by Robert J. Hogan
The creation of writer Robert J. Hogan, G-8 and His Battles Aces appeared in the magazine of that same name for over a decade.
It was the summer of 1933, and despite the Great Depression, Popular Publications was booming. Part of their Autumn expansion plans entailed launching The Spider, and a companion to be aimed at the legions of readers who drank up fictionalized accounts of World War I Allied aces versus Imperial Germany’s various bi-winged counts and barons, red and otherwise.
Popular Publications publisher Harry Steeger hired Hogan and helped brainstorm the concept. “I can remember that Bob Hogan and I picked ‘G-8’ because G-8 was the hero of his first novel and I added ‘Battle Aces’ so that people would know what type of magazine it was and also because Battle Aces had been a very successful book,” Steeger recalled.
Envisioning the expected strain on the writer’s imagination a monthly novel would enact, Steeger and Hogan agreed that the new series would soon grow stale if they didn’t spice it up with elements of the fantastic. This recipe ranged from merely super-scientific death rays to unabashedly supernatural manifestations. Nothing was taboo in G-8. Hogan was a pioneer of over-the-top plotting generations before the term was coined.
For our newest exciting G-8 release, we have selected Patrol of the Cloud Crusher, a particularly wild tale torn from the June, 1936 issue. Hogan outdoes himself by pitting his hero against an astounding threat—titanic disembodied hands reach out of the clouds to ensnare and crush Allied aircraft! Even the Master Spy is baffled.
It begins with a ghostly hand that snatched an important clue and vanished! If that wasn't baffling enough, a patrol flying past a giant cloud encountered a monster arm whose crushing fingers destroyed their warplanes.
Taking to the skies, G-8 rushes to investigate the so-called Hand of Providence that had seemingly taken the German side in the war. But it was one thing to fly into that hell cloud. Quite another to survive the encounter!
When the Flying Spy and his Battle Aces take on the challenge of the Patrol of the Cloud Crusher, will they return––or will their own aircraft be pulverized by the seemingly supernatural power? Herr Doctor Kreuger strikes again!
Nick Santa Maria narrates this ripping yarn of World War I air-to-air combat with his usual mastery, while the backup short stories, “The Flying Hippopotamus” and “The Sky Shark,” are read with aplomb by Milton Bagby and Roger Price.
Nick DeGregorio composed the music for the G-8 and His Battle Aces series of audiobooks.
Chapter 2: Deserting Mechanics
Chapter 3: The Phantom Hand
Chapter 4: R-1, The Girl Spy
Chapter 5: The Hand of Herr Doktor Kreuger
Chapter 6: Suicide Aces
Chapter 7: The Limping Frenchman
Chapter 8: R-1 is Captured
Chapter 9: Stabbing Bayonets
Chapter 10: Bold Rescue
Chapter 11: Pursuit
Chapter 12: The Cave Mystery
Chapter 13: Herr Doktor Kreuger’s Vengeance
Chapter 14: The Clutching Hand Death
The Flying Hippopotamus
The Sky Shark
Replies
Cheers!
Thank you!
Thanks, this will be a new treat for me !!
Thank you.....
Thank You Dave. ---------------------------------------------- R