Now available for the Nook

Another of my ebooks is now available for the Nook as well as the Kindle:

The Character of God and the Route to Salvation

Friday's Favorite OTR

Jeff Regan: “The Lady with Too Much Hair” 11/6/48

Regan’s job is to spot a red-headed guy coming out of a house in order to recognize him later on if needed, then take a long-lost daughter out to dinner and watch out for her.  He’s not entirely sure what it's all about and it becomes even more confusing when the red-head is murdered during his dinner date.

What follows is an entertainingly convoluted story with a couple of neat twists at the end.

Click HERE to listen or download.

The Devil's Horns

During the 1920s and 1930s, corrupt towns run by dishonest politicians and mobsters were as much a problem in the pulp magazine universe as they were in real life. In fact, several of the best known heroes of the era each had the job of cleaning up such a town.

Dashiell Hammett’s unnamed operative from the Continental Detective Agency was one. In what is arguably the best crime novel of the 1920s (Red Harvest), the Continental Op cleans up a dirty town by turning the various mobs there against each other—feeding them partial information, various half-truths and outright lies until the bullets began to fly and the mobsters began to fall.

 If we jump ahead to 1934, we find Simon Templar (aka The Saint) being offered one million dollars to clean up the New York City mobs. Simon takes the job, then openly challenges the mobsters by assassinating one of them. He follows this up by stealing a small fortune in bribe money from a judge who’s on the take and continues to cause trouble in a number of other ways while dodging hitmen. He works his way up the mob’s chain of command, looking to identify their secret boss and bring the whole organization down. (The Saint in New York.)

In 1939, Richard Benson (aka the Avenger) takes on the job of cleaning up Ashton City. Interestingly, he’s brought to the city by Oliver Groman, the political boss who has been running the rackets in the town for decades. Groman is getting old and suffering from the effects of a stroke. He’s reformed because of this and wants to make up for his old sins.

And if you are going to call in someone to clean up a corrupt town, there are few choices better than the Avenger. Benson is a unique pulp hero even among the gazillion or so vigilantes who inhabited the pulp magazines. A brilliant inventor, scientist and explorer, he suffered an emotional shock when his wife and daughter were murdered. This shock turned his face and hair a deathly white, killing the nerves so that he is perpetually expressionless. But this also means that the skin of his face can be molded into different shapes. With the help of wigs and make-up, this makes Benson a master of disguise.

He uses his wealth to form Justice, Inc and builds up a small group of loyal followers (most of whom had also lost people to criminal violence). Smitty is a huge and incredibly strong man who doesn’t look very smart, but is in fact a brilliant electrical engineer. Mac is one of the world’s foremost chemists as well as a tenacious hand-to-hand fighter. Nellie Gray is small and petite, but also a judo expert. Josh and Rosabel Newton are articulate, intelligent and brave—but use the fact that they are black to play off the racism of the time and get the bad guys to consistently underestimate them.

The Avenger first appeared on the newsstands in 1939 and ran a couple of dozen issues before the magazine was cancelled.  The hero appeared in a few short stories as back-up features in other magazines for a short time after that. So Benson didn’t find the same commercial success as the Shadow or Doc Savage (though he was, in fact, a deliberate amalgam of those two characters), but his adventures were strongly plotted tales of action and mystery. They were written by pulp veteran Paul Ernst, using the pen name Kenneth Robeson--the same pen name used for the Doc Savage stories, leaving the false impression that the adventures of both heroes were recorded by the same guy.

In The Devil’s Horns (December 1939), Benson is called to Ashton City by Oliver Groman to clean up the town. Almost immediately, a trio of thugs try to gun him down. This does work out well for the thugs.

Benson begins to investigate. The agents of Justice, Inc are given various assignments to gather information. It’s soon learned that a group of five men are currently running the rackets. Four of them are at least tentatively identified, but the identity of the fifth—the boss of the group—is unknown.

In the meantime, Smitty is framed for murder, Nellie and Rosabel are kidnapped by mobsters and Mac is nearly offed by a mob gunman. But the agents stick tenaciously to their jobs and Benson begins to collate the various clues. These clues include the words “devil’s horns,” written in blood by a dying man. That strange phrase turns out to be the most vital clue of all.

The mini-adventures of Benson’s agents are, in fact, one of the strengths of the Avenger novels. Though Benson is the main protagonist, writer Paul Ernst never forgets that the other members of Justice, Inc. are pretty cool in their own rights. He presents them as capable, brave and intelligent—doing their share to bring the bad guys down.

The mystery elements of the story progress logically, leading up to a nifty twist at the end. And the action scenes—most notably a sequence in which Mac and Smitty rescue the two girls from a mob-controlled nightclub—are a lot of fun; especially when Smitty rips a reinforced door off its hinges and uses it as a shield against bullets. Eveything culminates in a deserted warehouse, where the bad guys have Benson, Smitty and Mac trapped in a room about to be pumped full of poison gas.  But Benson, as usually, is two or three steps ahead of the villains.

The Devil’s Horns is not the true classic that Red Harvest is; and The Saint in New York is a bit more fun; but it’s a solidly entertaining yarn nonetheless.

So if you ever need to clean up a corrupt town, see if you can’t hire the Continental Detective Agency and ask for… oh, heck, Hammett never does tell us his name, does he?  Well, then you can hire the Saint---if you have a spare million dollars lying around.

If that exceeds your town-cleaning budget, then give Richard Benson a call. He’ll do the job for free and, by golly, he’ll do it well. 

JOR-EL WAS A MEAN DADDY!

Well, he wasn’t really. Desperate to complete the escape rocket before Krypton explodes, he needs a live subject to test a prototype. Baby Kal-el’s puppy Krypto was the only animal available. So I guess we have to cut him a break, but isn’t that image of Kal-el sobbing when his puppy is taken away downright heartbreaking?

Anyway, in Adventure Comics #210 (March 1955),Krypto’s rocket is knocked into deep space by a meteor and eventually ends up on Earth. (In fact, he lands near Smallville. What are the odds of that happening?)

 Krypto’s grown into a full-sized dog by then, but (despite a measure of super-intelligence) his dog-like tendencies are soon causing Superboy no end of trouble.

That pretty much defines the story—Krypto causes trouble and Superboy has to fix things. Otto Binder was the perfect writer for this—his quirky sense of humor is what makes this story work.

It ends with Krypto flying off into space to romp around the “backyard” of the universe.

But the idea of a super-powered dog will turn out to be too cool to ignore. Krypto will show up on Earth again from time to time, becoming a founding member of the Legion of Super Pets and often flying through the time barrier to spend time in the 30^th Century.

I don’t care how silly it is—Krypto is a fantastic idea and one of my favorite additions to Superman’s mythology. I know the Super Pets tip the Suspension of Disbelief scales for some readers, but I just love the idea.  Who wouldn’t want a loyal dog with heat vision? Okay, yes, his tendency to rip planes out of the air when he’s feeling playful could be construed as a serious problem, but any pet owner knows you have to take the occasional bad with the good if you own a pet that loves you.

New book on Superman

There's a new book out on the history of Superman. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but based on this excellent interview with the author, it sounds informative and a lot of fun.

FROM THE BOOKSHELF INTERVIEW

Cover Cavalcade

If I had to pick a favorite cover artist from the Golden Age of paperbacks, it might very well be Roy Krenkel. His work is always both action-oriented and very atmospheric.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Sherlock Holmes: "The Remarkable Affair of the Pointless Robbery" 5/5/47

Here's a story set during Holmes' retirement, when he was keeping bees in the country just before World War I. But there is no rest for the World's Greatest Detective. While Watson is visiting, there's a robbery attempt at a house that doesn't contain any valuables.

But Holmes soon deduces the reason for the robbery--and the involvement of an old enemy.

It's a good, solid story. Several elements make it noteworthy. A scene in which Watson is distracted from the business at hand by a picture of a bathing beauty is hilareous. And Holmes' ruthless method of dealing with the villain near the climax is striking but still completely in character.

Click HERE to listen or download.

REBELS, ALIENS AND FIGURING OUT WHO THE GOOD GUY IS

Poul Anderson is probably my favorite writer of hard science fiction (he was equally adept at fantasy, by the way) and his Technic Civilization future history is well-constructed and used as the basis for a admirable variety of adventure stories.

Take The Rebel Worlds (1969), for instance, which recounts a chronologically early adventure of Dominic Flandry, an Intelligence officer serving a vast interstellar empire.

Anderson created Flandry in 1951, intending him to be a science fiction analogue to Leslie Charteris’ Simon Templar. (He’s also been justifiably compared to James Bond, though he was created two years before 007 first appeared in Casino Royale.)

He’s a cynical womanizer willing to use ruthless and often unethical methods to get his job done, but he turns out to be the good guy anyways. Flandry recognizes that the Empire is decaying. He knows that when it falls, a violent Dark Age will inflict itself on literally thousands of inhabited worlds. So he does what he can—no matter what that might be—to stave off the inevitable Long Night.

In The Rebel Worlds, the sadistic and power hungry governor of a remote sector is about to be reported by his top general. So he has the general—and the general’s beautiful wife—arrested. The general’s loyal officers spring him from the slammer and declare him Emperor. He has no choice but to go along—he certainly can’t allow a decadent Emperor to continue to rule—not while that Emperor allows swine like the governor to abuse power, murdering and enslaving to line his own pockets.

But there’s no chance to rescue his wife, who remains a personal prisoner of the governor.

Flandry is given command of a small warship and an independent commission to investigate and perhaps head off what would be a devastating civil war. He uses a broad interpretation of his orders to sneak Kathryn—the general’s wife—away from the governor. He has a half-formed plan to use her to negotiate with the rebels, but things go awry when his ship is shot down and he crashes on a rebel-held world.

But Flandry might just have a plan to turn certain defeat into victory. If only this plan wasn’t hindered by the fact that he was falling in love with Kathryn.

Flandry is in an interesting quandary. He loathes the governor because of his mistreatment (to phrase it far too mildly) of Kathryn and won’t turn her back over to him no matter what. He sympathizes with the motives of the rebels, but knows that a civil war would bring the Empire down no matter who won. If Kathryn’s husband won the throne and ruled well, he’ll still have established a precedent for any other discontented general to do the same thing. That would be the end of stability and the beginning of the Long Night. So, no matter what, the rebels have to be stopped.

It all allows for some powerfully emotional character moments woven expertly into the action-adventure plot. I especially like the character of Kathryn, who is intelligent, capable and completely loyal to her husband even when presented with some severe temptations to act otherwise.

Poul Anderson had a talent for creating self-consistent alien worlds—inhabited by species whose biology and culture made sense in context to that world. Often, his stories would center around the human protagonists deducing some aspect of the alien culture or psychology in order to complete their mission or save themselves from danger. “The Man Who Counts” (1958—titled War of the Wing-Men in later printings) is perhaps my favorite example of this.

In The Rebel Worlds, Anderson comes up with an interesting race that inhabits the planet on which Flandry and is crew is stranded. Each “individual” in this race is actually three separate species—each one of limited intelligence alone, but who become a tool-using intelligent being when symbiotically joined together.  In fact, the different components can join up in different combinations, making a variety of “individual” persons with a wide-range of memories and skills.

This time, the aliens are mostly a side-issue rather than the main focus of the story. But all the same, Flandry might just be able to make use of this unique race as part of a clever plan to stop the rebellion without sacrificing the woman he loves.

The Rebel Worlds is enjoyable and intelligent science fiction; a book that presents a hard-science setting without sacrificing very human characterizations. Anderson’s view of history was that it is cyclical—that civilizations rise and give stability and safety for a time, then fall into chaos until something else rises up to take its place. It’s a view that his Technic future history is very much built upon and he used this premise to construct some truly engrossing stories. 

History of the Marvel Universe: August 1970

FANTASTIC FOUR #101

Last time, I mentioned that I thought Jack Kirby’s work at Marvel remained strong right up until he left. I still think that’s true, but everybody misses the mark a little from time-to-time. In this issue, the FF goes up against the Mob (well, the Maggia--but that’s pretty much what the Mob’s called in the Marvel Universe).

And, heck, when you usually fight madmen in power armor, shape-changing aliens, indestructible androids and killer insect-men from an anti-matter dimension, then a legbreaker with a tommy gun really doesn’t seem to be much of a threat. The main problem with this story is that the bad guys get a lot closer to taking out the FF than they ever should.

All the same, it’s still an enjoyable story. The Maggia has bought the Baxter Building and started proceedings to evict the Fantastic Four, planning to snatch up all of Reed’s inventions afterwards (why Reed wouldn’t just relocate his stuff is not adequately dealt with).  But an overeager Maggia operative amps up the violence against our heroes too quickly. Using a few secret weapons, the operative and his thugs nearly take out the FF, but in the end, they lose.

Yes, I know the image is sideways! For some reason, I can't fix it--so just go with it.

Jack makes it all look cool and the script gives both Sue and Crystal some great action moments. This is something that had become increasingly frequent in Marvel Comics as time went by. In the early 1960s, Stan Lee had often been reluctant to allow the female superheroes to really mix it up in fights against the villains. But some good character development and changing social mores had apparently made him more open to this. By 1970, the ladies of the Marvel Universe were often kicking butt and taking names.

So it’s not a bad one-shot story. I guess it falls under the same category that other merely average Fantastic Four stories end up in: When you are surrounded by greatness, being “pretty good” just doesn’t seem that impressive.

SPIDER MAN #87

This is a classic issue. And what’s interesting about its status as a classic is that it has no villain and very little action. Actually, this might be yet another case where a new reader—unfamiliar with the Spider Man mythos—might be a bit bored. But for those who had been following along with Peter for awhile, it’s an issue filled with sharp characterizations that really move things along. Despite the lack of traditional action, there’s no pacing problems here. Everything stays interesting from start to finish.

Peter’s powers keep fading as he also grows feverish. Deciding he’s lost his powers and can no longer be Spider Man, he decides to come clean with Gwen.

But having an important discussion with the woman you love while half-delirious with fever is never a good idea. If any of my readers are getting ready to reveal their secret identities to their wives/girlfriends, remember these important bits of advice:

a)      Don’t do it while you are incapable of coherent thought due to illness, and

b)      Don’t do it while your gal’s dad and other innocent bystanders are listening.

Peter’s announcement leaves everyone confuses. Was he telling the truth? Has he taken a trip to Crazy Town? What makes it even more legitimately confusing for everyone is an incident Harry remembers hearing about: Way back in Spider Man #12, Spider Man had been caught and publically unmasked by Doctor Octopus. But no one really believed Peter was Spider Man; they thought he was posing as Spidey to get close enough to take pictures. Does that mean Peter is pulling something similar now?

This group confusion is handled well and everyone involved stays in character. Gwen gets a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when she announces she’s sticking by Peter no matter what.

It’s too bad Pete isn’t around to hear that. Growing weaker, he puts his costume back on and stumbles into a hospital just before he faints. A doctor wins the Coolest One-Shot Character of 1970 Award by treating Spidey without taking off his mask. And it turns out that all Peter had was a really bad case of the flu, which he shakes off via Spider Strength once he gets a few hours rest.

As soon as he’s out of the hospital, he contacts Hobie Brown (aka the Prowler) and cashes in a big favor. (Peter asking Hobie for a favor while wearing a web mask because he has to give Hobie his Spidey suit is a fun image.)

Soon, Peter is back at Gwen’s house, explaining that he was sick and delirious. Hobie—posing as Spider Man—puts in an appearance, confirming that he and Peter are partners who split the take on Peter’s photos. Everybody (possibly excepting Captain Stacy) buys into this.

I’ve always been a little torn between thinking this ending to the story was a little contrived or if it’s a plan that was just audacious enough to work. Reading this issue again with an eye towards writing about it has pushed me firmly over into the “audacious” camp. The incident—in addition to playing off something left over from Hobie’s appearance a few issues back—fits into the feel of the comic book as a whole. It really does come across as something that might just fool even very smart people.

That’s it for August. Next week, we return to the Weisinger-era Superman Universe to discover that Jor-el was actually a mean daddy.  Then, in September 1970, the Fantastic Four will borrow a villain from the X-Men for Jack Kirby’s swan song, while Spider Man will fight yet another rematch against his most deadly enemy.

The latest addition to my YouTube channel

Some day--SOME DAY--I'll get through 4 minutes of narration without stumbling over a sentence.