COMIC VINE informs us about a magician detective who had a short run in the comics but a pretty good run in the pulps:
"Along with writing The Shadow pulp novels Walter Gibson [a professional magician] also wrote non-fiction and short stories; one of the other series characters that he wrote about from time to time was Norgil the Magician, who was a normal stage magician who sometimes caught petty cooks.
"Most of the short stories had the same basic theme, with Norgil using a stage magic to outdo a thief and then explain to whoever was around to listen (and the reading audience) how the trick worked." (Comic Vine HERE.)
It's true the stories have "the same basic theme," but they move along at a good clip; they are light-weight entertainment at its best.
(1) "Murderer's Throne."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985; Wikipedia HERE and HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; the IMDb HERE; and Magicpedia HERE). Norgil the Magician No. 3.
First appearance: Crime Busters, February 1938.
Collected in Norgil the Magician, 1977 (ISFDb HERE; book online HERE). Short story (14 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 24). (Note: Text very faded.)
"Within the next five minutes, the suave magician was due for the biggest surprise of his stage career."
A CRIMINAL KINGPIN is about to go on the lam, but not before he has robbed and murdered as he usually does. Ironically enough, in order to catch him, a perfectly innocent Norgil will also have to go on the lam—only to face a hair-raising close encounter with an electric chair: "This time others gave the cue—and their guns didn't carry blanks."
Chapters:
I. Crooks Hear News
II. Underground Evidence
III. The Wrong Finale
IV. Norgil's Vanish
V. The Death Chair.
Typos: "long befort"; "that would fellow it".
Principal characters:
~ Norgil ("was aiming his blank-loaded revolver"), King Blauden ("controlled every racket in this town"), Louis Lanning ("a drab, timid type of fellow"), Fritz ("Fritz's brisk, nasal speech was a perfect imitation of the local commentator"), Irene ("might furnish evidence"), Bogo ("was deadly when he had his knife"), and Detective Caston ("What about it?").
(2) "Murder in Wax."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985).
Norgil the Magician No. 14.
First appearance: Crime Busters, April 1939 (cover story).
Collected in Norgil - More Tales of Prestidigitection, 1978 (ISFDb HERE; book online HERE). Short story (15 pages).
Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).
". . . the steady drip-drip of the raining blood, that seemingly could betoken nothing less than the passing of a human life!"
BLOOD ON THE CEILING. Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Nah, it's just red ink. Blame it on the cat. But, guess what, it really is blood, which means the cat, bless him, can keep the rest of his nine lives—but it also means that someone else is responsible for that corpse. Could it be . . . the robot?
Chapters:
I. Drops of Blood
II. Wanted—A Corpse
III. The Chamber of Horrors
IV. The Double Surprise
V. Finished Crime.
Typo: "Lieberstraum".
Principal characters:
~ Norgil ("there should be a corpse"), Miriam Laymond ("There was fascinated horror in her eyes"), Harmon Wier ("When Wier smiled, it meant that he was satisfied, for his face was normally quite solemn"), Fritz ("Then there were a dozen or more who went down to the Chamber of Horrors"), and Boots ("Make it snappy").
References:
- "many famous magicians—de Kolta" (HERE), "Powell" (HERE), "and Dunninger" (HERE) - "another large room filled with waxworks" (HERE and HERE) - "Lieberstraum" [sic] (HERE) - "the Chicago massacre" (HERE) - "Marie Antoinette on the guillotine" (HERE) - "Bluebeard's secret room" (HERE and HERE) - "Belshazzar’s Feast" (HERE) - "the Admiral Peary platform" (HERE) - "old Simon Legree, ready to take a whack at Uncle Tom" (HERE and HERE). Sources: Wikipedia (HERE) and Magicpedia (HERE).
(3) "Too Many Ghosts."
By Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson, 1897-1985).
Norgil the Magician No. 21.
First appearance: Mystery Magazine, May 1940.
Illustrated by Orban (1896-1974; ISFDb HERE). No apparent reprints.
Novelette (17 pages).
Online at Archive.org (HERE). (Note: Text extremely faded.)
"Mystery stalked hand in hand with tragedy."
THERE'S PLENTY of skullduggery surrounding a production of Hamlet in a cash-strapped theater, the worst of it being a fatal collapse of proscenium curtains right on top of the leading man. Trying to figure out who would benefit from it and why has Norgil in the dark, literally as well as figuratively . . .
Chapters:
I. The Ghost Walks
II. The Man Below
III. For One Night Only
IV. The Death That Missed
V. The Ghostly Hand
VI. The Fingers Write.
Typos: "Norgill"; "Shapespeare"; "blackbard".
Comment: The exclamation mark (!) gets overused.
Principal characters:
~ Norgil ("Too many ghosts!"), Miriam Laymond ("stared with eyes that seemed hypnotized"), Marcus Pendleton ("he was a lousy Hamlet"), Martin Kyne ("But this will lift the hoodoo from the opera house"), Freeland Dubray ("his glazing eyes steadied for the moment"), Ray Laddimer ("There isn’t a show in the country that would play this opera house"), Bill Gorner ("When I say nobody, I ain’t allowing for no ghosts"), and Andrew Wardlon ("blubbered the truth").
References:
- "the rôle of Hamlet" (HERE) - "Hamlet’s Father" (HERE) - "a burlesque policy" (HERE) - "back to repertoire" (HERE) - "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (HERE) - "the proscenium arch" (HERE) - "the asbestos front curtain" (HERE) - "the skull of Poor Yorick" (HERE) - "used in ‘Rip Van Winkle'" (HERE) - "the thunder trough" (HERE) - "It’s an old stunt" (HERE). Sources: Wikipedia (HERE).
Resources:
- Murder in the theater seems to be popular with Hollywood; at least two Murder: She Wrote episodes (HERE and HERE) used the trope. Print authors haven't ignored it, either (HERE). A superior made-for-TV movie written by mystery fiction cinema doyens Richard Levinson and William Link is Rehearsal for Murder (HERE), an adaptation, when you think about it, of Hamlet's The Mousetrap. - Jess Nevins's entry about Norgil:
"W. Bates Loring is a famous stage magician who as 'Norgil the Magician' is capable of selling out houses night after night. He is also a dedicated crime fighter. He doesn’t have any real magic, but the tricks and gimmicks he learned on-stage are sufficient to capture the bad guys, whether city racketeers or jewel thieves or villainous stage magicians. Norgil has quick and sure hands, is known and feared by other criminals, and is assisted by Fritz, who sometimes doubts his boss and sometimes needs to be rescued but is always faithful." (Jess Nevins's Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes HERE.) - The Norgil the Magician stories (FictionMags data: ss = short story; nv = novelette):
"Norgil," (ss) Crime Busters, November 1937, as by Maxwell Grant (see The Pulp.Net about Crime Busters HERE) "Ring of Death," (ss) Crime Busters, January 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Murderer’s Throne," (ss) Crime Busters, February 1938, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
"The Second Double, (ss) Crime Busters, March 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Drinks on the House," (ss) Crime Busters, April 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Chinaman’s Chance," (ss) Crime Busters, May 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Glass Box," (ss) Crime Busters, June 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Mad Magician," (ss) Crime Busters, July 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Ghost That Came Back," (ss) Crime Busters, August 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Silver Venus," (ss) Crime Busters, September 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Double-Barrelled Magic," (ss) Crime Busters, November 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Magician’s Choice," (ss) Crime Busters, December 1938, as by Maxwell Grant
"Old Crime Week," (ss) Crime Busters, February 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
"Murder in Wax," (ss) Crime Busters, April 1939, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
"The Mystery of Moloch," (nv) Crime Busters, June 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
"$5,000 Reward," (nv) Crime Busters, July 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Chest of Ching Ling Foo," (nv) Crime Busters, September 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Blue Pearls," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, December 1939, as by Maxwell Grant
"The Lady and the Lion," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, January 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
"Crime in the Crystal," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, March 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
"Too Many Ghosts," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, May 1940, as by Maxwell Grant (above)
"Battle of Magic," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, July 1940, as by Maxwell Grant
"Tank-Town Tour," (nv) Street & Smith’s Mystery Magazine, November 1940, as by Maxwell Grant.
The bottom line:
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Artwork by Gary Larson |
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~