ROBERT J. HOGAN

According to Wikipedia: "Robert Jasper Hogan (1897–1963) was an American author, mainly of pulp fiction and later western fiction. He is notable as the creator of G-8, published by Popular Publications. Unlike other pulp authors, all his works appeared under his own name rather than house pseudonyms.

Bob Hogan's story formula was for a secret diary of never-before-revealed wartime adventures to be opened to him by a former master spy. There would be an intimacy with high command that hinted at real events, but with the admission that literary license would be freely practiced. Hogan also determined to avoid similarity and dullness with a healthy injection of fantasy.

Using this basic structure, 110 issues were fleshed out with amazing variation in detail for the situational limitations of World War I. The first story, “The Bat Staffel” appeared in September, 1933. Print orders eventually peaked at about 200,000 and things went very well until early 1936 when the price per issue was reduced from 15¢ to 10¢ in an effort to hold circulation. Five years later, the April 1941 issue was the last of the monthly series; thereafter it appeared every two months. The end came with the June 1944 number. The old readership was having their own War; and for the younger, the excitement of daily realities overpowered the antiquity of Spads and Fokkers.

Post-pulp work included several full length western novels, Howl at the Moon, and work adapted for television. He wrote four full length pulp stories about The Secret 6 between 1934 and 1935, which were not aviation or western based, and 9 uncredited short stories between 1935 and 1937 and one under the alias Greaseball Joe.

He wrote many of his pulp stories while living in a small private house in New Jersey with his wife and daughter. Nick Carr in his book described him as: "Bob Hogan was tall, thin, blond, very outgoing and a voracious worker." He died 17 December 1963 in Florida.