Pulp Gallery: OPERATOR #5 (1935-36)

Pulp Gallery: OPERATOR #5 (1934-35)

Pulp Gallery: OPERATOR 5 (1934)

Operator 5, in case you missed the news, guest stars in Will Murray's new Spider novel, The Doom Legion (HERE).

UnForgettable Books: The Spider, G-8 and Operator 5 in Will Murray's THE DOOM LEGION

This is the kind of book pulp fans dream about: A team-up starring three front-rank heroes – The Spider, Operator 5 and G-8.

Will Murray, as I’m sure you know, has already brought us two meetings between Doc Savage and The Shadow (reviewed HERE and HERE) as well as King Kong mash-ups with both Doc (HERE) and Tarzan (HERE), all from the modern-day pulp factory known as Altus Press.  And now comes The Doom Legion, bringing together the top three do-gooders of the Popular Publications universe.

The Spider gets top billing here, and rightly so, being the most revered and reprinted of the three. Why is that? Well, he (aka Richard Wentworth) has the coolest outfit and the most eccentric personality. He also has a capable faithful Indian companion—a Sikh name Ram Singh, a fearless significant other who would (and often nearly does) lay down her life for him, and a solid ally in Police Commissioner Weston—who unofficially knows supports his crusade as a crimefighter.

Operator 5 of the Secret Service (aka James "Jimmy" Christopher) is a bright-eyed young straight arrow, pure of heart and mind, with a reporter girlfriend who is undoubtedly a virgin (just as Richard Wentworth's paramour is undoubtedly not). He operates as a lone wolf, with occasional contact with his equally straight arrow superior, Z-7.

G-8, the Flying Spy of WWI, is now known as Captain George Gate (G-ate, get it?), is a man in search of camaraderie. Pals Bull Martin and Nippy Weston from his old squadron are not mentioned here, and though he tries a little banter with Operator 5, the Secret Service ace seems immune to humor.

Will Murray brings these three together and swats them with three fistfuls of trouble. 1) A meteor slams into Central Park, turning people and animals into killing machines. Heat beams shoot from the eyes of those infected, melting and killing everything in their path. 2) The Spider’s old nemesis The Dictator shows up seeking revenge, and armed with a new dastardly plan. And 3) G-8’s wartime enemy The Steel Mask returns (seemingly) from the dead determined to finish G-8 and raise any kind of hell he can.

It takes a lot of juggling to keep all those balls in the air at once, but Will proves up to the task. The deviltry and heroics are non-stop, and all the characters ring true to their roots. Especially interesting is the dynamic between Operator 5 and The Spider. The straight arrow of the Secret Service is too anal to have truck with a notorious vigilante, and tries to shut him out of the action. But you know The Spider. He’s an irresistible force, and even an object as immovable as Operator 5 is unable to slow him down.

The result is a riotous romp through New York City, leaving a trail of dead citizens. Most of these meet grisly ends, but this being a hero pulp epic, it’s all in good fun. You’ll want to read this, of course. And you’ll want to alert for hat tips to pulpsters, such a drive by of Steeger School (named, natch, for Harry Steeger, editor of Popular Publications, home of Dime Detective and the three heroes of this adventure).

Please keep this stuff coming, Mr. Murray (as if you had to be asked)!

Operator 5 and The Spider Return!

Here's the scoop . . .

Moonstone Books, as part of their "Return of the Originals" initiative, will debut a comic book in January featuring two of my favorite pulp heroes.

Operator 5 will be written by Gary Phillips, with pencils and inks by Roberto Castro. The Spider will be penned by Martin Powell and drawn by Pablo Marcos. I'm really looking forward to this one. The first issue blasts out of the past in January.

Thanks to Gary Phillips for the tip (and this fine cover mock-up by Dan Brereton). I encourage you to pay Gary a visit right HERE.

Operator 5: The Corinth Editions

Following up on my Forgotten Books post on the Freeway Press Operator 5 reprints from 1974, here are two of the eight volumes issued by Corinth way back in 1966. Like the Freeway books, these are the work of Frederick C. Davis, when Jimmy Christopher (Secret Service Operator #5) was truly a spy rather than the freedom fighter he became during Emile C. Tepperman's Purple Invasion. The odd cover designs on these seem to reflect a blend of 007 and Flower Power motifs.

These pulp covers appear on the amazing Galactic Central site.

Forgotten Books: Operator 5 by Frederick C. Davis

The other day Laurie Powers talked about pulps on eBay (that’s HERE) and said she spotted a complete run of Operator 5 being offered for $2,475. That didn’t sound too bad at the time, but on checking I discovered the mag only lasted 48 issues. So even if I had the bucks (which I surely don’t) I wouldn’t be bidding. But Laurie’s post brought old Jimmy Christopher, aka Secret Service Operator #5, back into my consciousness, and that’s always a good thing.

While all the major pulp heroes are in some way different from one another, Operator 5 has always seemed more different than the rest. While Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Spider spent most of their time chasing after criminal masterminds, civil servant Jimmy Christopher was busy defending America.

In a way, there were two Operator 5s. The character as introduced by creator Frederick C. Davis was basically a spy. He handled threats that make James Bond’s seem tame by comparison, but he was still a spy, and each book ended with America back to business as usual. Davis wrote the first 20 novels in the series, all under the house name Curtis Steele, before handing the chore off to the wild and woolly Emile C. Tepperman.

After a brief warm-up, Tepperman cranked up a threat so dire that it took Jimmy Christopher and thousands of other patriots 13 whole issues to dig their way out. In this saga, called “The Purple Invasion,” America is conquered by a distinctly Germanic European power and Operator 5 becomes a freedom fighter, traveling the length and breadth of the country to lead the resistance movement.

As Tepperman left the series, the Purple Empire was in retreat, but new writer Wayne Rogers gave Operator 5 no rest. Hard on the heels of the Purple guys came an invasion by the Yellow Empire, and Jimmy was up to his neck in trouble again.

 

My introduction to the series came with these three paperbacks, published in 1974 by Freeway Press. They present the first three pulp novels, all by Davis, and all from 1934. These early tales have a bright-eyed, gee-whiz, Doc Smithy sort of charm. Jimmy Christopher is the All-American Boy grown up, and is ably abetted by his kid sidekick Tim, sister Nan, father John and true love Diane, All-Americans all.

In The Masked Invasion, a guy called the Red Master unleashes a cosmic ray weapon on the U.S.  The Invisible Empire finds an air-borne super-fortress blasting away at New York City from the sky. And The Yellow Scourge brings the first invasion by the Yellow Empire, the guys who return with a vengeance after Jimmy finally puts the Purples on the run. These books are all great fun. 

Links to more Forgotten Books have been posted once again by Patti Abbott.  

The pulp covers shown here are borrowed from the fantastic website Galactic Central.