For every great hero, there is, quite often, a great adversary. Think Professor Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes; Cardinal Richelieu and The Three Musketeers; Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Uriah Heep and David Copperfield; Doctor Quartz and Nick Carter; Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.
And then there are the villains who far overshadow their creator’s protagonists. Count Dracula, Hannibal Lecter, Captain Ahab, Doctor Fu Manchu, Long John Silver, Fantômas, Sauron . . . . Only their most devoted followers remember Jonathan Harker, Clarice Starling, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and the like.
In 1935, with The Great Depression dragging on and the rigors of the pulp marketplace depressing sales, Dell Publishing’s All Detective Magazine was floundering. Publisher George T. Delacorte decided to try something new. With its February 1935 issue, All Detective became Doctor Death, the first pulp magazine to have a villain as the lead character.
We hope you’ll join PulpFest 2025 on Thursday, August 7, at 8:35 pm as we welcome espionage expert Tim King for a look at “Masters of Villainy,” a celebration of the 90th anniversary of “The Villain Pulps.”
A lifelong fan of The Shadow, Tim King was introduced to the Orson Welles version by his late mother. “If you like Batman then you’ll love The Shadow.” Did she know that the first Batman story was almost a line-for-line recreation of Ted Tinsley’s “Partners of Peril?” Only The Shadow knows.
A career investigator for the Department of Defense and US Intelligence Services, Tim spoke at PulpFest 2015 about the similarities between the methods of The Master of Darkness and those employed by the counterespionage services of the same era. He also presented at PulpFest 2021 on the use of stage magic in Walter B. Gibson’s Shadow novels and last year on “Spy Heroes of the Pulps.”
In the footsteps of Walter Gibson and others, Tim is a member of the Society of American Magicians — serving on the paranormal investigations committee. He also belongs to the Office of Strategic Services Society, an organization that honors the heroic accomplishments of the OSS during World War II. Tim has written for Sanctum Books, The Shadowed Circle fanzine, and moderates The Shadow Knows Facebook group. His book, In the Shadow of Houdini, is forthcoming.
PulpFest 2025 begins on August 7 and runs through August 10 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania. We’ll be celebrating the “Masters of Blood and Thunder,” the “Great Pulp Villains,” Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, and more at this year’s convention.
The general public is welcome to attend our evening programming events free of charge. To learn more about our programming, please click the 2025 Schedule button at the top of this page.
For those who also want to enjoy our dealers’ room, you can join PulpFest by clicking the register button at the top of this page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast!
Remember, in addition to your membership in PulpFest 2025, you’ll also be a member of Doc Con XXI, ERBFest 2025, and Farmercon XX. That’s four conventions for one price! You can’t beat that deal.
If you’re interested in selling at PulpFest, our dealers’ room is full. However, we are considering adding tables in the pre-function hallway outside of the dealers’ room. These tables will cost $125 each and will be guarded by security overnight. If you are interested, please write to Jack Cullers at jack@pulpfest.com to be added to our waiting list.
To learn more about the “Great Pulp Villains,” visit the PulpFest YouTube Channel and catch Craig McDonald’s The Shadow: His Greatest Enemies!
And while your there, please be sure to subscribe.
Our featured image is excerpted from John Newton Howitt’s cover for the July 1937 number of The Spider, illustrating “Corpse Cargo,” written by Norvell Page and featuring a villain who calls herself Captain Kidd.
Our lead image was adapted by William Lampkin from Graves Gladney’s original cover art for the September 1939 issue of The Shadow, illustrating Walter B. Gibson’s “The Golden Master,” also known as Shiwan Khan. The villanous “Khan” was one of the few bad guys featured in four battles with Gibson’s mysterious “Dark Avenger.”
Our final image is the March 1935 issue of Doctor Death, with cover by Rudolph Zirm, illustrating Harold Ward’s novel, “The Gray Creatures.” Ward’s villain has been called an “eco-terrorist.” Thinking that civilization had corrupted our planet, Doctor Rance Mandarin — the former Dean of Psychology at Yale University — used science and the occult, hoping to send the human race back to the Stone Age.
