Burns and Allen: "Cast Your Ballot" 2/9/43
Gracie wants to be president of her women's club, so she wants to get a celebrity speaker for the next meeting. This requires telling one fib to Charles Laughton, telling a different fib to George and a THIRD fib to the club members. What can possibly go wrong?
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Today, we tackle a fantasy tale:
In the 1930s, Clark Ashton Smith wrote his Zothique tales--stories set in the far future. This dying Earth is lit by a dim, red sun and the world is infested with magic and monsters. They are fantastic stories full of vivid imagery, ornate prose and sardonic humor.
In the 1950s, Jack Vance began writing his version of a Dying Earth. In a 1981 interview, he freely admitted Smith's influence. Though Vance (like Smith, an extraordinary writer) gave his Dying Earth its own feel, it was very similar to Zothique in many ways. Dim, red sun, magic and monsters, ornate prose, vivid imagery and sardonic humor.
One of Vance's best characters lived in his Dying Earth setting. Cugel the Clever was a thief and con artist who wasn't necessarily as clever as he thought he was. His plans to make a less-than-honest living pretty nearly always went awry or led to unplanned consequences.
In 1974, Vance returned to Cugel after the thief had disappeared into Fiction Limbo for some years. "The Seventeen Virgins." first appeared in the October 1974 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine.
It takes a while for the virgins to come into the picture. Cugel is fleeing one location and comes across a village whose people and customs are unknown to him. He makes some money running a dishonest card game and a fake fortune teller scam.
It's here the titular virgins appear. Wanting to move on, he uses a less-than-ethical plan to get a job as the night guard on a caravan transporting the virgins to another city for a religious ceremony. But Cugel is the only night guard, which means he's free to secretly visit some of the virgins. Not all of them qualify for their roles when the caravan reaches its destination.
This city bases its culture on altruism and redemption, so Cugel is given an opportnity to redeem himself. This, unfortunately, involves giving Cugel the task of talking to a captured demon and giving it a chance to give up evil. This is not likely to end well.
Like all the Cugel stories, this one is just plain fun to read. Like Clark Ashton Smith, Vance had a love for obscure words and a talent for picking just the right words to make any particular sentence a delight to read.
This story isn't quite as old as most of the prose fiction I discuss on this blog, but what the heck. It's definitely worth reading. You can find it online HERE.
Three stinkin' years. That's how long it had been since the publication of Creatures on the Loose #37 in 1975, after publishing the second part of a 4-part Man -Wolf/Space Opera epic. I wonder what the sales for the next two issues of Marvel Premiere were. In those ancient days, many of us were still depending on spinner racks at the local 7/11 to find our comics. We may have long forgotten poor Man-Wolf's dilemma by the time Marvel Premiere #45 (December 1978) came out, or we might have missed it on the inconsistently stocked spinner racks.
Well, if nothing else, that George Perez cover is eye-catching.
And his interior art, (with the script by David Kraft), is equally awesome. The story left off with John Jameson and three warriors from another dimension escaping a space station and heading for the moon. But the moonlight turned Jameson into Man-Wolf, who (unlike his human counterpart) is not a skilled space pilot.
So we pick up with the ship crashed on the moon and the three warriors unconscious. Man-Wolf, though, rips his way out of the ship. Something protects him from the lack of atmosphere and temperature extremes as he's drawn in a particular direction.
He enters a cave, passes through a dimensional gateway and ends up in another dimension. (The three warriors join him soon after, linking up with the other people Man-Wolf meets.)
Man-Wolf agrees to help them. They charge into battle on flying beasts and are soon locked in combat with the dictator's undead minions.
So an astronaut/werewolf armed with a sword leads a ragtag band of extra-dimensional rebels flying dragon/pegasus hybrids into battle against undead warriors. THIS is why I love comic books.
The battle does not go well. Two of the rebels are killed. Man-Wolf and another rebel are knocked out of the sky. The remainder are captured.
But the war isn't over. When Man-Wolf sees the corpse of one of the rebels, he vows revenge.
One can argue that the moon-stone that turns John Jameson into a monster didn't need any more of a back story than "it's magic/super-science of some sort." But here, David Kraft and George Perez give that stone a super-cool origin that tosses Man-Wolf into a Space Opera epic, effectively stitching together a lot of bizarre cool elements to satisfy the nerdist of nerds. And it ends with a very effective cliffhanger.
But we will not be looking at the conclusion next week, I'm afraid. My wife and I are off to Germany to take a river cruise down the Danube and (I'm assuming/hoping) use brilliant deductive reasoning to solve a murder along the way. That means a two-week break in both Wednesday and Thursday posts. Be patient. We'll look at the last part of this story in three weeks.
Broadway is my Beat: "The Charles and Jane Kimbell Murder Case" 3/17/50
A car is dredged up from the river. But the two corpses in it didn't drown--they were shot.
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In the previous issue of Creatures on the Loose, we left Man Wolf aboard a NASA space station, unconscious after having lost a fight with one of three aliens who had taken over the station.
With this issue (#37, September 1975), writer David Kraft and artist George Perez pick up the story right where it left off. But the alien, Garth, is attacked by the NASA crew, who are understandably annoyed that the aliens have taken over the station's control room.
Garth gets away. The astronauts tie up Man Wolf. They then destroy the artificial gravity generators, allowing them to attack the control room via access ducts that lead straight upward into that room.
But Man Wolf regains consciousness and--well, it's not easy to tie up a superstrong being. He breaks loose and Perez gives us an incredible two page spread of the ensuing zero gravity melee.
It's only when the sun sets behind the moon, cutting off Man Wolf from moonlight, that he weakens. The astronauts overpower him, lock him in an X-Ray chamber and then proceed with their assault on the control room.
Garth, though, circles around the crew, knocks out the guards at the X-Ray chamber, and releases John Jameson.
Because Man Wolf has indeed reverted to human. He was even trying to talk his guards--guys he had met during astronaut training--to let him go. But when Garth arrives, he decides to throw in his lot with the aliens.
They get back to the control room and, along with the other two aliens, everyone gets into John's original rescue vehicle. They head for the moon.
But that brings them back into moonlight, which is a very bad thing when the guy piloting the ship is a werewolf.
Also, one of the astronauts back on the station had taken an X-Ray of John, announcing to his crewmates that the moonstone isn't just a stone. It's an alien that has established a symbiotic relationship of some sort with John!
What does all this mean? Well, don't ask a Marvel reader from 1975. Creatures on the Loose was cancelled after this issue, leaving the poor readers in limbo. David Kraft, the writer, does include a page of prose describing how the story would have unfolded, but we won't look at that. Because after a three-year wait, the story would be concluded in two issues of Marvel Premiere. We'll begin a look at that next week.
I'm glad the rest of the story was eventually published. This issue continues to set up a strong Space Opera plot, given backbone by Perez's incredible artwork. It's great comic book storytelling and the world deserved to find out how it ends.
You Are There: "New Amsterdam" 1/22/50
The British are demanding the Dutch surrender the city of New Amersterdam. Will they fight or will they give up?
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So I thought "Why not give the short story reviews more structure?" Because if there is one thing that is lacking in the world, it's more structure on obscure blogs in coverage of short stories. It is, I think, the greatest failing of our civilization.
So I decided to make a list of genres, then--over the course of the "Short Story Genre Survey" I am starting today--cover one story from each of these genres.
Here's the Genre List:
In 1974 and 1975, the last eight issues of Creatures on the Loose focused on Man Wolf. This, of course, is John Jameson, the astronaut son of J. Jonah Jameson who has a moonstone grafted to his skin that turns him into Man Wolf. He's not just a werewolf. He's an ASTRONAUT WEREWOLF. That's inherently cool.
Creatures on the Loose was cancelled in the middle of a Man Wolf story arc that sends our astronaut werewolf back into space. This left readers hanging and the tale wasn't concluded for ANOTHER THREE YEARS, when it finally resurfaced in two issues of Marvel Premiere. Gee whiz, it wasn't always easy being a comic book reader back in those ancient times.
Anyway, what we are going to do this week is look at Creatures on the Loose #36 (July 1975), written by David Kraft and drawn by George Perez. In the following weeks, we'll move on to the next (and last) issue of Creatures, then on to the two issues of Marvel Premiere that finish up this story.
Anyway, poor John has been AWOL for sometime and the government has been looking for him. But after a run-in with the villain Hatemonger and an encounter with SHIELD, he gets a second chance at putting his life back together.
NASA has lost contact with the crew aboard a space station (Marvel science has always been a few years ahead of real life.) John is the best-qualified pilot to fly a rescue vehicle to the station and find out what the heck is going on.
John agrees, but things don't go well. He pilots his ship to the space station and, still unable to contact anyone, space walks over to a hatch to enter the station. But he's a bit too slow. The sun rises from behind the moon and bathes him in moonlight. He turns into Man Wolf and rips his own space suit off. Not even an astronaut werewolf can survive more than a few minutes in a vacuum.
Someone in an alien-looking spacesuit comes out of the station and drags the dying Man Wolf into the station. But Man Wolf is not someone who will show (or understand) gratitude. In a magnificent two-page spread that shows just how awesome George Perez' art can be, he attacks his rescuer.
There are actually three men on board, all visitors from a dimension call "Other Realm." Garth of Mournhelm, Lambert and Gorjoon are all human (or at least humanoid) and also recognize the stone that causes John to turn into Man Wolf. They call it a godstone, hinting that it might have a more complex history than has previously been revealed.
Anyway, a cool fight ensues, with Garth knocking out Man Wolf by zapping him with a power cable.
I'm describing the fight very quickly, but it runs several pages, covers several decks of the space station and is superbly choreographed.
The issue ends here, setting up a space opera plot with several plot elements as yet unexplained (who are the Other Realm guys; why do they recognize the stone and call it a godstone; where's the regular crew of the space station). Creatures on the Loose only has one issue left, but its setting itself up to go out on a high note.
Gunsmoke: "Romeo" 1/22/56
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I hope you all don't mind if I take a Thursday to highlight someone else's work, but this video about the value of Silver Age Superman stories is extremely well-done and deserves to be shared:
A brief bit of comic book history: In G.I. Combat #148 (June-July 1971), writer Bob Kanigher and artist Russ Heath introduced the character of General Norton, who is clearly an expy for real-life General Patton.
It's a good story. The tank ride with dead companions really does hit an eerie vibe. Gus's concern for Rick and his faith in God are handled respectfully. Patton's determination to keep moving forward is historically accurate, while the story moves along at a nice pace. As usual, Sam Glanzman's art is superb.
Patton would make several other appearances in the book (issues 208 and 275), with the General actually getting to see and talk to the ghost of General Stuart in #208.
Why didn't Kanigher originally use Patton back in #148? It's very possible there were legal concerns--Patton had been dead for 25 years by then, but his son was still around and was himself a general who had served in Vietnam. A concern that an appearance by Patton in a comic book might generate a lawsuit may have existed.
So what opened the door? I have no documented proof, but I have a theory. In 1974, Jack Kirby put in a Patton cameo in Our Fighting Forces #148, based on his own encounter with Patton during the war. Kirby, I suspect, just did this without worrying about legal concerns and, as it turns out, there were no legal concerns. No lawsuits came flying at DC Comics.
Was this, then, what convinced Kanigher to drop poor General Norton into Comic Book Limbo and begin using the real General Patton? Kirby did it--got away with it--so Kanigher followed suit. I think it's at least possible. And it would be ironic, considering that Kanigher was always openly critical of Kirby's work.
Of course, the 1970 movie Patton, which helped shape him as an iconic historical figure, might have also eventually helped convince DC legal eagles that using Patton in a story was okay.
That's it for now. Next week, we'll return to the Marvel Universe as one unlikely character is thrown into a sword-and-planet adventure.
APRIL IS "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SNAKES" MONTH!!!!
An intense Tony DeZuniga cover from 1972.
Archie Andrews: "Dinner in a Restaurant" 1949
Mr. Andrews decides to take his wife and Archie out to a nice restaurant for Sunday dinner. What can possibly go wrong?
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Last November, I wrote about a werewolf story by Karl Edward Wagner. I mentioned at the end of that post that it would be interesting to look at another classic werewolf tale--James Blish's "There Shall Be No Darkness." Well, it took me several months, but I finally got around to it.
The story first appeared in the April 1950 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Blish usually stuck to science fiction, as opposed to fantasy. So when he tackled the werewolf trope, he introduced an explanation for the condition that strips it of the supernatural. Lycanthropy, we learn, involves a disease that affects the pineal gland, allowing the person suffering from it to shape change (including changing his clothes) and be unaffected by non-silver weapons. Silver, on the other hand, works as a poison. Wolfsbane activates a strong allergic reaction.
It's an explanation that does work quite well within the story, though it's so far-fetched that the story might as well be treated as a fantasy. That's not a criticism, by the way. The "rational" veneer does give the story a unique feel and works quite well. Blish opted to come up with a rational explanation for something that is inherently irrational and did as well as anyone could.
The story is set in then-modern day, when an artist named Paul Foote realizes a fellow guest at a house party is in fact a werewolf. He soon turns out to be correct and soon after manages to chase the werewolf off by wielding a silver candlestick.
A doctor also staying at the house backs up Foote's claim that a werewolf exists. This, along with tracks in the snow, quickly does away with initial skepticism. Silver is melted down and molded into bullets and the party goes a-hunting.
Stopping a werewolf is not that simple, though. He escapes this initial attempt to get him and--well, what happens to a normal human who is bitten by a werewolf? The situation quickly grows more complicated.
I don't want to give more details because Blish does an excellent job of building suspense and tossing in a few plot twists. "There Shall Be No Darkness" is a great werewolf tale and well worth tracking down to read.
You can read it online HERE.
Captain America and The Falcon #152 (August 1972) has Gerry Conway (writer) and Sal Buscema (artist) bringing their A-game to finish up the Scorpion/Hyde storyline.
It tosses us right into the action with Falcon tracking down the villains by also tracking down the chemicals Mr. Hyde needs to maintain his super strength. He intercepts a shipment, finds out who the boss of the operation is, then goes to see that boss.
It is, by the way, the introduction of the crime boss Morgan, who will be a thorn in Falcon's side in the future.
Anyway, this allows Falcon and Cap to raid the bad guys' hideout, where they have been holding Sharon Carter prisoner. Cap has to go AWOL while on patrol as a cop, but he's been tense and sleepless since Sharon was kidnapped and NEEDS to do this.
What follows is one of Buscema's best ever fight scenes--six pages of kinetic, viceral action as Cap trades blows with Scorpion and Hyde.
Wait... while CAP trades blows? Where's Falcon?
This issue is a great example of how fictional logic sometimes SHOULD differ from real-life logic. Sam realizes that Cap is running on fumes, but also that he does indeed need the cathartic effect of beating the villains on his own. He needs to regain a feeling of control after feeling he failed Sharon when he didn't prevent her kidnapping. He's confident that Cap will show both physical AND emotional strength when he needs to do so. This is what happens. Skill, timing and an unyielding will make the difference. When Cap finishes off Hyde with a punch to the face, its one of the most satisfying conclusions to a comic book fight ever put down on a page.
Sam's decision doesn't make real-life sense. In real life, no responsible person in a dangerous profession would sit back and watch while his partner did something life threatening without helping. Yes, Cap needed the emotional release, but if he lost, he would have been dead. A cop or soldier would have backed up his partner without hesitation and worried about emotion crises afterwards.
But, as I said, in the world of fiction and superheroes, sometimes the rules are a little different. The writing and characters still have to be strong enough for us to empathize and identify with the protagonists, but sometimes--to hit an important character beat--the "right thing to do" becomes different from what it would be in reality.
It's an example of superhero fiction bending realism to hit a necessary psychological or mythic beat.
There's a few other subplots going on in the story. Nick's jealousy that made him kick Cap out of SHIELD is given a page or two--a motivation I always thought of as out-of-character for the always professional spy/soldier. There's the beginning of a subplot involving a supporting character who works with Steve in the police department. But the Scorpion/Hyde fight is the heart of this issue and, gee whiz, it is cool.
Next week, General Patton needs fuel and its up to the Haunted Tank to get it.
The Six-Shooter: "The Capure of Stacy Gault" 11/8/53
People are in a panic when outlaw Stacy Gault rides into town. Britt, though, has some doubts about whether the stranger really is Gault.
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So I watch the 1973 movie The Neptune Factor on YouTube and I kind of like it. So I decide to do a blog post about it, alerting my thousands of devoted readers (don't disillusion me!) to the movie's existance.
Except now that I'm writing about it, the flaws in the movie are starting to become more apparent. This doesn't retroactively prevent me from having enjoyed watching the movie, but the flaws are real.
The movie is about an undersea lab, with three men aboard, that's knocked into a deep trench by an undersea earthquake. An experimental sub--the Neptune--is sent down to see if the lab is still intact and the crew rescued.
The sub is cool and the underwater photography is quite good. Also, I like the cast, especially Ernest Borgnine as a diver and Yvette Mimieux (who played Weena in George Pal's The Time Machine) as a scientist. Ben Gazzara (an actor I normally like) puts on a very unconvincing Southern accent as the sub's designer/pilot, but he's still good in the role.
When the sub gets close to the remains of the lab, the crew discovers the deep waters are infested with huge sealife. Rescuing the crew, who are rapidly running out of air, means running a gauntlet of giant moray eels.
This is all pretty cool. The problems with the movie are:
1. Why is there sunlight this deep?
2. How can the divers so casually leave/enter the sub this deep without worrying about water pressure?
3. The "giant" fish are regular fish shot in extreme closeup without any effort to give them a sense of scale.
These problems were obvious when I watched it and more obvious now that I'm writing about it.
But, gosh darn it, I like the sub. And I like Ernest Borgnine. I watched this whole movie and I don't regret it.
I've read of a Sean Connery rule--a rule that states if Connery was in it, the movie is worth watching no matter what its quality is otherwise. Should there be an Ernest Borgnine corollary to this rule?
Decide for yourself. Here's the movie:
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