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G-8 and His Battle Aces #56: #56
The Flames of Hell by Robert J. Hogan In one brain, and in one mad will to destroy, lies the menace that would take the life of G-8, the Master Spy—and grind to powdered dust his countrymen! Who is this Master of Destruction—and what is the torch that has lighted the Flames of Hell? Code of the Air by Greaseball Joe
108 pages, Paperback
Published January 10, 2019
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September 4, 2021
“The fingers of fire are hungry for lives, and so is the fiend who gave birth to the flames.”
●G-8 is exiting a building after a staff meeting in Paris when he sees a man throwing a note into his roadster, and after chasing the man down, G-8 is sapped, and when he comes to, G-8 reads the note in his car and sees that he is invited to the grand opening of the 129th Pursuit Squadron’s new aerodome. There will be food. So, the G-8 series regulars G-8, and his two wingmen Bull Martin and Nippy Weston, show up and just as the festivities are starting, an enemy plane flies over them and releases a load of “sand”. Suspicious, G-8 immediately sends Bull and Nippy back to they’re barracks at Le Borget to find out what this “sand” is composed of. G-8 however, takes off in his plane to track down the enemy flyer, which he does. G-8 tracks the enemy flyer to an old landing field, and after finding the flyers destination, G-8 heads back to the 129th Squadron’s headquarters only to get there in time to see the embers of the new headquarters cooling and to find out that the whole squadron has been killed in the fire.
After an attack in the same manner on some ground troops, G-8 decides to go undercover and find out who is behind the horrible fire attacks. After a convoluted series of events, including Nippy’s capture and release, G-8 and Nippy end up at the castle of the psychopath and pyromaniac Herr Feuer, who thinks nothing of offing a subordinate just for the fiery hell of it.
Then it is up to G-8 to track down the copy of the formula of Herr Feuer’s newest invention, as Herr Feuer has sent it to German Headquarters. At the headquarters, G-8 learns of a huge shipment of chemicals that are on their way to create a massive amount of this new horrifying weapon. This leads G-8 to the sea freighter “Krissund”, and with that, the air-ace ends up fighting the Germans in the air, on the land, and at sea. Whew, author Robert J. Hogan really piles on the action and pacing in the novella The Flames Of Hell this time around.
●And does the action stop there? No, not at all. Hogan gives us three, anonymously written, short air war fictions, the first of which is Code Of The Air , and it is another in the superior Greaseball Joe series. A series that often mixes humor and action together. In this installment, new pilot Lt. Madden lands at the airfield of the 69th Pursuit Squadron, and establishes himself as a belligerent blowhard right off the bat. And he does this by picking fights with some of the squad’s personnel. This belligerence continues, and even extends to the point of Madden trying to claim other pilot’s kills. He then makes the mistake of taking on Soloman, the pig mascot from a previous episode in this series to his detriment. This is all happening while it turns out that somebody is ratting out the squadron’s missions to the Germans. As usual, this is a lightly told tale with a core seriousness to it, and shows again why somebody should issue a collection of the Greaseball Joe stories.
●Up next is Courage To Die , and it is a point/counterpoint type of story as two recruits, the brainy but weak Jimmy Grant, and the athletic, but not so scholarly Mack McCann enter training together, with Jimmy always feeling inferior to the more muscular and outgoing Mack. Be that as it may be, both end up helping each other through training as each help each other through their respective weaknesses in training and into battle.
●And up last is Spad Trap . This is an air mystery as an upcoming battle is approaching and to help out the 58th, under the leadership of Corky Butler is assigned the duty of sending out an airplane on a scouting mission. Unfortunately, the deadline is fast approaching, but nothing is getting accomplished as one pilot after another is disappearing during their mission. Frustrated and under pressure, Corky Butler finally decides to go against protocol and go out on the mission himself. An interesting mystery that is a little far-fetched, but ends up being a solid story anyway.
All-in-all, this fifty-sixth issue of G-8 And His Battle Aces is one of the more fantastic written issues, with every story being a corker, with no filler, and showing Hogan’s deft hand at creating likable, and believable characters.
●This is an issue that even has some of John Fleming Gould’s best interior illustrations, with each one being cinematic in content. Also, of note, is one of Frederick Blakeslee’s best ever covers. Migod, it’s just an awesome piece of work. Worth every one of the five stars I’m giving it, a pulp reprint for every action pulp fan out there.
●G-8 is exiting a building after a staff meeting in Paris when he sees a man throwing a note into his roadster, and after chasing the man down, G-8 is sapped, and when he comes to, G-8 reads the note in his car and sees that he is invited to the grand opening of the 129th Pursuit Squadron’s new aerodome. There will be food. So, the G-8 series regulars G-8, and his two wingmen Bull Martin and Nippy Weston, show up and just as the festivities are starting, an enemy plane flies over them and releases a load of “sand”. Suspicious, G-8 immediately sends Bull and Nippy back to they’re barracks at Le Borget to find out what this “sand” is composed of. G-8 however, takes off in his plane to track down the enemy flyer, which he does. G-8 tracks the enemy flyer to an old landing field, and after finding the flyers destination, G-8 heads back to the 129th Squadron’s headquarters only to get there in time to see the embers of the new headquarters cooling and to find out that the whole squadron has been killed in the fire.
After an attack in the same manner on some ground troops, G-8 decides to go undercover and find out who is behind the horrible fire attacks. After a convoluted series of events, including Nippy’s capture and release, G-8 and Nippy end up at the castle of the psychopath and pyromaniac Herr Feuer, who thinks nothing of offing a subordinate just for the fiery hell of it.
Then it is up to G-8 to track down the copy of the formula of Herr Feuer’s newest invention, as Herr Feuer has sent it to German Headquarters. At the headquarters, G-8 learns of a huge shipment of chemicals that are on their way to create a massive amount of this new horrifying weapon. This leads G-8 to the sea freighter “Krissund”, and with that, the air-ace ends up fighting the Germans in the air, on the land, and at sea. Whew, author Robert J. Hogan really piles on the action and pacing in the novella The Flames Of Hell this time around.
●And does the action stop there? No, not at all. Hogan gives us three, anonymously written, short air war fictions, the first of which is Code Of The Air , and it is another in the superior Greaseball Joe series. A series that often mixes humor and action together. In this installment, new pilot Lt. Madden lands at the airfield of the 69th Pursuit Squadron, and establishes himself as a belligerent blowhard right off the bat. And he does this by picking fights with some of the squad’s personnel. This belligerence continues, and even extends to the point of Madden trying to claim other pilot’s kills. He then makes the mistake of taking on Soloman, the pig mascot from a previous episode in this series to his detriment. This is all happening while it turns out that somebody is ratting out the squadron’s missions to the Germans. As usual, this is a lightly told tale with a core seriousness to it, and shows again why somebody should issue a collection of the Greaseball Joe stories.
●Up next is Courage To Die , and it is a point/counterpoint type of story as two recruits, the brainy but weak Jimmy Grant, and the athletic, but not so scholarly Mack McCann enter training together, with Jimmy always feeling inferior to the more muscular and outgoing Mack. Be that as it may be, both end up helping each other through training as each help each other through their respective weaknesses in training and into battle.
●And up last is Spad Trap . This is an air mystery as an upcoming battle is approaching and to help out the 58th, under the leadership of Corky Butler is assigned the duty of sending out an airplane on a scouting mission. Unfortunately, the deadline is fast approaching, but nothing is getting accomplished as one pilot after another is disappearing during their mission. Frustrated and under pressure, Corky Butler finally decides to go against protocol and go out on the mission himself. An interesting mystery that is a little far-fetched, but ends up being a solid story anyway.
All-in-all, this fifty-sixth issue of G-8 And His Battle Aces is one of the more fantastic written issues, with every story being a corker, with no filler, and showing Hogan’s deft hand at creating likable, and believable characters.
●This is an issue that even has some of John Fleming Gould’s best interior illustrations, with each one being cinematic in content. Also, of note, is one of Frederick Blakeslee’s best ever covers. Migod, it’s just an awesome piece of work. Worth every one of the five stars I’m giving it, a pulp reprint for every action pulp fan out there.
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