Skulls in the Stars

Another invisibility story! The number and variety of stories continues to amaze me.

You know what we haven’t really seen yet? A good invisible spy story! “Raiders Invisible” came close, but its invisible spies were the bad guys; we need a story about a heroic invisible spy!

So let’s take a look at “The Radiant Shell,” by Paul Ernst, which appeared in the January 1932 issue of Astounding Stories.

Okay, this story seemed at first to be a pretty silly and stupid invisibility tale, but it leads down a fascinating historical rabbit hole. So follow along…

The setting: the city, late at night. A young couple in love are walking to the subway after leaving a party, when a voice from the shadows says, “Stick ’em up!” A robber, at gunpoint, demands their valuables.

After a hopeless glance up and down the street, the young man gave up his wallet, watch and gold stick­pin. The girl was forced to give her pocketbook, ear­rings and silver bracelets. She fumbled nervously. Impatiently, the gunman clutched at the locket around her neck.

“Oh, not that!” gasped the girl. ”I’ve had it all my life-please-“

“Shut up!” growled the bandit. “I take what I want. I’ll 1have that locket, too-“

Does this scene sound familiar? You might be thinking that a young Bruce Wayne should also be present, and that this is the origin story of Batman! But it is not; let’s continue:

“Shut up!” growled the bandit. “I take what I want. I’ll 1have that locket, too-”

”I dont think you will!” said another voice. The gunman whirled, tensely, ready to shoot. He saw nothing to shoot at. But something like a steel hand grasped his wrist and twisted it sharply. He dropped his gun with a cry of agony.

“Rat! Preying on people like a vulture-” said the ghostly voice again, from empty air.

Something like an iron fist cracked against the ban­dit’s jaw, snapping his head back. The gunman tried to run away, but an unseen fist struck him in Which­ever direction he tried. Again and again blows landed till the robber dropped unconscious, with blood streaming from his battered face.

The scene you are reading is from “The Invisible Robinhood,” written by Eando Binder, which appeared in the May 1939 issue of Fantastic Adventures, indeed the very first issue of that magazine!

As we will see, “The Invisible Robinhood” is really one of the earliest superhero adventures out there — and in fact appeared at almost the same time as Batman! Some spoilers given in the post.

I keep finding new invisibility stories! Will I ever come to an end? Stay tuned!

It is pretty clear at this point that stories about invisibility were a huge business in the early to mid 20th century, and every author of science fiction or horror had to get in on the action in some way or another.

For example, I just had to type “Edmond Hamilton” and “invisibility” into a search bar and found Edmond Hamilton’s “The Invisible Master,” that appeared in Scientific Detective Monthly in the April, 1930 issue.

Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977) is another one of those super-prolific science fiction authors who had a huge influence on the field but isn’t broadly recognized like an Asimov, Bradbury or Clarke. I would be hard-pressed to single out a particular story of his that everyone would know, but I’m particularly fond of “The Metal Giants,” that appeared in Weird Tales in December 1926. I like big stompy robots!

“The Invisible Master” is more of a mystery story than science fiction, marking invisibility’s foray into another genre of fiction. It also happens to have one of the best and most enjoyable descriptions of invisibility that I’ve yet seen! Let’s take a look at the story, and I’m going to be a bit spoilery this time!