AGE OF ACES will be back at PulpFest again this year where we will be debuting our two new titles!

Our first is the lastest in our Captain Philip Strange series—back with six more weird WWI stories in Strange Squadrons! A mental marvel from birth, who used his talents on stage as a boy, Philip Strange is now known as “The Phantom Ace of G-2″ by the Allies during WWI. From his very first adventure, Captain Philip Strange has rooted out only the most bizarre battalions commissioned by Germany in the Great War. When flying coffins circle the air, or severed hands drop from the sky, the call goes out for the Phantom Ace of G-2 Intelligence. For the Allies know that only the so-called “Brain-Devil” and his aides can out-fly the zombie traitors and human bombs, or out-spy fiends like The Mask and the Man with the Iron Claw! When World War I gets weird, only America’s own “Phantom Ace of G-2” has a ghost of a chance against the supernatural slaughter. Captain Philip Strange in his strangest cases yet from the pages of Flying Aces magazine!

We’re doubling down on Keyhoe this year, as our other title is the second half of the Jailbird Flight Stories that ran through all three of Popular Publication’s air anthology titles. Starting in Battle Aces in September 1931 running through the end of it’s initial publication run when they switched to Battle Birds at the end of 1932 and into Dare-Devil Aces in 1934.

The Jailbird Flight: The Devil Flies High. They had all been sentenced to a living death and all bore The Convict Brand! The Jailbirds were recruited from the military prisons of Britain, France, and America. Real men, molded in the harsh fires of life, dishonored perhaps in the eyes of the Army—but men with red blood and courage. Hard fighters, some of them hiding bitter memories, but all of them ready to follow their leader, “Killer” Kirby, down a flaming suicide trail on the most dangerous missions of the Great War! Rather than wither behind bars—they were given the chance to die fighting!

In addition to these two volumes we’ll have all of our other titles that are still in print as well as our convention exclusive—Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Kirk. So if you’re planning on coming to Pittsburgh for PulpFest this year, stop by our table and say hi and pick up our latest releases!

AGE OF ACES will be back at PulpFest again this year where we will be debuting our two new titles!

First, we have the lastest in our Captain Philip Strange series—back with six more weird WWI stories in Strange Hell! A mental marvel from birth, who used his talents on stage as a boy, Philip Strange is now known as “The Phantom Ace of G-2″ by the Allies during WWI. The German Empire has unleased Hell on Earth! The dead are climbing out of their graves and giant skeletons attack the living. Heads are detonating and soldiers are turning to bronze. But flying to the rescue like an avenging angel is America’s own “Brain Devil,” Captain Philip Strange, the phantom ace of G-2 Intelligence. Whether it’s deadly bridges or killer broadcasts, when the Allies need a miracle they pray for Philip Strange! When World War I gets weird, only America’s own “Phantom Ace of G-2” has a ghost of a chance against the supernatural slaughter. Captain Philip Strange in his strangest cases yet from the pages of Flying Aces magazine!

Our other title is from the prolific pen of Harold F. Cruickshank. Sky Devil: Ace of Devils collects the second half of Cruickshank’s stories about The Sky Devil and his Brood—Lieutenants “Chuck” Verne, “Slug” Walton, Mart Bevan, “Slim” Skitch and the maverick peelot, Tom Foster! Nowhere along the Western Front could you find a more feared crew, both in their element and out. The Sky Devil and his Brood could always be counted on to whip Germany’s best Aces, out-scrap entire squadrons of Boche killers, or tackle not one, but two crazed Barons with an Egyptology fetish! But what happens when they find themselves up in a dirigible fighting a fleet of ghost zeppelins, or down in the English Channel battling ferocious deep water beasts, or even behind enemy lines dealing with a crazed Major Petrie?

This volume is bursting with fifteen action-packed air tales of those riders of the Hell trail—including the seminal story we unwittingly left out of the first volume where Dawe is rooked out of command of the 120 Squadron in leu of the frequently simpering Major Petrie.

In addition to these two volumes we’ll have all of our other titles that are still in print as well as our convention exclusive—Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Kirk. So if you’re planning on coming to Columbus for PulpFest this year, stop by our table and say hi and pick up our latest releases!

IT’S HARD to believe it’s already been ten years since we introduced you to Jed Garrett, aka Captian Babyface, and his faithful dog Click, the hell-hound, but it has. It was ten years ago today Age of Aces Books published it’s first—Captain Babyface: The Complete Adventures, gathering together all 10 of Steve Fisher’s tales of Captain Babyface and his battles against the skull-visaged Mr. Death that ran in the pages of Dare-Devil Aces in 1936.

Over the past ten years we’ve published the best names in weird World War I fiction from the tattered pages of the old pulp magazines. In addition to Steve Fisher, we’ve published work from the illustrious likes of Robert J. Hogan (The Red Falcon and Smoke Wade), Donald E. Keyhoe (Captain Philip Strange, The Vanished Legion and The Jailbird Flight); C.M. Miller (Chinese Brady), Ralph Oppenheim (The Three Mosquitoes), William E. Barrett (The Iron Ace), Robert M. Burtt (Battling Grogan), O.B. Myers (The Blacksheep of Belogue), Arch Whitehouse (Coffin Kirk), Harold F. Cruickshank (Sky Devil), William Hartley (Molloy & McNamara), and Frederick C. Painton (The Squadron of the Dead). That’s quite a list and we’ve got more to come!

We’ve tried to make our website a place to help you Journey back to an Age of Aces by not only featuring content about our books—the authors we’ve published and artist we’ve printed, but also other aspects of the old air pulps that don’t make it into our books as well—The pulp covers and the stories behind them, the lives of the aces in pictures, and their most thrilling sky fights!

And there’s free fiction Fridays when we frequently post stories that can be downloaded and read! Since it’s our tenth year we’re trying to have more frequent content up on the site and more stories—trying to increase from one or two a month to practically every Friday—and from the authors we’ve published as well as recurring website favorites—Joe Archibald’s Phineas Pinkham and Lt. Frank Johnson’s Silent Orth.

So stop back often to journey back and here’s hoping for 10 more great years bringing you the best of old air pulps in a new package!

Age of Aces will be back at PulpFest again this year where we will be debuting our two new titles!

First, we have the lastest in our Captain Philip Strange series—back with six more weird WWI stories in Strange Spectres! A mental marvel from birth, who used his talents on stage as a boy, Philip Strange is now known as “The Phantom Ace of G-2″ by the Allies during WWI. “Horrors of war” takes on a whole new meaning when WWI erupts with paranormal activity: Flaming planes piloted by charred skeletons; Battleship crews that mysteriously vanish; Medieval knights falling from the sky; The spirit of the Red Baron himself haunting the frontlines! When World War I gets weird, only America’s own “Phantom Ace of G-2” has a ghost of a chance against the supernatural slaughter. Captain Philip Strange in his strangest cases yet from the pages of Flying Aces magazine!

Our other title is from the pen of Frederick Painton, a prolific pulp author and venerated newspaper man. We’ve collected eight of his stories that ran in the pages of Sky Birds magazine in 1935 and are publishing them under the title Squadron of the Dead. The Squadron of the Dead contained all the hellions of ten armies! Men without hope; men courting death; men who loved to kill; men who laughed and fought, drank and cursed, lived hard, and died harder. Americans, British, Russians—even Germans—made up their ranks, and only one bond held them together: Death lay ahead of them. They were assigned the grim missions no other squadron dared to take—for they had all been condemned to die!

Painton’s Squadron of the Dead is a departure from our usual titles that feature a scrappy band of aviators flying through various adventures. Each of the eight stories in Painton’s Squadron of the Dead is the story of a different pilot who has been condemned to death and sent to the squadron to serve out his sentence. And die they did, dropping spies, bombing impossible places, strafing infantry for harassed Allied battalions. These men flew recklessly, savagely, knowing they could live again only when death really claimed them. Then their names would shine once again in the casualty announcements and they would be posthumously awarded the Legion d’Honneur.

In addition to these two volumes we’ll have all of our other titles that are still in print as well as our convention exclusive—Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Kirk. So if you’re planning on coming to Columbus for PulpFest this year, stop by our table and say hi and pick up our latest releases!

This year at PulpFest we’ll be premiering our latest two volumes. Both are from the pen of Donald E. Keyhoe, noted aviator, author, and ufologist. In 1931, Keyhoe created a number of long-running characters for as many aviation pulps. There was Philip Strange in Flying Aces; The Devil Dog Squadron in Sky Birds; and The Jailbird Flight for Popular Publication’s Battle Aces.

With The Jailbird Flight: Dead Man’s Drome, we reprint the first seven stories of Keyhoe’s condemed suicide squadron that ran in Battle Aces in 1931 and ‘32. Hand picked from the bowels of Blois, saved from a living death, outcasts—all of them—branded with the convict’s arrow. Braving danger with the recklessness of men who know they are doomed to die! They are dishonored war eagles who chose a chance to die in action rather than rot behind prison bars. Hot tempers, liquor, and the madness of war had brought them low—but beneath it all they still were men!

The Flight, at is core, is comprised of Bruce Kirby—Below the Rio Grande he had once been known as “The Killer,” now he flew through hell skies, leader of the strangest squadron that ever dared face death from flaming Spandaus; “Big” Durgin, the hugest Jailbird of all, a mountain of a man with pile-driver fists and a fierce, battered face that masked the gruff kindness beneath his hard exterior; “Tiger” Haight, whose dark eyes ever smoldered as at some hateful memory, perhaps of the day which had turned his hair to silver, though he was but thirty—no one knew his past—no questions were asked in the Jailbird Flight; Cartwright, the tall, urbane Englishman who looked like a British lord; the lanky Tinker with his drawling humor and comical, homely face; and last and by no means least—Kid Denison who reminded Kirby of his ill-fated young brother who had been brutally sacrificed by a drug-mad S.C.!

We also have our fourth collection of Captain Philip Strange—Strange Staffels! America’s enemies have assembled squadrons of flying furies, exploding skeletons, and invisible airplanes to turn the tide of the First World War. But when things get weird, we get Strange. Captain Philip Strange, that is—ace pilot and so-called “Brain-Devil” of G-2 Intelligence. His assignment? Journey from the backalleys of Paris to the skies over Germany, taking down flying fortresses, cursed aerodromes, strafing skulls, and other wild weapons of mass destruction!

In addition to these two volumes we’ll have all of our other titles that are still in print as well as our convention exclusive—Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Kirk. So if you’re planning on coming to Columbus for PulpFest this year, stop by our table and say hi and pick up our latest releases!

PulpFest 2013 gets underway on Thursday, July 25th and the whole Age of Aces crew will be in attendance. We’ll be promoting our new book—our biggest yet—Battling Grogan and the Dragon Squadron. “Battling” Grogan is an American flyer in command of the Chinese Dragon Squadron fighting to repel the invading Imperial Japanese. The stories are written by Robert M. Burtt who is probably best known as co-creator and writer of such radio classics as The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen, Captain Midnight, and Sky King.

Since we wouldn’t have the third Philip Strange book ready in time for the convention, we decided to try to get together a special book just for sale exclusively at the convention. In looking around at what we had scanned and ready to go, we hit upon Coffin Kirk by the prolific Arch Whitehouse. These six stories of Coffin Kirk and his trained-gorilla tail-gunner Tank and their fight against “The Cirlcle of Death” were available in our Age of Aces Presents section a few years ago. We removed them when we were intending on releasing them as an eBook online so it seemed only natural to put them out as a print book.

We had initially planned to offer the book only at the convention, but we thought we’d make it available on Amazon for the week of the convention for those who can’t attend, but would still like to pick up a copy of the book.

Art Director Chris Kalb show off our two new titles.

So stop by our table and meet the crew and check it out or pick up any of our other titles at special Pulpfest discounts. If you can’t make it—keep your eyes on ageofaces.net to find out more about our new books. And hurry over to Amazon where, for a limited time, you can pick up a copy of The Adventures of Coffin Kirk!

 The six adventures of Arch Whitehouse’s “Coffin Kirk” appeared in Flying Aces from October 1937 to June 1941. They featured Brian “Coffin” Kirk’s battles against the evil Circle of Death. Kirk is ably assisted by his simian sidekick Tank. All of these stories have been available for dowload on our site, but we have decided to put them together in one PDF so that our loyal readers can access them more easily.

• Download “The Complete Adventures of Coffin Kirk” by Arch Whitehouse

In this adventure, two of Arch Whitehouse’s most popular flying duos team up to foil a Japanese invasion of the Phillipines. Tug Hardwick and Beansie Bishop are joined by Coffin Kirk and his simian assistant, Tank.

Peculiar white wisps on the ocean below! What sinister thing did they hide? Tug had to know. But Beansie had no time for that mystery—what with gun-bristling Mitsubishis swarming down the skies to face his twin Brownings. What’s more, he now was encountering a mystery of his own. For a strangely-marked Breda had suddenly dived in among those vengeful “Rising Sun” fighters. And the gunner aboard that Breda was too efficient to be human!

• Download “Hawks From the Smoke” (August 1939, Flying Aces)

Here is the sixth, and last, of Arch Whitehouse’s tales of Coffin Kirk and his simian assistant Tank. It was just an ordinary tin can. But before the day was done, that innocent-looking red container was destined to cause a lot of trouble for Coffin Kirk, for the Japanese knew what was in it. And they were determined that it would never reach it’s destination.

• Download “Fate Flies the Breda” (June 1941, Flying Aces)

Only one green balloon was supposed to be floating above the U.S.S. Marblehurst. But somehow the plans had gone haywire—for there were two! Which was the right one? “Coffin” Kirk had to choose—and choose fast. Because three lead-hurling Mitsubishis were roaring down the heavens! Still, none of it fazed “Tank.” He was always ready—even when Kirk deliberately put a Jap Intelligence officer on their own sky trail and presented him with—a bouquet of lavender!

• Download “Balloons For a Breda” (August 1940, Flying Aces)

“Coffin” Kirk and his simian assistant “Tank” once again take on the evil Circle of Death. This time they try to thwart the Circle’s plan to provide the Japanese with a fleet of advanced warplanes that will then be used to destroy British bases in Asia.

• Download “Clue of the Breda Brood” (April 1939, Flying Aces)

“Coffin” Kirk sought rest—but it was stark tragedy that he found in that jungle village at the foot of massive Mount Dulit. For the “death that does not speak” had cut a ghastly swath through that peaceful Kayan settlement—had left but a single horrified native to describe the merciless wrath of the “steel eagles that leap out of solid rock.” Yet Kirk could not turn back. And Fate was beckoning him onward along a path that led to— the fires of hell itself!

• Download “Scourge of the Steel Eagles” (October 1938, Flying Aces)

“Twenty million pounds to fortify Singapore … Twenty minutes for complete destruction … Twenty days to embroil the world in war!” That fateful warning meant that Britain’s proud new naval base was doomed—doomed by the Circle of Death! And when the masked members of that veiled power learned that “Coffin” Kirk stood in the path of their poisonous fangs, they only laughed sardonically. For Kirk was their most hated enemy. Two scores would be settled with a single blow!

• Download “Skyguns of Singapore” (June 1938, Flying Aces)

In this, the first of six Coffin Kirk adventures by the prolific Arch Whitehouse, we meet Brian “Coffin” Kirk and his sidekick, a trained ape named Tank. As a boy Kirk witnessed the brutal murder of his father at the hands of a secret criminal organization called “The Circle of Death”. He swore he would have his revenge, and after years of training, he was ready to fulfill his pledge. In “Vulture’s Vortex” he must infiltrate Nazi Germay to find the headquarters of “the Circle of Death”.

• Download “Vulture’s Vortex” (October 1937, Flying Aces)