Friday's Favorite OTR

 Frontier Gentleman: "Aces and Eights" 

“In a card game, Aces and Eights are known throughout the West as a dead man’s hand. There’s a good reason for it and this is the story of how the hand got its name.”

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Haldeman's Star Trek novels, Part 2

 

World Without End (1979) is the second of the two Star Trek novels written by noted SF author Joe Haldeman. I like both novels enormously.

In the forward, Haldeman admits he educated himself on the series mostly through James Blish's short story adaptations of the original series episodes. So he might not have been aware that, in very general terms, he was reusing a plot from a third season episode ("For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky") in which the inhabitants of a giant space ship do not know they are in a spaceship.

But other than that, Haldeman does original world-building. The inhabitants this time are very, very alien with a bizarre society.  I don't want to try to summarize it--it would make this review too long. But I think he creates a (as Spock would say) fascinating alien society.

He also involves the Klingons. Written at a time when the original series was the only source for Klingons, Haldeman takes them in a unique direction, creating a particularly brutal version of them (including a priest class on the ship that can demand limbs or even heads be taken in sacrifice from crewmembers). Then he adds a ship captain who might be a little too human in his attitudes towards throwing away the lives of his crew.

The main plot involves Kirk and a landing party getting stranded in the alien ship when they discover that the transporters work in only one direction, then starting a long journey to the spherical ship's pole, where the ruling "magicians" live, dealing with the gradual reduction of gravity as they near their goal. (The ship simulates gravity via rotation/centrifigal force.) In the meantime, the Enterprise is trapped near the alien ship, with its power being drained.

Haldeman catches the personalities of Kirk, Spock and the other Enterprise crew. I especially like the scenes with Scotty, who ends up alone on the Enterprise, unable to himself transport down after the crew has done so. As the ship loses power, Scott surviving on the emergency bridge via a camp fire, oxygen bottles and some brandy. 

Great moments include a scene in which the an alien asks one of the humans to demonstrate how a phaser kills by shooting one of the alien's bodyguard. "It's not a problem," says the alien, "they're only security"--which causes the two Red Shirts in the landing party to exchange glances. 

 Another fun moment is McCoy's annoyed explanation to an alien about the difference between men and women among humans--"Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, while boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tales." 

There's several great action scenes and a bizarre yet satisfying resolution to the story. I love it. Star Trek has expanded into multiple TV series which, in general, don't feel very Star Trek-y to me (though, to be fair, I haven't watched a whole lot of the new stuff). Novels proliferate, with many of them excellent and many of them "meh." So I kinda miss the days when a new Star Trek story was a rare treat. There was something special about that. 

Snipers, Tattoos and Secret Caves

Dell Comics' Roy Rogers #3 (March 1948) was drawn by Al Micale and written by prolific scribe Gaylord Du Bois. Du Bois not only wrote around 3000 comic book and comic strip scripts over the years--I've only read a small fraction of them, but I have yet to run across a bad script. The man was amazing.

This time, he adds to the adventure canon of Roy Rogers. Roy is riding through Montana when he meets Nancy Kirkland and Andy Johnson, whose uncles both own nearby ranches. Roy soon gets a chance to.., well, to be Roy Rogers when he catches Nancy after she's knocked off her horse by several of the mean-spirited Roulette brothers. 

Andy gets to show his backbone as well when he slugs one of the brothers. Later, the three friends find evidence that the Roulettes are doing some rustling.

That's bad enough, but when they ride back to one of the ranches, three of the four local ranch owners (including Nancy's dad and Andy's dad) are shot by a sniper.

That means the only ranch owner left--and the one who will now inherent the surrounding land--is Pa Roulette. That seems suspicious, until it turns out Pa Roulette is also dead. He was killed in what his son's claim was an accident. 

But nothing can be proved about anything. One of the men shot along with Nancy's dad was the owner and his will left the land to the children of the other three now-dead men. Neither Nancy nor Andy had any siblings, so Pa Roulette's ten sons will now inherent most of the land.

But there's a hint of another later will. No one can find this, though Roy helps the sheriff find the rifle used in the triple murder stashed in a small cave. 

Remembering a tattoo needle found on one of the victims, Roy plays a hunch and gets a court order to dig up Pa Roulette. His sons show up to put a stop to this, but all but one of them are killed in the ensuing gun fight. Roy's hunch proves to be a good one--the new will (leaving the land to Nancy and Andy) is tattooed on Pay's back. 

That doesn't quite bring the story to a close. Roy still needs to rescue Nancy from the lone surviving Roulette brother. But Roy does stuff like this three times before breakfast and soon has the situation in hand.

It is a typically strong Du Bois script. The mystery is good, the action scenes help keep the pacing fast and everything flows along logically. And its all given visual backbone by Micale's strong art. 

Gee whiz, that Gaylord Du Bois guy knew how to WRITE!

You can read this comic yourself HERE.

Next week, we'll return to the Avengers and see how they are doing. 

Cover Cavalcade

 AUGUST IS DC 80-PAGE GIANT MONTH!!!

This Win Mortimer cover is from 1964.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Dragnet: "The Big Mailman" 5/24/51

Someone is stealing checks out of people's mailboxes.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Haldeman's Star Trek Novels, Part 1

 

Planet of Judgment is the first of two Trek novels written by noted SF author Joe Haldeman, back when Bantam Books had the franchise license and their occasional novels were the only new stories we poor Trekkies could get. 

I read this when it was first published in 1977, so I do have a nostalgic fondness for it. But even taking that into consideration, I think it's excellent--a strong story that also captures the personalities of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. What's interesting is that in the forward to his second Trek novel (World Without End), Haldeman writes that he was overseas in Vietnam when the series aired and his background information came largely from James Blish's short story adaptations of the episodes. A few elements from this novel also indicate that he was using the Star Fleet Technical Manual that was in print at the time. 

A favorite part--a character moment separate from the main plot--comes when Spock is discussing Nurse Chapel's crush on him with McCoy. Why, Spock asks, would Chapel pursue a relationship that would--because of Vulcan biology--be one of complete abstinence. Pon Farr only comes once every seven years. 

McCoy points out that Spock's own mother was human. "Mother and I have never discusses this frankly," says Spock.

"That's the most human thing I've ever heard you say," replies McCoy. 

It's a great moment. I believe it was later established in Star Trek that Vulcans can have relations outside of Pon Farr, but I never cared for that. The way Haldeman portrays them here is an effective reminder that they are not human beings with funny ears, but aliens who are fundamentally different from humans. 

The main plot involves a planet that seems to defy physics and a powerful alien race with enormous mental powers. Kirk and a number of his crew end up trapped on the planet and only gradually find out what the aliens have in mind. The intense climax has Kirk and Spock in mental duels with members of yet another powerful alien race. The duels involve illusions such as Kirk commanding a sailing ship fighting pirates or Spock swimming inside a sun with the purpose of causing it to go nova. It's all an illusion, but losing still means real-life death.

McCoy, who fights a preliminary duel with an alien, finds himself on a 19th-Century riverboat in a poker game that spirals into bizarre and lethal chaos.

The world-building and the purposes of the various aliens is excellent, with the relatively short novel moving the story along at a brisk pace. It all really does feel like Star Trek--capturing the camaraderie of the crew and the desire to explore strange new worlds. Its a novel I revisit from time to time as a way of spending time in one of my favorite fictional universes.

Heroes Meet and Have a Fight (So What Else is New?)

 

Cover art by George Tuska

I think it must be a federal law--whenever heroes in a comic book universe meet for the first time, there pretty much HAS to be a misunderstanding that leads to them fighting.

I don't mind this trope--it's an effective way of showing us a new heroes abilities and a good fight scene is always entertaining. In Avengers #48 (January 1968), Roy Thomas and George Tuska give us a pretty nifty fight scene.

How did we get to that fight, you ask? The issue picks up with Pietro and Wanda still prisoners of Magneto at Dane Whitman's castle. Pietro gets his hand loose from a manacle and manages to send a message to Avengers Mansion. Since Cap has left, Hawkeye is out brooding, and Goliath and Wasp are foiling a cheater in a casino, Jarvis has to take the message.

That's fine by itself, but Toad (who is being the annoying toady we know and love) spots the twins using a radio. He narcs them out to Magneto, who stops the message before Pietro can say WHERE the castle is located.

The main storyline pauses while we visit Hercules, who is still wondering why the heck Olympus is deserted and vowing to beat the snot out of whomever is responsible. This sets up a story line to be resolved in an upcoming issue.

Anyway, the Avengers finally hear Pietro's message, but are stumped on what to do next without a location for the castle. That's when Black Knight arrives.

We get another flashback, setting up Dane Whitman as the new Black Knight. The original villain was his uncle and Dane has resolved to make up for his relative's actions by becoming a hero. He gets out of the cell into which Magneto had locked him, puts on the Black Knight stuff and flys (via winged horse) to New York.

Where, of course, the Avengers mistake him for the original villain. To be fair, this is actually not an unreasonable assumption on their part, so the fight that follows does flow along a path solid with storytelling logic.

And its a cool fight, effectively choreographed and well-illustrated by Tuska. In the end, after Goliath has to save some civilians from falling concrete and the Black Knight has to save Goliath from falling to his death, everyone realizes they are on the same side. Dane leads the Avengers to the castle, only to find that Magneto has already fled with his hostages. 

The ending is a bit odd. Dane takes offence when the Avengers ask about his background--once again, understandable since Dane is using a former villain's costumed identity. He flies off and disappears from the storyline, not coming back for another six issues. It seems like an odd storytelling beat to take up much of the issue introducing a new character, then sidelining him until another story arc begins. 

But what the hey. The fight was a good one, the main story arc progresses a little bit and Dane is a cool addition to the Marvel Universe. A fun issue, even if it does through off the pacing of the overall Magneto arc.

Next week, we'll take a break from this to visit Roy Rogers. We'll return to the Avengers vs. Magneto in two weeks. 

Cover Cavalcade

 AUGUST IS DC 80-PAGE GIANT MONTH!!!

A 1964 cover by Carmine Infantino.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Inner Sanctum: "Dead Freight" 5/18/41

A hobo kills another hobo aboard a boxcar, then switches identities with the dead man. This leads to unexpected consequences.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Skip Week

 

At the risk of leaving Western Civilization feeling as forlorn as this poor girl obviously is, several writing assignments (including one about Jack Kirby that requires a lot of research) AND being asked to teach at my church next week has made it necessary for me to skip the Wednesday and Thursday posts this week. I should be back next week.

Cover Cavalcade

 AUGUST IS DC 80-PAGE GIANT MONTH!!!

A Curt Swan cover from 1964.

What I Read This Month

 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Shadow: "Death Triangle" 12/12/37

Three men are threatened with death by an escapee from Devil's Island. But the situation actually might be more complicated than it first appears to be.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Six Men of Evil

 

cover art by George Rozen

Six Men of Evil (from Feb. 15th, 1933 issue of The Shadow Magazine)

This is a weird one, even in the context of the Shadow's often weird universe. Six men, after an attempt to steal a priceless jewel from a remote tribe in Mexico, end up with identical faces. They plan to use this to commit crimes, establish perfect alibis for those crimes and frame someone else. Within a few chapters, they have murdered a man, stolen some valuable bonds, embezzled money from a bank, and pulled off a marry-the-rich-girl-then-murder-her scheme.

But crimes take place in different locations around the country, but the Shadow notices the pattern: Each time, the person arrested for the crime accusses someone who has a perfect alibi. The Master of Mystery deduces that the real criminals used doubles, though he doesn't at first know how this is possible.

The Shadow and his agents investigate. He eventually finds out how they all ended up with the same face--a process that would strain credulity in a more realistic universe, but makes perfect sense in a pulp universe.

He also discovers how the mastermind communicates with the other members of the gang, using this to track them down just as the next crime is about to be committed. This leads to an awesome car chase and the apparent death of the ringleader.

But the Shadow knows all. One last confrontation with the surviving Men of Evil takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown. 

This novel is a little lighter on action than most other Shadow tales, but it still has several great action moments. And the mystery is a good one, with the Shadow using clever and logical methods to track down the bad guys and figure out how they somehow become identical sextuplets.  The villians overlay the novel with a strong weirdness vibe that works quite well, giving this one an eerie individuality among other Shadow novels.

Borrowed Villains and New Heroes

 

cover art by Dan Heck

Avengers #47 (December 1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema, borrows an X-Men villain and begins the process of introducing a heroic version of the Black Knight to the Marvel Universe.

There are several subplots here, which we'll discuss first. Captain America quits and Hank Pym (currently called Goliath) is planning to rejoin the team. Also, Hercules is currently away, returning to Mount Olympus--which he finds deserted. This begins a subplot that will play out in a future issue.

The main plot begins with Magneto and Toad trapped on a deserted asteroid, left there by the cosmic being the Stranger in an issue of The X-Men. But Magneto is sensing magnetic waves arriving at the asteroid. 

These waves are coming from Earth. Dane Whitman, the nephew of the recently deceased villain The Black Knight, has set up an experiment in the family castle. He wants to redeem the family name by doing good and hopes to discover alien intelligence by magnetic wave communications.

This is an effective way of introducing Dane as a good guy. But a part of me wonders--in a universe where Earth has regular conduct with aliens, is there a lot of urgency in figuring out new ways to communicate with them. Will Dane run to the newspapers if he's successful and yell out "I have proved there is alien life!" only to be told by a bored editor that "We know that already, doofus. We were invaded by the Rock Men of Saturn just last month!"

Anyway, Dane is cursed not just with rotten relatives, but also with rotten lab assistants. When it looks like the experiment is about to be successful, his assistance knocks him out with a rock so that he (the assistant) can take credit for everything.

Then Magneto and Toad appear in the room. The science here isn't clearly explained--but then, Comic Book Science isn't something that CAN be clearly explained. Apparently Magneto was able to hijack the magnetic beam, teleporting himself and Toad across interstellar distances to Earth. This is well within the logical perameters of Comic Book Science and Thomas is wise enough to avoid bogging down the scene with technobabble, allowing us to just go with it and enjoy the story.

Magneto knocks out the jerk assistant, then locks both him and Dane in the castle dungeon. Then he works on putting the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants back together. He is dismissive of Mastermind, but really wants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as members. We get to see how he met them in a flashback--how he saved them from a mutant-fearing mob.

He sends an anoynomous message to the siblings, luring them to the castle, then testing them by pitting them against a big robot. 

 They defeat the robot, but when Magneto confronts them, they explain they've become good guys and are now Avengers. Magneto doesn't take this well and, between a swarm of more robots and his own powers, manages to capture them both.

It's a well-written story with great Buscema art. Magneto is in full-on mustache-twirling mode, eithout any of the depth that Chris Claremont would give him. But his bombastic villain speeches are a blast to read, so I'm okay with his mustache twirling here.

It's also the beginning of a multi-part story arc that will cross over into the X-Men's book for several issues. I've always resented this--team-ups are great, but don't force someone to perhaps buy a book they didn't normally buy. Besides, in the days before comic book shops commonly existed, there was no guarentee you'll FIND the other title. It's just wrong.

But I'm nearly six decades too late to whine about this, so we'll continue to judge the story on its own merits, rather than by iffy marketing schemes. Next week, we'll see Dane Whitman enter the superhero business.

Cover Cavalcade

  JULY IS J. ALLEN St. JOHN VISITS BARSOOM MONTH!!!

St. John finished his 1941 visit to Barsoom with this October issue. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Gunsmoke: "The Gypsum Hills Feud" 4/16/55

While Dillon and Chester are on the way back to Dodge City, someone takes a shot at Dillon. Soon, he finds himself involved in a feud between two families.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

He Killed a Man in His Dream!

 

Stan Grayson has a nightmare in which he kills a guy and locks the body in a cubbyhole in a room with lots of mirrors. He wakes up to discover blood on his hands, bruises on his neck, as well as the key to the cubbyhole and one of the dead man's buttons both in his room.

Is Stan actually a murderer? He doesn't know!

That's the premise of the 1956 noir film Nightmare. It's based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich ("And So to Death" published in 1941) and its the second time writer/director Maxwell Shane adapted it into a movie. I haven't seen the 1947 version, titled Fear in the Night, but I did just watch Nightmare.

Kevin McCarthy plays Stan and does a great job with the part--a man with a conscience who is terrified at the idea that he killed a man--a situation made worse because he doesn't know who he killed or why. 

So he goes to his brother-in-law, Rene Bressard, who is a detective. Rene is played by Edward G. Robinson, which automatically makes this movie good. Whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, Robinson is always a pleasure to watch. 

Bressard dismisses Stan's concern. A dream is just a dream and he probably had the key and the button before and just forgot about them. Stan tries to investigate himself, but doesn't get anywhere.

Stan, by the way, is a clarinetist with a big band. His girlfriend sings for the band. This gives the movie an excuse to include a few minutes of really good music. Director Maxwell Shane also makes really good use of the New Orleans location.

It's when Stan, Rene and their gals are out on a picnic that things get weird. A rainstorm begins and the wipers on Rene's car won't work. But Stan suddenly "remembers" a nearby house and where the key to that house is hidden. They take shelter there and Stan soon finds the mirror room.

And they soon find out that not one, but two people were recently murdered in that house.

Rene is now convinced Stan is indeed a killer. He gives Stan a chance to make a run for it before turning him in. Stan opts to try to commit suicide instead, but Rene puts a stop to this.

And then Stan says something that clicks with the detective--something that might mean Stan is innocent. But in order to prove this, they are going to have to replicate the events of the night of the murder. This is something that Stan might not live through...

Nightmare is a very good film noir and definitely worth watching. Both the lead actors anchor the movie with great performances; New Orleans looks awesome in black and white; and the plot has a few nice twists in it. I'd like to talk about the ending a little more, but I don't want to spoil anything. You can watch it for yourself here:

Time Travel, Jesse James and a lot of Accidental Deaths (maybe).

 

cover art by Curt Swan

I'm okay with the rules about Time Travel--DC was reasonably consistent about that even during the often-inconsistent Silver Age.

But what the heck are the rules for Jimmy's Superman Signal wrist watch?

"The Gunsmoke Kid," a story from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #45 (June 1960) raises this question. In fact, it does sort of raise a time travel question as well. The strength of the story is in the fact that we can still enjoy it as over-the-top fun and asking questions about internal logic just adds to the fun.

The story's author is unknown (though I would guess Otto Binder) and the art is by Curt Swan.

Jimmy and Clark are interviewing Professor Potter about his newest invention--a time machine. The professor hasn't perfected it yet--you can travel back in time, but he hasn't figured out how to return you to the present.

Jimmy, who is wearing a Wild West costume because he's attending a costume party later on, plays with the machine. This is unwise and after 45 issues of bizarre adventures and previous encounters with Potter's various inventions, he really SHOULD know better.

He's teleported back to the Old West. Here's where the time travel logic becomes a bit skewed. He appears in a prison cell and is mistaken for an outlaw called the Gunsmoke Kid. So did he replace the REAL Gunsmoke Kid? If so, where is the real Kid? And why didn't anyone recognize him as NOT being the Kid? Unless the Kid is Jimmy's double? Did the sheriff just decide to accuse anyone who mysteriously appears in his jail of being a dangerous outlaw? Is the sheriff just really bad at his job? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

The Gunsmoke Kid--er, I mean Jimmy Olsen--is busted out of prison by Jesse James, who promises Jimmy a chance to kill the three most famous outlaws in the West: Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickcock and Bat Masterson.

Jimmy tries to miss on purpose all three times he ambushes one of the lawmen, but each time it appears that he's accidentally killed them anyways. He also is mysteriously able to cheat at poker (something he has to do to keep Jesse from shooting him), dealing himself four aces after dealing other players four kings and four queens respectively. Jimmy is both concerned that he's inadvertantly committed murder AND wondering if he's changing history.

It's at the poker game that the signal watch issue arises. The watch normally sends out an ulta sonic sound that only Superman can hear. But Jimmy uses it as an audible alarm to distract the losing poker players. So is there a second alarm set in the watch that is audible to normal humans--which I don't think was every mentioned either before or after this story? And wasn't the Superman signal able to penetrate the time barrier on other occasions, even though we are told here that it can't? (I can't think of an example--please comment if you do know of one.)

Eventually, the three supposedly dead lawmen are spotted. Jesse decides to kill Jimmy, but Superman does turn out to be nearby, blowing up a dust storm to rescue Jimmy without being seen. (The story is consistant with the DC Comics Time Travel rule that you can't change the past.)

It was Superman in disguise who posed as the lawmen and faked their deaths, as well as Superman fixing the poker game. He's recorded all this, so Jimmy has some awesome film foogage of himself to show at parties. I guess that was worth the mental agony of thinking you were a murderer, Jimmy? Superman? What about that, huh? Is emotional anguish a fair trade for party bragging rights?

I am, of course, making fun of the story. But I do so without rancor or any heartfelt criticism. With some comic books, imaginative fun should be preferable to narrative consistency. Superman's Pal is a prime example throughout its run of when this is true. Its a fun story and if I could time travel, replace Mort Weisinger as editor and change history--well, I just wouldn't. In Weisinger's universe, YES, mental anguish is a fair trade for party bragging rights! I mean, of course it is! The story is perfect just as it is. 

Next week, we'll begin a five part visit with the Avengers, then the X-Men, then (eventually) both groups.

Cover Cavalcade

  JULY IS J. ALLEN St. JOHN VISITS BARSOOM MONTH!!!

St. John's journey to Barsoom leads him to the North Pole for this August 1941 issue.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 American Portraits: "The Sword of Kentucky" 8/14/51

The story of George Rogers Clark's Revolutionary War campaign against the British, leading a small force through the wilderness to attack a British fort near Detroit.

Click HERE to listen or download.