Go Jump Off a Cliff!

 

cover artist unknown

One of the many cool things about Ben Bowie and His Mountain Men was that it did maintain a degree of historical continuity with its stories. For instance, by the time we get to the last few issues of this superb comic book, the French and Indian War had broken out.

"Thundering Waters," drawn by Albert Micale (writer unknown) was published in the 15th issue (May-July 1958) and involves Ben and his crew--along with some redcoats--escorting some supplies to a beleaguered fort. They are ambushed by Ottawas (who allied with their French trading partners during the war) and the brightly-clad British troops are soon picked off.

Ben and his three friends are backed up against a cliff. With no other options, they opt to actually jump off the cliff, landing in the trees below. They play dead until the Ottawas give up on them.

So they survive, but the Ottawas have captured the badly needed supplies. Ben tracks them to their camp, where the Mountain Men set fire to a few tents to cause a distraction and steal back the supplies. But there are too few of them to transport the stuff to the fort, so they hide them and make a break for it. 

This leads to a chase down a river, in which they barely avoid being swept over a waterfall. They then lower their canoes down the cliff beside the waterfall, finally managing to get away from the Ottawas.

The artwork throughout this story has been superb and the script is excellent, showing Ben using intelligent tactics and taking necessary risks in order to get himself and his friends out of danger.

And Ben's intelligence continues to play a part in the story's conclusion, where he uses reinforcements from the fort to lure the Ottawas onto the river and drive them off that waterfall.

As was typical with the Ben Bowie series, "Thundering Waters" includes historical accuracy, great art, sound plot construction and a hero who uses his brains as well as his musket to give us a strong frontier-era adventure.

Next week, we'll visit again with Napoleon Solo.