Balladeer’s Blog resumes its look at 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 super-natural 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, his two Battle Aces.
100. WINGS OF THE GRAY PHANTOM (October 1942) – Yes, it’s the 100th issue of the G-8 Pulp magazine! An old foe – Mr Matsu – returns for the occassion. As a quick reminder to people unfamiliar with World War One during THAT war Japan was on the side of the Allied Powers, not the Central Powers.
The Japanese Mr Matsu is a traitor who took his scientific inventions to the Central Powers because they offered him more money than his native Japan did. This time around Matsu’s come up with a way of making fighter planes virtually invisible.
These Gray Phantoms are mowing down Allied planes at an incredible rate and as always it’s up to G-8, Bull and Nippy to find a way of defeating Mr Matsu’s creations. G-8 manages to steal a helmet that enables its wearer to see the Gray Phantoms, but will it be enough to turn the tide? Continue reading
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