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Tales from the Island of Serendip
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Started by Flex Mentallo,

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Flex Mentallo

Flex Mentallo

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Operator #5

Operator #5 and was published by Popular Publications.The magazine ran for 48 issues, from April 1934 to November 1939. Stories were all credited to "Curtis Steele", which was a house name for writers Frederick C. Davis (#1-20), Emile C. Tepperman (#21-39), and Wayne Rogers (#40-48).

Within the world of the series, America was still beset by the Great Depression; Jimmy Christopher was a secret agent, codenamed "Operator No. 5," for United States Intelligence, and starred in a number of fast paced stories revolving around America's enemies who pledged war, death, and bloody destruction against the nation. The enemies were many, but often from countries with fictional names. The colour themes of the enemy nations probably come from War Plan Red where America considered a war against Britain and other countries some years earlier.

Davis left because he got fed up with the publisher's demand of trying to think up a new evil super-power attacking America every issue. Tepperman solved this by writing 13 interconnected novels (starting with #26) that make up The Purple Invasion, a series in which the Purple Empire (an unnamed European power which is a thinly veiled Nazi Germany) conquers the United States after conquering the rest of the world. Jimmy Christopher led the insurgency against them. The saga is often looked upon as the War and Peace of pulps.

Reeling from the bloody war, America found itself vulnerable to yet other would-be conquerors. A new serial dealt with the invasion of the US by an oriental power, obviously Japan, led by the "Yellow Vulture." This sequence started with issue #45, but was left unfinished with the magazine's cancellation due to the real war.

Christopher often bore two trademarks: a skull ring (with a tiny capsule of a deadly poison gas inside which could kill a large auditorium full of people) and a rapier which was kept curled inside his belt. He was aided by a number of people in the various wars: Diane Elliot, his girlfriend; Tim Donovan, who quickly grew from a youngster who Christopher had saved from great poverty to a two-fisted young man; Nan Christopher, his twin sister; John Christopher, his father who was a retired operative known as Q-6 who after his last case ended up with a bullet near his heart; Washington Chief of Intelligence Z-7; and friend "Slips" McGuire, among many others, some of whom gave their lives for America.

 

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