Introduction   On Racism   Epigraphs   A History of the Pulps   A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z   

Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Alaska-Jim. Alaska-Jim was created by “Big Ben,” the pseudonym of the German author Willi Richard Sachse (Claus Timm) and “F.L. Barwin” (Sturmvögel) the pseudonym of the German authors Lisa Barthel Winkler (Bob Hunter (II), Sturmvögel) and Fritz Barthel. Alaska-Jim appeared in Alaska-Jim, Ein Held der Kanadischen Polizei #1-227 (1935-1939), which was reprinted in Italy in 1937 and in Poland in 1938.

“Alaska-Jim” is Jim Hoover, a hunter and trapper during the last decades of the 19^th century and the first decades of the 20^th century. Hoover is an agent of the Canadian police and fights evil in America, Canada, and around the world with the help of his best friend, the native Old Crow. A number of Hoover’s stories have fantastic content, including ghost wolves and female sorcerers. Among Hoover’s enemies are the Lupin Silken Jimmy and the Yellow Peril Opium Kings. In Alaska-Jim #5, “Der Luftpiraten von Oglivie,” Alaska-Jim encounters Captain Mors, and in Alaska-Jim #199, “Sturmvögel,” Alaska-Jim teams up with Sturmvögel. In 1939, when the German government forbade the publication of all series featuring heroes with English-sounding names, Alaska-Jim was cancelled and replaced with Winkler and Barthel’s Sturmvögel (see Sturmvögel).

Alaska-Jim appears in stories with titles like “The Holy Tomahawk,” “The Enemy Islands,” and “The Phantom Command.”

* I've included Alaska-Jim in the the Best of the Encyclopedia category on the strength of the variety and color of the concepts appearing in it, from the meshing of frontier stories with fantastika (which I can't get enough of) to the canny use of pulp icons like the Lupin and the Yellow Peril to the number of crossovers appearing in the book. A surprising number of the German heftromane interconnect through crossovers, and Alaska-Jim happily takes part in that. 

Table of Contents / Annotations / Blog / Books / Patreon / Twitter / Contact me