BACK in 2015 we posted a bunch of correspondence between Henry Steeger, Robert J. Hogan, and Bob Swift that Pulp Historian Don Hutchison handed us at PulpFest. The letters with Bob Swift concerned a feature article he was writing for the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine. Although Don had given us the letters, the package did not include the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine feature story. But thanks to Newspapers.com, we have finally got a copy of it to share with our readers.

Without further ado, here is Bob Swift’s feature:

G-8: Spy King of the Pulps

by BOB SWIFT | The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida • 8 July 1962

Remember before TV, when the lurid pulp magazine was the boy’s best friend? Remember Bob Hogan’s fabulous heroes, G-8 and His Battle Aces?

ENTER the Depression era small town boy, bicycle-borne, legs pumping, frayed and faded school books bouncing in the bike basket, dime burning the clenched fist like a nugget of lye.

Past the candy store with its dubble-bubble. Past the movie with Hoot Gibson. Past the drug store and the root beer float. Here. The news stand. Padded clatter of Keds on the wooden floor. There. Row upon lurid row, garish and glorious, the pulp magazines of the 1930’s.

Were you a fan, back In those beautiful days when the pulp was king? It was before TV (what you did, you listened to I Love a Mystery, the Green Hornet and Jack Armstrong on the radios). And what you did, you read the pulps.

There was Doc Savage, the man of bronze; the Shadow, whose flaming automatics piled crooks like cordwood; Nick Carter, the master detective; the Spider, soaring on a silken web; Wild West Weekly and Western Story Magazine.

But what really made that school literature book a volume of tepid pap was a brassy book called G-8 and His Battle Aces, a seven by 10 inch pulp magazine whose contents palsied the hand, dried the mouth, popped the young eyeball and packed a bigger kick than a surreptitious Domino cigaret.

America’s Master Spy. who could pilot a Spad pursuit plane in circles around any World War I ace. Master of makeup, crack shot, superb physical specimen, noble and true, ruthless to the enemy. That was G-8 as created by Robert J. Hogan, one of the most prolific pulp writers of his day.

Robert J Hogan wasn’t just the communal pen name for some stable of writers who took turns writing some of the pulps of that era.

Hogan was—and is—Hogan. Today. Bob Hogan lives in Coral Gables, 829 Granada Grove Ct.

He fondly remembers his pulp hero.

“I love G-8.” says Hogan, a spare, balding man of 64. “G-8 was good to me, supported me for 11 years, built our summer home in New Jersey.”

Bob, a preacher’s son from Buskirk, NY, learned to fly in World War I, demonstrated private planes after that, found himself almost penniless when his company closed in the Depression’s early day. He happened to buy a pulp aviation magazine, snorted, “Hell. I can write better than that.” and did so. He sold his first story to Wings Magazine for $65, was off on a writing career.

“Does anyone remember a series called The Red Falcon?” wonders Hogan. “Or the Smoke Wade stories in Dare-Devil Aces magazine?”

But other pulp fiction publishers began turning to novel length stories featuring the same character each month . . . the Shadow, Doc Savage. Hogan’s chore: Dream up an air hero. Driving home from his publisher’s office one day in 1933. Hogan’s racing brain came up with G-8 and His Battle Aces.

There was G-8 himself, the Master Spy. There were his sidekicks, little Nippy Weston (”Hey, you dumb ox!”) and burly Bull Martin (”Holy herring!”) and Battle, their English butler.

That first novel was called The Bat Staffel, the latter being a German word meaning squadron. Then came the whole great series that ran from 1933 to 1944, a series of novels whose titles had a certain zing, such as: “Death Rides the Ceiling,” “Skies of Yellow Death,” “Patrol of the Mad,” “Scourge of the Steel Mask,” “Wings of the Juggernaut,” “Vultures Of the Purple Death,” “The Death Monsters,” “Wings of Invisible Doom,” or “The Staffel of Beasts.”

Imagination unlimited was the rule of the pulp magazines and G-8 fought monsters with tentacles, men with beast brains, flying zombies, marching skeletons, mad scientists, mysterious gas, flying bombs, monster tanks with spiked treads and flame throwers, armored dirigibles, magnetic rays.

Particular villains plagued G-8 for years. One was the horrifying Steel Mask. Another was the yellow peril, Dr. Chu Lung. But the adversary who gave G-8 the creeps the longest was the wretched evil genius, Herr Doktor Krueger:

“Emaciated beyond description . . . shrunken, half-paralyzed body . . . head huge at the top . . . ‘Ha, ha.’ cackled the little fiend doctor . . . a cackling, high-pitched laugh left the ugly mouth of Herr Doktor Krueger …”

And talk about television blood and mayhem! G-8 beat today’s fare by a gory mile. The Master Spy never got through an issue without shooting, stabbing or otherwise disposing of a dozen or so enemy pilots, soldiers, guards, spies, madmen or monsters.

How about this scene from “The Sword Staffel” of June, 1935:

“There was a sword covered with blood. It measured at least six feet in length . . . the handle was large and gripping it tightly was a ponderous, human arm. The flesh was seared like a half-broiled steak . . . it was severed at the shoulder as though it had been torn off.”

Whew! Heady stuff. And we loved it.

In one novel the mad scientists boiled bodies in cauldrons, sent zombie-like skeletons marching against the Allies.

“My editor became nauseated.” says Bob Hogan with some relish. “Had to leave his desk.”

There was “Wings of the Glacier Men,” wherein the Germans found a whole army of Vikings frozen in a glacier, brought them to life, used them as hideous soldiers.

Aerial combat played a big part in G-8’s adventures, too:

“G-8 was sure his bullets had spattered into the lead pilot’s body, but he was still flying. Instantly, G-8’s brain flashed to the time when Germany had sent over the gorilla men who could not be killed. Were these men wearing bullet proof armor, too? Tac-tac-tac! Spandeau bullets snapped past his head . . .”

Hogan wasted no time inventing complicated names for his foreign characters. He glibly tossed off handles like Monsieur Chapeau, Herr Schmaltz and Herr Butscher, injected a few ach du liebers and violas and went merrily on with the plot.

There was even a female spy with the lovely name of R-1. She was what you might call the love interest if you stretched a point, although romance in a G-8 novel was tailored to the tastes of the 14-year-old, with the result that any cuddling between G-8 and R-1 was roughly akin to that between Roy Rogers and Trigger.

No matter. When that G-8 novel was finished, the short stories digested and the G-8 Club news read (sometimes all this occurred by flashlight under the covers), it was time to begin the impatient waiting until next month’s issue.

Even the ads were wonderful. Johnson Smith & Co. offered courses in Ju Jitsu, Whoopee Cushions for a quarter. French Photo Rings and Boys. Boys, Learn to Throw Your Voice. Charles Atlas stared from the page and sneered. “You can have a body like mine.” You were entreated to buy yeast for those pesky pimples. And for the more mature reader, it is hoped, there was the ad for Crab Orchard Whisky, guaranteed a mellow 18 months old.

When G-8 was in his prime. Bob Hogan turned out 200,000 words a month, pacing his Sparta, N.J. home with the radio full blast, bouncing a rubber ball on the floor, dictating to two secretaries at once.

At one incredible time, Hogan was writing the G-8 series, a cops and robbers series called The Secret Six and a Chinese menace series called Wu Fang, each calling for a 60,000 word novel a month plus enough short stories to fill the back of each magazine. In addition, he ran the fan club (”Hello, gang, this is G-8 speaking.”).

A Readers Digest article called him one of the world’s most prolific writers.

Hogan’s orders were to turn out the copy. Don’t edit it, said his publisher, don’t rewrite it, don’t even read it. Just turn it out and mail it. And that’s just what Hogan did.

“I have yet to read a G-8 story,” he says with wry curiosity. “Wonder if they were any good?”

“G-8 was aimed at boys about 14 years old, but I had fans ail ages and all over the world. One was president of a street car company in Scotland. Another was a Bengal Lancer in India.’

Hogan still gets letters from old fans who wish their own kids could read G-8. But alas, that’s almost impossible. A mint copy which once sold for 10 cents might bring $50 today, if you could find one.

Hogan himself has a complete set of G-8 at his lodge in New Jersey, “The House That G-8 Built.” There, too, are Hogan’s mementos: airplane struts serving as curtain rods, engine parts for andirons, bomb casings for lamps.

G-8 appeared in about 1OO novels, finally died in World War II.

“Production costs killed the pulps.” sighs Hogan. “And, of course, in the day of the B-29 and radar, the demand for stories about Spads and the Kaiser sort of wore itself out.”

G-8 buried and mourned, Hogan turned to slick magazines, westerns, juveniles, TV. One of westerns became a movie, The Stand at Apache River. A juvenile novel, Howl at the Moon was considered a classic boy-dog story. Many of his books have been translated into foreign languages.

Hogan has slowed a bit lately. He and his wife Betty, winter in Coral Gables, summer in New Jersey. But the typewriter still clatters though the pace has relaxed. What Hogan would like to do now is re-issue G-8 in some form or other, for nostalgia fans maybe make G-8 a TV show.

We can hope so. In the meantime, go back in spirit to the hot summer day, the ceiling fan turning in the news stand, the rows of lurid covers, the swap of hand-heated coin for shiny book, the long walk home with open magazine, palpitating heart and great risk to life and limb.

Turn the pages slowly. Savor the deathless prose:

‘ . . . he knew a fiend had turned his pals into a Squadron of Living Death. He knew that the remedy lay in a will to fight and fight and fight . . . a low, vibrant chuckle left the lips of G-8 . . . the Master Spy shot his fist up in a signal to the Battle Aces . . . the Spad howled up in a steep climb . . . Fokkers thundered from the sky . . . tac-tac-tac! the machine guns clattered a hymn of hate . . . tac-tac-tac! tac-tac-tac!

• Download “G-8: Spy King of the Pulps” (8 July 1962, The Miami Herald Sunday Magazine)

A few years ago, writer and frequent Age of Aces contributer Don Hutchison came up to our table at PulpFest and handed us a manilla envelope, entrusting us with its contents. When we opened the envelope, amung other things, there were letters from Robert Hogan to Harry Steeger and back again.

The correspondence continues. Bob Swift’s G-8 piece has been published in the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine Sunday July 8th, 1962. (Steeger did not include a copy of the article with his correspondence files and we have been unable to get a hold of a copy of this article otherwise). . .

July 12, 1962    

Dear Harry:

    The G-8 piece finally came out and we all feel it was well worth waiting for. I saw Bob Swift yesterday and he said hed sent you a copy and returned the G-8 magazines you had sent him. So you should see it for yourself if you haven’t already.

    Bob Swift feels very strongly that G-8 should be a TV series and so do we all, of course. They’ve had about every type now except the World War One flying stuff and G-8 should do it well. I think if j:e could get a piece like this or this piece itself or an enlargement of this G-8 piece in a national magazine we might be on our way to the TV moneybags.

    We’re heading north July 26th so we’ll be there during August and probably the fall and hope I can drop in for a hello when we get into New York.

    A chance came along to rent our home down here to some nice folks until November 1st. They had to get in right off so we’ve taken an apartment here where we’ve been on similar occasions. Third floor and nice and cool.

    If you write after the 26th of this month better address us at our old stand:
                                    Box 248
                                    Sparta
                                    New Jersey

                    Best,
                    Robert J. Hogan

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

July 16, 1962    

Dear Bob:

I enjoyed hearing from you. It’s good to know that the G-8 piece finally came out and I shall look forward to having a gander at it. So far it hasn’t arrived.

We’d have great fun with, a G-8 TV shov and it’s a tribute you certainly deserve. I’ll keep ay finders crossed that something will happen.

I’m in New York City during the week during the summer and out on the Island for weekends. It’s nice and cool out there, but I remember from the past that you said Florida was comfortable even in the summertime.

Hope to say hello to you one of these days.

                    Best,

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

 
And to Bob Swift at the Miami Herald:

July 18, 1962    

Dear Bob:

That’s a great article! I got such a kick out of it that I practically drooled nostalgia all over my desk.

The Miami Herald Sunday Magazine and your letter arrived just a few minutes ago and I read each of them immediately. You did the job to perfection and I congratulate you for having captured so well all the delights and joys of a 14-year-old’s heart. I know Bob Hogan himself enjoyed your article very much because I had a letter from him yesterday in which he told me about it. I hope it gets around to all the places where it will do the most good. If Bob could sell a TV show from it, he would indeed be a very happy feller.

I am glad you had such gratifying results from the story. I started publishing as soon as I was out of school and G-8 was one of the first publications. In about 3 years from the standing start we had the largest pulp magazine house in New York – and we were still in our 20’s. In fact, we eacj borrowed $5,000 to get it started, and no one ever had it so good as did we during the war! After that, rising costs killed off the pulp market and people became interested in a more ritzy product. It took us several years to get ARGOSY really rolling and each issue costs anywhere from 30 to 50 times what a pulp magazine would have set us back.

I wonder if it would be possible for you to send me 2 more copies of the Sunday Magazine. I’d like to send one to John Fleming Gould, illustrator for the G-8 stories, because he, too, enjoyed doing this work so much. I’d like to send the second one to a New York advertising agency in the hope that some interest might be sparked for a TV show.

Thanks for sending back the copies of G-8 and His Battle Aces – and good luck.

                    Regards,

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

Dear Harry:

Here are a oouple more issues of the magazine. Hope John Gould enjoys seeing his old stuff in print again. Bob Hogan is probably en route north by now so expect you’ll see him shortly. I hope either you or Bob will let me know if you do anything further with G-8, in print or on TV.

Regards,
Bob Swift

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

August 9, 1962    

Dear Bob:

Many thanks for sending along the two copies of G-8. I’ll use them where they’ll do the most good, I hope, and if there are any TV or other offers I’ll keep you advised.

Kindest regards.

                    Sincerely,

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

 
And to Edward J. Degray of Degray & Associates:

August 9, 1962    

Dear Ed:

I have a possibility in mind for a TV show. It may be remote and unusable, but you are the guy to judge. It’s concerned with an old magazine we published called “G-8 And His Battle Aces”. This was pure kid stuff but it appealed to kids all oyer the United States and, like the Model A Ford, copies of G-8 are now selling for 50 bucks apiece.

The author wrote me recently, saying there had been some talk of a TV show and, as usual, the letters TV brought you immediately to mind. I have an article from the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine telling all about G-8 And His Battle Aces – and if you’d like to have a gander at it, please let me know and I’ll shoot it along.

Kindest regards.

                    Sincerely,

As far as we’ve been able to assertain, a possible G-8 and his Battle Aces tv show never got beyond the talking stage. Sadly, Robert J. Hogan would pass away the following year

A few years ago, writer and frequent Age of Aces contributer Don Hutchison came up to our table at PulpFest and handed us a manilla envelope, entrusting us with its contents. When we opened the envelope, amung other things, there were letters from Robert Hogan to Harry Steeger and back again.

The correspondence continues but this time with a series of memorandums between Henry Steeger and Bob Swift, editor of the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine, as he prepares to publish the article on Robert J. Hogan and G-8 and his Battle Aces. . .

Feb. 17, 1962    

Dear Mr. Steeger:

Sorry to be so late returning your file copy of g-8, but my color lab people kept experimenting to see if they could get a better reproduction of the cover.

I’m just about set to go with the story about B0b Hogan. But first, can I impose on you to send me a few more copies of G-8? I really would like to quote from more than one novel and use illustrations from several books if I can. Besides, I’d like to read the damned things. They take me back, with all that jazz about Spandaus and tarmac and ach du liebers.

Thanks again for your help.

Sinceraly,
Bob Swift, Editor
Sunday Magazine

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

February 26, 1962    

Dear Mr. Swift:

I got quite a kick out of going through that copy of G-8 myself. I’ll try to dig up a few mora for you and shoot them along. I’d appreciate it if you’d return them to me when you’ve finished with them so that we can restore them to the files.

I’ll be looking forward to your article.

                    Sincerely,

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

March 13, 1962    

Dear Mr. Swift:

Thanks for returning the June 1935 issue of G-8 AHD HIS BATTLE ACES.

We’ve dug up three more issues – October, November and December 1936 – and these are enclosed, You can shoot them back when you’ve finished with them.

                    Sincerely,

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

July 11, 1962    

Dear Harry:

Here are your copies of G-8, and I must say I return them with great regret. There’s a great deal of nostalgia about the pulps and I mourn their passing, as you may gather from my story about Bob Hogan and G-8.

The response to the story has been gratifying, with a great deal of comment from balding, bespectacled guys in their 30’s and early 40’s. Most of that comment concerns the nostalgia they felt for the old days in the small towns, journeying to drug store or news stand for G-8 and all the other pulps, the whole flavor of being 10 or 14 or so during that era.

Actually, I cheated a little. I was only four years old when G-8 first appeared and didn’t actually pick up on him until about 1939 or 1940. But I made up for it by buying all the old copies I could find in the second hand book stores.

Anyway, thanks for your help and patience. By the way, if you’d like to run a story about Hogan and G-8 in one of your present books I’d like the assignment. Perhaps a similar story?

Regards,
Bob Swift

A few years ago, writer and frequent Age of Aces contributer Don Hutchison came up to our table at PulpFest and handed us a manilla envelope, entrusting us with its contents. When we opened the envelope, amung other things, there were letters from Robert Hogan to Harry Steeger and back again.

The correspondence continues . . .

Feb. 3, 1962    

Dear Harry:

    It was so nice to heer the enthusiastic agreement with our 50-50 idea on good old G-8. We’re working on it. Betty came up with an idea a while ago. She said it seemed that Walt Disney would be the only outfit on the coast or anywhere to do justice to G-8 if he came back for movies and/or TV. Betty always was the brains of our family and that proves it. Of course, Disney, when the time is right. I believe this is something that needs care and good, Efceajiy buildup (if we live so long) if we can get the idea off the ground at all. But strange things happen. Sax Rohmer’s brother-in-law is a friend of ours down here. Bill said some outfit paid Sax $4,000,000 for all rights to Fu Manchu not long before his death and the old Chinaman had been outmoded and outdated for many years. TV is a hungry monster and no telling which ways the giant jaws may snap. Certainly not our way, likely, but it’s just as well to be prepared.

    I liked the way Erle Gardner handled Perry Mason for TV. Of course we haven’t got a Perry Mason but the approach (and it does seem we do have a sizeable ready-made audience), seems to me, should be the same, slowly and carefully until we get things right. I could use a little or a lot of money myself at this or any time (who couldn’t) but not to the extent that we have to make a quick sale at sacrifice to a well done product. Last night I watched the rehash of the 1946 spy movie 13 Rue Madeleine on our TV. The review said it was GOOD. I decided after watching it that some of the old G-8s could show Madelein some real suspense. Kind of got me itching to get things going. Anyway, we’ll see.

    I’m writing mainly to say thanks and to give you our new temperary address. Don’t feel you must answer this, but any ideas are always welcome. We’ve rented out Coral Gables shanty till April 10th to some nice folks (we hope) from Darien, Conn. So we’re very comfortable near Betty’s folks In a one bedroom apartment where we’ve spent two winters before this, secomd floor overlooking a lovely garden, coconut palms, avacado and grapefruit trees outside the window and such. And right now it’s in the mid 70s. How about you and Shirley coming on down? We’ve got the big, old Chrysler to get around in.

    Bob Swift of the Herald Sunday Magazine said last time I talked to him that the photo lab hasn’t brought down your G-8 mad yet. Soon as they do he’ll return it to you. Meantime, he’s slated the article for Sunday magazine early in March.

                    Best,
                    Robert J. Hogan

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

February 5, 1962    

Dear Bob:

    Let’s all Keep our fingers crossed that G-8 hits the TV screens!

    It was good to hear from you again – and let’s hope a sale is made. I agree with you that G-8 could show many of these programs some real suspense.

    Be sure to send me a copy of the Herald Sunday Magazine when G-8 makes his bow early in March.

    Wish we could get down to see you, but Shirl and the kids and I usually go north to ski during the winter time.

    Your set-up sounds terrific and I can lmaglne life must really be pleasant in your Florida home.

                    Best,

The Miami Herald Sunday Magazine feature on Robert J. Hogan and G-8 and his Battle Aces would not see print until July of 1962. Our correspondence picks up next week with notes between Bob Swift and Henry Steeger.

A few years ago, writer and frequent Age of Aces contributer Don Hutchison came up to our table at PulpFest and handed us a manilla envelope, entrusting us with its contents. When we opened the envelope, amung other things, there were letters from Robert Hogan to Harry Steeger and back again.

Responding to Steeger’s letter of the 11th, Hogan fills Steeger in on the interview with Bob Swift for the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine and talk of the rights structure to the G-8 stories and the possibility of a G-8 television show. . .

January 22, 1962    

Dear Harry:

    So good to get your letter of December 11th. Thanks for your congrats and your always kind words.

    We’ve had the interview with Bob Swift, Editor of the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine, and photographer. Also met Jim Eussell, Business and financial Editor of the Herald, who as a Louisiana boy had G-8 mania. These G-8 fans I’ve met and heard from in recent years are a high-type bunch of guys, literate and respected. Fact, I’ve never met or heard from a G-8 reader who didn’t seem someone to be proud of. The G-8 interview, with pictures, was supposed to consume about an hour last Tuesday afternoon. It consumed 3½ hours Instead, and two days later Bob Swift talked for an hour and a half on the phone, all of which I enjoyed, of course.

    Bob is returning the magazine you sent him as soon as the photo lab at the Herald gets squared away for their color print from the cover. Then, I believe, he hopes to ask you for several more to choose typical passages from for the article. Also, he said, “I’d read every one if I could get them again.” That seemed to me a fantastic angle. Bob read G-8s as a boy. Now he’s editor of one of the largest magazine Sunday supplements in the country and still likes to read them. He said he enjoyed reading the novel you sent him just as much as when he was a kid. Said, as before, he couldn’t lay it down.

    That seems to be the opinion of others who have grown to positions of responsibility. A letter arrived the other day from an old reader who got our Coral Gables address from a recent SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. It was written on the stationary of one of the larger Madison Avenue advertising agencies and he signed himself; “Executive Producer Radio-TV Programming Department.” I’d like to think it’s a feeler for some use of G-8 in either of his mediums, but more than likely not. Anyway, it could be a wedge. He says, in part: “With regard to G-8, I would certainly like to see more of this kind of reading for my boy who is just about the age I was when I was first Introduced to our hero.” He also said he deplored a lack of back copies of the magazine and was trying to think of some way to get the past ones reprinted possibly as paperbacks. He went on about settling a little bet with another G-8 fan as to whether there was ever a woman villain in any of the G-8 stories. He ended the letter: “With many thanks again for everything you have done for us indirectly —-” There must be some smoke behind all these little signal fires, which might be to our advantage if handled correctly.

    You mentioned in your letter, Harry, that you had no sales set-up for a G-8 renaissance and suggested I try selling G-8 to one or several mediums. So far as adapting or scripting any of the old stories for TV or whatever, I’ve never done a script although my/stuff has sold to TV in GE and Loretta Young and to the movies, all of which was adapted in the studios, the only thing I might help out in, beside sales, would be in an advisory capacity. I’m also afraid any efforts to write new G-8 stories would lack the old zing of twenty or more years ago. Anyway, there were a hundred odd old stories, which the old readers have forgotten and, according to their many expressions of hope, would like to read over again in newly published paperback editions. Also new reader possibilities.

    I’ve thought of the autobiographical book I mentioned in my other letter (a backward look at the old pulp days with a G-8 novel added) as a possible build-up to a string of republished G-8 paperbacks, if we could sell the idea to any of the paperback publishers. This might eventually lead to the sale for TV. In any event, it Is a very long shot in the dark. However, with all the furor the old readers have whipped up, particularly in the nation-wide organization known as “The Society of World War I Aero Historians,” which boasts a pretty impressive membership of successful young executives, including the advertising guys I mentioned, something might go.

    Betty’s father, Vic Lambdin, lives near us. He, my father-in-law, has been political cartoonist and newspaper man all his life (now retired). He says this thing busting out as a feature in the Miami Herald Sunday Magazine could very well bring what is needed to set off G-8 as a big thing. Turns out there are upwards of 5,000,000 readers of the Sunday Magazine down here at this time of year, with Florida loaded at the peak with what some laughingly call “the nation’s most important people.” Vic says they’re likely to burn up the Hogan phone with various offers or whatever. I don’t count on it, but it would be fun up to a point and, If so, it would be well to be prepared. With that in mind, it seems that maybe we should have some better idea of rights, mine and yours, in this thing.

    Here is the way I recollect the G-8 set-up as to ownership. I remember near the start you told me it was understood that the magazine was yours. As long as I wanted to and/or could write the G-8 stories, that was fine. But if anything happened to me, you wanted Betty to understand that you would have to get someone else to write it under Robert J. Hogan. Of course we agreed.

    As to the rights to all stories I wrote for you, at first you purchased only first serial rights. Then, because some writers were selling second serial rights to competing magazines, you bought all serial rights. At the time you explained this to me, you said that at any time I had legitimate sales for my writing to mediums other than competing magazines you would release the rights back to me.

    So, from the above, you own the magazine and I own the story rights. Now it seems to me with the bare possibility of something some day coming of this G-8 furor in paperbacks, TV, radio or whatever, there could be overlapping of rights and interests here and there. Also, we’ve always had the best relations with each other, Harry, and never a line of written contract. It seems to Betty and me that the best way to handle this, for all concerned and our joint good, would be on a fifty-fifty basis on all past G-8 stuff. If G-8 went into paperbacks I would like to write a forward for each, telling how that particular story came to be written and how I got the idea for that menace or war machine which seems to be the main part that the old readers still go nuts over. That would be part of our joint paperback sales, if any.

    In other words, whatever we could make out of old G-8 we would split the gross take, you and I, fifty-fifty. We might need an agent, but so far we have never needed one, and if contracts required a careful check, your Popular Publications attorney might take care of it.

    There probably isn’t a chance in the world that this G-8 comeback will amount to anything. However, some crazy things are happening these days. And wouldn’t it be fun to see the old boy diving in again with Nippy and Bull flying wing in Spads 13 and 7?

    If this idea is agreeable with you—the feature story is due out in a week or two—would it be well for Bob Swift to mention in the article that the G-8 stories, series or whatever, are being submitted or negotiated for paperback and/or TV? How would you suggest wording it on the chance of raising some interest?

                    Our best to you and yours, Harry.
                    Robert J. Hogan

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

January 25, 1962    

Dear Bob:

    Needless to say, I enjoyed your letter of January 22nd very much. It was nice to hear from you and it was good news that the popular demand for a return of G-8 and his Battle Aces appears to be growing.

    I think your idea for a fifty-fifty split on possible sales is very fair and I agree with your letter in every respect. Since I agree completely, I am sure it won’t be necessary for me to requote these points.

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a pocketbook of G-8 stories or a television program? I’m sure that either one would be a real success. In fact, just the reading of your letter made me feel nostalgic again about Nippy and Bull.

    Here’s wishing us luck, Bob – and my kindest personal regards to you and the family.

                    Sincerely.

A few years ago, writer and frequent Age of Aces contributer Don Hutchison came up to our table at PulpFest and handed us a manilla envelope, entrusting us with its contents. When we opened the envelope, amung other things, there were letters from Robert Hogan to Harry Steeger and back again.

On December 7th, 1961, prompted by the growing nostagia over World War I and G-8 and his Battle Aces in particular, Robert J. Hogan took the time to write to his old publisher and friend Harry Steeger. . .

December 7, 1961    

Dear Harry:

    For some time I’ve been going to drop you a line on the matter of an old friend. Tempus fidgets and none of us is getting younger, except one old geezer who seems to be looming out of the past to haunt me, bless him. He, according to books, mailed reports, phone calls and magazines articles, seems to be growing younger and it does me good to think that I gave birth to this full sized adult who, defying the laws of Nature and Biology, seems to be gradually taking a second hold on life. Namely good old G-8 and His Battle Aces.

    I received my first inkle of this shot in the arm for the old boy perhaps three years, yes? over three years ago, when a guy phoned me long distance from somewhere to tell me how much he used to enjoy G-8 and to ask me if I had any copies of G-8 magazines I would care to part with. I said I had none for sale or loan but that I did love his flattery. He went on to say that he had been trying to buy some old back copies of G-8 and recently had been offered a brace of three, without covers, but assured that the first page of contents was there WITH THE AUTHOR’S NAME visible. The back number mag merchant would part with these three for the meager price of $7.00 for the three. He said he had asked what he might get one or more with covers and in good condition for and was told that if such a rare item could be found anywhere they would run from $10. each up and up and up. That was well over 3 years ago.

    A year ago Betty picked up a well written contemperary paper back novel wherein some guy was sounding off on “My country right or wrong,” after which he apologized by saying, “Damned if I don’t sound like G-8 and his Battle Aces.” Then continued a few sentences of dialogue something like, “Damned if you don’t look like G-8,” and “Wasn’t that the best damned set of character stories that ever hit print?” etc. etc.

    Next thing, one of the boys in the Sparta PO said someone had come through asking where the house of Robert J. Hogan was. Said he wanted to see where G-8 stories were written. This was nearly 15 years after publication was suspended.

    I’ve had the general run of pleasant flattery all the way. But a few months ago the magazine section of the Miami Sunday Herald came out with a piece about World War I planes and the furor that is now cooked up. Mel Torme, the singer, is head of a club, as you likely know, who hold a kind of worship for World War I fliers and planes and who make a thing of collecting G-8 and his Battle Aces magazines. This article referred to G-8 as a fast returning popular character. I phoned the editor of the mag section and asked him, a nice guy named Bob Swift, how come he had mentioned G-8. He said, “Because it’s the hottest thing in present day collectors’ items. I read it, every issue, when I was a kid. Used to sit on the curb in front of the mag store where I bought it because I couldn’t wait to get home to read it.”

    The upshot of all this is that he wants to run a piece on ye old creator and writer of G-8 and His Battle Aces. I told him I had nothing on G-8 down here with me. He said he would write you and ask if you might have an old proof sheet or something you could send him of one of the old cover prints. He wants to do a special in full color in the Sunday mag. No doubt you have heard from him by now.

    On top of that comes an article in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED? October 30th 1961 issue, by Robert H. Boyle, titled HELL’S OLD ANGELS. On page 61 on and on under the paragraph head THE FLYING SPY he does some nice stuff on old G-8 and says that Hollywood and other sources are now probing the possibilities of making TV series out of World War I stuff and—well you can read it. You’ll get a kick out of it, I know.

    Wouldn’t it be something if they saw a good TV series in G-8 and His Battle Aces? I know that if or when G-8 sells to TV or whatever interests, you’ll see to it that they make fitting payment to the guy who originated and wrote the series. Believe me, we can use it.

    For now, I’m writing about another angle of this new G-8 popularity. Because of this furor that seems to have been growing over G-8, bless his handsome heart and diary, I’m planning to do a sort of autobiographical book about the old pulp days as I knew them and the development of said G-8 and His Battle Aces and how they grew. So many amazing and Interesting things connected with the writing of the magazine and the pulps in general. Why and how come practically every owner of a seat on the NY stock exchange came to read G-8 and His Battle Aces, a magazine aimed at age 14 I believe you said, and never missed a copy during the 30s. The fun we had writing for the pulps and the funny things that came up from the thousands of letters we received from fans all over the world. And I’m hoping I could have your permission (when I get the autobiog. part done) to publish one of the G-8 novels at the conclusion of the book, with illustrations, cover and all. At least some arrangement so any cost for such rights, if any, wouldn’t come out of me and my royalties.

    Best to Al Norton, Eva, Peg and any others of the old bunch who may still be about. And the best of the best to you, Harry. It’s beginning to look like we created an era that may live for some time in the memory of the old G-8 readers. How many total readers, would you guess, G-8 really had during the years? Seems about every young man I’ve ever talked to of that age range read the mag at some time.

                    Yours,
                    Robert J. Hogan

— ✪ ✪ ✪ —

December 11, 1961    

Dear Bob:

    I can’t tell you what a big kick I got out of your letter of December 7th. It’s been a long time since we exchanged letters, and I’ve often wondered how you were doing.

    One of my chief regrets has been the demise of the pulp magazines. I thought they were great fun and G-8 was one of the best. I, too, have noticed the resurgence of popularity for G-8 and have seen his name mentioned even in newspaper pieces and magazine articles not mentioned in your letter. He must have struck a tremendous note of popularity which even we were not quite aware of. I was fascinated to read all of the listings made by you of his recent appearances. The old boy had a lot of fight in the beginning and he still has a lot of fight in him. More congratulations and felicitations to you, Bob. You did a magnificent job and you brought great happiness to what looks like all the kids of America. Certainly a large percentage of them.

    As you know, World War I planes are still very popular. People like to collect them and to look at them, much the same as old automobiles. They also like articles on old planes. Each time we’ve run an article in ARG0SY on old planes it has been extremely popular.

    Yes, I think a good TV series on G-8 and his Battle Aces would be quite some thing. Maybe you could sell some breakfast food company on the idea. There would certainly be no better person to write it than your noble self. However, we do not have any salesmen in this particular realm and, hence, could make no effort on our parts toward selling the property.

    An autobiographical book about the old pulp days would be most amuslng and I think quite a collector’s item. If you do it, I’m sure you would please many readers. If there is any way in which we can help, just call on us.

    It would be hard to guess how many total readers we had for G-8 during the years because, as you know, kids love to pass copies of the magazine around—so that each magazine could have had anywhere from 1 to 10 readers. In any event, it was a mighty large number.

    I am so glad for you and for us—but particularly you—that this resurgence of popularity has occurred. You certainly deserved it and we had a grand time putting the product together!

    All the best to you and your family, Bob.