Secret Agent "X" – The Complete Series, Volume 3

Paul Chadwick, Emile C. Tepperman Secret Agent "X" — The Complete Series, Volume 3

Publication History:

“Introduction” appears here for the first time. Copyright © 2014 Stephen Payne. All Rights Reserved.

Servants of the Skull originally appeared in November 1934 issue of Secret Agent “X” magazine.

The Murder Monster originally appeared in December 1934 issue of Secret Agent “X” magazine.

The Sinister Scourge originally appeared in January 1935 issue of Secret Agent “X” magazine.

Curse of the Waiting Death originally appeared in February 1935 issue of Secret Agent “X” magazine.

Designed by Matthew Moring/Altus Press

Special Thanks to Brian Earl Brown, Stephen Payne, Ray Riethmeier Bill Thom.

Introduction Stephen Payne

EDUCATED guesses based on observation, converted to hypotheses, tested as experiments, analyzed for conclusions: Such is the basis of the scientific method and even trial and error logic. And such an approach, though probably not as formal, determined whether a particular pulp magazine, especially a hero or character book, achieved success — or died on the vine. The more astute pulp editors, practiced at such thinking, intentionally sought writers who had developed proven track records, those who could pen tales crackling with excitement and pulsing with energy. These were the wordsmiths who commanded the attention of armies of readers and who earned fortunes for their editors and publishers. These were the folk like editor John Nanovic and writer Lester Dent on Doc Savage and Nanovic (again) and Walter Gibson on The Shadow; boss Harry Steeger and Norvell Page of The Spider and Steeger once more and Robert Hogan of G-8 and His Battle Aces.

Less perceptive editors struggled to find effective tale spinners for their publications, and readers rewarded those magazines accordingly. Among others, these books included such “masterpieces” as Captain Satan, by William O’Sullivan; the initial novels in Bill Barnes, Air Adventurer, by Major Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson; The Black Hood, by G.T. Fleming Roberts; and far too many others. It is obvious that being a “big name” like Street Smith or Popular did not guarantee success for a book, nor did the lack of a name. And the usual “market forces” greatly affected the chances of a pulp’s success. But the editors’ “smarts,” that awareness of readers’ preferences and a willingness to experiment, profoundly influenced a book’s chances in the marketplace. And here is the place that Rose Wyn of Periodical House/Ace Publishers found herself in 1934: her imprint, at best a third-tier operation, printed few hero periodicals of any note, outside of Ten Detective Aces, Flying Aces, and Western Aces. Frankly these were not exactly stars in the heavens. Oh, and then there was a little book entitled Secret Agent “X.” It was, at the time, Wyn’s only single character book.

The wife of publisher A.A. Wyn, Rose herself was a pulp editor. She had launched the adventures of the Secret Agent, at best a derivative character, to compete against Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Phantom Detective, and the Spider. With the majority of her “big guns” being snatched away by better paying pulp houses, Wyn had assigned fictioneer Paul Chadwick to scribble the adventures of the Man of a Thousand Faces. But he just was not working out. Maybe it was the imitative way he handled the Agent; maybe it was, frankly, his style of writing, at best “faux creepy,” that Chadwick employed. Whatever the case, Wyn had to do something, quickly, to salvage her publication. For some reason unknown today, she gave a young Emile Tepperman the opportunity to write a group of stories. Had she hired him as a permanent replacement for Chadwick? Or had she assigned him as a stopgap before she could find a permanent scribe? Unless more evidence turns up, we will probably never know the answer to this question. The questions we can answer, however, are twofold: How effectively did Tepperman handle the Secret Agent’s adventures? And how much influence did he exert on the future of Secret Agent “X?” To answer the first question, we will examine, briefly, Tepperman’s first X novel, “Hand of Horror” (August 1934), then look closely at the duo of Tepperman entries in this volume, “Servants of the Skull” (November 1934) and “The Murder Monster” (December 1934). We will see that with his understanding of style, plot, characters, and settings, Tepperman could have performed a creditable job on Secret Agent “X.” Further, we will find that far from being a “failed” experiment, Tepperman’ brought a new humanity, a new “realism” (if such existed in the early hero pulps) to the character of Secret Agent “X.” Indeed Emile Tepperman paved the way for Wyn to hire a young G. T. Fleming-Roberts, who would become the most effective and talented writer to handle the character.

To launch his time on the magazine, Tepperman wrote “Hand of Horror,” a decent though not noteworthy tale with the usual Chadwickian trappings. Our new Brant House develops the narrative around a ruthless master criminal with political ambitions and a weird method of murdering his enemies, the so-called “bloated death.” This is actually an exotic venom, always a favorite of Tepperman’s predecessor, Chadwick. Couple this with a femme fatale, constant focus on the Agent, and spooky atmosphere, and we see a narrative not much distinguished from one by Chadwick himself. Then comes Tepperman’s next entry, “Servants of the Skull.” Here we see what he really might have accomplished with the series, and it is remarkable, both for its realism and its innovation.

The prose alone is critical to realizing that we have a new writer on our hands. Tepperman composes his stories with a leaner, less pretentious, less melodramatic approach to the subject matter. At the most atomistic level the reader notices this quality particularly in Tepperman’s diction. It is a distinct contrast to the work by Paul Chadwick. Consider this opening scene from “Servants of the Skull,” the first of the Tepperman entries in this volume:

The thirty-odd men in the artificially lighted room looked up from their various occupations with tense expectancy when the heavy iron-bound door swung open. These men represented a strange conglomeration of criminal types; crafty, hard, ruthless, their predatory natures were reflected in the very manner in which they moved and talked. It would have seemed, at first glance, that there existed no power on earth that could control these men, no power to make them toe the mark. Yet, when that door opened, they all, without exception, froze in their places. The eyes of many reflected a nameless fear; others exhibited a sort of sullen defiance. Not one of them smiled or laughed.

Here we see few of the Gothic images that Chadwick so often used. Tepperman is direct, even blunt in his word choice. There is precious little of the Gothic effects we see in Chadwick. Indeed, juxtapose this sample of Tepperman’s work with two from Chadwick, this one from the first Secret Agent “X” novel, “The Torture Trust” (February 1934):

The prison guard’s feet made ghostly echoes along the dimly lighted corridor of the State Penitentiary. The sound whispered weirdly through the barred chambers, dying away in the steel rafters overhead. The guard’s electric torch probed the cells as he passed, playing over the forms of the sleeping men. It was after midnight. All seemed quiet within the great, gloomy building that was one of society’s bulwarks against a rising tide of crime.