That intrepid trio of aces known as “The Three Mosquitoes” made the scar of their Vickers hated by every flying Hun. But even the skill of their wings was child’s play when they went to sea against that dread Channel menace that was leaving no survivors to tell it’s tale of dread. Then came the day when the red courage of madness swept the Mosquitoes leader into the maelstrom.
Here they are again—that bunch of flying, fighting Devildogs—Lucky Lane and the Three Lunatics, Cyclone Bill Garrity, and the rest of the mad Marines. And fighting against them is a silent, unseen menace—a strange, black shadow that shrouds whole formations in its sable cloak of death, and sends them reeling down—to doom.
This is the second story in Arch Whitehouse’s series about flying newspaperman Tug Hardwick. Tug and his sidekick, Beansie Bishop, knew where they could find Old Man Trouble if they wanted him. Shanghai was the place—for the welcome they’d get there would be a rousing one profusely punctuated with bullets! But meanwhile, Old Man Trouble had grown tired of waiting for them. That was something those two Yanks didn’t know—until a man fell at their feet with a knife in his back!
On August 5, 1938 a totally different kind of Spider story hit America’s newsstands. “The City That Paid To Die” was missing the usual oriental cults, pillaging beast-men or dissolving rays. In place of them, Norvell Page and the editors of The Spider magazine crafted a story that would bring home the day-to-day suffering of people in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. And as with the real fascist threat, it didn’t tie up neatly in one month. The incredible “Black Police Trilogy” devastated New York over the course of three issues (covering roughly seven months in story time). What is really unique about this saga is that in order for The Spider to take on an entire state, he must come out of the shadows and act as a leader — even a symbol — of the resistance movement. Age of Aces Books is proud to be offering, 71 years later, the first ever collection of these three stirring adventures of Richard Wentworth and his crew. Visit our The Spider Vs. The Empire State page for more details or to order from Amazon.
The Age of Aces team had a blast at PulpFest 2009 this past weekend! This was our first time at a pulp gathering as official dealers, and though it mostly tied us to our table I think it was actually more fun because it gave us the opportunity to interact with so many pulp fans and curious people from Columbus. This was also a rare chance to hang out with some of the contributors to our books, like Scott Cranford, Don Hutchison, Sid Bradd and Thomas Krabacher. (more…)
