Cover Date: February 1942
Volume 18 # 6
Copyright Date: Friday, January 16, 1942
Author: Lester Dent
Editor: John Nanovic
Story Length: 36,914 words
Cover: Emory Clarke
WHMC: The collection contains seven folders for this story, f. 727-733.
Working Title: Skull Cay
Recurring Characters. The entire Iron Crew are all present in this story. Pat Savage is in this story.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
“Men of Fear” by Kenneth Robeson
“Secret Cargo” by Wallace Brooker
Doc Savage Club
Letters from Readers
Editor’s Page
Monk, Ham, and Johnny abruptly refuse to join Doc Savage’s planned South American expedition, insisting the bronze man must abandon all risk and live quietly under another name. They cite the advice of a cautious stranger named Henry. When Doc is seized from his private elevator, the three deny involvement; Renny, Long Tom, and Pat realize the trio has been dosed with a newly discovered “fear vitamin” that destroys courage.
The vitamin was developed by European agents who captured the genuine Professor Matthew Jellant and forced research on the compound. They substitute a false Jellant and use the terrified aides to lure Doc into perfecting the formula so it can be used against Allied leaders. Doc is eventually taken to a remote Caribbean island where the agents hold Jellant and the three aides.
A hurricane strikes while Doc, Renny, and Long Tom infiltrate the island. Doc leaves a phosphorescent trail, disables a capacity-alarm system, and raids the coral cave. In the ensuing fight the prisoners are freed and most of the agents are captured or killed by the rising sea. The real Jellant is rescued; all notes and samples of the fear vitamin are destroyed so the formula cannot be duplicated.
Monk secretly retains a vial of the compound. He lets Henry and the false Jellant escape in a boat, having convinced them that the liquid is a protective serum against the vitamin. The two race home to administer it to their dictator, unaware they are carrying the fear drug itself.
There are no real technical flaws with this story. It has all the necessary parts and pieces, but it was missing that vital larger-than-life flavor. The vitamin F E A R compound was intended to add that exotic factor found in so many of the adventures, but it seemed like it lost a lot of its fizz.
Doc remarks that Pat will meet them at their “secret hangar” on the Hudson River. There is no mention of the Hidalgo Trading Company.
Doc is a little forgetful and not as much of a superman as he once was but he’s still smarter and stronger than the villains. Some of the traditional signature items do appear. Doc exhibits his trilling, mercy bullets are used, and the short acting anesthetic gas appears.
This is a war-time story in which German agents figure prominently. The story was submitted before the United States entered World War II. It is interesting to note that European concentration camps are mentioned. This story hit the newsstand on January 16, 1942. A little over a month later, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which provided for the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps.
Professor Matthew Jellant comes from Vienna, Austria. There is no mention in the story that Austria was taken over by Germany in early 1938.
There are two instances in the story that modern readers may find offensive. Pat savage uses the words “pickaninny” coupled with “watermelon” in the same sentence. Later in the story, readers learn that Turkis used blackface on the ship to avoid capture.
German expressions are tossed around freely throughout the text. Adolph Hitler is not actually named as the dictator nor is Germany. But the story does make it very clear the professor comes from Austria and that they have been conquered by another nation. Anyone who read the newspapers, listened to the radio, or watched the news reels knew that country was Germany.
If Street & Smith was following an editorial policy of not naming actual countries in its magazines it looks like someone was trying to circumvent that policy with this story or else they were just being sloppy.
Not a bad story, not a great story, but certainly better than most of the ghosted ones out there.
Batman #46, May 10, 1948 – FEAR DUST
“Professor Strange’s Fear Dust”
Batman breaks up a gang of criminals. One hoodlum asks Batman to let him go in exchange for information about a big job being conducted by a racketeer, Carstairs. Batman allows the men to escape, but the hoodlum promises to inform Batman later.
The hoodlum attends a gang meeting where a plan is explained. Hugo Strange has developed a fear dust that allows the gang to commit crimes without interference. Batman learns of the plan from the hoodlum and obtains the antidote. He and Robin then stop the crooks. Strange apparently falls to his death.
This idea resurfaces in the Buzz Sawyer newspaper comic strip in 1961.
Buzz Sawyer – April 8, 1961