The Man in Purple

by Johnston McCulley, Phil Latter (Introduction), Tom Johnson (Contributor)

Fresh off the creation of Zorro, writer Johnston McCulley created a fantastic follow-up masked The Man in Purple! Nearly forgotten today and never before reprinted in its entirety, The Man in Purple series has been restored to its original glory! As a bonus, this collection has been augmented by an all-new adventure of The Man in Purple by pulp writer Tom Johnson.

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2012

About the author

Johnston McCulley (February 2, 1883 – November 23, 1958) was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro.

Many of his novels and stories were written under the pseudonyms Harrington Strong, Raley Brien, George Drayne, Monica Morton, Rowena Raley, Frederic Phelps, Walter Pierson, and John Mack Stone, among others.

McCulley started as a police reporter for The Police Gazette and served as an Army public affairs officer during World War I. An amateur history buff, he went on to a career in pulp magazines and screenplays, often using a Southern California backdrop for his stories.

Aside from Zorro, McCulley created many other pulp characters, including Black Star, The Spider, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham. Many of McCulley's characters — The Green Ghost, The Thunderbolt, and The Crimson Clown — were inspirations for the masked heroes that have appeared in popular culture from McCulley's time to the present day.

Born in Ottawa, Illinois, and raised in Chillicothe, Illinois, he died in 1958 in Los Angeles, California, aged 75. -wikipedia

Reviews

[Mike Maher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the Man in Purple. Very similar to the Crimson Clown who came along years later. Tom Johnson did a good job with his story filling out the book. I don’t know if I would have quickly picked his story out as the one not written by McCulley if they were shuffled and not labeled. This was my 7th MuCulley book with many more to come. At the age of 72 I have become a big pulp fiction fan.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people know McCulley as the creator of Zorro, but he cranked out a bunch of characters, in hopes of lightening striking twice.

It's been fun discovering these lesser known heroes.
The man in purple is one of those noble gentlemen thieves, robbing from crooks and corrupt businessmen to give to orphanages and charities.

One of those bored playboys, that were all over the place in the 30's and 40's, his equally thrill-seeking fiancé and his loyal chauffeur worked together.

Bit formulaic, but fun characters, decent adventures and a nice light tone make for a solid read.
Shame there aren't more stories for some of these guys.

[Emb021 · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most people, myself included, probably only know of Johnston McCulley as the author of Zorro. But McCulley wrote many other works, and many made use of continuing characters (even if only for a handful of stories). Not all where heroes, a few were thiefs (ex: Black Star, Thubway Tham, etc). Many of these characters predated the more well known pulp heroes of the 30s, and presaged several of them.

The Man in Purple is one such character. Only 3 stories were written, who appeared over 3 months in "Detective Story Magazine" in 1921 (Oct thru December). These 3 stories have never all been reprinted, so this collection is a great asset. And a new MiP story by Tom Johnson is just an added bonus.

So who is the Man in Purple (MiP) and what is his schtick? Well, the MiP is really well off man about town, Richard Staegel. He's handsome and young and athletic, and engaged to Betty Hayler. But they both want thrills, so decide to go into crime and steal from the rich, but only the rich who have gotten their wealth by ripping off 'widows and orphans', and so all their take is given to charity. The MiP persona is created, which is Richard dressed in an all purple outfit, including a full face mask. To prevent any connection, Richard has special purple material that he uses to make the outfits, and destroys them after using them so nothing is traced back to him. Assisting them is Broph, a down and out guy Richard rescues and recruites in the first story, and brings him aboard as a chauffeur and assistant. Opposing them is Detective Troman.

This is not your standard hero, but more of a robin hood character, stealing from the rich. I think that this can be expected of the time, the Roaring Twenties. Why only 3 stories is not given. Prehaps the character didn't click with readers, and McCulley abandoned the character in favor of new ones.

Production wise, this is another great collection by Altus Press. I loved how the cover is done in a similiar style as their other McCulley collection, "The Bat Strikes Again and Again". I do hope we can see further collections of McCulley characters such as his Green Ghost and Spider, Mongoose, Black Star, and others. (I believe other presses are doing Zorro and Thubway Tham). I did see a few typos, so maybe they should have gotten my help on this again. :)

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice pulp collection from Altus Press.

The Man in Purple is a robin hood type character who steals from rich crooks and donates the proceeds to charity. He wears a purple outfit that he dissolves with acid at the end of each robbery.

There's a bonus story at the end by neo-pulpster Tom Johnson. While not written in McCulley's style, it was still pretty good.