Cover Cavalcade

 

OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

An awesome paperback cover from 1976, reprinting a novel first published in 1936. I couldn't find an artist credit.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

The Lone Ranger: "Medicine and Ballots" 8/9/43

The Ranger uses a criminal's hypochondria to keep him from rigging an election.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Frankenstein Against the Phantom Planet

 

In response to my post from a couple of weeks ago reviewing a Frankenstein-inspired story by Clark Ashton Smith, someone recommended a couple of other stories inspired by Frankenstein. 

One of them was published in 2016--normally far too recent to be considered for mention on my blog. But this delightful story is both a tribute to the Creature Feature TV hosts of from my childhood; an effective horror story in its own right; a reminder that horror, fantasy and SF tales can teach us things about real life; and a reminder of just how COOL it was to watch an old monster movie on TV for the first time when you were a kid. "Frankenstein Against the Phantom Planet," by Orrin Grey, does all that. It's a modern story, but its a callback to an aspect of popular culture I celebrate on this blog.

The point-of-view character is an unnamed kid sitting down on a Saturday afternoon to watch whatever movie will be featured on his local Creature Feature. That he's unnamed is important. He's all of use--every nerdy kid who ever watched the local host introduce Frankenstein, King Kong or Godzilla as we watched it for the first time.

His local host is Baron Von Werewolf, who explains that today's movie was thought to be lost for years. It was made by a nearly forgotten stop motion animator in Mexico and disappeared soon after it was shown in just a few theaters. But Baron Von Werewolf has gotten hold of a copy. In fact, he's made a deal to be able to show it this afternoon.

What follows is a description of the movie Frankenstein Against the Phantom Planet. It's a movie that doesn't exist outside the pages of this short story, but--by golly--I wish it did. An indestructable and gigantic Frankenstein's monster is shot into space as the only way to protect Earth. He crashes on the Phantom Planet. He's lured into a pit by the alien overlords of that planet. He fights creepy subterranean monsters. He frees mushroom people who are enslaved by the overlords. He leads them in a rebellion, fighting a giant robot along the way. It's magnificent. I WANT THIS MOVIE TO EXIST!

The kid's TV watching ends when Baron Von Werewolf has to pay the price of obtaining this movie a little sooner than he thought. "Not in front of the kids!"

My plot summary doesn't really do justice to just how effective a tribute this story is to monster movies and monster movie hosts. If you have an Internet Archive account, you can read it for yourself HERE. 

A Horse to Rival Silver?

 

cover art by Ogden Whitney

This is Lone Ranger month and the Ranger, of course, wouldn't be the Ranger without his horse Silver. But many Western heroes had cool horses. The cover story for Two-Gun Kid #87 (May 1967) highlights just how cool HIS horse could be.

"The Sidewinders and the Stallion," written by Ron Whyte and drawn by Ogden Whitney, starts with a full page panel that effectively introduces us to Luke Wilson, a ruthless rustler who just killed a man to steal his cattle.

Matt Hawk is riding to visit the rancher and spots the outlaws. He charges forward, but Luke is a talented gunslinger as well as a rustler. Matt falls wounded. The outlaws capture his horse Thunder and ride off.

Despite his wounds, Matt (now in his Two-Gun Kid identity) trails them. He'd had the foresight of giving Thunder horseshoes with a distinctive pattern cut into them, making Thunder's prints easier to find.

The story is well-constructed, reminding us a couple of times (without ramming the information down our throats too overtly) that Two-Gun is in pain and not up to his usual strength. But, as he catches up with the outlaws, he limits his rest periods and pushes on.

He finds the outlaws forted up in a cannon, with Luke unsuccessfully trying to break Thunder. But Thunder only listens to one human. Two-Gun signals him with a sound that SOUNDS like a bird call. While the horse then stampedes the outlaws' own mounts, Two-Gun sets off some cartridges like firecrackers to give the impression he has help. He open fires on the bad guys, blasting pistols out of their hands.

Luke, though, manages to catch one of the stampeding horses and attempts a getaway. Two-Gun, mounted on Thunder, pursues. The two men end up in a fist fight, but Two-Gun's weakened condition allows Luke to get the drop on him. But Luke has forgotten about Thunder. And you don't want to be on Thunder's bad side.

The story is fun--a mostly by-the-numbers Western with a clever use of Thunder as an ally to Two-Gun rather than simply his mount. There is one break in story logic. Two-Gun shoots the pistols out of the other outlaws' hands before pursuing Luke. At the story's end, these outlaws are tied up along with Luke. After being disarmed, did they just wait quietly while Two-Gun fought Luke? Not one of them picked up his pistol again?

Oh, well. I still like it. In the final analysis, Silver is the coolest horse ever. But Thunder, along with Topper, Trigger, and Champion, were also pretty cool. 

Next week, we return to the Lonely War of Willy Schultz.

Cover Cavalcade

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

From 1958: A pretty cool photo cover featuring Clayton Moore.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

Lone Ranger: "Blind Leader" 3/14/41

The commander of an army fort has an Indian uprising on his hands. His job is made more difficult by the fact that a battlefield wound left him blind. But with the help of the Ranger, Tonto and most especially Silver, he still might be able to lead his troops to victory.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Battle Ensign

 

A couple of years ago, I wrote about a novel set in the Second World War, recounting the adventures of a PT boat. It was written by Australian author and navy vet J.E. Macdonnell, who wrote something like a gazillion books about his country's navy during the war. As far as I know, the PT boat book and two others from that specific series were the only ones republished in the U.S. Perhaps Macdonnell deliberately featured an American protagonist to break into the U.S. market. 

His other books are hard to find in the States. Or at least they were. They are beginning to appear as ebooks. I recently read the first two--Stand by to Ram and Target Unidentified (both published in 1957)--and loved them. So I moved on to the third book--Battle Ensign.

The first two featured Commander Bruce Sainsbury as the protagonist. Sainsbury is the commander of the Australian destroyer Scimitar and he soon proves himself to be really, really good at his job. This job entails, at one point, ramming a much larger Japanese ship that was about to blow the Scimitar out of the water. 

Battle Ensign (1958) introduces a new protagonist, gunnery officer Peter Bentley. Newly arrived aboard the Scimitar, he soon clashes with the ship's new executive officer, but he soon realizes that Sainsbury is a highly skilled commander.

The Scimitar is assigned to an American fleet. On the way to join them, they are attacked by what they identify as a land-based Japanese bomber. But the Americans dismiss this. It must have been a carrier-based plane. After all, the only nearby islands are said to be deserted.

Well, a massive air attack by the Japanese sinks a couple of capital ships, so the American admiral changes his mind. The Scimitar volunteers to put search the islands, find the airfield and call in help to destroy it.

But Bentley, who will be accompaning the landing party, suggests that they might bring some TNT with them and perhaps do a little sabotage on their own if they find the airfield.  Bentley picks men he knows he can trust, but then the ship's exec--someone whose courage and competency Bentley has reason to doubt--is put in command of the mission. 

The chapter detailing the air attack on the American fleet is fantastic, but Scimitar's subsequent trip through a typhoon is even more intense. And then the mission on the island to locate and sabotage the airfield is even MORE intense that that. Aside from the great action, themes of courage, loyalty and redemption add to the strong emotions that run through the book's climax. 

Peter Bentley would continue on as protagonist of his own series, eventually getting command of his own destroyer. I'm looking forward to reading that series.

Hulk vs. Conan--well, sort of

 

cover art by Rich Buckler

The Incredible Hulk #200 ended with the Hulk, already shrunk down in size and inside the brain of Glenn Talbot (it makes sense in context) is shrunk further to prevent him from growing back to normal size while still inside Talbot's brain. (It really does make sense in context. Read my review.)

 Writer Len Wein and artists Sal Buscema and Joe Staton continue Hulk's microscopic odyssey in Hulk #201 (July 1976). He appears in a microscopic sword-and-sorcery world, where he's mistaken by a ragtag band of rebels to be the help they were trying to summon up to overthrow a despotic ruler.

Wein is having fun with another Marvel-owned character. A wizard briefs Hulk about the despot, who is called Kronak the Barbarian. His appearance and elements of his background mirror Conan. Essentially, he's an evil version of Robert E. Howard's character.

Like Conan, Kronak slew a king and took the throne, but he proves to be a despot. He also has possesson of a magic ruby. 

At first, Hulk isn't interested in helping. But when a little girl despairingly says that Kronak is too strong to ever be defeated, Hulk takes this as a personal affront. Seconds later, he's storming the castle.

Not surprisingly, he begins to curb-stomp the guards. But Kronak's personal wizard hits Hulk with a gas bomb, knocking him out and causing him to revert to Bruce Banner.

Kronak decides to have fun fighting the wimpy-looking Banner in the arena. This doesn't end well for him, as this causes Banner to change back into Hulk. Kronak's reaction to this in the above panels is wonderful to see.

Hulk swats Kronak aside, so the despot uses his magic ruby to call up a monster. The monster is a bit more challenging as an opponent, but when they grapple, Hulk gets angry. Which means he gets stronger. Which means the monster goes down.

Kronak's over-confident attempt to then personally punch out Hulk is yet another wonderfully realized moment. The story does a good job of quickly establishing Kronak as a bully, so it is fun and satisfying to watch him get his comeuppance.

By now, the rebels have also stormed the castle. They finish off Kronak and the guards, but then Hulk begins to shrink again, disappearing from this world to visit a yet-smaller microscopic world. 

And that will be one he's visited before.

This issue is great fun. The art is fantastic and Evil Conan is a great villain. This was published less than ten years after the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" first aired and is well before the Internet, so I suppose that the meme about evil versions of good characters having goatees probably wasn't out there yet. But it would have been kind of fun if Kronak had been sporting a goatee.

We'll rejoin the Hulk in three weeks. Next week, we'll head back to the Wild West for a visit with Two-Gun Kid.

Cover Cavalcade

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

Another 1937 cover by H.J. Ward

Friday's Favorite OTR

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

Lone Ranger: "Missouri Queen" 6/7/43

Outlaws plan to rob an army payroll being transported by a riverboat. The outlaw leader, though, is multi-tasking: he's also taken on the job of killing a woman passenger.

Click HERE to listen or download.

A Really, Really Big Frankenstein's Monster

 

cover art by Margaret Brundage

Recently, I posted the above image (concept art by stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien) on Facebook. It's about a proposed sequel to the original King Kong. In this story, Kong would have survived the fall from the Empire State Building and eventually get into a fight with a giant monster made by Dr. Frankenstein's grandson.  I like Son of Kong and I'm not convinced that having Kong survive wouldn't irreparably hurt the emotional impact of the original film's ending. But, all the same, it's too bad we never got to see this story brought to live by O'Brien's genius.

Anyway, someone mentioned that this reminded him of the Clark Ashton Smith story "The Colossus of Ylourgne," originally published in the June 1934 issue of Weird Tales. 

This one is set in the make-believe medieval province of Averoigne, the setting for about a dozen of Smith's tale. A evil sorcerer named Nathaire has vanished from the city of Vyones. Soon after, dead men start digging their way out of graves or walking out of their own funerals, all traveling to the same creepy castle (known as Ylourgne). A former disciple of Nathaire, named Gerard, investigates.

Gerard discovers that Nathaire is using the corpses to build a colossus--a giant constructed from the bones and flesh of the dead men. Nathaire is dying, so he intends to transfer his soul into the colossus and rampage across Averoigne, destroying the city of Vyones and taking revenge upon them for former persecutions. 

Gerard ends up a prisoner in a pitch-dark dungeon, but manages to escape. By now the colossus is going full-on Kaiju against the province, but Gerard--with his own magical knowledge--thinks he might be able to stop it.

It's a great story--hitting an appropriately creepy vibe from start to finish, enlivined by Smith's great prose and his obvious enjoyment of dropping in obscure words. (Seriously, don't read a Smith story without a dictionary handy.)

Clark Ashton Smith must have been  influenced by Frankenstein when he wrote this one. Such is the influence of Mary Shelley that it's impossible to do a story about reanimating the dead without thinking about her novel. But Smith takes the idea in a different direction. It's interesting that Willis O'Brien was thinking about a similar take on the Frankenstein story just a year or so before "The Colossus of Ylourgne." I don't think O'Brien's idea was known to the public (though perhaps it was mentioned in a movie magazine at the time), so Clark was almost certainly thinking up a giant Frankenstein's monster independently. Great minds think alike, I guess.

A comment on my original Facebook post suggested a movie version of "Colossus" made in the 1930s could have starred Ernest Thesiger as Nathaire and Colin Clive as Gerard. I can see Thesiger as the main bad guy with no problem. I don't know if Clive is right for Gerard, who has a few action hero moments throughout the story that doesn't give me a Clive vibe. I think that a young Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. would have been good in the part. With O'Brien animating the Colossus as it rampages acrosss medieval France, this would have been an awesome movie.

Willy Schulz, Part 13

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Will Franz and Sam Glanzman bring us the 13th chapter of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" in Fightin' Army #89 (January 1970). And it's a powerful chapter in the saga.

Willy is still fighting alongside partisans in Italy. As the story opens, they have some German soldiers trapped, with mortars sited to wipe them out.

But the German soldiers are all kids--a bunch of barely teenaged boys in uniforms and helmets too big for them.  I love the touch of ill-fitting helmets. It effectively emphasizes that this children are indeed... well, children.

Willy goes up to talk to them, urging them to surrender. He tells them they have families who want them to live. This backfires a little, as one of the kids point out that everyone in his family has already been killed. Willy promised his father he'd come back alive. The German kid promised instead to win an Iron Cross.

As is often the case in this series, Franz and Glanzman present us with a dialogue-heavy chapter, this time with very little action, but makes it work. The conversation is heart-rending and the tension--will the partisans be forced to kill child soldiers--is high.

But just as it seems that Willy has convinced the kids to surrender, a wounded sergeant pops out of a tent and shoots Willy. The bullet careens off Willy's helmet, knocking him out and sending him tumbling down the hill. But Major Dario, the OSS agent commanding the partisans, thinks he's dead. Enraged, he orders the Germans to be wiped out.

And that's it. Willy pins an Iron Cross on the corpse of the dead child he'd been speaking to, but knows that doesn't do any real good. It's war and in war, people die senselessly.

This is indeed a powerful chapter--one I might pick as the best of the series.

Next week, we'll return to the Hulk as he continues his journey through microscopic landscapes.

Cover Cavalcade

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

This 1956 cover is by Dan Spaulding.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

Lone Ranger: "Mad Murdock" 6/27/45

Wealthy Jim Murdock and his partner made a fortune in a dishonest gold mine deal. Now they need to get rid of the man they cheated--with a plan to frame the man for a murder that hasn't actually been committed. The Ranger and Tonto attempt to foil this plan by framing one of the villains for yet another murder that hasn't actually been committed.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Gracie Allen solves yet another murder

 

A few years ago, I reviewed The Gracie Allen Murder Case, in which Gracie (playing herself--or rather playing her usual comedic persona) teams up with Philo Vance to solve a murder. The movie was great fun--a good mystery as well as very funny.

That was in 1938. Four years later, Gracie starred in Mr. and Mrs. North. This is based on a play that in turn was based on the first North novel written by Richard and Francis Lockridge in 1936.

In the novel and the movie (and I assume the play, which I have never seen or read), the Norths are a happily married couple that finds a body in their apartment. Pam North (played by Gracie in the movie) seems a bit ditzy, but she's actually smart as a whip. She demonstrates regularly throughout the North novels, solving many a murder.

Played by Gracie, Pam becomes just plain ditzy. She is good at noticing things, but never completely puts clues together on her own and solves the murder pretty much by accident.

For fans of the novels, this can be a little disappointing. Pam is turned into Gracie Allen, who is again simply playing to the comic persona she and George Burns had perfected on vaudeville and radio.

But taken on its own, the movie is (like the Gracie Allen Murder Case) a lot of fun. It is a good, solid mystery--with the vital clue subtly dropped into the dialogue partway through the movie. The clues at first point to different suspects, including Pam and her husband Jerry, but in the end finger the actual guily party. The supporting cast, most notably Paul Kelly and Millard Mitchell as homicide detectives, are excellent. Tom Conway as a friend of the Norths and another suspect in the crime is also particularly good. 

And its funny. Gracie was a brilliant comedianne and she's a the top of her game here. One can help but wonder what the movie would have been like if George Burns had been cast as Jerry North rather than William Post Jr., but Post handles his straight man duties well. And perhaps George's presence would have made it too much of a Burns/Allen show and distracted from the murder mystery aspect of the story.

And Gracie doesn't hog all the funny bits. Felix Bressart is wonderful as a put-upon Fuller Brush salesman who has important information about the murder. But whenever he walks into a detective's office or the D.A.'s office, they assume he's there to sell them something and immediately throw him out.

So, as an alternate version of Pam North, Gracie does quite well. Here's a clip, but you can currently access the entire move on the Internet Archive HERE. 

Well, OF COURSE that's the way the brain works!

 

cover art by Rich Buckler

I love the twisted logic of Comic Book Science and I wouldn't have a comic book universe work in any other way!

Why was it so important for the Hulk to be captured in Incredible Hulk #199? We find out in issue #200 (June 1976--writer: Len Wein; artists: Sal Buscema and Joe Staton). Doc Samson puts an Encephlo-Helmet on Hulk, which allows Banner's personality to take control. Samson will then use a shrink ray invented by Hank Pym to sent Banner/Hulk into Glenn Talbot's brain to destroy the mental block that is keeping Talbot in a coma.

In a Comic Book Universe, this is a perfectly reasonable plan. 

AND it turns out that if you enter a person's brain while you are microscopic in size, the brain will generate special anti-bodies in the form of your arch-enemies (both good guys and bad guys) to stop you. They will be powerful enough to give the Hulk a run for his money and will end up destroying the Encephlo-Helmet.

The Hulk, now reverted by to his usual personality, finally encounters the mental block. And, OF COURSE, the mental block is a sentient slime creature with a lot of tentacles. Haven't you ever studied basic physiology?

I know I'm kind of making fun of all this, but I'm not really. This is imaginative storytelling. Even when couched in science fiction trappings, a Comic Book Universe is a fantasy setting, with sometimes only a tenuous connection to real life.

And that's the way it should be. There needs to be an internal story logic, but a C.B. Universe allows a good writer to take the story in all sorts of fun directions, allowing good artists to in turn run wild with his own imagination. This is exactly how it should be.

Anyway, after the Encephlo-helmet is destroyed, Doc Samson continues to track the Hulk via gamma radiation. The Hulk destroys the slime monster/mental block, but without the helmet to control his metabolism, Hulk begins to grow back to normal size. This would be a bad thing while he's still inside Talbot's skull. Samson does the only thing he can think of--shrink Hulk to subatomic size. That saves the now-cured Talbot, but seems to doom the Hulk.

But the Hulk has been in the micro-verse before. In two weeks, we'll start looking at his return visit. Next week, we'll return to the Lonely War of Willy Schulz.

Cover Cavalcade

 OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

This H.J. Ward cover from 1937 gives us an early version of what the Ranger looks like.