Staffel of Beasts

From all along the Yank front those reports came in — pitiful reports from troops sent up to stage a victory drive — troops that now fought on — grimly, hopelessly. And G-8, watching from the air, vowed grimly to avenge their slaughter, to bust wide open the most sinister sky scheme that ever threatened the Allied armies! The most popular aviator in Pulp Fiction was actually created in a car. Going home to New Jersey from New York City, author Robert J. Hogan came up with the idea that would be G-8 and His Battle Aces. Having already met with Popular Publication’s President Harry Steeger, Hogan had been given the job of writing a daring new hero for Popular to take advantage of both the popular Hero centered Pulps as well as the fascination with aviation that was gripping the country at the time. Driving through the Holland Tunnel in 1933, Hogan crafted the basics of G-8 and his war torn world while caught in traffic. He took the name from a ranch in Colorado where he’d spent a summer, actually flying for his first time on a plane for that trip. G-8 would be the only name America’s Master Spy would ever have. Hogan didn’t plan to have his hero fly alone, however. G-8’s two companions, Nippy and Bull, were based on actual pilots who, coincidentally, shared their first names. Together, these three Battle Aces would fight a war that was equal parts nostalgic flashback, perhaps morbid fascination with the horrors of war, and the stuff nightmares are made of. Monsters and madmen flew into battle every month against G-8. Nick Santa Maria brings G-8, Nippy and Bull to thrilling life in their desperate struggle to defeat a strange nemesis unlike anything they have ever before encountered in Staffel of Beasts. Originally published in the September, 1935 issue of G-8 and His Battle Aces magazine.