July 1939
THE
BREATH OF DESTRUCTION
District
Attorney Harry Fields bursts into flames at the Cobalt Club. One of
the other members of the Club, a hawk-faced millionaire recently
returned from the Orient, attempts unsuccessfully to douse the fire.
At New York’s docks, Smitty questions Pappy, a grizzled old sailor
who once served on the Sea
Girl.
Short
story by Frank Schildiner in The
Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files,
Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, eds., Moonstone Books, 2011. The
Cobalt Club is from the exploits of the vigilante who operates in the shadows. The
hawk-faced millionaire is probably the shadowy pulp hero disguised as a certain
wealthy man from New Jersey. Pappy is Poopdeck Pappy, father of
Popeye the Sailor Man in E. C. Segar’s comic strip Thimble
Theatre.
The comic book story “The Revenge of Shiwan Khan” portrayed
Popeye as an agent of the shadowy vigilante; doubtless his exploits
were greatly exaggerated by Segar. The Sea
Girl is
the ship on which Robert E. Howard’s Sailor Steve Costigan serves.
In the pulp novel Tuned
for Murder,
it is mentioned the Avenger had led armies in Java; this story
elaborates on that reference.
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