Re The Liquidator. It does indeed. I wonder who used the title first? of course there is no copyright in titles so you see them cropping up again and again over times, especially if they're more generic sounding.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
The martial arts craze of the ‘70’s translated into many chop suey book series, some are below.
THE DESTROYER series is well known and went to 155 volumes. A movie in 1985 was released but was not popular enough to warrant any further entries. Our own Christopher Wood wrote the tie-in novel and Guy Hamilton directed the movie and his concentration on making the movie light and humorous was the antithesis of the violent novels henceforth alienating the target audience. Terence Young would have been a better choice.
The SLOCUM series by house name Jake Logan went to a massive 430 entries from 1975-2014. Among the many authors was Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park) who moonlighted on many pulp series including Nick Carter to pay the bills (as spoken about before).
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
It seems a bit strange to me to read Kung Fu stories when the attraction onscreen is so visual and the stories usually pretty basic.
Remo The Destroyer was very popular, you can still see those books in second hand bookshops. If you're lucky enough to find a second hand bookshop, that is.
This was the final The Baroness book and The Avengers went to 9 entries…
Three from the Piccadilly Cowboy collection…
HART THE REGULATOR by John Harvey (the only PC series where the author used his real name) went to 10 entries.
HERNE THE HUNTER was the only one which had a solid ending (Herne dies) it went to 24 volumes and was alternatively written by Laurence James and John Harvey. The artwork was based on Clint Eastwood.
EDGE was the collections longest series at 61 entries and all written by Terry Harknett. He also wrote the Adam Steele series (already covered) and he teamed his anti-heroes up for 3 adventures in EDGE MEETS STEELE.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
@Barbel according to this site there are 9 numbered The Avengers novels and two unnumbered which preceded them. These are all original novels. There are three later adaptations of episodes from The New Avengers. At one time in the not too distant past, I had intended to purchase and read all these, but I'm not doing it now.
I have no idea. Seeing the British Avengers title pre-dates the Marvel version, I doubt it (especially as these were British publications) and the numbered series didn’t appear to have any problems. It’s an odd one though as The Avengers title would obviously have driven sales.
Incidentally, The Avengers was the only British television series to run at prime time on American TV on the main terrestrial channels.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
This was the final entry in the DOOMSDAY WARRIOR series…
THE PENETRATOR went to a big 53 volumes, a big slice of them written by Chet Cunningham…
NICK CARTER is well known on this site and the series went to 261 entries written by a whole host of authors. It’s days we’re numbered when Jove Books took over the publishing in the late 80’s and changed direction making Carter a sort of spy for hire which didn’t go down well with loyal fans. With sales of 30 million books the series deserves its accolades even if most of them are standard pulp fare.
More Piccadilly Cowboy series…
GRINGOS made it to 10 books with John Harvey and Angus Wells penning the adventures of a group clearly based on The Wild Bunch. HAWK was alternately written by the same duo and 15 adventures were published.
There was a earlier series called HAWK published in America and unrelated to the PC collection, it only made it to 4 volumes…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
And here is my last instalment posting series books…
These American published western series went to a high number on each…WILDERNESS (81) RAIDER (75) STAGECOACH STATION (52)
And the final titles in the Piccadilly Cowboys series…
JUBAL CADE was originated by Terry Harknett and he wrote the first 4 entries and then passed writing duties to Angus Wells. Cade was a doctor turned gunfighter.
PEACEMAKER was alternately written by Angus Wells and John Harvey and made it to 9 volumes.
The final title was THE UNDERTAKER written by the king of the PC’s Terry Harknett and this was his only unsuccessful title which only went to 6 books.
So, that’s the end of this series batch of titles, I could have posted hundreds more but they are just the same genre as already posted and would get too boring - post-apocalyptic, westerns, man against the Mob, vigilante, rogue cop etc etc etc.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Where were the titles sold? Were they ever exhibited in a mainstream bookstore, or were they mail order? No internet then, so would they be sold in dodgy subterranean city book stores?
Comments
The Mind Masters - "a world of diabolical sexual possession and soul-destroying psychic savagery". Sounds like my first marriage.
How 70s is that Smuggler cover? 😀
Re The Liquidator. It does indeed. I wonder who used the title first? of course there is no copyright in titles so you see them cropping up again and again over times, especially if they're more generic sounding.
Boysie Oakes predates the pulp version by a good 15 years or so.
Ah, that's good to know then.
He's OUR Liquidator!
SERIES Part 15
The martial arts craze of the ‘70’s translated into many chop suey book series, some are below.
THE DESTROYER series is well known and went to 155 volumes. A movie in 1985 was released but was not popular enough to warrant any further entries. Our own Christopher Wood wrote the tie-in novel and Guy Hamilton directed the movie and his concentration on making the movie light and humorous was the antithesis of the violent novels henceforth alienating the target audience. Terence Young would have been a better choice.
The SLOCUM series by house name Jake Logan went to a massive 430 entries from 1975-2014. Among the many authors was Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park) who moonlighted on many pulp series including Nick Carter to pay the bills (as spoken about before).
It seems a bit strange to me to read Kung Fu stories when the attraction onscreen is so visual and the stories usually pretty basic.
Remo The Destroyer was very popular, you can still see those books in second hand bookshops. If you're lucky enough to find a second hand bookshop, that is.
SERIES Part 16
This was the final The Baroness book and The Avengers went to 9 entries…
Three from the Piccadilly Cowboy collection…
HART THE REGULATOR by John Harvey (the only PC series where the author used his real name) went to 10 entries.
HERNE THE HUNTER was the only one which had a solid ending (Herne dies) it went to 24 volumes and was alternatively written by Laurence James and John Harvey. The artwork was based on Clint Eastwood.
EDGE was the collections longest series at 61 entries and all written by Terry Harknett. He also wrote the Adam Steele series (already covered) and he teamed his anti-heroes up for 3 adventures in EDGE MEETS STEELE.
I'm surprised The Avengers only ran to 9 entries given how popular the show was and how long it ran.
Yup, Herne was based on Clint Eastwood all right -
@Barbel according to this site there are 9 numbered The Avengers novels and two unnumbered which preceded them. These are all original novels. There are three later adaptations of episodes from The New Avengers. At one time in the not too distant past, I had intended to purchase and read all these, but I'm not doing it now.
https://thethunderchild.com/Television/1960s/Avengers/AvengersFictionBooks.html
There were actually 3 unnumbered books by British publishers before the official numbered series began.
@chrisno1 The complete series is hard to come by, it takes a lot of patience, and money, to get the set nowadays.
Thanks guys. 👍
@CoolHandBond my mistake, that Cathy Gale book doesn't feature a cover illustration on the site and I miscounted !
Wild guesswork- the 65 and 66 books aren't billed as "Avengers" due to legal hooha with Marvel?
I have no idea. Seeing the British Avengers title pre-dates the Marvel version, I doubt it (especially as these were British publications) and the numbered series didn’t appear to have any problems. It’s an odd one though as The Avengers title would obviously have driven sales.
Incidentally, The Avengers was the only British television series to run at prime time on American TV on the main terrestrial channels.
This was the final entry in the DOOMSDAY WARRIOR series…
THE PENETRATOR went to a big 53 volumes, a big slice of them written by Chet Cunningham…
NICK CARTER is well known on this site and the series went to 261 entries written by a whole host of authors. It’s days we’re numbered when Jove Books took over the publishing in the late 80’s and changed direction making Carter a sort of spy for hire which didn’t go down well with loyal fans. With sales of 30 million books the series deserves its accolades even if most of them are standard pulp fare.
More Piccadilly Cowboy series…
GRINGOS made it to 10 books with John Harvey and Angus Wells penning the adventures of a group clearly based on The Wild Bunch. HAWK was alternately written by the same duo and 15 adventures were published.
There was a earlier series called HAWK published in America and unrelated to the PC collection, it only made it to 4 volumes…
The cowboy books have the more interesting covers this time. And that Nick Carter one looks like it's hinting at the gunbarrel symbol.
It still amazes me how these books ran to so many editions 😮
And here is my last instalment posting series books…
These American published western series went to a high number on each…WILDERNESS (81) RAIDER (75) STAGECOACH STATION (52)
And the final titles in the Piccadilly Cowboys series…
JUBAL CADE was originated by Terry Harknett and he wrote the first 4 entries and then passed writing duties to Angus Wells. Cade was a doctor turned gunfighter.
PEACEMAKER was alternately written by Angus Wells and John Harvey and made it to 9 volumes.
The final title was THE UNDERTAKER written by the king of the PC’s Terry Harknett and this was his only unsuccessful title which only went to 6 books.
So, that’s the end of this series batch of titles, I could have posted hundreds more but they are just the same genre as already posted and would get too boring - post-apocalyptic, westerns, man against the Mob, vigilante, rogue cop etc etc etc.
Many authors would strangle their granny for an "unsuccessful title which only went to 6 books" ...
Loving all this information 👏🏻
Yes, very true @Barbel it does sound strange, but compared to other series he wrote (not just westerns) it was unsuccessful!
Thank you @Sir Miles
Covers with big bosomed ladies were always popular and achieved higher prices…
The titties, sorry, titles are more inventive than the art which has it's own, er, points of interest.
Did they? I can’t imagine why…😏
Those seemed quite popular, so…
The 3rd of "These Women" went to "The Resort", it seems.
I'm guessing some of the authors used pseudonyms if not all of them. Wayne Wallace, Max Day ....
And interesting cover art ☺️
Where were the titles sold? Were they ever exhibited in a mainstream bookstore, or were they mail order? No internet then, so would they be sold in dodgy subterranean city book stores?
Roger Moore 1927-2017