Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the neglected Pulp Hero G-8. This is a story-by- story look at the adventures of this World War One American fighter pilot who – along with his two wingmen the Battle Aces – took on various supernatural and super- scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.
G-8 was created by Robert J Hogan in 1933 when World War One was still being called simply the World War or the Great War. Over the next eleven years Hogan wrote 110 stories featuring the adventures of G-8, the street-smart pug Nippy Weston and the brawny giant Bull Martin. The regular cast was rounded out by our hero’s archenemy Doktor Krueger, by Battle, G-8’s British manservant and by our hero’s girlfriend R-1: an American spy/ nurse whose real name, like G-8’s was never revealed.
55. THE BLACK ACES OF DOOM (April 1938) – Doktor Krueger is back! This landmark tale presented another of the supervillain team-ups that the later G-8 tales were noted for. This time around Krueger joined forces with the elusive master assassin Herr Geist (“Mr Ghost”).
In their previous encounter G-8 eliminated all of Geist’s Gray Ghosts of the Skies, his band of specialized assassins. Doktor Krueger supplies his new ally with a host of men outfitted with bizarre high-tech black body armor. These Black Aces of Doom take to the skies armed with Krueger’s futuristic weaponry and boasting exotic training in the arts of murder provided by Herr Geist himself. Continue reading
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