Paperbacks at War

 

 

Paperbacks at War, including several reviews written by ME, is now available. You can purchase a copy HERE. 

Friday's Favorite OTR

 This is Your FBI: "Skyway Man" 3/7/52

Safecrackers are robbing the proceeds of carnivals and county fairs. For their latest job, they intend to make a getaway by airplane--and frame the pilot for the crime.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

They Are Not DOLLS! They Are ACTION FIGURES! part 1 (and Big Little Books part 1)

One thing my parents were great at was buying us wonderful toys. Sometimes, though, I had to endure the agony of one of my brothers owning a particularly cool toy instead of me. Why did my older brother own the Major Matt Mason action figure (and the super-cool Space Crawler) and not me? It's not fair! It's not!

Well, at least I owned the Major Matt Mason "Big Little Book." That was pretty cool. (And I had the satisfaction of seeing Ed take his battery-operated Space Crawler to the beach, where sand got into the works and it stopped working. But it would be petty to mention that years later, so... um... forget I mentioned it, okay?)

That Big Little Book, titled Moon Mission (1968), tells us more about the moon than those darn Apollo astronauts ever did. Did you know there are giant rabbits and giant worms on the moon? I'll bet you didn't. By golly, it's enough to make you believe in conspiracy theories!

I loved this story as a kid. Revisiting it as an adult, I still enjoyed it. The story, written by George S. Elrick, is silly but fun. And I think that I can appreciale the Dan Spiegle art even more now. The Big Little Books were formated with a page of text always facing a page of art. So the book has dozens of great Spiegle illustations. 

The tale picks up with Major Matt Mason leading the second expedition to the Moon, where his men are busy constructing a permanent base. But there's a problem. The first expedition had left a man behind to study the long-term effects of living on the moon. This man--Major Otto "Squeak" Harvey--had done well at first, but soon his audio-visual reports showed him getting more and more agitated as he complained about an incessant "cooing" sound coming from outside his habitat. Then all communication is cut off.

Mason and Harvey's sister, a doctor named Jo Ann, travel by jet pack to Squeak's habitat, only to find him missing and the habitat itself wrecked. Then they find a hole in the ground leading into a maze of tunnels. Tunnels dug by.... giant moon worms!

Another astronaut ends up in the tunnel (which, for obscure reasons, maintains Earth-normal atmophere and temperature. He runs across Squeak, who is irrational and speaks only in cooing sounds. 

Oh, I mentioned giant rabbits as well, didn't I? These are genetically altered rabbits brought to the moon to eventually be (as the prose cold-bloodedly tells us) "ground up into protein powder." Though the big bunnies normally live in pressurized enclosers, they to have oxygen and temperature-control pills inserted into their skin, so can live on the moon's surface for a time. These leads to a sub plot in which another astronaut pursues an escaped rabbit with a tranquilizer gun. 

Anyway, it turns out that alien parasites are inhabiting the worms and one of them has also gotten into Squeak. The parasite briefly jumps into Jo Ann, but the astronauts get it to eventually move into one of the rabbits. It's not unfriendly, so as long as it has a body to inhabit, it's happy. I don't know what happens when the time to grind up the rabbit arrives.

It's probably Spiegle's wonderful art more than the silly story that sells it to me as an adult. That and an element of nostalgia. After all, Ed might have owned the Major Matt Mason action figure and the Space Crawler and the Jet Pack (which travelled along a string you stretched across the room) and the Moon Base, but I owned the Big Little Book. NO ONE CAN TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!

My younger brother Jeff, by the way, claims the Big Little Book was his. We can discount this, of course. Can you believe someone being jealous of stuff we owned as kids? It's sad. And, after all, THE BOOK WAS MINE! (And so was the big fire truck with working hose, by the way. But that's another story.)

My only real complaint about the book is the trademark notice on the title page. "Major Matt Mason is the registered trademark of Mattel, Inc. for its DOLL." Gee whiz. He wasn't a doll. He was an action figure. Why can't anyone get that right?

Krypto is Awesome!

 

cover art by Curt Swan

Krypto is by far my favorite Superpet. Beppo can be a little annoying. Comet is just plain weird. Streaky is... well, a cat. But Krypto is simply awesome.

And in "A Bad Day for Junkyard Blue (written by Bob Toomey and drawn by John Calnan)," we see several reasons why Krypto is awesome. First, it starts out with a reminder that being a dog--without any real responsibilities--is a lot of fun. Krypto is galavanting through the skys, flying rings around airplanes and joining a flight of birds for a few moments. He's not doing any harm. He's just having a good time.

Then the scene shifts to two guys who I think should have gotten their own comic book series. Burt and Harry are two incompetent and none-too-bright bank robbers who make a mess of their latest attempt to rob a bank. Toomey's script and Calnan's lively art combine to give us some sincerely funny slapstick involving these two. If Bud & Lou--or perhaps Stan & Ollie--had turned to villainy, this is how they might have turned out.

Anyway, as they make their getaway in a wreck of a car that soon breaks down, Krypto spots them and joins in the chase. He does so more because he just enjoys the chase than because he wants to see justice done, but we'll soon see that Krypto does feel moral responsibility. 

When the getaway car breaks down, Burt and Harry scale a fence and end up in a junkyard. Here, they are cornered by Blue, the junkyard dog. Krypto lands next to Blue, figuring he can help.

But his sudden appearance startles Blue, who panics and hides in a wrecked car, which is then lifted up by one of those junkyard giant magnets to be dropped into a crusher. Krypto quickly saves him while the cops are arresting Burt and Harry.

Blue, in an effort to regain his pride, snarls at Krypo. In a sweet moment, the Dog of Steel realizes what's happening and makes Blue happy by running off in apparent fear. I love it.

Darn it, why doesn't my dog have superpowers? This is about as active as he ever gets:

I really which, though, that Burt and Harry had returned for more goofy attempts to be successful criminals. Heck, a great running gag would have had them appearing in successive issues of Superman Family and Batman Family, running across a different regular character in each one and failing miserably at crime each time.

In two weeks, we'll return to Superman Family for another Jimmy Olsen story. Next week, we'll drop in on the Man from U.N.C.L.E. 

Cover Cavalcade

 

JUNE IS AVIATION COVERS MONTH!

From 1955. You can't go wrong with a George Evans aviation cover.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Mr. District Attorney: "The Case of the Curious Undertaker" 8/2/44

A dishonest financial advisor kills an old lady to hide his embezzling. But why does it appear to the D.A. that his victim actually died in 1931?

Click HERE to listen or download. 

She/He MADE Me!: Angela Makes Tim Watch: How to Marry a Millionaire...

She/He MADE Me!: Angela Makes Tim Watch: How to Marry a Millionaire...:   How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), starring Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. Written by Nunnally Johnson. Directed by Jean...

Son of a Sea Cook

 

cover art by H.C. Murphy

Read/Watch 'em in Order #126

S.B.H. Hurst was a prolific contributer to the pulps during the 1920s and early 1930s, but I never happened to have read one of his stories before. This, in fact, is one of the joys of being a fan of the fiction from that era and living in an era where more and more of these stories are being made available online. There's always a writer out there whose stuff I haven't yet read.

"The Son of a Sea Cook" is the next story to appear in the May 1927 issue of Frontier Stories. Since this is indeed my first Hurst story, I don't know if he normally injected humor into his tales. If he did, I really gotta read more. This story is funny.

The action is set entirely aboard a sailing ship and the main character is a big and often drunken sailor named Epictetus Jones. ("Father forgot what he wanted to name me, so he left it to the minister, and Epictetus is what the minister did.") There's also a cook on board. But the cook isn't really a cook. He's a seller of "Ladies' fancy wear" who fled to sea to escape a scandal that's too embarassing for him to ever describe to anyone. And he doesn't know how to cook.

So, as the story opens, the cook-who-can't-cook bribes Epictetus with a bottle of booze and the promise of ten dollars to pretend to the cook is his father. That way, Epictetus can protect the cook from being beaten up when dinner turns out to taste terrible.

But Epictetus quickly gets drunk on his bottle. This leads to a fight, which leads to the cook's lack of skill being revealed to everyone. This, in turn, leads to the cook being fired from that job and sent before the mast, where he is constantly tormented by the rest of the crew. Epictetus is on another watch, so isn't available to protect him.

Well, this in its own turn leads to a faked suicide, stolen food and a hunt (led by the ship's second mate) for a food-stealing rat that is too clever to be caught in normal traps. 

And THIS, in turn, eventually leads to the conviction by most of the crew that the ship is haunted.

I don't want to go into more detail than this, because I don't want to spoil the story for you. You can find it online HERE.

When a Turtle Fights an Crocodile--the Lion Wins

 

cover artist unknown

Animal Adventures ran for three issues in 1953 and 1954. The product of a small publisher, with the artists and writers who created it largely unknown, it's one of the many comics from that era that have been largely forgotten. But, by golly, Animal Adventures had some downright adorable stories in it. And if being adorable doesn't deserve being remembered and celebrated, then I don't know what does.

Animal Adventures #1 (December 1953) includes a wonderful tale starring Tobias Turtle, whom we meet while he is running for his life from a crocodile who wants to have Tobias for dinner. But when the two of them collide with King Leo, they both end up getting tossed in the slammer. That seems a bit harsh on Tobias, who was simply trying not to be eaten. But royal justice is often unreliable. 

Apparently, this sort of thing of thing happens a lot and King Leo decides to put a stop to it by arranging a jousting tournament. Tobias and the crocodile will fight it out once and for all on the field of honor.

I love the next part, as it follows the logic of the universe in which it is set while remaining too adorable for words. Since the kingdom is populated by intelligent animals, then it's not surprising to learn that the horses are intelligent as well. Two of them have to be recruited to be mounts for Tobias and the croc. This worries the poor horses, though, since they are afraid they'll get hurt. We also see that neither of the "knights" are particularly good at being knights.

The day of the duel arrives. Tobias and the crocodile are now enthusiastic, with each of them convinced he'll win easily. The horses, though, are still terrified.

Predictably, the joust does not go well. Both horses panic and abruptly stop after beginning the initial charge. The two knights are thrown from their frightened mounts and smash together.

All of which excites King Leo so much that he falls from his box, lands on the knights and knocks both of them out. So the winner is... King Leo--who soon begins to revel in the cheers of the populace.

Tobias and the crocodile wake up to realize they've been forgotten. But if neither of them won, that also means neither of them lost. This becomes the basis of the two becoming friends.

It's adorable. It literally drips with adorable-ness. It's more adorable than a barrel full of babies playing with puppies. I love it.

This issue is available to be read online HERE.

Next week, we return to Superman Family to see what Krypto is up to. That sounds like it might be adorable. 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #47: A Princess of Mars Chapter 14

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Mini-Podcast #47: A Princess of Mars Chapter 14:   A look at Chapter 14 of the 1912 novel, in which John Carter fights a duel to the death with the odds rigged against him. The audio only v...