Lieutenant Dan Marsh was a flying hellion, but he had a problem to solve that demanded more than flaming victories over master pilots of the Hun. He was the son of the Sky Devil, the famous Hellcat from number 10 Squadron, and the old man had made it clear that the Sky Devil’s son was not welcome there. While this is a Sky Devil story by Harold F. Cruickshank, it has no connection to Cruickshank’s stories featured in our Age of Aces book “The Sky Devil: Hell’s Skipper”.

• Download “The Sky Devil’s Son” July 1931, Battle Stories

Alden McWilliams’ illustrated tribute to the pioneer fliers of the early days of aviation was called “They Had What it Takes”, and this week we bring you the fourth installment, which appeared in the May 1937 Flying Aces. It features the record smashing exploits of Captain Frank Hawks. Next week’s part five is McWilliams’ piece on Howard Hughes, who he called “The Scientist of Speed”.

• Download “They Had What It Takes – Part 4: Captain Frank Hawks” May 1937, Flying Aces

This week we bring you the third installment of Alden McWilliams’ illustrated tribute to the pioneer fliers of the early days of aviation. He called it “They Had What it Takes” and this one appeared in the April 1937 Flying Aces. It features Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, the Australian pilot renowned for his trans-Pacific exploits. Look for part 4 next week which chronicles the record smashing speed flying of Captain Frank Hawks.

• Download “They Had What It Takes – Part 3: Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith” April 1937, Flying Aces

We are proud to announce that The Spider Vs. The Empire State: The Complete Black Police Trilogy is the recipient of two National Indie Excellence® Awards for 2010! The Age of Aces release has been named the winner in both the Cover Fiction and Book Interior Design categories. See the full list of finalists and winners here.

As the designer of The Empire State, I wanted to bring a more mainstream sensibility to the “pulp reprint book” and it’s exciting to see this strategy rewarded with a little mainstream attention. The feedback we’ve gotten from pulp fans over the last nine months has been terrific, but it’s gratifying to see that the book holds up outside pulp’s mean streets as well. As reprint publishers I believe we should always have our eyes on expanding the market for the fiction we love, while pleasing the faithful. If you haven’t seen this (ahem) award-winning design, check out our Empire State gallery page.

But as proud as I am of the design, people really need to pick up this book for the epic fascist parable contained within. No doubt if these stories were new, Norvell Page would be racking up awards too. Well, he’ll have to settle for accolades, like this post from Greg Hatcher at Comic Book Resources:

The book’s still got all the things that made the Spider such a great pulp series — the action and the heroics and the hell-for-leather pacing are all there in spades, the suspense never lets up for a second — but this time, it feels important, it’s really about something this time. As a result, it’s easily the most compelling Spider story I’ve ever read. For that matter, I’d go so far as to say that it may be the most compelling piece of pulp fiction I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot of it.

Agreed! The Spider Vs. The Empire State is available now at Amazon.com.

Starting with the February 1937 issue of Flying Aces, Alden McWilliams began his illustrated tribute to the pioneer aviators of that era. He called it “They Had What it Takes”. It appeared in each issue of Flying Aces until June 1940. Each week we will make a new installment available for download.

From March ‘37,  part 2 features Wiley Post, who flew around the world solo.

• Download “They Had What It Takes – Part 2: Wiley Post” March 1937, Flying Aces