Friday's Favorite OTR

 Broadway is my Beat: "The Sherman Gates Murder Case" 12/3/49

A man is poisoned in a movie theater. Soon, the case involves a second murder, blackmail and... pictures of cats?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Bretwalda, Part 1

 

cover art by G.J. Rozen

Read/Watch 'em In Order #134

Beginning in the February 25, 1939 issue of Argosy Weekly, writer Philip Ketchum began a really nifty series with a unique idea. The main "character" appearing throughout the series would not be a person, but a weapon. The axe Bretwalda (which means "Ruler of Briton") would be featured in a multi-generational saga.

It begins with "The Axe Bites Deep." It's set in 9th Century England and things are not going well for the Britons. The south of England has been overrun by Danes. King Alfred, King of the Britons, is hiding in the forest ever since losing a battle. He's still popular and there's a chance he can put an army together again and drive out the Danes, but he has to stay free and alive in the meantime.

In a small village, a blacksmith named Caedmon has forged a huge axe--with both blade and handle made of shining steel--after being told to do so in a vision. The axe is named Bretwalda and soon after he finished it, a stranger arrives in the village.

This guy, named Winton, is dressed as a Dane, but claims to be a Briton. He was captured as a youth, but his captor took a liking to him and made him a warrior instead of a slave. But now Winton has escaped and returned to England, along with really, really important information that he needs to pass on to Alfred.

But is he telling the truth? Or is he a spy trying to trick the locals into giving away Alfred's location? 

Ethelda, the village leader's daughter, trusts him, but no one else does. Soon, Winton finds himself on the run. In the meantime, a large Danish force has landed and captured the village, gathering up the villagers as slaves. One of those slaves, it turns out, is Alfred in disguise. 

Winton is between a rock and a hard place. He needs to run away from men who should be his allies and save the king against overwhelming odds.

But there's that axe. Winton gets hold of it and that evens the odds a little. But even this amazing weapon isn't enough. It was prophesized that Winton would come to a great victory, a great defeat, s great sorrow and a great joy. In the end, it's Winton's willingness to make a significant sacrifice that brings all this to fruition, thus ensuring Alfred's freedom. A few years later, Alfred would win a battle and free England from the Danish invaders. 

It's a great story. The axe has a slight supernatural veneer to it, but the tale depends on strong characters who, in the end, make difficult but morally correct decisions to win out.

Bretwalda has twelve jewels imbedded in it. At the end of this story, one of them falls out. That effectively foreshadows that there are eleven more tales in the cycle. 

The stories have been recently collected into a single volume, including an inexpensive ebook version. You can also access this issue of Argosy online HERE. 

Wendy and Marvin CAN be Useful, part 1

 

cover art by Ernie Chan

The first season of the Saturday morning Super Friends cartoon featured the sidekicks Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog. I suppose they were there because of an attitude that the young audience needed someone close to their own age with whom to identify. I'm not sure I go along with that theory. I was more likely to imagine myself as Batman or Superman rather than a couple of bumbling teenagers.

The in-universe reason for their being around super-heroes and taking an active part in their cases was... well, actually, I'm not sure the cartoon ever gave a reason.

The comic book does, though. When Super Friends #1 (November 1976; interior art by Ric Estrada) was released, writer E. Nelson Bridwell explained that the Justice League's main headquarters was still in the JLA satellite. The Hall of Justice, where the Justice League was referred to as the Super Friends, existed to help train young people who were training to be crime fighters. 

So that's why Wendy and Marvin are around. And, since we have animal crimefighters such as Ace the Bat Hound already active, I suppose it explains Wonder Dog's presence as well.

Not that Marvin seems likely to be a successful crime fighter, as his bumbling nature transfers over from the cartoon. But what the hey. At least he's trying.

And he'll get a chance to try harder. A group of villains are also training young protegees. And its here that we see that Super Friends is deliberately going for a silly and (hopefully) fun vibe that I think it largely managed to hit. The reference to the JLA satellite might have left an impression that the series was taking place in the usual DC Universe (Earth-1). But by the time we get to that reference, we've already seen a fair amount of silliness. It was eventually established that the Super Friends live in Earth-32.

The villains and their protegees are Penguin & Chick; Toyman and Toyboy; the Human Flying Fish (a villain so obscure that only someone with the encylopedic knowledge of the DC Universe would remember) & Sardine; Cheetah & Kitten; Poison Ivy & Honeysuckle. 

The villains have learned of a secret project to build a super-intelligent robot that would enforce world-wide peace--because that's a plan that never ends badly. The components are being built at three separate locations, so all three locations need to be raided to steal everything needed to build the robot. 

The Super Friends are warned about this. Superman and Robin intercept Toyman and Poison Ivy at one location and it appears they will capture the villains rather easily. But Toyboy slaps a lead mask over Superman's face, giving the bad guys a chance to escape. They do not manage to steal the robot component, though.

One would be justified in asking how Toyboy managed to sneak up on a man who can hear an ant walking across the grass on the other side of the world. AND has faster-than-light reflexes. AND has faster-than-light speed and super vision, meaning Toyman and the other villains shouldn't have gotten away with just a few seconds head start.

On Earth-1, this would be poor writing. But in the easy-going and inherently silly Super Friends universe, it's perfectly okay. The comic book is emulating the logic of the cartoon. Of course, you then get into the arguement about whether the cartoon was itself weakened by lazy writing. Is a comic book adaptation of a cartoon series obligated to adapt all aspects of that cartoon faithfully, even if some of those aspects exist purely because of bad writing?

But I can't force myself to be that philosophical about the Super Friends. A reader either accepts it or rejects it for what it is. Between Bridwell's straightforward storytelling skills and Estrada's charming art, I'm willing to accept it.

The Human Flying Fish raids an undersea lab. There's a nice moment when the scientists there discuss sacrificing themselves rather than allow mankind to be endangered by giving up the component. Aquaman arrives and it soon looks like he'll quickly capture H.F.F. But Salmon squirts the King of the Seas with squid ink and again the bad guys get away.

Penquin and Cheetah raid the third lab. Batman and Wonder Woman have allowed Wendy, Marvin and the dog to tag along and THIS is where the young crime fighters prove themselves to actually be useful. Once again, the villain sidekicks help the villains get away, but Wendy and Marvin manage to tackle Chick and Kitten, capturing them.

The two prisoners are taken to the Hall of Justice, where Wendy and Marvin are put in charge of watching them. And, well, perhaps they still have some crime-fighting stuff to learn. Such as--just perhaps--NOT LETTING A PROTEGE OF PENQUIN KEEP HIS UMBRELLA!

The issue ends with Chick using a radio hidden in the umbrella to send out a message. Marvin and Wendy are oblivious. Wonder Dog notices, but he can't speak. Where's Scooby Doo when you need him?

So Wendy and Marvin swing back and forth between being legitimately useful to being bumbling or kind of dumb. Well, dumb might be harsh, since it's only fair to note that they are still in training. But not allowing your prisoner to hold onto a potential weapon really should be covered on Day One. 

But I shouldn't make fun. This is the Super Friends, where silly decisions are made and superpowers are left unused without anyone ever pointing this out. Perhaps it's something in the air on Earth-32. In any case, the story and art are fun. As I said, you take the Super Friends as they are or you simply walk away without worrying about it. 

We'll find out how this story ends in two weeks. Next week, we get to Part 5 of The Great Darkness Saga.

Cover Cavalcade

 

An effectively creepy cover from 1934.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Life of Riley: "Comic Books" 11/5/48

Six years before a real-life panic over the influence of comic books, Riley goes on a rabid anti-comic book campaign. This campaign doesn't go well--especially after Riley himself gets hooked on reading the books.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Submarines and Stock Footage

 

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the 1959 film Paratroop Command. That was released as a double-feature with Submarine Seahawk. I promised to review Seahawk the next week. But then my wife made me read a romance novel, which nearly broke my sanity and forced me to change my schedule. 

But I am now getting to Submarine Seahawk (which, by the way, is listed to having been produced in 1958--I guess they had it in the can and waited until the next year for another WWII movie with which to pair it up). 

Seahawk is a vetaran sub with a veteran crew. As the movie opens, we join them at the end of their latest cruise, using up their last few torpedoes to sink a Japanese destroyer. This almost goes wrong when one of those torpedoes gets jammed in the tube. But the sub's new operations officer--Paul Turner--acts quickly to fix the problem and launch the fish.

Everyone acknowledges Turner (played by John Bentley) to be an excellent officer in many ways. But the captain thinks he's too aloof and academic to click with a crew, so recommends that he not be given his own command.

That captain, though, finds himself promoted to a desk job when Seahawk returns to Pearl Harbor. He recommends his XO as the new commander. But the Navy decides to keep the XO in his current post and make Turner the captain.

So Turner goes to sea on an important mission--find out where the Japanese are congregating their capital ships--with a second-in-command who resents him and a crew that grows increasingly frustrated when Turner keeps refusing to attack enemy shipping.

This last part, I think, comes across as a little contrived. The crew is experienced and they might regret not being able to attack the enemy, but it's no secret that Seahawk is on a scouting mission. Everyone from the XO to the lowliest enlisted man should have understood this. They were being sneaky not so they could put a torpedo in a relatively unimportant ship. They were being sneaky so they could find the really important ship.

This all follows the expected character arcs. The officers and crew (except for an increasingly unstable rookie officer) gradually comes to respect their captain and understand that he knows what he's doing. Especially after he does indeed find the Japanese fleet.

My other complaint with the movie is that it spends far too much of its 73-minute run time at Pearl Harbor, vainly trying to generate some humor with the shenanigans the sailors get into while ashore. Much as with the humor in Paratroop Command, the humor simply falls flat.

But despite this, the movie is entertaining enough to justify its 73-minute existence. The cruise of the Seahawk does generate tension and the combat scenes are done well. This is helped enormously by use of stock footage from the Warner Brothers movies Destination Tokyo and Air Force. Apparently, the producer has a contact at WB and was able to wangle permission to use the footage. This is skillfully woven into Submarine Seahawk, making it look far more impressive than its tiny budget would have otherwise allowed.

Also, the cramped sets on the submarine look authentic and the procedures they use have a verneer of realism to them. Of course, there could be any number of operational or procedural errors in the film that I just wouldn't notice, but the film either gets a lot of it right or fakes it well.

The Great Darkness Saga, Part 4

 

Legion of Super-Heroes #293 (November 1982, w: Paul Levitz; a: Keith Giffen) brings us to the fourth part of The Great Darkness Saga and, boy, it's a dozy.

After the events of the last issue, The Legion has spread out across the galaxy in teams, trying to find a trace of the Masters or his Servants. In addition to this, we return to Legion HQ a few times, where Mon-el is still in a coma and the mysterious baby is being kept. On top of that, we see the Master carrying out the next (very important) part of his plan.  All this is weaved together throughout, with our point-of-view switching rapidly between characters. 

I mentioned in our look at Part 3 that the story as a whole is expertly constructed. This chapter is arguably the best representation of that. Despite the rapid changes of perspective (used to advance the story, remind us of important plot points and advance the plot as a whole), we never lose track of what's going on. 

For simplicity's sake, I'll talk about this issue one plot point at a time. At Legion HQ, we are reminded that Mon-el is out of action, but also that the mysterious baby--somehow meant to be who defeats the Master, The kid is getting rapidly older and, when no one is looking, there's a definite hint that he might have impressive powers.

In the meantime, one team of Legionaires is searching a devestated planet that is supposed to be Daxam. But the Master has alread used his enormous power to switch Daxam's position with his own, burnt-out home planet. Daxam is now revolving around a yellow sun. We'll get back to this in a moment.

On the not-Daxam world revolving around a red sun, the Legion team is ambushed by the Servants. More Legionairs show up and a battle royale ensues. And it's a great battle--well-choreographed and with the various characters using their powers in intelligent ways.

Remember that the Legion now knows the nature of two of the Servants. One of them is a clone of a Guardian, who are susceptable to the color yellow. Wildfire destroys this Servant with a burst of yellow radiation.

Another Servant is a clone of Superman. Superboy joins the fight, protected from the red sun by a Braniac Five-invented device. The Servant manages to destroy this and Superboy is soon in trouble. But Element Lad encases Superboy in a lead shield to protect him from Kryptonite radiation, then turns some of the surrounding landscape into gold Kryotonite, which strips the clone of its powers. Timber Wolf is then able to destroy it.

The remaining Servants flee. The Legion has won an important battle, but they haven't won the war.

The Master has mind-controlled the entire population of Daxam. And, since he's transferred their planet to an orbit around a yellow sun, they all have Superman-level powers.

If you don't know about Daxamites, then turn in your geek card. Daxamites are just like Kryptonians, gaining super powers under a yellow sun. But their weakness is lead, which affects them the way Kryptonite affects Krytonians. Since lead is a common substance throughout the universe, it means that Daxamites must stick to their lead-free planet. (Mon-el has a lead poisoning antidote provided to him by Braniac Five, which is why he can travel about as a Legionaire.)

The Master orders his army of three billion Daxamites to fry the surface of their own planet with their heat vision, obliterating his civilization. Then, before sending out his army (three billion Supermen, Superboys and Supergirls), he has them reshape the planet into the shape of his own head--a monument to himself. It's here we finally find out who the Master is:

It's the perfect dramatic moment for this reveal. To keep the mystery going longer might have gotten a little tiresome and its now more effective to raise tension for us to know who he is and what his plan is. 

There's still unsolved mysteries--most importantly the identify of the baby back at Legion HQ. And, as we've discussed in the past, at least a few attentive readers with a good knowledge of the DC Universe would have deduced Darkseid's identity already. But the final panel in this issue is still one of the best surprise reveals in the history of comics.

Next week, we'll stay in the DC Univese. Well, sort of. We'll visit a version of that Universe when we look in on the Super Friends. 

Cover Cavalcade

 A 1934 cover by Rafael DeSoto. Looking at this one makes my ear hurt!

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "Sell Me Your Life" 2/15/45

A man gets framed for embezzlement, then decides to commit suicide, then gets framed for murder. In the final analysis, he's having a really bad day.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

A Haunted Spaceship--Maybe

 

cover artist unidentified

The Spring 1940 issue of Planet Stories includes a short but effective tale called "The Space Flame," written by Alexander M. Phillips.

In it, we find out that the space ship Denebola is not a lucky ship. The starboard engine isn't quite working right, the crew has divided itself into two angry factions, and--to top all this off--the defacto leader of one of those factions is murdered.

Then the multi-colored flame starts appearing and disappearing, leaving behind traces of hydrogen whenever it vanishes. It starts to eat small holes in the stern of the ship and, soon, it seems to be multiplying.

interior art by Leo Morey

Many of the crew are soon convinced that the ship is haunted by the murdered crewman. A panicky mutiny breaks out, with the officers and a few loyal crew making a stand in the control room. The bulk of the crew flees in two small scout rockets. They take most of the ship's fuel with them, but with too many of them packed into the tiny ships, they are doomed to asphixiation long before they can reach Mars, the closest planet to the Denebola.

Well, those still on board the Denebola manage to get in touch with Mars. They can now ask for help. Well, theoretically, they can ask for help. But the captain forbids them to do so. The Space Flames seem to be indestructable and are still steadily eating away at the ship. If they get aboard a rescue ship and are taken back to Mars or any other inhabited planet, it could mean the end of civilization.

This is a nifty little story. It starts off with a bang--in the middle of the mutiny--then quickly establishes its premise and just has quickly begins to build the tension. The author also drops a hint for how the crew can eventually stop the Space Flames early in the story, but without being too obvious. 

It's worth reading and you can do so HERE.

Fighting an Unnecessary Duel

 

A lot of good Westerns were re-run on TV while I was growing up, but Colt. 45 wasn't one of them. I've also never happened to see it as an adult. So I'm going into today's issue cold--without any idea how well or how poorly it might represent the show on which it's based.

Colt. 45 ran from 1957 to 1960 and is loosely based on a 1950 Randolph Scott movie of the same name. The protagonist is Christopher Colt (played by Wayde Preston), a government agent who maintains an undercover role as a gun salesman.

After three appearances in Dell's anthology book Four Color, Colt got his own series. As was usual for Dell, the Four Color appearances were taken into account and the first issue was #4. Cover-dated February-April 1960, it would be the first of six before the series ended. The writer of Colt. 45 #4  is unknown. The artist is John Ushler.

The first story in that issue has Colt visiting the home of Col. Armstead, a retired army officer and war hero. Armstead has an awesome (and valuable) gun collection. Colt is there to present a couple of pistols to Armstead in appreciation of his service.

He's also very proud of his mansion and the land he owns. His daughter and oldest son, though, are worried about something and are up to some shenanigans involving the gun collection.

The two sibling turn out to be involves in a plan to steal and sell the gun collection. At first, the plan seems to work. But Colt looks around, finding little clues to indicate that the theft was indeed an inside job.

Finally, David (the oldest son) confesses to Colt. His father thinks they are rich, but bad investments have drained their bank account. Even the insurance on the gun collection has lapsed. David and his sister Helen have engineered the robbery to help pay the bills. They are afraid that if their father finds out the family is broke, the shame will kill him.

Colt disagrees. First, what they are doing is a crime regardless of their motive. Second, Colt thinks the siblings are underestimating their dad. He's proved himself to be a strong man again and again throughout his life and he will know there's no shame in being poor.

David's younger brother John overhears only part of this conversation and believes Colt is falsely accusing his brother of something. Egged on by John, David challenges Colt to a duel.

Colt has no desire to kill or be killed in a senseless duel. He tells the Colonel what's going on, but the Colonel refuses to believe his son would do anthing dishonorable. Colt makes a last-ditch effort to call off the duel by appealing to Helen's sense of right and wrong.

This works, though only (of course) in the nick of time. Helen tells the Colonel the truth, who rides out just in time to stop the duel and give David some well-deserved what-for.

As Colt predicted, the Colonel takes the financial news in stride. The family will survive--and they'll survive with honor.

The story has a lot of dialogue and only a few smatterings of action. Often, this is bad thing in the visual medium of a comic book. But in this case, the dialogue is well-written and the characters are compelling enough to hold our interest. It's a good story, depending effectively on human nature rather than gun play to bring about a satisfying resolution. 

You can read this story online HERE.

Next week, We'll return to The Great Darkness Saga for a look at Part 4.

Cover Cavalcade

 

An action-packed cover from 1936. The artist is Malvin Singer.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #62: "Roads" (1938), by Seabury Quinn

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #62: "Roads" (1938), by Seabury Quinn: Did you know Santa Claus was originally a butt-kickin' Northman who served as a mercenary in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago? In this ep...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Green Hornet: "Invasion Plans" 5/19/42

In order to flush out a Nazi spy ring, the Green Hornet frames himself for murder.

Click HERE to listen or download.

WARNING! POTENTIAL INSANITY ALERT!!!

 

My wife is always trying to get me to explain how I decide what book to read next, since it seems completely random to her. I am constantly explaining that I follow the strict rules of the International Society for Determining What Book to Read Next each time. Each book is chosen via a complex and convoluted--but ultimately logical--set of criteria.

She DARES to doubt the very existence of the ISDWBRN and dared even further to claim that I "just made up the rules as I went along" and "read whatever randomly chosen book I want to." Such folly on her part!

Determined to put a stop to this, I asked her "Are you saying that you want to invoke the little used Nagging Wife clause within the rules of the International Society for Determining What Book to Read Next and thus get to choose the book I read yourself?"

I said this with complete confidence that my beautiful and merciful wife would simply indignantly deny that she ever nags (which she doesn't) and let the matter drop.

I was wrong. She invoked the clause and now....

I HAD TO READ THE ROMANCE NOVEL PICTURED ABOVE!!!!!! THE HORRORS!!!!

So if my sanity breaks down-- if my blog posts devolve into statements such as "THE COOTIES! THE COOTIES! I CAN'T GET THEM OFF ME!" --if my testosterone level drops and I begin sobbing uncontrollably---well, you'll all know why. It's not my fault.

No, I'm not reviewing the book on this blog! Well, other than to say that if the two main characters spend several pages calling out each other's name across the desolate prairie just one more time, I am going to go nuts for sure. Maybe the Indians will get them--I can always hope for that.

The Great Darkness Saga, Part 3

 

Legion of Super-Heroes #292 (October 1982--w: Paul Levitz; a: Keith Giffen/Larry Mahlstedt) brings us to the third part of the Great Darkness Saga. And I have to say that as I re-read this story with the intent of writing about it, I'm more and more impressed with just how expertly it's constructed in terms of its relatively complex plot.

Dream Girl, newly elected as head of the Legion, has had one of her predictive visions. In this one, the Legion fights the as-yet-unidentified bad guy on the magical Sorcerer's World, where the Legion will lose. Dream Girl hopes to prove her vision wrong--something that has never happened before.

The ensuing action is expertly presented. Various factions of the Legion are arriving seperately, so it's a ship containing Ultra Boy, Mon-el, Phantom Girl and Shadow Lass that first encounters the Servants of Darkness before they can hook up with the others. Later on, Wildfire will have his own encounter with the Servants (and lose another containment suit) before the Legionaires are able to gang up on them.

During this extended melee, Mon-el flies into the space warp used by the servants, hoping to go one-on-one with their Master. In an issue full of great moments, this might be the best one. Mon-el recognizes the Master, but--despite having Superboy-level powers--Mon-el is zapped into a coma. But not before the Master draws an important bit of information out of the hero's mind.

It's a very dramatic moment--both in terms of writing and art. A few attentive readers may have guessed by now that the villain is Darkseid, but all we know for certain is that he is a known villain and someone who's identity is a true shock to Mon-el. 

Several other plot threads are advanced as well. Back at Legion HQ, the computer has deduced the identity of two more of the Servants--clones of a Guardian of the Universe and Superman. Again, we are presented with dramatic new information in an effectively dramatic fashion. Soon after this, Lightning Lad decides to put out a general alarm for all available Legionaires to report for duty. Whomever the Master is, all hands will need to be on deck to deal with him.

Back on Sorcerer's World, the Legionaires are forced to retreat back to Teacher's Island, where the most powerful sorcerer's hang out. Those guys are trying to create a spell to defeat the Master and they pour so much power into the effort that two them die. The results of that spell? A baby pops up through a space warp.

The Master easily smashes through a force field and seems about to finish everyone off. But that bit of information he got from Mon-el convinces him to change his mind. He leaves the Legion and the sorcerers alive to witness his eventual triumph as he disappears to carry out his revised plan.

So the story feeds us more information about the Master without giving too much away, while introducing the idea that yet another bit of information as become relevant--without telling us yet what that might be. And what the heck is a baby supposed to do to help beat the Master? He's cute enough, but pure cuteness is rarely enough to win a fight.

The Great Darkness Saga really is an expertly constructed story, gradually giving us enough information to keep us sort-of satisfying while ramping up the tension regarding what we don't know yet.

Next week, we'll look at a TV adaptation of a show I've never seen.

Cover Cavalcade

 

A Ken Kelly cover from 1982.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Family Theater: "The Leprechaun Who Wouldn't Listen" 3/16/49

A young leprechaun chronically fails to listen to good advice or to what is taught in leprechaun school. This leads to trouble, not just for him, but for the entire leprechaun community. 

Click HERE to listen or download.