This year the Frontierado Holiday hits on Friday, August 1st. As always, the event celebrates the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Last year I reviewed the very first Deadwood Dick Dime Novel, so this year I’m tackling the second.
WHO IS DEADWOOD DICK? For newbies to Dime Novels of the American West, let me recap. This character, whose name is practically synonymous with Dime Novels, was created in 1877 by prolific writer Edward L. Wheeler, who also created various FEMALE Dime Novel figures that I’ve reviewed in the past, like Hurricane Nell, the Denver Doll, Baltimore Bess and Cinnamon Chip.
As his name implies, the masked Deadwood Dick operated in and around Deadwood and the Black Hills region. He was a notorious outlaw/ road agent who led a band of masked followers in assorted robberies. Deadwood Dick was embedded in the American consciousness decades before Zorro, who didn’t debut until 1919, and the Lone Ranger, who came along in the 1930s.
THE DOUBLE DAGGERS or DEADWOOD DICK’S DEFIANCE (December 21st, 1877) – This hero’s tales were republished over and over again into the early 20th Century, so readers will encounter references to this book supposedly being published years later than this.
As this story begins, it is a few months after the conclusion of Deadwood Dick’s previous 1877 adventure. Our masked bandit and his gang continue to plunder gold shipments, stagecoach cargoes and mine payrolls throughout the busy Black Hills goldfields, then fade into the landscape.
Traditional lawmen and even the U.S. Cavalry failed to curtail Deadwood Dick’s prairie pirate/ Robin Hood escapades last time around. Now, however, a deadly outfit of specialists called the Deadwood Regulators have been leaning on outlaw activity in the Black Hills. Continue reading
KAPITAN MORS DER LUFTPIRAT – From 1908 to 1911 the masked Captain Mors, a combination of Robin Hood, Captain Nemo and Robur, appeared in weekly adventures running 32-33 pages. The character’s creator is not known but over his 3-year run various writers were linked to this German series, which was basically a late Dime Novel but early Pulp Magazine. 
After the initial run of 3 years and a few months, the Captain Mors stories were reprinted around Europe in various languages until 1916. The good captain at first adventured in the skies above, then later took his crew to other planets aboard his “world ship” (which we today would call a spaceship) the Meteor. 
DEADWOOD DICK – In general, the Dime Novel period of westerns, detective, science fiction and horror tales lasted from 1860 to around 1919 or the early 1920s. Pulp magazines took over from there. Many Dime Novels were very loosely based on real-life figures like Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and others. Many more were purely fictional, like Deadwood Dick. 
THE DENVER DOLL – The annual Frontierado Holiday will be tomorrow, Friday August 4th. Here is yet another seasonal post while there is still time. 
DENVER DOLL, THE DETECTIVE QUEEN; or YANKEE EISLER’S BIG SURROUND (November 14th, 1882) – In this debut appearance, the Denver Doll’s two fisted, gunslinging, card playing, crimefighting nature is established, along with her mysterious past. The heroine’s secrets aren’t revealed until her fourth and final tale. 
ROSEBUD ROB, BALTIMORE BESS AND CINNAMON CHIP – Here’s another seasonal post for the upcoming Frontierado holiday on Friday August 4th. As always, Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. 
ROSEBUD ROB … the KNIGHT OF THE GULCH (February 1879) – Rosebud Rob was a Wild West detective, like the real-life Charley Siringo (covered 
HURRICANE NELL, THE GIRL DEAD-SHOT (1877) – Written by Edward L. Wheeler. This blog post is dedicated to the prolific author and fellow blogger 
That brings us back to Hurricane Nell, the Girl Dead-Shot, also known as Hurricane Nell, the Queen of the Saddle and Lasso, and, in a misleading re-titling, as Bob Woolf, the Border Ruffian. (NOT three separate books.) Though published in May of 1877, Nell’s adventures were set earlier in the 1800s than most of the other big-name heroines of Dime Novels, so I am starting with her and will move on to the others in the next few weeks. 
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