Magazine Review: High Adventure #194: Wheeler-Nicholson Special edited by John P. Gunnison
This volume of the pulp reprints series has five stories by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who in addition to writing many fine pulp stories is important to the history of comic books. In 1935, he founded National Allied Publications, which published the first comic books to be new material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. New Fun was the first of what would become National Periodicals’ and thus DC Comics’ line of comics. Due to business shenanigans, Wheeler-Nicholson was forced out of the company before the creation of Superman and the subsequent boom in comic books. But these stories are from before all that.
“The Green God of Terror” from Ace-High Magazine 11/33 starts us off in the Philippines. Assistant intelligence officer Barry O’Neal is alerted that his office is supposed to be looking into the disappearance of a Richard Colville who’s been missing for over a year. Something of a cold case. The thin file includes reference to an anonymous note that bad things will happen to anyone who investigates the incident, and a rumor that a new source of emeralds had been discovered somewhere in the South Philippines. Also, a mention of something called the “Green Terror.”
Not much to go on, but as it happens, Mr. Colville’s sister Patricia has just arrived in Manila. Barry makes contact with the attractive young woman, who’s arrived to search for her missing brother. They go out to a ball together, which is somewhat spoiled by the presence of Bolshevik agent Rogowski, who has his eyes on both Patricia and the emerald she’s wearing. It turns out that this emerald and a scrap of cloth with odd markings was the last communication Richard sent her. Barry quickly figures out this must be a map of some kind.
Rogowski’s also after the map, and eventually Barry, Patricia, and a couple of helpers find themselves on a ship Rogowski has hired to take him to the island where the emeralds are. The captain proves to be an ally to Barry, so there’s more intrigue. Matters are made even more complicated when representatives of the emerald syndicate show up to suppress knowledge of this new source that could undercut prices.
Eventually, everyone winds up on Green Skull Island, where the natives worship the Terror, a large green orangutan. But there are a few twists left to go!
An exciting story, but with some logic holes.
“Guarded By Fire” from Thrilling Adventures 3/32 starts in Paris, where American engineer Jack Nelson witnesses a cafe waitress being fired at the behest of a customer she just turned down. He follows her out and strikes up an acquaintance. Marie turns out to be a White Russian exile, a “princess” whose father is reputed to have hidden away a fabulous jewel collection before his execution. The customer turns out to be a sleazy businessman who’s trying to get her to reveal the location of the gems on the promise he’ll give her a cut.
As it happens, Marie doesn’t actually know the location of the jewels beyond that they are “guarded by fire” and that it’s somewhere on the family estate that has now been turned into a collective farm. Jack volunteers to go look without needing a cut for himself, but soon finds himself having to partner with the sleazy businessman to evade the Ogpu secret police.
The story is very down on the Communist government of the Soviet Union and its enforcers. The collective farm is more like an open-air prison and not as good at farming as the old estate was. The secret of the hiding place is revealed, and there are a bunch of twists and turns.
“The Fourth Ring” from Thrilling Adventures 5/33 has an American fall in love with the portrait of a beautiful girl hanging in a castle near Vienna. She vanished into thin air some centuries back. Much to his surprise, an identical girl walks into the cafe where he’s discussing his crush with a friend. It turns out that this girl belongs to the same family that owned the castle, and the resemblance is a coincidence. Or is it?
Some time later, the protagonist learns that the modern girl has vanished the same way her ancestor did, and gets a hunch he should investigate the castle. The title comes from a custom of the castle back in the day. If the lord wanted his servants to come to a certain room, he’d ring a bell three times. If he only wanted the executioner to come, he’d ring the bell four times.
While the protagonist’s actions do start a chain of events that resolve the plot in his favor, he personally just ends up captured by the villain himself and having to be rescued. Makes a change from the other stories in this issue, where the heroes do all the heavy lifting.
“Fire!” from Conflict Fall/33 takes us back to the South Seas. Lieutenant Tommy “Sleepy Willie” Wilson attempts to protect the fort he’s in from marauding Moros despite his commanding officer Captain Bulger having gone a bit mad from the heat and isolation. The lieutenant manages to bring one of the enemy commanders over to his side, but the captain just wants this captive shot out of hand. When Wilson thwarts this, Bulger has him arrested.
Meanwhile, the marauders have a Dutch trader on their side, and he tricks the captain into a parley. Can Sleepy Willie escape the guardhouse, contact his ally, thwart the massacre and maybe finally get some rest?
“Fire and Sword” from Thrilling Adventures 9/32 closes the volume with a tale set at the Mexican border. An American patrol spots a bandit gang crossing the Rio Grande. Though severely outmanned and outgunned, they manage to inflict some damage before being forced to retreat to the nearest defensible cover. A messenger is sent to the nearby cavalry post for help.
Problem is that the commander of this troop is Captain Napoleon Bonaparte Brody, a bloviator with an obsessive interest in the life and works of his namesake, and an excess of caution. Lieutenant Bird realizes that the stranded soldiers will die by the time the captain stops talking long enough to be informed of the issue and then walks the horses to the battlefield.
Obviously, Bird and the experienced First Sergeant will have to find a way to get relief to the patrol on the double without involving Brody, even if that puts them at risk of court martial. This story has more of a comedic tone.
Looking at Major Wheeler-Nicholson’s military record and the reason he left the service, I suspect the two captains in these stories are drawn from life but with more satisfactory endings.
Content notes: Pulp violence, frequently lethal. Period racism including use of outdated ethnic slurs. Religious prejudice in the narration. All the women are strictly damsel in distress types. Ableism.
This is an okay selection of interesting stories. An introduction, as used to be the norm in this magazine, would have been helpful. A couple of the stories have been printed from misaligned plates that cut off the last line of type on each page.
Recommended to fans of adventure fiction that are able to handle the outdated attitudes, and those interested in the history of comic books.
