Cover Cavalcade

 NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!!

From 1960, here's a Sam Glanzman cover.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Mysterious Traveler: "The Accusing Corpse" 4/16/44

A supposedly perfect blackmail plot gradually begins to unravel.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Stolen Manuscripts and Multiple Murders

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #173

A year after we were introduced to rare book dealer Joel Sloan and his wife Gerda in Fast Company, the two returned in 1939's Fast and Loose.

But they are no longer played by Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice. Rather, they've been transformed into Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

It is perhaps even more obvious in the sequel than in the original that MGM is trying to replicate a Thin Man vibe with this series. The Sloans banter with each other constantly. As with the first movie, this is just fine. Montgomery and Russell have good chemistry together and Russell in particular is a master at playing that sort of character. 

In this one, Sloan is asked to be an agent in the purchase of a Shakespeare manuscript. He and Gerda are staying at the home of the current owner when things begin to get hairy. The manuscript turns out to be a forgery. The owner's personal librarian disappears. And then the owner is murdered.

Gerda isn't happy about Joel investigating another murder after he got shot in the behind last time. But there's no choice. The cops suspect someone Joel believes to be innocent. 

There are a number of other suspects, including a ruthless gangster who tries to threaten the Sloans and later has his thugs run them off the road. Sloan keeps plugging away, even after his best theory is seemingly shot down and two more murders occur. But eventually, he is able to finger the killer and find the real Shakespeare manuscript.

It really is a fun movie. I think Montgomery and Russell play off one another even better than Douglas and Rose (though that's subjective--both couples are excellent). The murder mystery is relatively clever and the banter is indeed witty.

One more movie in the series to go---with different actors again taking over the lead roles. We'll soon see how they stack up against the others.

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 3)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Chapter 3 of Avengers Annual #1 (1967--writer: Roy Thomas; artist: Don Heck) moves the action to Asia, where Hercules and the Scarlet Witch are confronting the Enchantress and the Executioner. The bad guys have brought along an army of trolls, but Hercules  and Wanda wade through those until they essentially give up and go home.

So the battle quickly narrows down to two heroes and two villains. The Executioner figures an epic battle like this needs an epic location, so he carves through dimensional barriers with his axe and brings all four of them to a between-dimensions location called the Citidal of Silence.  This annoys the Mandarin (who is listening in on the battle), because there's something in Asia his supposed minions are supposed to bring him. But Asgardian bad guys have always had trouble listening to mere mortal bosses. The Executioner tosses the communication device away.

It's a nifty bit of irony in that whomever wins the fight, the Executioner's arrogance alone has already spoiled this part of the Manderin's plan.

Hercules and Executioner pound away at each other while Enchantress trades hexes and spells with Wanda. 

Eventually, Herc knocks out his opponent. Wanda has done pretty well against Enchantress in the meantime, but the villain eventually forms up some debris into a frost giant that's a little too much for the Witch to handle. 

So Herc throws the unconscious Executioner into the giant, destroying it and knocking out Enchantress with the ensuing magical backlash from her spell being disrupted.

So it's another win for the bad guys. The two villains are bound with Enchantress's hair, which will keep them prisoners until Odin can judge them, while Hercules and Wanda return to Earth. 

Once again, Don Heck's art is magnificent, with this issue continuing to change my opinion of his art. I never hated it, but never loved it. Now I kinda love it.

The fight is imaginatively choreographed and the arrogance of the villains is captured perfectly. Hercules is portrayed as a big bruiser, but who also keeps his head during the fight. I love that he uses his unconscious opponent as a missile.

Next week, we'll move to Africa to see how Thor and Hawkeye are fairing.

Cover Cavalcade

NOVEMBER IS CHARLTON WAR COMICS MONTH!!! 

A Jack Keller cover from 1970.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Escape: "She" 7/11/48

Despite the half-hour run time, this episode gives us an effective and atmospheric adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's classic novel.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Game For Heroes

 

With World War 2 approaching its end, one-eyed commando Owen Morgan is tasked with a mission. He's to scout out one of the Nazi-occupied Channel Islands--an island on which he grew up--because it was feared that the Nazis on the island would not surrender once Germany fell.

An American commando team accompanies him, assigned to sabotage any ships in the island's harbor. Things go awry and both Owen and the commandos are captured.

From here, things get really interesting. Owen actually befriends a German sergeant named Steiner, a hard-core veteran of the Russian front, but who is not a Nazi but a decent human being. But the commander of the Germans on the island is a fanatical Nazi named Radl, who holds the loyalty of a unit of SS troops. It's Radl who refuses to accept the news that Hitler is dead when this is reported over the radio.

The book is obviously setting up a clash between the prisoners & good Germans vs the SS troops. But before that, in an incredibly intense action scene, Allies and Germans must team up to take a life boat out into a near-hurricane storm to save the crew of a German ship hung up on some rocks.

This leads directly into the equally intense climax, in which the Allies and good Germans do indeed have a final battle against Radl and the SS.

It's a book that kept me up until 1 am last night because I didn't want to put it down. Great action, great characters, with themes of friendship and courage running throughout.

This was written in 1970 under Higgins' James Graham pen-name, a few years before "The Eagles as Landed" put him on the bestseller list. It's interesting to note that he reused several character names (Steiner and Radl) for major characters in "The Eagle as Landed" and also reused a minor plot point. (The Steiners in both books briefly serve in a unit that has men riding a modified torpedo that carries a second torpedo to be launched at Allied shipping.) Higgins also used the idea of Allies and Germans teaming up to save lives as a major plot point in his later novel "Storm Warning." And his World War II novels often explore the idea that not every German fighting in World War 2 was evil.

Higgins was writing adventure novels, not dissertations on morality, but I always kind of wished he had explored the idea of good Germans a little further. Usually, Higgins admirable German characters are brave soldiers serving their country. A discussion of about the right/wrong of serving one's country when that country is ruled by a despotic maniac bent on racial genocide would have been interesting. To be fair, Higgins does deal with the evils of Nazism quite powerfully, but his good Germans are still on the front lines shooting at the Allies. This doesn't make them less effective as characters in Higgins' novel and the author's general point about not condemning every German is valid. But I'm always reminded of the character of Eric Koenig from Marvel Comics. Eric was a German who fought with the Allies as a member of Nick Fury's Howling Commandoes. In his view, overthrowing the Nazis was the best way to serve Germany.

But then, if Higgins spent too much time delving into moral philosphies, there wouldn't have been room for his great action scenes. Game for Heroes is intense and unputdownable.

Avengers Annual #1 (Part 2)

 

cover art by John Buscema

(with alterations by John Romita)

Last week, we looked at the first chapter of Avengers Annual #1 (1967), written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Don Heck. In it, we saw the Mandarin gather together a team of supervillains. He sends them out to attack three different locations, one each in Africa, Asia and South America.

For this chapter, the action moves to South America, where Power Man and Swordman lead an army of mercenaries to capture a diamond-rich city. The two villains speed past the defending army in an air car and confront the city officials with an ultimatum. Either they give up or THE HUGE SWORD HOVERING OVER THE CITY will drop down and destroy everything.

The city officials are cowed and about to surrender when Wasp and Goliath show up. What follows is a cool fight scene, with Goliath and Power Man beating down on each other, while Wasp tries to snatch the activation device for the sword away from Swordsman.

Goliath takes more hits than he gives, but then uses his size-shifting abilities to confuse the villain and get in a knockout blow. Wasp is temporarily stunned by Swordsman, but recovers quickly enough to save her husband's life later in the fight.

But Swordsman does have time to use the device and send the sword dropping down towards the city. This, in turn, gives Iron Man a chance to save the city, using every drop of energy in his suit to stop the sword from falling and eventually throw it off into the jungle.

I have always been a little critical of Don Heck's work. I've always thought his figure work was a little stiff. But looking at this issue is making me re-evaluate my opinion. His art is dynamic and strong throughout, with the above Iron Man splash page being a highlight.

The writing is strong as well. We have a unique threat, a well-choreographed and fun fight scene and a moment of epic heroism. 

So this chapter ends with one of the Mandarin's three attacks being thwarted, though the Master Villain once again reminds us that only one of the three needs to succeed for his Master Plan (whatever that may be) to also succeed.  Next week, we'll see how things go for his team in Asia.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #39: Tarzan the Untamed

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #39: Tarzan the Untamed:   Jess, Scott and Tim discuss the 1920 novel "Tarzan the Untamed," in which the Jungle Lord goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge a...

Cover Cavalcade

  OCTOBER IS HAWKEYE & GREEN ARROW MONTH!!!

A 1961 cover by Murphy Anderson.