Uncle Scrooge #336, Vol. 336 Book

This book is a collection of Tom Johnson's original, modern, pulp hero. Tom has been working in the neo-pulp movement as a publisher and writer (Echoes and related zines). His writings has included new stories of classic characters and stories of new characters.

His Black Ghost character is one of his original characters. Unlike other neo-pulp characters, this character is set in modern times. Another change is that he marries his girlfriend, which was unknown with the pulp heroes who either had no girlfriends, or they were pinning for the time they could retire and settle down. And his now wife helps him out in his activities as the Black Ghost, sometimes disguising herself as the BG to throw off the villians.

The Black Ghost is really young Jimmy Malone. His father was a cop, killed in the line of duty, and his stepfather is a police detective. At a young age, he was trained by an elderly couple, who were retired super spies (these characters are based on a pair of obscure pulp characters. Since Altus Press has reprinted all their stories, with a new one by Johnson, there is little excuse to be ignorant of them). He created the persona of Compere, but the underworld calls him the Black Ghost. He wear an all-black outfit, carries guns, and has other items to scare and throw off his foes, as well as being an expert fighter. In many ways he is an attempt at creating an original, Shadow-like pulp hero.

This book collects 2 stories. One is "Black Ghost", when the character was a kid. This was a combination of 4 early stories into a single novelette. The 4 stories appeared in issues of "Pulp Fiction Magazine", while the novelette appeared in an issue of Tom Johnson's "Classic Pulp Fiction Stories". While not quite an 'origin' story, but more of a 'young Black Ghost' story, which also explains how he met those old ex-spies.

The "The Spider's Web" is a long story that fills most of the volume. Not sure if this is long enough to be a novel, maybe a novela. It is a sequel to one of the stories in the first Black Ghost collection ("Guns of the Black Ghost"). We have the Black Ghost go up against a very strong foe, whose identity is not known (there are a couple of red herrings). And he adds to his network of agents. Its clear that this story leaves it open to further Black Ghost stories. I look forward to it.

Now for some negatives. There are a couple. One is I saw a few typos, something I see too much with the small presses. The second is the cover. When I first saw the book at Tom Johnson's website, I wasn't interested in the book, not realizing it was a Black Ghost work. At least some text to say "A Black Ghost Adventure" might have helped.