Doctor Death (magazine) - Second Doctor Death

Second Doctor Death

In February 1935 All Detective was replaced by a new magazine entitled Doctor Death, which featured a new, somewhat different version of the character. While the original Doctor Death had been a straightforward criminal mastermind, the new one was an archetypal mad scientist. These new stories were written by Harold Ward under the pseudonym of "Zorro". Although an apparent change of author, Robert Weinberg has stated that "Edward P. Norris" was also a pseudonym of Harold Ward. Since Weinberg's claim, Ward's work has been more thoroughly examined, and it was determined Ward did not write those early stories.

Only three issues of Doctor Death were published, in February, March and April 1935. Each of these issues contained a complete Doctor Death novel under the byline of Zorro. In chronological order, the three novels are:

• 12 Must Die
• The Gray Creatures
• The Shriveling Murders

In addition, there are two additional stories, which were unpublished at the time:

• Waves of Madness
• The Red Mist of Death

In these novels, Doctor Death is Dr. Rance Mandarin, formerly a professor at Yale University and now a master of the occult with an insane hatred of scientific progress and industrialization. He believes it is his mission to return the world to a blissful primitive state, which he attempts to do with the aid of zombies, elementals, dissolution rays and communist heavies. He hopes to reduce the human population, and return us to the stone age. Opposing Doctor Death is an organization known as the Secret Twelve, led by supernatural detective Jimmy Holm, with the President of the United States himself as its figurehead.