Friday's Favorite OTR

 Lux Radio Theater: "So Proudly We Hail" 11/1/43

The story of army nurses serving in the Philippines as the Japanese were overrunning the islands.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Bretwalda, Part 11

 

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

Read/Watch 'em In Order #148

Philip Ketchum's penultimate Bretwalda story appeared in the November 4, 1939 issue of Argosy. The action moves to the Colonies in 1759, when the British are besieging Quebec, trying to take it away from the French. 

Brothers John and Andrew Wilton are serving with General Wolfe, with both being trusted officers. But John has betrayed that trust--at least according to a court martial. Evidence points to him has having sold military information to the French. A supposedly surprise attack on Quebec was driven back because of this.

Andrew knows his brother is innocent, but can do nothing when John is lined up in front of a firing squad and shot. But if Andrew can't save his brother's life, perhaps he can save his reputation and unmask the real spy in the bargain.

At first, the mystical axe Bretwalda doesn't seem to figure in the story at all, as Andrew sneaks into French-held territory in search of information. But he's soon spotted and wounded while trying to escape. A woman who knew his brother hides him while he recovers.

The axe is reintroduced into the tale at this point. The circumstances that get it into Andrew's hands come across as a little contrived, though if you assume that Bretwalda actually is mystical and follows a specific destiny, then perhaps its acceptable.

In either case, it's at worst a minor glitch in another excellent story. When Andrew learns that Wolfe is planning another surprise attack, he has to move fast to find the traitor. This leads to him having to confront the traitor and four French officers in an uneven fight. So the axe--something he saw as an old-fashioned weapon that at best has sentimental value--suddenly comes in very handy. 

But to prevent the British army from being betrayed, Andrew might not just have to kill five men in a hand-to-hand fight. He might also have to use the axe on a woman he's come to love.

"Course of Empire" is yet another excellent tale in the Bretwalda saga. Andrew's emotional journey--starting with the unjust execution of his brother and leading to the high-impact ending--is perfectly realized. And the action scenes, especially Andrew's hand-to-hand fight against five opponents and afterwards the full-scale battle on the Plains of Abraham--are excellent. 

Click HERE to read the story online.

Shang Chi Eats Lunch

 

cover art by John Buscema

I guess that if you are a master martial artist dedicated to fighting evil and your arch-nemesis is Fu Manchu, then you aren't going to get many quiet moments to eat. 

Writer Dough Moench and artist Paul Gulacy show us this in Master of Kung Fu #22 (November 1974). Shang Chi stops at a Chinese restaurant for a meal, but events soon become hard on his digestion.

Though, to be fair, he does get a chance to finish the meal before a guy with a sword tries to bisect him.

 

I love Gulacy's fight choreography, so this issue--in many ways one long fight scene--is a ton of fun. Shang spends several pages taking down the swordsman. But then a bunch of other guys jump in to continue the fight.

Shang finishes them off and then decides he needs to visit his father and give him a good talking to. But after knocking out a guard and sneaking into his dad's HQ, he discovers that Sir Nayland Smith and Blackjack Tarr have been captured.

The two prisoners are taken aboard an aircraft. Shang sneaks aboard, hiding in the craft's cargo hold and taking note that this hold is packed with explosives.

The craft eventually lands in a mountainous area, where the prisoners and the explosives are carried into a cave. This leads to yet another fun fight scene, as Shang battles to save Smith & Tarr AND stop the explosives from going off.

He does so, of course, though Fu Manchu gets away. But then, getting away when his plans go awry is kind of Fu's main thing.

But what was Fu's plan this time? It's only after the violence dies down that the good guys realize where they are and what Fu Manchu had been planning on blowing up. The explosives had been planted under Mount Rushmore.

It's not the best Shocking Reveal™  ever, but it's a pretty good one.

Master of Kung Fu would often involve multi-issue tales with lots of sometimes complex plot twists. That's one of the things I loved about the title. But sometimes there would just be an issue with a simple plot design to give Shang Chi an opportunity to kick a lot of butt. And I loved that about the title as well. 

We haven't visited the comic book version of the Looney Tunes universe in quite a while, so next week, we'll watch Bugs Bunny help Yosemite Sam buy a used car. What could possibly go wrong?

Cover Cavalcade

 

September is Gorilla Month!

This 1956 cover was drawn by Leonard Starr

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—COLORADO CITY KILL

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—COLORADO CITY KILL: WESTERN NOVELS COLORADO CITY KILL THE GUNS OF LEGENDE #5 BRODY WEATHERFORD REVIEWED BY TIM DEFOREST After one book in the series in which th...

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—DUEL IN DODGE CITY

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Friday's Favorite OTR

 Weird Circle: "Werewolf" 1944

A family has an unfortunate encounter with a strange wolf, then soon after encounter several very odd humans.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Vaudevillian Goes West, Part 4

 

cover art by Paul Stahr

Read/Watch 'em In Order #147

"The Diplomancy of Henry," by W.C. Tuttle was published in the July 6, 1935 issue of Argosy.

Can Henry be tempted away from being sheriff of Tonto County? His old agent sends him a telegram, offering him bookings. But the pay is low and the bookings would be in "picture houses," meaning he would do his act in a movie theater just before the movie began. Henry is distainful of the offer.

At least at first. A herd of sheep approaches the area and it looks as if there will be a shooting war between the sheepherders and the cattlemen. Henry's duty, it seems, would be to stand between the two factions and prevent bloodshed. It is not an appealing job and Henry is soon scrambling to find that telegram, especially after he learns that one man has already been shot.

But in the end, his sense of duty reluctantly sends him (along with the Judge--his deputy--and Oscar, his perpetually sloshed jailor) on a trip to speak to the owner of the sheep herd. 

This involves a journey in the pouring rain, which ends when two of the sheepmen take their horses and force them to walk home. This brings us to the meat of the story. Henry, the Judge and Oscar slog through the pitch dark in the rain, have an encounter with rams who like to... well, ram people, and end up taking shelter under an outcropping of rocks. They are wet, cold and hungry. It's also hilarious slapstick fun.

Henry doesn't get to do any Holmsian-level deductions this time. In fact, the rules of comedy trump the rules of drama this time and Henry stumbles upon information he needs to identify the killer and stop the range war while hiding in a loft--just before he crashes through the floor of the loft and lands on the chief bad guy. And the story is constructed in such a way that this is completely acceptable. 

I'm afraid that, once again, I could not find this issue online. The story can be found in THIS BOOK.

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FRONT RANGE REBELLION

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FRONT RANGE REBELLION: WESTERN NOVELS FRONT RANGE REBELLION THE GUNS OF LEGENDE #1 BRODY WEATHERFORD REVIEWED BY TIM DEFOREST The first in a series that has a sort...

Terror on the Planet of the Apes, Part 3

 

cover art by Bob Larkin

Planet of the Apes #3 (December 1974) continued the "Terror on the Planet of the Apes" adventure with the art (by Mike Ploog) still superb and the pacing of the story (written by Doug Moench) still fast.

This issue is almost non-stop action, which makes me appreciate how effectively expository information is given to us. We learn more about the Forbidden Zone along with Jason and Alexander, with that information often being imparted in the midst of a fight scene. It is an example of expert script construction.

Last issue ended with the two protagonists trapped between Forbidden Zone robots and anti-human gorilla terrorists. (And I still love that I get to write sentences like that.) They merely step aside and let the two factions start killing each other, though the ray guns give the robots a definite example. Jason snatches one off a fallen robot before he and Alexander make a break for it.

Jason may not understand advanced technology, but as the saying in another Planet of the Apes universe goes: "Human see, Human do." He figures out the point-and-shoot part pretty quickly.

Alexander gets himself a ray gun as well. In the process, they discover the robots are only part machine. They are part biological as well. It's another item in the "We have no idea what's going on column" for our two heroes.

They steal a rail car, which has simple enough controls for them to figure out. But this doesn't end well and they are captured.

This is my favorite part. They are brought to the leaders of the living robots--the Inheritors. These guys are three oversized brains kept in large globes, each with its own bizarre personality. One talks in rhymes, another uses 1930s gangster slang and the third speaks in a refined, multi-syllabic manner. There's no information on their origin or what the exact purpose of their society is, but it's okay to leave all that stuff a mystery for now. In any POTA universe, the Forbidden Zone SHOULD be full of bizarre stuff. In the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes, it was telepathic mutants worshipping a doomsday bomb. This story just might edge out the movie in pure bizarre-ness.

The two heroes and a surviving gorilla terrorist are tossed into an arena, their execution taking the form of fights against a series of mutated monsters until they are killed. (I loved writing that sentence as well.) But they manage to kill the first monster, then find a way to escape the arena. They also find the Lawgiver a prisoner in a nearby cell. They spring him and find an aircraft, which they THINK they can fly because the controls are similar to the rail car they stole earlier.

The issue ends with them taking off in a flying vehicle they don't know if they can fly properly, with the gorilla taking the Lawgiver hostage and telling them they have to fly to the gorilla terrorist encampment. And, yes, I loved writing that sentence as well.

Ploog's art, especially the design of the Inheritors and the arena monsters, is fantastic. The first two issues were excellent, but with this issue, the story really takes off into wonderful and exciting science fiction territory. 

We'll return to POTA before long, but for next week, we'll visit with Shang-Chi as he discovers he can't even eat a quiet dinner without someone trying to kill him.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #28: Tarzan and the Ant Men

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #28: Tarzan and the Ant Men:   Jess, Scott and Tim discuss the bizarre and entertaining 1924 novel. email us at edgarsmailbag@gmail.com (send the answer to the trivia qu...

Cover Cavalcade

 

September is Gorilla Month!

A 1930 cover by Harry Fisk.

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—SHERLOCK OF THE SAGELAND

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—SHERLOCK OF THE SAGELAND: WESTERN NOVELS SHERLOCK OF THE SAGELAND W.C. TUTTLE REVIEWED BY TIM DEFOREST The first four stories featuring Henry Harrison Conroy, vaudevi...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Lone Ranger: "Horse Thieves Steal Silver" 2/2/38

cover art by Sam Savitt

If you run a gang of horse thieves, don't steal Silver. It won't end well for you.

Click HERE to download or listen.

 

Pa Kettle is My Hero

 

One of the usual sources for humor in the Ma and Pa Kettle movies released by Universal is that Ma (Marjorie Main) does all the work around the house and caring for the kids, while Pa (Percy Kilbride) searches out ways to avoid work and laze about.

But we still like Pa, because he regularly demonstrates that, despite his faults, he loves his wife and is there for her when she really needs it. He is also, at heart, a downright decent and compassionate human beings.

We see evidence of that several times in Ma and Pa on Vacation (1953),  Friends invite them on a trip to Paris. Despite a quest to buy postcards featuring pictures of can-can dancers, Pa pays attention to Ma and makes a point of complementing her regularly. 

And when Pa's willingness to do a favor for a stranger gets all of them involved with spies and a quest for stolen secret plans---well, Ma ends up a prisoner of the spies. Pa knows where she is and wants to bring the cops along to help. But the cops don't speak English and Pa doesn't speak French. How does he get them to follow him? Pa comes up with a plan. He might be naturally lazy, but when the woman he loves is in trouble, he'll take direct action without a second thought. 

Observe the awesomeness of Pa Kettle in the clip below:

Cops, Crooks and Frogmen

 

cover art by Ross Andru

Star Spangled War Stories #121 (June-July 1965) begins with a Navy frogman named Stoner hitching a ride on a PBY. But writer Bob Kanigher and artist Ross Andru soon make his life more interesting.

Partway through the story, we get a flashback giving Stoner's backstory. I'm going to cheat a little and give that information here before we get to the dinosaurs. 

Stoner was a cop before the war. His career took a downturn, though, when he arrested his own brother Manny for murder. Manny then escapes after a train wreck while Stoner is escorting him to prison. Rumors about Stoner allowing Manny to escape are rife, making the cop an outsider on the force.

Then the war happens and Stoner joins the high-risk commando team known as the Suicide Squad. And, when the PBY he's flying in gets a distress call from a submarine, he finds himself on what is definetely a high-risk mission.

The sub is being attacked by a monster. Stoner puts on his frogman suit, then bails out of the plane in an effort to help the sub. THEN the PBY is attacked by Japanese Zeroes. THEN the Zeroes are attacked by a pterodactyl, who goes after Stoner after destroying the planes. Yes, this is definitely high-risk.

Stoner uses a mini-torpedo launcher to kill the pterodactyl, then plummets into the ocean. He's then snatched up by the giant crab that was attacking the sub. Fortunately, a frogman from the sub grabs the mini-torpedo launcher and kills the crab.

You can see it coming, can't you? The two enter the sub and Stoner discovers the man who just saved him is his brother Manny, who joined the Navy under a false name. 

Soon after, the sub approaches an island, where they are attacked by a T-Rex.

After the T-Rex is killed with the sub's deck gun, Stoner and Manny scout the island. Manny decides to do away with his brother (who hasn't yet given Manny away), but can't bring himself to do it. 

The ending is predictable, but still carries some sincere emotional weight to it. They are attacked by another dinosaur. Stoner is trapped under a tree, but Manny gives his own life to save his brother. In the end, serving in the Navy had changed him from a crook to a hero.

The War That Time Forget is enormously entertaining almost purely because we get to see World War II soldiers, sailors and marines fighting dinosaurs. That only is epic and more than justifies the series' existence.

Often, the human characters are just ciphers, with no real personalities of their own. Here, even though the Stoner/Manny situation plays out in a predictable manner, it does succeed in giving them definable personalities. We don't see that often in this series, so it was nice to see it here.

Next week, we'll return to the Planet of the Apes.

Cover Cavalcade

 

September is Gorilla Month!

A Gil Kane cover from 1959.

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FARGO: PHANTOM GUNMAN

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—FARGO: PHANTOM GUNMAN: WESTERN NOVELS FARGO  PHANTOM GUNMAN JOHN BENTEEN REVIEWED BY TIM DEFOREST In this one, Fargo is hired to kill Billy the Kid. But the book i...

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Lux Radio Theater: "In Which We Serve" 6/21/43

The story of a British destroyer from its commissioning just before the war begins to its sinking off the coast of Crete two years later. 

Click HERE to listen or download.

Vaudevillian Goes West, Part 3

 

cover art by C. Calvert

Read/Watch 'em In Order #146

Henry Harrison Conroy, former Vaudeville comedian and now sheriff of Tonto County, Arizona, has his third adventure appear in the April 27, 1935 issue of Argosy. The story is "The Sherlock of Sageland," written by W.C. Tuttle.

Henry still isn't happy with being sheriff and is perpetually annoyed that he can't get the hang of putting his spurred boots up on his desk without tipping over his chair. The county commissioners are also unhappy with him, since there are several unsolved crimes--a couple of bank robberies and a stagecoach hold-up--on the books. These crimes were committed during the previous sheriff's tenure, but the commissioners expect Henry to solve them anyways.

As with the first two stories, this one ambles along enjoyably, with a lot of humor (often generated by Henry's perpetually drunk ranch-hand Oscar Johnson) seeded throughout. But, also like the first two, it's also a solid mystery, with Henry once again giving Sherlock Holmes a run for the money in deductive reasoning.

Soon, there's another attempted bank robbery, a murder and a wrecked stagecoach (made to look like an accident) and then yet another murder. The commissioners bring in a private detective from San Francisco, but this guy seems to make no more headway in solving the case than does Henry. Except Henry might just be more on the ball than anyone suspects.

"The Sherlock from Sageland" is yet another wonderful entry in the series. Sadly, I could not find this specific issue online. It has been reprinted in The Complete Tales of Sheriff Henry, volume 1.

Terror on the Planet of the Apes, Part 2

 

cover art by Bob Layton

The second part of "Terror on the Planet of the Apes,"--an ongoing serial written by Doug Moench and superbly illustrated by Mike Ploog--appeared in Planet of the Apes #2 (October 1974).

In the last issue, hot-tempered human Jason and his more thoughtful friend Alexander (a chimpanzee) were framed for murder by an anti-human organization of gorillas. (By the way, I love being able to write a sentence like that and know it actually makes sense.) This issue picks up right where the last one left off, with Alexander busting Jason out of jail.

The two make it to the jungle and lose their pursuers. Alexander wants to trust in the law. But the Lawgiver recently left on a journey and Jason doesn't trust his weak-willed replacement (named Xavier) to enforce anything resembling true justice. 

Alexander comes up with a plan to lead Xavier to the gorilla camp and  Jason reluctantly agrees. They sneak back into the city, but when they see Brutus--the leader of the gorillas--using his wife's funeral to give an anti-human speech, Jason loses his temper and gives himself away.

They manage to grab some horses and improvise a plan to lead the police chasing them to the gorilla camp. But that plan backfires--the gorillas in the camp simply kill the cops.

Their new plan is to find the Lawgiver. This plan has its own dangers, since the Lawgiver apparently traveled to the Forbidden Zone. 

Once there, they find the ruins of what we would consider modern human civilization. This includes a pistol. Here, the story introduces an interesting bit of information. The characters have been using melee weapons and crossbows. When Jason finds a pistol, though, he has no idea what it is. So we learn that the denizens of this particular human/ape civilization have lost knowledge of firearms.

Soon after, they find some half-human ape creatures that apparently have limited intelligence, and then witness a "monster" appear to capture one of them. The monster, of course, is a vehicle, so we once again see that our protagonists have no experience with advanced technology.

And soon after THAT, they find a factory where robots are using the ape creatures as slave labor. They also see a robot killing a fleeing slave with a ray gun.

Poor Jason and Alexander haven't the faintest idea what's going on. Soon, they are spotted by one of the robots. Jason disables it with a sword stroke, but the two young heroes find themselves trapped between a posse of robots and a posse of gorillas who have pursued them into the Forbidden Zone. This is the cliffhanger that brings this issue to its conclusion.

I love this story. The two heroes compliment each other nicely. The pacing is fast--the story moves at a gallop and never pauses, introducing expository information without ever slowing it down. And the story takes bizarre twists when they reach the Forbidden Zone. And in a Planet of the Apes story, things SHOULD get bizarre in the Forbidden Zone. Next issue, which we'll look at in a few weeks, will see the situation get even weirder.

Next week--well, hey, we haven't seen dinosaurs in awhile. Let's visit the War That Time Forgot.

Sixgun Justice: WESTERN NOVELS—LAST STAND MESA

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Cover Cavalcade

 

September is Gorilla Month!

A Leo O'Mealia cover from 1938.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Let George Do It: "The Hearse That Was Painted Pink" 9/20/48

George is caught up between two feuding gangsters and is being forced to... romance a beautiful night-club singer?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Bretwalda, Part 10

 

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

Read/Watch 'em In Order #145

"Farewell, England," published in the October 14, 1939 issue of Argosy, is arguably Philip Ketchum's finest entry in the Bretwalda series.

It's the 10th in the series and we've reached the year 1649. David Wilton, the current owner of the axe Bretwalda, is fighting for Oliver Cromwell. The current objective of Cromwell's army is capturing the Irish town of Drogheda, which is harboring Royalists.

But for David, there's more to it than that. One of those Royalists is Sir George Huntley. Sir George's beautiful daughter Barbara is almost certainly with him. And, despite their political differences, David has a serious thing for Barbara.

Cromwell has declared No Quarter, so all Royalists are to be killed when the town is captured. In theory, this refers just to combatants--no women and children. But Colonel Brand, Cromwell's man in charge of such things, has a bad habit of just killing everyone. 

Cromwell, by the way, considers David to be his best officer. We've reached an era of muskets and artillery, but after the muskets are empty, the fighting becomes hand-to-hand. David's ancient battleaxe is still proving to be an awesome weapon.

David, in turn, sees Cromwell as a man who sincerely wants to overthrow tyranny and establish a government that really cares for the people. Barbara, by the way, sees Cromwell as a ruthless murderer. It is made clear to us that both points-of-view have legitimacy. 

What follows is a story that, as it typical of the series, is exciting and punctuated by superbly written action scenes. But the meat of the story revolves around the theme of loyalty. That loyalty to one's country or an important cause is certainly important, "Farewell, England" explores the idea that loyalty between individuals might be even more important. David protects Barbara and her father despite his established loyalty to Cromwell. A small cadre of his followers are in turn loyal to David--in a few cases, loyal unto death. This is despite their having good reason to hate Royalists. Even Cromwell might have to make a decision based on personal loyalty before the story ends. 

Where does one loyalties lie? "Farewell, England" makes a case that it exists most deeply between individuals and that perhaps that's as it should be. 

You can read this story online HERE.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: What I Read This Month: August 2022

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: What I Read This Month: August 2022:   TIm DeForest gives capsule reviews of the books he read in August of 2022 Click HERE to download or listen.