Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #14--Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6--"...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #14--Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6--"...:   An analysis of Chapter 6 of the 1912 novel "Tarzan of the Apes," in which the young Tarzan encounters a savage gorilla and... an...

Cover Cavalcade

Another wonderful Ace Double cover--this one from 1958.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Fort Laramie: "Old Enemy" 7/15/56

A trooper who has held a grudge against Captain Quince since the Civil War is assigned to the fort. He begins to subtly cause trouble among the enlisted men. The tense standoff between the two enemies at the climax is particularly well-done.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Old Enemies Teaming Up Against Nazis!

 

I hadn't seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks since it originally played in the theaters in 1971. I actually didn't remember a lot about it. It was mostly the finale that stuck in my mind--the images of magically animated suits of armor fighting Nazis. To my young mind, that was awesome.

Well, by golly, it's STILL awesome. In fact, as a grown-up, I realize it is awesome in many ways that hadn't originally occured to me as a child.

Angela decided one night recently that she wanted to watch it. So we rented it and did so. The plot is a lady learning to be a witch. She lives in a small town near the coast in England during World War II and has just been unwillingly saddled with three children who were evacuated from London during the Blitz. (There was a part of me that was hoping the Pevensie kids would have a cameo when the Bedknob kids are at the train station.)

The kids soon discover that Miss Price (Angela Lansbury) can do magic, though she's not very good at it. She's been taking a correspondence course on the subject.

But when she receives a letter telling her the course was cancelled before she receives the magic words for the final spell (a spell allowing her to bring inanimate objects to life), she uses a magical bedknob to travel (with the kids) to London to find Mr. Brown (David Tomlinson), who taught the course.

Tomlinson is a con artist and street merchant who had no idea the spells he was sending her actually work. But the book from which he was taking the spells is missing the last page. So they all end up trying to track down a source for the magic words--a quest which takes them to a land populated by talking animals. 

So far, it's all been great fun. The animated sequence involving a soccer game played by the animals involves some clever and funny slapstick action. An earlier musical number ("Portobello Road") works both as a lively number AND involves some subtle character development. The prissy Miss Price starts to liven up, while Mr. Brown (despite some shady aspects to his personality) turns out to have a healthy sense of both fun and community. That the two of them end up in love by the end of the film is predictable, but also surprisingly believable. 

But the really, really awesome part is the final act. A small force of German soldiers has landed in England from a U-Boat, intending to destroy British morale by showing they are vulnerable to a full-scale invasion any time. But by now, Miss Price has the words for that magic spell.

She also has access to a surprisingly large number of suits of armor and military uniforms in the local museum. 

The sequence is staged magnificently, with a seemingly endless line of animated armor--immune to bullets because no one is inside them--marching relentlessly towards the Germans and sending them running for the shore in panic. 

And, watching as an adult, I noticed something that got by me as a kid. Its something that isn't even overtly commented on in the movie, but it's there.

The armor and uniforms are from various periods in British history, including examples of those soldiers who would have once fought each other. Redcoats are fighting alongside Highlanders, while we see Roundheads marching towards the Nazies along side a Cavalier. 

They may have tried to kill each other during their time in history, but when the Germans set foot on British soil, all that is set aside. All that matters is kicking Nazi butt and scouring them from the English countryside!

It truly is awesome.

A Lamb Becomes a Wolf

cover art credited to Bob Kane

Head injuries in fiction are interesting things. In real life, getting knocked on the head will likely result in a concussion and is not something you shrug off easily after a few minutes. And, aside from possible short-term memory loss, you aren't likely to get amnesia or suddenly have another personality become dominant.

But in fiction, either you do shrug off a head injury OR you end up with some form of amnesia/personality change. 

For instance, a story in Batman #2 (summer 1940, written by Bill Finger and the art credited to Bob Kane) starts off by indroducing us to a mousy guy named Adam Lamb, who is custodian of a private museum and a lover of murder mysteries.

One night, Lamb takes a fall down a flight of stairs. He had been reading a book titled The Crime Master and, upon awakening, decides to become a crime master. He promptly murders some poor sap he randomly encounters on the street.

Changing his name from Lamb to Wolf, he spends his nights planning crimes and forming a rather large gang. Where a museum custodian, regardless of his personality change, finds criminals willing to join a gang is not explained. Heck, if I suddenly decided to form a criminal gang, I wouldn't have the slightest idea where to go to find recruits. I live a sheltered life,  I guess.

When Wolf wakes up in the mornings, he reverts into Lamb and has no memory of his other life.

Batman and Robin begin encountering the gang, but are initially unable to catch any of them. 

That brings us to one of the weaknesses of this otherwise very entertaining story. Batman doesn't have to do any actual detective work to eventually get a line on Wolf and his gang. By mere chance, he meets Lamb and that later notices a dent in Lamb's car that IDs that car as having been at the scene of one of the crimes. This story really is fun and, to be fair, it quite properly focuses on Lamb's shifting personality. But giving the Dark Knight some real detective work to do rather than eventually triumphing because of dumb luck would have made the tale that much stronger.

By following Lamb, Batman and Robin are able to find the gang at the docks. When Batman gets shot and falls into the water, we get a wonderful image of just how Medievel the Boy Wonder will go if he thinks you've killed his mentor.

And remember, this story was written before Alfred came into the picture, so Bruce has to later depend on a 12-year-old boy to perform surgery on him and remove the bullet--all while Bruce is conscious! 

Eventually, Batman realizes that Wolf is patterning his crimes after those in the Crime Master novel, which allows him to stop the madman from committing a murder in the nick of time. Badly hurt, Wolf reverts back to Lamb and, now remembering everything he did, confesses his crimes before dying. 

The finale hits just the right emotional notes, generating a real sense of tragedy when Lamb dies. 

So its a strong story, punctuated with several great action scenes and a genuinely tragic figure in Adam Lamb. Despite the script depending on an element of dumb luck in Batman's detective work, its one of my favorite Golden Age stories.

Next week, we'll return to Animal Comics #4 to find out what Little Dinky the kitten is up to. Of course, all cats are evil, so I'll probably be unable to review the story objectively, but I'll try.

 

Cover Cavalcade

A dynamic Gil Kane cover from 1973. How many superhero fights have taken place on suspension bridges? New York City could sell tickets and solve all its budget problems. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #13: Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5--"...

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #13: Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5--"...:   A discussion of the fifth chapter of the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, in which the young Tarzan begins his life among his adopted family...

Friday's Favorite OTR

Great Gildersleeve: "Selling the Drugstore" 2/22/42

Gildy gives a lecture to Leroy about always telling the truth, but finds himself having a bit of trouble maintaining that same standard when it might cost him money.

Click HERE to listen or download.

The End of the Rull/Human War

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #115

The last of the stories that A.E. Van Vogt later rewrote into the fix-up novel The War Against the Rull was one of three that was originally set in the Rull Universe and the second one that originally featured Professor Jamieson, who was made the protagonist of all the stories when they were changed for the novel.

"The Rull" was published in the May 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and begins with Jamieson surveying a planet that would make a strategically useful base for either the humans or the Rull. 

It turns out that Jamieson isn't the only one interested in the planet. A Rull ship shows up. Violent shenanigans ensue and both ships end up damaged. For several days, the Rull is stuck in his ship with a jammed hatch while he cuts an alternate exit. Jamieson is stuck in his ship for that time as well, recovering from an injured leg.

The opponents are both highly intelligent, though the Rull has a physical advantage in his ability to absorb damage, strength and keenness of his senses. So Jamieson realizes he's either going to outsmart the Rull or he (Jamieson) is going to die.

During the long Human-Rull War, both sides have learned a little about the other, though both individuals on both sides are conditioned to kill themselves if captured. All the same, the Rull have ways of playing on the human subconscious in deadly ways. Jamieson is aware of this, but it is still a difficult tactic for him to counter.

But the Rull aren't the only ones good at psychological warfare. Jamieson comes up with a plan involving Pavlovian conditioning that might not only allow him to survive, but also net a valuable prisoner. As it turns out, Jamieson realizes that he might concievably found a way to end the war.

Read in their original pulp versions, the Van Vogt stories I've been reading probably don't really qualify as Read 'em In Order entries, since only three of them were originally set in that universe. So it's possible I may soon be arrested and sent to "Bad Blogger" prison. But Van Vogt's stories are always worth reading. His prose is clear and straightforward, while his ideas are always clever and often (for the time they were written) innovative. A Van Vogt story will always leave you satisfied.

You can read "The Rull" online HERE. 

You know, I haven't done a movie series as part of the Read/Watch 'em In Order series for awhile. I have several DVDs of the Whistler movies, recorded off of Turner Classic Movies a few years ago. These are B-films from the 1940s based on the radio series. Though, like the radio show, the movies were an anthology series featuring different characters, I think it might be argued that they qualify as Read/Watch 'em In Order material. If not, then I'm just giving the Feds more evidence to get me on "Bad Blogger" charges. But sometimes, life must be lived dangerously. 

Project Pegasus--Part 4

cover art by George Perez

Though I thought the exposition-heavy Marvel Two-in-One #53 was a slow issue, #54 (August 1979) moves along at an exciting pace, giving us a great action and a strong story. Co-written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, it is fun from start to finish.

The issue picks up right where the previous one left off, with Ben about to be ambushed by Deathlock. 

The unpleasantly-visaged cyborg came from the future, but had been brought back to our time by Ben in a previous Two-in-One issue. Sometime in the interim, though, he had been lobotomized, removing his human personality, and was now being used by as-yet unidentified bad guys to set up something called an "Nth Projector" in the lower levels of Project Pegasus.

But to do that, Deathlock has to get past Ben. Unfortunately for Ben, the cyborg carries a laser powerful enough to cut through even his rock-hard skin.

Losing blood, Ben weakens, though not before crushing Deathlock's laser gun and right hand. When Quasar and some security guards show up, Deathlock runs for it.

The story has a nice rhythm to it. The fight with Ben is followed by a breather in which Deathlock makes his way down to the lower levels of the Project, with Quasar in pursuit. There, we get another fight scene. The exposition we need is doled out without breaking the quick pace of the story, something the previous issue struggled with. 

Despite losing his laser, Deathlock is apparently still bristling with back-up weaponry, including gas capsules and yet another laser. Quasar, though, holds his own until Ben shows and and demonstrates you don't mess with the Thing even when he has one arm in a sling.

The art in this issue has John Byrne breakdowns, with Joe Sinnott doing the finished art and inking. The art is strong throughout, but I think Byrne and Sinnott really shine when showing us Deathlock's tragic finish, torn apart by laser blasts and with Quasar then pretty much forced to vaporize him to stop a self-destruct device. We've been reminded several times that Deathlock was once human, giving his gradual destruction a sincere emotional impact.

We get another break from the action with a brief and honestly funny interlude with Thundra, who is learning to be a professional wrestler and turning out to be really, really good at it. (Shouldn't a world in which superheroes exist have rules about using super-strength in atheletic competitions?) This is setting up events of an upcoming issue.

We also see that Bill Foster (aka Giant Man) is working at the Project, setting up Ben's co-star for the next issue.

And the issue end with Dr. Lightner, one of several supposedly-reformed evil scientists working at the Project, getting orders from the unknown bad guys to launch a back-up plan, since Deathlock didn't finish setting up the Nth Projector. So Lightner sets free a mindless, nuclear-powered monster called Nuklo. Gee whiz, Project Pegasus security really does stink!

We'll return to Project Pegasus soon. Next week, we'll look at one of Batman's early adventures, in which a lamb turns into a wolf.