Category Archives: Pulp Heroes

February 23, 2013 · 1:39 am

PULP HEROES – THE MOON MAN: STORIES 19-21

Moon ManI’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic pistol plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals –  both white collar and blue collar – and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

19. BADGE OF BLOOD – No, not Blood On The Badge, Badge of Blood. We are at the mid-way point of the Moon Man’s adventures, with 19 tales down and 19 to go! The opening teaser in this story finds our hero and his sidekick Angel burgling the mansion of tycoon Van Zant Latham. No that’s NOT a typo, and yes, the Moon Man succeeds, making off with jewelry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars IN 1930’s MONEY! Unfortunately during their escape Continue reading →

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February 2, 2013 · 7:39 pm

PULP HEROES – THE MOON MAN: STORIES 16-18

Moon ManI’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic pistol plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

16. FINGERS OF FEAR – The Moon Man raids an illegal casino where Great City’s wealthiest citizens indulge their gambling habit. Before he can lay his hands on the casino’s several-thousand dollar haul for the night the cops raid the place and he barely escapes himself. Meanwhile, Thayer Barron, a bloated rich pig, uses his financial hold on Great City’s Police Commissioner Mead and forces him to fire Lt Gil McEwen. The excuse given for the firing is McEwen’s failure to capture the Moon Man after all this time, but the real reason is Continue reading →

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January 23, 2013 · 11:54 pm

PULP HEROES – THE MOON MAN: STORIES 13-15

moon manI’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic pistol plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

13. THE MURDER MASTER – The Moon Man robs the box office of Great City’s New Community Theatre while his alter ego’s fiancee, Sue McEwen, is performing on stage in a play titled The Perfect Murder. During the confusion caused by our hero’s escape from the police’s attempts to collar him Sue is framed for the murder of a costar. Lt Gil McEwen must arrest his own daughter, who Continue reading →

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October 29, 2011 · 5:15 am

THE TOP FOUR SILVER JOHN STORIES FOR HALLOWEEN

 Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will recognize Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John from my Pulp Heroes page. Silver John, so- named because of the silver strings on his guitar and the silver coins he carried in his pockets, roamed the Appalachian Mountains decades ago combating dark supernatural menaces. On my Pulp Heroes page I’ve done a synopsis for each of the short stories featuring this neglected character, but this post will simply list the four tales most appropriate for Halloween.

4. THE LITTLE BLACK TRAIN – While performing with other musicians at a wealthy Southern Belle’s outdoor celebration Silver John finds himself trying to save his alluring but wicked hostess from losing her life to a ghostly train. That pitch- black train with coffin- shaped boxcars runs only at midnight on just one night a year to run down and take the life of a designated sinner … And she’s slated to be this year’s victim.

3. CAN THESE BONES LIVE? – Our wandering balladeer encounters an odd funeral procession of mountain folk burying an extraordinarily large skeleton they’ve Continue reading →

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September 16, 2011 · 4:01 am

PULP HEROES: THE MOON MAN – STORIES 10-12

I’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

10. CRIMSON SHACKLES – With the death of their leader Primus in the previous Moon Man story, the Red Six is now the Red Five, with their second in command, Secundus, the criminal organization’s new leader. The red-masked gang and their black-masked and blackmailed underlings, most of them pillars of the community with something to hide, pull off a daring robbery of Great City’s Van Ormond Museum.

In addition to looting the museum of all the valuable art and relics they could carry in this commando- style raid, the Red Five capture Stephen Thatcher when he and the rest of Great City’s police force give chase. Secundus reveals to Stephen that before Primus’ death he had stolen the evidence proving that Thatcher is really the Moon Man. Once again Stephen is forced to don his Moon Man costume and Argus glass helmet and pose as the field commander of the Red Five.

As the Moon Man and his assistant Angel conspire to once again foil the gang’s next caper from behind the scenes Secundus shows our hero he means business by exposing Stephen Thatcher’s dual identity to Continue reading →

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September 10, 2011 · 5:12 am

PULP HEROES: THE MOON MAN – STORIES 7-9

I’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

7. MURDER MOON – A pack of crooks pulls off a daring robbery, stealing twelve thousand dollars (in 1930’s money) from Great City’s ritzy Continental Theater, only to have the loot stolen in turn from them by the Moon Man. Our hero wants his assistant Angel to relay the money to a ghetto clinic in order to keep it from folding. Rav Corsi, the boss of the gangsters who had their booty stolen by the Moon Man, feels the law closing in on him for related crimes and hatches a bold scheme to get the cops off his back. He and his henchmen plan to capture the Moon Man and turn him over to the police in exchange for immunity. To that end they stalk and capture Angel, torture him with a soldering iron and Continue reading →

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September 3, 2011 · 2:18 am

PULP HEROES: THE MOON MAN – STORIES 4-6

I’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with an automatic plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

4. THE SILVER SECRET – While distributing money from our hero’s latest theft from a wealthy crime figure, the Moon Man’s assistant Ned “Angel” Dargan discovers a man killed by the mob running Great City’s rackets and political circles. The brutal means of execution was a bear trap planted in the man’s bed- pillows (that’s gotta hurt). Angel is knocked unconscious and left to take the rap and the victim turns out to be a former District Attorney destroyed by the criminal powers-that- be in Great City.  The victim had compiled incriminating evidence on the big names in the city’s corrupt machine, including the Continue reading →

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August 24, 2011 · 10:51 pm

PULP HEROES: THE MOON MAN – STORIES 1-3

I’m continuing my look at Frederick C Davis’ pulp hero the Moon Man. In reality police detective Stephen Thatcher, the Moon Man stalked the night-darkened streets of fictional Great City (“Great City ya got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it …”) clad in his black costume and his helmet made of one-way Argus glass. Armed with a revolver plus limitless courage and ingenuity the Moon Man captured or killed Great City’s most dangerous criminals (white collar and blue collar) and robbed them of their ill-gotten booty. He would then distribute that money to the city’s Great Depression-ravaged poor. ( “Great Depression ya got here … it’d be a shame if – ” oh, forget it!) All this made him hunted by both the crooks AND the cops. For more on the Moon Man and other neglected pulp heroes click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

1. THE SINISTER SPHERE – This initial story of our urban Robin Hood nicely establishes all the whys and wherefores of the Moon Man universe. In the opening, set in June of 1933, our hero robs the mansion of white-collar criminal Martin Richmond. The press and politicians of Great City are pressuring the police force to end the Moon Man’s months-long “crime spree”. MM’s alter ego, Detective Stephen Thatcher pretends he’s Continue reading →

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July 18, 2011 · 11:23 pm

PULP HEROES: THE MOON MAN

The Moon Man

The Moon Man

THE MOON MAN – Created by Frederick C Davis, the Moon Man is, to me, the epitome of the campy but fascinating heroes the old pulp publications used to treat readers to, issue after issue. Operating in fictional Great City, the Moon Man not only waged war on the ruthless representatives of the criminal element, he also plundered their ill-gotten wealth from them and distributed it to the Great Depression-ravaged poor of the 1930s.

This not only made the hero a combination of the best elements of the Shadow and Robin Hood, but it also gave him a healthy dose of “Green Hornet appeal”, too, because, like the Hornet, the Moon Man was hunted by both the crooks AND the cops, doubling the danger for the Continue reading →

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July 12, 2011 · 4:51 pm

PULP HEROES: THE FINAL TWO SILVER JOHN SHORT STORIES

I’m continuing my look at Manly Wade Wellman’s pulp hero Silver John, the roaming singer and guitarist who fights supernatural forces in the Appalachian Mountains of long ago, sort of like a countrified Orpheus meets Kolchak. He’s called Silver John because of the silver strings on his guitar and the silver coins he carries in his pockets. For more details click here: https://glitternight.com/pulp-heroes/

SIN’S DOORWAY – This story takes place when Silver John is much younger and in fact hasn’t even begun using silver guitar strings yet. For anyone wondering how he would do against supernatural menaces without silver implements this is your chance to see our hero improvise. Anyway, this tale features a younger and less experienced John dodging corrupt southern lawmen and winding up getting lost in the wilderness. He’s nearly starved by the time he finds a town and arrives just in time for  Continue reading →

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