Hot Money and Hot Diamonds

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #165

The third Dan Fowler novel--Hot Money--ran in the December 1935 issue of G-Men. George Eliot Fielding, writing under the house name C.K.M. Scanlon, continues as the writer.

This one builds on an interesting premise. 100 grand in cash was paid as a ransom in a kidnapping. The kidnapped lady was released, but the crooks got away with the money. That money, though, is hot. The serial numbers are known. If its spent anywhere, the Feds will swarm down on the spendee.

But the action soon moves out of the United States. In Paris, an Apache (the name used in the early 20th Century for Parisian street thugs) was arrested and found with a bill from the ransom in his possession. Dan Fowler is sent to the City of Lights to check this out.

Dan comes up with a plan to psych out the Apache and get him to talk, but this lead takes them to a murdered man. While chasing a suspect, Dan is briefly captured by the villains. He gets the best of his guard, killing the man, but the main villain gets away without being identifed.

Another bill has turned up, this one used by a snotty rich woman who is known for trying to sneak jewels past Customs whenever she returns to the States. Both Dan's attention and the attention of various bad guys turn to the jewels she is currently carrying. This brings the action back to New York City, though before arriving, Dan is knocked on the head and tossed off a passenger ship.

The action scenes in a Dan Fowler novel are always great--Dan swimming until exhausted, then getting ashore to be pursued by gunmen, is wonderfully intense. But the novel also works as a police procedural. When the jewels are eventually stolen from the snooty rich lady, the number of suspects expands and the G-Men pursue various leads in a logical, step-by-step manner. 

There's still plenty of action, though. A raid on the gang that pulled off the original kidnapping leads to a wild gun battle and the bad guys escaping on a boat equipped with a heavy machine gun. Later, there's a raid on a society wedding using tear gas, which involves Dan in a tussle to take a gas mask away from one of the villains. The climatic action scene has Dan holding off a quartet of bad guys, running out of ammo while trying to survive long enough for help to arrive. 

It's great stuff, perhaps the strongest of the series so far. Of course, I couldn't help noticing that Dan Fowler--supposedly the best G-Man in the business--gets himself captured a lot. You would think they would warn against that sort of thing when you are training at Quantico. 

Underwater Pirates

 

Cover art by Jim Aparo

The cover story for Adventure Comics #441 (October 1975) has some interesting credits. It was written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Jim Aparo. But then DC editor Carmine Infantino decided the dialogue had to be re-written by a more experienced writer. David Michelinie did so and this dialogue was pasted onto the original art.

The end result is an entertaining but flawed story. Aquaman is conducting his daily kingly business (meeting with diplomats, guild leaders, etc.) when he's interrupted by pirates dressed in traditional Gold Age of Piracy garb (but also wearing breathing masks) announce their presence. Their leader, Captain Demo, announces his intention to take over Atlantis.

Aquaman swims out to confront the pirates, whose "sailing ship" travels underwater and is equipped with laser cannons.  Here, we run into the story's main flaw. We see only portions of the ship as the action unfolds (at least until we see it fleeing at the end of the story). An underwater sailing ship is a cool idea and we should have been given a real sense of its scale. But instead, we see just bits and pieces.

It seems odd that an artist as skilled as Aparo or an editor as skilled as Infantino would miss this, but there you go.

Aquaman defeats the crew and also manages to beat down Captain Demo. But then Demo threatens Aquaman with his hook hand. Abruptly, the action switches from the fight back to Atlantis a short time later. Aquaman has surrended the city to Demo. Apparently, the pirate has one heck of a hook hand.

The pirates start demanding tribute, threatening to bankrupt the undersea kingdom. Mera tries to stop Demo, but Aquaman actually knocks her out rather than let her succeed. 

It's a neat little mystery. We discover the answer when Aquaman tricks Demo into getting the hook hand trapped in an oyster equipped with a jamming device. The hook is rigged to send out a radio signal that will detonate bombs hidden around Atlantis. Aquaman had to let Demo have his way until he could do something about that.

Aquaman and a posse of sea creatures drive the pirates out of Atlantis, though Demo makes a getaway in his ship. Aquaman figures that Demo will be back one day. Sadly--because an underwater pirate is an undeniable cool idea--I don't think he ever does. He simply sails away into Comic Book Limbo.

Overall, the story is visually fun and worth reading. 

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

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS DINOSAURS IN THE PULPS MONTH!

A Harold V. Brown cover from 1940. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Mysterious Traveler: "Change of Address" 1/22/52

A man wants to get away from his controlling wife. He sees an opportunity to do so when he rents a house that is "made for murder."

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Those Poor Moon People!

 NOVEMBER IS DINOSAURS IN THE PULPS MONTH!

cover art by Frank R. Paul

Well, I already knew that dinosaurs once saved Earth from the Martians. Today, I discovered a tale in Amazing Stories (February 1929) that tells us Earth was saved from the Insect People of Mars by the last living Tyrannosaurus Rex. "Death of the Moon" was written by Alexander Phillips. 

The poor Lunarians were running out of the resources they need to maintain a liveable atmosphere on the moon. Fortunately, they have a Jor-El-level genius among them who has a plan. Build a space ship; fly to Earth; make sure Earth is habitable; return to the moon; build a lot of space ships and move everyone to Earth.

It's not a bad plan, if only because it represents the only way the Lunarians can survive. If successful, it means mankind will never show up, because the Lunarians will be filling that ecological niche already. But--well, you can't really blame the Lunarians for not knowing about humanity before humanity existed.

The Lunarian scientist and his crew take off and arrive on Earth. They explore and like what they see. Well, at least until they see a hungry Tyrannosaur...

The story is a short, fun bit of science fantasy. Phillips, though, also manages to insert a bit of meloncholy at the story's end, as the last T-Rex, dying from raygun wounds after unknowingly saving mankind, passes on. The following quote is a spoiler, so jump to the link at the bottom of this post to read the story yourself before continuing:

The sinking sun bathed the saurian’s grim visage in a soft, warm light and as he gazed into the last sunset he would ever see, across far spaces into the mellow glory of the Life-giver, Tyranosaurus’ eyes softened and he was vested with a dim, far-away dignity as one whose purpose is accomplished. Gradually the harsh sobbing diminished and finally ceased and Tyranosaurus Rex, King of the Giant Lizards, most terrible of all carnivores, and most feared, had gone forever from earth.

The sun was gone. Far along the west stretched a streak of amber light, all else the night had claimed. High above the canyon, showing through a space in the leaves, sailed the round, full moon throwing her pure, white light, like a protecting mantle, over the broken, pathetic body of her perished son, the inventor, while deep below her surface she hid a race awaiting his triumphal return. Long would they wait — Long.

Poor Moon People. Poor T-Rex. -sigh-

The story is available to read online HERE. 

Willy Schultz, Part 15

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

Fightin' Army #91 (May 1970) brings us another excellent chapter in "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz," written by Will Franz and drawn by Sam Glanzman.

I really enjoy the way this story is constructed. It starts in the midst of action, with Willy being tracked by a trio of Germans. Willy kills one of them, but is himself wounded.

We then jump to a flashback--and a brief nightmare by Willy during that flashback--that together fill in the back story. Willy, Elena and a squad of other partisans are ambushed by Germans. Only Willy and Elena (who has some sharpnel in her leg) get away.

They take refuge in a farmhouse, but there's reason to suspect the husband and wife who live there may sell them out to the Germans. After all, the Germans would kill the family if its found they were hiding partisans AND the partisans have themselves stolen from farmers in the past. 

Still, there's no choice. Willy tries to stay away to watch the couple while Elena sleeps, but he drifts off. When he wakes up, he sees the husband has indeed led Germans to the house. Willy runs for it, trying to lead the Germans away from Elena. That's where we rejoin him, wounded with two more Germans still on his trail. 

He manages to take them out and return to the farm. More partisans have arrived and Elena is okay. But Willy isn't terribly happy with the farm couple.

In the end, though, he can't pull the trigger on them. Nor does he allow anyone else to kill them. He's simply had enough killing for the day.

It's a chapter that tells a suspensful story AND comments effectively on the brutality of war. As I mentioned before, I'm impressed by the combined use of flashback and nightmare to gradually give us necessary plot exposition. This chapter is a great example of just how exceptional as a whole this saga is. 

Next week, we'll dive into the ocean to visit with Aquaman.

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS DINOSAURS IN THE PULPS MONTH!

This 1939 cover was painted by Harold V. Brown.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "Death on My Hands" 5/10/51

Phil Harris stars as a band leader who ends up the target of a lynch mob when a young fan is accidentally killed while visiting him. Alice Faye plays the one person who sticks by him.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Desperate Plan after Desperate Plan

 

cover art by Rudolph Belarski

I've been reading through a PDF copy of the October 1940 issue of Foreign Legion Adventures, the second and also the last issue of this title, which depended largely on reprints. I've already covered a couple of the stories HERE and HERE.

Well, there's one more story inside this issue that's worth talking about. "Renegade Caid," a novella by F. Van Wyck Mason, was originally published in Argosy in 1930. Though it doesn't quite measure up to J.D. Newsom's "Soldiers of Misfortune" (the best story in the issue), it's still a slam-bang adventure, full of non-stop and brutal action.

Legion sergeant and former Texas Ranger Lemuel Frost is leading three other men on a recon patrol. While they out on the desert, their outpost is attacked and wiped out. The only survivor is Frost's best friend, who has been tortured and dies soon after being found among the dead.

The attackers were led by a Russian with a lot of combat experience. He used to be known as Prince Michailov who fought for the tsar, then sold out his troops to the communists, then sold out the communists. Now he's in North Africa, using a Muslim title and calling up troops for a violent jihad against Europeans. His troops are well-armed and well-disciplined, making him very, very dangerous.

Frost and his three men are the only ones who know about him, also finding out that he plans to raid another Legion outpost on the way to looting a supply depot and then attacking Christian natives who are gathered at a fair like lambs brought for slaughter.

Frost has an unfortunate (but historically accurate) tendency to use the N-word when referring to any non-white, but there's no doubting either his courage or his determination to avenge the death of his friend. He and his men ride their camels nearly to death to reach that second outpost. But the officer there has a grudge against Frost and fails to take his warning seriously. Frost's patrol rides on and the outpost is overwhelmed by Michailov's forces minutes later.

There's still a chance. The supply depot is at the other end of a narrow pass through some mountains. It can be easily defended if Frost's patrol can get there first. But their camel's are exhausted; they are hotly pursued; and there's more enemy troops in front of them.

Frost fights and improvises, tricking two groups of Michaelov's men into fighting each other. The Legionnaires arrive at the depot, only to find there's just four men stationed there with only a little bit of ammunition for their two machine guns. There's several boxes of dynamite, but no wire or detonators.

Frost must improvise again. There might yet be a way to stop Michaelov, but this might also mean asking a friend to die. When THAT plan doesn't quite work, Frost sees one last suicidal chance to turn the tide. 

"The Renegade Caid" takes a few pages of exposition to get things rolling, but then it gallops from page to page at a lightning pace as the Legionnaires gallop desperately from one seemingly hopeless situation to another. It's a great example of the sort of blood-and-guts adventure storytelling that the pulp magazines were often so good at. 

The story is available online HERE. 

What is Small Will Be Big Again!

 

cover art by John Romita

writer: Len Wein

Interior Art: Sal Buscema & Joe Staton

At the end of Hulk #202, The Emerald Giant had been shrunk down to microscopic size and, while visiting the micro-world ruled by Hulk's old flame Jarella, was zapped unconcious by the insectoid villain Psykolp. The is just after Hulk destroyed a giant robot that had been disguised as a giant troll-like human who had supposedly been causing earthquakes. 

Got all that?

As Hulk #203 (Sept. 1976) begins, Psyklop makes a rookie villain mistake. He tells Hulk the bonds that hold him are unbreakable. Naturally, Hulk gets mad and breaks them. Psklop, though, manages to hypnotise the big guy.

Psyklop uses Hulk to move equipment about while gloating to Jarella, explaining that the earthquakes shaking the planet had been caused by Hulk inadvertantly kicking the planet out of orbit last time he was here and was being enlarged for a return to Earth. Psyklop, though, has built a devise to make sure the earthquakes continue, with plans to eventually offer the life forces of those killed to the Dark Gods he worships.

By the way, I've written many, many geeky things in this blog, but several of the above sentences might just be the geekiest things I've ever written. Everything about this issue makes no real life sense, but flows smoothly along according to the logic of Comic Book Science. It's all wonderful.

And it continues to be wonderful. Jarella's people have been magically eavesdropping on Psyklop's monologing. Realizing they were wrong in their attempt last issue to sacrifice their queen to the "mountain god," they now storm the villain's lair. The villain, though, causes Hulk to see the people as an army of Psyklopes. The green guy attacks them.

Jarella's chief magicians counter this by causing Hulk to see the people as an army of Jarellas. This breaks Psyklop's control over Hulk, who once again attacks the villain. The container in which Psyklop has been keeping the life forces of his victims cracks, the Dark Gods get mad at him and zap him away to be punished.

It briefly appears that Hulk actually gets a happy ending. He and Jarella plan to get married and the people now love them. But, well, the Hulk doesn't get happy endings, does he? 

Back on Earth, Doc Samson has removed the atom containing Hulk from Glenn Talbot's brain. This is placed in a "micro-cannon" and Hulk is enlarged. Because he's hugging Jarella, she's enlarged as well. Jarella tells him she has to go back and that they are not meant to be as a couple. But then it's discovered she can't go back, because the slide containing the atom that contains her world has been smashed. 

It's not made clear at this point if Jarella's world is actually destroyed. It later turns out not to have been. How it survived is a question similar to "how did it end up inside Talbot's head."  The physics of subatomic worlds are simply beyond our ken. 

These last two issues really have been wonderful, building one absurd concept atop another without irony or parody and making it all work. 

Next week, though, we'll return to the more realistic world of Capt. Willy Schulz.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #35: Return of the Mucker

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #35: Return of the Mucker:   Jess, Scott and Tim discuss the sequel to "The Mucker." The first book was a Lost Civilization tale. The sequel changes gears to...

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS DINOSAURS IN THE PULPS MONTH!

The artist who painted this 1937 cover is uncredited.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Escape: "Roulette" 10/13/50

A young man is sowing a few not-so-wild oats before going out to college when he finds himself helping a beautiful woman escape assassins. It's painfully obvious to anyone other than the naive young man that the woman is playing him, but this actually makes the episode even more fun to hear.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The Secret Adversary

 

Angela and I recently discovered a podcast that had discussed Agatha Christie's books in publication order. Being who we are, we read Dame Agatha's first novel--1920's The Mysterious Affair at Styles--before listening together to the episode discussing it.  Now, we've moved on to her second book, reading it in preparation for listening to THAT episode. I have a wife who enjoys doing stuff like this with me. In other words, I have a perfect wife.

Christie's early novels are not as polished as her later efforts, but The Secret Adversary (1922) is still a blast to read. It introduces Tommy and Tuppence, two childhood friends who meet again right after the Great War ends and, both being broke, decide to start a company called "The Young Adventurers, Ltd." Then, without even meaning to, they stumble into their first adventure. 

It involves a survivor from the sinking of the Luisitania who has been missing for years; secret papers that were important during the war and are suddenly important again; a criminal gang of Socialists who plan to overthrow the British government; an American millionaire who might or might not be an ally; and a mysterious master criminal known only as Mr. Brown.

Tommy and Tuppence are not as revered a Poirot or Miss Marple, but I like 'em. They are both clever and their bantering dialogue carries the story along in a fast and entertaining manner.

The Secret Adversary is more of a thriller than a mystery, with both Tommy and Tuppence getting captured at different times along the way and the palpable aura of danger generated by the mostly off-screen Mr. Brown adding quite a bit of tension. There are mystery elements, though. involving the identity of Mr. Brown and the location of the secret papers.

Brown's identity is nicely handled. There's a rather obvious clue partway through the tale that points to one of two men. But which one is a mystery unless you pick up on several more subtle clues dropped in later. This gives Christie an opportunity to pull off what would become her usual technique of dropping in an unlooked-for plot twist at the novel's climax. 

There's also a clue that will tell a super-attentive reader where the papers are, but it's included in such a matter-of-fact manner that most of us poor shlubs reading the book will miss it. Tommy eventually gets it, though. He is clever.

We never find out what the contents of the papers are, by the way. It is a perfect example of what Alfred Hitchcock would later dub a Macguffin--an object that triggers the plot. All we need to know that it's something everyone wants and that's enough to carry the story. A Hitchcockian example would be the micofilm in 1959's North by Northwest. We never even get a hint as to what's on that darn film. All we need to know is that the bad guys have it and the good guys need it back.

One thing that's not a mystery in The Secret Adversary: If you don't know that Tommy and Tuppence are going to be in love and engaged by the end of the novel, then you aren't really trying. It's just as well. This allows them to appear in three more novels and an anthology of short stories.

True Love, Giant Warthogs, and Giant Robots

 

cover art by John Buscema

Before diving into the events of Hulk #202 (August 1976; written by Len Wein; drawn by Sal Buscem and Joe Staton), let's do brief review of Jarella.

We first met her in Hulk #140, when a villain named Psyklop shrunk Hulk down to microscopic size. The microverse Hulk ends up in is populated by green-skinned humanoids and ruled by the benevolent Jarella. When magically/telepathically taught the local language, Banner's mind takes over Hulk's body. He and Jarella develop a thing for each other before Hulk is enlarged back to normal. I reviewed that story HERE. 

Since then, Jarella has taken a trip to our world and Hulk (with Hulk's brain) has paid a return visit to Jarella's world. When you think about it, Hulk gets shrunk down to microscopic size an awful lot.

Hulk #202, for instance, is the third time in three issues Hulk is shrunk. He was sent into Glenn Talbot's brain in #200, visited a microverse in #201 when shrunk even smaller, and now has been shrunk smaller yet to make a return to Jarella's world.

The "geography" of the various microverses must be interesting. Any one microverse seems to be in a different location ever time its visited. This time, Jarella's world seems to be located somewhere in Talbot's brain. There's even a brief pause in Hulk's saga to take us back to Earth, where Talbot is on the way to have microsurgery to get Hulk out of him. Well, Comic Book Science can make sense of anything. Perhaps there are natural "quantum waves" that act to draw people being minaturized to specific locations in the microverse. Yeah, that's it.

In any case, this story arc seems to imply that somewhere in your brain, entire sentient races might exist on individual atoms. CREEPY!

Anyway, the art by Buscema and Staton is a lot of fun. Hulk gets into a wonderful fight with giant warthogs. Once he beats these, he sees Jarella about to be shot by a catapult onto a nearby mountain. He pulls off a mid-air rescue.

Hulk learns that Jarella's people have been hit by earthquakes and were sacrificing her to the "god of the mountain" to put a stop to this. Hulk decides to see about this god himself. Jarella, who cares for her people even though they just tried to kill her AND cares for Hulk, accompanies him. They climb the slope--though why Hulk couldn't have just carried Jarella and jumped to the top is beyond me. Even if he didn't think of it, you'd assume that Jarella would.

That's a small glitch in a visually fun story, though. Atop the mountain, they find a castle. Within the castle, they find a giant. The giant, as we discover when Hulk destroys it, is really a robot.

The Hulk vs. Robot Giant is yet another cool fight. This issue is, from start to finish, a visual delight. 

But Hulk doesn't get to live happily ever after. He's zapped unconscious by the villian Psyklop, who had built the giant and is presumably responsible for the earthquakes.

Why is he doing all this? We'll find out next week as we take a look at Hulk #203.

Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS DINOSAURS IN THE PULPS MONTH!

This 1934 cover is by Frank R. Paul

A review of the story "One Prehistoric Night" can be found HERE. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Burns and Allen: "George Late for Show" 8/19/40

George is running late for the show--and the reason for his tardiness just might be a source of jealousy for Gracie.

Click HERE to download or listen. 

What Could Have Been

 The last episode of the TV Western The Rebel aired on June 12, 1960. Titled "The Earl of Durango," it presents us with a murder mystery and two wonderfully realized characters helping Johnny Yuma investigate that murder. It's obvious that this episode was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a new series. It's a tragedy that the pilot wasn't picked up. Provided the writing remained sharp, it would have made a great mystery show. The Wild West setting would have made it all the more interesting.

Johnny Yuma arrives in a Western town to take a job as bodyguard. But the guy he's supposed to guard is murdered before Johnny can begin that job. Johnny wants to find out who did it, but everyone in town is happy the guy is dead.

But Johnny soon has a couple of allies in his investigation. C. Spencer Scott is an Englishman who gave up writing philosophy texts to make lots of money writing dime novels. He's become known as the Earl of Durango. Now, with the help of an ex-Texas Ranger named Otis Rumph, he solves murders. 

Scott is played with a suave wittiness by John Sutton and Otis is played by the great character actor L.Q. Jones. The mystery is a good one, with both Scott and Johnny Yuma contributing ideas to solving the murder. The guest cast playing the citizens of the town include more always-entertaining actors such as George Tobias and Victor Buono.

I love some of the dialogue, especially Otis' brief summary of why he partnered up with the Earl:

"Well, Reb, I'll tell yer. I misspent my youth getting saddle sores on somebody else's cattle drive. I spent two years on $20 a month as a Texas Ranger. And two years shooting people I wasn't mad at during the war. Now you put it all together and I figure I don't have such a bad break with the Earl. Besides that, I admire him. Besdies that, he saved my hide once."

It really is too bad this didn't become a series. Otis and the Earl were a unique crime-solving duo. 

Here's the entire episode on YouTube:

Willy Schulz, Part 14

 

cover art by Sam Glanzman

The next chapter of "The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz" appears in Fightin' Army #90 (March 1970). Will Franz is still the writer and Sam Glanzman continues to provide the excellent artwork.

Willy is still fighting alongside Italian partisans and he's definitely not having an easy time of it. The story opens with Willy and some partisans trapped in a house, with a German tank outside about to blow them into oblivion.

While several wounded men provide covering fire, Willy and the others make a break for it, reaching a ditch with the hope of taking out the tank with grenades and molotov cocktails. This is a desperation tactic and it doesn't look like it will work.

Several men are killed when a molotov cocktail detonates in the trench. Others panic and run only to be machine gunned. In the meantime, the tank has destroyed the house and killed the wounded men there.

Willy's the only one left. He manages to blow a tread off the tank in the nick of time, then hit the tank with another molotov. But when a German crawls from the burning tank, Willy can't make himself shoot the man. He's saved by the arrival of Major Dario, the OSS man in charge of the partisans. Dario shoots the German just before the German shoots Willy.

So far, we've been given an intense battle scene. The story winds down with Willy and Dario discussing the situation. Dario reveals that he doesn't really believe Willy is innocent of the murder he was charged with so long ago. He also wonders why Willy would regret having to kill the Germans who just slaughtered the wounded men in the house. Willy counters this by saying the dead Germans had friends as well. 

And that's it. This chapter is one incident during Willy's time with the partisans. But, aside from the fantastic battle scene, it once again explores the moral uncertainty of war and does so intelligently. 

All the same, as I write these reviews, I do wish the saga had spent more time dealing with why it was necessary to fight the Nazis. We do get some of this in the last chapter of the saga and its obvious that both Will Franz and Sam Glanzman understood the evils of fascism. I think this superb series could have been a little better if that aspect of the war had been in the forefront more often.

On the other hand, the saga has been making the legitimate point that many individual German soldiers were not evil men. And no one work of fiction is obligated to examine every single moral aspect of the story being told. If Franz and Glanzman choose to concentrate on one aspect of war and do so with dramatic power and intelligence, then perhaps there's no reason to complain. This is something that must be left up to each individual reader. 

Also, the last chapter was written years after the original series was cancelled. Perhaps if Franz and Glanzman had been able to continue the series in the early 1970s, they would have spent more time on the evils of fascism. Who knows?