 |
| art by Joe Kubert |
 |
| from House of Terror #1 (October 1953) |
22 June 2015
21 June 2015
20 June 2015
Cheech Wizard in His Student Days
One of my favorite parts of the old NATIONAL LAMPOON magazine (before it sucked, say before 1978) was the Vaughn Bode comic strip CHEECH WIZARD. You can find all those old NatLamps scanned on DVD fairly cheaply..but Cheech made some appearances in underground comix as well
This appeared in Junkwaffel #2 , Feb. 1972.
19 June 2015
Jungle War Stories~ Requiem for a Red...
One of the few places you'd see mention of our involvement in Vietnam before late 1964 was in comic books such as Dell's Jungle War Stories. This story is from issue #1, July 1962 (making it one of the first in house Dell products) . Art is by Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico. The cover is by Vic Prezio
17 June 2015
Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties~Poor Man's Policeman
 |
| July-September 1962.One of the last Dell Comics produced by Western Publishing. |
15 June 2015
THE SHADOWERS
Just finished the seventh in the MATT HELM series and all I can say is "wow..possibly the best in the series so far!"
Published in 1964, THE SHADOWERS is an odd duck for the action/spy/thriller genre, because there isn't a whole lot of any of that. It's a love story, or more accurately,a lack of love story. Helm's character is more defined now, and he is someone unlikeable. His whole motivation for doing this work seems to be he just doesn't like anything---new cars, fancy guns, women wearing pants. he's a worse curmudgeon than me, and he's supposedly only around 40 (although that time line is starting to unravel).
I can't reveal too much of this book, since it would take away some of the enjoyment for a potential reader. 50 years on, this is still a "page turner", and I use that phrase believing it is used way too often. The twists keep right on turning, right until the last sentence.
You'll find yourself thinking "why do I care what happens to this jerk?" and then you realise this isn't a "hero overcomes adversity" tale like so many modern action tales. It is a given that Matt will survive, at least for 30 or so novels.There is little suspense. There is not much of the gadgetry found in this series either--the only guns used in this one are a cheap .22 and a .38 revolver. Matt eschews fancy cars. He drives someone else's Renault in this one (although he admires another character's Austin Healey). Also missing are romantic exotic locales--The Shadowers takes place in Pensacola, Florida mostly. What we do have is a great tale of asocial operative and SOB Matt Helm taking stock at all the collateral damage that happens around him.
It's a shame a serious cinematic version never materialized. But then, this stuff is not for everyone. But a lot of my reading friends would like it.
Published in 1964, THE SHADOWERS is an odd duck for the action/spy/thriller genre, because there isn't a whole lot of any of that. It's a love story, or more accurately,a lack of love story. Helm's character is more defined now, and he is someone unlikeable. His whole motivation for doing this work seems to be he just doesn't like anything---new cars, fancy guns, women wearing pants. he's a worse curmudgeon than me, and he's supposedly only around 40 (although that time line is starting to unravel).
I can't reveal too much of this book, since it would take away some of the enjoyment for a potential reader. 50 years on, this is still a "page turner", and I use that phrase believing it is used way too often. The twists keep right on turning, right until the last sentence.
You'll find yourself thinking "why do I care what happens to this jerk?" and then you realise this isn't a "hero overcomes adversity" tale like so many modern action tales. It is a given that Matt will survive, at least for 30 or so novels.There is little suspense. There is not much of the gadgetry found in this series either--the only guns used in this one are a cheap .22 and a .38 revolver. Matt eschews fancy cars. He drives someone else's Renault in this one (although he admires another character's Austin Healey). Also missing are romantic exotic locales--The Shadowers takes place in Pensacola, Florida mostly. What we do have is a great tale of asocial operative and SOB Matt Helm taking stock at all the collateral damage that happens around him.
It's a shame a serious cinematic version never materialized. But then, this stuff is not for everyone. But a lot of my reading friends would like it.
13 June 2015
Jungle War Stories~ Run, Yank - Run!
One of the few places you'd see mention of our involvement in Viet Nam before late 1964 was in comic books such as Dell's Jungle War Stories. This story is from issue #5, October 1963. Art is by Maurice Whitman and Vince Colletta. The cover is most likely by Vic Prezio
You'll note these are the days before the two most iconic pieces of machinery of the war--the UH-1 helicopter and the M-16 rifle.
12 June 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)