Print

[crashryan]

I haven't read any of the novels but the Picture Library adaptations here at CB+ are pretty good and are indeed nothing like the Boyd TV Cassidy. My introduction to the "real" Cassidy was when I visited the Brandywine Museum a couple of decades ago. On display was a 1905 Hopalong Cassidy illustration by Frank Schoonover showing a well-worn old guy in a battered hat holding a rifle. It's a beautiful painting.

[profh0011]

MOBY DICK by Will Eisner

I was reminded not long ago that Eisner had a long-standing interest in adapting "the classics". This 1998 book was nicely done. I was telling my home care client about this, and showed him a couple pages. I said, his linework is a bit rough, but VERY expressive, and, the coloring goes right along with it. He replied, "You're right, that's GORGEOUS!" It'd been sitting aorund in a box for more than 2 decades, and this morning I finally read the whole thing in one sitting while he was in for an EKG.

[profh0011]

Michael Hill's new book is NOT speculative.

https://fourcolorapocalypse.wordpress.com/2021/04/28/michael-hills-according-to-jack-kirby-cutting-through-the-fog-of-lies-with-a-scalpel/?fbclid=IwAR2gmSkJCt-zPfJ_17PDJVXpw4Qq4H9PlZTEKK3gRsG35zQlTGWN-h1PuCE

[The Australian Panther]

Thank you Prof!

'The proof of the pudding is in the eating.'
The clearest evidence is the unassailable fact that without Kirby and Ditko, Lee proved incapable of creating anything notable and long-lasting on his own. And he tried. Boy, how he tried.
Exhibit A.
He was given the privilege of creating his own versions of all the major DC characters on his own. None of his characters were memorable.
Around the same time Dan Jurgens [a severely underestimated creator] created his own version, 'the Tangent Universe' . These versions are far superior  and have been reused since.
Oh, Stan has created other characters, had properties turned into TV shows, tried to set up his own company. All his efforts have always fizzled.
Ditko went on to re-imagine Blue Beetle, and Captain Atom, create the Question and for DC, The Creeper, Hawk and the Dove, Shade the Changing man and one or two other.s
Kirby? Some would say he saved the best till last with the Forth World for DC, then Kamandi, Demon, Witchboy and OMAC. DC is still dining out on those concepts today.
Interestingly, Much of Kirby's output for DC is based on concepts and ideas he already had, which is evident if you, dear reader, search out 'Harvey's Alarming Tales' here on CB+. After Lee took control of the Silver Surfer, entirely of Kirby's sole creation, it was always noticeable that, tho he went on to create nearly another 50 copies of the FF, Kirby never created another major character for Marvel.
And I haven't even started on Kirby's post DC output, For Marvel alone, Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur. No, not too memorable, but both have been incorporated into Marvel mythology many  times since.   
Stan's biggest problem was his colossal ego.
He lauds himself for creating the Silver age by creating the Fantastic Four and gives himself all the credit.
In that narrative, he glosses over his earlier failure in his first attempt to revive Captain America.
Oh, Stan had talent, he was a good salesman, knew what he had in Kirby and Ditko and milked them for all they were worth, understood that he needed older teenagers and University students for an Audience and wrote the Marvel books with a light touch.
Exhibit B 
But is there any character in the Marvel lexicon that is entirely Stan's? I think there is one. Back int the 50's Stan tried out a character he called 'the Witness' who was an observer of what other people did. Even had his own book for an issue or two. Sound familiar? I believe this character morphed into the Watcher. And what does this character do? Watches what others do. So it's fitting and ironic
that the last movie cameo Stan did, for 'Guardians of the Galaxy' was with the Watcher.   
Cheers!               

[profh0011]

The Watcher had a cameo in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES.  Right at the end...

[The Australian Panther]

Since the above post, I was reading through the  run of Marvel Superheroes [1990 run] and came across the fact that Steve Ditko had not finished creating characters.

In Issue # 8 we have a character we have never seen before, Squirrel Girl!

And the credits read, Steve Ditko [Plot, pencils script]
Well, they couldn't say, character creation by Steve Ditko, could they? That would open themselves up legally.'
It's a great little story actually, can be read as  a bit of a mild ironic look at the nonsense of superheroes.
Neither Ditko or anybody else could have thought at the time that the character would  take off and later gain her own book. The character is not my cup of tea, tho.

Cheers! 

[The Australian Panther]

This one's for you Prof!
I know this is an odd place for these posts, but they follow on from the post on the Kirby book.

I've always been fascinated by projects that were left uncompleted.
Here are two.
ONE
Back in '67 Marvel created a book called Marvel Superheroes present - which was their version of DC's Showcase. A tryout book for new characters.
Lasted 20 issues and tried out a few characters who went on to greater things.
On the end page of #20 is an ad that reads,
Who is Starhawk?
Blasting his way across two centuries!
In the next issue. It never appeared. There was a character later added to Guardians of the Galaxy called Starhawk. Always a minor character. I doubt that the character which eventuated was anything like the character was originally intended to be.
Just noticed tho, the character drawing there is by Wally Wood! Has taken me decades to realize that. 
This would have been just before Wally had had enough of Stan and left Marvel. I suspect that this was Wally's creation. I believe Prof, that you are a bit of a wiz on this period of Marvel. Can you shed any light on this?     
TWO
Around the time Jack Kirby created the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four an apparently minor character was introduced. This was Wyatt Wingfoot.
Wyatt was a young Indian of formidable sporting prowess. It was pointed out that his father had also been a legendary sportsman. But from this point on, as I said earlier, Kirby never introduced another major character for Marvel.
I believe that the intention was to revive the Golden Age character the Black Marvel. Black Marvel was an Indian traditional identity which had to be earned by running a gauntlet of many physical sporting feats.
Wyatt, I believe, was intended to be the new Black Marvel. Red Marvel might have been more appropriate.
Comments?                 

[profh0011]

I've heard of but never seen Squirrel Girl.  Sounded like a cute name.  Until just now, I had NO IDEA Steve Ditko came up with her.

This just amplifies my feeling about "cultural" stuff affecting people.  Back in the early 90s, I did a Steve Ditko tribute, and COULD NOT BELIEVE how easily I just fell into "Ditko mode" when I did the art.  Decades later I found out, his family was from Slovakia.  SO WAS MY MOTHER's.

In the early 70s, I created a rather goofy super-villain called... "The Flying Squirrel".

Gee, that's 2 "Ditko" connections of sorts.  Crazy!



FANTASY MASTERPIECES was an anthology reprinting GOLDEN AGE Marvel stories. #1 was cover dated Feb'66.  In between issues #5 & 6, they did MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #1,  one-shot reprint with 2 stories from the 40s and 2 from the 60s.

After 11 issues, the name was changed to MARVEL SUPER-HEROES.  The reason for this was, Martin Goodman had ordered his editor to create a character named "Captain Marvel", specifically so it could be Trademarked and thus prevent anyone else from doing a magazine with that name (as Myron Fass had done in '66).  "Marvel's Spaceborn Hero" (which came from an idea from JACK KIRBY, who, sadly, NEVER got to work on the project) began in MSH #12 and 13.  But after only 2 episodes (and right in the middle of a 2-parter-- GRRR), Goodman decided, thanks to his switching distributors, to give CM his own book.,  So, CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 features the 2nd HALF of a 2-parter (I hate when they do stupid S*** like that), and, the 3rd chapter of what worked out eventually to be an 18-PART origin story.

With CM abruptly yanked out of the mag, they had to fill it with something.  Although MSH looks like Marvel's answer to DC's SHOWCASE, in truth, it was closer to the much-later MARVEL FANFARE, as from then on, EVERY new story headlining the book (with Golden Age reprints in the back) was something that had been SHELVED and sitting in inventory for 6 months or more!

#14 -- SPIDER-MAN -- Ross Andru's very 1st Spider-Man story, which he WROTE himself.  "Ye Editor" rejected it on the alleged reason that he "didn't like where the story was going"-- a real CON JOB considering HE claimed to have been the writer.  Interesting bit:  if you look at the art, it's clear Pete is dating MJ.  But, if you look at the dialogue, it makes it seem like Pete is dating Gwen, because the book came out 6 months after it was finished, and Peter had switched girls during that time.

#15 -- MEDUSA -- This Archie Goodwin-Gene Colan story, crazy enough, came out the SAME month Medusa guested in an issue of ASM.  In both, she wore outfits she never wore before or after.  I wondered which took place first, but once I realized what was going on with this "inventory" business, it became clear this one happened before the ASM story.  Also, the sub-plot involving the rest of the Frightful Four probably tied in with their continuity in FF better if you went back 6 months before this issue came out.  (Just a guess.)

#16 -- THE PHANTOM EAGLE -- a Herb Trimpe solo creation, with Gary Friedrich presumably just doing the dialogue. As far as I know, the character only made 3 appearances ever, and the 3rd time was as a GHOST decades after he'd been killed.

#17 -- THE BLACK KNIGHT -- Roy Thomas & Howard Purcell (with Dan Adkins on inks).  Thomas must have really wanted to push the modern-day BK.  On the other hand, "ye editor" DID NOT like artists not living near the NYC metropolitan era, which is why Howard Purcell, whose work on NICK FURY I really liked, only did a tiny handful of jobs for Marvel.  (This is the only one of these I've never read.)

#18 -- GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY -- Arnold Drake's attempt to do a "Marvel"-style version of DC's LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, with a far-more bleak format.  Drake had a major falling-out with the editor, and I bet if I checked he was long gone from Marvel before this saw the light of day.  I have a 70s reprint, but about a THIRD of the pages were cut!

#19 -- KAZAR -- the credits list Arnold Drake & Steve Parkohouse, with George Tuska & Sid Greene (could this be Greene's only job for Marvel?).  It also says the idea was the editor's.  I WONDER.  My guess is, it was a ploy for him to get PAID for the "plot", thus SCREWING Arnold out of more of his writer's fee, and since it was published long after he left, Steve Parkhouse got another chunk of the writing fee, for doing the dialogue.  The continuity of Ka-Zar's travels from NYC to England and back to Antarctica show this CLEARLY takes place before the Neal Adams 2-parter in X-MEN, though it was published shortly after it.  It's annoying when they CLEARLY publish stories out of sequence.

#20 -- DR. DOOM -- It appears Larry Lieber wrote & pencilled this, but Roy Thomas did the dialogue, and Frank Giacoia & Vince Colletta split duties on the inks (Frank was ALWAYS blowing deadlines).  This came out about the same tme as the 4-parter in FF that paid tribute to "The Prisoner", but clearly took place months before it.

#21 was announced to feature STARHAWK.  This was by DAN ADKINS.  However, Martin Goodman DIDN'T like science-fiction (makes you wonder what he thought of CAPTAIN MAR-VELL) and it was shelved.  Instead, the book became all modern reprints.



When Steve Gerber decided to revive the GUARDIANS from obscurity, first in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, then THE DEFENDERS, and then in their own series in MARVEL PRESENTS, he eventually created a brand-new character named "Starhawk", who had no connection whatsoever with the earlier one.  Par for the course for Marvel.

Decades later, I still think it was a shame how Gerber got FIRED off the series he helped ressurect.  It crashed and burned soon after, then floundered around for many years before Jim Valentino made a real go of it.

[profh0011]

In a better world, Dan Adkins would have spent more time doing FULL ART and less just inking other people's.

[The Australian Panther]

Prof,
Thanks for this. Answers a few questions for me. Adkins really made the most of his time in Wood's shop, didn't he?

He did a couple of Dr Strange stories  not long after Ditko left, but they weren't Adkins at his best.
These pages make it look like the intention was a cross between Flash Gordon and a Superhero.

Cheers!   

[profh0011]

Steve Ditko's run was folowed by what essentially became a 22-episode serial, involving several stories, one running into the next, soap-opera style.

The first 6 episodes were by BILL EVERETT.
The next 8 were by MARIE SEVERIN.
The next 8 were by DAN ADKINS.

Of these 3 people, ALL of whom were doing their own writing, only Dan Adkins got CREDITED for the stories.  This is because by then "ye editor" had moved on.

The bizarre thing was seeing Dr. Strange, a supernatural character, involved in what was basically a SCIENCE-FICTION story.  Near the end, his panels layouts got wild-- no doubt competing with Jim Steranko-- and the line between NICK FURY and DR. STRANGE was beginning to blur, especially in #167 when BOTH characters wound up travelling between dimensions.

When DR. STRANGE was expanded to its own book, Adkins did 2 more episodes.  Roy Thomas came on board at that point, and, presumably, wanted to write.  He started out with a retold origin (typical for Thomas), which, at the time, was arguably the BEST such retold origin from that period.  The 2nd story brought back Doc's very 1st enemy, Nightmare.  Both issues are fabulous, and the more annoying aspects of Thomas' writing (both stories AND dialogue) he managed to keep to a minimum.

Adkins did one more issue, where he inked newcomer TOM PALMER.  After one issue, Palmer switched to inks, over GENE COLAN.  That was the birth of the Colan-Palmer team, one of the best ever seen in the business. It really is a shame that run was cut short. When I re-read it some years ago, I was reminded quite a lot of James Robinson's STARMAN run.

[crashryan]

For some reason I went on a brief Count of Monte Cristo binge. I read the two Gilberton Classics Illustrated versions, one from 1947 and the other from 1956. I also read the 1953 Thriller Comics Library version and the 1990 First Comics adaptation released by Berkeley . It was fascinating to see the different choices made by the writers as they strove to boil a long and complicated book down into comic book dimensions.

Classics Illustrated #3 (1947) is a schematic presentation of the story which covers more ground than the later adaptations because it's longer--62 pages. It qualifies as the most complete version of the story. Unfortunately this feat was accomplished by breaking almost every page into a monotonous 2-panel-by-4-row grid. Even that cramped format might have worked were it not for the artwork, credited by GCD to Ray Ramsey, Allen Simon, and Vivian Lipman. It is, in a word, wretched. It's difficult to tell the characters apart and the layouts are clumsy. The amateurish art makes it even harder to follow an already complex story.

Classics Illustrated #3 (1956) is one of the complete remakes Gilberton did of their earliest CI books. Here the story is cut to 47 pages and the page layout opened up, losing much of the detail in the earlier rendition. The story still makes sense, though as in all the Gilberton remakes the more lurid passages have been softened or eliminated. Lou Cameron's art is quite good. He breathes life into a somewhat pedantic script.

Thriller Comics Library #45 (1953) follows the classic picture library format: 64 black-and-white pages with two, or occasionally three, panels per page. This translates into twenty-some typical 6-panel comic book pages, so you know the story is mightily condensed. It's quite acceptable, though, until the last two pages. Instead of Dantes finding true love with Haydee while Mercedes retires to a convent, Haydee disappears abruptly and Edmond and Mercedes get back together! Not as bad as the early CI book which gave The Hunchback of Notre Dame a happy ending, but still--! The book's saving grace is its artwork. T. Heath Robinson does most of the drawing. For some reason Patrick Nicolle draws the heads. Strange but easy on the eyes. The fine cover is by Septimus Scott and the script is credited to Peter O'Donnell.

Some of you will remember the classic adaptations packaged by First Comics for Berkley. They were printed on good paper in full color, with 45 story pages. They were a mixed bag. Many stories were illustrated by ultra-eccentric artists who were hot at the time, like Kyle Baker and John K Snyder III. Their books offered loads of style but were nearly unreadable. Other titles featured more traditional artists. Their Count of Monte Cristo (1990) is one of the best of the lot. Steven Grant's excellent script does justice to the original plot, but what makes it stand out is its pacing. The story reads like a story rather than a literary adaptation, with a good balance of narration and dialogue. Dan Spiegle's art is superb, with strong characterization and evocative backgrounds. An extra treat is a nice painted cover by Pat Boyette.

Two more renditions of the Count are on CB+ but I didn't include them in my binge. One is Dell Four Color #794. The story of Edmond Dantes' imprisonment and return as the Count more or less follows the original. After that the story becomes an unrelated adventure story with the Count as a swashbuckling hero. It reads like an adaptation of a TV series though there is no mention of such. John Buscema's drawings are exceptional but his layouts are pedestrian and he makes little attempt at drama. The scenes in the Chateau D'If are drawn as if the cells are flooded with light, an impression that is intensified by the colorist's decision to make the stone walls bright yellow and pale orange.

I also didn't dig into the serialized adaptation in Jumbo Comics drawn by Lou Fine. Someday I'll give it a read to see how the Eisner gang handled the story.

[crashryan]

A recent discussion about The Lone Wolf made me want to check out the source material. The original Lone Wolf novel was written by Louis Joseph Vance and was published in 1914. Being public domain it's available all over the place. I read the basic Gutenberg text version.

The hero of the story, Michael Lanyard, is a master jewel thief who lives a life of luxury and high adventure. The novel chronicles his decision to abandon his comfortable, self-satisfied criminal life and go straight. At the same time he must battle an up-and-coming crime cartel which wants either to recruit him or to eliminate him. The story starts slowly, recounting Lanyard's life from childhood to adulthood. This, told in a somewhat old-fashioned style common to novels of the period, led me to think I wouldn't like the book. I'm glad I stuck with it. Once things got going I enjoyed it immensely.

The background in the opening chapters turns out to be essential to understanding Lanyard and his change of heart. He shows more depth than the typical adventure novel hero and we come to know him well. Vance also provides plenty of action, including a long, high-speed car chase and an aerial battle. Vance's action scenes are anything but old-fashioned. They're fast-paced and exciting, like a good 1930s B-movie. Then all of a sudden you're reminded that this is happening in 1914, when cars were spindly, open-air contraptions and airplanes didn't have guns or even fuselages. The aviators fight by hanging on to the struts and firing pistols at each other.

It's a wild ride with many good twists and a satisfying ending. The only sour note is Lanyard's at-first-sight infatuation with the mystery woman who becomes instrumental in his reformation. Lanyard has to fall in love with her, of course, for plot purposes. He would have fallen for her anyway, but given Lanyard's carefully-developed character the romance would have been a gradual process full of starts and stops. It's as if on this one point Louis Vance said, "The heck with this, let's get it over with so we can get on with the action!" The rest of the book is good enough that if you just accept the clunky device you'll enjoy the rest of the trip.

In conclusion I highly recommend The Lone Wolf and I'm off to find the sequel.

[The Australian Panther]

Crash,
I have one of the books, I think a later volume, I read it years ago and I can' t locate it as its lost in my totally disorganized library.

Being public domain it's available all over the place.

Apart from Gutenberg, where else may I find the book?

I visited my favorite secondhand Bookseller days ago, and he had two Mark Brandon P.I. books by Vernon Warren. I'm a sucker for PI books so I bought and read them. The first two in the series. He writes a good hard-boiled Private Eye and actually the mysteries he has to solve are quire good too. What's unusual is the violence. This guy gets angry very fast and does a lot of hitting. Nonetheless, I enjoyed them and if I come across any more will read them too.   

https://www.goodreads.com/series/71039-mark-brandon

Louis Joseph Vance wrote quite a number of books, all of which look good, Not all Lone Wolf books, of which there are 8. First four are available in a collection.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/111290.Louis_Joseph_Vance

Happy reading.   

           

[crashryan]

Panther, here's a link to a site with a PDF of The Lone Wolf. It also has links to other Vance novels.

https://freeditorial.com/en/books/the-lone-wolf/related-books

[The Australian Panther]

Crash, thank you!

[profh0011]

The background in the opening chapters turns out to be essential to understanding Lanyard and his change of heart.

It's a wild ride with many good twists and a satisfying ending. The only sour note is Lanyard's at-first-sight infatuation with the mystery woman who becomes instrumental in his reformation.

Okay.  It sounds to me like the IDIOTS who the did the Val Kilmer movie "THE SAINT" were looking at the WRONG SOURCE material.

Although I felt that was a good movie, it was most definitely NOT "Simon Templar". The whole concept of that film was totally wrong.

It also annoys me that there were at least 3 different classic characters who had films made where the creators INSISTED on slapping on "origin" stories where there either NEVER HAD BEEN origin stories, or, they totally changed and mutilated already-existing ones.  (Conan, The Shadow, The Saint)


Templar was NOT a jewel thief.  He was a crusader for justice, who started out with a group of like-minded friends.  Simply put, "a modern Robin Hood".  In the mid-30s, he started to get involved with con games, always aimed against criminals, as a way of "building his retirement account".  But that's not the same thing.

The best "origin" story for Templar would be THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD with Errol Flynn.   

I suppose part of the blame can go all the way back to RKO Films. After they did 6 SAINT films, author Leslie Charteris was so disappointed with how they were handling his character, he TOOK BACK the license and signed with a UK studio, who did 2 more.  Insanely enough... this is NOT how it's described at Wikipedia, which only strengthens my growing belief that the site is increasingly becoming a haven for MISINFORMATION.

[crashryan]

Having enjoyed Louis Joseph Vance's The Lone Wolf so much I decided to try an earlier novel (1909) by the author, The Bronze Bell. Though it had some strong moments the book left a sour taste in my mouth.

The plot follows author-adventurer David Amber as he is pulled into a convoluted plot which eventually finds him saving The Woman of His Dreams from a bloodthirsty cult determined to stage a Second Mutiny in India and massacre the British. Echoes of Kipling and Mundy abound as Amber stumbles through a crowd of cringing babus, towering Sikhs, menacing Punjabis and, to quote Vance, the "seething scum on a witch's brew of humanity."

There is plenty of action, lots of menace, and a bit too much mysteriousness. Amber spends most of the book blundering blindly about Darkest India trying to win The Woman of His Dreams. The instant romance I criticized in The Lone Wolf is nothing compared to Amber's romantic obsession. The couple meets cute on page six and when she vanishes two chapters later he's prepared to travel halfway around the globe and face almost certain death to find her and lead her to the altar.

The book's big problem is that Amber never has a clue to what is going on. It's a case of mistaken identity that first pulls him into the mess. As mystifying events pile one upon the other, Amber mostly just goes with the flow. One expects the hero of a turn-of-the-century adventure eventually to take command of the situation. Amber never does. The true hero of the book is one Labertouche, an enigmatic British secret agent, a master of disguise who does understand the situation, though he never finds the time to explain it to Amber. Again and again Labertouche invisibly manipulates events to help Amber thwart the evildoers and reclaim TWOHD. It's Labertouche who pulls Amber's bacon from the fire in the action climax. By the final page the reader wonders whether Labertouche could have pulled off the entire job single-handed and saved Amber some anguish.

The Bronze Bell offers much of what I like in an adventure. Vance's description of Amber's midnight exploration of a ruined city is so evocative you almost feel you're there. As in The Lone Wolf the action scenes are vigorous and fast-paced. Some of the set pieces, like the Gateway of Swords and the Bronze Bell itself, wouldn't be out of place in a big-budget 1930s adventure film. In short, I'd have enjoyed the heck out of this book if it weren't for the oppressive racism that drips from every page.

It's the old colonial story, the White Island amidst the seething ocean of swarthy, sweaty sub-humans. I've heard all the arguments about "That's just the way they thought back then, you can't judge them by today's standards." In fact, you can. Racism is racism, and all the heroic white men in this book treat the Indians with such unbridled contempt that you can hardly blame The Brass Bell for wanting to end the "scarlet plague." On top of this is layered Amber's great dilemma--the possibility that The Woman of His Dreams might be--Omigod!--of Mixed Blood. We're to appreciate the depth of Amber's love that he's willing to destroy his life and his social standing by wedding her; and Amber's nobility by his vow never to breathe to a soul the secret of her tainted heritage. This subplot is often lost in the action, but its central importance is stated in the big finish. As Amber and his lady love are racing blindly through a crumbling citadel, pursued by four hundred howling, sword-waving savages, it's Amber's realization that her little "white--all white!--hand" is clutched in his that reinvigorates him.

I used to have greater patience with this sort of nonsense, but that patience has been eroded by daily real-world attempts to revive those attitudes in the name of preserving culture, establishing religion, or making things Great again. Most annoying is that the story would have worked just fine without the mixed-race subplot. The outcome would have been exactly the same if TWOHD has belonged to one of the First Families of Virginia, as Amber himself did. I suppose it was grafted on to add extra titillation.

In sum, some great parts but overall disappointing.

[crashryan]

I've been researching the career of German-Italian comics artist Kurt Caesar. One of the features he worked on was Il Mozzo del Sommergibile (Cabin Boy on a Submarine), published in Topolino in 1941. I have one of the reprint volumes Camillo Conti issued in 1978. It was quite an experience to read a full-throated war comic in which those we Americans saw as The Bad Guys are The Good Guys, and vice versa.

In this weekly color serial an Italian kid somehow winds up aboard an Italian submarine out hunting the evil British (the Americans aren't mentioned, not having yet entered the War). I only have the second of two volumes reprinting the series, so all I know is that Mama and Papa are waiting for him at home while on the sub he has a sort of big-brother figure watching out for him and cheering him on as he learns to work the deck guns. At the series' close the kid returns home a hero, though you wonder why because twice he disobeys orders and is washed overboard, endangering the sub as it searches for him. I guess the fact that he defeats a British saboteur and saves the ship from a submarine net makes up for his foolishness.

The submarine's crew is as bloodthirsty as any GI in a Golden Age war comic, gleefully sending British ships to the bottom "to feed the fishes." However, just like in GA comics, the Italian good guys respect the Laws of War and are noble to a fault while the British bad guys are conniving, back-stabbing scum who kill unarmed prisoners and would rather drown sabotaging the sub than to be taken to a comfortable Italian POW camp. A few times Germans appear, and the Italians help them as "our allies," but the story's about dashing Italians so the Germans are granted little screen time.

I've always been curious about the way writers in other languages portray spoken English. US and GB comics are full of stereotypical accents: "Vot is dot?" "Velly solly," "Mama mia! That's-a some spicy meatball!" I supposed the same thing happened when the tables were reversed, but I have found fewer examples than I expected. In Mozzo our hero is captured by the British. The inglesi speak Italian Tontoese: "You drop gun, go ship." The dialogue of one Englishman who speaks proper Italian is rendered without an accent.

It turns out that Kurt Caesar drew only the first half of Il Mozzo del Sommergibile. Early in this volume he is replaced by Edgardo dell'Acqua, who later found fame with his postwar adventurer Gim Toro. Dell'Acqua's career extended into the mid-1970s, when he worked for Renzo Barbieri's line of erotic pocket libraries. Caesar's art here is nowhere as dramatic or detailed as that in his earlier patriotic potboiler, Romano il Legionario. It's rather routine and isn't helped by the restrictive four-tier-plus-a-header format.

[profh0011]

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the Val Kilmer movie "The Saint" was actually a loose adaptation of the 1st LONE WOLF novel.  There's just no other possibility.  Too much in the above description matches plot details in the 1997 movie.

This wouldn't be the first time this kind of thing happened, either.

Remember the 1944 "Captain America" serial?  I loved that thing... but it had virtually nothing in common with what Jack Kirby did in the C.A. comics, apart from the style of the fight scenes.  Turns out, the studio had a license to do a MR. SCARLET serial, but that character fell out of popularity,  and since they also got a license to to Cap, they decided not to let the already-written screenplay go to waste.  What I didn't know for years was, at least for a short period, Jack Kirby ALSO worked on the MR. SCARLET series!

And then there's the "infamous" 1933 film, A STUDY IN SCARLET.  The studio bought the rights to the name of Doyle's 1st Sherlock Holmes story, but NOT the story... They then told their screenwriter to come up with a "new" story instead.  But that's not what he did... instead, he adapted Belgian author Stalislas-Andree Steeman's 1931 novel "Six Hommes Morts" (SIX DEAD MEN)-- apparently, uncredited and UNPAID.  Forever, people have been complaining it has "nothing to do" with Doyle's novel, but only one person who contributed to the IMDB's trivia section mentioned the REAL source material. 

I tracked down 3 other adaptations (one from England, 2 from France).  All were listed at the IMDB, but none of them had any references to the others.  Using their system, I contacted the site.  they've since added "connections" of the 3 other films to each other... but have oddly NOT updated the info on "A STUDY IN SCARLET".  The only reference to Steeman there now, is the one I found in the trivia section, AND, a review I wrote where I spell out exactly what was going on behind-the-scenes.

[The Australian Panther]

Possible Christmas present for some of you (of a certain age).
I always enjoyed the light-hearted TV show, Mr Ed. [The talking horse]
What I did not know was that the show was based on a series of short stories by Walter Rollin Brooks (January 9, 1886 - August 17, 1958). He is an author best know for his children's books about Freddy The Pig. Possibly the world's most famous pig, Freddy is the central character in all the books, where he can seemingly take on any vocation. Brooks also created a set of short stories about a talking horse, which became the basis for the television show Mister Ed.
The Freddy books are still under copyright.
The Mr Ed stories, Published in Liberty Magazine 1939 -1940 apparently, are not - at least in Canada.
There are currently 7 stories available on the fadedpage site.
https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Brooks,%20Walter%20Rollin
These come complete with the covers of the issues of Liberty magazine they were originally published in. And these are worth looking at in themselves.
Cheers!   
 

[bowers]

Good to see fadedpage has these. I got mine from the now-defunct Yahoo pulp group, including five from Argosy magazine and a paperback with nine stories. I enjoyed Ed's personality in the written stories much more than in the TV series, but I still love them both! Also a MUCH different wife than on TV. In the unaired TV pilot (with a different cast) they retained the name Wilbur Pope, but for some reason changed Pope to Post for the series. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkestbRetC8
Cheers, Bowers

[Florian R. Guillon]

Hi everyone!

I just read some interesting graphic novel you should all enjoy when it is published in English, it's called "La Brigade Chimerique : Ultime Renaissance" (The Chimera Brigade: Ultimate Rebirth).



This is a sequel to the original Chimera Brigade (published by Titan Comics), which was focused on the end of the age of European superhumans at the eve of World War II. The plot is actually thicker than this, as it summons a whole lot of litterary references from early French sci-fi pulps. All characters originated in the early XXth century, along with their actual "biographers". The Nyctalope, Palmyre, the Curies, Felifax, are some of the numerous characters that dwell in this comic. Why did history (European culture) forget them? If you like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, you'll most likely enjoy the Chimera Brigade. It's written by Serge Lehman and Fabrice Colin, and drawn by Gess.

The sequel is set nowadays. When superhuman activity threatens Paris, the government puts Pr Charles "Dex" Desznick, one of the few persons knowing of yesterday's superheroes, in charge of finding the Rigged Man and Felifax. Written by Serge Lehman and drawn by St?phane De Caneva in a style reminiscent of Gess's, Ultimate Rebirth explores what happened to the remaining superheroes after they left, and ultimately their modern legacy. One foot in the past, the other in the future. The plot is consistent and this graphic novel is rich with references and very exciting. One reading is not enough, for sure.

I'm really pleased Black Coat Press publishes most of the original novels while virtually no big publishing company wanted to bring back the XXth Century French "merveilleux scientifique". The times are slowly a-changing for patrimonial sci-fi, luckily, and projects like the Chimera Brigade help put the spotlight on our forgotten pulp litterature.

[bowers]

Looks like an excellent read, Florian! I'm probably going to have some difficulty trying to find a copy on my side of the pond, but I am looking. Thanks for the info and comments. Cheers, Bowers

[Ian Dickerson]

The background in the opening chapters turns out to be essential to understanding Lanyard and his change of heart.
I suppose part of the blame can go all the way back to RKO Films. After they did 6 SAINT films, author Leslie Charteris was so disappointed with how they were handling his character, he TOOK BACK the license and signed with a UK studio, who did 2 more.  Insanely enough... this is NOT how it's described at Wikipedia, which only strengthens my growing belief that the site is increasingly becoming a haven for MISINFORMATION.

Whilst I agree with you about the addition of back stories that nobody needs or wants you're wrong on the RKO details. Yes, Leslie did have a disagreement with them (that was settled out of court) but there were nine movies in all, eight of which were produce dby RKO. The last, The Saint's Girl Friday (aka The Saint's Return) was co-produced by James Carreras's Exclsuvie Productions and distributed by RKO in the States.