Perry Rhodan is a series of pulp sci-fi novels, originally German IIRC. It was translated into English and published by Forrest J. Ackerman. Perry Rhodan himself is originally an American astronaut who, on the first trip to the Moon, finds a stranded spacecraft from a vast Galactic Empire known as Arkon, with crewmembers still in suspended animation. He takes the technology they have, lands his spacecraft in the Gobi Desert, and declares them a sovereign nation - the New Power. Eventually, Earth is united under the New Power, and goes on to kick serious Space Booty across the universe and beyond. AFAIK, around 105 of these novels were translated and printed in the U.S. before it stopped coming over.