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Operator #5

US Pulp magazine, 48 issues, April 1934 to November/December 1939, published by Popular Publications; edited by Rogers Terrill, originally monthly and then alternated between bimonthly and monthly. This was one of the livelier and more successful hero/villain pulps, thematically more ambitious than most, as it changed after the first twenty issues into a set of Future War narratives garishly prefiguring World War Two. Operator #5 throughout was secret agent Jimmy Christopher, whose assignment – increasingly hard to fulfil as later issues of the series became more apocalyptic – was to save America from destruction by various menaces (often superscientific) and from the Invasions of unfriendly powers (both Central European and Asiatic). The lead novellas were published under the House Name Curtis Steele, which concealed the highly prolific pulp writer Frederick C Davis (April 1934-November 1935), whose Operator is basically a spy; then Emile Tepperman (December 1935-March 1938); and lastly Wayne Rogers (July 1938-November 1939). Other features included a series of spy stories by Arthur Leo Zagat.

Thirteen of the early lead novels, all the work of Davis, and each of them comprising a complete story, were reprinted in book form:

• Legions of the Death Master (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared July 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• The Army of the Dead (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared March 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• The Invisible Empire (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared May 1934 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
  • Operator 5 #2: The Invisible Empire (New York: Freeway Press, 1974) as by Curtis Steele [vt of the above: first appeared April 1934 Operator #5: pb/]
• Master of Broken Men (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared September 1934 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• Hosts of the Flaming Death (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared August 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• Blood Reign of the Dictator (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared May 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• March of the Flame Marauders (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared April 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• Invasion of the Yellow Warlords (San Diego, California: Corinth Books, 1966) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared June 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• Operator 5 #1: The Masked Invasion (New York: Freeway Press, 1974) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared April 1934 Operator #5: pb/]
• Operator 5 #3: The Yellow Scourge (New York: Freeway Press, 1974) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared June 1934 Operator #5: pb/George Gross]
• Cavern of the Damned (Oak Forest, Illinois: Dimedia/Pulp Press, 1980) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared August 1934 Operator #5 as "The Cavern of the Damned": pb/]
• Legions of Starvation (Oak Forest, Illinois: Dimedia/Pulp Press, 1980) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared December 1934 Operator #5: pb/]
• Scourge of the Invisible Death (Oak Forest, Illinois: Dimedia/Pulp Press, 1980) as by Curtis Steele [first appeared November 1935 Operator #5: pb/]

After Davis's departure, Operator #5 moved over to story arcs, two of which dominated its remaining years. The Purple Invasion sub-sequence by Emile C Tepperman describes an Invasion of America by Rudolph I, "Purple Emperor, War-Master of Europe and Asia", augmented by germ-warfare and climaxing with an assault on New York by Mongols who have occupied (see Yellow Peril) much of America; much of the action clearly prefigures the Military SF and Survivalist Fiction of later decades. The Purple Invasion narrative arc comprises:

• "Death's Ragged Army" (June 1936 Operator #5)
• "Patriot's Death Battalion" (August 1936 Operator #5)
• "The Bloody Forty-Five Days" (October 1936 Operator #5)
• "America's Plague Battalions" (December 1936 Operator #5)
• Liberty's Suicide Legions (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared January 1937 Operator #5: pb/]
• The Siege of the Thousand Patriots (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2008) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared February 1937 Operator #5: pb/]
• "Patriot's Death March" (March 1937 Operator #5)
• "Revolt of the Lost Legions" (May 1937 Operator #5)
• "Drums of Destruction" (July 1937 Operator #5)
• "The Army Without A Country" (September 1937 Operator #5)
• "The Bloody Frontiers" (November 1937 Operator #5)
• "The Coming of the Mongol Hordes" (January 1938 Operator #5)
• "The Siege That Brought the Black Death" (March 1938 Operator #5).

The last nine issues of Operator #5 form the slightly looser Yellow Vulture sequence by Wayne Rogers, during which the Japanese "Hordes of the Yellow Vulture" (see Yellow Peril), after a successful Invasion of Canada, invade America from the north, armed with futuristic Weapons. The magazine was terminated after the issue in which Canada is destroyed, as is Washington, leaving the remnants of America in despair. The Yellow Horde narrative arc comprises:

• "The Suicide Battalion" (July 1938 Operator #5)
• "The Day of the Damned" (September 1938 Operator #5)
• The Dawn That Shook the World (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared November 1938 Operator #5: pb/]
• "When Hell Came to America" (January 1939 Operator #5)
• "Invasion From the Sky" (March 1939 Operator #5)
• The Winged Horror of the Yellow Vulture (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared May 1939 Operator #5 as "Winged Hordes of the Yellow Vulture": pb/]
• "War Tanks of the Yellow Vulture" (July 1939 Operator #5)
• "Corpse Cavalry of the Yellow Vulture" (September 1939 Operator #5)
• "The Army From Underground" (November 1939 Operator #5)

In addition, several complete issues – in addition to those volumes containing Purple Invasion and Yellow Horde tales cited above – were reprinted under the name of the lead novella; they are listed here by internal chronology:

• The Masked Invasion (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2011) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared April 1934 Operator #5: pb/Jerome Rozen]
• Invasion of the Dark Legions (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared October 1934 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• The Army of the Dead (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2006) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared March 1935 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• Blood Reign of the Dictator (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2007) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared May 1935 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• Hosts of the Flaming Death (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2008) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared August 1935 Operator #5: pb/Robert Bonfils]
• Invasion of the Crimson Death Cult (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared September 1935 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• Revolt of the Devil-Men (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared May 1938 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• Winged Hordes of the Yellow Vulture (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2005) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared May 1939 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]
• Siege of the Thousand Patriots (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press, 2008) as by Curtis Steele [coll: title story first appeared February 1937 Operator #5: pb/John Howitt]

It is not known to what degree, if any, the clear imminence of genuine war inspired the closure of the magazine. [JC/MJE/MA/PN]

further reading

• Nick Carr. America's Secret Service Ace: The Operator 5 Story (Chicago, Illinois: Robert Weinberg, 1974) [nonfiction: in the publisher's Pulp Classics series: pb/Franklyn E Hamilton]

links

• Galactic Central illustrated checklist
• Frederick C Davis
• Picture Gallery

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 23:25 pm on 20 January 2026.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/operator_5>