Recently, a Balladeer’s Blog reader asked if I would compile a list of my “Best of” stories of the 1930s and 1940s pulp hero G-8 and his Battle Aces. That idea makes perfect sense considering I reviewed all 110 book-length stories of this World War One flying ace who should be as big culturally as Doc Savage, Zorro, and so many other pulp icons.
Writer Robert J Hogan created the heroic American World War One pilot G-8 in 1933 when that conflict was still being called simply The World War or The Great War. G-8 and his wingmen/ Battle Aces Nippy Weston and Bull Martin battled all the supernatural and super-scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.
Giant robots, invisible planes, Panther-Men and even aliens were all in a day’s work for G-8 and his Battle Aces. Here are my Top G-8 stories, in descending order. NOTE: Pulp Magazines were not comic books, they were text stories with just a few illustrations here and there, so they were at a much higher level of storytelling.
THE BAT STAFFEL (October 1933) – The very first G-8 pulp novel is at the top of my list. Not only does it nicely capture the tone and nature of the series, but it introduces the villainous mad scientist Doktor Krueger. That Teutonic terror would become the archenemy of G-8, Bull Martin and Nippy Weston as the series of novels rolled along.
In Krueger’s initial clash with our heroic flying aces the great Herr Doktor’s dark genius has produced gigantic bats which are obedient enough for the Central Powers’ forces to pilot into battle. In addition to outfitting the bats with conventional weaponry, Doktor Krueger has designed the creatures to breathe incredibly poisonous gas. Continue reading
Len Kabasinski, the indie filmmaker behind such productions as Curse of the Wolf, Pact of Vengeance, Ninja: Prophecy of Death and many more, was kind enough to drop by Balladeer’s Blog and add his thoughts about the late Leo Fong.
INSTANT CLASSIC – In this game the BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE (Wisconsin) BOBCATS did battle with the FORT SCOTT COLLEGE GREYHOUNDS. 
LIKE I WAS SAYING ABOVE … – At the other end of the spectrum came this very lopsided affair between the defending champions – the FLORIDA GATEWAY COLLEGE TIMBERWOLVES – and the PASCO-HERNANDEZ STATE BOBCATS. 
ACTION COMICS Vol 1 #1 (June 1938) 
Superman takes down a wife-beater, saves Lois Lane from horny gangsters and clears a woman falsely convicted of murder by tying up the real killer – and even smashing his way into the governor’s mansion to make him call off her imminent execution. 
L’INFERNO (1911) – This 71-minute movie was an adaptation of Dante’s epic poem Inferno, one-third of his Divine Comedy along with Purgatorio and Paradiso. It was also Italy’s first feature-length film, beating Cabiria to theaters by three years. 
Second, L’Inferno has a certain grandeur from being filmed in Italy itself, the home of Dante Alighieri and his guide through Hell, Virgil. And third, nearly all of the footage set in the realm of the damned was filmed amid extinct and semi-extinct volcanoes in Italy, adding immeasurably to the infernal atmosphere. 
A DEMIGOD (1886) – Written by American author Edward Payson Jackson, this work preceded Philip Wylie’s Gladiator by more than 4 decades. 
FRANCOIS VILLON PART FIVE – We left off last time with Villon on the run again, having fled Paris after the Navarre College job in which he and his fellows robbed a record amount of gold for the time period. 
From early 1457 and for a few years more, Villon continued his outlaw existence in and around the French province of Anjou and the Loire River Valley. Depending on the source, Francois either officially became a member of the criminal fraternity called the Coquillards at this time or was already a member and deepened his ties to them. 
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