The pulp vigilante The Radium King mete out cruel justice to members of a criminal organization called Z in the single issue of his eponymous magazine. The Radium King wore a fedora, a cloak over a suit, and an ornate gas mask, completely concealing his identity, which went unrevealed throughout the five short stories included in the magazine. While the author, or authors, of these stories is credited to the in-story character Horace Scanlon, the true author remains unknown. However, four characters from a 24-year-old novel by Albert Dorrington, The Radium Terrors, make appearances: Pepio Tsarka, Beatrice Messonier, Soto Inouyiti, and Gifford Renwick. In that earlier novel, the villain Dr. Teroni Tsarka, along with his unwitting accomplice Inouyiti, uses a stolen cache of radium to blind upper crust Londoners. In these five short stories, The Radium King employs a mechanical glove housing radium, which causes blindness in the criminals he touches, permanently if not treated by a secret method known only to Dr. Messonier. The first story, “Fire in the Darkness”, introduces detective Horace Scanlon, working undercover within Z, who witnesses The Radium King in action disrupting a heist. The vigilante blinds him. The Radium King discovers Scanlon’s true allegiences and sends him to Dr. Messonier for a cure. In “Trace Amounts”, an accountant skimming off the top of a gangster’s payroll goes on the run, pursued by both Z thugs, Scanlon, and the titular hero. The title also refers to “the god in the pitchblende”, the radium that is extracted from the mineral uraninite. Other story titles are “A Calling at Midnight”, “The Iridescent Glove”, and “The Last Letter is Evil”.
Description The pulp vigilante The Radium King mete out cruel justice to members of a criminal organization called Z in the single issue of his eponymous magazine. The Radium King wore a fedora, a cloak over a suit, and an ornate gas mask, completely concealing his identity, which went unrevealed throughout the five short stories included in the magazine. While the author, or authors, of these stories is credited to the in-story character Horace Scanlon, the true author remains unknown. However, four characters from a 24-year-old novel by Albert Dorrington, The Radium Terrors, make appearances: Pepio Tsarka, Beatrice Messonier, Soto Inouyiti, and Gifford Renwick. In that earlier novel, the villain Dr. Teroni Tsarka, along with his unwitting accomplice Inouyiti, uses a stolen cache of radium to blind upper crust Londoners. In these five short stories, The Radium King employs a mechanical glove housing radium, which causes blindness in the criminals he touches, permanently if not treated by a secret method known only to Dr. Messonier. The first story, “Fire in the Darkness”, introduces detective Horace Scanlon, working undercover within Z, who witnesses The Radium King in action disrupting a heist. The vigilante blinds him. The Radium King discovers Scanlon’s true allegiences and sends him to Dr. Messonier for a cure. In “Trace Amounts”, an accountant skimming off the top of a gangster’s payroll goes on the run, pursued by both Z thugs, Scanlon, and the titular hero. The title also refers to “the god in the pitchblende”, the radium that is extracted from the mineral uraninite. Other story titles are “A Calling at Midnight”, “The Iridescent Glove”, and “The Last Letter is Evil”.
