Legend in Blue Steel

From Author Wars - https://authorwars.com/publications/legend-in-blue-steel-294546.html

Overview:

Title: Legend in Blue Steel
Author: Spider Page
Year: 1979
ISBN-10: 0893000027
Publisher: Python
Price: $1.50
Pages: 184
Binding: Paperback
Type: Novel
Title Reference: Legend in Blue Steel
Notes: Donald McCormack's Spider novel manuscript "Slaughter, Inc." was bought for The Spider in 1943 but the magazine was cancelled before it could be published. When Python published it they changed the title, the Grant Stockbridge house name, and the names of all the recurring characters.
Source: Vintage Library website. http://www.vintagelibrary.com/pulpfiction/authors/WhoWroteTheSpider.php
Cover signed "G. Gross." Evidently painted for Freeway Press's projected Operator 5 #5: The Cavern of Doom in 1974, but that series was cancelled after the publication of #3. The character is in the distinctive costuming Gross gave Operator 5 for Freeway. The "idol red of face", as described in "The Cavern of Doom," is also depicted on the cover of the pulp (Operator 5, August 1934).