The Red Spider / Terror Wears No Shoes / Return from Cormoral

Doc Savage Sanctum Editions #15

by Kenneth Robeson (House Name), Lester Dent

The 75th birthday of the pulp era's greatest superhero is commemorated with a unique triple-novel edition.

The Man of Bronze penetrates the Iron Curtain in "The Red Spider," a Cold War thriller that was "lost" until 1978, showcasing for the first time the unpublished art Edd Cartier created for the story in 1948.

In "Terror Wears No Shoes," Doc Savage journeys to Hong Kong to prevent a deadly germ warfare attack against the United States.

Finally, a scientist is able to predict the future after his "Return from Cormoral."

This collector's item pulp reprint features the original color pulp covers by George Rozen and Walter Swensen, interior illustrations by Edd Cartier and Paul Orban, and historical articles by Will Murray.

Genres: Pulp, Espionage

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2008

About the author

Kenneth Robeson was the house name used by Street and Smith Publications as the author of their popular character Doc Savage and later The Avenger. Though most Doc Savage stories were written by the author Lester Dent, there were many others who contributed to the series, including:

William G. Bogart
Evelyn Coulson
Harold A. Davis
Lawrence Donovan
Alan Hathway
W. Ryerson Johnson

Lester Dent is usually considered to be the creator of Doc Savage. In the 1990s Philip José Farmer wrote a new Doc Savage adventure, but it was published under his own name and not by Robeson. Will Murray has since taken up the pseudonym and continued writing Doc Savage books as Robeson.

All 24 of the original stories featuring The Avenger were written by Paul Ernst, using the Robeson house name. In order to encourage sales Kenneth Robeson was credited on the cover of The Avenger magazine as "the creator of Doc Savage" even though Lester Dent had nothing to do with The Avenger series. In the 1970s, when the series was extended with 12 additional novels, Ron Goulart was hired to become Robeson.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very nice collection of Doc Savage stories from the latter days of his career. Terror Wears No Shoes appeared in the May 1948 issue and was one of the last Doc-as-spy-guy stories before the magazine went back to the scientific adventurer concept. It's a very nice anti-terrorism story set in Hong Kong, and features Long Tom along with Monk and Ham. The Red Spider never appeared in the original magazine run; it was the last of the science detective stories but when the magazine switched from a bi-monthly to a quarterly schedule they simply skipped it and went straight to the earlier concept and it didn't appear until the Bantam paperback edition in 1979 after the manuscript was discovered among the author's papers. Renny, Long Tom, Monk, and Ham all participate; the original title was In Hell, Madonna. It's also noteworthy that two of the strongest femme fatales are featured in these two adventures. Return From Cormoral is the penultimate of the original stories, from the Spring, 1949 issue. It's a caper story with Monk and Ham that begins in Miami and concludes in Northern Canada, presumably because the publisher had an extra unused cover painting lying about that featured Doc next to a polar bear. This edition also includes some neat extras including the original art by the incomparable Edd Cartier, essays by Anthony Tollin and the redoubtable Will Murray, and the original series primer/bible from 1932 by original editors John Nanovic and Henry W. Ralston. I've read the paperback versions before, but very much enjoyed revisiting them in this iteration.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collected anthology contains "The Red Spider," "Terror Wears No Shoes," and "Return from Cormoral." Plus, the book has the added bonus of including the first Doc Savage short story written by Henry W. Ralston (one of the first editors of the Doc Savage series) that outlines the back story for the group.

This is true pulp science fiction. Each story (except for the bonus story) comes in at about 30 pages in this comic-book-sized edition. Probably were about 45-50 pages long in their initial pulp story printing. The stories themselves are fairly straight-forward, Doc Savage and his intrepid gang (John "Renny" Renwick, Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts, William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn, Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, and Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks) find themselves in a scrape or two and use brains and (mostly) muscle to beat the bad guys and save the day.

For those that do not know, Doc Savage was the original "action hero." He was large, muscular, intelligent, and usually one step ahead of his enemies. He had a Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic, and he fought criminals using his brawn as well as technological gadgets he and his gang created. Doc Savage predates both Superman and Batman in both of these things.

Despite their drawbacks, the stories in the anthology are engaging and fairly complex. For only being 30 or so pages in length, I expected just a bit of a story with a big fight at the end. However, Lester Dent (who is the actual writer behind the pen name "Kenneth Robeson") does a very good job of including at least one, and sometimes two or three, twists that you do not expect. (And he generally cranked out the stories in just about a month!) I am always interested in the 1930s attitudes and phrasing put forth in the stories. Men are worried about being sissies; dames are to be helped out of their troubles. Nothing misogynistic here; nope, not at all. Every once in a while a phrase sends a shiver down your spine, and not in a good way. But, what can I say? Sometimes, you just want a bit of pulp science fiction. And you can't get any more pulpy than Doc Savage.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good issue overall, bringing together short Cold War thrillers from the latter years of Doc Savage.

All of them were topical, even though they were written in the late 1940s. Terror Wears No Shoes touches on state-sponsored bioterrorism. The Red Spider offers touches of John Le Carre and Ian Fleming. The only low point was Return From Cormoral, the penultimate Doc Savage published before the legendary finale Up From Earth's Center. Not a real low point, though.

All the stories present a human Doc, which I applaud for the chance to truly get inside Doc's head and see him as a man carrying a hard burden. A self-imposed one to some extent, but one you can believe he feels. This Doc has doubts, and when the villains you're facing want you dead, doubt seems reasonable. But Doc is prepared as ever, a Boy Scout to the core, even when confounded by the mastermind in Return From Cormoral. Which was the primary high point in that story; Doc has to improvise fast at this climax, which salvaged a quick caper.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the stories that people loved Doc Savage for. Tired, perfunctory and uncomfortably shoehorned into Red Scare service. Go re-read Fear Cay instead.

[Keith B]

Read the first and re-read the last. Always fun.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

read Terror Wears No Shoes SOMETIME in 2000