Murder of Roger Ackroyd

 

Angela and I recently discovered a podcast that discusses each of Dame Agatha's novels individually. We've started reading the novels themselves, then listening to the applicable episode together.

Also, we recently mentioned The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in the Bible study I teach, talking about how shocking people found the ending without giving the ending away. That got four others in the group to read the book themselves.

The 1926 novel (the third featuring Hercule Poirot--though Poirot had also appeared in a number of short stories) really is one of the best classic mysteries ever written. Both Angela and I had read it before, but we both enjoyed re-reading it.

We usually re-read classic mysteries because the protagonists (in this case, Hercule Poirot) are such great characters that we love re-visiting them. The first read is always the best, when we don't know whodunit. But we can still go back again and again. We like being metaphorically at the side of Poirot, Miss Marple, Holmes, Peter Whimsey and the other great detectives. They are the coolest people we know.

 

That's true in the case of "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." We love hanging out with Poirot, so can still enjoy the book even though we know how it ends.

 

But this is a novel where finding out who did it the first time you read it was downright shocking. Christie breaks the rules of traditional fair-play mysteries in this book, but STILL gives us a fair-play mystery. All the clues are there and Poirot's summation is solid.

 

So, when re-reading it as I just did, it is particularly fun to spot the subtle indications that point to the killer seeded throughout the book. This might be one of the most brilliantly constructed mystery plots ever written and returning to it deepened my appreciation for it.

Hulk Deals with Death

 

cover art by Dave Cockrum (with alternations by John Romita)

We conclude our periodic look at the Hulk with issue #207 (January 1977), in which Hulk has to come to terms with Jarella's death. The script is by Len Wein and the art by Sal Buscema and Joe Staton.

Last issue ended with Hulk arriving in New York City, desperately hoping that Dr. Strange can help somehow bring Jarella back. But a jumpy rookie cop sent Hulk on a rampage, with Dr. Strange and the Defenders showing up on the last panel to confront the green guy.

What follows is a nicely constructed action scene that also clearly shows everyone's motivations. The Defenders are honestly trying to calm down Hulk, but Strange's actions to prevent bystanders from getting hurt lead Hulk to think they've turned against him.

Hulk escapes for a few moments, during which he has a heart-breaking encounter with a woman he mistakes as Jarella. The Defenders catch up and more fighting ensues, until Nighthawk is finally able to talk the Hulk down.

This entire sequence shows how well Wein understood the characters and understood how to properly construct a story. The battle is not simply a mindless "let's you and me fight" scenario, but it's caused by misunderstandings natural to the situation and the characters. 

Back at Strange's home, Hulk explains what's going on. Dr. Strange knows there's certainly no chance of his being able to help, but he takes an ectoplasmic trip to Gamma Base to examine Jarella's body. He confirms that Jarella is indeed dead and beyond help.

The last few pages of this issue bring us even more heartbreak, with both story and art hitting exactly the right emotional beats to force us to experience Hulk's grief and unequivically empathize with him. Hulk screams, cries and breaks a few things before calming down enough to leave, saying that it doesn't matter what happens to him any more. It is a moment that--in the over 60 years the character has existed--perhaps best highlights the inherent tragedy of the character. 

And that's it for the Hulk. Next week, we'll lighten things up with a visit from Sir Spot, the Lion-Hearted Leopard.

Murder or Suicide?

 

cover art by Graves Gladney

Last week, we looked at a Shadow story which involved a Gypsy fortune teller--though actually she was a part of setting up people for crime.

This week, we'll look at a Shadow story published in the March 15, 1940 issue of the hero's magazine. In "The Veiled Prophet," we meet a villain who both plans crimes, then sort-of "predicts" them in notes he sends to the cops. 

This is another one written by Walter Gibson under the house name of Maxwell Grant.

The Veiled Prophet (also called Mokanna--after an 8th Century Arab prophet/con man) has a pretty neat set-up going. He digs up information on people who have committed crimes in the past, then blackmails them into committing crimes for him. He also alerts the cops to each impending crime, but with vague-enough information so that they are never quite in time to stop it.

The novel opens with one of those cimes in progress--but with the Shadow also on hand. He's figured out Mokanna's M.O. That particular cime is foiled. So is the next one, but in each case Mokanna's pawn is killed and any trail back to the main villain is lost.

There are suspects, though. Halfway through the book, a businessman is at least tentatively identified as Mokanna. He is then killed by apparent suicide with a note that confirms he was the villain.

Halfway through the book? Yeah, right.

The guy's spunky niece is determined to prove his innocence and soon ends up helping the Shadow as a sort-of defacto agent. There are at least three suspects who might be the real Mokanna. But Mokanna has a talent for deflected suspicion onto others and only a detective as good as the Shadow has any real chance of figuring it out. 

The strong plot is punctuated by several great action scenes, including a fight in an abandoned house in which the bad guys start tossing incendiary grenades at the Shadow, giving him a few bad moments. 

"The Veiled Prophet" isn't quite as good as "Gypsy Vengeance," but even an average Walter Gibson Shadow novel is a ton of fun.

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

Whelan's art graced a 1979 edition of Anderson's fun SF novel. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Suspense: "Murder for Myra" 8/9/45

Lloyd Nolan plays a man who is vamped by a married woman and convinced to murder her husband. That sort of thing never ends well.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Gypsies, Jewels and Double Crosses

cover art by George Rozen

 "Gypsy Vengeance (Shadow Magazine 8/15/34) not only has a typically cool cover, but also has a story by Walter Gibson--writing under the house name of Maxwell Grant--that gives us several typcially awesome plot twists. There's a reason the Shadow is the king of pulp heroes and this story is a prime example of why.

At first, the plot seems fairly straightforward. A woman named Lorrena is becoming well-known for telling fortunes and is often invited into the homes of the wealthy. She keeps her ears open and learns where jewels or other valuables are hidden. Soon after a visit by Lorrena, a gang led by a gangster named Mary Lunk breaks into that home and loots the valuables.

But the plot of the best Shadow novels is rarely that straightforward. Aside from Lorrena and Lunk's gang, there is a Gypsy named Valdo and his fellow Gypsies. There's Lorrena's manager, who might not have her best interests at heart. There's some particularly valuable jewels once owned by a Spanish nobleman and a guy who is particulary interested in finding them. And, of course, there's the Shadow and his agents.

 There's a number of great action sequences. Near the beginning of the tale, the Shadow fights Lunk's gang and leaves him with the necessity of recruiting a new gang. Later on, Cliff Marsland, one of the Shadow's agents, finds himself in a sticky situation and only barely survives.

The main plot thread in the novel invovles finding out where those Spanish jewels are. When they are located, the various characters converge on that location. This includes the Shadow, of course, who is cleverly manipulating matters so that the various villains meet their deserved ends. But some of those we think are villains are actually good guys, while some of those we think are good guys turn out to be villains. Bullets fly thick as the climax resolves itself.

"Gypsy Vengeance" really is a great example of Walter Gibson at the top of his form.

How to Fix a Broken Leg

 

cover art by Sam Savitt

Indian Chief was a great comic--an anthology in which you can pick pretty much any issue at random and not find a clunker amidst the two or three stories in that issue. Strong storytelling; engaging art; and historical accuracy shine out from every tale. (Caveat: The stories seem historically accurate to me, but I'm hardly an expert on Native American cultures. There could be any number of mistakes that I don't have the knowledge to catch. It's also possible that some of the stories were considered accurate at the time, but research done in the 70 years since their publication has changed what we know. But in any case, the stories obviously make an honest effort to treat various Native American cultures with respect.)

I picked Indian Chief #8 (Oct.-Dec. 1952) at random and--sure enough--both stories were great. Today, we'll look at the first story in this issue: "Bear Medicine"--author and artist unknown.

Our hero in this one is a Sioux named Crooked Knife, who has a bum leg which never healed properly after an accident. When the tribe is out hunting buffalo, someone spots signs of the Blackfeet (enemies of the Sioux) nearby. A trio of Dog Soldiers (the Sioux Special Forces guys) are sent ahead to scout. Crooked Knife wants to go. He wants to prove himself and get permission to mary the chief's daughter (who is awful cute). But his bad leg prevents this.

When the Dog Soldiers don't return, Crooked Knife does get permission to climb a nearby hill and keep watch. But partway up the hill, he's knocked off the path by a bear.

He lands on a tree limb sticking out of the side of the hill. The fall snaps his leg back into proper place--FINALLY, he can walk and move properly. 

Well, except he's stuck on a tree branch. But he sees a bear walking past on a narrow path he hadn't noticed and is able to climb down.

That plus a dream he had convinces him the bear is his spirit animal. But Crooked Knife doesn't have time to dwell on that. He finds one of the badly wounded Dog Soldiers, who tells him before dying that the other two were captured by Blackfeet.

He spots the prisoners, starts a buffalo stampede as a distraction, rescues the two prisoners and makes a run for it. But the three get cornered in the cleft of a cliff, with only one bow and a few arrows between them.

Things look grim for the Sioux, until Crooked Knife spots his spirit animal atop the cliff over the Blackfeet position. Crooked Knife saves the day by shooting his spirit animal in the butt, enraging it enough to attack the nearby Blackfeet. This allows the three Sioux to get away.

Back at their camp, Crooked Knife is formally made a Dog Soldier, gets a new name ("Fighting Bear") and gets to marry the cute Indian gal.

This is a fast-paced story with clear, straightforward art that tells its tale in an exciting manner. It is indeed a great example of what made Indian Chief one of the best comics ever.

You can read it online HERE. 

Next week, we'll return to the Hulk one more time.

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

 

A 1979 edition of Burroughs' novel. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Escape: "The Bird of Paradise" 3/11/54

A search for the valuable Bird of Paradise lands a South Seas trader on a remote island run by a madman.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

VALENTINE'S DAY BREAK

 

cover art by Sy Barry

VALENTINE'S DAY BREAK: No Wednesday or Thursday posts this week. Hopefully, my Valentine's Day outing with my wife will work out better than that of the couple on the above cover.

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

    

The first Xanth novel, published in 1977.  I think the series lost steam after the first six books, but the early ones were a ton of fun. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Shadow: "Carnival of Death" 11/10/40

A ghost train and corpes replacing wax figures in a museum are the important elements of a very strange case. 

Click HERE to listen or download. 

The Greatest Adventure of All!

 

If fans of genre fiction were going to list the greatest adventure heroes of all time, Flash Gordon would be in the top ten of many lists and probably at least in the top twenty of most. So when Filmation produced a 90-minute animated film recounting Gordon's quest to save Earth from Ming the Merciless, giving it the title Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All is perfectly appropriate.

It was the success of Star Wars in 1977 that led to Filmation's trip to the planet Mongo. Flash Gordon was one of the major influences on Star Wars, after all, so was a logical choice for another Space Opera. Also, Lou Scheimer was a fan of the original comic strip and the movie serials starring Buster Crabbe. So Scheimer made sure the characters and story was treated with appropriate respect.

The movie was made in the late 1970s for NBC, but it didn't air until 1982. That's because NBC opted to go with a Saturday morning cartoon instead. So scenes from the movie were re-purposed. 

That cartoon ran for two seasons. After it was cancelled, the original movie was reconstructed and broadcast in 1982. 

And it was awesome. 

The story (written by Samuel Peeples--who wrote the pilot episode of Star Trek) follows the original story arc from Alex Raymond's comic strip, though some changes and streamlining is done. The time period is updated to 1939, with Flash (an agent for the State Department) dodging German bombs in Warsaw. 

A clue from a dying man brings him to the hidden laboratory of Dr. Zarkov. By now, he's been joined by girl reporter Dale Arden. The three end up on a spaceship, Travellng to the wandering planet of Mongo, which is currently on a collision course with Earth.

Approaching Mongo, they are shot down by fighters, then encounter monsters, then get captured by cavemen-like creatures, who target them for human sacrifice. Along the way, they meet Thun, king of the Lion Men.

Eventually, the also meet Ming and his beautiful but ruthless daughter Aura. Flash and Thun end up enslaved by Lizard Woman, who force their slaves to dig up radioactive ore until the slaves are crippled and blind.

While this is going on, Ming chooses Dale as his next wife and Zarkov is forced to work in Ming's laboratory. Zarkov also learns that Ming has cut a deal with Hitler and is supplying the Nazis with V-2 rockets.

To stop all this, Flash needs to incite a slave rebellion, convince various factions on Mongo to stop fighting each other and team up against Ming, then figure out a way to overthrow Ming before his marriage to Dale. Oh, and before Ming conquers Earth.

It's a great movie--imaginatively animated, well-written, aimed at adults in the sense that people get killed, and faithful to the classic source material. If its not the Greatest Adventure, it's still pretty darn great.

Hulk visits NYC

 

cover art by Dave Cockrum

(with John Romita doing alterations to Hulk's face)

The previous issue of The Incredible Hulk showed us the death of Bruce Banner's love Jarella. Hulk loved the green lady as well and isn't willing to accept her death. So Hulk #206 (December 1976) picks up with the Hulk jumping across the United States, heading for New York City. If the army couldn't help Jarella, maybe "Magician" (aka Doctor Strange) can. The script is again by Len Wein and the art by Sal Buscema and Joe Staton.

It won't take long to summarize the major story points in this issue, but it is peppered with nice character moments. There's a scene in which Glenn Talbot is still dealing with his PTSD from being put into a coma by the Russians. There's a scene in which Doc Samson talks General Ross out of continuing pursuit of the Hulk, with Ross being forced to wonder if this has become more of an obsession with him rather than a duty. There's a very nicely done scene with Clay Quartermain and Doc Samson talking about Hulk and aspects of their duty to catch/help/leave him alone. 

But the action is still pretty good. Hulk downs a couple of military jets before Ross calls off the army. The NYPD, though, object when Hulk climbs to the top of the Statue of Liberty (he's trying to spot Dr. Strange's home). They don't want him to damage the statue, but their efforts are counter-productive.

When Hulk finds Strange's home, a mystic barrier prevents him from going in. So he sits on the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for the magician to come home.

This leads to another effective scene. Hulk is soon surrounded by the cops. Hulk is willing to leave them alone if they leave him along. The captain in charge also wants a peaceful solution, but also has to make sure there's no more damage done to the city. But the situation blows up when a nervous rookie pulls a trigger. 

This sets off the rampage that the police captain was hoping to avoid. Hulk breaks patrol cars and buildings for awhile, but the issue ends when he is confronted by Dr. Strange and three other Defenders.

The art is great and the action is fun, but its the effective character moments seeded throughout the issue that make it stand out.

Next week, we are taking a Valentine's Day break from Wednesday and Thursday posts (not my fault--it's legally required since I got married). In two weeks, we'll return after quite a long time to one of my favorite comics--Dell's Indian Chief.

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

 

This super-cool Elric cover is from 1976.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Phil Harris and Alice Faye: "Jury Duty" 2/20/49

Phil struggles to come up with a plan to get out of jury duty.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

A Hard-Boiled Western

 

Harry Whittington was a prolific writer. He penned a Man from U.N.C.L.E. that became a best-seller. He wrote a number of hard-boiled, often brutal crime novels. So it's not surprising that his Westerns were also brutal and hard-boiled. Desert Stake-Out (1961) is perhaps the best example of this.

 

Blade Merrick, a sometimes scout for the army, is tasked with bringing a wagon-full of medicine to a epidemic-ridden mission. This means a trip across a bleak desert controlled by the Apaches. Merrick has past experience with the Apaches--the exact nature of which isn't revealed to us until later in the novel--that makes sending him alone a worthwhile idea.

 

 

He doesn't stay alone, though. Along the way, he picks up a badly-wounded man and his wife, along with three outlaws whom he immediately realizes he can not trust. Soon, the party is at a waterhole, threatened by Apache and unable to trust one another.

 

 

It's a great set-up, generating a lot of tension. Whittington's characterizations are strong as well. Each person in the story, even the mostly despicable bad guys, have real dimension to their personalities. Merrick's past, including his history with the Apaches, is effectively foreshadowed so that when that past plays a key role in the novel's resolution, events play out in an unexpected and satisfying manner.

 

 

Much of the novel is Merrick and the outlaws playing cat-and-mouse with one another, with the situation eventually exploding into violence. When the Apaches show up, the novel comes to a brutal and tension-filled climax. At least we think its the climax, because when that situation is resolved, events spill into a SECOND brutal and tension-filled climax.

 

 

This may be my favorite Whittington Western.