"The hero of this story, Maximo Miller, is a new kind of superman. He is gifted with a superbrain which he learns how to use to do things which no other man can do. And that is what makes the tale."
Writer Russell R. Winterbotham (1904-1971), who also penned mysteries as "J. Harvey Bond", is perhaps best known for his western and science fiction stories, although for a period in the forties he wrote some sixty Big Little Books -- including three about Maximo. Big Little Books were a popular juvenile series of cheaply made novels, measuring about 3 5/8 inches wide, 4 1/2 inches high, and were about one inch thick, and featured text on the left hand page and a line drawing illustration on the right. Issued by Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, they typically featured popular comic strip, radio, television, or movie heroes, and were sold for dime (later 15 cents) through such retail outlets as Woolworth's. The first Big Little Book -- The Adventures of Dick Tracy -- went on sale in December 1932; the series. with a later name change to Better Little Books, continued into the 1960s; more than 1300 titles were published. with some 508 core titles issued between 1932 and 1949 by Whitman. The Big Little Books were quick, easy reading, well-suited to their core audience. Topday, they are very popular in the collector's market.
As Maximo watches a speeding roadster approach a railroad intersection, he knows the young female driver does not see the approaching train. A fatal crash seems imminent, but then:
"Some powerful new force surged through his muscles, seeming to leap from his body toward the speeding motor car.
"The young man's nerves tingled as if some unseen magnetic force were whipping energy through the ir around him."
Then, by golly, the car rises through the air and avoids the on-rushing train. The girl is saved, and Maximo is left wondering exactly what happened. The girl, Ella Arvid, is the daughter of a professor at Curfman College. she said, "He'd be greatly interested in what you did just now. You see he's a physicist and he has always said that science has never been able to plumb the depths of human brain power."
So off they go to plumb the depths of Maximo's brain power. Along the way they meet danger, a vicious gang, and spies out to do dirt to America.
Not great literature perhaps, but a serviceable story to entertain a young kid in the 1940s -- and perhaps to also entertain you. Let's see. All three Maximo books are available online at Comic Book Plus; here's the link to the first:
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102552
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