Friday's Favorite OTR

"Library Book" Suspense 9/20/45


Myrna Loy hits not one--but two--librarian stereotypes in this episode. She's the prim & prudish Old Maid Librarian. But, when she takes her glasses off, she's the Hot Librarian.

She's also a lot of fun, in a silly but well-constructed mystery about a librarian who realizes the missing pages from a book were used to construct a ransom note. When she can't get the cops to believe her, she investigates on her own. That, of course, lands her in hot water.


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My Kindle, a Barbarian, and an Ancient Evil

One of the nice things about owning a Kindle is the tons of pulp-era fiction available at little or no cost. It means I get to regularly re-visit my favorite stories or read stuff I've never run across before. Sometimes, it means I finally get to catch up on reading a story by a favorite author that I've managed to miss in the past.

That just happened with Robert E Howard's "Valley of the Worm." It's actually a fairly well-known story among his fans, so I'm a little embarrassed that I've never read it before. But I finally have and it's a really good one. It's about a prehistoric barbarian and his battle with a huge and immortal monster.  There is a truly epic battle at the tale's climax.

When Howard was at his best, his command of the English language and his ability to find just the right words to carry a story along was almost without peer in the pulp world. This story is indeed one of his best and works quite well as both an adventure tale and a horror tale. H.P. Lovecraft's influence on Howard is really apparent here. In fact, though I don't believe the story was intended to be part of Lovecraft's Cthulu cycle, it could easily be included in it.

For some edge-of-your-seat scares and great action, read the story for yourself:

VALLEY OF THE WORMS

History of the Marvel Universe: January 1966, part 1

FANTASTIC FOUR #46

There’s a typically well-choreographed Kirby fight scene as the FF takes on Black Bolt and some of the other Inhumans. Expertly wrapped up in this fight is dialogue that imparts information to us and provides us with good characterization. The only note that rings false in all this is Crystal and Johnny (who have only briefly glimpsed each other at this point) already obviously falling in love.

But this is easily forgivable in a comic book that is such a pleasure to both read and to simply look at. By the time the issue ends, the following things have happened.

1) We learn the scaly Inhuman Triton can only breathe in water, but he’s captured by the mysterious Seeker anyways.
2) We learn the Seeker is an Inhuman whose job it is capture wayward Inhumans and return them to the Great Refuge.
3) We learn the Seeker can really screw up sometimes, such as when he mistakes the sleeping Dragon Man for a big Inhuman.
4) We (and the FF) learn that the Inhumans are a species that developed earlier than man and perfected genetic engineering used to give themselves cool powers. They live isolated from us violent humans in a place called The Great Refuge.
5) We see Black Bolt and his followers get teleported away by Lockjaw.
6) Not long after that, Dragon Man gets loose and goes on a rampage through New York City.

Gee whiz, this is great stuff. And the momentum will continue to build as, over the next few issues, the Inhuman story arc is temporarily resolved and our heroes meet the Silver Surfer and Galactus.

SPIDER MAN #32

And talk about great stuff!!! Aunt May is sick and seems doomed. Well, that by itself is hardly new, but on this occasion, she’s sick because she’s somehow absorbed some radiation. Peter realizes it must have come from his blood when he was the donor for a transfusion.

As Spider Man, he recruits Dr. Curt Connors (formally the Lizard) to help. Connors now lives in New York and he whips up a cure for Aunt May—but he needs a particular rare isotope to activate it.

Of course, the isotope has been stolen by the Master Planner’s men. The Master Planner, by the way, turns out to be Dr. Octopus, who has been having his men steal scientific stuff to experiment with the idea of giving himself extra powers.

Spidey literally goes on a rampage. It’s a defining Spider Man moment—determined to save Aunt May, he gives up cracking wise and making jokes. Instead, he starts beating the snot out of every crook he can track down, trying to find out where the Master Planner is. It’s a character trait that pops up again from time to time throughout his career—threaten Peter’s family or friends and you are in for a world of hurt.

Anyway, Ock is using an underwater base in the East River. The one small weak point in an otherwise superb story is that Spidey pretty much just accidentally stumbles over a hidden sewer entrance to the base, making his frantic efforts up until then almost beside the point.

He goes one-on-one against Doc Ock, who is shocked and awed by Spidey’s anger. But Peter actually puts up too good a fight, bringing tons of debris down on top of him, trapping him just out of reach of the serum he needs while the roof keeping out the river starts to give way.

AVENGERS #24

The Avengers are still in the far future, trying to help Princess Ravonna defend her kingdom against Kang’s army. There’s one heck of a last stand, but the heroes are all captured and Ravonna’s kingdom is taken by the conqueror.

But Kang, who is still in love with the Princess, refuses to execute her. That ticks off his military commanders, who decide the boss is showing weakness. They revolt and Kang is forced to turn to the Avengers for help. It all ends with Kang defeating his own men, but Ravonna getting zapped and perhaps killed with a ray gun. The Avengers are sent back in time to present day before they find out if the poor girl lives.

This was an entertaining and fast-paced story, set up to highlight the realization by the three younger heroes that Captain America is the backbone of the team. It's a lesson Hawkeye will need a few more issues to really learn, though.

That’s it for now. Next week, we’ll look at Dr. Strange, Nick Fury, the X-Mena and Daredevil.

A to Z Comic and Pulp Cover list

V is for:

THE VISION

and

VARIETY DETECTIVE MAGAZINE

 

Friday's Favorite OTR

Cloak and Dagger: “Recommendation from Rommel” 8/6/50


An OSS agent posing as a chocolate salesman in Milan has an unplanned encounter with Field Marshal Rommel. Rommel turns out to like him.

For an American spy, this is both scary and advantageous. As is typical of this excellent story, the story is expertly told. There’s a really fun twist at the end involving a letter of recommendation written by Rommel that adds an element of humor to this normally very tense show.

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I'm being haunted by the ghost of Vic Perrin!!!

I am. Really.

Not long ago, I watched an episode of the original Mission: Impossible TV series. Jim Phelps and his IM team were convincing the bad guy that they could produce a mechanical double of a country's ruler, all while secretly rescuing someone else and rigging the situation to expose the bad guy's evil machinations.

I couldn't quite place one of the actors playing a supporting role in the episode. When I got the the credits, there it was: Vic Perrin.

I should have recognized him. Perrin was an excellent character actor. He's best remembered now for doing the opening narration for the original Outer Limits TV series. But he also did tons of Old Time Radio and a lot of TV animation voice over work. And he guest-starred on countless TV episodes

So it's not that unusual for him to pop up in a randomly chosen Mission: Impossible episode. But then--THE VERY NEXT DAY--I had some time to kill before heading to the comic shop to play in a game tournament. I watched a Twilight Zone episode. Vic Perrin was in it, playing one of the Martians that put Roddy McDowell in a zoo.

Then I watch an episode of Wanted: Dead or Alive, the TV Western that starred a very young Steve McQueen. (I had recently picked up a season set real cheap from the discount bin at Wal Mart.) And who was the villain? Vic Perrin!!!!

I don't know why, but I'm apparently being haunted by the ghost of Vic Perrin, who is subtly guiding my DVD choices so that I watch something he appeared in!!!

History of the Marvel Universe: December 1965, part 3

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #123

Thor continues to be super-awesome in storytelling, themes and visuals. Stan and Jack’s work here and on Fantastic Four will (for the next several years) be consistently incredible.

Thor takes reporter Harris Hobbes to Asgard, where he finds Loki and the Absorbing Man apparently about to take down Odin himself. But the ruler of Asgard surrenders his scepter rather than see Asgard torn apart by a massive fight.

It’s just a trick, of course. Loki and Crusher immediately start to argue over who gets the scepter—then Odin casually sends them zipping away into space, permanently exiled into the interstellar vastness.

Odin really shines in this issue. He’s haughty and proud, but has the chops to back this up with decisive action. In previous issues, he sometimes had moments that seemed less than “all-wise.” But now he’s portrayed exactly as he should be--powerful and decisive.

By the way, Harris Hobbs’ camera breaks, Odin kicks him out of Asgard before he can make a pencil sketch and he gets his memory wiped anyway. So he pretty much has the suckiest day ever and (if I remember correctly) pretty much disappears from Thor’s continuity anyways.

In the meantime, a witch doctor finds the Norn stone Thor dropped three issues ago. This gives him the power to single-handedly fight off some Communist troops. That’s a good thing—but his decision to conquer the world is a bad thing. Thor will very soon have some work to do.

The Tales of Asgard back up as the ship and crew getting past a huge dragon after Balder destroys it with a magic trumpet blast. That brief description, though, doesn’t do the short story justice. Jack Kirby’s art makes every panel look breathtaking.

TALES TO ASTONISH #74

In the Sub Mariner story, Stan Lee once again manages to squeeze in a boat-load of action into a relatively few pages. The scene switches back and forth between Namor as he fights hordes of Faceless Ones to save Dorma; Krang has he seals himself up in Atlantis’ palace and sics a robot tank on the rebelling citizens; and an old guy who volunteers to find Namor and tell him he’s wanted back home (whether he finds Neptune’s Trident or not). Adam Austin’s art continues to be eye-catching and dynamic. It ends in an appropriately cliff-hanger fashion with Namor holding an unconscious Dorma as the Faceless Ones regroup to attack him anew.


While Namor is still having adventures deep undersea, the Hulk is still on the Moon, fighting the alien creature that’s also after the Watcher’s Ultimate Machine. (One of the reasons I love doing these reviews is that I get to write sentences like that.)

The Watcher doesn’t want his house trashed, so he teleports the two combatants to a remote location (it’s never made clear where—it doesn’t seem to be on the Moon.) What follows is a pretty nifty fight, with the Hulk coming out on top. So the Watcher zaps Hulk back to his home and lets him take the clear sphere identified as the Ultimate Machine. The Leader then zaps the Hulk home.

There was an interesting bit of characterization when all this was going on. The Hulk realizes that even though he now has Banner’s brain, his driving emotions and desire to fight are the Hulk’s. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always wondered how much of the Hulk’s constant evolution was planned by Stan Lee and how much he just made up as he went along. I think maybe Stan was still experimenting with the character, trying to find the right Jekyll/Hyde balance in personality and rules of transformation that made for the best dramatic fit.

Anyway, back on Earth, the Leader snatches the Ultimate Machine from the Hulk and uses it to download all the knowledge of the universe into his own mind. This proves to be too much for him and he falls over dead. Of course, he’s not actually dead—he’ll be back soon enough as a regularly appearing villain in the Marvel Universe. But for now, the Hulk is back on Earth and free from his arch enemy.

TALES OF SUSPENSE #72

A playgirl jilted by Tony hires the Mad Thinker to find out who Iron Man really is as part of her plan to get revenge. It’s a silly motivation, but it leads to some pretty good action scenes. The Thinker sends his android to kidnap Tony, intending to force Iron Man’s identity from his “boss.” Tony manages to escape long enough to get his armor on and manages to outfight the android, blow up the Thinker’s lab and take the villain to prison. The playgirl has to walk miles to get home. Not much of a punishment after funding kidnapping, but boy were her feet sore.

Artist Don Heck does a pretty nice job on the fight scene. A new and interesting sub-plot in which Senator Byrd wants to force Tony into revealing Iron Man’s identity (in the interest of national security) begins in this issue as well.

In the next issue, Gene Colon will begin doing the art for Iron Man, staying on the book for a couple of years and really amping up the stories visually. Colon never drew an uninteresting panel of comic art in his life and he’ll be giving Shellhead a really dynamic look.

Captain America, it turns out, has been recounting all the World War II stories we’ve been reading to his fellow Avengers. He has one more war-time memory—that of beating the Red Skull a final time. Just before the Skull’s apparent death, the villain claims that in exactly 20 years “The Sleepers will awake!”

Well, it has been 20 years, hasn’t it? And the Sleepers do awake. They’re giant Nazi robots that have been buried while awaiting activation—Kirby gives them a clunky, retro design that seems appropriate for the time period in which they were built.

The first one pops up in Germany. Cap fights it, but it pretty much just brushes past him, intent on rendezvousing with the other two Sleepers.


That’s it for now. Next week, we enter 1966 as the FF try to find out what’s up with the Inhumans; Spider Man tries to find out who’s running the high-tech thieves’ gang; the Avengers continue to battle Kang in the far future, while the Hulk does some time traveling of his own; Nick Fury blows a bunch of stuff up; Dr. Strange goes one-on-one against Dormammu; Daredevil fights pirates AND dinosaurs (how cool is that?); the X-Men and Captain America both fight giant robots; Thor goes after the lost Norn Stone; Namor returns to Atlantis; and Iron Man confronts an old enemy to save an old friend.

It was a good time to be a comic book fan. And you could have bought every single one of these comics for a total of $1.08, plus maybe sales tax. $1.08 for a months’ worth of time travel, pirates, dinosaurs, giant robots, battles both in the ocean and on the Moon, and lots of superheroes. I really need to get to work on my time machine.

A to Z Comic and Pulp Cover list

U is for:

UNCLE SCROOGE

and

UNDER FIRE MAGAZINE

Friday's Favorite OTR

The Lone Ranger: “Last Coach West” 8/22/45


Gee whiz, someone on The Lone Ranger writing staff got just a little bit sneaky. This episode is literally a remake of the classic 1939 Western Stagecoach.

Well, maybe not so sneaky. Stagecoach is based on a short story by Ernest Haycox titled “The Stage to Lordsburg.” I suppose that WXYZ in Detroit (where The Lone Ranger was produced) might have acquired the rights to that story.

Because there’s no question that it is indeed the same story—a stagecoach is caught in a remote location by Apaches on the warpath. The people riding the coach are exactly the same character templates as those in the movie (with a couple of them subtracted to help trim the story into a 30-minute time slot). They interact with one another in pretty much the same way their film counterparts did. Of course, in this instance, they are also joined by the Lone Ranger. And it’s the Ranger (rather than the character played by John Wayne in the movie) who performs the dangerous feat of jumping off the stage onto the horses to control them after the reins are dropped.

If I had to guess, I would guess against extra money being spent to buy the rights to Haycox’s story. I think the writers really were being a little sneaky. But what the hey. We kinda sorta get a John Wayne/Lone Ranger team-up. How cool is that?

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From the Bonhomme Richard to Russia

A little while back, I posted THIS about pulp stories that had Cossack heroes.The post is primarily about Khilt the Cossack, an extraordinarily cool hero from a series of adventure stories by Harold Lamb, published back int the 1910s & 1920s.


Lamb, though, apparently loved Cossacks. In 1924, he used one named Ivak in a story titled "Forward." Set in the late 19th Century, it's about Ivak escorting an American naval officer from Petersburg in his journey to take command of the Russian fleet. But certain members of Catherine the Great's court--acting out of political ambition and jealousy--are determined to make sure the American never reaches his duty station.

The American? Well, if you haven't guessed it from the title of this post, then you oughta be embarrassed. It is, of course, John Paul Jones. It was Jones, remember, who was captain of the Bonhomme Richard when it took on the British warship Serapis in in 1779. It was Jones who replied "Sir, I have not yet begun to fight" when asked if he would surrender his badly damaged ship. Jones fought on and captured the Serapis, moving his surviving crew aboard just before the Bonhomme Richard sank from under him.

Jones is just as cool in Lamb's story. With the clever and skilled Ivak at his side, he overcomes enemies and hacks past danger. The only Russian word he learns is "Forward!" But that's pretty much all Ivak needs to hear anyways.

Also in 1924, Lamb published "The Sword of Honor," in which Jones has taken command of the Russian fleet and goes up against the ships of the Ottoman Empire. The point-of-view character this time is Pierre, a French sailor who had been aboard the Bonhomme Richard and was eager to serve alongside Jones once again. Pierre has more than his share of adventure just getting to Jones, but then is with the Admiral as Jones deals with back-stabbing and cowardly political enemies and takes on the Turks at the same time. There's a massive fleet-vs-fleet engagement and a mission to capture a Turkish ship from under the guns of a fortress.

Both stories are action-packed adventures that manage squeeze in a total of three heroes (Ivak, Pierre and Jones) who have been thoroughly dipped in awesome sauce.

These stories have been reprinted in Swords from the Sea, an anthology of sea-going adventures by Lamb. All the stories are fun, but the two featuring John Paul Jones are particularly enjoyable. John Paul Jones is even cooler than keel boats and giant ants.*







*see my last two Thursday posts to make sense of that last sentence.