If you missed the last one…
“The Ghost of Venus” by Bob Butts appeared as the four-part text feature for Novelty’s Target Comics #11-14 (December 1940-April 1941). No worse than many Pulp stories, Butts’ tale could have appeared ten years earlier in Harry Bates’ Astounding Stories of Super-Science or that same year in a copy of Captain Future.
The artist is unknown but Butts was a real comic artist, not a house name. He might have done these, though they aren’t great. Butts worked for Jack Binder’s studio around the time this comic was published. He is probably best remembered for his work on the Rod Cameron Western comic at Fawcett.
Part 1
This Space Opera tale stars Steve Raymond, space detective and his sidekick, Nick Bowman. Their boss, Inspector Scott, head of Interspace Intelligence, sends them on a mission to find two men who have been dead for five years.
The dead men are Dr. Kal-Ryn, and his assistant, Nakek Jaru, who died in a lab explosion. The inventors were working on a mysterious “Red-Ray”. Now that ships have been disappearing in the bad-lands of Venus, Scott tells the men Kal-Ryn’s invention seems to be involved. Rumor had it the ships were pulled down by a gravity ray, just like Kal-Ryn’s Red-Ray. Scott proposes the theory that the scientist and his assistant had faked their deaths.
Steve and Nick head right for Venus, which is a dry world with snakes and lizards. They plan to use their own ship as bait. When they near the swampland a beam grabs them. The ship crashes, tearing a hole in the hull. Nick is knocked out. Steve hears people approaching and leaves the ship. Two men approach. One uses the named Wulf. Steve recognizes him immediately as Wulf Rondo, a hardened killer. When they check Nick’s unconscious body they find his Interspace Intelligence badge. They plan to kill him immediately.
Steve steps in, gun drawn. Wulf knocks the gun out of his hand and the two fight. It ends when Wulf’s friend, Piper, puts a gun to Nick’s head. Steve gives us. Wulf tells Piper they will take them to see the Ghost.
Part 2
The bad guys blindfold the two detectives and take them to a mysterious building. Steve asks Wulf who the Ghost is. Nobody knows. The blindfolds are removed and the men see a hooded figure sitting on a dais. The Ghost declares he doesn’t like interlopers. Tomorrow the men will tell everything and the day after they will die.
The two men are thrown into a dungeon cell. A skeleton is there only companion. They hear a sound! A stone at the back of their prison moves and an old man appears. It is Dr. Kal-Ryn!
Part 3
Kal-Ryn knows who the Ghost is. It is his assistant, Nakek Jaru. He also explains the five year wait. After faking their deaths, Jaru and his men worked on perfecting the ray. Now they are ready for their reign of terror. The doctor had been chipping away at the stone of his prison for two years with an iron pick.
Learning that the prisoners are fed once a day at noon, Steve comes up with a plan. When Wulf shows up with food and taunts, Kal-Ryn surprises him from the shadows. Steve knocks him out and Nick takes his gun. The men plan to head to the tower but guards have heard Wulf’s cry of alarm.
The Ghost and his henchmen find them, shoot the gun from Nick’s hand. All the men are recaptured. The Ghost is angry so he tells his thugs to put them in “the chamber”. This proves to be a steel-lined room with gas jets in the ceiling. Steve takes Kal-Ryn’s iron pick and tries to open the door. The gas pours in and all looks lost.
Part 4
The men stumble into the hall as the lock is picked. They are saved. They decide to head for the tower. They capture a guard and find out that the Ghost is about to capture another ship. Wulf and Piper enter and a fight ensues. Steve picks up Piper and hurls him at Wulf. This buys him enough time to leave Nick with the gun on the bad guys. Steve is going after the Ghost!
Steve runs into the tower, knowing the Ghost has been warned. The villain shoots at him. Steve dodges and they fight. Ultimately, the Ghost gets the drop on Steve. The Ghost tells him to back up while he escapes. The Ghost flees. Steve’s friends show up, but they don’t blame Steve for allowing the Ghost to escape. Later Inspector Scott appears, the Ghost in tow. It had all been part of Steve’s plan. With the Ghost gone, he turned off the Red-Ray that held Scott’s ship, the one The Ghost was trying to bring down. The policemen snatched Jaru as he fled.
Steve congratulates Dr. Kal-Ryn that his Red-ray will now be used for good, not evil.
A masterpiece? Hardly. Better than some. A matter of opinion. The plot was pretty standard G-Men stuff. The SF setting offers little outside a gravity ray. That being said, compare it to Jack Williamson’s “Wizard’s Isle” or A. W. Bernal’s “Satan in Exile”, both from Weird Tales, and you’ll see many of the same elements.
Text stories were the necessary evil of comics publishing. To get the Fourth Class Postal Rate, comics had to be considered “magazines”, so some text. Bob Butts does a Pulp level job here. Otto Binder would later (March 1947-November 1953) write the Jon Jarl stories for Captain Marvel Adventures, a space opera text series to which fans actually looked forward. Did Bob Butts inspire Otto Binder? I doubt it. Binder wrote for the Pulps and didn’t need any inspiration.
Target Comics are available free at the Digital Comic Museum.
Next time…John Carter and the Robots of Mars!
