Friday's Favorite OTR

The Lone Ranger: "Candlelight" 6/16/44

The Ranger tries to complete the apparently simple task of reuniting an elderly couple with the son they thought was killed during the Civil War. But this task is complicated by accusations of wartime treachery, kidnapping and--perhaps--murder.

This is another episode that plays a little fast and loose with the Ranger's timeline. It's set just five years after the war ends, but the Ranger's teen-aged nephew Dan (who was a baby when his dad was killed in a post-Civil War ambush) plays a part in the tale. Dan sure grows up awful fast.

I like coherent continuity in my fictional universes, but this sort of timeline compression never bothered me. The Ranger is meant to be a legendary figure, so popping him down in whatever Old West setting is best for a particular story is fine by me. That seems to be well within the masked man's abilities. Heck, this episode isn't even the most egregious example of this.

Click HERE to listen or download.

If anyone can afford a ghost writer, it'd be Tony Stark

For most of their existence, Superheroes were largely confined to the pages of comic books and newspaper strips. But there were also cartoons, radio shows, movie serials and eventually feature films & television.

And there have been prose novels. The first of these would have been George Lowther’s 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman, which was also the first Superman story credited to a writer other than Jerry Siegel.

But prose novels based on comic book superheroes remained a very rare thing. The dam began to break, though, in 1978, when Elliot Maggin wrote The Last Son of Krypton, a novel I’ve written about before.

That same year, Marvel Comics started to get into the act as well with the “Marvel Novel Series.” Beginning that year, there were 11 novels (well, 10 novels and one short story anthology) published that featured Marvel characters such as Spider Man, Captain America, Hulk, Dr. Strange and the Avengers. Most of these were pretty good and several were excellent.

One of my favorites from this series is the Iron Man novel And Call My Killer… Modok! (1979), by William Rotsler.  Rotsler was a talented artist and a fun writer. He turned out a several tie-in novels for Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, wrote some Tom Swift novels and several movie novelizations. This includes the novelization of the Ray Harryhausen film Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I didn’t know about this last credit until I did a little research for this post, but being the guy who gets to novelize a Ray Harryhausen film automatically makes you awesome.

But for now, we’re talking about Iron Man. The plot is a great one—involving attempts by A.I.M, the organization of evil scientists, to steal the Iron Man armor. The armored Avenger manages to foil a couple of attempts at this, then sets a trap for the bad guys. This plan sort of works, but it results in Tony Stark being held prisoner at a remote A.I.M. facility while being forced to build a suit of armor for them.

The main villain is, of course, MODOK. If you aren't familiar with him, he’s basically a giant head with an atrophied body and vast mental powers who rides around in a high-tech weaponized hover chair. Which is, of course, nearly as awesome as getting to novelize a Ray Harryhausem film.

The plot is very well-constructed and Rotsler does a great job with the action scenes. The most notable fight scenes are at the finale, with Tony forced to fight first an evil Iron Man and then MODOK himself.

Tony’s best friend and chauffeur Happy Hogan gets a sequence in which he holds off a horde of A.I.M agents with a submachine gun, which is nearly as awesome as either having a weaponized hover chair or novelizing a Ray Harryhausen film. Nick Fury, nerdy SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell and the SHIELD helicarrier all get some action as well. And Call My Killer… MODOK! is an exuberant read from start to finish.

By the 1990s, superhero novels were no longer rare. For a time both Marvel and DC were churning out quite a few novels featuring their characters. Eventually, the stream of novels seemed to have slowed down, though there are still movie novelizations and the occasional original novel. I have hopes that it will occur to someone at the Big Two to re-release their novels electronically. I would love to add the cream of the Marvel Novel Series to my Kindle.

Magical Identity Theft, World Conquest and Cute Little Bunny Rabbits

Well, darn it. A couple of months ago, as part of my series on Weisinger-era Superman stories, I wrote about Mr. Mxyzptlk and commented that I didn't want to have to write any more posts in which I had to make sure I spelled the annoying little imp's name properly.

But now I feel obligated to cover this more modern Superman story to back up a point I made in that post--thereby requiring me to make sure I spell "Mxyzptlk" correctly.

It can't be helped, though. In that earlier post, I talked about how characters like Bizarro and Mxyzptlk (Thank you, God, for cut and paste) were important additions to Superman's mythos, because they allowed an occasional burst of whimsy to enter the DC Universe.

And even as late as 1981--just a few years before DC first rebooted their universe and graphic novels such at The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns pretty much tossed all sense of whimsy (and often all sense of fun) into the cosmic wastebasket--DC was still willing to take comic book logic to its silliest extremes. And the world is a better place because of this.

DC Comics Presents #33 & #34 (May & June 1981) starts off with Superman mysteriously finding himself in Captain Marvel's uniform, stripped of super-senses (but still with the super-strength and speed that Marvel also has). Over on Earth-S (the Marvels at this time existed in a different dimension than did the main DC Universe), Captain Marvel finds himself in Superman's uniform--with the extra powers added on to his

abilities.

The Man of Steel zips over the Earth-S and the two compare notes. But the person responsible--Mr. Mxyzptlk--soon shows up to take credit and gloat. In the Earth-S dimension, his magic is amped up, so he's created a barrier to trap Superman there and spend years tormenting him.

This actually makes good comic book sense. On Earth-S, the most powerful heroes (the Marvel family) have powers based on magic, so the idea that dimension has more magic is pretty reasonable.

Anyways, Mxyzptlk isn't alone. He's teamed up with Mr. Mind, the super-intelligent evil worm from Venus and King Kull, the immortal super-strong barbarian who wants to conquer humanity. He's amped up their powers with his magic, making them all nigh-impossible to beat.

By the second issue, everyone is back in their correct suits, but the villains are still winning. Mxyptlk zaps Superman and Marvel in another dimension--Funny Animalville, where they find themselves desperately trying to protect panicking crowds of anthropomorphic bunnies against a giant robot rabbit operated by Mr. Mind. In the meantime, King Kull has taken the United Nations hostage, beating up Miss Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. for good measure.

But there are two things that might give the good guys an edge. First, Mr. Mind and Kull are so murderous that Mxyptlk is having second thoughts about teaming up with them. Second, the heroes get an unexpected helping hand from: Captain Marvel Bunny!

Gee whiz, I love this stuff. The script is by Roy Thomas (with Gerry Conway getting credit for the plot in the first issue), so the appearance of an obscure character from the 1940s isn't surprising. (Captain Marvel Bunny first appeared in Fawcett's Funny Animals in 1942.) The art by Rich Buckler is clean and sharp with some nice use of panel designs. And the comic book logic in the plot is flawless. The existence of an infinite multiverse means that there must be a funny animal dimension out there somewhere--allowing it to interact with the mainstream DC Universe is a wonderful idea. It's yet another example of the importance of allowing an occasional burst of whimsy into a comic book universe, reminding us that comic book stories above all else should simply be fun.

Cover Cavalcade

I have no idea at all what in heaven's name is going on here. But it sure looks cool!

My latest ebook is now available for the Nook

It took awhile to get it posted, but my latest ebook is now available for the Nook as well as the Kindle:

The Six Shooter: A Review and Episode Guide for the Old-Time Radio Show


Here's a link to the Kindle edition.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Favorite Story: “Cyrano De Bergerac” 10/18/47

Ronald Coleman is spot-on in his performance as the love-struck swashbuckler with an enormous nose. This is a solid, entertaining adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s play.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Crabs with Metallic Blood

The short story "Uncommon Sense," by Hal Clement may be the best example ever of what makes hard science fiction so appealing.

Hard SF is essentially speculative fiction in which the author makes sure he gets the science right. In the past, I've talked about Poul Anderson and Robert Heinlein, who wrote superb hard SF, combining accurate science with strong plots and great characters.

But as Poul Anderson once wrote, Hal Clement set the standard for hard SF. His best-known work is Mission of Gravity (1954), set on a high-gravity world. And now that I've written that sentence, I now feel obligated to read the novel again--so I'll probably do a post about it soon. But for today, we'll talk about "Uncommon Sense," published in the September 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.

The protagonist is Laird Cunningham, a rich guy who travels from planet to planet looking for unusual animal species pretty much because he enjoys doing so. But now he's in trouble. He's learned his two assistants are planning on hijacking his small ship. He crash lands on a small planet and makes a break for it, wearing a space suit with several days supply of food and air.

The planet is only slightly larger than the Moon, so it has a low gravity. But it's very near a hot star and during the daytime Cunningham must stay in a cave to hide from the heat and radiation. The planet is also has a near-vacuum level atmosphere.

In the meantime, the two hijackers--with access to better protected suits--are repairing cracks in the hull of the ship.  During the day, Cunningham can't get to the open airlock without being spotted. During the night, the airlock is closed when the bad guys go back inside.

Cunningham passes the time by watching the local fauna. There are small crab-like things that feed on the plants, slightly larger crab-like things that feed on the little guys and 40-foot-long centipedes that feed on everything. Cunningham uses a sharp rock to dissect one of the little guys and discovers that it has liquid metal for blood. That makes sense--since the daylight temperature is hot enough to melt lead.

But isn't this useless information? In a day or two, the ship will be repaired and he'll be stranded here to die.

Well, it turns out no information is ever useless. With what he's learned of the anatomy of the little crabs--and what he's deduced about how the fauna on this world "sees"--AND what he knows about the temperature extremes between night and day--he just might come up with a plan for distracted the bad guys long enough for him to sprint into the space ship airlock and lock the villains out.

It's a fun story because in the end, it all makes sense. Clement does a fantastic job of world-building--coming up with an ecosystem that might logically exist on an airless world with vast diurnal temperature extremes. Then he comes up with a clever way for the protagonist to use this information to outwit his enemies. It's a tight, well-plotted story that could be used as a model for anyone learning how to write good science fiction.

How to take over an undersea civilization

Superman, of course, not only jump-started the superhero genre in comic books--his appearance also set off a frenzy of superhero creation that has been unmatched in comic book history.

Every month, comic book companies would be throwing new heroes at their young readers just to see who would stick. Timely Comics (the future Marvel Comics) did pretty well. The Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch and Captain America all found readers and each of these characters was soon being featured in multiple comic books.

Then there were those who only appeared a few times before fading into obscurity. The recent trade paperback Marvel Firsts: WWII Superheroes gives us an interesting look at a lot of these guys. Some of them were pretty lame, but there were those that definitely had potential but just didn't happen to catch on.

Daring Mystery Comics #7 (April 1941) gave us the Fin. He was yet another undersea hero brought to us by Bill Everett, the creator of the Sub-Mariner. It's a fun story and the Fin definitely had potential.

The Fin is Pete Noble, a crewman on an American sub that rams a derelict and sinks. Noble manages to lock himself in an airtight room, then later puts on a breathing apparatus and cuts his way out with a blowtorch.

After confirming that the rest of the crew is dead, he finds he mysteriously can't swim to the surface. Also, the water pressure doesn't bother him.  He soon finds a cave and gets zipped up to a air-filled cavern by a whirlpool. Once there, he finds a race of bizarre flying fish people.

They attack him. He kills a couple of them, convincing them that he's an ancient hero called the Fin returning to them. So now he's the ruler of an undersea civilization. Who knew it would be that easy?

He returns to the wreck of the sub and makes himself a costume. And that's it for the first issue.

I looked the character up and discovered he was also in Daring Mystery Comics #8 and apparently Comedy Comics #9 (the same comic with its name changed). If the plot summaries I read are accurate, he fights a Nazi U-Boat commander named the Barracuda and finds a magic cutlass that can cut pretty much anything. He also discovers he has super strength while in the water, can swim at high speeds and can breath underwater on his own. As near as I can tell, no explanation for how he got his powers is ever given.

He did pop up again in a 2004 Invaders comic (in a version of the team set in modern day), in which he's called away from his kingdom and out of retirement from the Navy to command a high-tech battleship. That seems to be his last appearance.

Anyway, that first story is a lot of fun. I've always loved Bill Everett's kinetic art work--his imagery always has a snap to it that carries the story along with zest and efficiency. The design of the flying fish people is particularly entertaining.

The character's origin would have needed a little more fleshing out had he continued on, but all the elements of a great series was there. It's too bad the Fin didn't catch on.

Cover Cavalcade

I really like the design of these aliens.

Friday's Favorite OTR

The Mysterious Traveler: “The Big Brain” 3/14/50

As an experiment, a scientist uses an experimental super-computer (the Big Brain) to predict the winners at the horse track. That leads to the temptation to place a few bets, which in turn leads him to be blackmailed by a gangster.

To get out from under the thumb of the gangster, the scientist attempts to find out if the Big Brain can be used to plan the perfect murder.

The ending is a little too willing to absolve the scientist of his moral responsibility for his actions, but it’s a well-plotted episode nonetheless.

Click HERE to listen or download.