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The Spider #102 Audiobook
The Gentleman From Hell
by Norvell W. Page writing as Grant Stockbridge
Read by Nick Santa Maria
How did Cleo, beautiful Priestess of the Temple of Evil, corner the nation’s wealth — without one iota of criminal evidence against her? Could the Faceless Cavalier, who invented the Withering Death, have been her slave — or her overlord? Only the Spider knew the answers... and Richard Wentworth lay in a coma imprisoned in a cell!
Norvell W. Page churned out Spider sagas for three white-hot years, then dropped from sight in the middle of the four-part Living Pharaoh series, not to return until 1937.
No one today can say exactly what happened. But rumors suggest a nervous breakdown of some kind. God knows, you could see it coming in his alter ego, Richard Wentworth....
Other writers stepped in to take up the slack. But Norvell W. Page refused to remain out of action for long. Like the Spider, his inborn sense of duty compelled him to return, where lesser writers who were his contemporaries, were falling by the wayside trying to keep up with the deadline demands of the Spider’s pulpy competition.
“There was a time when the burden of writing yet one more Spider seemed too much to undertake,” Page subsequently wrote. “But I never feel that way anymore. I know now that the Spider actually does help people; that there are those who appreciate his idealism even though it is expressed in violence.”
Nick Santa Maria reads The Gentleman From Hell with the crackling intensity you have come to expect of his superb talent. Originally published in The Spider magazine, March, 1942.
Chapter 1: Faceless Doom
Chapter 2: The Lovely Ladies
Chapter 3: Judas Kiss
Chapter 4: The Hidden Wound
Chapter 5: Die in Agony!
Chapter 6: The Other Road
Chapter 7: The Spider Strikes!
Chapter 8: Caught
Chapter 9: A Web Is Woven
Chapter 10: The Fly Escapes
Chapter 11: Blind Murder
Chapter 12: Invasion of Hell
Chapter 13: The Wasting Death
Chapter 14: The Spider’s Inferno
Chapter 15: The Cat Is Away
Chapter 16: Law for the Lawless
Chapter 17: Death Dance
Chapter 18: Face of the Faceless
Nick Santa Maria Nick was born early in life in Brooklyn, NY. His theatrical background is based in Comedy Improv. He was a long standing member of the late lamented Miami based, Mental Floss, where he served as head writer/composer. From there he began his career in commercials, voice-overs, TV, Film, and theatre. He has performed in many roles on the stage including his award winning turn as Nick in Over The River And Through The Woods, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, in The 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee as Mr. Panch (3-D Theatricals), Mr. Bromhead in No Sex Please, We’re British at The Norris, and as Pseudolus in, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Norris Theatre. Television: The Buffalo Bill Show, B.J. Stryker, and two Disney Christmas Specials. Off Broadway: Writer/Composer/Performer on Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know, Soundtrack on RCA Victor. Broadway: Vince Fontaine in Tommy Tune’s production of Grease. He also appeared in every domestic company of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, understudying everyone from Nathan Lane and Jason Alexander, to Tony Danza and David Hassellhoff. He was the original Genie in Disney’s Aladdin, a Musical Spectacular, soundtrack on Disney Records. Nick is a resident of Los Angeles and is currently writing a book about classic film comedians, Nick’s been a long time film historian, and has written several articles on the topic.
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