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GUEST REVIEW-DOC HERMES REVIEWS THE MAN OF BRONZE!
Whew, finally. After years of pleasant labor, I’ve gotten through all 182 original Doc Savage stories (counting THE RED SPIDER) and here we are with the very first novel, from the March 1933 issue. This started the saga of the pulp’s greatest adventure hero, which ran for sixteen years and (beginning in 1964) was eventually completely reprinted by Bantam Books.
The story itself is well enough known that I think we only need a brief summary. Clark Savage Senior has died of a mysterious ailment called the Red Death and his son Clark Jr (Doc) has returned to New York to summon his five best friends to both investigate the father’s death and to begin their lifelong crusade to travel the world, helping those in need and punishing those who deserve it. The six men end up in the Valley of the Vanished, in the Central American country of Hidalgo. Here a lost city of purebred Mayans still survives, guarding a legacy of an immense treasure of gold which Doc must earn to finance his life mission. During the course of the story, of course, there are plenty of spills and thrills, close calls and pitched battles, which will be Doc’s lifestyle until the last time we see him in 1949.
Lester Dent does a fine job setting up the series without making it seem crowded or awkward. His style is already distinctive, but it doesn’t have the occasional whacky touches which will give the series some of its screwball charm. At times, Dent gets a wee bit TOO purple, and his writing is choppier than it will become, with many! exclamation! points! and one-sentence paragraphs. Still, a totally enjoyable read and a great start (although I think Dent and Doc both hit their peak in 1934).
The Doc Savage series was worked out in meetings between Dent, editor John Nanovic and publisher Henry Ralston. It’s amazing how many details are here right in the first few pages that will continue until the end of the series. The appearance, personalties and mannerisms of all five aides are dead on target; Johnny doesn’t have his annoying habit of unreasonably obscure words yet, Monk and Ham are not as slapstick as they will become, yet all five are recognizable from the start.
Doc’s strange upbringing and wide range of skills, his trilling, the mysterious Fortress of Solitude, the daily two-hour exercises, the Mayan gold with King Chaac and Princess Monja on hand, the headquarters on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building… all are right here. Some important things will be added in the next year or so. Pat Savage, the Crime College, the code against killing and the mercy bullets, the Hidalgo Trading Company, Habeas Corpus. All these will enrich the series immensely, of course, but the first story gets underway fine without them.
There’s also the first of many masked super-villains, Kukulcan the Feathered Serpent. This is an outsider wearing a snake hood and outfit made from an actual boa constrictor (its tail dragging behind him) who gives the Mayan warrior sect their orders, and who is behind the hideous Red Death.
Let’s check out a few annotations for the record. Doc is introduced in a wonderful piece of writing. A lurking assassin in another skyscraper sees what looks like a masterful bust of a handsome man carved in hard bronze. Then, “the bronze masterpiece opened its mouth, yawned – for it was no statue but a living man!” We get the familiar mantra that “the big bronze man is so well put together that the impression was not of size, but of power.”
Doc is described as being six feet tall and weighing two hundred pounds (impressive enough for a guy in 1933). Yet this is immediately contradicted. Renny is said to be four inches over six feet tall, and when Doc stands next to him, he’s clearly taller and heavier. (“It was only then that one realized what a big man Doc was. Alongside Renny, Doc was like dynamite alongside gunpowder.”)
Ham is mentioned as having “a distinguished shock of prematurely grey hair.” (Will Murray used this and few ambiguous remarks in the series to describe Ham as white-haired.) In nearly every description, though, our fighting lawyer is said to have jet-black hair, “straight as an Indian’s” and I can only conclude that Theodore Marley Brooks is not above liberal use of dye to look younger. The shameless old rogue! It’s also stated that not only did Monk frame his pal for stealing hams back in the war, but he was court-martialed and convicted. I always thought Ham managed an acquittal and it’s odd to think an officer could be convicted of stealing Army property and retain his rank… maybe it was during a tough period in the war where his services were considered so needed that the charges were somehow dismissed?
Doc himself is much more relaxed and open with his feelings than the poker-faced stoic Mr Spock he will soon become. He grins, chuckles and tells his friends “Dry up, you gorillas!” then assigns Monk to join Ham since “You two love each other so.” The bronze man also has no compunction about taking life when necessary (“He did it – chopped a blow with the edge of his hand that snapped the Mayan’s neck instantly.”) Doc isn’t pulling his punches at this stage, and his fights leave as many enemy stone cold dead as they do stunned. (Ham also skewers a few foes with his sword cane, the anesthetic coating still in the future.)
And if you had reservations about the way the bronze man killed a polar bear with his bare hands in THE POLAR TREASURE, check this out:
“His left arm flipped with electric speed around the head of the thing, securing what a wrestler would call a stranglehold. Doc’s legs kicked powerfully. For a fractional moment he was able to lift the shark’s head out of the water. In that interval his free right fist found the one spot where his vast knowledge told him it was possible to stun the man-eater.”
Yes. Doc Savage punches out a shark. If it wasn’t right there on the page in black and white, I don’t know if I’d believe it either.
The bronze man has a remarkably fair-minded comment (for 1933) when his friends suggest that he owns the Valley legally and can just take it by force. “It’s a lousy trick for a government to take some poor savage’s land away from him and give it to a white man to exploit. Our own American Indians got that kind of a deal, you know.” (From Missouri, Lester Dent always showed respect and sympathy for Indians and almost always used individuals in his stories who were educated and shrewd.)
There is also a brief comment that gives support to those who like to think Doc retired after 1949 to go live in the Valley of the Vanished permanently with Princess Monja as his wife. “It was with genuine unwillingness that he had resolved to depart at once. This Valley of the Vanished was an idyllic spot in which to tarry. One could not desire more comforts than it offered.” He tells King Chaac, “I would like to remain here – always.” But his life’s work has just begun and we, who would otherwise have been slaughtered by all the monsters, masterminds and mad scientists Doc defeated, should be grateful he decided so.
I have always thought that Clark Savage Sr and his brother Alex brought back Mayan brides from their time in the valley, and this explained the distinctive bronze color of both Doc and Pat. (Growing up in Canada, Pat certainly wasn’t exposed to a “thousand tropical suns.”) If Doc was half-Mayan, it would explain why King Chaac would be so agreeable to supplying him with the tribe’s wealth and trusting him to defend the Mayans when needed.
And it’s a pleasant thought that, nearing fifty and finally wearying of his mission, Doc returned to his spiritual homeland to find Monja still there and still unattached; and that somewhere in the Valley of the Vanished, the bronze man died a natural death at an advanced age and is buried peacefully beside his princess.
Guest Review-SALMON VISITS THE WORLD OF ‘THE BLACK STILETTO’
COMPLIMENTS OF THE BLACK STILETTO…
A Review of Raymond Benson’s THE BLACK STILETTO by Andrew Salmon
Raymond Benson’s The Black Stiletto (Oceanview Publishing) has a lot going for it but the sum is not quite equal to the parts that make up the novel.
The set up is an intriguing one. Judy Talbot is an elderly woman stricken with Alzheimer’s disease and slowing dying in a hospital. Her son, Martin, is given access to some of her personal effects as he awaits the inevitable end of the woman who raised him. Going through these papers he learns that his mother was a masked vigilante known as the Black Stiletto in the late 1950s and find diaries – the first of which relating her origin and early adventures.
The novel then branches off into three distinct storylines. We follow Martin as he uncovers his mother’s secret lair and costumes, reads the diary and gets bogged down in losing his job, hassles with his ex-wife and his own daughter who seems to have inherited her grandmother’s independent streak. Interspaced with this are the diary entries themselves as we see thirteen-year-old Judy suffer at the hands of her abusive stepfather, run away to New York and begin training as a fighter – picking up skills which will serve her well when the time comes to fight crime. The last storyline concerns the release of an ex-mobster who spent 50 years in prison courtesy of the Black Stiletto and is looking for a little payback in the modern day.
There’s a lot of material to work with here and most of it is interesting. However Martin’s job loss and trials with his daughter come across as needless padding. Judy’s story is where the book really shines although it is not without its shortcomings. There’s a heavy theme of chauvinism here and it’s a testament to her character that she is able to break down barriers, live and train in a all-male gymnasium and hold her head up in what was then a male-dominated world. She also gets a solid base of fight training which takes years and adds credibility to her decision to hit the streets and fight crime. She’s young and she stumbles out of the gate, falling for and eventually living with a mobster. When he is taken out, Judy is looking for revenge and the Black Stiletto is born. Media sensation, crime fighter hunted by the police, champion of the people… these elements are all present and the first person account of the birth of a costumed vigilante make for some interesting reading. When she tosses off a “courtesy of the Black Stiletto” you know the author is giving a nod to the Domino Lady.
It all sounds like fun stuff and, for the most part, it is, but the scenes from the 1950s rang utterly false to this reader. Aside from tossing in old song titles Judy hears constantly, the flashbacks read like modern day prose. I never felt like I was in the 50s reading these sections and that is a major failing of the book. Coupled with the padding I mentioned above and the novel, although short, begins to bog down. Also, as this is the first of a projected series, not a heck of a lot happens for the first 100 pages. This is no lean and mean pulp gripper but rather 266 meandering pages with occasional highlights.
Judy’s story is a compelling one. Watching the ruthless old ex-con drawing closer to a now helpless Black Stiletto in the modern day keeps you turning the pages. However a lack of pace and the author’s inability to capture the 50s authentically take away from what could have been a captivating take on the classic pulp hero.
I give The Black Stiletto a cautious recommendation as it pushes the New Pulp envelope. Hancock’s Yesteryear does it better but that doesn’t mean than Benson’s book shouldn’t find an audience. This reader found it an interesting read and others may find some of what I though detracted from the story riveting, which is why I recommend giving the novel a try. It’s no classic but it does come at the pulp hero from a different angle and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Julie Taymor claims she should get money for ‘Spider-Man’, a character she didn’t create
We only post these stories to remind you that Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko hasn’t received a dime for any of this. And it now looks like there will be more money spent on the lawyers for arguing over who created what for this show than Steve Ditko got for co-creating the character, ever.
NEW YORK (AP) — Director Julie Taymor has hit back at her former creative partners in “Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark,” arguing in court papers that she was the victim of a conspiracy to unfairly push her out of the production and that her one-time collaborators were secretly working on a rival script behind her back.
Taymor’s legal team on Friday defended the Tony Award winner against claims in an earlier countersuit from producers, the latest installment in their bitter legal battle over financial rewards for Broadway’s most expensive show.
“While secretly conspiring to oust Taymor and use and change her work without pay, the producers also fraudulently induced Taymor to continue working and to diligently make improvements,” her team alleges.
Taymor, who was the original “Spider-Man” director and co-book writer, was fired in March after years of delays, accidents and critical backlash. The show, which features music by U2’s Bono and The Edge, opened in November 2010 but spent months in previews before officially opening a few days after the Tony Awards in June.
via Julie Taymor claims there was a ‘Spider-Man’ plot – Yahoo! News.
And now Julie knows how Steve Ditko feels.
FORTIER TAKES ON TRASH ‘N’ TREASURES!
ALL PULP REVIEWS- by Ron Fortier
ANTIQUES DISPOSAL
A Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery
Barbara Allan
Kensington Books
230 pages
Vivian Borne is an eccentric antiques dealer who lives in Serenity, a small Midwestern town situated on the banks of the Mississippi river. She lives with her daughters, Peggy Sue and Brandy. Together Vivian and Brandy solve murders that in one way or another deal with the business of antiquing. Which is the simplest way to describe this series, of which this book is the sixth and has been described by other reviewers as being a “cozy” series if anyone really knows exactly what that means.
As a fan of hardboiled detective fiction, I’m assuming “cozy” refers to those mysteries wherein the protagonist is a little old lady ala Agatha Christie’s popular Miss Marple books or the old Angela Landsbury TV show, “Murder She Wrote.” In other words, not my particular brand of tea; I prefer a headier beverage literature. Still, every now and then one desires to try something different. I decided I’d take a chance with “Antiques Disposal.”
It is probably one of the smartest things I’ve done in a while. Why? Well simply because the book is so damn funny, I honestly couldn’t put it down. And the characters! Oh, my God, is there a more dysfunctional group then the Borne girls? Remember I said Brandy was Vivian’s youngest daughter? Well she’s actually Peggy Sue’s daughter. Yup. Echoes of “Chinatown.” You see Peggy Sue got herself “in trouble” as a young, unmarried girl and left her baby with her mother to raise figuring it was best for the child. Did I mention Vivian suffers from a bi-polar disorder and is on medication? Never mind that Brandy herself has a daughter….oh, forget it. Its way too complicated for me to keep track of after only one visit with this eclectic bunch. The thing is the writing is so clean and precise, even though you haven’t read those first five books (something I hope to one day correct) the reader just goes with the flow. There is a charm and decency to these characters that immediately grabbed me and had me caring for them from page one.
Look, here’s what every true mystery fan knows as a fact, series fail or succeed not on how brilliant the crimes are staged and then solved, but on how appealing and original the heroes are. Don’t believe me, give this some thought. Early fans of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson came to demand more stories from Arthur Conan Doyle to read more about them and not the mysteries they dealt with, those became incidental. The same can be said of every solid mystery series from Sam Spade, to Nero Wolfe and Nate Heller. In fact one of those famous shamus plays a huge part in this book’s climatic dénouement finale in such a hilarious way, I will not spoil it for you. It’s just too damn funny.
Okay, if you really need to know the plot, here it is. Vivian and Brandy go to a storage unit auction, wherein the person who owned the unit stopped paying rental fees on it and the manager is legally free to sell its contents to recoup his or her loses. These auctions have become very common among antique dealers and I believe there is even a reality show based on the practice. So our two ladies end up winning the bid, begin transporting the boxed contents to their home and cataloguing them; everything perfectly normal and routine. Until they return to the storage facility for their second trip and find the manager dead in the now empty unit. The very next night someone breaks into Vivian’s home, attacks Peggy Sue leaving her unconscious and nearly kill’s Brandy’s loveable little blind poodle, Sushi.
From this point forward, both Vivian and Brandy are on the hunt for the killer and how they go about it so entertaining, pages simply fly by. Sure, I was playing along and looking for clues too, but honestly, it was the ride I was enjoying to the max. Bottom line, if all of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mysteries are as wonderful as “Antiques Disposal,” then sign me up for the long haul.
Hey, even if you end up not liking the book, did I mention there are recipes for chocolate brownies in it? Now how can you go wrong with that?
ARDDEN ENTERTAINMENT TEAMS WITH SERIEPLANETEN TO BRING
SWEDEN’S FIRST SUPERHERO, AGENT MARC SAUNDERS, TO AMERICA!
It was inevitable. Sweden’s very first superhero, Agent Marc Saunders, the story of an American agent fighting the forces of evil worldwide, has finally reached the United States!
Teaming up with Serieplaneten, the original Swedish publisher of the hit comic book series, Ardden Entertainment, the publisher of Flash Gordon and Casper and the Spectrals, among others, is proud to bring this amazing new character to American shores.
Before Marc Saunders, Sweden never had a seriously meant superhero title of its own. There was “Dotty Whirlwind” back in 1945 – 1946, but she never carried her own book.
Until 2011, when writer/artist Mikael Bergkvist created Agent Marc Saunders. A cross between James Bond and Doc Savage, Saunders is a super-powered agent working for the American government, facing a series of increasingly brutal enemies with bigger and bigger plans for destruction and mayhem. Saunders is aided by his trusted team of allies, including the beautiful media tycoon Marion Gold. This series has been embraced by Sweden, largely due to its classic pulp type of adventure, like “The Shadow” or “Doc Savage”, but set in in modern times.
Issue #1 of the American version of Agent Marc Saunders comes out in April and is currently available for order through Diamond Comics. It features a cover by none other than the legendary Neal Adams!
Mikael Bergkvist has been writing comics for 25 years but Agent Marc Saunders is his first original creation.
Serieplaneten, an up and coming comic publisher in Sweden, publishes the Swedish version of “The Simpsons vs Futurama,” among other titles, and in 2011 they began publishing Marc Saunders, making Swedish comic book history in the process.
Founded in 2008, Ardden Entertainment LLC is the proud publisher of FLASH GORDON, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST, and the ATLAS COMICS resurrection, among others. Ardden is run by former Miramax Films executive Brendan Deneen and comic book store owner Richard Emms, with industry legend Mike Grell acting as the company’s Editor-in-Chief.
Ardden’s mission statement is to produce high quality licensed comic books as well as original concepts that work both as comic books and larger, multi-media properties. For more information about Arddenn Entertainment, please visit http://limited-edition-comix.com/atlas/index.htm
A Dummy’s Guide to Greek Heroes
One brave warrior, touched by the gods, must overcome all odds to save mankind from a merciless and powerful tyrant when IMMORTALS comes to Blu-ray and DVD on March 6th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Directed by visionary filmmaker Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) and written by Charles Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides, the home entertainment release is chock-full of must-see bonus features including an alternate beginning, two alternate endings, deleted scenes and an amazing graphic novel, creating the ultimate viewing experience.
From the producers of 300, Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari, and Relativity’s CEO Ryan Kavanaugh, IMMORTALS explodes off the screen with action-packed battles, mythological adventure and an all-star cast including: Henry Cavill (Superman: Man of Steel), Luke Evans (Robin Hood), Kellan Lutz (Twilight), Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Stephen Dorff (Public Enemies), John Hurt (Hellboy) and Mickey Rourke (Iron Man 2). In this epic tale of vengeance and destiny, power-mad King Hyperion (Rourke) threatens to destroy all of humanity on his maniacal quest to obtain the ultimate weapon – the legendary Epirus Bow that gives the power to unleash war on both Heaven and Earth. But Theseus (Cavill), a heroic young villager chosen by the gods, rises up to stop Hyperion’s brutal rampage. With supernatural help from the beautiful oracle Phaedra (Pinto), Theseus embraces his destiny and leads a fierce band of warriors in a desperate fight for the future of mankind.
The story for Immortals centers on the heroism of Theseus, a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the evil King Hyperion. In celebration of the release of IMMORTALS on 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray Triple Play and DVD on March 6, we will revisit other heroes in Greek mythology that you may (or may not) be familiar with, including Hercules and Odysseus, among others.
HERCULES
According to Greek mythology, Hercules is the son of the Zeus, the King of all the Gods, and Alcmene, a mortal woman, thereby making him a mortal God. The goddess Hera, Zeus’ wife, hated Hercules because Hercules’ birth was out of Zeus’ infidelity to her. Much of Hercules’ adventures have been written about but none as much as the Labors of Hercules, which vary in number depending on the source. Hercules was sent on these labors by the Oracle of Delphi to make amends over killing his wife and children during a fit of madness sent by Hera.
ODYSSEUS
Odysseus is the Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey and Iliad. Odysseus was best known for successfully leading the Greeks into victory against the Trojans with his idea of the Trojan Horse, which is depicted in the Iliad. The Odyssey tells the story of his ten-year journey to get home to Ithaca post the Trojan War to reclaim his place as the rightful king. The epic describes his adventures, including his encounters with Calypso, the Sirens and the six-headed monster Scylla, amongst others.
OEDIPUS
Oedipus was the Greek king of Thebes, best known for fulfilling a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, bringing disaster to his family and his city. The myth is the basis of neurologist Sigmund Freud’s theory, the Oedipus complex, which states the desire of a male child’s exclusive love for his mother, thereby stemming jealousy towards the father.
ACHILLES
Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and was a central character in Homer’s Iliad. He was said to be a great warrior whose only vulnerability physically was his heel, which ultimately lead to his death when his heel was struck by an arrow during battle. Because of that, the term Achille’s heel has come to mean a person’s primary weakness.
PERSEUS
Perseus was a son of Zeus and was known in Greek mythology for the different monsters he defeated, including beheading Medusa, the snake-haired maiden who turned those who looked her in the eyes into stone. He married Andromeda, a princess who had been punished by Poseidon for her mother’s bragging that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids. Perseus saved her imminent death by rescuing her from a rock that she was chained to as a sacrifice to a sea monster.
The Point Radio: Something Funny About PROJECT X
It’s another one of those “found footage” films. but not frightening in any way. Why? Because HANGOVER Director Todd Phillips produces PROJECT X, based on the ultimate party, or it tries to be and Todd and the film’s stars explain it all. Plus the two people charged with grounding both worlds in reality on NCC’s new AWAKE tell us their plans as B.D. Wong and Cherry Jones weigh in on the series. All that plus WOW fires a lot of people and DOCTOR WHO may have a new “Master”.
http://p.castfire.com/cf_player.swf
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DARK HORSE PRESENTS ‘THE BLACK BEETLE!’
Official Press Release
Adding an exciting new layer to Dark Horse Presents, Dark Horse Comics is proud to announce a new three-part story by New York Times best-selling artist for Batman, and current Captain America artist, Francesco Francavilla: The Black Beetle!
The Black Beetle is centered on a pulp-noir character and takes place in a fictional universe that’s based in Colt City. Francavilla published several stories online and even put out an ashcan. When the ashcan sold out, Francesco quickly realized that many fans were interested in exploring this world with him. It was only a matter of time before Dark Horse approached him about bringing some Black Beetle tales to Dark Horse Presents!
“I’m working on a 24-page story, titled ‘Night Shift’ that will be spread over three issues of Dark Horse Presents. I am hugely influenced by pulp stories of the ‘30s and ‘40s, and wanted to develop a series that used that influence as a jumping-off point to explore some modern storytelling with fun twists. I think this will be a great introduction to readers who are new to this character and universe, but will also be an exciting new adventure for those who’ve been reading the online stories over the years,” Francesco states.
“As a huge fan of pulp and noir, working on my own characters and stories really gives me free reign to explore this world and create lots of fun scenarios and thrilling situations. The stories are definitely full of mystery and intrigue, plus I get to give The Black Beetle lots of cool and funky gadgets. ‘Night Shift’ promises to be full of action, excitement, danger, and double-crosses, so I am overjoyed to see this new tale in print, and hope this is the first of many more to come in Dark Horse Presents.”
For more on Francesco Francavilla’s art, check out his official website, www.francescofrancavilla.com, and his pulp blog, http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com.
Indiana Jones Finally Arrives in Blu-ray This October
Not that long ago, Paramount Home Video gave us the four Indiana Jones films in a wonderful box set but even then we began anticipating the eventually release of the movies on Blu-ray. This seems to be the year for Steven Spielberg movies to make their high definition debuts as we get Jaws in August and the Indy movies in October.
These are already being made available for pre-order at Amazon, discounting the list price of $99.99.
Of course, there are some completists out there still waiting for the young Indiana Jones television episodes to be spruced up and released but I guess we still need to wait a bit.
Hereâs the official press release:
The man with the hat is back â and looking better than ever! The worldâs favorite globe-trotting archaeologist is, at long last, embarking on his greatest adventure â when The Complete Indiana Jones Blu-ray Collection comes to Blu-ray Disc from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Paramount Home Media Distribution. The Complete Indiana Jones Blu-ray Collection will be excavated in the fall of 2012 and will include all four of Indyâs thrilling adventures, using the highest possible high definition picture and audio presentation â along with a âbest ofâ collection of documentaries, interviews, featurettes and a few new surprises.
