Project Pegasus, Part 6

 

cover art by John Byrne

Marvel Two-in-One #56 (October 1979) is a fun chapter in the Project Pegasus saga, in which we finally find out what Thundra's professional wrestler subplot has to do with the main story arc.

Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald continue to write the story, with George Perez providing breakdowns and finished art by Gene Day.

The issue begins with a bang, with Thundra leading a team of female wrestlers (whose suits include equipment giving the superpowers) inside the Project, where they knock out a few technicians and plant a piece of equipment in a specific place.

One might wonder why Thundra has agreed to this, but we don't find that out quite yet. We do learn that she was deliberately lured into the wrestling gig so she could be offered the job, but merely mentions that she was offered a reward she couldn't turn down. She later refuses to say more to Ben.

Anyway, there's more going on than Thundra knows, because her team runs out on her after the equipment is planted to raise havoc around the Project. This leads to several well-choreographed and entertaining action scenes, as Quasar, Giant Man and Ben all encounteer trouble. 

The various fights are brief, but each has a different feel from the other and allows each of the heroes their moment in the sun.
                        

Though Quasar and Giant Man have clear wins, Ben's fight is interrupted at an embarassing moment just as Thundra gets a scissor lock with her legs around his neck. She is forced to surrender at this point, though, so the good guys have won, though they still have no idea what the point of this raid was. Or, for that matter, what was the point of the respective rampages by Deathlok and Nuklo?

Well, we readers don't know yet either, but we know at least a little bit more. Dr. Lightner, the bad guys' mole in the Project, finally has all the stuff he needs to make an Nth Projector. We'll find out what that is next issue.

After an awkward start with an exposition-heavy story a few issues back, the Project Pegasus story arc has been moving along nicely, with each issue advancing the plot a little by slowly getting Lightner the equipment he needs, while giving us plenty of entertaining action.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll pay a visit to Roy Rogers.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #14--Tarzan Triumphs & Tarzan's Desert Mys...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #14--Tarzan Triumphs & Tarzan's Desert Mys...:   We do things a little differently in this episode. Scott, Jess and Tim provide commentary for the two Johnny Weismuller films made during ...

Cover Cavalcade

From 1958. Gee whiz, I miss quality paperback cover art.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #18--Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 10--"...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #18--Tarzan of the Apes Chapter 10--"...:   An analysis of Chapter 10 of Tarzan of the Apes, in which Tarzan makes some new enemies. Click HERE for the audio version.  And here'...

Friday's Favorite OTR

Michael Shayne: "The Mail Order Murders" 12/23/48

Shayne is hired to protect a guy who received a threatening note. Shayne figures its a crank letter, but the money for playing bodyguard is good. It soon turns out he might really be working for that money, though.

Click HERE to listen or download.

All You Do Is Fight

 

cover art by Walter Baumhofer

A few months ago, I reviewed one of the many Foreign Legion stories by J.D. Newsom that appeared in Adventure magazine. I enjoyed the tale enormously--it worked in terms of characterization, well-described action and overall atmosphere. So I tracked down some more Newsom stories and created my own little anthology by combining PDF copies into a single document. If I ever need to run off and join the Legion, I just need to bring my tablet with me and I'll have all the information I need to get by.

Newsom made the cover of the January 1935 issue of Adventure with the excellent novella "All You Do Is Fight."

Newsom's Legion tales often followed a similar pattern, in which someone is forced to join the Legion and ends up doing something heroic by the finale. But the variety of characters he gives us and his ability to make those characters seem real allows each story to work well on its own. In "All You Do Is Fight," the protagonist is an American gangster named Barney Walsh. He's in Paris with a fair amount of money and thinks of himself as retired. But his old comrades from the mob don't approve of this and he only barely avoids an assassination attempt.

So he joins the Legion to get away from any hitmen who may come looking for him, using Barney as his last name. But he's an unusual recruit in several ways. Primarily, he has a lot of cash on him. While on the train to the Legion training center, he treats himself to dinner and booze in the first-class dining car.

He might have gotten away with this if he hadn't ended up picking a fight with a lieutenant. 

The remote desert outpost at which both men are assigned is a mess, with an inefficient commanding officer and out-of-control non-coms who are crushing morale. So when Barney is assigned to a small patrol led by the lieutenant, he plans on deserting along with a couple of friends. But when they are attacked by an overwhelming force and the lieutenant proves to be a good leader, Barney opts to stick around awhile. 

The finale is a bloody Last Stand that is truly exciting.

My summary leaves out a number of fun character moments and there is a strong theme about the difference between effective discipline and mere brutality, all of which adds to the overall quality of the novella, "All You Do Is Fight" is high-quality storytelling from start to finish.

You can find this issue of Adventure online HERE.

The Importance of Music Lessons

We continue our journey through Dell's Animal Comics #4 (August-September 1943) with a story about a carnival, petty thievery and music lessons. It's a part of series that ran in Animal Comics titled "Merry Meadows," drawn by Justin Gruelle (brother of Johnny Gruelle, the creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy).

 

The unknown writer of the series provided fun scripts, but--much as was the case with the Little Dinky story we looked at last time--it is the art that really gives life to the simple tale. 

There's a carnival in town, with the proceeds going to the Orphan Home. Robert Rabbit and Freddy Frog are anxious to go, so they run to the home of their friend Bertrand Bear to bring him along.

Bertrand has been practicing his saxophone and as a music lesson later on, but he does have time to go the the carnival first. So Bertrand brings his sax along with him, hiding it in a tree just outside the carnival entrance to retrieve later.

We get several successive and fun-to-look-at panels of the kids having fun at the carnival. There's a running gag here that actually fools me. Little Maurice Mouse keeps popping up, hand-cranking the rides and otherwise showing off prodigious strength despite his diminutive size. I expected this to be a Chekov's Gun, with Maurice's strength being a factor in foiling the upcoming theft. But no--it's just a simple running gag. I guess when you read these stories as a adult, it is very possible to out-smart yourself while analyzing them.

Meanwhile, Sly Old Fox (who is so evil he doesn't even get a first name) and Harry Hyena have snitched the gate receipts while no one was looking and hide the pennies in the same tree in which Bertrand hid his saxophone.

And so evil is foiled when Bertrand finds the pennies later on while taking his music lesson. 

The boys (and Professor Owl) get free rides all day at the carnival while the villains drudge off to sulk about the unfairness of being robbed of the stuff they had stolen first. 

So it is a simple story. But, gee whiz, is it fun to look at. Justin Gruelle's work isn't as famous as his brothers, but he was a great illustrator in his own right and his skill should be remembered and appreciated.

Click HERE to read this issue of Animal Comics online. 

Next week, it's back to the Pegasus Project once again.

Cover Cavalcade

An action-packed cover from 1942.

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Friday's Favorite OTR

Escape: "The Fortune of Vargas" 9/21/49

An American man and Mexican woman reluctantly team up while searching for a fortune in gold. There's a really effective plot twist at the end of this story.

Click HERE to listen or download.

The Matchlock Gun

Whenever I read (or in this case, listen to via audio book) a brilliant children's book that I didn't experience as a kid, I have two simultanious reactions. First, I'm thrilled to simply experience a great story I hadn't heard before. Second, I feel as if I've forever missed something by not experiencing it as a child.

In this case, it was Walter D. Edmonds 1941 book The Matchlock Gun. Set on the American frontier in 1756, the tale revolves around a Dutch family who live in a cabin that has an old-fashioned but still magnificent gun mounted on the wall. It's a huge matchlock, brought over from the Netherlands by the great-grandfather of ten-year-old Edward. It's an antique, difficult to carry, load and fire. So when Edward's dad (named Teunis) leaves to serve with the militia during the French and Indian War, he takes a more modern flintlock musket.

...Teunis bent down to show the boy how the gun worked. "See, Edward (he pronounced the name Ateoord in the Dutch manner), it's a matchlock. It doesn't fire itself like the musket, with a flint. You have got to touch the priming with fire, like a cannon. It's a nonsensical, old-fashioned kind of gun, isn't it?

But while Teunis is away, raiding Indians enter the area and burn several nearby homes. Suddenly, Edward, his mom Gertrude and his little sister Trudy realize the old matchlock might be their only hope to survive. They mount it on a table pointed out a window. They search and find only a couple of bullets, but supplement this by adding nails, brass buttons and pebbles to the load. 

Then Gertrude keeps watch outside while young Edward mans the gun. When the Indians do attack, the gun really does quickly become their only hope.

The copy I found at my local public library after listening to the audio book includes the original illustrations by Paul Lantz, which really add to the story. The book in its entirety is short, running just 50 pages including several double-page illustrations. But within those pages, Edmonds and Lantz capture a real sense of a specific time and place in history and populate it with people who seem real. Edmonds writes that it is indeed a true story, handed down by the family's decendents. Whether that is literally true, this is a book that sincerely teaches you what it was like to live on the 18th Century American frontier. And you get to learn about a really cool gun as well. 

Stolen Relics, A Quest and an Ally who is a Kind of Dumb

 One might have justifiable presumed that when Hal Foster retired from producing Prince Valiant, that it was the end of an era. Foster's art was literally breathtaking. His plots and characters melded with that art to bring us an epic saga set not just in Arthurian England, but taking Valiant and other characters to many far-flung lands, including America.

But when John Cullen Murphy stepped up to the plate beginning in 1970, he hit it out of the park (with Foster sending him layouts and scripts through 1979. Though Murphy was an experienced and talented illustrator in his own right, his willingness to emulate Foster's work gave the strip an important continuity of style. Without missing a beat in terms of quality, Prince Valiant continued his adventure. A story arc that ran from March to July in 1977, for instance, is typical of the strip's continued excellence.

A ship approaching the Misty Isles is attacked by pirates, but defended by a knight named Gunther, who is badly wounded in the process. Naturally, Val, Aleta and their family take the young knight in. They find out that his family history is a fractious one. His father was a king. Gunther's oldest brother assassinated both the father and another brother before himself being killed. His five co-conspirators robbed the local cathedral of holy relics and made a run for it.

Gunther is pursuing the thieves, determined to bring them to justice and recover the relics. Aleta urges Val to help out the young knight.

So together they travel to Alexandria. Here we begin to realize that Gunther tends to act without thinking. In fact, though he is brave and skilled in a fight, he doesn't have a lick of common sense. When he, by chance, sees one of the thieves, he kills the guy before they can get any information out of him.

Val, on the other hand, is taking more considered action, employing intelligent detective work and discovering that the remaining four thieves are on their way to Jerusalem to sell the relics. Gunther is all for pursuing them across the desert, but Val convinces the dolt that they should take a ship up the coast and ride to Jerusalem from Jaffa. This will get them to the Holy City ahead of the thieves.

Along the way, they help a girl named Zara escape from a desert raider. This is fortuitous, as Zara is the daughter of a sheik, which gives them an ally and a base of operations in Jerusalem. 

Gunther is wounded yet again, this time in a fight with the desert raider who is still out to get Zara. Zara nurses him back to health and he mistakes her attentions for love. He's now convinced he's found a wife, though her high spirits will, of course, have to be toned down. He's also completely oblivious to the fact that she's overtly in love with someone else. 

In the meantime, Val finds out where the thieves are staying and is looking for an opportunity to nab them and get the relics back. Once again, Gunther jumps into the situation without thinking, though through his undeniable bravery and a lot of luck, he comes out alive and with the relics (muddy and battered though they now are) back in his possession.

The story arc comes to a fun conclusion when the sheik denies Gunther permission to marry Zara and Gunther, storming out of the sheik's head, is immediately distracted from his heartbreak when he sees a pretty Saxon girl walking by.

The story is great fun. Gunther, as a character, can be a bit of a dense jerk, but he fits into the tale perfectly in that role, with the "he hasn't learned a thing" ending being both appropriate and funny.

Hal Foster was one of the best things that ever happened to the American comic strip, but John Cullen Murphy still managed to fill his shoes quite nicely.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll look at the next story in our examination of Animal Comics. 

Cover Cavalcade

From 1942. I don't think State Farm is going to give this couple their Safe Driver Discount. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #16--Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 8--"...

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Friday's Favorite OTR

Crime Classics: "The Shrapnelled Body of Charles Drew, Sr." 7/6/53

A young man murders his father before Dad can change the will and cut the son off from any inheritance. Coming up with a good alibi afterwards, though, proves problematical.

Click HERE to listen or download.

The Whistler

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #116

The Whistler was a great radio show. Running from 1942 to 1955 (mostly on the West Coast), it told stories of average people driven to murder, with the creepy voice of the narrator acting as "a voice of fate, baiting the guilty with his smiling malevolence." (quote from John Dunning's Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio)

So it's really pretty neat-o that when a series of eight B-movies based on the series were produced beginning in 1944, they were all high quality Film Noirs that do justice to the show. Director Robert Wise once said that the films were "examples of budget filmmaking at its very best."

Most of the Whistler movies starred Richard Dix, who (because of the anthology nature of the series) played a different role each time. In the premiere film (1944's The Whistler), he plays businessman Earl C. Conrad, a man who is feeling suicidal because he lost his wife when the ship they were on sank.

So he comes up with a rather convoluted way of commiting suicide. He makes contact with a shady character named Lefty and, without giving his name, uses Lefty as a subcontractor to kill a guy named Earl C. Conrad. This means that Earl will soon have a hitman on his trail. He doesn't know who the hitman is or when he'll strike, but that doesn't matter. As long as he gets killed, he gets what he wants.

Then he finds out his wife is alive in a Japanese internment camp and is being returned to the U.S. as part of a prisoner exchange.

So, all of a sudden, Earl doesn't want to die anymore. He tries to contact Lefty to call off the hit, but Lefty has been killed by the police when they try to arrest him for a past crime. There is no way for Earl to let the hitman know the job has been cancelled.

Director Walter Castle does a great job with staging and lighting the movie to enchance the tension and Dix gives a superb performance as a man being driven to the edge of sanity as he desperately tries to save his own life.

The hitman is played by the excellent character actor J. Carrol Naish. He's not your average dispassionate killer. He's a psychopath who, when he misses one opportunity to simply shoot Earl, decides to see if he can experiment and scare Earl to death. He even kills a hobo who is about to mug Earl to preserve his victim for the experiment.

As Earl grows more desperate, he goes into hiding and is soon staying in flophouses. By now, he's aware that the killer is pretty much openly stalking him and even confronts him at one point, telling him the job is off and that he can simply keep the money he's been paid. 

But this sets the Killer's mind into panic mode. Earl is now a high-risk job in his mind. Perhaps Earl saw him kill the hobo. Perhaps Earl is now a danger to him! We soon have a panicky target being stalked by a panicky hitman.

It really is a great little film, with the Whistler's occasional narration providing additional punch to the story. In fact, at one point, the Whistler actively intervenes in the story, using the sound of his whistle to cause the Killer to back off from Earl, preserving the murderer for his fore-ordained destiny.

Keep an eye out for the Whistler films on TCM or other classic movie sources. They are definitely worth your time.

Project Pegasus, Part 5

Marvel Two-in-One #55 (September 1979) picks up a short time after the previous issue ended, with Ben's arm in a sling (from the wound inflicted by Deathlok's laser). A few days have passed and Ben has managed to put together a poker game. But I'm pretty sure in the entire history of the Marvel Universe, Ben has never been able to sit down at a poker table without some emergency arising.

Writers Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald, along with artist John Byrne, continue to give us fast-paced storytelling after the exposition heavy issue #53. The action picks up right away, with exposition and character backgrounds provided succinctly in just a few panels when necessary. 

The actual story shows us once again that security at Project Pegasus continues to stink, Not-Quite-Former supervillian Dr. Lightner needs to place the Nth Projector after Deathlok failed to do so, so he's released Nuklo (a radioactive "villain" with a child's mentality) to work as a distraction. 

Nuklo starts causing trouble right away when he nearly squashes Ben and Bill Foster while pushing up on an elevator, but Bill's transformation to giant size allows the heroes to stop this.

It seemed that during the 1970s, there was a Federal law that required all African-American superheroes to put "Black" in front of their superhero name. It was definitely overdone, so I enormously enjoy Ben's ensuing dialogue, in which he comments that "Black" seems unneccesary. 

Any, Bill's thing as a superhero is that, in his short career, he hasn't yet gotten a clean win and feels he needs to prove himself. So, with his fists protected by lead sheeting, he goes at Nuklo alone. He doesn't do half-bad and, though Ben has to step in to deliver the final blow, acquits himself honorably.

But that doesn't stop the scientist acting as Nuklo's bodyguard from giving both Bill and Ben a tongue-lashing. It's another effective character moment for Ben, who immediately sees the parallel between Nuklo and Wundarr. In fact, I suspect that is why Macchio and Gruenwald choose Nuklo as the villain for this story. That parallel gives an already entertaining fight scene a strong emotional backbone. 

And it also leads us into a scene with Wundarr, who is still somehow able to blink off nearby power sources and who is being set up for a key role in the next couple of issues.

We also jump back to New York for a few pages to see Thundra still working as a pro wrestler, with her opponent in one match drugging her in order to win. This continues to set up a situation that will bring Thundra into the main story arc in the next issue.

So we'll leave Project Pegasus for now. Next week, we'll jump back to the 6th Century and visit with Prince Valiant.

Cover Cavalcade

A really cool Jim Aparo cover from 1974.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #15--Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 7--"...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #15--Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 7--"...:   An anaylsis of Chapter 7 of the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, in which Tarzan realizes he can no longer live with the apes.  Click HERE ...

Friday's Favorite OTR

Frontier Gentleman: "Powder River Kid" 4/6/58

OPENING NARRATION: "There seems to be two kinds of people in Montana Territory: the good and the bad. Sometimes, it's hard to tell which is which."

While traveling back to Fort Benton, Kendall encounters a badly-wounded and dying outlaw. The dying man asks Kendall for a favor--something that would allow the man's wife to collect the reward. Kendall wants to help the man, but the favor would involve committing a an extremely brutal and cold-blooded act.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Gee whiz, It Can Be Hard to Keep the Peace!

 

Apache Rifles (1964) is a very entertaining Western, well worth your time to watch it. As is typical with Audie Murphy, watching him project authority (despite his perpetually youthful face) as a military men is awesome. 

Murphy is Captain Stanton, an army officer who is known for his clever tactics in the Indian wars, which comes with a reputation for having killed many Indians. 

We see that right away. He's leading a cavalry troop in search of Apaches who have left the reservation, led by their chief Victorio. Stanton is to fight when necessary, but he has a message to pass on to Victorio if the opportunity presents itself.

Stanton soon makes that opportunity. Using a clever trick, he manages to get the drop on some Apaches. Most are killed in the fight, but Victorio's son Red Wing is captured alive. Stanton then ties Red Wing to a rock, exposed to the blazing Arizona sun, with a white flag tied to his arm. Rather than watch his son die from exposure, Victorio agrees to meet with Stanton.

From there, we learn that the situation does not allow for clear-cut good guys and bad guys. The movie does not hide how brutal the tactics of the Apaches can be, but it also overtly sides with them in how they've been mistreated. It was a combination of a dishonest Indian Agent and hordes of gold miners pouring into the reservation that forced them to go to war.

Stanton, also, is a great character, brought effectively to life by Murphy's performance. His father was also an army officer, who once trusted an Indian and thus got 350 of his men killed. Stanton, therefore, does not like nor trust Indians.

But, despite his prejudice, he still does his job. An honest Indian Agent is brought in and Stanton uses his troops to clear out the gold miners and keep them out. But the local whites don't like this and soon political pressure is being brought on the Army to let the gold miners back onto their "rightful claims."

L.Q. Jones and Ken Lynch give strong performances as two miners who are willing to commit torture and murder to get back to their rich strike. This included them, at one point, leading an attack on an Apache encampment, gunning down women and children before Stanton orders his troops to fire on them. 

The situation gets even worse when a higher-ranking but far less competent officer arrives to take command of Stanton's troop.

While all this is going on, Stanton is falling for a local lady missionary without knowing she's half-Comanche. This part of the movie is a little forced (though a scene in which Stanton is unable to force himself to say "I love you" because of her heritage is powerful) and both the romance and the main plot are tied up a little too neatly. Despite this, Apache Rifles has a strong plot, some great action and some great performances by skilled character actors. I especially enjoyed a fist fight between Stanton and L.Q. Jones' character in which circumstances force them to continually interrupt their fight to hide from nearby Apaches.

As much as I enjoy and recommend the film, though, I do have an objection to the ending. This is a story that required a more bittersweet resolution than the traditional happy ending we get. Sometimes, wrapping up every plot point so neatly is simply not the route to go. Apache Rifles would have benefited from a little bit of messiness at the end. 

Little Dinky Looks for a Real Job!

 

Cover Artist Unknown

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the first story in Animal Comics #4 (August-Sept 1943) and enjoyed it so much that I decided to review the rest of the issue as well, one story at a time.

This is despite the fact that the very next story involves a... a... a CAT! And cats are evil.

Oh, sure, Little Dinky plays the cute kitten card so that we don't suspect his neferious end goal of enslaving and eventually destroying humanity, but he doesn't fool me!

But I suppose he's fooled the rest of you, so I'll bite the bullet and review the story without overlaying it with any anti-cat conspiracy theories. DON'T BLAME ME WHEN THEY TAKE OVER, THOUGH!

Dinky is having a hard time finding a playmate. Her owner, Joan, is helping her Mom with housework.

Even a little chick in the barnyard has chores to do. Dinky is actually a little hurt when the chick's mother calls her a loafer!

So Dinky is now determined to do something useful, by golly! The dog tells him that a crow has been making trouble, but has been too clever for anyone to capture. Little Dinky decides to catch the crow on his own and prove he's not a loafer.

Of course, it would help if he knew what a crow looked like.

Soon, Dinky does meet the crow, but doesn't recognize what he is. The crow (given a perfect "I'm a mean-spirited bully" look by the artist) convinces the poor kitten that he needs to disguise himself as a bird AND learn to fly if he's going to catch the bird.

Dinky's not much on coming up with intelligent plans on his own, but he does discover that blind, unreasoning panic is a useful trait. When the crow attempts to push Dinky off a branch to "teach him how to fly," Dinky grabs the crow's leg, won't let go, and forces the big bully to crash to the ground. Then humans are then able to capture him. Dinky is well-rewarded for his efforts.

The script, by an unidentified writer, is straightforward, telling a simple story that's enhanced nicely by John Pabian's art. That art gives the various characters a real sense of personality, giving life to the tale, while also throwing in several really beautiful half-page panels. 

Of course, this is ignoring the obvious fact that Little Dinky is EVIL! It's tragic that I can't get anyone to see this.

We'll look at the next story in this issue of Animal Comics in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can read it online HERE. 

Next week, we'll return to Project Pegasus once more.