Star-Lord!

The snarky marginally portly chap who calls himself Star-Lord in all those very successful Marvel movies ain't your Momma's Star-Lord. That fellow, named Peter Quill too was a pretty safe distance from the entertaining malarky that defines those Guardians of the Galaxy movies. But due to the success of those movies Marvel saw fit to reprint in one handy volume Star-Lord's earliest appearances. 

Star-Lord kicked off in the fourth issue of Marvel Preview. The story was written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Steve Gan. Beneath this handsome Gray Morrow cover we meet Peter Quill, a young boy and then young man who is filled with anger. His Mother was killed by aliens and Pete saw this, then vowed to get revenge. To that end he seeks service in the space corps of Earth and is not at all concerned about how he obtains his goals. 

He's a very unlikeable character in this first installment. But nonetheless he schemes and brutalizes his way to encounter the Master of the Sun who gifts him with his abilities and weapons. Peter only wants vengeance for his Mother's death, but he then finds out he is meant for more Much is made of Astrology in this story, as Englehart was a devotee at the time. But this aspect of the character was dropped in his very next appearance. 

It is Star-Lord's next appearance in the eleventh issue of Marvel Preview though that really stuck in the memories of many a Marvelite of the time. Chris Claremont and John Byrne were a new team, yet to tackle the X-Men when they came to this space saga. Now we see Star-Lord doing his work, saving people from slavers from space. This is a splendid yarn and we can see the raw talent of Byrne quickening with each page aided by the inks of Terry Austin, while Claremont makes Peter Quill a much more aloof yet still more sympathetic hero. This story also introduces "Ship", the intelligent spacecraft which is Star-Lord's partner. 

This story has proven so popular that it has been reprinted twice as a standalone comic, once in the 80's and again in the 90's. New material was created by Claremont, Austin, and artist Michael Golden to make the story make a bit more sense. 

The fourteenth issue of Marvel Preview brings Star-Lord back under a very handsome cover by Jim Starlin. Chris Claremont stays with the character but the new artist is the legendary Carmine Infantino. His pencils defined the future in many a DC comic of years past and he brings a strong powerful style to this hero. We learn a great deal more about Ship as she adopts a humanoid form to interact with Peter Quill. The two of them are trying to survive on a very deadly planet. 

That same team is back in the fifteenth issue which shows the duo stopping a deadly fleet from destroying worlds. Peter is alerted to this threat by a dream, and given his powers combined with that he seems a real precursor to Nexus who was likewise motivated by dreams. The similarity between these heroes really stood out to me as I read these stories for the first time in years. By the way that's a Joe Jusko cover above. Star-Lord didn't appear often but when he did, he got the best of the best. 

Star-Lord appears in color for the first time in a story written by Claremont but drawn and apparently painted to some degree by Gene Colan. This is a lush package underneath a powerful Earl Norem cover. Peter Quill finds romance of a sort with a creature who only appears to be an Earth woman to suit him. 

Doug Moench becomes the regular writer of Star-Lord in the eighteenth issue of Marvel Preview and is joined by artist s Bill Sienkiewicz and Bob McLeod. Quill is matched up against a race of "Lion Men" (shades of Flash Gordon). Somewhere along the way Star-Lord lost his helmet and it was a mistake in my opinion. The look of his costume is hurt with its absence. But clearly the creators wanted to show his face more, the same reason mask don't last long in most feature films not starring Batman. 

Star-Lord jumps to color comics in the sixth issue of the second Marvel Spotlight series. His origin is revisited, and we learn much more about the Master of the Sun and his connection to a young Peter Quill. Tom Sutton becomes the new regular artist, joining Moench. I really like Sutton's take on the character. 

The pair are back in the next issue in a story in which the life cycle of a species is central to the outcome of the plot. While Peter Quill is a powerful man, he is a man who is often confused by the creatures he meets. Moench is really quite good at presenting alien intelligences. 

The stories jump to Marvel Premiere and we get a story told from the point of view of a planet. That gives the story a larger and more profound perspective. Moench with Sutton's input is really interested in doing interesting things with the character, but alas this issue will be the last Star-Lord story for many years. 

This volume closes out by jumping to the 90's when a three-part mini-series starring the character is launched written by science fiction talent Timoth Zahn and drawn (painted really) by Dan Lawlis. We learn more about then nature Star-Lord's powers and the great cost it requires to use them. Actually this adventure doesn't feature Peter Quill who has been missing for some time as the story picks up but instead installs Sinjin Quarrel, a young telepath in the role. He picks up the mantle when he unearths Ship. The duo are then thrust into an adventure which has them confront some of the worst outlaws in space. I don't know how this fits into the larger Star-Lord saga but I'm not required to know. It was a nice addition. 

And that wraps up the classic adventures of Star-Lord, one of Marvel's more interesting Bronze Age characters. You have to give them credit for really staying with the concept and trying to find a way to launch it. But that old canard about science fiction not selling in comics seems to have proven true, at least back then. 

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Doc Savage - The Crimson Plague!

I conclude my look at Marvel's Bronze Age Black and White Doc Savage magazines. Doc Savage #8 features one last Ken Barr cover. The inside cover image is by Tom Sutton. The story this time is one developed as a fill-in and features a script developed in tandem by John Warner, Jim Whitmore and Doug Moench. The art is by Ernie Chan. 

"The Crimson Plague" begins in New York where Doc appears to his men and tells them of his recent trip to Acapulco where he went looking for Miguel Hernandez a biologist. He found Hernandez in a daze and later he sees a giant red floating octopus threaten Hernandez and himself befor it disappears leaving the biologist dead. Then we cut to Brooklyn where another scientist a physicist named Scott Merril is likewise attacked by a red octopus and saved by a beat cop. The police call Doc who investigates learning of a connection to several cities including Los Angeles (where Renny and Ham had already gone), London, and Paris. Doc calls Renny but he's already been attacked by masked men who seem to be Hollywood stuntmen. Ham appears but is subdued also. Doc splits his men up and he goes to Hollywood, while Johnny and Long Tom go to London and Monk heads to Paris. In London the men find another masked gang pouring some sort of gas into a room and they attack to save the scientist Winston Veldt an astronomer. They find Veldt and the attempt an escape aboard the auto-gyro, but a plane attacks and only some tricky flying by Long Tom saves the day. 

In Paris Monk meets a Professor Lemonde who is a scientist talking about the ecology. Another masked gang appears and after a skirmish Monk is beaten but the gang recognize him as one of the men on their list so they take both with them. Doc in Hollywood meets a mogul named Randolph Dorn who lies to him about not having seen Renny or Ham. Doc learns the truth and investigates running up against yet another gang of stuntmen. He finds some of his missing friends and the scientists in cages and releases them. They then invade the main underground lab and find Dorn at the center of an elaborate machine which is seemingly sucking the minds of great men such as Renny and Ham who are currently hooked into the machine. Doc shorts out the machine and engages the maniacal Dorn who is to his "Brain Bank" and consequently quite powerful. Doc ends up throwing the villain into his own equipment destroying the connection and destroying Dorn's mind at the same time. Later Doc revives all the men under Dorn's control and story ends quietly as they discuss the narrow miss in the hospital room. The explanation for the floating octopi was that they were literally projected into the mist which was poured into the atmosphere and appeared to move as the mist moved. So the movie producer literally attacked using a movie of sorts. 

There's not text piece in this issue but there is an editorial announcing the end of the run. Ed Davis offers up a poster-style shot of Long Tom and the team of Bob Layton and Dick Giordano close the magazine with a poster shot of Doc Savage himself. The series was a bit weaker in these last few issues. The main team was away and the vigor of the early efforts seemed to have dwindled. Doubtless the early enthusiasm for the George Pal movie had gone by this time and it was clear that Doc Savage was perhaps needing a slight rest before he was given another shot at the comics. On the upside while I found the Val Mayerik work back in #7 less effective it was still pretty good and Ernie Chan's work in #8 was very good, though the story was more clever than truly engaging. 

It would be quite a while indeed before DC did bring Doc back. 

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Doc Savage - The Mayan Mutations!

I continue with my examination of Doc Savage's B&W adventures. Doc Savage #7 has yet another lush Ken Barr cover. The story written as usual by Doug Moench is titled "The Mayan Mutations" and it's illustrated this time by Val Mayerik on pencils with Tony DeZuniga on inks. 

The story begins with a giant moth attacking a boar in South America. Cut to New York City and the headquarters of Doc Savage where we find Doc's men interviewing folks looking for another worthy case. The first meet a Mutt and Jeff duo named Hanson and Harridan who talk about treasure in the South America, but since it's a seemingly for-profit venture they are sent away. Next is a man looking for help with his wife who he feels is cheating on him, and after some confusion he's also sent packing. Finally, two beautiful women appear, Vesper Hope and a silent beauty named Myrrana. They speak of strange culture in South America populated by Myrrana's folk and of attacks there which prompted her husband to investigate but never return and they talk of a giant moth. 

Doc takes the case, and they head off to board the Amberjack moored on the top of the skyscraper. A giant moth attacks but Doc kills it. The team of Harridan and Hanson show up and reveal themselves to be the villains of the story as they retrieve the moth. The team fly to South America and find a strange round plateau which is overcome with riotous plant growth along with select giant insects and animals. They encounter Myranna's people and discover a great arboreal society in which these descendants of the Mayans live totally within and off the giant trees. After some more investigation a pool is found in an abandoned city which seems to be the source of the radiation which makes the fantastic growth possible. Doc and his men investigate and discover a tale which Johnny extrapolates from the hieroglyphs to be a tale of ancient astronauts who left behind the stuff that has caused this plateau to exist. Then the villains appear and shoot Long Tom. Doc rushes him to a small surgery in the Amberjack and he and Vesper Hope (a nurse) operate using and using an artificial heart valve save his life. Doc then seeks out the rogues and instead encounters a mutated man-beast who turns out to be Myranna's husband who reluctantly she kills with Ham's sword-cane. Doc and his men round up the scoundrels and somberly head back to civilization leaving the Arboreans to their beautiful society. 

There is an article by Bob Sampson on Johnny which is typically detailed. This issue also features several poster-style images by Ed Davis of Doc and crew. These really have a great pulp feel. 

 More to come. 

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Doc Savage - The Sky Stealers!

I continue my look at the Black and White Marvel magazines featuring Doc Savage and his team. Beneath another dynamic Ken Barr cover is a story titled "The Sky Stealers" by Doug Moench and Tony DeZuniga. 

The saga begins with an old prospector running into the town of Plainville, Utah and screaming about the sky being stolen. The people dismiss him but later the town is wiped out and everyone seemingly suffocated. Cut to New York and we meet Monk Mayfair's comely secretary Monica who is invited to meet Monk at Doc Savage's headquarters. But news of the destroyed town causes Doc and Renny to investigate and they find the town's bank ransacked and all the uranium in the mining town missing. A mysterious ankh symbol is found on site. Monk and Ham are feuding when Monica appears and seems most interested in Ham's gentlemanly ways much to Monk's chagrin. We cut another Utah town which is suddenly enveloped by darkness and the people begin to strangle as the air is gone. Bizarre figures descend from the sky looking for all the world like ancient Egyptian gods and these figures rob the bank and ascend into their zeppelin and leave. Cut to Renny investigating the ankh symbol at the museum when he is attacked. Cut to the headquarters and Doc's men have found news of one Johnathan Wilde, an archeologist dismissed for his wild theories about the power-giving traits of pyramids and such. 

Doc and his team become worried about Renny and investigate only to be confronted by a walking mummy possessed of immense strength. It turns out to be a hypnotized Renny. Doc defeats and revives him. Meanwhile the Egyptian "gods" have returned and are attacking New York and it is up to Ham to destroy the zeppelin before anyone suffocates. Doc at the same time defeats one of the gang, the crocodile-headed god Sebet. The team then heads to Egypt at the same time analyzing the equipment which makes the "gods" possible. They explore the pyramid of Cheops and find a hidden high-tech operation inside. The surviving zeppelin returns and the "gods" attack. Doc and his men put on oxygen masks and survive. The "gods" bring a kidnapped Monica into the pyramid headquarters and apply the treatments which give them all super-strength to her. Seeing his girl captured is more than Monk can stand and the battle begins. Doc confronts the leader Horus who wants Monica as his bride and after much confusion and mayhem they rescue Monica and flee the pyramid complex which is destroying itself. The gang led by Wilde is left for dead inside the now defunct criminal operation. Monica on the other hand still possessed for a time with super-strength gives both Ham and Monk more than they bargained floor when she snatches both of them up in the story's final panel. 

Also in this issue is a text piece by Bob Sampson on Renny. It's very detailed and covers his whole career. It's illustrated with art by Frank Cirocco and Bill Anderson. There's a poster-shot of Doc by Mike Nasser. There's a wonderfully evocative drawing of Doc and his team on the inside front cover, but it's not attributed. Anyone know the artist for this? This story began great, but kind of fell apart at the end with the visual storytelling becoming somewhat clumsy. There's a blurb saying that the next issue will have a guest artist to give DeZuniga some more time, but on this issue he seems to have been rushing it quite a bit. 

 More next time. 

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Doc Savage - The Earth-Wreckers!

I continue with my reviews of the Doc Savage Black and White magazine from the 70's. Doc Savage #5 sports another lush Ken Barr cover. The inside front cover features a Neal Adams drawing of the Man of Bronze alongside Doc's oath. 

The story is titled "The Earth-Wreckers!" and it's written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Tony DeZuniga. The story begins in Australia on June 12, 1933. A mysterious plane approaches a distant outpost, crashes but the pilot escapes and attacks the location manned by thugs. The attacker is revealed to be Doc himself and he's careful to break open a safe and the contents cause him to trill. Next, we're taken to Antartica two days later and Doc again attacks a cabin full of thugs to retrieve something hidden under the floor. Cut to Africa the next day and again we follow Doc as he attacks a distant gang of thugs to find a mysterious something. Two days later the same in Eurasia. The next day in Manhattan we meet Doc's aides assembled in the headquarters curious about some large crates sent their to Doc but addressed in Doc's handwriting. They open one up and find a weird mechanical device shaped like Australia. Next we meet the meek Hiram Meeker on his way to locate Pat Savage as a means to meet Doc himself. After telling her his tale, she agrees to take him. Meanwhile in South America Doc again attacks some thugs to get yet another crate. At the headquarters Doc's men have assembled the pieces from the crates have created a bizarre over-sized globe of the world surrounding bizarre mechanical and electrical workings. 

We cut to North America and Doc again attacks to get hold of some mysterious object. We go to the headquarters and at last Doc arrives with his latest find and his mildly miffed to see his aides have already broken out the crates. He adds his new piece, but Monk accidently activates the devices and the burn out the electrical equipment around them. Pat then shows up with Hiram who claims to know more about the weird equipment, and we learn of a mysterious leader called "Iron Mask" and his scheme to blackmail the world or blow it up using the peculiar devices Doc has been collecting. Cut to a hidden scientific base and we meet Iron Mask, a strange armored criminal who threatens the life of Hiram who has left his organization. Pat wants to go with Doc, he refuses and she grabs Hiram and leaves, but almost immediately the come under attack. She drives to avoid the attackers ultimately causing them to crash. Next we follow Doc and his men as they use the flea run to get to the Amberjack in the Hidalgo Trading Company, but find Pat and Hiram there. Doc reluctantly allows them to come as the team heads to Scotland, specifically Inverness. Once there they become familiar with the legend of Loch Ness and the Monster, which Monk promptly sees. The equip themselves with underwater gear and head into the Loch and all of them see the giant creature, appearing to be a plesiosaur. The surface in an underground secret base and battle erupts against Iron Mask's men. After much battle the creature is revealed to be a disguised submarine. Doc press the attack, defeat the criminals and Iron Mask revealed to be a man with a ruined face attempts to escape in a small boat only to encounter the real Nessy who destroys his small craft. The team triumphant head back to New York. 

Also in this issue is a wonderfully compact yet detailed overview of Doc's pulp history by Bob Sampson. There's also a small interview with Norma Dent, the wife of Lester Dent. Both of these articles are decorated with stills from the George Pal movie. This issue's lead story really started with a bang, creating a real mystery as to why Doc was rounding the world looking for things and beating up people. The payoff was pretty good, but the Loch Ness sections seemed a bit rushed. But often I find the pulps have the same feel. Pat is really gorgeous and exotic in this issue. We see Chemistry this time too, but he's a little monkey. 

 More next time. 

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Doc Savage - His Apocalyptic Life!

Doc Savage - His Apocalyptic Life is the sequel of sorts to Philip Jose Farmer's Tarzan Alive - A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke. The latter work told the life story (up to a point) of the great King of the Jungle popularized by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his extensive series of novels. Lord Greystoke though is only one member of an illustrious family dubbed by Farmer and other modern researchers as the "Wold Newton Family". These are descendants of a curious band of folks who happened to be present in Wold Newton when a meteor dropped and bathed them all in a special ionized radiation which seemed by inference to have a profound effect on their progeny. And Farmer tells the story of Lord Greystoke, the epitome of the savage feral human and in this later work focusing on the crime-fighter Doc Savage he does likewise for the epitome of the modern technological man. 

The subtitle refers to Farmer's opinion that the threats to mankind which required Doc Savage's intervention were of such earth-shaking quality as to earn the term "apocalyptic". Doc Savage is no less than a supremely trained superman who saves the planet on a nigh regular basis -- monthly in fact as revealed by Street and Smith's publication schedule for the popular pulp hero. Farmer spends a good deal of time in the early chapters connecting Savage to the work of writers like William S. Burroughs and Henry Miller, suggesting that the works of these writers share in many respects Savage's apocalyptic framework. The details of Doc's life are explored and a timeline is suggested, one which is often at odds with the sequence of the novels. Then Farmer explores the life and times of Savage's "biographer" Lester Dent who with a few other pulp mavens detailed the stunning events in Savage's life adding in necessary fictional elements where necessary. 

Then Farmer goes to extensive lengths to talk geography and architecture, specifically the location and layout of Doc's skyscaper headquarters in the Empire State Building. It is revealed by Doc had played a seminal part in its construction allowing for his future offices and even an elaborate tube system for quick transportation to the Hidalgo Trading Company, a false business where many of Doc's amazing machines reside. Farmer is meticulous in his examination of the location referring constantly to the "super sagas" for information on how the sites changed over time. Tarzan is a man who is ideal when reduced to his most basic needing only his father's knife to cleave his way to success. Doc Savage in contrast is a man of technological marvels which enhance his own ideal physical gifts. Tarzan and Doc are two sides of a coin, superior in their ways but always perhaps best understood in contrast. As it turns out they are also cousins. 

Also identified as a member of the elaborate Wold Newton clan is Monk Mayfair, Doc's ape-like associate who just so happens to be a famed chemist as well. His rough exterior is contrasted in the tales by his best mate and rival Ham Brooks a dapper lawyer. These two are the primary agents of Doc's "Fabulous Five" but are joined by Renny Renwick an engineer of renown, Long Tom Roberts an electronics wizard, and Johnny Littlejohn an archeologist and geologist of note. These five men are loyal to Doc and often hungry for the adventure they find by association with him. Farmer dedicates a chapter to each of the five men, plucking the "true" from the fictional. Getting special treatment is Doc's cousin Patricia Savage who shares many of Doc's singular physical gifts. One gets the feeling that PJF has a crush on Pat, or at the very least he implies that Doc might. 

Doc Savage - His Apocalyptic Life is a grandly entertaining book for Doc Savage fans or for fans of the Wold Newton Family itself. We get not only what has been described but chronologies of the "super sagas" and expansive family trees to show the connections among the many disparate personalities in the Wold Newton Family. In the Altus edition which I read this time we are treated to a forward titled "Book of Magic" by Win Scott Eckert in which he details how he came across this tome and how it became a linchpin work for his imagination. I identify with much of what Eckert describes as I was discovering many of these same works at the same time such as The Rocketeer by Dave Stevens which treats the reader to some unofficial Doc Savage action. 

When I first read this book by Farmer I'd read only a smattering of the "super sagas" but thanks to Anthony Tollin's reprint program from a few years back I now have read them all. Armed with that detailed knowledge this book by Philip Jose Farmer is even more enjoyable. 

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Doc Savage - Ghost Pirates From The Beyond!

I continue my examination of the 70's Marvel Black and White Doc Savage magazine. Under a lush Ken Barr cover is a story written by Doug Moench titled "Ghost Pirates From The Beyond". The art is by Marie Severin (first eight pages) and Tony DeZuniga. 

The tale begins with the abrupt and gruesome murder of two policemen in Casablanca and the burning of some documents. Cut to NYC and Doc's headquarters where Monk takes a call from one Charles Villiers who himself is then stabbed and murdered. Witnesses see a ghostly apparition leave the scene of the crime, the top of the Chrysler Building. Doc and his team race to the scene and find clues in an invitation Villiers had left for them to attend a party given by Darryl LeVay. At this party they meet a designer named Hulot who is promptly poisoned apparently by LeVay who takes hostage a woman named Trina Valley. Doc and his men battled some masked thugs, defeat them and get to Hulot who utters a clue that leads them Casablanca. They head to Casablanca in the Helldiver and then meet a police chief named Verdoux who takes them to the scene of the first two murders, thought by police to have been accidental deaths by fire. Doc uncovers a clue in the ashes leading to a place called "The Blue Parrot" which he sends his men to investigate while he and Renny investigate a ghost ship which turns out to be quite real and hiding a very high-tech interior. 

In the Blue Parrot Monk, Ham, Johnny, and Long Tom find a mysterious story of pirates who occupied the city of Anfa which stood where Casablanca stands. There's discussion of a treasure and much destruction. After more scuffling about Doc and his men eventually head into the desert following a map and discover a minaret again hiding a very high-tech interior, they free the captured Trina Valley a treacherous Verdoux, and the dead Darryl LaVey. They further discover underneath the tower a network of caves hiding a gang of men taking the treasure lorded over by a glowing figure calling himself the "Demon Reaver". There's a great battle, during which Doc and the Reaver confront one another. The Reaver turns out to be Hulot who had faked his death by poison earlier. Doc and the team give the treasure to the people of Casablanca and head for home on which trip sadly Monk and Ham who had been competing for the attention of Trina are told by her that she' very happily married. Even Doc smiles. 

There is only this one story this time out, as apparently Marvel had trimmed the page count in their B&W magazines at this time. No text features and no solo tale. 

More next time. 

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Doc Savage - The Inferno Scheme!

I continue with my review of Marvel's B&W Doc Savage magazine from the mid 70's. The third issue of Marvel's B&W Doc Savage magazine sports a fantastic cover image by Ken Barr of Doc atop jet-powered skis, the green background here is wild. Love this cover. The inside front cover has a bit of text on Doc around a pretty nice poster shot by Rich Buckler. This issue has a letters page called "Mail of Bronze" that includes among other things a notice about Steranko's "Doc Savage Brotherhood of Bronze" an "authorized" Doc organization. I wish I'd joined. 

The first story is titled "The Inferno Scheme" and it's written by Doug Moench and illustrated by John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga. It begins quietly enough with a flying shadow crashing into a jewelry store and stealing several gems. The thief is a robotic eagle remotely operated. Cut to the next day and a museum exhibit for the Stavros Diamond. A woman shows up to warn the police the exhibit must be closed, but then a robot bear appears to rob the gem. Renny has been close by in disguise and he engages the bear in a fight, which unsurprisingly he loses. The bear is later hoisted into the air by a autogyro-type aircraft and escapes with the diamond. Renny then meets the woman named Contessa De Chabrol who tells him of her brother, a man who calls himself Inferno and is the mastermind behind the robotic thieves. It seems he wants the diamonds for research he's doing trying to focus light. Doc is consulted and he and his team (minus Monk) hear out the Contessa's story. There's a small mystery about Ham's trousers which are torn on the bottom, but that's for the other story. 

Doc sends Renny with the Contessa to infiltrate Inferno's hideout and promises to come himself with the team in eighteen hours. The Contessa tells of her rise from rags to riches and her plan to return to rags and she and Renny share a romantic moment. Renny sets out to infiltrate the mountaintop hideout but is discovered quickly and captured. He escapes, runs through the mountain mansion and then encounters Inferno who has captured the Contessa and will kill his sister if Renny doesn't assist him in making some adjustments to his light-ray weapon. Renny agrees reluctantly. Doc and his team follow up on schedule, meanwhile Renny has uses the ray cannon to escape but brought up short when he discovers Inferno and the Contessa kissing, clearly not brother and sister. He's been deceived and he's both ashamed and furious. Doc and and his team meanwhile launch an attack on the stronghold. Much battle ensues, during which Doc uses jet-powered skis. Eventually to save Renny from a sulphur pit Doc descends into the caves beneath the fortress where he must engage and defeat many of the mechanoids (eagle, bear, gargoyle, lion, griffin, and spiked man thing). He and Renny compare notes, Renny informs Doc he's sabotaged the ray cannon and the next use will cause it to explode. They leave the stronghold while the Contesa uses the cannon. Renny tries to stop her, but she continues to try and kill them eventually blowing herself and the entire installation up. Renny weeps.

The second story features Monk, who was missing from the lead feature. It's titled "A Most Singular Writ of Habeus Corpus" and is written by Moench and illustrated by Rico Rival. The story begins with Monk and Ham engaging in a swordfight. Monk has hidden Ham's suit which is revealed ultimately to have been used as a nest for Monk's pig Habeus Corpus. Ham is furious but retrieves his suit, but not before Monk's secretary Marla ushers in a woman named Veronica Curtis. Ham goes to get dressed while Veronica tells Monk she liked for him to come and assist her brother who needs some research work done. While Monk smears some chemicals on Habeus Ham returns and Habeus immediately chews up his trousers (explaining the small mystery from the first story). Monk and Curtis leave to find that her brother Frank Curtis who Monk immediately recognizes as the gangster "Masher Miller", a murderer and ganglord. Veronica thought he hid his identity for other reasons. Monk and Veronica are captured and put in a backroom. Miller wants Monk to create a potion that will render his rivals booze non-alcoholic, but Monk claims this is impossible. Habeus shows up and using the chemical he'd smeared on his back earlier, Monk creates an explosive they use to escape. Some fisticuffs later the duo escape the waterfront hideout just as the explosive gets loose and the whole shebang explodes. Doc and Veronica and Habeus walk off into the mist leaving the clean up to the cops. And that's that. 

More next time. 

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Doc Savage - Hell-Reapers At The Heart Of Paradise!

I continue today with the second issue of Marvel's Black & White magazine adaptation of Doc Savage from the middle 70's. Doc Savage #2 sports a lush Ken Barr cover painting pitting a brawny Doc against a man-serpent with a baleful masked figure in the background. Underneath that cover is the editorial titled "The Great Doc Savage Interview or Why Couldn't Ron Ely Be Short and Ugly!!!" by Marv Wolfman and it essentially announces the Ron Ely interview in the back of the issue and talks about the talent in the magazine. The original script this time out is again written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Tony DeZuniga, though it looks like many Tribe members might've had a hand in the artwork at some point. 

The story is titled "Hell-Reapers at the Heart of Paradise" and it begins with a businessman named Thorne Shaw suddenly being confronted with a giant Mad Viking who attacks him announcing they are to return to the "Lost Valley of Hell". Cut to Doc's men who are assembling at the headquarters and then enter a mysterious stranger called Sandy Taine deeply covered by a hat, glasses and a large coat and accompanied by a large dog. Taine tells of a doomed Spanish galleon that was lost and sunk seeking the Northwest Passage in 1505 and then speaks of a later expedition on which Taine's father sailed only five years earlier. Of the crew that left the ship two did not return and Taine's father left no trace making him the number one suspect now that the surviving members of that expedition are disappearing. Doc overhears this tale, and soon confronts Taine revealing "Sandy Taine" to be a woman. Getting the names of the two expedition members not yet disappeared, Doc and his team race to the mansion estate of one but find only evidence of Uranium-238. Later Doc encounters the Mad Viking and after a brief fight which ends with the kidnapping of the last expedition member, Doc finds only a single clue, a gold coin. The coin proves to be fake but does hide a map to a singular location off the coast of Greenland. Doc and his team along with Taine race to the Hildalgo Trading Company warehouse and breakout a unique plane capable of flying in all terrains called the Hydro-Glider. 

Off they go and soon they are landed and cutting through the ice and find sunken ships and golden treasure strangely untouched. Next they find themselves in a natural funnel that pulls them down into a weird underworld lit by diffused Uranium. They encounter the missing expedition members who are seemingly under attack by strange lizard men. After a brief skirmish one of the members shoots a lizard man and Doc is furious. But then the Mad Viking appears, takes Long Tom hostage and reveals that he and expedition members are in cahoots to take the Uranium. Doc and his remaining team are sent down into the village of the "Reptilians" where they find Sandy Taine's father who tells them that he stood up to the rest when they wanted to steal that which made the Reptilians' life possible, the Uranium. Hence he was abandoned. He further reveals that he is changing into a Reptilian himself like the sailors who had long ago transformed and were the basis for the Reptilian society itself. Doc makes plans to rescue Long Tom while sending Renny topside to fly the Hydro-Glider into the underworld by means of a passage they discover. There's a climatic battle with the Mad Viking and his cohorts which results in the destruction of the delicate balance that made the underworld possible and water rushes in destroying all. Doc and his aides along with Sandy Taine escape via the Hydro-Glider while Taine's father chooses to die with his people believing himself to be a god. 

This main story is followed by an interview with "Ron Ely: The Man of Bronze". Ely discusses his early life, his role as Tarzan, and what he thinks of the Doc movie, being particularly unapologetic for the humor so many Doc fans find so irritating in the movie. Again, there seems to have been discussion of a second Doc movie as Ely talks about it briefly. This issue was a solid Doc story, with all the elements. The ending is a bit nihilistic for Doc with the whole civilization destroyed, but everyone seems in character. The artwork is good, but shows signs of deadline pressures in the latter pages. DeZuniga's rendering of Doc in particular is excellent most times. 

 More next time. 

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The Losers - Born To Lose!

"The Born Losers" are a mismatched squad of American warriors who band together because of the needs of their country in war and because each of them has suffered a loss of self-respect because of the rigors of war. They dub themselves "Born Losers" as almost a badge of shame, a fatalistic nod to the grim realities of warfare which demands sometimes even more than the lives of the soldiers who fight.

Among the Losers is Johnny Cloud The Navajo Ace who debuted in All-American Men of War #82 in 1960 and was among the highest profile ethnically diverse characters in a time when such stuff was indeed rare. Riddled with much of the usual cliche details, nonetheless it's no small thing that a character like Johnny Cloud even made it to the newsstands.

Captain Storm hit the stands in 1964 and this P.T. Boat captain had his own title which lasted several years. Distinctive because of his Ahab-like wooden leg, he too finds that the war has great cost making him a self-styled loser.

The duo of Gunner and Sarge debuted in 1959 in Our Fighting Forces #45 and that team along with their dog "Pooch" battled for many years afterwards.

All of these DC war heroes found their way into G.I. Combat #138, a comic written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Russ Heath which featured the "origin" of the Born Losers. Jeb Stuart and his tank crew fail mightily when they attempt to cross a bridge and attack an enemy outpost. That defeat shakes Jeb to his core and he dubs himself a "Born Loser". Later the bedraggled tank crew run across Captain Storm making his way across the desert after losing his ship and his men to enemy attack. Later still they find Gunner and Sarge who have themselves just survived an enemy attack which cost the lives of six raw recruits they were training. And finally the tank crew finds the crashed plane of Johnny Cloud who has not only lost his own plane but is demoralized by the death of the young pilot who was flying alongside him when the enemy attacked. These four men join the crew of the haunted tank and together they vow to overcome their status as losers and they organize another attack on the enemy outpost which had frustrated Jeb and his crew before. This time they are successful, but despite that success, the loss of men and their common sense of having violated trusts causes the heroes to still feel like Born Losers.

In the pages of Our Fighting Forces #123 by Kanigher and artist Ken Barrr, this quartet of "Losers" is given another mission to redeem themselves. Quite literally taking over the book from Hunter's Hellcats who hand off the mission to the Losers, we see the team undertake a near suicide mission when Captain Storm is tapped to imitate a man who looks remarkably like him even down to the wooden leg and spread disinformation among the enemy. Great pains are taken to make Storm's capture look legit and he withstands torture for enough time to allow Cloud, Gunner and Sarge to come to the attack while Storm then attempts to turn the tables on his Nazi captors. The four men survive and the mission is accomplished but regardless this new team of "Losers" is ready for their next mission.

More to come when Jack "King" Kirby takes on The Losers.

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Setting A High Barr!

Ken Barr is a name I immediately associate with Earl Norem and Bob Larkin as one of the key cover artists for Marvel during their 70's magazine heyday. Barr's work though seemed to have more drama than either Norem or Larkin, his colors seemed richer and his shadows darker. Barr painted images that oozed drama. Sadly the Scottish born artist passed away a few weeks ago. But his work lives on many a vintage Marvel mag.

He did many covers for the Doc Savage magazine, as Barr's style evoked a distinctive James Bama vibe. Something which was put to the test when he supplied a 1981 cover for Doc Savage - His Apocalyptic Life by Philip Jose Farmer, cover that replaced the 1975 Bama original.

Take a look at his Marvel covers and enjoy!

And a special belated treat--here is the 1971 wraparound Phase 1 fanzine cover mentioned in the comments section. It's a sweet image indeed.

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