Resident Evil #2 - Caliban Cove

Back in 2022, I read and reviewed the first of a seven-book series of Resident Evil media tie-in paperbacks, The Umbrella Conspiracy. This series was authored by S.D. Perry and published between 1998 and 2004. I caught the trailer for the new Resident Evil film the other day and remembered how much I enjoyed reading that debut and wanted to return to the series. After reading my review of the first novel, I continued with its sequel, Caliban Cove. 

The book picks up just a few days after the events in The Umbrella Conspiracy. Essentially, this takes place between the Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 games. However, if you are a diehard gamer, this book won't have anything to do with the alternate events that happen in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. These books stand alone and really are a completely different “universe” than the movies or games. 

The S.T.A.R.S. team that miraculously survived the Spencer Estate is on suspension while an investigation ensues. But, as readers know, the whole operation is crooked and operated by the Umbrella Corporation, a biohazard research facility responsible for the horror. The team members are basically rogue agents now, determined to fight Umbrella on their own.

Barry Burton takes over the S.T.A.R.S. team and learns of a secret Umbrella Corporation facility in rural Maine that may be developing biohazard weaponry. Determined to retrieve evidence, Barry wants the team to fly in and handle it. The team will be led by Barry and involves protagonist Rebecca Chambers, one of the heroes of the prior novel. They are accompanied by a shadowy S.T.A.R.S. Captain named Trapp, a member of the New York team, and a few of his agents. 

Before this team-commando unit gets to Maine, there's an intense firefight in the suburbs as the heroes are targeted for execution by Umbrella's hit squad. This is one of the better gun battles I've read in an action-adventure paperback. Fans of Gold Eagle-era action will love these pages. After the fight, the team arrives on the Maine coastline to infiltrate the terrifying research station. This is where the bulk of the paperback lands.

Through various buildings, dark hallways, sinister labs, and the surrounding seaside foliage, the team investigates what's happening behind these closed doors. Along the way, there's treachery, zombie soldiers, monsters, and intrigue. Additionally, there's some strife within the team and a focus on one particular member, Karen, and her history and background with S.T.A.R.S.

In terms of a fun, over-the-top action-adventure paperback, Caliban Cove delivers grandly. It's a team-commando book brimming over with firefights and fisticuffs. Obviously, there's the survival horror aspect, but for the most part this novel really works like any 80s staple – Able Team, Phoenix Force, Hard Corps, etc. If you like that stuff, then you'll love this book as well. Pick up a copy HERE.

Psycho

Robert Bloch's seminal bestseller was Psycho, a 1959 hardcover first published by Simon & Schuster. It debuted in paperback in 1960 as a Crest Book, an imprint of Fawcett. Within its first few years of publication, the book was printed in six editions, including a movie tie-in version for Alfred Hitchcock's classic in 1960. The book spurred film sequels, but Bloch wrote his own sequels to the book – 1982's Psycho II and 1990's Psycho House. There was also a TV prequel show titled Bates Motel (2013-2017), a fan-favorite that visualized the origin of the book's protagonist, Norman Bates.

Unlike the film, Norman is really the protagonist of the novel. He's overweight, struggles with his childhood traumas, and talks to his mother. He runs a roadside motel in rural California that has seen its better days. His boring day-to-day changes when a new guest arrives, Marion Crane.

Readers learn about Marion's dilemma in Bloch's beautifully orchestrated setup. She met a man named Sam on a cruise, and the two of them want to get married. But, Sam, who runs a small hardware store, has looming debt and isn't in a position to take on the financial responsibility a marriage requires. Marion works for a real estate company that has just finished a large property sale. She's asked to drop $40,000 at the local bank. Instead, she takes this as a perfect invitation to take the money and run. She plans on driving across the country to Sam's place to present him with a fake story about inheriting money from a deceased relative.

Weary from the road, Marion checks in to the Bates Motel...but doesn't check out. This dinner scene and Norman's fixation on the woman develop into one of the most iconic scenes in horror history. Like the film version, this shower scene is excellent, albeit a little different – Marion is eviscerated and decapitated in Bloch's version. 

Marion's disappearance leads to an insurance investigator, Arbogast, arriving at Sam's store. By this time, Marion's sister Lila has also arrived to inquire about her sister's absence. Together, the three of them team up to learn more about Marion's trip to the motel and the outcome. 

It is hard to read a classic like this after seeing the film adaptation numerous times. I often asked myself when I would catch the twist if I had read the book first, with no prior intel on Bates and his mother. Like many readers' experiences of the time, I'm sure the novel would have blown my mind as well. This is a masterful storytelling experience that incorporates everything I love about noir fiction – a heist, criminals on the run, a suspenseful locale, a driven detective, ordinary people pushed into extraordinary circumstances, and, of course, a heinous bad guy. At about the halfway point, I began pushing Anthony Perkins' on-screen portrayal of Norman out of my mind, replaced by a different image that more closely aligned with the book – an obese, drinking man with a more aggressive nature. 

I think this book, and to a lesser extent John D. MacDonald's 1960 paperback, The End of the Night, propelled violence and human horror into new heights. These books helped define modern horror as both authors were on the cusp of revealing the psychotic tendencies that would re-appear nine years later with the Manson Family murders, although the Ed Gein murders of the 1940s and 1950s had a spectacular impact on Bloch's novel. Like what Mickey Spillane accomplished in the late 1940s – more violence, anti-heroes, a dark progression of the cookie-cutter pulp – Bloch is able to replicate this in terms of suspense and horror. Psycho is the catalyst for “stalk 'n slash”.   

Regardless of whether you've watched Hitchcock's film or not, this book deserves to be read again...and again. Highest possible recommendation. Do yourself a favor and read this book!

Get it HERE.

A-Team #01 - The A-Team

There are distant echoes of a marital dispute that can still be heard today in Florida. It emanates from a lone parking lot in Jacksonville, adjacent to a 2nd and Charles retail store. The legendary disagreement stemmed from an argument with my wife over what she perceived as an overabundance of A-Team paperbacks stuffing shelves in book stores, flea market tables, yard sale boxes, and library sales. Maybe she was right. Maybe there are millions upon millions of A-Team paperbacks littering the planetary surface. Sure. However, to this day, I think she was confusing the A-Team with another similar-sounding title, Able Team. The Los Angeles Times reported in 1987 that Gold Eagle had shipped over 500 million paperbacks across five men's action-adventure series titles they published – one of which was Able Team. 

A-Team. Able Team. Ovaltine? We'll never know. 

Like every kid in the 1980s, I watched my share of NBC's successful television series the A-Team. It aired between 1983 and 1987 and was created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo. The original concept was to simply find a television series for Mr. T, an upcoming megastar that had already appeared in Rocky 3 as Rocky Balboa's fierce opponent (and catalyst for Mickey's terminal heart attack!). The A-Team was the perfect fit for Mr. T to shine as the angry Bosco B.A. Baracus. 

You can journey down any pop culture rabbit hole and learn more about the A-Team on screen, in the cinema, and the various licensed merchandise that dominated everything from toys and comics to lunch boxes and birthday balloons. The concept was an adventure-of-the-week where a four-man team of soldiers of fortune, wanted by the U.S. government as fugitives from the Vietnam War, travel around the globe, with a female journalist, fighting heroically for the people while collecting money from paying clients, although if memory serves me, it was often as a favor.

Where I'm involved in this show is at the book level. According to the trusty Wikipedia, there were 10 paperbacks printed between 1984 to 1986. Only the first six were printed in the U.S., courtesy of Dell. In England, all 10 books were published by Target. These books were mostly published as paperbacks, although a small number appear in hardcover. Charles Heath was the house name used by authors Ron Renauld, who wrote the first five installments, as well as seven and eight. Louis Chunovic wrote the fifth novel, David George Deutsch wrote the ninth, and Doris Meredith wrote the last.

My first experience with the book is the debut, the eponymous A-Team. It was based on the show's pilot episode, “Mexican Slayride”, which aired on January 23, 1983. In the book's opening pages, a California journalist named Al Massey is in a Mexican town doing a story on drug runners. The cartel's leader, a stereotypical villain named Valdez, captures Massey when he attempts to leave town. Massey's colleague and friend, journalist Amy Allen, learns of Massey's disappearance and wants to investigate. She discovers a mysterious team of mercenaries called the A-Team.

Renauld's narrative reads more like the episode's script. There are very few occasions that anything different from the TV episode sneaks in, and that's okay. It is an entertaining read as Renauld learns of the A-Team's enchanting aura, and goes about hunting down clues to their whereabouts. This leads to the introduction of Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, an actor at Universal Studios who leads the team. Next, Amy meets up with the handsome face of the team, Templeton Peck. Through a sequence of events, readers meet the star of the show, “Howling Mad” Murdock, the team's pilot, and B.A. Baracus, the resident tough guy fixer. 

The team flies to Mexico and coordinates a series of tricks that make the local authorities believe they are an international film production company. I always felt that the Three Amigos (1986) comedic western film borrowed the general idea from this A-Team pilot episode. But what do I know? As usual, the good guys fight the bad guys in a small Mexican town – it's an old fashioned, formulated western tale told in a modern way. The team is always mindful of actually killing anyone, so they go to great lengths to avoid murdering any of these bad guys. If blowing away the enemy is your thing, the A-Team isn't those guys. They had more in common with G.I. Joe than The Five Fingers. 

The A-Team is an entertaining, completely unnecessary paperback. The entire series consists of  episode novelizations except the sixth, which may have been an original novel based on the Fog of War blog. Depending on your love of the show may measure how much you need these 180-page paperbacks. Get them HERE.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Mack Bolan

In March of 1969, Pinnacle published a paperback titled War Against the Mafia. It was written by Don Pendleton (1927-1995), a U.S. Navy veteran who entered World War II at the age of 14. The novel became a success for Pinnacle/Pendleton, eventually earning literary prominence as a major catalyst for men's action-adventure paperbacks. Don Pendleton's 170-page vigilante yarn spawned a character universe that grew to a staggering 900 books across multiple publishers, authors, and titles.

The fifth podcast episode explored Bolan's publishing world, and numerous reviews exist here at Paperback Warrior covering the series. However, many readers new to the character may prefer a brief outline of the series. That's the point of this article, a Paperback Warrior Primer on this shifting, gritty, and violent experience known as The Executioner.

Mack Bolan's origin begins with Don Pendleton. As I alluded to earlier, he served in the U.S. Navy during WW2. Additionally, he served in the Korean War before becoming an air traffic controller for the FAA and an engineering administrator at NASA. Pendleton turned to writing at the age of 40.

In War Against the Mafia, the essential origin tale, readers are introduced to 30-yr-old Bolan. He's a U.S. Army Master Sergeant serving a second tour of duty in the Vietnam War. With 12 years of military service, he's a skilled sniper, holding an official record of killing 32 high-ranking North Vietnamese and 63 Viet Cong leaders. Bolan and his mother Elsa, communicate twice a week and she sends him care packages. Bolan's father is Sam, a steel worker he respects “as indestructible as the steel he made.” Bolan's two siblings are 17-yr-old Cindy and 14-yr-old Johnny. 

Elsa explains in a letter that Sam had a heart attack, and, due to lost wages, the family was in a financial bind. On a fateful day in August, Bolan is summoned to the base camp chaplain's office, where he's informed that his parents and sister are dead and his brother is in critical condition. On emergency leave, Bolan arrives stateside and learns about events leading to their deaths.

Sam borrowed money from a mob-run loan shark. Despite paying off the loan with interest, the mob puts the squeeze on Sam and requires him to endlessly pay them money. Under the financial stress, Sam cracks and fatally shoots his wife and daughter in a murder suicide. Johnny is critically wounded in the exchange.

There are a number of iconic and pivotal moments in the Mack Bolan universe, but in my opinion, none compare to the first sequence of events in Bolan's vigilance. The character purchases a Marlin .444 rifle, camps in front of the loan shark office, then shoots and kills five of the corrupt employees, thus setting off a violent rampage that will become his way of life for decades. He declares his mantra in War Against the Mafia:

"Life is a competition, and I am a competitor. I have the tools and the skills, and I must accept the responsibilities. I will fight the battle, spill the blood, smear myself with it, and stand at the bar of judgment to be crushed and chewed and ingested by those I serve. It is the way of the world. It is the ultimate disposition. Stand ready, Mafiosi, The Executioner is here."

By most standards, the first four installments are considered the essential building blocks of The Executioner series - #2 Death Squad, #3 Battle Mask, #4 Miami Massacre. After 15 novels, Pendleton and Pinnacle experience a dispute and the publisher releases the 16th novel, Sicilian Slaughter, without Pendleton's involvement, instead settling on William Crawford's writing (using the name Jim Peterson). Pendleton returned to the series with the 17th installment, ignoring events that transpired in Crawford's book.

37 of the first 38 The Executioner novels were all written by Don Pendleton and considered the "Mafia Wars" story arc. The covers for many of these novels were painted by Gil Cohen, who began working with Pinnacle on the title with the 11th installment, California Hit (1972). The publisher was so impressed with Cohen's paintings that they had him paint covers for reprints of the series' first ten installments. Cohen would continue painting over 100 Bolan novels and companions, making his name nearly synonymous with that of Mack Bolan. Men's Adventure Library, published by New Texture, offers an amazing collection of Cohen's Mack Bolan artwork titled One Man Army: The Action Paperback Art of Gil Cohen. Get the book HERE.

There's a 1977 stand-alone companion piece called Executioner War Book. According to Linda Pendleton, it was a collaborative effort stemming from Pinnacle Editorial featuring Stephen Mertz, Mike Newton, Don Pendleton's son Greg and daughter Melinda doing the research and putting the book together. The book has some letters written by fans to the author as well as drawings of Bolan's battle van and firearms. 

After the 38th novel, Satan's Sabbath, there is a major shake-up with Bolan and the publisher.

Pendleton, who grew complacent with the Mack Bolan character, sold the licensing rights to the Harlequin publishing group. Under Harlequin's Gold Eagle brand, the series continued as The Executioner, but utilized bold fonts stating Mack Bolan on the paperback covers. The iconic face of Bolan at the top of each book was replaced with a small circular font that stated The Executioner and the series installment number. 

The first paperback of this new enterprise was #39 The New War (1981), the second book of the series to be written by someone other than Don Pendleton. Gold Eagle's investment in the series brought a rotating assembly of writers who would utilize Pendleton's name. However, Pendleton was adamant about listing the writer of the books on the inside copyright page, a feat that isn't often used in the cutthroat paperback publishing business of that era.

With The New War, the character and premise of the series changed. After 38 novels of Bolan fighting the Mob, this new 80s decade warranted a different type of enemy. Global terrorism began making headlines in the 1970s, spurred by horrific events like the “Black September” Munich massacre, and rising organizations at the time consisting of the Japanese Red Army, the Symbionese Liberartion Army, and the Weather Underground.

In The New War, readers learn that Bolan, once a fugitive wanted by the F.B.I. and C.I.A., is now working for the U.S. government to combat global terrorism and international crime. Mack Bolan's new name is John Macklin Phoenix and his headquarters is a covert operation in Virginia called Stony Man.

The Executioner would run from 1981 through 2020 with a total of 464 installments authored by a variety of writers. The most respected of the series' writers was Stephen Mertz, although Mike Newton, Dan Schmidt, Jerry VanCook, Chuck Rogers, and Mike McQuay wrote the majority of the series, collectively 181 total installments. 

The other major changes and additions that began after The New War included an expansion of The Executioner title. Because of the many allies that serve Stony Man and Bolan, Gold Eagle took the opportunity to launch companion titles.  

Collaborating with Gold Eagle, Don Pendleton created the titles Able Team and Phoenix Force and “helped” write the series debut installments. Able Team consists of allies previously seen in Death Mask and Bolan's California infiltrations. The title ran 51 installments and two Super Able Team novels, using rotating authors using the house name Dick Stivers. Phoenix Force consists of international special operatives hand-selected by Bolan. The title ran 51 installments and four Super Phoenix Force special editions. The series was written by rotating authors using the name Gar Wilson.

Both of these titles were featured in a giant crossover of Bolan and allies in the 1983 novel Stony Man Doctrine. This impressive “giant-sized” novel served a couple of purposes. 

First, it was the first of the Super Bolan paperbacks published by Gold Eagle. These were double the size of the The Executioner books and had a higher price tag of $3.95. These Super Bolan novels worked in the same fashion as the standard The Executioner title and featured a revolving door of authors. 

Second, Stony Man Doctrine also served as the first of the Stony Man books, a series that would take off in 1991 after Able Team and Phoenix Force stopped publication. Stony Man combined both of the teams with other Bolan allies for a massive 140-book run through 2015. The start of the series in the early 90s also paralleled a marketing change for men's action-adventure novels – a shift to more epic, technical thrillers that honed in on the Tom Clancy marketplace share. Covers featuring good guys with guns morphed into generic covers of satellites, military installations, and fighter jets. 

In addition to paperbacks, there are four issues of the short-lived The Executioner Mystery Magazine (Ackerman Productions), a 1993 four-issue comic adaptation of War Against the Mafia (Innovation Publishing), a 1996 black-and-white comic adaptation of Death Squad (Vivid Comics), and a 2008 five-issue comic titled Don Pendleton's The Executioner: The Devil's Tool (IDW). 

There's no denying that Marvel Comics' The Punisher is a direct descendant of the Bolan character and series. In June of 1993, Advance Comics interviewed Don Pendleton about the comparisons between The Punisher and The Executioner. In it, Pendleton says, “Let's just say The Punisher has taken a lot of liberties with my work. Anyone who knows the history of The Executioner has known that all along. I elected many years ago to just let it pass, feeling that there is room for both of us in the industry.”

Audio books exist on cassette through DH Audio and Books in Motion. Cutting Edge Audio published The Executioner and Stony Man novels between 2004-2006.

You can get most of the Mack Bolan universe using this LINK.

Paperback Warrior Primer - George Harmon Coxe

New York native George Harmon Coxe (1901-1984) was a journalist, prolific pulp writer, and novelist. He served as the president of the Mystery Writers of America and he won the Grand Master Award. Unfortunately, his name and literary work have drifted into the passages of time and remains largely forgotten. I chronicled his life on a podcast feature HERE. But, I wanted to provide a Paperback Warrior Primer for those of you wanting a text profile. So, let's take a look at George Harmon Coxe.

Coxe (pronounced like “cokes”) was born in New York in 1901. He graduated high school at Elmire Free Academy. He attended Purdue for one year following his graduation and shifted his curriculum from engineering to literature. He also changed schools to Cornell University. For five years, beginning in 1922, he was a journalist for the Los Angeles Express, the Utica Observer Dispatch, and Santa Monica Outlook among others. 

Coxe was an admirer of pulp fiction. While performing his day job in 1922 - at the age of 21 - Coxe authored two stories for Detective Story Magazine. In the 1930s, Coxe began writing for Street & Smith's Top-Notch before contributing to even more pulps like Clues All Star Detective Stories, Dime Mystery Book Magazine, Detective Fiction Weekly, Street & Smith's Complete Stories, Thrilling Detective, and Argosy. He wrote hundreds of stories from 1922 through 1972. 

In 1934, Coxe creates a newspaper photographer named Jack Flashgun Casey. There had been previous pulp appearances of newspaper reporters that worked as amateur detectives to solve crimes. But not a photographer in the role as an amateur detective. The March 1934 issue of Black Mask featured the first Jack Flashgun Casey story, "Return Engagement". Initially, Black Mask editor Joe Shaw had discouraged Coxe from creating a recurring character, but he later admitted that the character was so well constructed that the series soon became a reader favorite. 

There were 24 Flashgun Casey stories that appeared in Black Mask from 1934-1943. The only exception was a story in Star Weekly in 1962. The Black Mask stories were all collected in Flash Casey, Detective published in 1946 as an Avon paperback. In addition to the short stories, there were five novels starring Flashgun Casey between 1942 through 1964. Those were Silent for the Dead, Murder for Two, Error of Judgment, The Man Who Died Too Soon, and Deadly Image. Three of the Casey novels are available as reprints through Mysterious Press in both digital and physical copies HERE.

Additionally, a Here's Flash Casey film was released in 1938 and was adapted from the series of short stories. A well-respected, much-loved radio show was broadcast for years starring the character. Also, between 1951 through 1952 the series was adapted to a TV show titled Crime Photographer and starred Darren McGavin. 

Another pulp character that Coxe created is Paul Baron, a hard-boiled private detective that was assisted by a scrappy side kick named Buck O' Shea. Baron appeared in four stories in Black Mask in 1936. 

The next pulp character that Coxe created was Dr. Paul Standish. This character appeared in ten stories and one novel from 1942 to 1966. The stories appeared in glossy magazines like Cosmopolitan, Liberty, and the American Book Magazine. Standish is described as a medical examiner that delves into mysterious deaths. He is aided by a police lieutenant and a nurse secretary. In July, 1948, CBS ran a short-lived radio broadcast starring the character.  

The Kent Murdoch series is Coxe's most well-known title. Murdoch appeared in two stories in The American Magazine, but flourished in the full-length novels - both hardcover and paperback. The first Murdoch novel was Murder with Pictures, appearing in 1935. 22 more installments of the series followed through 1965. You can get most of these books, if not all, through Mysterious Press as reprints HERE.

In Paperback Confidential, Brian Ritt describes Kent Murdoch as being a smarter version of the Flashgun Casey series. Murdoch has a formal education, he's sophisticated and well-mannered. He's married to a woman named Joyce and they work as a team solving crimes in Boston's upper crust. In the Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes, Jess Nevins summarizes the character as a photographer for the Boston Courier-Herald. Because he is more intelligent than the police he can solve the crimes. However, many times he has to clear his own name after being accused of being a participant in the crime. Murdoch's wife Joyce plays a prominent role in the first six books and then disappears for the rest of the series. Murdoch also teams up with a hardboiled private-eye in this series named Jack Fenner. This Fenner sidekick would star in his own novels as well. 

Coxe, while succeeding with amateur detective characters, also had an official detective in Sam Crombie. Crombie appeared in two novels, The Frightened Fiancé and The Impetuous Mistress. Coxe's other official detective was Max Hale. He appeared in Murder for the Asking and The Lady is Afraid. Hale is a wealthy New Yorker who attended the State Police Academy and then just doesn't have any motivation to solve crimes. He is sort of roped into crime-solving by his secretary Sue Marshall. 

Coxe also wrote a number of stand-alone crime-fiction novels that were published by a variety of publishers in both hardcover and paperback. In the 1930s, Cox's writing had become so popular that MGM took notice. They employed Coxe between 1936 until 1938 to write screenplays. However, Coxe preferred writing books and stories. Three of Coxe's stories were adapted into films - Women are Trouble, Murder with Pictures, and Here's Flash Casey.

Coxe was elected to the President of the Mystery Writers of America in 1952 and won the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award in 1964. 

In the March 11, 1971 issue of The Island Packet, Eugene Able interviewed Coxe and he had this to say about his literary work and career:

“When you get my age and have written as many book and stories as I have, you have to be careful not to be repetitive. I like to write a book that has a good story with believable characters. If a reader figures out the mystery halfway through the book, I want the story to be good enough and the characters real enough to make them want to finish it. The trickier you get with your ending, the more you sacrifice the story.”

Coxe married Elizabeth Fowler in 1929 and was married to her until his death on January 31, 1984 in Old Lyme, Connecticut. They had two children. 

You can obtain vintage copies of his books HERE.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Sydney Horler

Depending who you talk with Sydney Horler (1888-1954) was historically good, average, or just a plain 'ole hack. He wrote 150 novels - at least - and countless stories and columns. He's known for a variety of spy and crime-fiction series titles like The Ace, Sir Mark Bellamy, Brett Carstairs, Bunny Chipstead, Sir Brian Fordinghame, Gerald Lissendale, Chief Constable Meatyard, Nighthawk, Sebastian Quin, Peter Scarlett, Tiger Standish, Baron Veseloffsky, Paul Vivanti, and Robert Wynnton. He also wrote horror and non-fiction books over the course of his prolific writing career. We offered a podcast episode about his life and literature HERE.

Sydney Horler was born in England in 1888. He was educated at Redcliffe and Colston Schools in Bristol and began professional writing in Fleet Street, first on the the Western Daily Press and on Daily Mail chronicling junior reporting assignments like police courts, inquests, and chapel meetings. He served in Air Intelligence in the propaganda section during World War I. After the war he was hired as sub-editor for John 'O London's Weekly before his employment was terminated in 1919. 

He became a novelist around 1915 with his first book being a western titled Standish of the Rangeland (1916). He didn't find success with the western and left that genre behind. It was during this time that Horler went to the short story market, used a pseudonym of J.O. Standish, and wrote a serial starring a character named Rex Harley called The Lightning Left. It ran from November 1919 through February 1920 in the pages of The Boys Realm. I wasn't able to obtain any info on this serial or character. I find it interesting that he used the pseudonym of Standish which was his western hero in his first book. He will use that name again with a future spy series. Before the year 1920 Holter had penned an additional 24 short stories for British magazines like Short Stories Illustrated, Chums, and The Grand Magazine. 

In the novel market, Horler followed Standish of the Rangeland with sports books like Goal! A Romance of the English Cup Ties, originally published in magazine form first. He wrote a crime novel called The Breed of the Beverleys in 1921. In a nonfiction book called London's Underworld, there is a newspaper article written by A.E Wilson from The Star serving as an introduction. In it, Wilson, who was friends with Horler from an early age, said, quote, "He progressed from boy's fiction to football fiction and from football fiction to the thriller." He also goes on to say, "It was only a few years ago that Edgar Wallace said to me very seriously: That fellow Horler is going to be a dangerous rival." Wilson continues and states that if Wallace lived it would have been interesting to watch the race in output and popularity.

Throughout Horler's career he is often described as being similar to Edgar Wallace. 

His writing career caught fire in 1925 with the crime novel book The Mystery of No. 1. It was published in the US as The Order of the Octopus and ran in the pages of Top-Notch Magazine in 1926. It is the first novel in a series that Horler launched launched starring a British Evil Genius named Paul Vinanti. In The Mystery of No. 1 Vivanti creates a villain supergroup called The Order of the Octopus with contains a Chinese man, a Count of Central Europe, and a woman described as extremely dangers and desired. Vivanti does all of the things that traditional villains do while attempting to build a criminal enterprise. Through the course of the series a British intelligence agent named Peter Foyle, who is also a statesman's nephew, is there to nix Vivanti's plans. The six Vivanti books were published from 1925 through 1945 and were the aforementioned The Mystery of No. 1, then Vivanti, The Worst Man in the World, Vivanti Returns, Lord of Terror, and Virux X. The series gets rave reviews while others seem to think it is just an average pulpy series of novels with cheap thrills. According to my sources the character also appears in at least one of three stories published as The Man Who Shook the Earth in 1933, an anthology of three stories. He also appeared in another of Horler's short story collections called The Screaming Skull, and Other Stories. The series can be described as a mixture of occult and super-science. 

Since he had luck in 1925 with a series, Horler decided to immediately write another. This one only lasted two books, False-Face in 1926 and Miss Mystery in 1928. Once again, the series stars a villain, a Russian secret agent named Baron Veseloffsky and the obligatory British secret agent as his foe, a guy named Sir Brian Fordinghame in the series debut. 

Horler liked the hero Sir Brian Fordinghame so he spun off of this series another three books featuring the character - The Murder Mask, High Stakes, and The Prince of Plunder. The four-book Brian Fordinghame series altogether features those books plus False-Face. Technically, this series can be labeled as published between 1913 and 1932.

Another character debuted in 1927 - Bunny Chipstead. He's a freelance British Secret Service agent which means he can choose which assignments he wants plus he can work both British and American assignments. There were four of these books running from 1927 through 1940 - In the Dark, Chipstead of the Lone Hand, The Secret Agent, and The Enemy within the Gates. 

Next was the Sebastian Quin series (not to be confused with popular author Seabury Quinn). Now Sebastian Quin appeared in three stories in 1925-1930. He is described as an occult detective, an enthusiast of the bizarre who has devoted his life to the study of crime in its most exotic and weird manifestations. He can Speak Chinese and another 17 foreign languages. What is interesting about him is that he isn't necessarily looking to stop a crime. He wants to learn what prompted the outrage to commit the crime. His assistant is a man named Martin Huish. The three story appearances exist but this character was the star of his own two-book series. The first novel was The Evil Messenger from 1938, followed by Fear Walked Behind in 1942. There is also a short story collection called The House in Greek Street that has a Sebastian Quin story reprinted from the magazines.

We're still in the 1920s and Horler is creating characters and series titles, but still filling the void with stand alone sports novels. From my research I counted eight sports novels between 1920 to 1926. Continuing in 1926 was another mystery or crime fiction novel called House of Secrets concerning an inheritance. This is followed by more stand alone mystery novels like The Black Heart, The Fellow Hagan, The 13th Hour, Heart Cut Diamond, and Lady of the Night to finish out the 20s. He also used pseudonyms like Martin Heritage and Peter Cavendish this decade. Horler wrote 137 short stories in the 1920s for all kinds of magazines and pulps. There were also recurring characters in some of these stories like a sports team called Sportsman's Club. 

Switching to a different series, Horler did start one more series in 1928 that was a tremendous success that launched a small empire for him. 

Harker Bellamy is a British spymaster, a Secret Service Chief in an intelligence organization called Q One. This is important because Bellamy runs the place and has agents that directly work for him. He is introduced for the first time in 1928 in a book called The Curse of Doone. In this one, Bellamy is on the case of a kidnapped woman by an orphan. He assigns the case to a Q One agent named Ian Heath. There is a sense of supernatural, like many of Holter's novels, when the house the woman is held at may be haunted and may in fact contain a vampire. In the third book, Bellamy calls upon one of his best agents, a man named Tiger Standish. As of book three of the Bellamy series it is all Tiger Standish through book 10. The series ran 1928-1948. So, you can theoretically take all 11 books and call them the Harker Bellamy series just like you could take all the Matt Helm books and call them the Mac series - Mac being Helm's boss. However, the Tiger Standish character continues to show up in other books too from 1936 to 1951. Books like Exit the Disguiser, They Thought He Was Dead, The House of Jackals, and Tiger Standish Does His Stuff. He's also in some short stories as well. I find it strange that the author had such a fixture on the name Standish. His first book was a cowboy named Standish, then he used that same name as a pseudonym and now his most popular spy is the same name.

The Nighthawk series began in 1937 and consisted of the books They Called Him Nighthawk, The Return of Nighthawk, Nighthawk Strikes to Kill, Nighthawk Mops Up, Ring Up Nighthawk, Nap on Nighthawk, and Nighthawk Swears Vengeance. This character is named Gerald Frost and he is a professional burglar. He is described by characters in the books as having the law unto himself. He robs crooks, taking on cases which the police have been powerless to touch. For example, The Return of Nighthawk has him defending a friend of his - a doctor - from a crook named Marius who employs a network of crooks to help him swindle innocent people across London. The theme of the series is a thief of thieves. 

Also in 1931 was a two-book series starring Brett Carstairs. He was in The Man Who Walked with Death and The Spy. He's a British secret agent that portrays a wealthy upperclassman to disguise his secret missions against the Soviets. 

Again, just like the 1920s, Holter is filling holes between his series installments all through the 1930s. Stand-alone books in the 1930s add up to 35-38 books in addition to all of those series installments. By this point Horler has sold over 2 million books. Between the years 1925 and 1953 Horley never published fewer than three books of fiction in any year. Three books a year was actually a slow year for him, he only sank to that level in 1940 due to the Blitz in England during WWII. In 1931 he produced 7 novels, a book of short stories, and in 1951 he wrote 10 novels. 

He had been quoted as saying he dictated 25,000 words which is about 100 pages every single week. Horler was a prolific author and he sold well through the 1920s, 1930s, and even into the 1940s. His publishers would include "Horler for Excitement" on his books as the marketing slogan.

Beginning in 1941 there was The Ace series starring a British secret agent named Justin March working for an organization named Y.2. There were three books total with Enter the Ace in 1941, Hell's Brew in 1952, and The Dark Night in 1953. 

According to his 1934 autobiographical book London's Underworld, Holter says that in the prime of his career he received a phone call from The Star asking him to briefly switch from a full-time novelist to a part-time journalist. The assignment was to submerge himself into the underworld for a full month. Here is what they told him, according to Horler's book: 

"We want you to meet the people who live in, and practice their crafts through, the Underworld. We want you to talk to them and get their viewpoint, describe their habits, characteristics, their methods of working - in short - to deliver us a clear and composite picture of this section of humanity which we know actually does exist but of which 99 persons out of every hundred are in complete ignorance. This gentleman, indicating He Who Had Remained Nameless, will act as a guide to begin with. After that it will be up to you."

I haven't read this book but I looked at the chapter list at the beginning of the book and you can kind of see where the author spent time at. He wined, dined, interviewed, traveled with, and entertained thieves, prostitutes, white slavers, blackmailers, the real soho, dope traffickers, and police on the take. In flipping through the book it is all done in a humorous way.

Horler also wrote screenplays as well. There are four films listed on IMDB with his name attached to them. 

Horler's political views have often come under fire. He often expressed contempt in his writing of non-British peoples. Malcolm Turnbull noted that Horler's novels regularly depict Jews as criminals. Horler's book Nighthawk Mops Up has a Jewish villain who collaborates with the Nazis. Odd. Horler was outspoken and said Americans were absurd, Italians smelly, French dishonest, and the Swiss had wooden faces. 

Horler had an ongoing feud or squabble with British crime-fiction writer Dorothy L. Sayers, who immensely disliked his work. The same can be said for Scottish writer Compton MacKenzie. 

Horler suffered a stroke in August of 1954. He then entered Bournemouth nursing home and would pass away on October 27th  at age 66.

To give you an idea how abrasive Horler was, when he died the Daily Express announced his death by stating "HORLER KILLED EVERY WAY THERE IS!" 

You can get Sydney Horler books HERE.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Lionel White (2nd Edition)

I was honored when Stark House Press asked me to write the introduction for the 2022 edition of Lionel White's The Mexico Run and Jailbreak. I wanted to share that write-up with the Paperback Warrior readers and fans that didn't have an opportunity to buy the book. I hope you enjoy it. - Eric Compton

"Lionel White: The Perfect Getaway"

All good things must come to an end. It’s a sentiment that may have been echoed by Lionel White (1905-1985) as he typed the last line of Jailbreak. This aptly titled prison break thriller proved to be White's last novel. It was published in the U.K. in 1976 by Robert Hale as The Walled Yard and in paperback as Jailbreak in the U.S. by the lowly, scrupulous Manor Books. It was a step backward from White's prior, much more prestigious American publishers like New York Dutton (Penguin) and Fawcett Gold Medal. Manor Books was mostly reserved for a variety of disposable, low-brow team-commando, western and vigilante men's action-adventure titles. Not something from the esteemed mind and talented fingertips of Lionel White.

In reading Jailbreak, and his late career entry, 1974's The Mexico Run, I questioned if the New York author realized this was the end of the literary road? Can authors sense when the creativity think-tank has become dry? It's hard to imagine that White, an astute, literary powerhouse could have been that obtuse. Could White have theoretically known his career was nearing the end years before drafting Jailbreak? Was that the reasons for the creative change from heist-fiction to something entirely different?

Like other authors that either become complacent with their own style or fail to meet their own expectations, Lionel White became aware that he had written himself into a corner. Beginning with his 1952 novel, Seven Hungry Men!, published as a Rainbow Digest and later re-printed by Avon as Run, Killer, Run, White launched a successful career that seemingly elevated, or at the very least defined, what we now consider heist-fiction, or simply “caper novels.” 

White's classic novels, which were influences for Donald Westlake's own revolutionary heist-fiction series Parker (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark) and critically-acclaimed writer and director Quentin Tarrantino, featured anti-heroes planning extensive crimes like robbery or hijacking. These books were nearly step-by-step blueprints showcasing not only the scheming and strategics of committing the crime, but also the mental capacities criminals possess. 

White's caper novels possessed an uncanny transcendence from real-world crimes to printed page. These bank robberies, diamond heists, kidnappings and hijackings come to life through supreme, suspenseful storytelling that forces readers to sympathize, cheer, or jeer these anti-heroes in their pursuit of fortune and high-level criminality. It is these types of stories that calculatedly blend the criminal elements, emotional anguish, and melodrama with unexpected levels of violence and unrest to create the ultimate, satisfying crime-fiction formula. 

Caper plot-devices became a mainstay in White's narratives, reaching a proverbial peak with White's career highlight and genre high-water mark, 1955's Clean Break. In that novel, an ex-con plans a high-stakes robbery at a horse-racing track. The dangling carrot is $2 million bucks, which comes with a number of complications among the plan's faulty moving pieces. It was adapted into the film The Killing directed by iconic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. 

White's other heist novels were equally as entertaining, including – The Big Caper (1955), Operation -Murder (1956), Hostage for a Hood (1957), and Steal Big (1960). Due to his sheer perfection of inventing riveting fictional crimes and the compelling people who plan and execute them, White found his niche, but the ability and freedom to tell a different type of story was confounded by reader and publisher requests for more heist-fiction. White was trapped in his career trajectory, but wanted to explore his literary boundaries. 

One of crime-fiction's overused plots was the “innocent man on the run” routine. Authors like Henry Kane and Day Keene both recycled the concept, and in 1957 Lionel White utilized the idea for his novel The House Next Door. He used it again in 1962's Obsession, the basis for the French film Pierrot Le Fou (Pete the Madman). Both novels saw White exploring fictional ideas outside of his moneymaking wheelhouse. Other non-heist novels like The Merriweather File (1959), Rafferty (1959) and Lament for a Virgin (1960) are all well-received by crime-noir readers, but failed to meet the high expectations of White's loyal heist-fiction fans. 

By the late 1960s, White's collective body of work was impressive and studded with high-shelf heist-fiction. But, the idea of continuing to write these types of stories for another decade was probably creating some personal angst. I liken it to the same problem that bestselling western author Louis L'Amour was confronting. 

In 1974, after 25+ years of range wars, cattle drives, brutish gunfighters, and frontier Indian skirmishes, L'Amour had become complacent with telling the same tales and decided to switch creative direction. Despite his publisher's wishes, L'Amour ended his career writing early American history novels about a fictional Sackett family arriving in North America in the early 1600s as well as a high-adventure, modern novel called Last of the Breed, set in the Soviet Union. In late interviews, L'Amour had plans for more books set in America's Revolutionary War and Civil War.

In the same year that Louis L'Amour was bucking his trend, Donald Westlake issued a temporary farewell of sorts when his novel Butcher's Moon was published. The novel ended a 16 book run that saw his Parker series of heist-fiction simply disappear for over 20 years. Like White, Westlake needed some breathing room and an escape from the same character and series that earned him so much respect and success. While not career ending, Westlake simply wanted to pursue other projects that were sidetracked due to the immense success of Parker.

Following suite, White's very different novel The Mexico Run was published in 1974 by Fawcett Gold Medal. It proved that the author, while not crafting traditional heist-fiction, was still edgy and entertaining. By exploring the more modern, violent savagery of drugs and human trafficking, White was able to explore different storytelling during the sunset of his career. While it will never be mistaken for White's career best, The Mexico Run is a fresh and enjoyable prose with a remarkable twist ending that hits like a lead pipe. Instead of small town banks, urban jewelry stores, or vulnerable vehicular settings, White's workman hero frequents seedy Mexican motels and abandoned coastal villas. The narrative is devoid of robbery or hijacking, the nearly mandatory staples of White's career. The Mexico Run delves into drug cartels and runners (mules), and has a different type of heist, this one involving illegal entrance in and out of U.S./Mexican Customs.

Two years later, his farewell novel Jailbreak involves cons planning to escape from prison. Like his heist formula, White builds the team, introduces the key players, and outlines the strategy for a successful break. But, there's a more modern realism that borders on action-adventure instead of a suspenseful safe-crack or getaway plan. The main character isn't quite an anti-hero, but more of a protagonist that is simply stealing a priceless object – freedom. The novel possesses a lot of gritty, prison terms and behavior, elements that typically wouldn't saturate a 1950s crime-noir paperback. 

White's last streak of publications included The Mind Poisoners (1966), which was an installment of the long-running Nick Carter: Killmaster series of spy adventures. Other non-heist novels included The Crimshaw Memorandum (1967), Death of a City (1970), and A Rich and Dangerous Game (1974). 

Both The Mexico Run and Jailbreak, represented here in this Stark House Press twofer, represents White's honesty with himself. Both of these novels are good enough to compete with his contemporaries, and in some author lists, would even foster career bests. He left behind a legacy of phenomenal crime-fiction literature, what many critics, scholars and fans would consider some of the best heist-fiction of all-time. 

Sensing his career's downward slope, Lionel White retired from writing shortly after Jailbreak's release. But, he did it his way and purged all of his remaining creativity in those final years. He told the stories he wanted to tell, broadened his literary approach, and refused to be cornered. He successfully cracked the safe and made the perfect getaway.

Eric Compton
St. Augustine, FL

July, 2022

The Last Night to Kill Nazis

David Agranoff is a San Diego author, screenwriter, blogger, podcast host, and quite possibly the strongest advocate for Philip K. Dick's literary work than any other. His debut novel, The Vegan Revolution...with Zombies, was published in 2010. Since then he has authored nine novels including The Last Night to Kill Zombies. The novel was published in 2023 by Clash Books with vivid cover art by Joel Amat Guell.

In this military-fiction and horror hybrid, Agranoff utilizes a real event from World War Two as a foundation to craft this unusual tale. Heinrich Himmler, one of the most notorious figures of the war, was a powerful Nazi politician, Reich Commissioner, and Commander. He is primarily considered the organizer of the horrific Holocaust and second only to Hitler in terms of absolute evil personified. Shortly after Hitler's suicide, and hours before Russia's Red Army stormed his underground bunker, Himmler was able to escape with several other leaders into the countryside where they remained on the run for several days before being captured by British intelligence. While in detainment Himmler was able to fatally swallow his hidden cyanide pill.

Agranoff begins his novel as the Red Army is within striking distance. Himmler is able to escape with as SS Officer named Heinrich and a few other Nazi personnel. In the countryside, the group travel by truck to a mountaintop fortress to meet nearly 100 German officers that await a plane that will transport them to safety in Manchuria. It's in this seemingly impenetrable fortress where the book's second half takes place.

Hunting Himmler is a small counter-intelligence force lead by Noah, a Jewish fighter and ex-Army Ranger now serving the OSS (early CIA). His team hopes to penetrate and climb to the mountain fortress to kill every Nazi in the fortress. But, with over 100 Nazis occupying this defiant stronghold, what chance does his quartet have in facing these overwhelming numbers?

The answer is Count Reiter. 

In a thrilling enhancement to the breathtaking traditionalism of a World War Two adventure novel, Agranoff introduces a Dracula-like character named Reiter. His castle in the Carpathian Mountains was ransacked by the Nazis, who not only disturbed his domicile but also his centuries of sleep. Reiter wants vengeance and will stop at nothing to kill Nazis. But, in this book Reiter is being kept as a prisoner by the Allies. In a desperate bid to hunt and kill Himmler the Allies agree to a deal with Reiter – help them orchestrate a massacre on the last official night to kill Nazis in exchange for freedom. 

The Last Night to Kill Nazis is nothing short of remarkable. The book's first hundred pages is a type of dangerous road trip introducing Heinrich and his pregnant lover Alice, who both are equal main characters to Noah's opposition. The author masterfully utilizes short chapters, each time stamped, to tell individual stories and angles presenting Alice's experiences as well as Noah, Reiter, and Heinrich's. These punchy chapters help keep the book's 250-pages turning at lightning pace. Once these characters collide atop the mountain the narrative increases speed to match the staccato gunfire, pounding footsteps, and infernal screams as Nazis meet the Hellish Prince of Darkness. 

If Bram Stoker, Alistair MacLean, and Quentin Tarrantino collaborated on a project they surely would deliver this masterpiece. The Last Night to Kill Nazis is epic entertainment and comes with my highest recommendation. Get it HERE.

Paperback Warrior Primer - Claw the Unconquered

In the late 1960s, the publishing industry was abuzz with the reprinting of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. Most of these had been missing from the commercial markets for decades, others had been collected in expensive hardback collections that fetched nearly auction-house prices. For the first time, the casual consumer could read these stories, including some that were previously unpublished, in affordable paperback editions courtesy of Lancer. With these new editions, authors like Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp were able to also contribute their own Conan stories as pastiches of Robert E. Howard's own storytelling style. 

Lancer, and later Ace, contributed to an influx of sword-and-sorcery pop-culture due to their paperback releases of Conan and other Robert E. Howard stories. The genre exploded with television, movies, and countless paperback novels featuring shirtless barbarians imitating Conan. By the 1970s, sword-and-sorcery was everywhere, so it was just a matter of time before the comic book industry seized their share of the market. 

With the success of Conan on the pages of Marvel, DC Comics became busy creating sword-and-sorcery titles that would compete in the hectic heroic-fantasy realm. In 1975, the company launched their creations, eight new titles that featured scantily-clad heroes holding sharp, gleaming swords. These books were Warlord, Beowulf, Dragon Slayer, Tor, Nightmaster, Starfire, Stalker, and today's topic, Claw the Unconquered. 

With Claw the Unconquered, the creative team made the decision to hone in on John Buscema’s Conan artwork. Who would be the best fit for Claw's artistic design and presentation? None other than Ernie Chan, an artist that spent the prior two years inking John Buscema’s art on Conan the Barbarian. Chan created the covers for the first nine issues, and penciled the interior pages on the first seven before giving the reigns to other artists like Joe Kubert and Keith Giffen.

Gracing the cover of Claw the Unconquered's first issue, titled “The Sword and the Silent Scream”, is a black-haired muscular barbarian carefully straddling a vulnerable young woman. Without the robust Claw logo, one glance would surely register that the book is another Conan issue. But, that was the point – to capture the dedicated readers of Conan the Barbarian and Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian. Chan perfected this. 

Chan's co-creator of Claw was David Michelinie, who contributed to the creation of some of comics greatest characters in Venom, Carnage, War Machine, and Ant-Man. Michelinie and Chan had worked collectively on other DC books like House of Mystery and House of Secrets. Michelinie's concept was that Claw existed in a place called Pytharia, a land that resembles ancient Earth. Fans of Conan may see some similarities with Pytharia and Robert E. Howard's own landscape found in the Hyborian Age. In essence, it is a sprawling world filled with heroes and villains – noblemen, savages, evil sorcerers, terrifying creatures, and the obligatory beautiful women that need saving. 

At the forefront, like Howard's own stories, is the endless musical chairs played by politicians and their rivals. Conan, against his better judgment, seemingly always found himself embroiled in a political rivalry turned violent. Claw mirrors that same participation, which ultimately sets the table for the character's origin tale in the debut issue.

In the first three pages, readers learn that Claw's real name is Valcan and that he literally wears a red glove over his right fist, indicating early on that something is different about his hand. Claw is strolling through Ichar, the throne city of Pytharia when a thief attempts to rob him. Claw throws the poor soul through a window, then orders meat and wine. His muscles, good looks, and temperament gains an invitation from the attractive waitress to join her upstairs. But, she accidentally dislodges his glove and discovers he has a hairy hand with...claws! Later, it is revealed that the waitress was purposefully trying to verify Claw's identity in an effort to satisfy her master, an innkeeper named Tarmag.

In the streets, Tarmag has his henchmen attack Claw. Fortunately, Claw disposes of them all, but he mistakenly lets Tarmag live (a non-Conan move). The man journeys to Castle Darkmorn (what a name!) and tells (King) Occulas of the Yellow Eye the whereabouts of Claw. His reward? An instant fatal backstabbing by Occulas' guards. But why does Occulas want Claw? 

In a flashback from years ago, Prince Occulas is plotting to take the King's throne and learns from an oracle (named in the third issue as Miftung) that the only thing standing in his way is a man with a bizarre hand. Occulas has a peasant man tortured to learn that someone named Kregar of Kanon Wood has a funny hand. He bribes the King's men to go out and kill Kregar and his family. On page 13, where these events unfold, readers see that Kregar does have a hand that resembles Claw's. While Kregar and his family are all murdered, the men left behind a small infant that had a clawed right hand. Off the page, an angelic hand reaches for the baby and says that “your time is not yet come, for there are tasks awaiting that only you may perform.”

Occulas fatally poisons the King, snatches the crown, and for years thrusts Pytharia into desolate servitude. An older, crueler Occulas is then shown speaking to the oracle about a new threat that arises, a man named Valcan that has a deformity that has earned him the name Claw. Sensing this new threat, the story then circles back to the beginning (present day) as Occulas sends another of his henchmen to kill Claw. With the aid of the beautiful waitress, Claw is deceptively led to the Temple of Kann where a giant beast is awakened with a magical gem. Claw fights the monster, and then leaves the temple as the waitress is left to die. 

What readers gather from the first issue is that the through-story will be Occulas attempting to seek and destroy Claw as the hero journeys from place to place fighting the good fight for the people. The book takes on some other genres, like the traditional western monomyth, science-fiction, and fantasy. Additionally, Claw can't remember his past, so readers will be mysteified as to who the angel was that saved Claw from death as an infant. Through his journeys, he is searching to learn more about his origin and why he is destined to do great things. Magical elements regarding the claw and its purpose begin to shed some light on Claw's destiny. 

Like most of the other sword-and-sorcery books that DC launched, Claw the Unconquered was short-lived. The original run lasted just a total of 12 issues, ending in September 1978. The character made another appearance in 1981 in Warlord issues #48-49. 

Claw continues to exist in comic book continuity. He has randomly appeared in the modern pages of Wonder Woman, Justice League, and Swamp Thing. In a completely different character, there were elements of Claw used for the Primal Force comic also published by DC. The character was re-introduced to Conan fans through a rebirth by Dynamite Entertainment. Claw teamed with Red Sonja in the four-book miniseries Devil's Hands. Additionally, there was a spin-off of that series simply called Claw the Unconquered, which ran a total of six issues and was written by Chuck Dixon. 

While I can't speak on the title after 1978, I highly encourage you to read the full 12-issue run of the original DC comic. If you enjoy 1970s sword-and-sorcery literature, then this is well worth the nostalgic trip through time.

Buy a copy of this book HERE