Short Story Genre Survey, Part 1

cover art by George Gross

Recently, my Thursday posts have proportionally been concentrating on short stories more than movies or other subjects I normally cover. I didn't plan it that way, but what the hey. It happened.

So I thought "Why not give the short story reviews more structure?" Because if there is one thing that is lacking in the world, it's more structure on obscure blogs in coverage of short stories. It is, I think, the greatest failing of our civilization.

So I decided to make a list of genres, then--over the course of the "Short Story Genre Survey" I am starting today--cover one story from each of these genres.

Here's the Genre List:

Sports

Adventure

Mystery

Horror

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Western

War

Sports is crossed off because we are knocking the sports story out of the park today.

"Ol' Knucklehead," by Paul R. McCully, was published in the Summer 1946 issue of Baseball Stories. According to the FictionMag index, this is his only published work.

But it's a good one. In fact, the baseball stories (and sports stories in general) from this era were always a lot of fun. Written without cynicism, they tell straightforward tales that usually depend on inning-by-inning accounts of key games to generate tension. I love 'em.

The story involves a fictional National League team called the Barons that brings up a new catcher from the minors. The new guy is an extremely confident hotshot who soon gets on everyone's nerves. But he's a good hitter and he has an uncanny ability to signal for just the right pitch.

But he screws up, once with an embarrassing fielding error and, in another game, with an even more embarrassing running error. This gets him benched and earns him the nickname "Knucklehead."

It's only when the Barons play the Cubs in the last game of the series that "Knucklehead" might have a chance to redeem himself when he improvises a brilliant plan during a key at-bat. It's a plan that is perfectly within the rules, but I can't find an example of it being done deliberately. Kudos to the writer for coming up with something both original and plausible. 

As I said, it's a fun story--hitting all the right vibes that make the sports stories from the first half of the 20th-Century so gosh darn entertaining.

It's also fun to think about another aspect of the story. Or at least it's fun if you are a total nerd: Why was the protagonist put on a fictional team rather than a real one?

As far as I can determine (and I'm not an expert, so take this with a grain of salt), it was (and is) okay for writers to use real-life teams in fiction as long as it's for story purposes and not marketing. John Tunis' classic 1943 baseball novel The Keystone Kids, for instance, put its main characters on the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. There's no evidence that Tunis had to obtain permission to do this. He just did.

But the pulp magazines often used fictional team names. Part of the reason, I think, was to stay neutral and not alienate any fans. If you put your hero on the Yankees, you might drive Red Sox fans away from buying your magazine in the future. A fictional team avoids this problem and also allows the writer to ignore real-life schedules, pennant results and so on.

Also, I thought I caught the writer of "Ol' Knucklehead" in a slight error, but when I looked it up, I discovered there was no error AND there was actually a factoid from baseball history I actually DIDN'T KNOW!!! I hang my head in shame, of course. The "error" is that the Barons and the Cubs end the season with 1/2 game difference in the standings. This means they didn't play the same number of games, which in turn means someone had a game cancelled (likely a rain delay) that was not made up. With the pennant at stake, I thought, wouldn't the league have made a point of getting that game played?

The answer is NO: Unless the game needed to be played because of a tie for first place, the League would allow the 1/2 game lead to stand. Travel restrictions and other logistical matters made playing the game impractical. In 1908, for instance, the Detroit Tigers had a never-made-up rainout and finished 90-63. This put them one game over the Cleveland Naps, who finished at 90-64. Gee whiz--why didn't I know this? I pride myself on my impeccable knowledge of baseball history, but didn't know this! WHY, UNIVERSE? WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?

Anyway, you can find this story online HERE. If you like baseball, I can pretty much promise you'll enjoy reading it. 

Next week, we will look at a story from another genre. 

Man Wolf Goes to Space! Part 1

 

cover art by Gil Kane

In 1974 and 1975, the last eight issues of Creatures on the Loose focused on Man Wolf. This, of course, is John Jameson, the astronaut son of J. Jonah Jameson who has a moonstone grafted to his skin that turns him into Man Wolf. He's not just a werewolf. He's an ASTRONAUT WEREWOLF. That's inherently cool. 

Creatures on the Loose was cancelled in the middle of a Man Wolf story arc that sends our astronaut werewolf back into space. This left readers hanging and the tale wasn't concluded for ANOTHER THREE YEARS, when it finally resurfaced in two issues of Marvel Premiere. Gee whiz, it wasn't always easy being a comic book reader back in those ancient times.

Anyway, what we are going to do this week is look at Creatures on the Loose #36 (July 1975), written by David Kraft and drawn by George Perez. In the following weeks, we'll move on to the next (and last) issue of Creatures, then on to the two issues of Marvel Premiere that finish up this story. 

Anyway, poor John has been AWOL for sometime and the government has been looking for him. But after a run-in with the villain Hatemonger and an encounter with SHIELD, he gets a second chance at putting his life back together.

NASA has lost contact with the crew aboard a space station (Marvel science has always been a few years ahead of real life.) John is the best-qualified pilot to fly a rescue vehicle to the station and find out what the heck is going on.

John agrees, but things don't go well. He pilots his ship to the space station and, still unable to contact anyone, space walks over to a hatch to enter the station. But he's a bit too slow. The sun rises from behind the moon and bathes him in moonlight. He turns into Man Wolf and rips his own space suit off. Not even an astronaut werewolf can survive more than a few minutes in a vacuum.

Someone in an alien-looking spacesuit comes out of the station and drags the dying Man Wolf into the station. But Man Wolf is not someone who will show (or understand) gratitude. In a magnificent two-page spread that shows just how awesome George Perez' art can be, he attacks his rescuer.

There are actually three men on board, all visitors from a dimension call "Other Realm." Garth of Mournhelm, Lambert and Gorjoon are all human (or at least humanoid) and also recognize the stone that causes John to turn into Man Wolf. They call it a godstone, hinting that it might have a more complex history than has previously been revealed.

Anyway, a cool fight ensues, with Garth knocking out Man Wolf by zapping him with a power cable.

I'm describing the fight very quickly, but it runs several pages, covers several decks of the space station and is superbly choreographed.

The issue ends here, setting up a space opera plot with several plot elements as yet unexplained (who are the Other Realm guys; why do they recognize the stone and call it a godstone; where's the regular crew of the space station). Creatures on the Loose only has one issue left, but its setting itself up to go out on a high note. 

Cover Cavalcade

MAY IS POST-APOCALYPTIC FUTURE MONTH!!!!

 This George Wilson cover is from 1968.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Gunsmoke: "Romeo" 1/22/56

Two wealthy ranchers hate each other. But the daughter of one rancher has fallen in love with the son of the other. This is likely to get someone killed.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Silver Age Superman

 I hope you all don't mind if I take a Thursday to highlight someone else's work, but this video about the value of Silver Age Superman stories is extremely well-done and deserves to be shared:

What Happened to Poor General Norton?

 

cover art by Joe Kubert

A brief bit of comic book history: In G.I. Combat #148 (June-July 1971), writer Bob Kanigher and artist Russ Heath introduced the character of General Norton, who is clearly an expy for real-life General Patton.

In fact, he's so clearly supposed to be a fill-in for General Patton, it's a wonder that Kanigher didn't just use Patton as a guest star again.

In G.I. Combat #159, writer Archie Goodwin and artist Sam Glanzman give us a General Norton cameo as he sends an armored column led by the Haunted Tank on a raid behind enemy lines to liberate a POW camp. This mission fails, just as the real-life March 1945 raid ordered by Patton failed.

That brings us to G.I. Combat #196 (November 1976). General Patton appears in this issue, pushing his tank column forward to reach a fuel depot before he runs out of gas, ramming tanks that do run out of gas off the road so the rest of the column can keep moving.

Jeb is asked to lead a column of four other tanks to take and hold the fuel depot until Patton arrives. Along the way, though, a German ambush leaves the crews of the other tanks dead, killed by concussions that left the tanks intact. With no time to bury the dead, each member of Jeb's crew takes the driver seat in one of the tanks, making an eerie trip to the fuel depot with dead men essentially looking over their shoulders. 

They reach the depot just in time to hold off an approaching German column. The German commander realizes the tanks are short-handed, but doesn't want to attack in the growing darkness for fear of igniting the fuel. He needs it as badly as Patton does.

During the night, Jeb and his men sneak into no-man's-land to plant cannon shells as booby-traps. They're spotted just as they finish and Rick is wounded, but they all make it back to their tanks.

There's an effectively done scene showing Gus praying for Rick. Then daylight comes. Jeb sees Patton's tanks approaching and roll barrels of gas down towards them. 

The Germans attack, but are slowed by the cannon shell booby-traps. Patton's tanks arrive and drive them off. 

It's a good story. The tank ride with dead companions really does hit an eerie vibe. Gus's concern for Rick and his faith in God are handled respectfully. Patton's determination to keep moving forward is historically accurate, while the story moves along at a nice pace. As usual, Sam Glanzman's art is superb. 

Patton would make several other appearances in the book (issues 208 and 275), with the General actually getting to see and talk to the ghost of General Stuart in #208. 

Why didn't Kanigher originally use Patton back in #148? It's very possible there were legal concerns--Patton had been dead for 25 years by then, but his son was still around and was himself a general who had served in Vietnam. A concern that an appearance by Patton in a comic book might generate a lawsuit may have existed.

 

So what opened the door? I have no documented proof, but I have a theory. In 1974, Jack Kirby put in a Patton cameo in Our Fighting Forces #148, based on his own encounter with Patton during the war. Kirby, I suspect, just did this without worrying about legal concerns and, as it turns out, there were no legal concerns. No lawsuits came flying at DC Comics.

Was this, then, what convinced Kanigher to drop poor General Norton into Comic Book Limbo and begin using the real General Patton? Kirby did it--got away with it--so Kanigher followed suit. I think it's at least possible. And it would be ironic, considering that Kanigher was always openly critical of Kirby's work.

Of course, the 1970 movie Patton, which helped shape him as an iconic historical figure, might have also eventually helped convince DC legal eagles that using Patton in a story was okay. 

That's it for now. Next week, we'll return to the Marvel Universe as one unlikely character is thrown into a sword-and-planet adventure. 

Cover Cavalcade

  APRIL IS "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SNAKES" MONTH!!!!

An intense Tony DeZuniga cover from 1972. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Archie Andrews: "Dinner in a Restaurant" 1949 

Mr. Andrews decides to take his wife and Archie out to a nice restaurant for Sunday dinner. What can possibly go wrong?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Yet another Werewolf

 

cover artist uncredited

Last November, I wrote about a werewolf story by Karl Edward Wagner. I mentioned at the end of that post that it would be interesting to look at another classic werewolf tale--James Blish's "There Shall Be No Darkness." Well, it took me several months, but I finally got around to it.

The story first appeared in the April 1950 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Blish usually stuck to science fiction, as opposed to fantasy. So when he tackled the werewolf trope, he introduced an explanation for the condition that strips it of the supernatural. Lycanthropy, we learn, involves a disease that affects the pineal gland, allowing the person suffering from it to shape change (including changing his clothes) and be unaffected by non-silver weapons. Silver, on the other hand, works as a poison. Wolfsbane activates a strong allergic reaction.

It's an explanation that does work quite well within the story, though it's so far-fetched that the story might as well be treated as a fantasy. That's not a criticism, by the way. The "rational" veneer does give the story a unique feel and works quite well. Blish opted to come up with a rational explanation for something that is inherently irrational and did as well as anyone could.

The story is set in then-modern day, when an artist named Paul Foote realizes a fellow guest at a house party is in fact a werewolf. He soon turns out to be correct and soon after manages to chase the werewolf off by wielding a silver candlestick.

A doctor also staying at the house backs up Foote's claim that a werewolf exists. This, along with tracks in the snow, quickly does away with initial skepticism. Silver is melted down and molded into bullets and the party goes a-hunting.

Stopping a werewolf is not that simple, though. He escapes this initial attempt to get him and--well, what happens to a normal human who is bitten by a werewolf? The situation quickly grows more complicated.

I don't want to give more details because Blish does an excellent job of building suspense and tossing in a few plot twists. "There Shall Be No Darkness" is a great werewolf tale and well worth tracking down to read.

You can read it online HERE. 

THAT is one heck of a fight scene!

 

cover art by Sal Buscema

Captain America and The Falcon #152 (August 1972) has Gerry Conway (writer) and Sal Buscema (artist) bringing their A-game to finish up the Scorpion/Hyde storyline.

It tosses us right into the action with Falcon tracking down the villains by also tracking down the chemicals Mr. Hyde needs to maintain his super strength. He intercepts a shipment, finds out who the boss of the operation is, then goes to see that boss.

It is, by the way, the introduction of the crime boss Morgan, who will be a thorn in Falcon's side in the future.

Anyway, this allows Falcon and Cap to raid the bad guys' hideout, where they have been holding Sharon Carter prisoner. Cap has to go AWOL while on patrol as a cop, but he's been tense and sleepless since Sharon was kidnapped and NEEDS to do this.

What follows is one of Buscema's best ever fight scenes--six pages of kinetic, viceral action as Cap trades blows with Scorpion and Hyde. 

Wait... while CAP trades blows? Where's Falcon?

This issue is a great example of how fictional logic sometimes SHOULD differ from real-life logic. Sam realizes that Cap is running on fumes, but also that he does indeed need the cathartic effect of beating the villains on his own. He needs to regain a feeling of control after feeling he failed Sharon when he didn't prevent her kidnapping. He's confident that Cap will show both physical AND emotional strength when he needs to do so. This is what happens. Skill, timing and an unyielding will make the difference. When Cap finishes off Hyde with a punch to the face, its one of the most satisfying conclusions to a comic book fight ever put down on a page.

Sam's decision doesn't make real-life sense. In real life, no responsible person in a dangerous profession would sit back and watch while his partner did something life threatening without helping. Yes, Cap needed the emotional release, but if he lost, he would have been dead. A cop or soldier would have backed up his partner without hesitation and worried about emotion crises afterwards.

But, as I said, in the world of fiction and superheroes, sometimes the rules are a little different. The writing and characters still have to be strong enough for us to empathize and identify with the protagonists, but sometimes--to hit an important character beat--the "right thing to do" becomes different from what it would be in reality.

It's an example of superhero fiction bending realism to hit a necessary psychological or mythic beat.

There's a few other subplots going on in the story. Nick's jealousy that made him kick Cap out of SHIELD is given a page or two--a motivation I always thought of as out-of-character for the always professional spy/soldier. There's the beginning of a subplot involving a supporting character who works with Steve in the police department. But the Scorpion/Hyde fight is the heart of this issue and, gee whiz, it is cool.

Next week, General Patton needs fuel and its up to the Haunted Tank to get it.