#68: “The Crimson Serpent” and “The Exploding Lake” [$14.95]. The
former was written by Harold A. Davis and Lester Dent and first saw
print in the August 1939 edition of Doc Savage Magazine. The novel
was adapted for the second Doc Savage comic-book story and appeared
in Shadow Comics #2 [1940]. From the back cover:
A series of corpses bearing the bloody mark of the Crimson Serpent
leads Doc Savage to an ancient castle, modern-day conquistadors and
the Fountain of Youth.
“The Exploding Lake” was also written by Davis and Dent, appearing
in the September 1946 edition of Doc Savage Magazine:
The Man of Bronze journeys to South America to investigate the
bizarre mystery of The Exploding Lake.
Comics writer Mike W. Barr provides the foreword to this volume and
Will Murray and Katrina Tollin add historical essays. The Tollin
piece is “Elmer Stoner, Comic Book Pioneer” and it’s a fine look at
the life and career of one of the first African-American artists to
work in comic books.
As with other Sanctum Books editions - The Avenger, The Shadow and
others - these Doc Savage double novels are entertaining journeys
into the heroic fiction of the pulp era. They’re wonderfully made
books and I regularly despair I might never get around to reading
all of them. But what I can and will do is let you know about the
new releases as they appear. More Sanctum Books news is on the
way.
© 2013 Tony Isabella
I love these Doc Savage Pulp Doubles. However will there be a definitive collection with all the 181 novels grouped together in multiple paperbacks? What I'm trying to describe is ...a release much like the Del Rey oversize Conan paperbacks with the unedited original manuscripts.
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