Norvell Page (1904–1961)

Norvell Page wrote like a runaway locomotive, his narratives filled with action from the opening moments to their exciting conclusions. These pulp adventures of Ken Carter stories are fabulously entertaining for pulp fans. While some may tout Page's The Spider as better, I do find these Ken Carter stories to be very close to that quality in many respects.

You get a lot of bang for your pulp buck with Page, but especially here. The cover is high-gloss, good quality, and the artwork terrific. The book has a nice introduction by Robert Weinberg, and at the conclusion of the stories, an essay from Page himself called Why I Write. The opening line of Page's essay is as follows:

"People who talk of 'Art for Art's sake' annoy me."

Beyond that is an About the Author by Tom Roberts, explaining how the stock market crash of 1929 led Page in the direction of writing, for which pulp fans are incredibly grateful. The text is on white paper of good stock, so it's a book which will hold up for collectors. If there is a caveat, it is the minor one I noted for The Rambler collection. Perhaps in order to keep the collection from being heftier, and pricier, Black Dog Books chose a somewhat smaller font size than I would have liked. While it wasn't an issue for me, it might be an annoyance to older fans of pulp.

There are seven Ken Carter stories here. Each comes in at roughly around thirty pages, but because they move at such a breakneck speed, it feels like one continuos thrill-filled ride for fans of early pulp. The stories included in City of Corpses, which has the aforementioned terrific cover art from Walter Baumhofer, are as follows:

Hell's Music

City of Corpses

Statues of Horror

Gallows Ghost

The Devil's Hoof

The Sinister Embrace

Satan's Sideshow

While Statues of Horror and Gallows Ghost were my favorites here, all the stories were great pulp fun. These stories were culled from 1933 - 1935, and there is a feel to them which echoes Page's more famous, The Spider, who competed in the pulps with The Shadow. Great stuff no early pulp fan, and especially no Page fan, will want to miss! Awesome for its targeted audience.… (mer)