My introduction to the Nick Carter character was the Killmaster secret agent series that debuted in the Sixties (the first of those novels I ever read was HANOI, for what it's worth), but somewhere along the same time I became aware that the character originated as a detective in dime novels in the 1880s. I read reprints of some of those stories later on and thought they were okay, although I preferred the Killmaster version.
What I didn't realize until years later was that there was also a Nick Carter pulp during the Thirties, with the character functioning as a hardboiled detective. It ran for about three years, with each issue featuring a lead novel published under the by-line Nick Carter, an oddity shared by all three versions of the character. Richard Wormser is generally acknowledged as the author of the Nick Carter pulp stories, although I don't know if that's ever been confirmed. Other authors may have contributed to the series, too.
I've never read any of the Nick Carter pulp stories. This one, "The War-Makers", sounds more like a G-Man yarn to me. One of the back-up short stories in this issue is by Theodore Tinsley, who wrote some excellent Shadow novels in relief of Walter B. Gibson. Maybe I'll hunt up a Nick Carter pulp one of these days. I'd be curious to read one.
5 comments:
Had no idea the Nick Carter character had such a "storied" history. :)
Oh, my, yes. Rather a weak radio series around these pulp years, too, though I believe the radio show was more durable.
Anthony Tollin will be reprinting two Nick Carter pulps in the next few months as part of his Doc Savage and Shadow reprints. So there will be a low price way to sample this series.
Wormser wrote 17 Nick Carter novelettes starting in February 1933, according to Ron Goulart's Cheap Thrills.
Anthony Tollin's Sanctum Books
Coming in November!
NICK CARTER Volume 1: "Marked for Death" and "The Impossible Theft"
The premier detective hero returns in two intriguing pulp thrillers by Richard Wormser and T.C. McClary writing as "Nick Carter." First, the legendary American sleuth who predates Sherlock Holmes is reborn into the hard-boiled 1930s in "Marked for Death," the debut novel from the rare first issue of DOC SAVAGE's sister pulp! Then, what is the bizarre connection between an East Indian idol and the disappearance of a quarter-million dollars within a bank? Nick Carter needs all his sleuthing skills to uncover the truth. BONUS: Nick Carter confronts "The Strange Dr. Devolo" in the first radio script by THE SHADOW's Walter Gibson, plus a Golden Age comic book classic from SHADOW COMICS! This double-novel collector's edition includes both classic color pulp covers by Jerome Rozen, Amos Sewell's original interior illustrations and historical commentary by J. Randolph Cox, Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. (Sanctum Books) 978-1-60877-098-4 Softcover, 7x10, 128 pages, B&W, $14.95
http://www.pulpcomingattractions.com/
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