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G-8 and His Battle Aces #2
Purple Aces
Captured American airmen, their faces a ghastly purple, are leading savage suicide attacks against their own men. Backed by his Battle Aces, G-8 uses all his powers of disguise and daring to smash the devilish plot - and all his fighting nerve as his Squad takes to the air against the mystery staffel of the Purple Aces.
157 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 4, 2021
G-8 was a pulp magazine hero who starred in 11o novels written by Robert J. Hogan under his own name from October, 1933 to June, 1944. G-8, who is never named, was a World War One fighter pilot, though his adventures obviously spanned far longer than the real timeline and into the next World War. He has an assistant/butler name Battle, and two wingmen, Nippy Weston in #7 and Bull Martin in #13. He fought a baffling array of German madmen, often with supernatural or science-fictional connections. I enjoyed reading a handful of them, but after a few it struck me that they were pretty similar. In this one, from the second issue, dated November, 1933, captured American airmen return with purple faces and lead attacks against their own allies. Steranko provided a nifty cover for this second volume in the Berkeley reprint series of the early 1970s. Keep 'em flyin'!
June 30, 2017
I am a fan of the pulps and I've been reading Doc Savage for years, so I write this review with the knowledge that these books were written quickly and not meant to be more than fun adventurous yarns. So why is it that Doc Savage appeals to me and this was a grind?
First, there are no interesting characters. G-8 is bland and has virtually no personality whatsoever. His two colleagues, Bull Martin and Nippy Weston are pretty one-dimensional and yet they're more interesting than our lead. G-8's manservant, Battle, takes everything literally to the point of being absolutely absurd. Adding to his caricature is his use of "sir" at the end of almost every sentence to the point of becoming unbearable.
Second, the action isn't very interesting. The description of the aerial combat quickly became redundant. There are three of four major aerial scenes, but they all more or less read the same. G-8 is supposed to be a master of disguise, but his disguises all seemed to be based on the number of scars he would place on his face.
(SPOILERS)
So that leaves the nefarious plot. The initial idea, that the enemy has somehow found a way to turn allied pilots against their own country and leaves them with a purple spade on their face, was a nice pulpy idea. But even that gets sidelined. A mad scientist develops a technique to turn people and animals into their opposites, but he destroys the method before the enemy can use it. So instead they just hypnotize the pilots. A rather bland idea considering the alternative. Lastly, once the hypnotist is killed, the spell is magically broken on everyone he hypnotized, as though he were the head vampire in Lost Boys. (Three pilots who volunteered to a suicide run simply don't do it once the hypnotist is killed even though they would have no way of knowing he died.) Unfortunately, that was the most interesting part of the book and it wasn't very interesting. They took their one good idea and didn't even use it.
The one thing I did like was that there was a little continuity in that they referenced their previous adventures and the mad Doktor Krueger, the villain the first adventure, reappears.
Sadly, I cannot recommend this to even the most ardent pulp enthusiast. It simply wasn't very good.
First, there are no interesting characters. G-8 is bland and has virtually no personality whatsoever. His two colleagues, Bull Martin and Nippy Weston are pretty one-dimensional and yet they're more interesting than our lead. G-8's manservant, Battle, takes everything literally to the point of being absolutely absurd. Adding to his caricature is his use of "sir" at the end of almost every sentence to the point of becoming unbearable.
Second, the action isn't very interesting. The description of the aerial combat quickly became redundant. There are three of four major aerial scenes, but they all more or less read the same. G-8 is supposed to be a master of disguise, but his disguises all seemed to be based on the number of scars he would place on his face.
(SPOILERS)
So that leaves the nefarious plot. The initial idea, that the enemy has somehow found a way to turn allied pilots against their own country and leaves them with a purple spade on their face, was a nice pulpy idea. But even that gets sidelined. A mad scientist develops a technique to turn people and animals into their opposites, but he destroys the method before the enemy can use it. So instead they just hypnotize the pilots. A rather bland idea considering the alternative. Lastly, once the hypnotist is killed, the spell is magically broken on everyone he hypnotized, as though he were the head vampire in Lost Boys. (Three pilots who volunteered to a suicide run simply don't do it once the hypnotist is killed even though they would have no way of knowing he died.) Unfortunately, that was the most interesting part of the book and it wasn't very interesting. They took their one good idea and didn't even use it.
The one thing I did like was that there was a little continuity in that they referenced their previous adventures and the mad Doktor Krueger, the villain the first adventure, reappears.
Sadly, I cannot recommend this to even the most ardent pulp enthusiast. It simply wasn't very good.
March 21, 2018
G-8 returns along with sidekicks Nippy, Bull, and his comic-relief butler “Battle”. This time he must solve the mystery of captured American pilots returning as puple-faced German pilots hell-bent on killing themselves in aerial combat.
This time most of the sweet WW1 dogfights are kinda crammed together in the first half. The second half has all the master-of-disguise and spy stuff. It makes for a kind of weird balance, but it worked out alright.
In a few senses, this entry wasn't as strong as the first one. G-8 seems to have less to do in general and the story seems to basically lose interest in the mystery towards the end. There is some cool stuff about the castle of this mad baron who had a hidden torture chamber and a secret trail through a deadly swamp. There's also a Svengali-type villain and a disfigured guy out for revenge.
The copy I read was a 1970 Berkley-Medallion edition, so there was no extra stuff, but the story was good enough. Apart from the fact that the character of Battle keeps popping up like a running gag, this was still pretty much worthwhile.
This time most of the sweet WW1 dogfights are kinda crammed together in the first half. The second half has all the master-of-disguise and spy stuff. It makes for a kind of weird balance, but it worked out alright.
In a few senses, this entry wasn't as strong as the first one. G-8 seems to have less to do in general and the story seems to basically lose interest in the mystery towards the end. There is some cool stuff about the castle of this mad baron who had a hidden torture chamber and a secret trail through a deadly swamp. There's also a Svengali-type villain and a disfigured guy out for revenge.
The copy I read was a 1970 Berkley-Medallion edition, so there was no extra stuff, but the story was good enough. Apart from the fact that the character of Battle keeps popping up like a running gag, this was still pretty much worthwhile.
May 14, 2021
(SAME AS MY REVIEW FOR The Bat Staffel)
Need to add a special "pulp" or "nostalgia" shelf for this and probably others. My Dad grew up reading these as a kid, and when they reprinted some of them in the early 70's, be bought the first couple and I know I read at least the first two - and who could forget those classic covers by MARVEL legend Jim Steranko?
Otherwise, don't remember a thing about it - but I do remember Dad getting kind of goofy excited about seeing them again, and telling me who G-8 and sidekick Nippy Weston and manservant Battle were...miss you, Dad.
Need to add a special "pulp" or "nostalgia" shelf for this and probably others. My Dad grew up reading these as a kid, and when they reprinted some of them in the early 70's, be bought the first couple and I know I read at least the first two - and who could forget those classic covers by MARVEL legend Jim Steranko?
Otherwise, don't remember a thing about it - but I do remember Dad getting kind of goofy excited about seeing them again, and telling me who G-8 and sidekick Nippy Weston and manservant Battle were...miss you, Dad.
April 28, 2024
Found this book at a used library book sale and because I like other pulp fiction like Doc Savage and the Shadow bought it. It is not as good as those but I enjoyed it. It tells of the fight between the flying spy G-8 in WWI and the mysterious purple faced flyers for the Germans. There was the usual arch villain that apparently survived from book one and lots of flying action/fights between WWI fighters. It is a short quick read when a person is looking for some escapism reading.
September 29, 2017
G-8 is always #4 or #5 on a list of pulp heroes in various retro articles, meaning he's sort of second tier. Books are light on character, heavy on WWI dog fight descriptions and far out plots and villains and have no time to be boring. If you know what you are getting into, this is fun stuff. Crazier than anything Snoopy could dream up on his dog house.
February 3, 2021
I was pretty disappointed in this one. For a pulp story it was pretty slow and frankly boring. Can’t win them all.
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June 1, 2016read some time in 1985
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews