Treasure Hunts Can Get Complicated

 

cover art by Graves Gladney

Isle of Gold, published in the August 1, 1939 issue of The Shadow Magazine, is simply made of Pure Fun. 

Walter Gibson (who wrote 283 of the original Shadow novels using the house anme Maxwell Grant) often reused very general plot ideas, but always gave each iteration of that plot a unique twist or took it in a new, unexpected direction. 

For instance, last week we took a look at the 1938 novel Vanished Treasure, which involved a search for a hidden treasure, with a gang of bad guys ready to swoop in and take the treasure once it's found.

Isle of Gold is about a search for a hidden treasure, with a gang of bad guys ready to swoop in and take the treasure once it's found.  

Sound familar? But despite the identical premise used in each, the two novels could not be more different. The setting is the most obvious difference. The earlier novel is set in New York City and Long Island. Isle of Gold begins in the Big Apple, but soon shifts the action to Portland, Maine and a couple of remote islands off the coast of that city.

Even outside of the change in setting, the stories unfold in different ways. Both are enormously entertaining, but Isle of Gold edges out Vanished Treasure as the better of the two. 

Two friends--Roy Orwin and Sid Bayne--are searching for an old treasure on a small island. The very pretty Catherine Dale turns out to own the island. A gangster named Clink Brackell plans to steal the treasure once its found. And a gang of smugglers is active nearby, though they don't at first seem to be involved in the treasure hunt at all. 

Hovering over all of this is the Shadow, who wants to eventually round up all the bad guys while also protecting the several innocent people involved in the potentially violent proceedings. 

Some of the elements that make Isle of Gold so good are:

1. Great use of the Shadow's agents. Harry Vincent, Burbank, Cliff Marsland, Hawkeye and the always epic Jericho Druke are all involved and all get to demonstrate their bravery, initiative and intelligence, especially during the final, extended action scene.

2. There are a number of things that happen that do not at first seem to make sense. Why was a gangster trying to see Catherine Dale before other gangsters kill him? Why was a sniper trying to kill Roy Orwin such a short time after Roy ends up in possession of a treasure map? How did the bad guys know he had the map? Why does the hermit living on the treasure island try to knife Roy to death and where did the hermit disappear to afterwards? What connects the smugglers to the treasure hunting shenanigans? But all these questions are gradually answered over the course of the novel, tying everything together into a tight and satisfying tale.

3. The finale takes up several chapters and involves the Shadow, his agents, the gangsters and the smugglers coming together in a series of violent clashes that take place on two islands and at sea. Catherine Dale is endangered, but turns out to be willing to trade shots with the bad guys along with the Shadow's agents. She needs to be rescued twice, but the bad judgement call that puts her back in danger after the first rescue is understandable from her perspective and doesn't distract from the overall strength of her presence in the novel. The action set piece is truly exciting, with unexpected twists coming quickly. 

4. Several more twists involving character motivations and the smuggler's supposed leader are revealed during all this action. I thought I had one particular plot twist figured out, but I turned out to only be 33 1/3% correct. 

5. I don't think Jericho Druke ever appears in a Shadow novel without at least one Crowning Moment of Awesome. His last-second rescue of another character during those final chapters is wonderful.

Vanished Treasure and Isle of Gold  were reprinted together a few years ago in #131 of the Sanctum reprint series. They were chosen to go together because of the shared Treasure Hunt theme. But each novel can be enjoyed and appreciated on a unique level. 

Drinking Water from a Fork

 

My Dad used to tell me about a particular Dick Tracy story arc he remembered reading in the newspaper (probably the New York Daily News) when he was a kid. It involved Tracy being captured by villains who tried to starve him to death, feeding him only water served on a fork.

Well, I was delighted a few years ago with the publication of The Complete Dick Tracy, volume 10, which reprinted this story. Sharing this with Dad was nice.

Anyway, the starvation sequence began in late November 1945. Tracy was pursuing a bad guy named Itchy, who had (among other crimes) kidnapped Tess Trueheart. This by itself is not unusual. Prisons in those days were stuffed to the gills with criminals who had kidnapped Tess Trueheart.

Tess is rescued when Itchy's car gets stuck in a tunnel. But in the ensuing confusion, Itchy steals a patrol car. Tracy manages to dive into the trunk of the car as Itchy flees the scene. 

Unfortunately for Tracy, Itchy spots his reflection in a plate glass window. He manages to get the drop on the detective and, along with Kitty--the widow of a crook killed by Tracy--decides to do away with him in a particularly insidious way.

They keep him tied up, feeding him one turnip per day and all the water that will cling to a fork. The idea is to slowly starve him to death, as they often eat full meals right in front of them. Their meals and snacks are all chosen because they smell so good, such as popcorn or hamburgers with onions. 

Chester Gould's villains were meant to represent the depths of evil that human beings can sink to. With Itchy and Kitty, this symbolism might have been the most explicit he ever achieved. They are driven entirely by the need for vengence and this in turn amps up their capacity for cruelity.

Tracy gradually weakens, but the patrol car (which Itchy dumped) has been found. The cops search it and fail to find a clue. Fortunately, Tracy's adopted son Junior is better at being a detective than the actual detectives. He gives the car one more going over and finds a note Tracy had left in the trunk, revealing the address at which he's being held.

Junior sneaks in, cuts Tracy loose and gives him a gun. Then, while Junior goes for reinforcements, the weak but still game Tracy gets the drop on his captors. 

Kitty faints, but Itchy makes the mistake of trying to pull a gun. He's dead before he hits the floor.

I can see why Dad remembered this story arc so vividly. The cruel plan of the villains combines with Gould's disturbing portrayal of a gaunt and starving hero makes the tale very, very memorable. 

Next week, we look at another example of just how much fun it is when Jack Kirby draws a story about a rampaging monster.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #23: The Eternal Savage Part 2

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #23: The Eternal Savage Part 2:   Jess, Scott and Tim discuss the second half of The Eternal Savage, first published in 1915. This half recounts a prehistoric adventure tha...

Cover Cavalcade

 

SEPTEMBER IS WORLD AT WAR MONTH!

From 1927. Cover art by Sidney Riesenberg.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "The Swift Rise of Eddie Albright" 4/3/47

Phil Silvers plays an elevator operator with a tendency to exaggerate both his importance and his ability to observe what's going on around him. But when two men get into his elevator while carrying a carpet that appears to have feet sticking out of one end, he finds himself in a rather dire situation. 

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Never Bring a Revolver to an Elevator Fight!

 

cover art by George Rozen

Treasure hunt stories are inherently fun. In this case, the treasure being hunted is Revolutionary War-era gold supposedly hidden in an old mansion--a mansion that is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a British soldier.

Vanished Treasure (written by Walter Gibson under the Maxwell Grant house name) was published in the October 15, 1938 issue of The Shadow Magazine. We jump right into the story when Marcus Beld goes to the hotel room/headquarters of gambler Itch Fendel to tell him he doesn't have enough money to pay off his 30 grand gambling debt.

By the way, at first it seems as if "Itch Fendel" is the best gangster name ever. But we soon meet Itch's bodyguard Croak Lorman. That's the best gangster name ever!

Beld would normally be in trouble because of his shortage of funds, but he has valuable information. A relative owns an old mansion in which a fortune in treasure is supposedly hidden. That relative thinks he can find the treasure. So Beld can keep Itch informed and then Itch can move in to take the treasure as soon as its found.

illustration by Edd Cartier

The Shadow is there, though, listening in. So a battle of wits between the Shadow and the villians begins.

Actually, they battle with more than wits. The Shadow gets into a hand-to-hand struggle with Croak. And, surprisingly, Croak gets the upper hand. That's not something that happens to the Shadow that often.

But Burbank, one of the Shadow's agents, is nearby posing as an elevator operator. Burbank reacts with speed and cleverness. Croak quickly learns that you don't bring a revolver to an elevator fight. It's a great action scene which allows an agent who normally just answers the phone to show his true mettle. 

Harry Vincent, the Shadow's primary agent, is soon involved as well, looking after a man named Roger Hasting. Roger is connected to the Beld family by being engaged to the very pretty Eunice Beld. He's doing research on the treasure in a small library when he and Harry find themselves surrounded by thugs. Fortunately for them, the Shadow arrives in time to save them.

illustration by Edd Cartier

From there, the story begins to take a number of twists and turns. There are more fights, a kidnapping, a rescue, and a ghost sighting. As is so common in a Shadow novel, when we think we know who the main bad guys are, we actually don't. The Shadow plays the villains off against one another, which leads to gun play in the mansion's cellar, a few surprising revelations and a satisfying conclusion.

But as much fun as Vanished Treasure turns out to be, another treasure-themed Shadow novel published ten months later is even better. We'll take a look at that one next week.

Merciless Justice

 

cover art by Jim Aparo

I wonder what Jim Corrigan's fellow cops think of him? From their point of view, he often fails to catch the crooks. Of course, he is catching them and administering a ruthless form of justice as the Spectre, but the other cops don't know that. What does the chief put in his performance evaluations?

In Adventure Comics #431 (Jan-Feb 1974), we see how this might be a problem. Michael Fleisher writes a by-the-numbers tale of supernatural revenge and Jim Aparo's art brings the story to creepy life. This story is, by the way, the Spectre's Bronze Age debut--the first of a ten issue run in Adventure Comics. 

Four crooks rob an armored car and ruthlessly kill all four guards. Their leader also shoots one of his his own wounded men to make sure he doesn't spill anything to the police. The three surviving bad guys get away.

Jim Corrigan is put on the case and finds a clue--a business card for an antique shop--in the pocket of the dead bad guy. So he pays a visit to that shop.

He finds one of the crooks, who immediately pulls a gun. But trying to shoot the Spectre isn't an effective tactic. The crook flees. The Spectre follows invisibly until the crook calls one of the others in the gang, then he runs the crook's car off the road. One bad guy dead. Two to go.

Spectre tracks down the second bad guy and... well, he melts him.

The story is unclear on how Spectre finds the last villain, who is on a plane fleeing the country. This guy tries to take a hostage when he sees the ghostly vigilante, but the lights go out for a second and we discover he's been skeletonized.

According to comic book historian Les Daniels, the Spectre was brought back to his own series after editor Joe Orlando was mugged and decided it was time to bring back a ruthless hero.

The trouble with the Spectre is that he's pretty much omnipotent. He zips through this story without effort to take vengence on the crooks, so there is no real suspense or drama. The story still works--primarily because of its short 12-page length and because Aparo's excellent art makes the story pop. 

At the conclusion, though, Jim Corrigan's chief is asking him about the "escaped" crooks and Jim merely replies that the city is sealed off and they'll be caught eventually. Of course, they are now dead and thus will never be officially caught. So what does the chief write on Corrigan's performance reviews?

Next week, we'll visit with another relentless police detective--Dick Tracy.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #22: The Eternal Savage, Part 1

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #22: The Eternal Savage, Part 1:   Jess, Scott and Tim analyze the first part of "The Eternal Savage," first published in All-Story Magazine on March 7, 1914. Clic...

Cover Cavalcade

 SEPTEMBER IS WORLD AT WAR MONTH!

From 1969. The art is by John Severin.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Dragnet "Myra the Readhead" 9/1/49

Several hundred cars in L.A. have been broken into recently. The leader of the gang responsible for this is soon tentatively identified, but she proves very hard to find.

Click HERE to listen or download.