Captain Zero was an American pulp magazine that published three issues in 1949 and 1950. The lead novels, written by G.T. Fleming-Roberts, featured Lee Allyn, who had been the subject of an experiment with radiation, and as a result was invisible between midnight and dawn.[1] Under the name Captain Zero, Allyn became a vigilante, fighting crime at night. Allyn had no other superpowers, and the novels were straightforward mysteries in Weinberg's opinion,[1] though pulp historian Robert Sampson considers them to be "complex...[they] pound along with hair-raising incidents..full of twists and high suspense".[2] Captain Zero was the last crime-fighter hero magazine to be launched in the pulp era, ending an era that had begun with The Shadow in 1931.[2] There was room in the magazine for only one or two short stories along with the lead novel; these were all straight mystery stories, without the veneer of science fiction of the Captain Zero novels.[1][2]
The covers, all by Rafael De Soto, are "less satisfying" than the novels, in Sampson's opinion; Captain Zero is represented just by a floating robe and hood with glaring eyes—though the original artwork for the second issue, now in private hands, only shows the figures of a woman, and a man firing a gun, with no representation of Captain Zero. The internal artwork—in Sampson's view; "clean, bright, satisfying work, vividly done"—was by an unknown artist.[2] Each issue included a non-fiction section with crime anecdotes, and a department called "The Zero Hour" which narrated stories about anonymous crime-fighters—likely to be fabricated, according to Sampson.[2]
The magazine was cancelled after only three issues. Fleming-Roberts had already written a fourth novel, but it was never published and is now in a private collection.[2]
Captain Zero published three issues, dated November 1949, and January and March 1950. The publisher was Recreational Reading, Inc, of Kokomo, Indiana, which was a subsidiary of Popular Publications in New York, where the editorial offices were. There was a single volume of three numbers. All three issues were pulp format, 128 pages, and 25 cents.[1] According to pulp historian Robert Weinberg, Mary Gnaedinger was the editor who created the magazine; Alden H. Norton edited the individual issues, but according to bibliographer Phil Stephensen-Payne, the editor was Henry Steeger.[3]