Cover Cavalcade

 

February is KILLER ROBOT MONTH!

This 1976 cover is by Bob Oksner.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Inner Sanctum: "Boomerang" 11/25/45

A man suspects his wife and his business partner of plotting to murder him. He decides to act preemptively.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The Vultures of Wahpeton

 

cover art by Howard Sherman

"The Vultures of Wahpeton," a Western by Robert E. Howard, was first published in the December 1936 issue of Smashing Novels. It's actually a novella, but it is pretty smashing.

Wahpeton is a gold rush town. Many people have been getting rich, but an outlaw gang known as the Vultures keeps the town on lock-down, robbing claims and holding up every single stagecoach that attempts to transport gold out. The town and the surrounding area is crowded with men hoping to strike it rich, so no-one knows who is a Vulture and who isn't.

The protagonist is a Texas gunslinger named Corcoran, whose lightning fast draw gets him a job as deputy. This initially puts him on the side of the good guys. But he soon finds out that the sheriff is the leader of the Vultures. Corcoran's sense of personal honor doesn't allow him to kill in cold blood or rob someone innocent, but he doesn't object to robbing thieves.

While the sheriff is conning the town leaders into thinking he's on the level, he and Corcoran plan to eventually run for it with a fortune in stolen gold. Both men plan to double-cross the other after they get clear.

In fact, Chronic Back-stabbing Syndrome is rife throughout the story, with Corcoran going up against several Vultures at different times even while theoretically a part of the gang.

Things begin to go awry for Corcoran when he tells the saloon girl he's fallen about his plans. The girl had built Corcoran up in her mind as a virtuous hero, so discovering he's planning on running off with stolen gold crushes her. This, in turn, leads to her spilling too much information to the Vultures. The violent story quickly becomes more violent.

There's a little too much sameness to the action scenes, which mostly involve Corcoran outdrawing his opponents, but Howard overlays the tale with a lot of tension. The pacing is appropriately fast. Corcoran is an interesting protagonist, with flaws as well as virtues that drive the story along. Also, a member of the "Men's Adventure Paperbacks of the 20th Century" Facebook group referred to the story as "The beginning of the hardboiled Western... The Western was changing from mythic to hardboiled." "The Vultures of Wahpeton" can be seen as a signpost pointing the genre in that direction.

Interestingly, the original printing in Smashing Novels provided two different endings to the tale, with an editor writing: "Of course, giving a story two endings is sort of unorthodox. But Smashing Novels, ever since its first issue, hasn't been a particularly orthodox magazine. We've tried, and we are trying, to give you different stories with different slants, and we've been doing our darndest to give you the best stories possible."

One ending pulls out a happy ending for Corcoran. The other, which was used when the story was reprinting in a Howard anthology a few years ago, is more tragic. I think the happy ending is a little contrived, while the tragic ending is a better emotional fit for the story. But if want to decide for yourself, you can find the story (with both endings) HERE. 

Bullets and Blinding Mists

 

cover by Ray Harford

"The Case of the Purple Blackout" (writer and artist unknown) appeared in America's Greatest Comics #4 (Aug-Nov. 1942). Though dealing with home-grown gangsters and not mentioning the war, I have a vague theory that the idea for the tale might have arisen from war-imposed blackouts.

Whether I'm right about that, it's a fun story. A scientist invents a purple mist that blinds anyone caught up in it unless you are wearing special goggles. Immediately, a gangster named Honest John Black (he conveniently introduces himself during the robbery) steals both the mist and the goggles.

Soon, Honest John and his gang use the mist to pull off large-scale robberies. They are wearing the goggles. The cops--and eventually Bulletman and Bulletgirl--try to stop them but are stymied by the mist-induced blindness. 

It seems like the thing to do would be to go to the scientist who invented the mist and ask him to make a few more goggles. But they don't and, during a second robbery, Bulletgirl is captured.

Bulletman then draws on his own scientific abilities and whips up an anti-mist mist. The next time the gang strikes, the purple mist is counter-acted. With the good guys able to see, Bulletgirl gets free and the bad guys are quickly rounded up.

It's a fun yarn, with effective art that moves the story along quickly. There's a nice parallel between the brutality of the crooks and the determination of both the Bullets and the cops to protect the innocent. 

You can read this one online HERE.

Next week, we'll visit with Dullwit, a fox who definitely ISN'T as clever as a fox.

Cover Cavalcade

 

February is KILLER ROBOT MONTH!

This 1928 cover is by Frank R. Paul.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 X Minus One: "The Scapegoat" 8/8/57

Taking in an old man who had been beaten up seems like a generous thing to do. But if that old man is in obnoxious and amoral alien shape-changer, it's not a wise thing to do.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Apache Territory (1958)

 

Louis L'Amour's 1957 novel Last Stand at Papago Wells is a favorite of mine, since I'm a sucker for "last stand" stories. Wandering cowboy Logan Cates takes refuge at the titular water hole and soon finds himself in charge of several other groups of men and women trying to escape Apache warriors. The group finds themselves besieged.

Toss a shipment of gold into the midst of this and Logan finds that potential conflict among the whites can be as dangerous as the Apaches.

I didn't know until I recently ran across it on Crackle TV that this book had been made into a movie in 1958, with the title changed to Apache Territory. Rory Calhoun plays Logan Cates.

The movie is a reasonably faithful adaptation of the book, though the number of characters is reduced a little and some of their relationships are shifted about. But the main action beats are pretty much the same. The Apaches send fusilades of bullets and arrows into the defenders, but are never seen. Cates has to sneak out one night to hunt for food. Slowly, the defenders are picked off. There seems to be no escape.

It's a good Western that generates a tense atmosphere throughout. Calhoun is quite good as Cates and the supporting cast is fine. John Dehner (one of my favorite character actors) is especially good as a man you just KNOW will turn out to be rotten even before he does anything to show us he's rotten. When Dehner played bad guys, he had a subtle talent for making himself ooze just a touch of venom in everything he does or says.

As is usually the case, the movie isn't quite as good as the original book. But it's still good and worth watching. 

Alien Medical Care Ain't What It Used To Be!

 

cover art by George Perez

Justice League #202 (May 1982), written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Don Heck, is a fun issue that tells a well-constructed story, but I gotta pause to make fun of the first page before discussing the story itself.

This story is set in a time when the JLA all shared their secret identities with one another. Batman is in space, repairing a component of the JLA satellite. No one, other than Hawkman (who is also on satellite duty) can see him. WHY is he wearing his cowl in space? How much money did it cost to design and build a space helmet that would fit his cowl? Does he expect to run into a cowardly, superstitious space mugger who will be frightened by the Batman cowl? No one can see you in space, Bruce! Give yourself a break and take off the mask!

Of course, the reason is that he looks cooler with the mask on and readers will readily identify who he is. And this is appropriate. But I'm just not sure there's a good in-universe reason for it.

Anyway, something goes wrong with the repair. Batman is knocked out and flung into space.  A hole in the satellite means it begins to decompress inside.

Hawkman sends out an emergency signal. What follows are a few pages that I expect might have been added because the main story didn't fill 25 pages. But, if so, it's expertly done filler. We see what Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Atom and Zatanna were doing just before responding to the signal. We also see why other JLA members don't respond--they are either too busy (Superman is chasing a comet; Aquaman is helping a damaged ship,etc) or don't hear the signal. Flash, for instance, was taking a shower. It's a nifty little sequence that helps add a little verisimilitude to the DC Universe.

Once aboard the satellite, the heroes plug up the hole. In the meantime, though, Batman's drifting body has disappeared from the scanners.

The heroes head out in a shuttle to search for the Caped Crusader. They pass through a barrier that takes them behind a cloaking field and discover a huge alien ship. The ship defenses activate and the heroes spend a few pages battling tentacles, lasers and missiles before getting inside.

Once inside, a robot tells them that the "doctor" is busy right now. The helpful robot also explains what's going on. 

200,000 years ago, an alien explorer--a bear-like being named Ursak--was travelling to different worlds. When he stops on a world inhabited by primitive cavemen, he's injured in an attack and his automatic medical equipment is damaged. So he puts himself in stasis and calls for help.

The hospital ships takes millennia to trace the signal and, when it arrives, mistakes Batman for Ursak. So the emergency medical treatmen Batman has been receiving turns him into a alien hybrid with super strength and an unstable outlook on life.

The JLA tries to subdue him, but get their butts handed to them. Soon, only Hawkman is still standing. But he's been studying the ship and is able to lure crazy-Batman into a trap, knocking him unconscious with an electrical surge that also disables the hospital ship.

So far, we've had a well-written and well-drawn science fiction adventure.  Gerry Conway then manages to give the tale a nicely ironic ending. The ship is reactivated and realizes its mistake. Batman is cured. AND we also learn that Ursak did not come to Earth, but to another planet. The signal sent back to his homeworld had been distorted and brought the hospital ship to the wrong place. It continues on its journey to find Ursak while the JLA members wonder how Ursak will feel when he learns he's been in suspended animation for 200,000 years.

It's a strong story from start to finish. The action scenes allow each JLA member to have their moments; Hawkman solves the problem with brains as well as brawn; and the saga of Ursak gives it all a strong science fiction feel that works very well.

Next week, we'll head back to 1942 and visit Bulletman.

Cover Cavalcade

 

February is KILLER ROBOT MONTH!

This Gil Kane cover is from 1951.

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FARGO: HELL ON WHEELS

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FARGO: HELL ON WHEELS: WESTERN NOVELS FARGO: HELL ON WHEELS JOHN BENTEEN REVIEWED BY TIM DEFOREST  This tale has the lowest body count of any Fargo novel I've ...