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The Complete Cases of Captain Satan, Volume 1
The first volume of this series reprints "The Mask of the Damned" and "Parole for the Dead," both novelettes first published in 1938 in Captain Satan Magazine. The mysterious Captain Satan and his private army are the scourge of the underworld.
- GenresPulp
237 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 23, 2025
Nice 1st book of these mostly forgotten Pulp era stories. Good read. Recommended
August 21, 2017
Here are collected two adventures of The King of Detectives, “Mask of the Damned” and “Parole for the Dead”. Having them side by side here really goes a long way to illustrate the rigid formatting at work in these stories. When Captain Satan isn't being Captain Satan, he's very rich and very lazy Cary Aldair. Cary Aldair does a whole lot of nothing in his penthouse until his FBI friend Descher drops by and tells about a case he's on and only kinda notices a connection when Captain Satan starts in investigating the same crime later.
If you've ever seen the 1940s Batman serials, Cary Aldair acts precisely the way Bruce Wayne does in those, with the yawning and all.
This is a like a lot of pulp heroes, what with the vigilante crime-fighting, the secret identity, and symbol to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, etc. The law looks on him as a criminal and he kinda sorta is since he steals from all the criminals he takes on and uses some of the money to pay his gang, and the rest to pay himself. I guess that makes it kinda like The Green Hornet if he had a bunch of Dick Tracy hoodlums instead of Kato and was motivated by profit. Come to think, Captain Satan doesn't really have a cool costume or anything either.
Captain Satan's gang are given a lot of space in both adventures since Satan is always instructing them and getting information from them. In “Mask of the Damned” there's an impostor tossed into their ranks and in “Parole for the Dead” we see the initiation of new recruits. Satan does some things on his own, but mostly he seems to rely very heavily on this bunch.
The stories are told in limited 3rd person, remaining with Captain Satan or Cary Aldair and never cheating out to the villains or others. We never get to see his agents get into adventures or peril and Captain Satan himself seems to get one close shave per story.
A lot of the 1930s pulp conventions are observed here and those are the parts that make it fun. One villain plans to execute a heist from the treasury which somehow involves creating doubles for leaders in D.C., another fakes the deaths of wealthy prisoners and can hypnotize people by staring at them. There are some nice touches with secret lairs and action set-pieces are doled out at a reliable rate. The only real problem is that Captain Satan himself is somewhat uninspired and he gets off a little too easy, plenty of shooting and not enough peril.
If you've ever seen the 1940s Batman serials, Cary Aldair acts precisely the way Bruce Wayne does in those, with the yawning and all.
This is a like a lot of pulp heroes, what with the vigilante crime-fighting, the secret identity, and symbol to strike terror into the hearts of criminals, etc. The law looks on him as a criminal and he kinda sorta is since he steals from all the criminals he takes on and uses some of the money to pay his gang, and the rest to pay himself. I guess that makes it kinda like The Green Hornet if he had a bunch of Dick Tracy hoodlums instead of Kato and was motivated by profit. Come to think, Captain Satan doesn't really have a cool costume or anything either.
Captain Satan's gang are given a lot of space in both adventures since Satan is always instructing them and getting information from them. In “Mask of the Damned” there's an impostor tossed into their ranks and in “Parole for the Dead” we see the initiation of new recruits. Satan does some things on his own, but mostly he seems to rely very heavily on this bunch.
The stories are told in limited 3rd person, remaining with Captain Satan or Cary Aldair and never cheating out to the villains or others. We never get to see his agents get into adventures or peril and Captain Satan himself seems to get one close shave per story.
A lot of the 1930s pulp conventions are observed here and those are the parts that make it fun. One villain plans to execute a heist from the treasury which somehow involves creating doubles for leaders in D.C., another fakes the deaths of wealthy prisoners and can hypnotize people by staring at them. There are some nice touches with secret lairs and action set-pieces are doled out at a reliable rate. The only real problem is that Captain Satan himself is somewhat uninspired and he gets off a little too easy, plenty of shooting and not enough peril.
September 10, 2013
Reprinting pulp fiction from the 30's and 40's has become something of a cottage business, made feasible by print-on-demand technology and internet logistics that makes printing and delivering even a single copy profitable. Generally the publishers of such fare concentrate on a series, an author, or a combination. What really makes these reprints work is when the stories and novellas are accompanied by background information, so they do not exist without context. The two short novels in this first volume of a two-volume set are presented without context, unless you count a somewhat cynical blurb on the back cover: "Commanding high prices on the vintage pulp market, this classic series is now available -- complete in two deluxe volumes."
Two volumes. Two stories in the first, three stories in the second...it is the complete series, though a very short one, but without any background material, the stories on their own are unremarkable, even banal, the plot only moderately more developed than the rudimentary characters. Popular Publications created more than 300 pulp magazines during its run, and at one time had 42 different titles on the newsstands. One of those was "Strange Detective Mysteries," which carried the tagline "Bizarre, thrilling, eerie-laden mystery stories," and generally delivered what it promised. It began publication with the October 1937 issue. However, with the March 1938 issue and continuing to July of that year, the magazine's name was change to "Captain Satan," and a novella about that title character took the lead in each of the five issues. Why? The obvious reason was that Popular Publications was test marketing the idea of a single-character magazine, an idea which had proved very successful for rival publisher Street & Smith with The Shadow, The Avenger, Doc Savage and Nick Carter. Unfortunately for Popular Publications, "Captain Satan" was not near as good as the competition, and that was likely why it was shelved after only five issues, the magazine reverting back to its old name, which it carried till its cancellation in 1943. As to William O'Sullivan, it was likely a house name used by more than one author, and appeared as the author of everything from air adventure to fight stories to westerns.
As to the stories themselves, their strength lies in the plotting, or at least the idea for the plot. In the first tale, "The Mask of the Damned," the director of the FBI confides to his friend, wealthy clubman Cary Adair (alias Captain Satan), that he suspects something wrong in the government, that the President and high-ranking officials are taking actions that will strip the defenses of the United States. They are not acting like themselves. It could have been a great story, but it becomes a scam for a gold heist.
In "Parole for the Dead," rich convicts are dying in prison, or at least they appear to die, though no one can say for sure because the features are obliterated. Fingerprints would have settled the matter, but no one thought to take them, a conspicuous lapse even given the time period. The clumsy actions of Captain Satan and his crew batter the plot to death.
As for Captain Satan himself, he's arrogant and dismissive, rash and not very good in a fist fight, but he does seem able to handle both a gun and a branding iron. His "crew" is more like Our Gang with brass knuckles than a match for Doc Savage's Fabulous Five brain-trust. He claims to attack crooks because they are crooks, but I suspect it's really because no one cares if you steal from a crook; and if a gangster shows up with Satan-shaped brands on his face...well, he's a gangster, isn't he? Even in the slap-dash, writing-for-hellbent, penny-a-word, no-second-draft world of pulp fiction, Captain Satan is hardly a high-water mark...more like low tide. You will probably enjoy the stories for the fast action and imaginative plots, but you really won't wonder why it only laster five issues.
Two volumes. Two stories in the first, three stories in the second...it is the complete series, though a very short one, but without any background material, the stories on their own are unremarkable, even banal, the plot only moderately more developed than the rudimentary characters. Popular Publications created more than 300 pulp magazines during its run, and at one time had 42 different titles on the newsstands. One of those was "Strange Detective Mysteries," which carried the tagline "Bizarre, thrilling, eerie-laden mystery stories," and generally delivered what it promised. It began publication with the October 1937 issue. However, with the March 1938 issue and continuing to July of that year, the magazine's name was change to "Captain Satan," and a novella about that title character took the lead in each of the five issues. Why? The obvious reason was that Popular Publications was test marketing the idea of a single-character magazine, an idea which had proved very successful for rival publisher Street & Smith with The Shadow, The Avenger, Doc Savage and Nick Carter. Unfortunately for Popular Publications, "Captain Satan" was not near as good as the competition, and that was likely why it was shelved after only five issues, the magazine reverting back to its old name, which it carried till its cancellation in 1943. As to William O'Sullivan, it was likely a house name used by more than one author, and appeared as the author of everything from air adventure to fight stories to westerns.
As to the stories themselves, their strength lies in the plotting, or at least the idea for the plot. In the first tale, "The Mask of the Damned," the director of the FBI confides to his friend, wealthy clubman Cary Adair (alias Captain Satan), that he suspects something wrong in the government, that the President and high-ranking officials are taking actions that will strip the defenses of the United States. They are not acting like themselves. It could have been a great story, but it becomes a scam for a gold heist.
In "Parole for the Dead," rich convicts are dying in prison, or at least they appear to die, though no one can say for sure because the features are obliterated. Fingerprints would have settled the matter, but no one thought to take them, a conspicuous lapse even given the time period. The clumsy actions of Captain Satan and his crew batter the plot to death.
As for Captain Satan himself, he's arrogant and dismissive, rash and not very good in a fist fight, but he does seem able to handle both a gun and a branding iron. His "crew" is more like Our Gang with brass knuckles than a match for Doc Savage's Fabulous Five brain-trust. He claims to attack crooks because they are crooks, but I suspect it's really because no one cares if you steal from a crook; and if a gangster shows up with Satan-shaped brands on his face...well, he's a gangster, isn't he? Even in the slap-dash, writing-for-hellbent, penny-a-word, no-second-draft world of pulp fiction, Captain Satan is hardly a high-water mark...more like low tide. You will probably enjoy the stories for the fast action and imaginative plots, but you really won't wonder why it only laster five issues.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews