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The Golden Age
The Golden Age
Published from 1939-56, the Standard/Better/Nedor characters are largely forgotten by today's comic book fans. Now, pulp author and comic afficionado Jeff Deischer brings these classic heroes back in an all-new adventure. In 1942, the world is at war. Spies and saboteurs seem to lurk around every corner in America. But, in the shadows, real danger awaits. Following the Battle of Midway, the Dragon Society of Imperial Japan sends agents on a secret mission to knock the U.S. out of the war. And only the superheroes of the Auric Universe can stop them. Join the superheroes of the Golden Age in this epic new saga that pulp author and interviewer Art Sippo called "a terrific read--it doesn't get any better than this!" Includes an Introduction by comics and pulp historian Will Murray.
282 pages, Paperback
First published September 18, 2013
7 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Deischer
113 books9 followersJeff Deischer is best known for his chronologically-minded essays, particularly the book-length The Man of Bronze: a Definitive Chronology, about the pulp DOC SAVAGE series. It is a definitive chronology, rather than the definitive chronology, he explains, because each chronologist of the DOC SAVAGE series has his own rules for constructing his own chronology. Jeff believes his own chronology to be the definitive one – using his rules, which were set down by Philip Jose Farmer in his book, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
Jeff was born in 1961, a few years too late, in his opinion. He missed out on the Beatles, the beginning of the Marvel Age of comic books and the early years of the Bantam reprints of the DOC SAVAGE series, the latter two of which he began reading when he was about ten years old (on the other hand, he was too young to go to Viet Nam …).
Jeff had become enamored of Heroes – with a capital “H”, for these were not ordinary men – at a very young age. He grew up watching DANIEL BOONE (to whom he is distantly related, by marriage), TARZAN, BATMAN, THE LONE RANGER and ZORRO on television. There is a large “Z” carved into his mother’s sewing machine that can attest to this fact (as you might imagine, it did not impress her the way it always did the peasants and soldiers on ZORRO).
This genre of fiction made a lasting impression on his creative view, and everything he writes has Good Guys and Bad Guys – in capital letters. As an adult writer, he tries to make his characters human, as well.
Jeff began writing as a young teenager, and, predictably, all of it was bad. He started to write seriously while in college, but spent the next decade creating characters and universes and planning stories without seeing much of it to fruition. This wasted time is his biggest regret in life.
In the early 1990s, Jeff began a correspondence with noted pulp historian and novelist Will Murray, while he was writing both the DOC SAVAGE and THE DESTROYER series (THE DESTROYER #102 is actually dedicated to Jeff). Jeff currently consults on Will Murray’s DOC SAVAGE books (as evidenced by the acknowledgements pages in the novels of “The Wild Adventures of …” series), a privilege that he enjoys. Will Murray’s sage advice helped turn Jeff into a true author.
Producing few books over the next few years, Jeff’s writing finally attained professional grade, and, after being laid off from the auto industry in 2007, he was able to devote more time to writing. From 2008, he produced an average of three books a year, most of it fiction, and most of that pulp. Reading so much of the writing of Lester Dent, the first, most prolific and best of those using the DOC SAVAGE house name “Kenneth Robeson”, Jeff’s own natural style is similar to Dent’s. He “turns this up” when writing pulp, and “turns this down” when writing non-pulp fiction.
Jeff primarily writes fiction, and, combining his twin loves of superheroes and pulp, began THE GOLDEN AGE series in 2012. This resurrected, revamped and revitalized the largely forgotten characters of Ned Pines’ Standard, Better and Nedor publishing companies. These characters, drawn from superhero, pulp and mystic milieus, fill the “Auric Universe”, as Jeff calls it.
Jeff’s webpage is jeffdeischer.blogspot.com, where he posts the first chapters of his novels, so that potential readers can peruse his work without having to spend several dollars on a trade paperback to find out if they like it or not.
Jeff was born in 1961, a few years too late, in his opinion. He missed out on the Beatles, the beginning of the Marvel Age of comic books and the early years of the Bantam reprints of the DOC SAVAGE series, the latter two of which he began reading when he was about ten years old (on the other hand, he was too young to go to Viet Nam …).
Jeff had become enamored of Heroes – with a capital “H”, for these were not ordinary men – at a very young age. He grew up watching DANIEL BOONE (to whom he is distantly related, by marriage), TARZAN, BATMAN, THE LONE RANGER and ZORRO on television. There is a large “Z” carved into his mother’s sewing machine that can attest to this fact (as you might imagine, it did not impress her the way it always did the peasants and soldiers on ZORRO).
This genre of fiction made a lasting impression on his creative view, and everything he writes has Good Guys and Bad Guys – in capital letters. As an adult writer, he tries to make his characters human, as well.
Jeff began writing as a young teenager, and, predictably, all of it was bad. He started to write seriously while in college, but spent the next decade creating characters and universes and planning stories without seeing much of it to fruition. This wasted time is his biggest regret in life.
In the early 1990s, Jeff began a correspondence with noted pulp historian and novelist Will Murray, while he was writing both the DOC SAVAGE and THE DESTROYER series (THE DESTROYER #102 is actually dedicated to Jeff). Jeff currently consults on Will Murray’s DOC SAVAGE books (as evidenced by the acknowledgements pages in the novels of “The Wild Adventures of …” series), a privilege that he enjoys. Will Murray’s sage advice helped turn Jeff into a true author.
Producing few books over the next few years, Jeff’s writing finally attained professional grade, and, after being laid off from the auto industry in 2007, he was able to devote more time to writing. From 2008, he produced an average of three books a year, most of it fiction, and most of that pulp. Reading so much of the writing of Lester Dent, the first, most prolific and best of those using the DOC SAVAGE house name “Kenneth Robeson”, Jeff’s own natural style is similar to Dent’s. He “turns this up” when writing pulp, and “turns this down” when writing non-pulp fiction.
Jeff primarily writes fiction, and, combining his twin loves of superheroes and pulp, began THE GOLDEN AGE series in 2012. This resurrected, revamped and revitalized the largely forgotten characters of Ned Pines’ Standard, Better and Nedor publishing companies. These characters, drawn from superhero, pulp and mystic milieus, fill the “Auric Universe”, as Jeff calls it.
Jeff’s webpage is jeffdeischer.blogspot.com, where he posts the first chapters of his novels, so that potential readers can peruse his work without having to spend several dollars on a trade paperback to find out if they like it or not.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 10, 2017
Very good translation of these Golden Age comic characters from comic to prose. The addition of several Pulp characters was a nice surprise. Overall this series is a good entertaining read for a Pulp or Golden Age comic fan. Recommended
July 25, 2024
The start of Deischer's Auric Universe series, these are his versions of the public domain Standard/Better/Nedor comic-book heroes of the 1940s. The plot has to do with a joint Nazi/Japanese Dragon Society scheme to unleash a dirty bomb in NYC. Along the way, dozens of heroes foil parts of the plan without grasping the full extent of what's going on. This mosaic format allows Deischer to simulate the period's short, direct comic-book style in prose. A lot of characters make an appearance with only minimal influence on the overall plot; I would've preferred a more integrated ensemble effect. But perhaps these introductions will be fleshed out in further adventures.
One thing that bothered me: The villains are suitably villainous, but fit all too well into the racist and jingoistic attitudes of the day. Positing a vast cadre of Japanese sleeper saboteurs, Deischer explicitly justifies the internment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent in concentration camps, one of the most shameful injustices of the U.S. government during the war. The use of alarmist paranoid propaganda to justify government misdeeds is authentic to the time, but need not be reinforced by a better-informed modern writer. A little retroactive queasiness at the wholesale violation of civil rights from one of the idealistic heroes might've gone a long way toward undercutting future uses of this hate-mongering strategy (especially as one of our current Presidential candidates is gleefully touting the use of concentration camps and mass deportations of immigrants). In a novel all about fighting evil, it's always good to keep in mind how some readers might see in your prose justifications for future evils.
One thing that bothered me: The villains are suitably villainous, but fit all too well into the racist and jingoistic attitudes of the day. Positing a vast cadre of Japanese sleeper saboteurs, Deischer explicitly justifies the internment of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent in concentration camps, one of the most shameful injustices of the U.S. government during the war. The use of alarmist paranoid propaganda to justify government misdeeds is authentic to the time, but need not be reinforced by a better-informed modern writer. A little retroactive queasiness at the wholesale violation of civil rights from one of the idealistic heroes might've gone a long way toward undercutting future uses of this hate-mongering strategy (especially as one of our current Presidential candidates is gleefully touting the use of concentration camps and mass deportations of immigrants). In a novel all about fighting evil, it's always good to keep in mind how some readers might see in your prose justifications for future evils.
March 10, 2018
Wow, this is the stuff boyish dreams are made of: In a time long ago the Golden age of heroes were born. Doc Savage, The spider and a plethora of powered and non powered heroes too many to mention. In those naïve days the heroes were square jawed and fair, the heroines were beautiful and curvy. Science, magic and just plain two fisted determination were the origins in these simpler times.
Whether fighting Nazi spies or world conquering villains, the heroes played it square.
This novel beautifully captures this era and reintroduces us to characters long forgotten and their origins reminding the reader of those bygone days.
It shows how the characters have evolved from these gentlemen heroes to the slightly psychotic heroes that we have today, how our tastes have changed to fit the times.
A brilliant read for all us golden oldies who may remember those heroes of the Golden age.
Whether fighting Nazi spies or world conquering villains, the heroes played it square.
This novel beautifully captures this era and reintroduces us to characters long forgotten and their origins reminding the reader of those bygone days.
It shows how the characters have evolved from these gentlemen heroes to the slightly psychotic heroes that we have today, how our tastes have changed to fit the times.
A brilliant read for all us golden oldies who may remember those heroes of the Golden age.
January 2, 2018
Almost collaoses hnder the weight of so many characters, but still an insane thrill ride.
If you’re a fan of masked vigilantes, this is definitely the book for you. It ticks all my personal boxes for a great book. Plenty of action, characters of whom I’d love to read more, and the intriguing notion of heroes working together but unwittingly to discover and stop a deadly plot. For edge-of-your-seat pulp heroics, you won’t find much better than The Golden Age!
If you’re a fan of masked vigilantes, this is definitely the book for you. It ticks all my personal boxes for a great book. Plenty of action, characters of whom I’d love to read more, and the intriguing notion of heroes working together but unwittingly to discover and stop a deadly plot. For edge-of-your-seat pulp heroics, you won’t find much better than The Golden Age!
January 17, 2015
A really good prose re-imagining of the Nedor heroes. Be warned, since these are public domain characters this is the author's own version of them based on the source material, and there are some variations which is to be expected. Though they have the same names, don't expect exactly the same characters which appear in Moore's Terra Obscura or Dynamite's Project Superpowers series.
Some other reviews mention that there are two many characters, and I kind of agreed while reading it. There's a very large cast and he does brief origin recaps for each hero. There's an afterword however which explains his goal of making this a mosaic, like each chapter is a separate issue of a comic and they're each discovering a part of the master plan. Viewed as a prose version of a modern day 'event' type crossover it works better, but I think it needed a bit more connective tissue between each chapter. Plus (and this is a fault of the source material, not the writer) each of the waspy, bland secret ID names sort of blended together.
Another plus is the author really gets the pulp style, and in a couple of appropriate places I could mistake him for Lester Dent (the afterword acknowledges the influence). I really hope this guy gets a chance to do an official Doc Savage novel some day.
I'm looking forward to more books in this series.
Some other reviews mention that there are two many characters, and I kind of agreed while reading it. There's a very large cast and he does brief origin recaps for each hero. There's an afterword however which explains his goal of making this a mosaic, like each chapter is a separate issue of a comic and they're each discovering a part of the master plan. Viewed as a prose version of a modern day 'event' type crossover it works better, but I think it needed a bit more connective tissue between each chapter. Plus (and this is a fault of the source material, not the writer) each of the waspy, bland secret ID names sort of blended together.
Another plus is the author really gets the pulp style, and in a couple of appropriate places I could mistake him for Lester Dent (the afterword acknowledges the influence). I really hope this guy gets a chance to do an official Doc Savage novel some day.
I'm looking forward to more books in this series.
March 5, 2014
This take on the public domain super-hero craze of recent years was entertaining. It read like a standard pulp magazine, and there was a huge variety of characters ...perhaps a few too many actually. The kitchen-sink approach really wasn't necessary, and I think concentrating on several mystery-men instead of so many might have made for a better tale.
I also wasn't too charmed by the transformation of Doc Strange into Doc Marvel, a Doc Savage clone. Strange was more of a literal Superman than a superman like Savage. I know the author was drawing on his love of the pulps, but this was more blatant copy than homage.
The story itself was fine, but the loose ends were rounded up much too quickly at the end. The author used the last 25% of the book to detail the history of his world, which he had just revealed to us in the story. And then biographical references to all the characters. It was all padding that was unnecessary and the space could've been used for story content instead.
The e-book's formatting was also very inconsistent, with chapters beginning at the bottom of a page, the middle, weird margins, etc.
I'm hoping the author's follow-ups are given a little more care than this one. I'll give them a try, simply because I love the mystery-men of this era.
I also wasn't too charmed by the transformation of Doc Strange into Doc Marvel, a Doc Savage clone. Strange was more of a literal Superman than a superman like Savage. I know the author was drawing on his love of the pulps, but this was more blatant copy than homage.
The story itself was fine, but the loose ends were rounded up much too quickly at the end. The author used the last 25% of the book to detail the history of his world, which he had just revealed to us in the story. And then biographical references to all the characters. It was all padding that was unnecessary and the space could've been used for story content instead.
The e-book's formatting was also very inconsistent, with chapters beginning at the bottom of a page, the middle, weird margins, etc.
I'm hoping the author's follow-ups are given a little more care than this one. I'll give them a try, simply because I love the mystery-men of this era.
October 8, 2014
An interesting idea, take a bunch of super heroes type characters from the 30s and early 40s who were published by companies long out of business and put them in a pulp novel instead of a comic book. Do a Homage to a couple different genres.
Problem was it was far too much. There had to be 30 "heroes" in the story, and it was very difficult to really keep track of what was going on with all their comings and goings. Plus the main story was just wrapped up way too fast.
Great idea for a nice fun none too serious read, but it just didnt come off
Problem was it was far too much. There had to be 30 "heroes" in the story, and it was very difficult to really keep track of what was going on with all their comings and goings. Plus the main story was just wrapped up way too fast.
Great idea for a nice fun none too serious read, but it just didnt come off
July 7, 2015
This is a book that revives the heroes created by a nearly forgotten pulp and comic book publisher of the 1930s and 40s.
It's the story of how a number of the heroes gathered in order to fight against a threat too big for any individual hero to handle.
It's fairly entertaining, but could really be more exciting. There were a large number of editorial and formatting mistakes in my copy that were very distracting.
Still, a lot of fun.
It's the story of how a number of the heroes gathered in order to fight against a threat too big for any individual hero to handle.
It's fairly entertaining, but could really be more exciting. There were a large number of editorial and formatting mistakes in my copy that were very distracting.
Still, a lot of fun.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews