Resurrecting The Ghost

Yep – I've been roped into yet another pulp hero revival. Here's the official press release from Wild Cat Books:

The Ghost lives!

Wild Cat Books proudly announces The Ghost, an upcoming pulp anthology featuring brand new stories by some of today’s most acclaimed writers of mystery, horror, and science fiction. The Ghost, a fascinating, nearly forgotten pulp hero, is magician detective George Chance, (later known as the Green Ghost), whose thrilling adventures were originally written by G.T. Fleming-Roberts, pseudonym of George Thomas Roberts, a prolific contributor to pulp magazines. As The Ghost, chance adopts a terrifying disguise, using his superior skill as an illusionist and master escape artist, to battle the criminal underworld.

The Ghost resurrection is the collaborative brainchild of Wild Cat founder and publisher Ron Hanna, who has been printing new editions of pulp material for over a decade, and writer/editor Martin Powell, a contributor not only to moonstone’s eagerly awaited pulp anthologies reviving The Spider, The Phantom, The Avenger, and Captain Midnight, but was also a featured writer in Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles, which earned a Bram Stoker nomination.

"About a year ago, publisher Ron Hanna approached me with the idea of doing something new with The Ghost, an old favorite character for both of us," Powell said. "He generously gave me the freedom to select my own writers and illustrator, and I immediately knew exactly who I wanted for the book. As busy as all of these guys are, I was genuinely surprised when every single writer that I’d hand-picked enthusiastically joined the project. Already this has been an awesome experience."

The featured "ghost writers" are an impressive group, including: James Chambers (The Midnight Hour), Win Scott Eckert (Tales of the Shadowmen Vol. 3), Mike Frigon (Doctor Satan), Joe Gentile (Kolchak The Night Stalker & Sherlock Holmes), Howard Hopkins (Night Demons), Christopher Mills (Femme Noir), and Powell himself. Larry Marshall (Flying Models) is on board as co-editor.

Thomas L. Floyd, creator of the web-comic strip, Captain Spectre, has also joined The Ghost, contributing a new painted cover and providing a series of b&w interior illustrations, as well.

Hanna and Powell also hint at a major surprise within the covers of The Ghost, yet to be announced, that they guarantee will give pulp fans a reason to celebrate.

The resurrection of the ghost promises to be as cool a pulp publishing "event" as anything that's come before!

So... let's see now. That makes three vintage pulp heroes I'm messing with: The Spider, The Avenger and The Ghost. Captain Midnight doesn't count – pulp magazines were just about the only medium the good Captain didn't appear in. Still, one of these days, I really should get back to writing about some characters of my own! :)

At least, The Ghost is more of a straight-forward detective (albeit one with a gimmick) so at least I'm moving back towards the genre of pure crime fiction... which, as we know, is where my heart really lies.