' Bulldog Drummond
'Sapper' The Final Count
'Sapper' The Third Round
Edgar Wallace The Four Just Men
Edgar Wallace The Mind of Mr J G Reeder
Dornford Yates Blind Corner
Dornford Yates Blood Royal
Dornford Yates Perishable Goods
Dornford Yates She Fell Among Thieves
Traitor's Purse is one of Margery Allingham's novels about her detective hero Mr. Campion. Apparently Peter Davison starred as Campion in a 1989-90 TV show. The 1956 British film Tiger in the Smoke, based on another of her novels, has good points. The "smoke" of the title is the thick London smog that once was.
Eric Ambler's works include Journey into Fear. A very stylish film version of this starring Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles appeared in 1943. Another good film based on an Ambler novel is Topkapi (1964), from The Light of Day. Ambler also wrote the screenplays to the very amusing Highly Dangerous (1950), starring Margaret Lockwood, and the 1958 Titanic film A Night to Remember.
Nicholas Blake was the poet Cecil Day-Lewis.
John Buchan's most famous works are his Richard Hannay novels, the first of which was The Thirty-Nine Steps. In the 30s Buchan became Governor-General of Canada.
Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands, first published in 1903, was a big hit in its day. The story was written to warn Britain against the threat posted by Germany. Childers later became an Irish nationalist, and was executed by the Irish Free State authorities during the Irish Civil War. Michael York starred in a 1979 film version of the novel.
In The Prisoner of Zenda the English double of the king of the fictional country of Ruritania replaces the king when he is kidnapped. The book has been filmed a number of times; the 1937 version, starring Ronald Colman, is terrific. Parodies/homages of the story include the King of Caronia episodes of Get Smart, the Potzdorf section of The Great Race (1965), and the Doctor Who serial "The Androids of Tara". Possibly you could also count Robert Heinlein's novel Double Star.
Geoffrey Household's most famous novel is probably Rogue Male. Fritz Lang directed a 1941 film version titled Man Hunt, starring Walter Pidgeon.
The four 'Sapper' books are the first four Bulldog Drummond novels, here in alphabetical order rather than order of publication.
The Four Just Men was Edgar Wallace's first novel. He advertised it with a competition challenging readers to figure out the solution to the novel's climactic mystery that left him bankrupt when too many people did so and were eligible for prizes. He went on to be one of the most popular authors of his day. He died while working on the script for King Kong.
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