Secret Agent "X" – The Complete Series, Volume 2

Introduction by Will Murray

THIS second Altus Press volume of the exploits of Secret Agent “X” begins with the story originally published in the magazine’s fifth issue, dated June 1934.

“City of the Living Dead” was blurbed in the previous issue as “City of Living Death” and was going to be set in the mythical Midland City. This was rechristened Branford. Why both story title and locale name were changed is one of those unsolvable pulp mysteries. As is the author of this novel.

Paul Chadwick ghosted the initial quartet of the Agent’s adventures. He may have written this one as well. But I have never been entirely comfortable with this identification. The story seems to deviate from the atmospheric Chadwick style which flavored not only this series, but his Wade Hammond tales running in Ten Detective Aces at the same time. And the still-growing collection of secret aliases is entirely absent. But if Chadwick didn’t write this one, who did? The truth is as impenetrable as the enigmatic “X’s” true identity.

Twenty years after publication of this story, DC Comics discovered that comic books with gorillas splashed on the cover caused sales to jump dramatically. This led to a tidal wave of gorilla covers in the 1950s and ’60s, which has since abated.

Evidenced by the dearth of Depression-era gorilla covers, pulp editors never caught on to this sure-fire sales gimmick. One wonders if Secret Agent “X” editor Rose Wyn noticed a bump in circulation with this issue, and if she thought H. W. Reusswig’s cover factored into the equation.

The July issue of Secret Agent “X” was skipped, indicating trouble meeting the monthly deadline. Had Chadwick stumbled? Or did the fault lie with whoever wrote “City of the Living Dead”?

In any case, a new Brant House soon stepped forth. The author behind “Hand of Horror” (August, 1934) has been identified as Emile C. Tepperman. Before two years passed, he would be ghosting the adventures of The Spider and Operator #5 for Popular Publications. He’s also suspected of writing a few Phantom Detective novels for the Thrilling chain, such as “The Murder Syndicate” and “The Web of Murder.” His chief claim to pulp fame were the long-running “Masked Marksman” stories from The Spider and his “Suicide Squad” series which headlined Ace G-Men. But in 1934, he was new to the field, writing his Marty Quade thrillers for Ten Detective Aces. This is his first pulp novel, and already his hardboiled style is in evidence. But “Tepp’s” characteristic lighhearted touch is not. The unremittingly grim realm of Secret Agent “X” was no place for that. “Hand of Horror” is a credibly grisly first effort by a writer who went on to pen more “X” mysteries.

“Octopus of Crime” (September, 1934) may be one of Paul Chadwick’s top Secret Agent “X” novels. It certainly is pivotal. In this story, he returns to the series he originated with a vengeance. Here Chadwick introduces disgraced former cop, Jim Hobart, who will loom large in many adventures to come. Hobart went on to organize the Hobart Detective Agency, an important limb of the Agent’s growing crime-crushing organization. In his pre-“X” days, Paul Chadwick was the Street Smith editor in change of Air Trails, and penned many pulp tales of heroic aviators. In this story, he gives “X” a small fleet of aircraft, one of which, the Blue Comet, will serve our hero well in the exciting exploits to come — as long as Chadwick was writing them at least.

“Octopus of Crime” also occupies a minor footnote in Golden Age comic book history as well. In 1940, the parent company of Periodical House — known by that time as Ace — launched a comic book line. One of their first superheroes was Magno, the Magnetic Man. His origin story, from Super-Mystery Comics #1 (July, 1940) was a bald retelling of “Octopus of Crime,” with Magno taking the role of Secret Agent “X,” who had his own comic strip under the name of The Phantom Fed in Sure-Fire Comics.

Rounding out this volume is another strong series entry — Chadwick’s “The Hooded Hordes” (September, 1934). If ever a Secret Agent “X” story read like it had been plotted for Popular’s Operator #5, this is it. Nothing less than the fate and future of the United States of America rests in the hands of the unknown agent. The true-life inspirations for most “X” novels are difficult to trace, 75 years later. But this one is not.

In 1934, The Special Committee on Un-American Activities was formed to look into Nazi propaganda then infiltrating the U.S. and into the influence of other “foreign subversives.” It uncovered what was dubbed the Business Plot — an unsuccessful effort by fascists to seize control of the White House. In 1938, it was supplanted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, otherwise HUAC — which sounds very much like this story’s DOACs — Defenders of the American Constitution. HUAC would look into the Ku Klux Klan, and the Communist Party, but it was Red subversion more than any other entity which inspired “The Hooded Hordes.”

Their cruel employment of bombs and molten lead as means of intimidation harkens back to the acid-wielding extortionists of the inaugural Secret Agent “X” novel, “The Torture Trust.” Several top pulpsters contributed to this series, but only Paul Chadwick plumbed the true cold depths of pulpy horror.

Operating behind a multiplicity of aliases like The Shadow, and whistling mysteriously like a melancholy Doc Savage, Secret Agent “X” battled diabolical forces and foes the likes of which neither classic Street Smith hero ever faced. Turn the page and see why “X” stands apart in a dark pulp world unique to only him.