...or is that Shamii? ...I guess it's a shame-I don't know! HA!
Yeah, I know, it was bad. You know the worst part is? I'm not even ashamed of it! Isn't that terrible?
Anyway, welcome back! Since the premier Saturday Serial, "The Crystal Cage" has ended, I want to talk about the next story, and what inspired it.
As you must know by now, I am a fan of the old pulp heroes. The Shadow, the Spider, the Phantom Detective, the Black Bat, the Green Lama...there are so many, and they all have some distinct similarities. Chiefly, they are all masked mystery men fighting against crime! Some, like the Shadow and the Green Lama, have seemingly supernatural powers, while most of the others only have pistols and fanatical devotion to their cause.
Many such heroes had their own magazine, some had radio dramas, and some of the most popular ones had movies or movie serials. The Masked Man of Mystery was a rock-solid trope of the hero pulps, so naturally I HAD to have one of my own!
My hero is the Phantom Sleuth! This mysterious identity is actually shared by a pair of identical twin brothers: Byron and Brian Twain. Their parents were marked for death by the mob, and Byron was caught up in the mob hit while Brian escaped it altogether. Now, Byron is believed to be dead, and both brothers have vowed to avenge their parents' death by waging a war against crime.
Brian Twain, the sole survivor of the family tragedy, is now a wealthy young socialite and sole heir to the family business empire. Secretly, the Twain brothers created the identity of the Phantom Sleuth, and began to fight the underworld. The two brothers take on the identity of the Phantom Sleuth in shifts, likewise the public identity of Brian Twain.
Byron is in love with Jane Wayland, who only knows him as Brian, the living twin. As a star reporter of a local newspaper and the daughter of the Police Commissioner, she inadvertently supplies the Phantom Sleuth with various tidbits of useful information. Meanwhile, her father deems the Sleuth to be a danger to the public at large, and strives to bring him in, like a common criminal.
The Phantom Sleuth is a crack shot, a master of disguise, and a skilled escape artist who fights the outlandish villains who threatened the peace and safety of the denizens of this beloved city. Magicians, Mesmerists, Masterminds and more plague the criminal cases in his files!
You can get the first-ever Phantom Sleuth story, "The Case of the Villainous Vanishing Act", and a slew of other stories--for FREE--in "The Adventure Sampler" when you join the Adventure Society. You can also read the first installment of newest adventure this Saturday!
Until then, I wish you all...
Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell
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