Servants of the Skull -- Brant House (Emile C. Tepperman)

One talent shared by most pulp heroes was the ability to disguise themselves at a moment’s notice so well that their best friends wouldn’t know them. Secret Agent X was probably the absolute master of this art, leading him to be billed at times as the Man of a Thousand Faces. The thing about Secret Agent X is that he’s always in disguise. No one ever sees his real face, although there’s usually a mention of it in the novels.

In SERVANTS OF THE SKULL, from the November 1934 issue of the pulp SECRET AGENT X, the Agent pulls off several disguises as he infiltrates a gang of kidnappers led by the evil mastermind known only as The Skull, who wears a red, hooded robe with a skull mask concealing his face. The Skull has established a headquarters underneath Manhattan with numerous hidden entrances and has recruited a gang of crooks who are experts at their various specialties to pull off the crimes he plans. If he succeeds, The Skull will reap a payoff of ten million dollars and several leading financiers and industrialists will be reduced to broken, gibbering hulks.

This plot is standard stuff, and most readers will figure out The Skull’s real identity with no trouble at all. What makes this a pretty good pulp novel, though, is the atmosphere of claustrophobic horror the author – in this case, Emile C. Tepperman writing under the house name Brant House – creates as “X” carries off his dangerous impersonation in the very depths of The Skull’s lair. Tepperman, about whom very little is known, was an inconsistent writer. SERVANTS OF THE SKULL is one of his better efforts, good enough that I recall reading an earlier paperback reprint of this book back in the Sixties. I just read it again, and it holds up fairly well. An inexpensive reprint of it will be available later this year from Beb Books. I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody, but if you’re a pulp hero fan I think you’ll probably find it pretty enjoyable. I did.