The origins of Harry Dickson are detailed at some length in our first volume, The Heir of Dracula, which also includes a profile of the character and a timeline.
Suffice it to say here that the original series of pulp magazines which eventually became Harry Dickson began in Germany in January 1907. It ran for 230 weekly issues, ending in March 1911, with covers by the renowned Berlin Academy artist Alfred Roloff.
Sixteen issues of the original German series were adapted into French, in 1907-08, but it is only when the Dutch-Flemish publisher Roman-Boek-en-Kunsthandel relaunched the series in in December 1927 with Dutch translations of the original German magazine, coining the names “Harry Dickson” and “Tom Wills” for the first time, that Harry Dickson truly took off.
The following year, Belgian publisher Hippolyte Janssens decided to translate the Dutch series into French, entrusting its editorship to renowned Belgian author Jean Ray, starting with its 20th issue. The French series began in January 1929 and lasted 178 issues, until April 1938. The Roloff covers, which had been purchased in bulk from the German publisher, greatly contributed to its success.
Today, Harry Dickson’s popularity in France continues to rival that of Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin and Fantômas. There have been a dozen partial or nearly complete reprints of his adventures, as well as new stories written by Gérard Dôle and Brice Tarvel, and two competing comic-book adaptations.
The two original stories presented here were translated from the original 1933 magazines, and feature one of the very few recurring villains in the series: Georgette Cuvelier, a.k.a., The Spider. The character is presented as the daughter of one of Dickson’s earlier foes: Professor Flax, a.k.a. The Human Monster. Strangely enough, the character of Professor Flax made its first appearance not in Harry Dickson, but in Louis Forest’s On Vole des Enfants à Paris, a 1906 novel recently translated by Brian Stableford and published by Black Coat Press under the title Someone is stealing children in Paris (ISBN 978-1-61227-252-8).
The same mad scientist then returned in the pre-Dickson German series in 1908 in six episodes entitled (loosely translated): Professor Flax, The Great Criminal; A Pursuit Through the Desert; The Bloody House of Corfu; The Prisoner of the Cloisters; The Bloody King of India; and The Executioner of London.
The same titles were eventually adapted (some claim by Gustave Le Rouge, but that is doubtful) and became part of the French series under the titles: 18. Le Professeur Flax, Monstre Humain (Prof. Flax, Human Monster) (1930); 19. Une Poursuite à travers le Désert (A Pursuit Through the Desert ); 21. Le Repaire aux Bandits de Corfou (The Lair of the Corfu Bandits) (1930); 22. La Prisonnière du Clocher (The Prisoner of the Bell Tower) (1930); 26. Le Rajah Rouge (The Red Rajah) (1930) and 27. Le Bourreau de Londres (The Executioner of London) (1930).
At the end of the final episode in the saga, Flax is disposed of forever but as Shakespeare wrote, “the evil than men do lives after them…”
Jean-Marc Lofficier