Doctor Radar

This tense and visually dynamic period piece evokes the thrills of vintage pulp stories coupled with the dark, eerie world of early expressionist cinema. When scientists involved in early space exploration research and development are mysteriously murdered in 1920s Paris, gentleman detective Ferdinand Strauss launches an independent investigation. His sleuthing takes him into the seedy Parisian underworld, where he discovers the existence of “Doctor Radar,” a criminal mastermind whose assassination methods include injections of curare and the deployment of live scorpions. But why has this fiend targeted the most brilliant scientific minds of the early 20th century? All of the genre’s expected tropes appear, but in a fresh presentation, with urgently sketched, moody art that grabs readers by the lapels, dragging them into the narrative’s shadowy current. Contemporary readers will find much to enjoy here, but this choice translation is particularly recommended for fans with solid grounding in the pulp era’s lore of proto-supervillains and dapper defenders of the unsuspecting general public. (Apr.)