Friday's Favorite OTR

Fort Laramie: "Winter Soldier"  6/17/56

A Winter Soldier is a guy who joins the cavalry during the winter to get food and shelter, then deserts in the spring. But what happens when a Winter Soldier is suddenly forced to be a real soldier?


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One More PT Boat Book

I may be at risk of alienating what few regular readers I have, but for the fourth time over the last few months, I'm going to write about a young adult novel that deals with PT boats during World War II.

Two of the novels (HERE & HERE) were among some books I read as a kid and only recently identified and read again. During that quest, I also stumbled across two other PT boat books that might have been among those books, but it turned out they were not. So I was reading these two for the first time. One of them was Torpedo Run, by Robb White. The other is Thunderboats, Ho!, written by Rutherford C.Montgomery in 1946. 

Like The Hostile Beaches and Torpedo Run on Iron Bottomed Bay, this one is set during the Solomon Islands campaign. That probably is the most interesting setting for a PT boat story--there was a variety of different missions on which the little craft could be sent. For instance, in the other novels, we've seen  them attack large warships, hunt barges sneaking supplies to the Japanese on Guadalcanal, and deliver equipment to coast watchers on enemy-held islands. 

In Thunderboats, Ho!, the PT boat crewed by the main characters is sent out night after night after the Japanese ships that are bombarding the marines on Guadalcanal. Montgomery was writing this right after the war and only a couple of years after the Guadalcanal campaign. It's obvious he did his research, presenting the action against an historically accurate background. (I'm afraid I don't know anything about him, so I don't know if he himself served.) In fact, like John Clagett did in Torpedo Run on Iron Bottomed Bay, he also shows us that the PT boat crews had ringside seats to watch the naval Battle of Guadalcanal, in which battleships and cruisers shot each other to pieces.

I will say that the nature of a secret mission on which the boat is sent halfway through the novel does not exactly drip with realism (it involves an unlikely way for the Japanese to deploy an aircraft carrier), but if you just go with it, you'll have fun. 

Montgomery handles action sequences extremely well, generating excitement and suspense as needed to keep us interested as we read. He might use the "PT Boat must zig-zag to avoid gunfire from warships" scene one or two times more than he should, but he manages to get some variety in when the boat is sent on a mission that takes them well into enemy territory. After they complete the mission, the need to conserve fuel and find more fuel when they run low is effectively used to drive the action. An attempt to steal gasoline from a Japanese base and later take out a sniper are particularly tense scenes. The climatic action scene is a ground combat action on a beach with some of the crew against enemy troops that does keep you on the edge of your seat.

The book's weakness, especially compared to the other PT boat books I've read, is the lack of characterization. The point-of-view character is Mike Moran, the boat's captain. He and the rest of the crew are likable enough, but the only thing that differentiates them from each other are their names. No real effort to give them individual and real personalities exist.

The one exception to this is Malope, a native who joins the crew to act as their guide during their secret mission. Malope is awesome. We're never told if there is an English translation for his name, but it pretty much has to be "Death to All Japanese." Like most natives of the Solomon Islands, Malope has little reason to love the Japanese and he makes good use of his knife to show his displeasure with them. Speaking in pidgin English, Malope can superficially be seen as the sort of racial stereotype common in fiction of that time. But he's accepted as an equal by the crew and probably does more to get help them complete their mission than anyone else. Malope is indeed awesome and the most memorable character in the book.

Well, that's it for PT boats. I promise. I've run out of PT boat novels. FOR NOW!

Scientist and Private Eye

When Alex Raymond left the military after World War II, he found himself in need of work. Flash Gordon--the comic strip he had illustrated before the war--as still going strong, but the syndicate that owned it (King Features) was happy with Austin Briggs, who took over the strip when Raymond enlisted, and declined to give the Flash back to Raymond. But Raymond's name was still a draw and they didn't want to lose him to another syndicate.

So editor Ward Greene came up with an idea for a detective character--someone who would break the mold of the hard-boiled P.I. that populated much of of pulp fiction and comics. This character was eventually named Rip Kirby. The bespectacled, pipe-smoking Kirby was a very academic looking guy. In fact, he actually was an academic--an accomplished scientist and author. But he was also a Marine veteran and could more than handle himself in either a gun fight or a fist fight. These were skills he would need, as the cases in which he would be involved often involved murder and kidnapping. The bad guys Rip would face off against were quite brutal.

Raymond would draw the strip and get sole published credit, though Ward Greene and later Fred Dickenson would write it.

  Rip Kirby debuted on March 4, 1946, with Greene and Raymond doing an excellent job of establishing Rip's character and background and tossing him into a murder investigation in just the first two days.



We also, by the way, meet Kirby's butler Desmond, a reformed burglar who is more than willing to get into the thick of things along with his boss. In fact, in a later story arc, Desmond saves Kirby with some expert pistol work, picking off a pair of hitmen.

Gee whiz, where do you find butlers like that? I can't afford my own butler, but if I could, I'd want to hire someone like Desmond. Because what sense is there in having a butler if he can't help you solve murders? But how do you advertise for that particular position? "Must cook, clean and pick locks. Ability to calmly kill Mafia hitmen highly recommended. Background check required."

Anyway, the murdered woman is a fashion model. Rip's girlfriend, Honey Dorian, is something of a looker herself, so she's soon helping the investigation by getting work at the same modelling agency that had employed the murder victim. This soon leads to her receiving a nasty death threat.

Raymond had drawn Dashiell Hammett's strip Secret Agent X-9 in the 1930s, so in a way this sort of storytelling wasn't new to him. But Rip's unique look and personality made him stand out from the crowd and Raymond's smooth, realistic style was perfect for the strip. Some strips need to plow through a story arc or two before finding its proper footing. Rip Kirby knew where it stood right from the start. Rip comes across as believable and likable, while this premiere story moves along in a brisk and logical fashion. As Rip follows up clues and hunches, we are fed enough information each day to move the plot along, punctuated with occasional bursts of action and another murder. Jealousy, brutality, an additional murder, and drug addiction all play their parts in the tale.





There are a number of suspects involved, but expert story construction and solid characterizations allows us to keep track of everyone. Still, original readers might miss a day or two and new readers might jump on board at any time, so Raymond was careful to devote one Monday (about two-thirds of the way through the story) to giving us an "Our Story So Far" strip.

In the end, Rip fingers an unlikely suspect as the killer and solves the case. The route he took to the killer involved a combination of legwork, forensics and deductive reasoning. This formula was a perfect fit for Rip Kirby and would continue to be used effectively in subsequent story arcs. Rip really was a well-rounded guy.

Raymond would illustrate the strip for a decade. After Raymond's death in a car accident, Rip Kirby would continue on with other artists until 1999. 53 years is not a bad run at all for any detective.

Next week, we jump a thousand years into the future as the Legion of Superheroes tries to save the population of a doomed planet.

Cover Cavalcade

As much as I appreciate e-publishing helping make obscure titles available again, I do miss fun publishing concepts such as the Ace Double.

Friday's Favorite OTR

You Are There: "The Fall of Troy" 4/25/48

The CBS news crew jumps back not just into history but into legend to report on the end of the Trojan War.

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"You’ll get a new head, Morbius. The crowning irony."

I've been listening to the recently produced Big Finish audio productions starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who. Baker has returned to the role after nearly four decades for a series of superbly written new adventures. He's in his eighties now, but darn it if he doesn't sound as energetic and fun as ever.

So that has put me in a Whovian frame-of-mind, causing me to pretty much randomly pluck a Doctor Who novelization off my shelf. I used to own quite a few of them, but bookshelf space limitations eventually forced me to pare them down to those novelizations of the Tom Baker years. He will always be my Doctor.

My Dr Who novels are faithfully guarded by Kirk, Spock,
McCoy and the Fellowship of the Ring!

Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius was published in 1977, based on a 4-part serial that was broadcast in 1976. The novel was written by Terrance Dicks, a writer and script editor for the series who was also the usual go-to guy for the novelizations. He was really good at that. The novelizations did include an occasional clunker, but if Dicks' name was on the cover, you could be certain you'd have fun reading it.

Dicks wrote the original script for the serial as well. His idea was for a Time Lord war criminal--reduced to a disembodied brain--having a new body built for him by a robot servant. The body would be a mish-mash of parts from different species because the robot had no aesthetic sensibilities. 

But the idea proved to be too expensive and had to be re-written to drop the robot. Dicks' was out of the country at the time and someone else did the re-write. Dicks asked that his name be taken off the finished script, which is why the novel's title page tells us that it is "based on the BBC television serial by Robin Bland."

Well, however unhappy Dicks may have been with the script, he did his usual excellent job on the novel. The Time Lord criminal is still there--Morbius had rebelled against the other Time Lords and launched a campaign of conquest and destruction across the galaxy, gathering up an army of fanatical followers from various planets.

One of those fanatics is a brilliant surgeon named Solon. When Morbius is caught and executed by the Time Lords, Solon manages to secretly save the brain and keep it alive. Now Solon lives on the desolate planet of Karn. He's used bits and pieces from different alien bodies to build a bizarre new body for Morbius, but has yet to find a suitable head for brain.

So when the Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith arrive on Karn, Solon figures he's hit the jackpot. A Time Lord head is the perfect receptacle for Morbius's Time Lord brain.

What follows is a story that is deliberately modeled off of Frankenstein, gothic horror and Hammer horror films. Solon even has a deformed assistant--Condo is the big and nearly super-strong survivor of a spaceship crash. His left arm has been replaced by a metal one with a hook at the end. Solon keeps Condo under his sway by promising to eventually give him a new arm--not telling the poor guy that his original arm is now part of Morbius' body.

There's another faction on Karn as well. The Sisterhood live there as well, using the naturally occuring "Flame of Life" to produce the Elixir that grants them immortality. They were also enemies of Morbius (though they have no idea what Solon is up to), but initially think that the Doctor has been sent by the Time Lords to steal the Elixir. Telekinetic powers make them dangerous adversaries.

All these elements are mixed together to tell a suspenseful and often very creepy horror/sci-fi/adventure tale, with the plot continually twisting and turning.. The Doctor, as always, remains awesome throughout it all. Sarah Jane--always my favorite companion--gets her share of awesome moments as well--including a few even after she's been struck temporarily blind by the Sisterhood. Solon is over-the-top hammy, but that's just the right note to hit for his Mad Scientist role. 

By the way, if you ever go into the Mad Scientist field, don't abuse your deformed assistant. Solon isn't very nice to Condo and that comes back to bite him in the end. As for Morbius--who fulfills the role of Frankenstein's Monster in the story--when he finally gets the new body he's so desperately wanted, he tragically discovers that it isn't necessarily the blessing he thought it would be. 

The TV serial is a good one, with strong acting and pure imagination helping to make up for some of the low-budget special effects. The novel expands on some of the characterizations and Morbius' backstory and, of course, doesn't have to worry about a special effects budget. It's a faithful and entertaining version of the tale, well-worth finding and reading.

Death of Three Robots

Four months after Shogun Warriors came to an end, Doug Moench used an issue of Fantastic Four to give those characters some closure.

Fantastic Four #226 (January 1981) starts with a giant robot stealing a train (the whole train, mind you) full of gold off a track in eastern Europe. When Reed and his family hear about this on the TV news, their thoughts go to the Shogun Warriors--the only giant robots they currently know are extant. Have the Shoguns gone bad?

Of course, they never use the phrase "Shogun Warriors." Marvel no longer had the rights to the characters. The human pilots--Savage, Genji and Carson--were Marvel creations and could apear, but the actual robots could not.

That's what makes this well-written story is actually pretty clever. Not being able to show the robots means a final Shogun story is potentially disappointing or anti-climatic. In fact, we find out that all three robots have already been destroyed by a new renegade robot. We don't see more than bits of debris--not enough of them to risk copyright violation. How can this not be disappointing?

Well, first, the story is a good one. Part of the set up is Franklin reenacting David and Goliath with some action figures, then getting miffed when his dad doesn't pay any attention to this. This seems like a throwaway bit of characterizations, but its setting up future plot point.

Savage, Genji and Carson show up at the Baxter Building to report the destruction of their robots. All three are feeling down--suddenly, the most important part of their lives have been forever taken from them.







But there's no time for whining. The renegade robot is robbing a bank in Japan. The location is near the Shogun's sanctuary (destroyed during the course of their own book). Along with the three former robot pilots, the FF flies off to deal with this.

At first, the robot is too tough a nut to crack, fighting past both the FF and the local military. The pilots, meanwhile, have entered the sanctuary to find out what's going on. The robot shows up and helpfully explains everything.

The robot's pilot is a random guy who stumbled across the ruins of the sanctuary. He found a partially constructed robot and figured out how to finish building it. He also found information about the Shoguns, so made a point of destroying them.

His motive? He pretty much just enjoys being a bully.

The FF regroup and attack again, but are still having trouble finding a weak spot.

But then, Reed proves he was paying attention to Franklin's David and Goliath game. Trying the same ancient tactic, he plants a big rock right between the robot's eyes. This dazes it long enough for the FF to get the upper hand and allow the three pilots to get inside and jump the big bully. Everyone then gets clear just before the robot self-destructs.

The story as a whole is a good one, with Bill Sienkiewicz giving us effective art work. The foreshadowing with Franklin's story is something a lot of readers will probably pick up on, but it still works nicely.

And the last page gives us effective closure for Savage, Genji and Carson despite the absence of the robots. The three had been feeling collectively depressed because they no long had their own giant robots. But all three realize they have productive lives to live. One does not need a giant robot to be a hero. As Richard Carson says: "Heroism is a relative thing--and it can be done in little ways on a small scale--on a human scale."

Not that one would turn down a chance to own a giant robot should the opportunity arise. If anyone has a spare giant robot they are looking to get rid of, I'll take it.

Next week, we'll visit with "the first modern detective."

Cover Cavalcade

As long as we live in a world protected by Kangaroo Man, I don't ever really worry about anything.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Philip Marlowe: "The Iron Coffin" 7/12/16

Marlowe gets involved in a case that seems to involve supernatural forces. The actual solution to the case might not include ghosts, but its very likely to include a violent death.

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Calamity Jane Can Sure Carry a Tune!

It's difficult to think of Roy Rogers without Dale Evans, but Roy did make a number of B-movies before Dale joined him. My favorite of his pre-Dale films is perhaps 1940's Young Bill Hickok.

The movie is towards the end of the Civil War. A villain representing a never-named foreign country wants to cause chaos and violence in hopes of destabilizing the West and eventually snatching up gold-rich California.

The villain is played by John Miljan, who was particularly good at playing oily, smooth-talking bad guys. He hits all the right notes here--you can believe he is smooth enough to fool everyone into thinking he's an honest businessman, but he still makes you want to punch him in the mouth every time he talks. He gives us a villain you love to hate--which is always a lot of fun.

Roy plays young Bill Hickok. Calamity Jane (played by pretty and personable Sally Payne) is also in the film. Neither Hickok or Calamity bear any resemblance at all to their real life counterpoints (a picture of the real Calamity next to Sally-as-Calamity is below), either in appearance or personality. Young Bill Hickok may borrow a few historical persons for characters, but this is done purely for name recognition. The story itself is complete fiction.

But that's okay, because it's a good story. And besides, if Calamity Jane wasn't anything like Sally Payne, she by golly SHOULD have been! I'll bet the real Calamity couldn't have distracted a saloon full of thugs with an entertaining song as effectively as Sally does.

In the movie, Bill is an agent for Wells Fargo. When a gang of raiders working for the villain begin to rob and burn, Bill earns his nickname "Wild Bill" by defending a stagecoach station against ten outlaws.

So when a large shipment of gold needs to be taken East to fund the war effort, Bill is given the job. His plan is to lead a heavily-guarded fake shipment east to draw out the raiders. In the meantime, Calamity and her uncle (played by the ubiquitous Gabby Hayes) sneak east with the real gold shipment.








But Bill's girlfriend inadvertently gives the plan away to the bad guys. The gold is stolen and the
villain manages to frame Bill for the crime. Naturally, this forces Bill to go on the run until he can find the gold and prove his innocence.

It's amazing how often B-movie cowboys are framed for crimes or mistaken for criminals. Just about all of them have the worst luck in this regard.





Young Bill Hickok has a strong plot, a great villain, the typically beautiful location photography found in most B-westerns and several strong action scenes. Gabby and Calamity provide some fun comic relief and prove to be resourceful allies as well. The versions of Hickok and Calamity Jane here are so far from reality that it's amazing the real-life versions don't rise from their graves in response to this just to start drinking heavily again. But for those of us who enjoy good storytelling, the fictional Bill and Jane we find here will suit us just fine.