Brewalda, Part 8

 

cover art by Marshall Frantz

Read/Watch 'em In Order #141

The August 19, 1939 issue of Argosy brought us Philip Ketchum's eighth Brewalda tale. 

This one--"The Valiant Arm"--brings us to 1298 A.D., with Edward I locked in war with Scottish hero William Wallace. But Roger Wilton, the current member of the family bearing the famous axe, has troubles of his own.

 Roger has fought at Stirling Bridge a year ago, where Wallace's men defeated Edward's army. Afterwards, he was falsely accused of cowardice by Sir Thomas Seagrave, whom Roger had thought a friend. So, as the story begins, Roger and his friend John Tuck find themselves exiled from England.

Even before he leaves for his exile, some of Sir Thomas' men ambush and try to kill him. He and Tuck head for a forest near the Scottish border--land ruled by Sir Thomas. Roger is determined to eventually have it out with the man and... well, there was this young girl he met six years earlier when lost in the those woods. That girl would be a young woman by now.

Around this premise, Ketchum efficiently weaves a tale involving unknown identities, political manipulations, treason, surprise twists and several typically good action scenes. It's not a story I want to discuss in more detail, because I don't want to spoil those surprise twists. Suffice to say that not everyone Roger meets is whom they claim to be and the story overall is yet another excellent one.

Click HERE to read it online. 

Travelin' Toughy, Part 3

 

Ding Dong #3 (1946) finally gives Travelin' Toughy a prominent cover appearance. And that's good, because the tough little guy deserves it.

This issue's story has Toughy floating on his rug over a Middle Eastern desert. Where two issue earlier, he had been declaring that he was mean and tough and hated everyone, now he's enjoying the quiet desert ambience. 

That quiet is interrupted when a signal rocket whooshes by and someoe takes off on a flying carpet of his own. Toughy realizes something is up and follows the guy.

He soon overhears a plan to rob a kid named Karim is about to spend a lot of gold to buy his mom a new home. The bandits--forty of them equipped with flying carpets--are in on this plan. Well, as Toughy says "Not if I kin help it!"

He locates and warns Karim, but it may be too late. One of the bandits gets the drop on Karim. But Toughy then gets the drop on the bandit. Literally. Toughy drops a brick on him.

The unknown writer and artist Ted Miller now give us an absolutely delightful chase scene, as Toughy, with Karim as a passenger, dodge a squadron of bandit-driven carpets before Toughy crash-lands in a pool at the king's palace. 

The kids hide out in the palace. In another delightful plot twist, they end up hiding in the harem. When the bandit leader comes looking for them, Toughy tickles the king's favorite lady on her hip when she's not looking. She thinks the bandit did and and the king quickly has the guy hauled off to prison.

The Travelin' Toughy stories continue to be pure fun. And Toughy is growing as a character, remarking that it is getting easier to do his daily good deed to keep his flying carpet working. Initially, he might have done good deed out of necessity to keep his flying carpet working. Now, he's doing them because he wants to. It's an effective and legitimately touching bit of character development.

You can read this story online HERE.

Next week, we'll jump back over to the DC Universe and visit with the Atom.

Cover Cavalcade

 

June is Adventure Magazine Month!

This 1935 cover is by the great Walter Baumhofer.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Fibber McGee and Molly: "Fibber Takes Molly Out to Lunch" 3/12/40

Fibber takes his wife out to lunch so that she can get a break from washing dishes. This plan goes awry.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Counterspy Goes to the Movies

 

The radio show Counterspy ran from 1942 to 1957. Right smack in the middle of that run, there was a movie version made. 

During World War II, the radio Counterspy usually had David Harding (who ran a fictional anti-espionage bureau) chasing down Axis spies. After the war, the show took on a Cold War vibe. Interesting, the movie--a Cold War-era product released in 1950--flashes back to World War II, with Harding's men working to take out a spy ring set up in a factory making newly designed torpedoes.

Harding is pretty sure the accidental death of a Naval officer wasn't so accidental. He has another officer assigned to him--a guy who knew the dead man and was, in fact, an old flame of the man's widow.

That could be good or bad, depending on whether the widow is working with the Nazis.

David Harding Counterspy sometimes plods along too slowly, especially considering it only runs for 67 minutes. But it still manages to entertain. It has an effective Film Noir look to it and the plot does unfold in a logical manner. Willard Parker is essentially the lead as the Navy guy, but Howard St. John shines as Harding. In several scenes, he feels obligated to bawl out one or more of his men. And he is fun to listen to when he's mad--provided you are not the person being yelled at. Also, the movie has more fun showing off some then-modern surveillance equipment. 

Character actor John Dehner, who plays an agent good at accents and imitating voices, adds another level of fun to the movie.

So if you get a chance to see David Harding Counterspy, go for it. 

Still in the Negative Zone

 

cover art by John Romita

Fantastic Four #141 (December 1973) amps up the Sue/Reed marriage problems they've been having for far too long at this point, but--to be fair--the ending of this issue does give them an understanble reason for their marriage difficulties. 

And, aside from that particular arc having gone on for far too long, the Annihilus story that began in the previous issue is quite good. The FF and Wyatt Wingfoot had been captured by the villain and taken to the Negative Zone.

This issue, by the way, is written by Gerry Conway and drawn with power and imagination by John Buscema.

We also find out that Sue, Franklin and Agatha Harkness are prisoners as well. Agatha had been captured earlier by Annihilus, who had then forced the witch to help capture Sue and the little guy. THAT explains something from the previous issue that had seemed like a plot hole to me when I read it as a kid--why there was anti-matter residue at the site where Agatha teleported away Sue and Franklin. She was taking them to the Negative Zone, so that now makes sense.

The FF try to fight Annihilus again, but once more get curb stomped. Annihilus also drains them of much of their powers. Tossed in a tower prison, they at first seem to be helpless. But Medusa comes up with a Rapunzel-inspired trick for escaping, letting them climb down from their cell. Their powers also slowly start to return and they fight their way past some of the planet's primitive tribesmen.

In the meantime, we learn exactly what Annihilus' end game is. He wants to drain the enormous among of cosmic energy that is growing in Franklin. Then he'll be able to easily conquer the universe.

The FF show up and, using surprise and subterfuge, then manage to defeat the villain. Agatha, though weak, is able to magic them all back to the Baxter Building. But Franklin is on Cosmic Power Overload and is now a danger to the universe in his own right. Reed, in deperation, zaps him with an experimental anti-matter weapon. The cosmic energy is drained out of the child, but he's left in a coma. Reed clearly had no choice. But Sue is angry anyway--an understandable immediate reaction for a mother--and now seems more done with Reed than she was before.

All of this is good storytelling, with the heroes using their brains as well as their powers to get the drop on Annihilus and save the universe. Bucsema's art is excellent and carries the story along powerfully. In restrospect, if Conway wanted to do a brief arc about Sue and Reed having problems, then perhaps he should have started it here. That would have made the arc much shorter before coming to a (sadly awkward) conclusion eight issues later. 

Also, this is the point at which Franklin begins to shift back and forth between being a normal kid and being an all-powerful plot device--something that lasted for years to come depending on the whims of the various writers and was eventually over-used. 

Still, if we look at these two issues by themselves, we have a good, solid FF story that effectively brings back a classic villain and gives that villain a strong origin story. A- for the story, D+ for the soap opera elements.

Next week, we return again to Travelin' Toughy.

Cover Cavalcade

 

June is Adventure Magazine Month!

A 1934 cover by Hubert Rogers.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Gunsmoke: "Scared Boy" 5/17/59

A young boy witnesses a murder, which makes him a target for the killer.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Robots Soldiers

 

cover art by Ed Emshwiller

My nephew Josiah is visiting one day when I happen to muse aloud about what might make a good entry for my Thursday post.

"The Defenders," he immediately said.

"No," I replied. "Thursday is for non-comic book stuff. Books, movies, and so on."

But he didn't mean the comic book. He had recently run across the short story "The Defenders," by Philip K. Dick, published in June 1953 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Well, it seems as if impeccable taste in fiction runs in the family. "The Defenders" is an entertaining and clever science fiction tale.

It is set eight years after nuclear war has broken out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In both countries (and presumably the rest of the world's population) move underground to escape the destruction and radiation. Robots called "leadys" are sent to the surface to fight. The "leadys" send down reports, while the humans manufacture weapons and sending them up to their robotic soldiers.

But something funny is going on. On a regular basis, a robot comes down from the surface to report on the war personally. The robot stays in a shielded room because it would be highly radioactive. The last time a robot reported, though, someone noticed that it was not in fact radioactive. 

That doesn't seem possible. Something funny is going on and the robots are apparently being less than honest about conditions on the surface.

Several humans are assigned to venture up to the surface. I won't go into detail as to what they find there, but trust me that the author manages to put in a fun plot twist.

You can find the story online HERE. 

And, as an added bonus, you can listen to the X Minus One adaptation of the story HERE. 

Travellin' Toughie, Part 2

 

Ding Dong #2 (1946) finds Travelin' Toughy still testing out his new flying carpet. He ends up in Mexico. A panel on the first page reminds us that Toughy has to do at least one good dead each day or the carpet will lose its power.

We still know nothing about Toughy's backgroud, but it seems likely he hasn't had much schooling. What follows over the next couple of pages are a few gags based on Toughy's lack of knowledge of Mexico. This culminates with Toughy trying to eat some very, very hot food.

Toughy isn't so tough in this case. His mouth trailing smoke from the hot food, he takes off on the carpet to find a way to quench his now-burning thirst.  Thus, before ducking into a rain cloud, he ends up leaving behind a thick string of smoke weaving around the sky. 

The smoke trail is quite a distraction for those in the village stadium watching the bullfights. In fact, a young boy falls out of the stands into the ring. Toughy spots this and does some fancy manuvering with his carpet to distract the bull. He finally subdues the bull by breathing on it. There's still enough hot tamale on his breath to do the job.

So Toughy once again pulls off his daily good dead and so keeps his flying saucer. Once again, Ted Miller's art is clean and fun to look at, while the unknown writer fills the story with humor and a protagonist who is never quite as mean as he claims to be. Travelin' Toughy really is an unjustly forgotten character.

Click HERE to read it online. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Special Episode: Interview with Tom Simmons

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Special Episode: Interview with Tom Simmons: Jess interviews Tom Simmons, who wrote the web comic adaptation of I am a Barbarian. This excellent adaptation has just been released as a g...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #27: I am a Barbarian

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #27: I am a Barbarian:   Scott, Jess and Tim take a look at Burroughs' novel I am a Barbarian. Written in 1941, it wasn't published until 1967. Jess also r...

Cover Cavalcade

 

June is Adventure Magazine Month!

From 1933, with cover art by Hubert Rogers.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Dragnet: "The Big In-Laws" 8/3/51

Friday and Romero are assigned to catch a gang of truck hijackers. A nagging mother-in-law turns out to be the key to the case. 

Click HERE to listen or download.

Bretwalda, Part 7

 

cover art by Rudoph Belarski

Read/Watch 'em In Order #140

The July 29, 1939 issue of Argosy included Philip Ketchum's story "Tribute to None," the seventh tale about Bretwalda, the axe destined to save Britain.

In this one, we've reached the year 1215. King John is on the throne and making a rather poor job of being king. He keeps raising taxes to pay his mounting debts, which is in turn ticking off both nobles and commoners alike.

This is a particularly personal problem for Brian Wilton. Because of his openness and honesty, he has won the loyalty of the commoners in on this father's lands. And he supports efforts to rebel against John--not to remove him from the throne, but to force him to respect the rights of his people.

But Brian's father--though recognizing John's failings--refuses to consider rebellion. He is unfailingly loyal to the throne.

Well, anyone reading this story pretty much knows right away that it will end with the signing of the Magna Carta, but getting there makes for another great Bretwalda story.

There is, of course, several good action scenes--an escape from a castle, an attack on another castle and a night-time ambush. But the core of the story is Brian's dilemma. He feels that rebellion against John is justified. But he doesn't want to end up fighting his own father. 

Ketchum handles this perfectly. Perhaps one of the most human moments I've ever encountered in a work of fiction is when Brian meets his father on the road and urges him one last time not to fight for John. The two men aren't angry. There's no shouting, accusations of treason or mutual recriminations. Rather, the two men speak for a few minutes, then there's a sort-of awkward pause before each continues on his own way. We immediately understand that we are encountering a father and son who love each other, but have run out of things to say about their radically different decisions regarding supporting/fighting the king. Ketchum captures the emotions of the moment perfectly, giving it a poignant realism. 

Brian, in the end, wields Bretwalda to fight for what he believes is right. As is true with each generation of Wiltons, he suffers great joy and great sorrow because of this. 

Click HERE to read the story online. 

A Visitor from the Negative Zone

 

cover art by Rich Buckler

Fantastic Four #140 (November 1973) was set during a story arc in which Sue Richards had taken her son Franklin and separated from Reed. This was an arc that, in my opinion, lasted far too long (nearly two years in real time) and resulted in an awful lot of melodramatic dialogue. And, by the already melodramatic standards of usual Marvel Comics dialogue, that's a LOT of melodrama.

All the same, the individual adventures the FF had during that time were still entertaining and imaginative. In this issue, for instance, writer Gerry Conway and artist John Buscema give us a pretty nifty origin of the villain Annihilus. 

Annihilus himself recounts his origin to a captive Wyatt Wingfoot during the last third of the issue. Boiled down to its basics, Annihilus was the one creature on his planet who had developed intelligence and was shunned by every one else because of this. He explores the remains of an ancient space ship and finds a helmet that mentally feeds him advanced scientific knowledge. This inspires him to take up his career as immortal ruler of the Negative Zone.

There's actually a lot more to it than that--the origin story is filled with unique detail and wonderfully imaginative visual imagery. It's worth reading.

As for the main plot of this issue, we begin in the Negative Zone, with Annihilus apparently monologing about his imminent plans to take revenge on Reed Richards. Except we soon learn that he's actually speaking to someone just off-panel--someone from Earth who is essential to his plans. Who this person is will be revealed in the next issue.

Anyway, back on Earth, Reed gets a video call from Sue, who tells him something is wrong with Franklin. The call cuts out and Reed briefly panics. 

Medusa calms him down by slugging him with a monkey wrench. Gee whiz, if you ever visit with the Inhumans, don't ask any of them for emotional counseling. 

In the meantime, Sue has started driving back to New York from the upstate farm at which she's beens staying. But her trip is interrupted by the appearance of Agatha Harkness. Agatha explains that she knows what's up with Franklin and teleports herself, Sue and Franklin to another location.

, 

Reed, by now, has calmed down and the FF is in the Fantasti-Car, homing in on a tracker placed in Sue's car. All FF vehicles have trackers in them. I think Gerry Conway introduces us to that idea here to move the story along quickly, but it makes perfect sense for a family that's always being attacked/kidnapped by supervillains to do this. So it doesn't come across as a plot contrivance.

They find the car, but Sue has already been teleported away. Reed scans the area and finds a residue of anti-matter radiation.

I actually remember reading this issue as a kid and thinking that the writer had made a mistake. Agatha Harkness had used magic to teleport them all away. I thought "Hey, the silly writer forgot that this part of the story doesn't involve the Negative Zone and made a mistake!" I might have even been thinking about writing a letter and claiming a No-Prize, though I never did. 

Which is just as well. We won't find out why until the next issue, but it makes sense that there was anti-matter present and the event is a solid clue to whom Annihilus' prisoner would turn out to be. Silly me for not trusting the writer.

The FF rush back to the Baxter Building, but discover the portal to the Negative Zone has already been blasted open. Annihilus attacks and easily overpowers everyone. Wyatt Wingfoot, who has been hanging out with the FF recently, is also made a prisoner.

This is where Annihilus recounts his origin to Wyatt. After that, he tosses the FF and Wyatt into the Negative Zone,

We have yet to find out exactly what Annihilus' endgame is, but the set-up is effective and the story fun. Well, except for the Reed/Sue seperation stuff, which was definitely tiresome by this time.

We'll return to look at FF #141 in two weeks. Next week, we'll rejoin Travelin' Toughie for the little guy's second adventure. 

Cover Cavalcade

 

June is Adventure Magazine Month! 

This one is from 1933, with cover art by Colcord Heurlin.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Philip Marlowe: "Angry Eagle" 4/18/50

The crooked owner of a training camp for boxers is murdered. At first, the killer's identity seems obvious. But if the case involves Philip Marlowe, it is destined to grow complicated.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Gold and a Machine Gun

 

It's 1913 and a mercenary named Tom Bryan (Rory Calhoun) is making good money working for Pancho Villa, using his Lewis machine gun as his weapon of choice while robbing banks. Working with Bryan is Juan Castro (Gilbert Roland), a tough and smart soldier who is also loyal to the revolution.

This is the situation we are introduced to as The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955) opens. Directed by George Stevens, the movie makes great use of location photography and tells its story in a very effective manner. The opening scenes immediately tell us that the revolution in Mexico is a violent and dirty business. Men like Castro believe they are fighting for freedom from tyranny, but have no illusions about the methods that must be used to win that freedom. A lot of people are going to die along the way. A lot of those in the revolution eventually going to toss away their ideals for their own self-interest before the fighting is done.

Bryan and Castro have a big job coming up. They, along with a score of men under their command, are going to rob a train and steal of fortune in government gold. Castro wants the gold for Pancho Villa. Bryan starts thinking he might want the gold for himself. The outfit's mule drive, Pablo Morales, definitely wants the gold for themselves.

                          

Also along for the ride is a former American school teacher named Ruth Harris (Shelly Winters), who joined the revolution after her father's murder. She's also tough and willing to fight, soon earning Castro's respect. Bryan doesn't want her along at all, but soon starts to feel attracted to her.

That part of the movie is a bit contrived--Ruth is disgusted by Bryan's mercenary attitude towards life and he thinks her idealistic outlook is absurd, but they still (because movie conventions require it) fall for each other.

But Shelly Winters is quite good as Ruth and the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. Several action scenes, including the train robbery and a rear-guard action against pursuing soldiers, effectively puncuate the story. The tension involved in who is going to double-cross whom builds nicely. And the climax, with Bryan, Castro and the machine gun doing a last stand behind a wall of  money bags filled with gold, is fantastic. 

It should also be noted that this is one of the few movies ever made that takes into account just how heavy gold is. It takes a train of mules to haul it over the countryside and anyone lifting one of the bags is obviously making an effort to do so. It's a nice touch that adds a bit of verisimilitude to an already good movie. 

Travelin' Toughy--Part 1

 

cover artist unknown

Ding Dong, published by Magazine Enteprises in 1946 and 1947, was a humor comic that apparently ran for only five issues. Within its pages, readers could enjoy the wacky hijinks of several characters whom I consider to be unjustly forgotten.

One of these is a kid named Travelin' Toughy. The writer who shared Toughy's unusual adventures is unknown and the aritst was Ted Miller. His adventures begin in Ding Dong #1 (1946)

We aren't told anything about Toughy's background, but it's apparent that he's wandering around on his own and we quickly learn that he's "mean and tough and hates everybody!" We know this because he says this aloud while sitting on the sidewalk and sulking.

 

But Toughy might have a heart of gold after all. When he notices an old woman crying because she lost her rug, he immediately decides to find her a new one.

He scrounges up an old rug from a condemned house. Then the story takes a delightfully weird twist. The old woman magics the rug so that it can fly and lets Toughy keep it. The only condition is that he must perform one good deed a day for the rug to keep its power.

Toughy puts the rug through its bases, discovering it can reach amazing speeds and perform aerial acrobatics. But there's still that daily good deed to perform. So when he spots a kid has injured his leg, Toughy gives him a lift to the hospital.

Unfortunately, its an animal hospital. But it works out okay, because the injured kid's dog is there and arrangements are made for the kid to stay with him.

And that's it. The art and the story drips with just the right amount of cuteness and silliness and it's simply fun to read. We'll continue to follow Toughy through his brief career as a comic book character, returning for Ding Dong #2 in two weeks. In the meantime, you can read this issue HERE. 

Next week, we'll visit with the Fantastic Four.