This story introduced G-8’s foe Dr Todini.
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.
85. RED SKIES FOR THE SQUADRONS OF SATAN (October 1940) – G-8’s foe Firehammer is back! It turns out the villain survived his previous encounter with our heroes and, once again operating out of his base on the Moselle River, has constructed a new and improved version of his lightning machine.
Firehammer’s lightning machines have no connection to the lightning cannons and handguns created by the German Dr Geinor in The Damned Will Fly Again, but you’d think Robert J Hogan would have just used Firehammer again in that story since Geinor was pretty unmemorable.
This time Firehammer has combined his lightning weapon with the engine of a massive aircraft in such a way that the device powers the plane while simultaneously generating additional electricity. That additional electricity can be discharged as lightning against Allied planes or the helpless ground troops below. Continue reading
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