UFO Hunter

UFO Hunter

Creator: Tom Johnson

Characters

Eddy Edwards

Brigadier Mitchell

Stuanofu (not a true name)

During his last hitch in the Air Force, Eddy Edwards was a supervisor in the North Dakota missile fields. One dark night strange lights had appeared in the sky above the silos, and the launch facilities lost all control of the missiles. There had been nothing his security could do about the UFOs, and the incident haunted him for the remainder of his career. Upon retirement, he went to work for AIM, a UFO investigative organization ran by a retired military officer. With his background in law enforcement, Eddy obtained a private investigator’s license and became a field operative for the group.

Eddy is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant. He is about fifty, solidly built, graying hair, beard and mustache, dark eyes, with calloused knuckles from years of karate training. He drives a big Ford XL Van, equipped with desk and file cabinets in the rear, and all of the tools he needs in the investigation of UFO reports, including camera and other devices. The cab of the vehicle has a large cassette compartment holding his 1950s-era music collection of singers like Buddy Holly, Elvis, Fats Domino and Little Richard.

Brigadier Mitchell is a retired general who now heads AIM – Alien Intelligence Monitors, while experimenting on military equipment for the government. The government knows about his interest in UFOs, and keeps tab on the balding officer, but he has too much power to be shut down.

Stuanofu (not a true name) might be a young, foreigner hitchhiking across the states. Short, maybe five feet tall, and thin, people often feel like they are in a fog when around him. The truth is the creature calling himself Stuanofu looks nothing like that. He is projecting a mental image to those around him. He is s small gray being with large, almond shaped eyes, and the pilot of a flying saucer. He is strangely connected to Eddy Edwards without the investigator’s knowledge, and appears in times of need to assist, then removes all memory of his involvement from Eddy’s mind.

There have been three stories in this series.

Stuanofu CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES #10

Encounter In Nevada STARTLING SCIENCE STORIES #16

Stuanofu EXCITING UFO STORIES #1

Encounter In Nevada EXCITING UFO STORIES #2

Kansas Encounter ALIEN WORLDS #19

What Goes There?*            Startling Stories #2 (WILD CAT BOOKS)

What Goes There?*            Starship Invasion (NTD)

Area 51** Starship Invasion (NTD)

Alien Skies*** Starship Invasion (NTD)

(Note * Retitle of Stuanofu.)

(Note ** Retitle of Encounter In Nevada.)

(Note *** Retitle of Kansas Encounter.)

The Wall

I think this picture says it all. Let's remember the real heroes today. God Bless our Veterans!

Tom (Nov 1958 to Feb 1979)

The Night Hawk

The Night Hawk

Creator: Will Murray

The Night Hawk

            Gangdom, beware. A ghost protects Quinn City!

            Mobster: “There’s this guy all done up in black leather –“

            A figure encased in what looked to be cracked black leather drew on ebony gloves. His smooth features resembled meat that had been charred dark.

            Mobster: “…wearing a mask and aviator goggles. He drives this streamlined tank of a taxi. It says ‘Night Hawk Cab Co.’, on the doors – except there ain’t no Night Hawk Cab Co., see? It don’t exist”

            The being in black leather extracted a heavy revolver from his hip holster. He inserted the muzzle into a port that resembled an enormous antique keyhole. Triggering the weapon, he fired once. The report was muffled. A slab-like door rolled open. He stepped in.

            Mobster: “Black and blue as a bruise, it was.”

            A lavender spotlight flashed out, then a tall Frankenstein in black leather stepped out. It had no face. Just a mass of black. Blank eyes reflected the light.

            Mobster: “Then he fired. Every bullet passed right through me, just as mine passed through him.”

            A low-slung black-and-blue machine, with a powerful engine, roared into life. Oversized headlights blazed. A long coffin-shaped hood decorated with a striking hawk nose ornament and gleaming supercharger coils surged forward …

            Mobster: “Thought I’d ram it. Instead, I went clean through like it was made of fog.”

            The Night Hawk Cab passed through the iron gate of the cemetery like through a mirage, then disappeared into a tomb. Above the iron door was carved a single word, QUINN, the family tomb of the city’s founder.

            There has only been one story featuring this interesting character that I know of. It’s curious that the family name is Quinn. A possible homage to The Black Bat, maybe. But this pulp hero is truly a ghost, with phantom bullets and automobile. But certainly a lot of fun.

“The Night Hawk” DOUBLE DANGER TALES #50

Pulp: A Fiction Magazine

Pulp: A Fiction Magazine

In February 1995, Clancy O’Hara published a small-press magazine titled, Pulp: A Fiction Magazine (dated Winter 1995), a Ramrod Publications, out of Hermosa, California. Such stalwart writers as R.T. Lawton, Rick Brooks, and Aaron B. Larson were contributors. Clancy and Quentin Tarantino were friends at the time, so I’ve often wondered how much influence Tarantino’s 1994 movie had on Clancy’s magazine.

With issue #3, summer of 1995, Tom Johnson’s Black Ghost made his debut appearance in Clancy’s magazine. The first of four stories to star the new pulp hero, in an adventure titled “Behind The Mask”.

Clancy mentioned on a Blog that he published the magazine for three years, but there seems to be some doubt about the actual length of time Pulp: A Fiction Magazine ran. I only saw seven issues, and #7 was dated Spring, 1996. As it was, R.T. Lawton, Rick Brooks, and Aaron B. Larson quickly began writing for the Fading Shadows magazines.

The Black Shadow

The Black Shadow

Creator: Tom Johnson

Characters

Kim Young Ju

Chu Chul (The Cricket)

Ghi (The White Wasp)

Dorus Noel (Special Appearance)

            A Buddhist Monk, while just a student in the Kukkiwan* Temple in Korea, Kim Young Ju was guarding the gate one night when an old man he perceived to be a beggar, asked for food. Leaving his post to bring the old man a bowl of soup when he returned a huge mongrel was waiting in the dark and struck him over the head. The old beggar was Chu Chul, called The Cricket, an evil Chinaman seeking control of northern China, who needed money for his campaign. The treasures kept in the temple were his goal that night.

            Chu Chul’s attempt to gain control over China failed, and the temple eventually reclaimed most of the stolen treasure, except for a pair of vases from the Korya Dynasty, worth a fortune. Now The Cricket has offered these to the Kukkiwan Temple in return for a hundred thousand fighting men, in hopes of again starting another bid for China.

            Now full grown, and a Buddhist Monk Kim Young Ju believing himself to blame for the theft of the treasure has followed The Cricket to America, and New York’s Chinatown. He is here to retrieve the treasure and bring an end to the evil Chinaman.

            Arriving in Chinatown, Kim Young Ju seeks out Dorus Noel, and takes a job as his houseboy. He learned that Noel had fought against Chu Chul in China, and may have been responsible for ending The Cricket’s first bid for a throne.

            The Black Shadow: Kim came into the China Room wearing strange black garments; a long black cape was swung over his shoulders, and a wide brim black satgat, a conical coolie hat – this latter was kept on his head by a black silk chinstrap.

“A blur of shadow, and out of the corner of his eye Noel saw the Korean leap into the air and his feet shot out, one to right one to left, and heels crashed into the faces of two of the advancing men while Kim was still airborne. Chu Chul’s guards had yet to see the Korean in their midst, and when the ebony shadow landed his arms wrapped around two necks and twisted. There was an audible crack, and two more attackers dropped to the floor, lifeless.

“Then The Black Shadow whirled, his cape flaring outwards like the wings of some giant bat, deflecting knife thrusts and hatchet blades now that the ta chuen warriors saw their deadly enemy amongst them.”

Chu Chul was small enough to be Cantonese. His skin was yellow and pitted with smallpox scars. His black eyes seemed to have no pupils. His hands were long, like claws. His face was beardless. He walked to a throne-like edifice in a stoop, a twisted caricature of what once was a man, where he placed a white mask over his burned and scarred face.

Ghi wears all white, and is a feared killer. Her tiny darts carry deadly venom in which she kills at her father’s command. Ghi is the daughter of The Cricket, from a union with a French woman. As the girl turned into the shop, they got a clear view of her beauty. She had black eyes, and a wealth of black hair that formed a ruff for her shoulders. She had thin, white hands. From this distance she looked no more than eighteen or nineteen, her face was like peaches and cream. Her eyes were only slightly slanted, her lips like cherries, and teeth like little white pearls.

There has only been one story so far, but two more were planned. Though the premier adventure is a tie-in with Dorus Noel, The Black Shadow reclaims the Korya Vases, and now he must travel alone from New York to San Francisco, then cross the ocean back to his homeland by ship. These last two adventures of him alone are still on the drawing board.

“The Black Shadow” ECHOES 30 (written especially for our 30^th anniversary issue of ECHOES).

“The Black Shadow” Kindle edition.

(*Note: Kukkiwan is the birthplace of tae kwon do, the Korean martial arts.)