Iulius!

It looks to be a hot summer, and I can think of no better way to endure it than to hide in my hovel and read books. This month the Dojo will take a look at the Marvel Comics work by Neal Adams. Adams wasn't with the company very long, but he made a big impression on books such as The Uncanny X-Men and The Avengers among others. He created a number of fantastic covers for Marvel in the Silver and Bronze Ages and most if not all of those will get a glimpse. Later work by Adams will get an examination as well. 

Captain America gets a good look as well, given that this is the month we celebrate the nation's birthday in arguably the most important year to the nation's internal welfare since the Civil War. I want to revisit some of my very favorite Cap yarns by Jack Kirby, Steve Englehart, and Sal Buscema, stories which speak to what has made the nation strong. 

Also, in the works this month are some posts about the vintage hero The Green Hornet. The Green Hornet broke into my world via the short-lived 60's TV show that, among other things introduced the world to the late great Bruce Lee. 

Created by Fran Stryker and George Trendle for radio, The Green Hornet shares a universe with the great western star The Lone Ranger. It's pretty obvious that given the success early 30's success of the Ranger, that Stryker and Trendle just took that formula and moved into a modern setting. A doughty and mysterious white hero assisted by an ethnic sidekick proved to be a formula that rang the bell for quite some time in decades past. While it's lost its cache for good reasons, there's no denying its legacy. Look for both the Hornet and the Ranger this month. 

July will see the finale of my looks at the Avon novel starring "The Ghost Who Walks". Lee Falk's creation knows worldwide success and these novels have been both entertaining and informative as to  what makes the Phantom so exciting and enduring. There will also be some reviews of the Phantom's brief but impressive stay at DC Comics. 

Likewise, we will put a wrap on The Wizard of OZ novels by L. Frank Baum. Baum found success with the OZ books and went back to them time and again because the audience wanted them. But his early death brought a stop to his work on the books, though the novels continued to be produced by various writers into the 1960's. I'll be stopping with Baum's books. And I'll be taking a glimpse at some of Baum's other fantasies as well. 

There might be time for another thing or two such as my ongoing look at the Atlas-Seaboard line, but that's a pretty hefty schedule. If this blog were not so much fun, I think I'd quit this job. But that's not in the cards anytime soon. Enjoy. 

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A Hearty Hi-Yo Silver!

The Lone Ranger Rides Again is one of the most storied movie serials of all time. As I understand it the movie was imagined lost for quite some time before some rough and battered prints were found in the recesses of a Mexican theater some years ago. This single iteration of the second Lone Ranger movie serial still wears the Spanish inter-titles and captions which made it of value to the audiences south of the border.

This version of the Ranger is a bit different than the first one from Republic which offered up five stout Texans each of whom could be the Ranger giving the affair a mystery for the audiences to dally with as the action unfolded. This one sticks with a single Ranger (Robert Livingston), but he's far from alone as his again joined by Chief Thunder-Cloud in the role of the noble Tonto and out of the blue Duncan Renaldo  (who would soon become the Cisco Kid) to form a formidable trio to help desperate homesteaders who are assailed by a gang of Black Riders.

This is a really exciting western with some outstanding stunts and some of the most ferocious and energetic horseback riding I've seen on screen . Serials can become repetitive, especially when watched out of their natural environment at home in one sitting, but this one survives even that ignominy. This is a movie which survived against all odds, not unlike the Lone Ranger himself and it's well worth your time if you happen to get a chance to see it.

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The Lone Ranger And The Lost City Of Gold!

The Lone Ranger was a big hit on television and ran for many seasons and has never stopped running in re-runs over the decades. The Lone Ranger was born on radio and was a massive hit in the medium when it did more than play 70's rock songs and try to convince us all that bad is good. The Lone Ranger was a pretty big hit in comics, with a long-lasting series which spun off comics dedicated to Tonto and Silver. But on the big screen, the Lone Ranger has a very spotty history.

The 1956 movie The Lone Ranger was a very successful translation of the TV series to a broader colorful landscape. All the recognizable elements were present but larger in scale and in full blushing color when such things were not all that common. The follow-up movie, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold feels like a more humble effort all around. The color is still there, but the settings which shifted as needed in the first movie, seemed localized into a distinctly Southwestern area and not really the fictional western territory the series was accustomed to. Maybe this was an attempt to inject some level of realism into the the  proceedings, but to my eye it doesn't work as well as the earlier effort.

We are of course talking about Cibola, one of the Seven Cities of Gold which the avaricious Spaniards sought so relentlessly for so long. Here we have a map to Cibola which has been distributed among many different Native American men, who don't really in most cases know what they have, and which is the sought by a greedy pair of villains. The baddies are pretty good in this one, a woman  who is used to using her sex to get her way and a violent man all too ready to kill. Up against them stand the Ranger and Tonto. The Ranger uses his disguises again and creates a refined Southern gentleman rogue who plays a large part in the story. This movie is a real showcase for Clayton Moore but otherwise doesn't find the magic all the much, at least for me.

There is quite a violent finale, but it seemed somewhat too small scale for the big screen. Maybe I'm being too harsh on the movie, as it's still a delightful adventure, just not a big-screen event.

The Lone Ranger would try again in 1981 and yet again a few years ago, with folks not really able or willing to understand what makes the Lone Ranger work, and that what we have is the relentless nobility of two men who have sacrificed what they might want personally to bring some sense of order and justice to a wild unsettled land. This is heroism of the highest order and sadly we in the modern world all too often find such efforts to be naive or foolish. We are the fools.

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The Lone Ranger!

If you forced me to pick just one from among all the forms of entertainment and all the many heroes who have been presented to the public over the countless decades, I might have to choose The Lone Ranger as portrayed by Clayton Moore as my all-time favorite. Along with Jay Silverheels as the incredibly loyal and reliable Tonto, the Lone Ranger patrolled the western frontier for no other purpose than to see that justice was meted out fairly and honorably. Now what justice means can well be argued and Tonto's servant-like role is a problem for certain, but given the parameters of the time the nobility of heroism have never been more acutely and vividly displayed in my humble estimation.

And that's all on display in buckets in The Lone Ranger, a feature film made with Moore and Silverheels building on the success of the television show. Here we see them doing what they do best, helping people who need help and protecting those who need protection. The Ranger and Tonto find a power-mad man who seeks to drive the Indians off their reservation to fulfill his greedy goals and without hesitation they step in between that villain and his victims, offering up their own bodies to forestall him.

On particular display in this color film are Clayton Moore's considerable skills as an actor. An incredibly handsome man, he fills out the role of "superhero" quite nicely but you really only get to enjoy him behind masks and disguises and nonetheless his charm comes through. Likewise with Tonto, who is often given thankless tasks, we see a man who will fight even when the odds are nigh impossible. Tonto's bravery is at the center of much of the action in this movie which has a bristling plot which moves with impressive momentum.

The Lone Ranger as much as any of the classic heroes seems to celebrate the nobility of the common man, the essence of democracy, that we are all worthy. Too many vintage hero epics thoughtlessly celebrate antique notions of nobility and no matter how splendid and exciting are sending a message that not all men (and women) were created equal. Some vintage sexism shows up in this movie, but it's mild by the temper of the times.

If you have seen this movie, I highly recommend it, along with its follow-up -- The Lone Ranger and the City of Gold. I'll take a closer look at the latter tomorrow.

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