I love the Books From the Crypt website which posts old book covers to promote its online used-book store. Earlier this month, they caught my eye with this one:
— which got me curious to find out who Agent 0008 was. So I visited the invaluable Spy Guys and Gals site and after looking around learned about Trevor Anderson, the Man from S.A.D.I.S.T.O. Oh, get your mind out of the gutter, people, the name is a legitimate acronym for the Security and Administration Division of the Institute for Special Tactical Operations.
This was one of several spy series that cashed in on the spy craze by offering suggestive names and titillating sex scenes. For example, the Man From O.R.G.Y., the Lady From L.U.S.T., the Girl from H.A.R.D. and the Man from T.O.M.C.A.T.
The title of this particular SADISTO adventure is probably a riff on Jules Verne’s Robur the Conqueror, who’d been brought back to public awareness with 1961’s Vincent Price film, Master of the World. Ruburta the Conqueress fits with other punny titles in the series such as Gamefinger, Platypussy and For Your Sighs Only.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
#SFWApro. Cover art uncredited.
I just like how it’s “Great Scot”! in the above-title blurb. Sexy chicks in metal bikinis? Yes! A “flesh feud”? Sure! Harsher language than “Great Scot”? No way!
(Also, where’s the second “t”?)
According to Spy Guys and Gals it’s another joke: the would-be world-conquering villain really is a Scot.