Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction

Rough justice has often been served in the pages of serial novels, notably beginning with Don Pendleton’s The Executioner in 1969. This is the first overview of the serial vigilante genre, which featured such hard-boiled protagonists as Nick Carter, Mark Stone, Jake Brand and Able Team among the 130 series that followed Pendleton’s novel. Serial vigilantes repeatedly take the law into their own hands, establishing and imposing their own moral standards, usually by force. The book examines the connections between the serial vigilante and the pulp hero that preceded him and how the serial vigilante has influenced a variety of tough guys, private eyes, spies and cops in different media. A complete bibliography for each series is featured.

Bradley Mengel works in Australia’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. He has contributed critical analysis to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe and short fiction to Tales of the Shadowmen Vol. 3.

Bradley Mengel

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 233
Bibliographic Info: appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4165-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5475-4
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

THE VIGILANTES      11

Appendices      187
1. Crossovers, References and Parodies      187
2. Precursors to the Serial Vigilante      193
3. Modern Pulp      200
4. Missing the Mark: Singletons, Police, Private Eyes, Criminals, and Other Oddities      202
5. The Female of the Species      208
6. The Future of the Serial Vigilante      213

Bibliography      219
Index      221

• “This thorough, easy-to-use study should be a welcome addition to libraries with interests in the ever-growing field of popular culture.”—ARBA
• “This book is clearly a labor of love, but it leans more towards scholarly analysis than fannish drool. It’s a great book for fans of pulps, rich with details and background information…many of these books, and their authors, would have been forgotten if not for this one-of-a-kind reference work”—A Book Made For Me–A Writer’s Life
• “This book is going to be my go-to reference guide for years to come…make the investment. You won’t regret it.”—www.bookgasm.com