This series was published in 1973 and 74. I picked these up mainly for the Smith covers, but I was buying a lot of weird series books back then. I think there were at least seven titles, with covers by other guys.
I never got around to reading one, but the back of #1 says this:
HERE'S THE DYNAMITE FUNG-FU ACTION STORIES YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! The greatest Kung-Fu experts of all time in a thousand bloody battles to the death! From the wastes of the Gobi desert to the sin alleys of Hong Kong and Shanghai, the young fighter K'ing hunts the mad killer of his master - the infamous Kak Nan Tang - on a vengeance trail ripping with action. First in a series of adventures - watch for them each month!
I have no clue who Marshall Macao was or is. Anyone else know?
More Forgotten Books (including discussions of what's inside them) at pattinase!
I'd probably read these, at least the first, if i ever found them. I never knew they existed.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen these before. I'm a fan of Smith's work though. At one time, I owned the first twenty-five issues, I believe it was, of Marvel's Conan The Barbarian comic book. As barry Windsor-Smith
ReplyDeleteNever heard of these let only seen them. You should at least post one back cover so we get an idea of what these are about. Are they set in the past or present? The only martial art crime novels I've read are Earl Norman's books about the karate chopping private eye Burns Bannion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking, guys.
ReplyDeleteI meant to add a little info on the series before this post went up, but time got away from me.
That info is now on the post.
Marshall Macao is a pen name of Thaddeus Tuleja.
ReplyDeleteAn offbeat series, but not too bad.
Thaddeus Tuleja? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDo you know if old Thad wrote anything else?
Apparently he mostly writes non-fiction books on stuff like self help.
ReplyDeleteInteresting art work, and very much of it's time. I'm not a great fan of the Kung-Fu story, preferring the Fu-Manchu type, but these were probably badly written and fast reading. What is the time frame as compared to the TV show with Carradine?
ReplyDeleteOMG, this look just so tempting...
ReplyDeleteLove the covers! I'm not sure this series was distributed in the Northeast.
ReplyDeleteGeorge, they were distributed in the Northeast, at least in Massachusetts where I picked up several in the series at the time. I believe I actually read one but I can't remember a darned thing about it. My copies went walkabout a number of years ago.
ReplyDeleteI bought all mine (used, I'm sure) here in Oregon sometime in the 70s.
ReplyDeleteJohn and Richard, these take place in the early 1960s; one throwaway plot point has the Red Circle using Lee Harvey Oswald. At one time the books were mistakenly attributed to Ron Goulart--because he wrote a couple of the Kung Fu TV show novelizations.
ReplyDeleteRead these back in ythe 60's before they were ''covered' under the pen name Marshall Maceo...it's a good read if you like the Conan fantasy books, this is just as good..
ReplyDeleteJust stumbled across your site trying to find out more about this series of books. I picked up the 4th one on a whim from a second hand store for nest to nothing. it was the title that caught my eye - 'K'ing Kung Fu' - anyone else get it? Perhaps it's a brit thing. It was good fun, a great 'boy's own' read, only peppered with quite some wince inducing violence. Still, it's hard to dwell on it for too long, as Fei K'ing chases Kak and his Red Circle up the Pass Of Winds - I kid you not.
ReplyDeleteOut of interest, after reading the posts, I searched a bit for the author. I found a reference to him as a preceptor in expository writing for Harvard University. The site gave no way to contact him, so I couldn't verify.
ReplyDeleteI read a couple of these as a kid. Picked them up in a used book store. I thought they were pretty good for a kid of about 13 reading them.
ReplyDelete-Kurt