Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast #11--Video Version

Also, here's the video version of the latest mini-podcast. The audio version can be found HERE.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Phillip Marlowe: "Nether Nether Land" 9/1/51

A woman claiming to be followed shows up at Marlowe's apartment in the early hours of the morning, then vanishes a few minutes later. Marlowe has few clues available with which to find her.

Click HERE to listen or download.

"... meet your fate with the dignity becoming a scientist."

cover art by Hubert Rogers

Read/Watch 'em in Order #109

Between 1940 and 1950, A.E. Van Vogt published six stories in Astounding Science Fiction featuring a scientist named Jamieson who is involved in a war against an alien race called the Rull. Mankind has spread out across the galaxy and even visits other galaxies, contacting and befriending many intelligent races. But the Rull don't make very pleasant friends.

They are man-sized centipede creatures that can't or simply refuse to communicate with any other intelligent species and--in fact--make constant war in their efforts to wipe out any species that is indeed intelligent.

The stories were eventually collected and linked together into a 1959 fix-up novel titled The War Against the Rull. I'll be reviewing each story as it first appeared in Astounding, but we'll look at them in the order they are placed in that book (which is different from the original publication order). The novel adds two short chapters of extra material to link the tales together more coherently, but I don't believe the stories themselves were re-written at all from their original pulp appearance. Please note that I'm not 100% sure of that. (EDIT: In fact, when I got around to reading the second story, I discovered I was wrong about how much re-writing was done.)

Anyway, Professor Jamieson's first appearance chronologically is from "Co-operate.. or else" (Astounding, April 1942), an intense adventure tale that throws Jamieson into trouble starting with very first sentence.

The professor was aboard a spaceship transporting a large, six-legged animal called an ezwal back to Earth. But as the story begins, Jamieson is floating down to the surface of a jungle-thick Death World, hanging from an anti-gravity raft and with the ezwal sitting on top of that raft.

art by Charles Schneeman

We soon find out that the ezwal is intelligent and communicates telepathically. They are a species that has pretty much rejected mechanics and manufacturing--they are essentially the neo-Luddites of the galaxy. But they have been happy in their low-tech lives until humans showed up and spoiled things.

Because didn't realize ezwal were intelligent and have killed and even occasionally eaten them. So the ezwal want humans off their home world and this particular ezwal wants to make sure Jamieson doesn't let anyone know that the ezwals are smart. They know that they can't stand up against a concerted human effort to destroy them and being thought of as mere animals is their best defense until they are ready to launch a counter strike. That counter strike involves cutting a deal with the Rull.

So the ezwal has killed everyone aboard the spaceship except Jamieson, who tried and didn't quite succeed in getting away from the large beast.

art by Charles Schneeman

But Jamieson knows something the ezwal doesn't. The planet they are both about to be stranded on truly is  a death world, thick with a variety of large, hungry animals and a species of intelligent and carnivirous plants. To survive, the human and the ezwal have to work together. On another level, Jamieson has to convince the ezwal that an alliance with the Rull won't work. The Rull would simply kill and eat all the ezwals. It's what they do.

art by Charles Schneeman

Van Vogt describes the action vividly and generates a strong sense of danger. He also creates a pretty awesome alien species in the ezwal and the dialogue between it and Jamieson is a highlight of the story. The ezwal might look like an elephant-sized killing machine, but it is very erudite. Here's an example:

"Man and his thoughts constitute a disease. As proof, during the past few minutes, you have been offering specious arguments, apparently unbiased, actually designed to lead once more to an appeal for my assistance, an intolerable form of dishonesty."

Jamieson and the ezwal debate the issue of co-operation, eventually realize they must co-operate, begin to fight their way through the jungle, and then find their situation takes a turn for the worse when the Rull show up looking for them.

"Co-operate... or else" is a great start to the Rull story, generating conflict on several levels and eventually resolving those conflicts satisfactorily.

You download this issue of Astounding HERE. Remember its the April 1942 issue.

Ghost Ship

cover art by Neal Adams

An anthology book--especially a horror-themed book that obligates the writer to come up with a twist or shock ending every darn time--can be a mixed bag. But when the creators of a particular story hit their mark, the end result is can be an atmospheric tale and a visual treasure.

Writer Jack Oleck and artist Jack Sparling came up with "Ghost Ship," the lead story for House of Mystery #197 (December 1971) and I think the two Jacks definitely hit their mark here. It's set in 1858, aboard a sailing ship with a brutal and tyranical captain named Jonah Frame. He is cruel, uncaring of the lives of his men and apt to punish them harshly for the slightest infractions. After several deaths, the crew begin to grow mutinous. 

It is when a young cabin boy named Jamie spills coffee on Captain Frame that matters are brought to a head. The crew won't stand for a boy being flogged and soon a deadly brawl breaks out between the crew and the officers.

A fire breaks out during the fight, detonating the gunpowder the ship is carrying. The only survivors are Captain Frame, the story narrator (John Dodson) and young Jamie, adrift together while clutching to a broken spar.

So far, the story is a pretty good one, elevated by Sparling's art. I especially like his panel design in the one of the pages above, using slanted, vertical panels to highlight the the danger of working atop the mast during a storm.

Well, this is a House of Mystery tale, so its not surprising when something supernatural happens. They soon find themselves aboard a literal ghost ship, crewed by the spirits of sailors who can't seem to see or hear them. Frame refuses to acknowledge that this ship is indeed the Flying Dutchman or that there is anything supernatural going on. Dodson and Jamie believe what they see, though, and jump off the ship before it vanishes. Frame is trapped aboard the ship for all eternity.

The twist comes in the final panel. When Dodson and Jamie are picked up by a non-ghost ship, we don't see them directly as they tell their story and are dismissed as having gone mad while drifting on the sea. But are they mad? Was it all an hallucination? If so, why--as we finally see in that last panel--have forty years passed and why are Dodson and Jamie both four decades older?

It's not the world's greatest twist and might have been made stronger by a little foreshadowing about the passage of time while on the Flying Dutchman. But it's a pretty good twist and it is strong enough to sell the story. And Starling's art remains strong throughout. "Ghost Ship" is well-worth reading.

Next week, a look at the comic book adaptation of one of my favorite Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #11

Tim, Jess and Scott listen to an episode of the 1950-51 Tarzan radio series and comment on it. This episode--"Tarzan and the Arena of Death"--borrows elements from ERB's 1932 novel Tarzan and the City of Gold, incorporating those elements into a self-contained story.

You can listen or download the episode HERE.

Cover Cavalcade

A superb Robert McGinnis cover from 1965.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Mini-Podcast #4: Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.

I geek out over ERB's 1916 novel Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.

Click HERE to listen or download the audio version. Or watch the video version:

Friday's Favorite OTR

Philo Vance: The Identical Murder Case 12/27/49

A man is mistaken for Philo Vance and murdered because of this. To catch the murderer, Philo will have to deliberately walk into a trap.

Click HERE to listen or download.

IT'S NOT MY FAULT! MY WIFE MADE ME READ THEM!

Even before we started dating, Angela and I were trading book recommendations, mostly history books, mysteries and fantasy. But after she snared me and had me in a position where I dare not refuse her anything, she told me I should read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, which were a favorite of hers when she was growing up.

And, as much as I would delight in pretending to grumble and complain about this, I enjoyed the series enormously. They are at least slightly fictionalized accounts of Laura's childhood growing up on the frontier, but still filled with historical accuracy and characters you come to care for a great deal. Laura's prose is clear, straightfoward and able to generate honest emotion. Seeing events unfold through Laura's eyes as she grows up over the course of the books is often fascinationg.

For me, there is one book in the series that really stands out--The Long Winter (1940), which recounts the winter of 1880-81 in the Dakota territory, in which a series of blizzards struck the Ingalls homestead in a seemingly unending volley and kept them housebound, with dwindling supplies, for months. Outside the house, the railroad has stopped running and the cattle suffer and often die.

I think Laura's prose here is her best--giving a vivid and downright terrifying word picture of the ensuing hardships:

That blizzard seemed never to end. It paused sometimes, only to roar again quickly and more furiously out of the northwest. Three days and nights of yelling shrill winds and roaring fury beat at the dark, cold house and ceaselessly scoured it with ice-sand. Then the sun shone out, from morning to noon perhaps, and the dark anger of winds and icy snow came again.

The Ingalls run out of fuel for their fire, so begin twisting sticks of hay together to make fuel while they use a coffee grinder to grind wheat and make a little bread each day. But the storm continues.

The constant beating of the winds against the house, the roaring, shrieking, howling of the storm, made it hard to think. It was possible only to wait for the storm to stop. All the time, while they ground wheat, twisted hay, kept the fire burning in the stove, and huddled over it to thaw their chapped, numb hands and their itching, burning, chillblained feet, and while they chewed and swallowed the coarse bread, they were all waiting for the storm to stop. 

There was nothing but cold and dark and work and coarse brown bread and wind blowing. The storm was always there, outside the walls, waiting sometimes, then pouncing, shaking the house, roaring, snarling, and screaming in rage.

Gee whiz, The Last Winter at times nearly becomes a horror story and it is a completely engrossing, riviting tale. It is, by far, my favorite of the series.

So there you have it. My wife made me read the Little House books and I actually enjoyed them.

Um, don't tell anybody. Okay?

Don't Lie to White Eagle

Cover Artist Unknown

If I had to pick a Best Comic Book Ever, I'd give Dell's Indian Chief careful consideration for that title. Part of the reason is that the settings for the stories appeal to me--tales of American Indians before the influx of European settlers (though the presense of horses in some stories indicate a post-Columbian time frame for at least some of the stories). Part of the reason is that they appear to be very well-researched--though I'm not anywhere near an expert and could be getting fooled in this.

Mostly, though, it's just that the stories were always well-written adventure tales that were enormous fun to read. Dell Comics in the 1950s had some of the best writers in the business churning out countless strong scripts. Indian Chief was a beneficiary of this.

The book was an anthology, but for part of its run did feature a continuing character. White Eagle was a chief of the Sioux--a man who wanted peace but was more than willing to fight when he had to to defend his people. I've reviewed one of his adventures a few years ago and, by golly, it's time to pay him yet another visit.

Indian Chief #16 (September-November 1954) includes "White Eagle and the Treacherous Mission," which starts out with a bang when braves from the Winnebago tribe launch several attacks on the Sioux.

There is supposed to be a peace treaty with the Winnebagoes and White Eagle is reluctant to go to war becauseo of the actions of a few hotheads. So when Gray Wolf, the chief of the Winnebagoes, visits the Sioux village looking to reaffirm their peace treaty, White Eagle readily agrees to make a return visit along with four of his minor chiefs.

I like the way the unidentified writer handles this situation.  White Eagle wants to avoid a war, so he gladly consents to the peace conference. But that request to bring all his minor chiefs apparently sets off an alarm in his head. He brings along an armed escort when he travels to the Winnebago village.

Grey Wolf  won't stand for the presence of the armed Sioux braves, though. White Eagle isn't able to "trust and verify" to the degree he'd like, so in his desire for peace, he takes a chance. When Grey Wolf gives his word that there is no danger, White Eagle agrees to have his escort return home.

He knows he's taking a chance here, so he remains observant and plays Sherlock Holmes as he observes several clues that warn him Grey Wolf is planning treachery. But by then, it's too late. Though White Eagle makes a good fight of it when the Winnebagoes jump him and his chiefs, they are all captured. The Winnebagoes then plan to launch a surprise attack on the leaderless Sioux.

As I said, I really like the way the story handles all this. White Eagle in no ways seems stupid or naive when he walks into Grey Wolf's trap. He knows he might be betrayed, but chooses to take a risk in order to save the lives that would be lost in a war. In this case, he made the wrong choice, but it was a chance worth taking.

But it isn't easy to keep a Sioux warrior captive and Grey Wolf commits the Classic Villain Mistake of allowing his captives to live so he can gloat. Left tied up in a teepee, White Eagle manages to cut the ropes with a piece of broken pottery. He then knocks out an enemy warrior and takes his war mask, which allows him to mingle with the other Winnebagoes and learn their plans. Grey Wolf is planning on launching a two-pronged attack on the Sioux village after approaching it via canoe.

White Eagle frees the other Sioux captives and they swipe a canoe, taking a short-cut through some dangerous rapids to get home before the Winnebagoes can arrive.

Artist John Daly has been doing a fine job of illustrating this tale, but I think his skill as a visual storyteller really stands out during the final battle between the Sioux and the Winnebagoes. Each panel is exciting and progresses the battle in a logical fashion as the Sioux defeat their enemies and Grey Wolf gets killed.

This, like nearly every story in Indian Chief, is an example of solid, entertaining graphic storytelling with an engaging protagonist. This consistency in quality was typical of its entire run. You really can make a case that Indian Chief is the Best Comic Book ever.

You can read this story online HERE.

Next week, we'll take a ride on a ghost ship.