Essential Marvel: Man-Thing, Vol. 2 by various authors and illustrators

(pb; 1974, 1979-1981, 2004, collects Man-Thing [1974] #15-22 and [1979], #1-11, Giant-Size Man-Thing #3-5, Rampaging Hulk #7, Marvel Team-Up #68, Marvel Two-in-One, #43 and Doctor Strange #41)

From the back cover

“With Captain America, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Thing around, it’s hard to stand out in a crowd─but somehow, the Man-Thing manages it! Citrusville, Florida, faces censorship, prejudice, psychosis and ghost pirates in stories as relevant today as they were more than twenty years ago! Sorcery, snowmen and super-soldier serums! Demons, dementia and D’Spayre await─but have no fear, because, well, if you do. . .”

Overall review

As with Man-Thing, Vol. 1, the second volume is a great comic book collection, with impressive artwork, surprisingly nuanced lead characters as well as solid, moralistic and ecology-friendly storytelling. This is especially impressive because of how willing the creators of this comic series are willing to indulge in wild and mostly effective break-the-Man-Thing-mold writing. 

A few of the issues feel like single-shot filler tales, but they are still entertaining and the artwork visually exciting. There are also the inevitable 1970s sexist, hippie and corporate greed stereotypes, along with some heavy-handed thematic overreaches (which further the egregiousness of the stereotypes), but these issues are relatively few, given how many issues are contained in this anthology.

Despite the above caveats, this graphic novel is worth owning.

Issues / story arcs

Caveat: possible spoilers in this review.

“Giant-Size Man-Thing – ‘The Blood of Kings!’” [#3]: Man-Thing, Korrek of Katharta (last seen in Man-Thing issue 1), Dakimh the Enchanter and Jennifer Kale─now a fledgling sorceress─battle the evil magic and brute power of Mortak the Usurper, Klonus  (a wizard) and their forces in an alternate world and Citrusville, Florida.

“Man-Thing – ‘A Candle for Sainte-Cloud’” [#15]: A stalker (Chuck) uses candle magick to get close to Sainte-Cloud, Ted Sallis’s hippie-poet ex-girlfriend, her first appearance in Man-Thing. Caught up in the illusory trap is Jeremy, Cloud’s blind neighbor and close friend─and, maybe, Man-Thing as well. What is real and what is not?

“Man-Thing – ‘Decay Meets the Mad Viking!’” [#16]: In the mucklands, Man-Thing is caught up in the random, chaotic struggle between a loopy, cult-leader rock star (Eugene “The Star” Spangler) and The Mad Viking (a weird-as-hunh??, axe-swinging ex-dock worker with delusions of being an American-tinged warrior). Also caught between them is the Viking’s granddaughter, Astrid Josefsen. The people who worked on this issue were clearly having a throw-in-everything-strange moment when they put this together.

“Giant-Size Man-Thing – ‘The Kid’s Night Out!’” [#4]: An unpopular teenager’s death sparks a surge of unlikely and hyperbolic violence in Citrusville. Alice Rimes, savaged friend of the lonely deceased boy, becomes a target of the maddened crowd, along with Man-Thing.

“Man-Thing – ‘A Book Burns in Citrusville!’” [#17]: The body of Eugene ‘The Star’ Spangler─killed by the Mad Viking in Man-Thing issue 16─is found by a Citrusville delivery boy. Fervor about Man-Thing rises anew, resulting in the murk dweller getting caught and placed in a vat of acid. Meanwhile, Richard Rory─WNRV disc jockey, previously seen in Man-Thing, Vol. 1 issues─tries, in vain, to head off a renewed burst of secular book burnings by a religiously inclined, hyperviolent and one-note Citrusville crowd, led by Olivia Selby. Cliffhanger finish to this one.

“Man-Thing – ‘School’s Out!’” [#18]: The events of issue 17 spill over into this issue. Led by the increasingly violent Mad Viking, the overzealous-religionist book burners storm the local high school and build a library bonfire. Man-Thing, now a creature of muck and chemical foam, confronts the Viking again. Richard Rory, trying to save lives and books, is fired by the manager of WNRV, the radio station he works for. The crazed Viking kills his granddaughter, Alice Rimes, before his fear does him in.

“Giant-Size Man-Thing – ‘Fear Times Three!’” [#5]: A trilogy of microtales makes up this issue, its wraparound story taking place before the events that turn Ted Sallis into Man-Thing─in this wraparound, Sallis and his later-traitorous girlfriend (Ellen Brandt) visit a psychic, who tells them about his Man-Thing-related future.

Her first microtale: In “There’s a Party in 6G!,” a coven of Satanists steal a baby, so that they might sacrifice a child (Allen) to Ehrthold, a powerful demon. Their plan goes sideways when Man-Thing, drawn by the hate and fear of the situation, shows up.

Her second microtale: In “The Sins of the Fathers. . .,” a swamp-trash Romeo and Juliet scenario plays out.

Her third microtale: In “Lifeline!,” Jackson Hunter, wheelchair-trapped and face-burned former foe of Man-Thing, sends a highly trained military force against the titular creature, who dismantles them with initial difficulty. There is a mini-twist character, in the form of one of the soldiers, at the end, before the microtale segues into the wraparound story.

“Man-Thing – ‘The Scavenger of Atlanta’” [#19]: Richard Rory drives a chemically altered Man-Thing─a result of the previous issue’s acidic foam conjoining─and Carol Selby (who reveals herself to be seventeen, a minor, to Rory’s horror) to Atlanta, Georgia. There, Man-Thing battles the quirky-insane, spandex-wearing Scavenger, who attacks women (including Colleen Sanders, a local) and absorbs their essence, physical and otherwise. Cliffhanger finish to this one.

“Man-Thing – ‘The Nightmare Box’” [#20]: Richard Rory is arrested and returned to Citrusville for arraignment, to be charged with kidnapping Carol Selby (who insisted on going to Atlanta with him, and whom he didn’t know was seventeen). Man-Thing carries a strange box containing a destructive, supernatural element (somehow linked to a woman named Dani Nicolle), while an Atlanta-based portrait painter (Paul Jennings) tries to figure out the mystery of Dani’s bizarre eye beams. Shapeshifting demonic creatures stalk and clash with Man-Thing, seeking to take the mysterious box from him. Another cliffhanger ending.

“Man-Thing – ‘A Lunatic on Every Corner’” [#21]: The events of issue 20 spill over into this issue. Demons, compelled by an absent Thog─who first fought Man-Thing in Fear issue 11─run wild in the streets of Atlanta, attacking Man-Thing and people alike. Scavenger, that lust-and-energy-suck-obssessed spandex freak, kiss-feeds on another victim (Elsbeth Duhl), wife of Roland Duhl─a numbers-focused accountant in thrall to Thog. Seems the indestructible Scavenger, brother of Dani Nicolle, can only feel anything when he feeds on his victims.

The wizard Klonus and the barbarian Mortak, last seen in Giant-Size Man-Thing issue 3, return to attack the titular character. While they battle him, Thog appears in a blaze of hellish light, ending the issue.

“Man-Thing – ‘Pop Goes the Cosmos!’” [#22]: The final issue of the first volume/run of Man-Thing goes meta. Comic book writer Steve Gerber recounts how Dakimh the wizard told him about Thog’s escape from the world called Therea, where Thog was imprisoned brought about by Dakimh’s physical death. Later, Thog traps Dani Nicolle─who must vomit her excess, destructive head energy into a box─and her brother, Robert (a.k.a. Scavenger), who is an energy vampire, in trick-deal, resulting in the violence of issues 19-21. Furthermore, Thog’s increasing power source, a pyramid built with Dani’s energy-vomit boxes, becomes the source of the battle involving Man-Thing and the aforementioned characters before Thog is burned by Man-Thing, ending─as I wrote before─Man-Thing’s first titular comic book run.

“The Rampaging Hulk – ‘Among the Great Divide’” [#7]: Man-Thing gets a one-shot/side story about fighting the mostly vicious personalities of a schizophrenic woman (Andrea).

“Marvel Team-Up [featuring Spider-Man and the Man-Thing] – ‘The Measure of a Man’” [#68]: Man-Thing and Spider-Man, on an impromptu multidimensional rescue mission of Jennifer Kale and Dakimh the Wizard, quell the mad power of D’Spayre, a villain whose touch can shatter one’s sanity, reduce one to the mental state of a cowering, weeping child.

“Marvel Two-in-One Presents:The Thing and the Man-Thing – ‘The Day the World Winds Down’” [#43]: The Thing, Captain America and Man-Thing face off against Victorius, a former scientist of A.I.M.─Advanced Idea Mechanics, a “renegade arm of Hydra”─who drank a variation of the super-soldier serum that gave Steve Rogers (Captain America) his super powers. 

Victorius is the new leader of the reborn Entropy cult (“left leaderless” by Man-Thing in “Giant-Size Man-Thing” #1). Victorius has also resurrected Jude the Entropic Man, a logic-leaning supernatural being whose personality will make or break the heroes.

“The Man-Thing – ‘Regeneration and Rebirth’” [#1]: The second volume of the “Man-Thing” kicks off with this issue. At the behest of what he thinks is the CIA, scientist (Dr. Karl Oheimer) discovers a formula that returns to Man-Thing’s mental state to that of Ted Sallis, all the while maintaining the morass-dweller’s physical, plant-based form.

“The Man-Thing – ‘Himalayan Nightmare!’” [#2]: Man-Thing is instantly transported from his familiar morass to the Himalyas, when two scientists (Dr. Schechtman and his assistant, Frederick) accidentally zap him with an experimental raygun. In the freezing Himalayas, he battles a wolf pack and rescues another scientist (Russell Simpson) who has fallen off a cliff. Man-Thing travels with Russell as he returns to his fellow expeditioners (Elaine, his wife, and Roger Grafton, a supposed friend). Roger, a greedy letch who’s been trying to get with an offended Elaine, shoots and kills Russell, causing an avalanche to fall on Man-Thing and Elaine. Cliffhanger finish to this one─this is the beginning of a four-issue story arc.

“Man-Thing – ‘The Gong of Doom!’” [#3]: After surviving the avalanche, Man-Thing and Elaine Simpson are set upon by wild, bearded cave-dwellers with wooden cudgels─“abominable snowmen,” as their leader, Hiram Swenson, a mad anthropologist, calls them. Swenson’s intention to burn them at a stake is interrupted by Roger Grafton, who has returned with a small, machine-toting group of men to hunt Man-Thing, whom has Grafton has mistaken for a yeti, a.k.a. an abominable snowman. Grafton’s men slaughter Swenson and his yeti. Another avalanche follows, burying the Man-Thing-incinerated Grafton and dead combatants. Man-Thing, holding Elaine, grips the undercarriage of an airplane that two of Grafton’s men have taken, and they fly away.

“Man-Thing – ‘Death-Knell’” [#4]: The plane, taken by Grafton’s ex-employees, Conrad Shürz and Billy Ellenshaw, cannot maintain its necessary altitude with 600 additional pounds clinging to its undercarriage─that additional weight being Man-Thing and Elaine Simpson, who fall from the aircraft right before it crashes.

Meanwhile, in Paris, France, master of the mystic arts Stephen Strange (a.k.a. Doctor Strange) is losing a fight against Azrael, a supernatural villain. Azrael, an ancient being, was reborn in Lord Julian Phyffe’s body when Baron Mordo─another Strange foe─subjugated and possessed Phyffe, Strange’s “supposed ally.” This battle is a continuation of a crossover conflict last seen in issue 40 of Dr. Strange. Using desperate magick, Strange manages to defeat Azrael and transport himself and his ex-lover Madeleine de St. Germain to Citrusville, Florida, where Mordo intends to open another Chaos Gate via blood sacrifices. The sheriff tells Strange and St. Germain that eighteen people have disappeared or been slaughtered. Mordo’s targets: Joshua, Jennifer and Andy Kale, friends of Man-Thing whose bloodline and history rife with supernatural and alternate-worldl experience, some of it with our titular hero. 

When Jaxon, a friend of the Kales, takes Strange and St. Germain to the Kale house, they are greeted by a shocking sight: a woman (Elaine Simpson) wearing a parka fleeing their house, screaming for them to get away. It seems Mordo has transported Simpson and Man-Thing to Citrusville, and taken over Man-Thing’s will, in order to destroy Strange. After a brief flurry of physical and mystical blows with the murk creature, Strange plays possum by letting Man-Thing “drown” him in swamp water, while Mordo mocks him and Germain.

“Dr. Strange – ‘Weep for the Soul of Man. . .’” [#41]: The crossover event that began with Dr. Strange issue 40 and Man-Thing issues 3 and 4 concludes in this issue. Mordo’s quest to become the most powerful being in the universe continues as Doctor Strange and Man-Thing battle him. Like Strange’s ex-lover, Madeleine de St. Germain, Jennifer Kale, her friend Jaxon and others, Man-Thing is held in partially held in thrall by Mordo and sacrificial, mystical victims, numbering thirteen. Mordo is barely defeated.

“Man-Thing – ‘Who Knows Fear’” [#5]: Man-Thing helps rescue a quag-trapped young woman, Barbra Bannister, being pursued by modern day pirates, led by the duplicitious Ian McGuire.

“Man-Thing – ‘Fraternity Rites!’” [#6]: John Daltrey, sheriff of Citrusville and ally of Man-Thing, helps the titular quag-monster stop a murderous group of collegiate thugs, its sadistic leader (J. Elliot Osbourne, a.k.a “Jacko”) enamored with Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange.

“Man-Thing – ‘Whatever Happened to Captain Fate?’” [#7]: A commercial airplane crashes in the Everglades near Citrusville after Captain Jebediah Fate, pirate ghost-captain of the Serpent Crown, returns with his crew and attacks it, killing all its passengers. Fate was last seen in issue 14 of the original run of Man-Thing, thought to be laid to rest with his undead followers. 

John Daltrey, sheriff of Citrusville, and romantic interest Barbra Bannister are kidnapped by the ghost floating-ship ghost crew, and of course Man-Thing is thrown back into conflict with them. Cliffhanger finish to this.

“Man-Thing – ‘Red Sails Burning!’” [#8]: Continued from previous issue. . . Maura Spinner, ex-oceangrapher, and Khourdes, the last of the sartyrs, appear on a mystical British frigate (H.M.S. Athena) to help Man-Thing defeat Jebediah Fate and his scurvy-ridden shipmates, as they did in the original run of Man-Thing, issues 13 and 14. They, along with Barbra Bannister and John Daltrey, are successful─but it is pyrrhic victory. Fate’s curse is passed on to the hapless Daltrey, who is now bound to Fate’s ghost ship, the Serpent Crown.

“Man-Thing – ‘The Echo of Pain!’” [#9]: A baby and his young parents, David and Elizabeth Connelly, are caught between their class warfare-obsessed parents, a more mature, darker take on Romeo and Juliet.

“Man-Thing – ‘Came the Dark Man Walkin’, Walkin’’” [#10]: A stranger with odd powers, John Kowalski, observes a biker gang’s attack on Andy Kale (brother of sorceress Jennifer Kale). When Man-Thing tangles with the vicious bikers, things of course get hetted up.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Kale and Barbra Bannister enact a ritual to try and save Bannister’s boyfriend, John Daltrey, from the curse that binds him to the pirate ghost ship (Serpent Crown)─last seen in issue 8.  The two storylines come together and Kowalski reveals himself to be Death.

“Man-Thing – ‘Hell’s Gate’” [#11 – final issue]: Real-life comic book author Chris Claremont tells his friends (also fellow Marvel/Man-Thing employees) why he can’t write Man-Thing anymore. Seems that Man-Thing is based on real-life, mystical events: Barbra Bannister, transformed into a fellow Death-agent by the cynical John Kowalski, rights a cosmic injustice by also enlisting Man-Thing to fight Thog (a recurrent, demonic foe in the original Man-Thing run) in Thog’s dominion, “Sominus, the land of eternal shadow.” There, Doctor Strange, his lover/disciple Clea, and others are held prisoner by John Daltrey (turned evil by a cursed “magus sword”) and his master, Thog.

Wild, everything-but-the-bathroom-faucet elements make this a slam-bang-boom finish to the dark, ecologically themed and morality-play series that is Man-Thing. My one major nitpick with this issue is that one that plagues many comic books: the women are unnecessarily sexualized in their behavior and outfits─in this case, when Barbra Bannister is transformed into a fellow Death agent, her spandex suit is especially tight, whereas Kowalski (who transformed her) is dressed like a regular guy, button-up shirt and slacks. I understand that this was a trend, then and now, but sometimes it’s egregious in its male-gaze imbalance.

Still, a mostly fun finish that recalls the final issue of Man-Thing’s original run.

#

Images from the 2005 film.

Martian Quest: The Early Brackett by Leigh Brackett

(hb; 2002: science fiction story anthology. "Introduction" by Michael Moorcock.)

From the inside flap

“Martian Quest: The Early Brackett is a long-overdue collection of the twenty earliest stories by the undisputed ‘Queen of Space-Opera.’

“On a Venus that never was, on a Mars that can never be (but should have been), Leigh Brackett’s early stories laid the foundation for her later classic adventures, The Sword of Rhiannon, The Nemesis from Terra, and the 'Eric John Stark' series.

“Other stories in this collection draw inspiration from such diverse sources as the lost-race novels of H. Rider Haggard, the lush fantasies of A. Merritt, and the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs. With an appreciation for Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, Brackett’s prose is a unique display of vigorous swashbuckling adventure tempered with a harsh, hard-boiled economy.”

Overall review

Brackett’s Forties-era science fiction adventure stories largely stuck to a few basic western genre-born templates: a man of action with a troubling or mysterious past finds himself in dire, violent situations with aliens and (usually) a female romantic interest who may or may not be true to him or his aims. While the female characters are firmly envisioned in the male gaze, Brackett keeps them palatable with knowing winks.

Brackett, an excellent, cut-to-it author, keeps it lean, sometimes twisty─depending on the length of the work─and genre-true. Springing from these early, formulaic beginnings, she would go on to write expanded, more complex works, earning her reputation as a stellar science fiction writer.

Stories

“Martian Quest” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1940]: A young Earthling (Martin Drake), poor and further saddled with self-doubt, uses his knowledge of chemicals to fend off Khom, giant creatures that devour impoverished Martian settlers’ homes.

“The Treasure of Pkatuth” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1942]: On Mars, competing adventurerers (Terence Shane, Thaldrek of Ved) seek a legendary, forbidden city (Pkatuth) while contending with a barbaric tribe (the Shunni) and their beautiful leader (Zenda Challoner)─who may be the daughter of a wise, mad god. This is an excellent retelling of the Fountain of Youth story.

“The Tapestry Gate” [Strange Stories, August 1940]: A supernatural tapestry preys on a couple’s mutual loathing.

“The Stellar Legion” [Planet Stories, Winter 1940]: A military group made up of mixed aliens fend off a horde of Nahali (“six-foot, scarlet-eyed swamp dwellers”) while a traitor schemes within their ranks.

“The Demons of Darkside” [Startling Stories, June 1941]: A murder suspect (Barry Garth) steals a ship to Mercury in order to save his girlfriend (Alice Webster) from state execution. This thinly plotted story is especially action oriented.

“Water Pirate” [Super Science Stories, January 1941]: In 2418, a man (Jaffa Gray) and a girl (Lhara) go after whoever is hijacking life-giving water transports, in order to stop them.

“Interplanetary Reporter” [Startling Stories, May 1941]: When Jupiter declares war on Venus, cynical reporter Chris Barton is compelled by a beautiful, hard woman (Kei Volhan) and her idealistic fiancé (Bobby Lance) to further investigate what’s going on─which means that all is not as it seems. Especially exciting, romantic standout work.

“The Dragon-Queen of Venus” [Planet Stories, Summer 1941]: Desperate, starving soldiers try to hold back swamp people and life-draining serpents from their alien outpost fort. If they do not succeed in defeating the invasive creatures, their efforts to colonize Venus means the death of their home-planet people.

“Lord of the Earthquake” [Science Fiction, June 1941]: In this ambitious, tightly plotted Robert E. Howard-esque tale, two submariners travel 12,000 years into the past, just before an ancient civilization (Mu) is shaken into ruins by tremblors, music and treachery.

“No Man’s Land in Space” [Amazing Stories, July 1941]: Monsters and stalk and kill the citizens of Sark, an outlaw town on fragile asteroid. Wartime intrigue, a rogue scientist, Lunar creatures and cynical humor highlight this fast-moving work.

“A World is Born” [Comet Stories, July 1941]: On Mercury, a civilization-building prisoner plots his escape, a scheme hastened when an opportunistic capitalist (Caron of Mars) arrives to use the planet and its inhabitants for his own ends.

Like many of the lead characters in preceding stories, Mel Gray─”World” protagonist─is a hard, cynical antihero with a sense of decency, honor. Fun tale.

“Retreat to the Stars” [Astonishing Stories, November 1941]: A spy for the State is torn between his lust for a rebel soldier (Marika) and fulfilling his cold-hearted mission. Okay read, would’ve been better at a shorter length.

“Child of the Green Light” [Super Science Stories, February 1942]: Son, an energy-born creature with telepathic powers, fends off space-suited invaders who are trying to kill the source light that not only made him, but is slowly killing them. Especially good read.

“The Sorcerer of Rhiannon” [Astounding Science Fiction, February 1942]: A treasure hunter (Max Brandon) is caught between two warring aliens with superior technology (Tobul, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Kymra). His professional rival, a deadly Venusian named Dhu Kar, also complicates Brandon’s trek through a Martian desert. Lots of action in this one.

“Child of the Sun” [Planet Stories, Spring 1942]: On-the-run outlaws land on a planet where an illuminated alien life form holds power. Good, character-twisty read.

“Out of the Sea” [Planet Stories, Spring 1942]:The Japanese use science to direct giant sea creatures to attack US beaches, and it’s up to Webb Fallon (an alcoholic reporter) and Einer Bjarnsseon (a scientist with a submarine) to save the day.

Fun storyline and setup for this, with a parodic tone (making fun of tough guys and sexism).

“Cube from Space” [Super Science Stories, August 1942]: An outlaw is trapped by parasitic aliens (the Rakshi) and forced to help them find new bodies─until he is able to break free and help his fellow humans fight back. Good read.

“Outpost on Io” [Planet Stories, Winter 1942]: On an alien moon, a prisoner (MacVickers) tries to foment revolt among his fellow alien prisoners against their Europan guards.

“The Halfling” [Astonishing Stories, February 1943]: Jade Greene, a carny boss-man, hires a new performer (Laura) who brings dangerous secrets and violent problems into Greene’s traveling show.

“The Citadel of Lost Ships” [Planet Stories, March 1943]: A man (Roy Campbell) helps a Venusian tribe evade the Government patrols who mean them harm.

The Elephant of Surprise by Joe R. Lansdale

(hb; 2019: twelfth novel in the Hap and Leonard series)

From the inside flap

“Hap Coillins is a self-proclaimed white-trash rebel. Leonard Pine is a tough-as-nails gay, black, Republican Vietnam vet. They couldn’t have less in common, except for the fact that they’re each the other’s best friend in the world.

“Amid the worst flood East Texas has seen in years, the two run across a woman who’s had her tongue cut out, pursued by heavily armed pair of thugs. After a chase that blows back even the Texas swamp grass, they learn that their new companion recently survived a mob hit─and that the boss has sent his men to clean up the mess.

“It’s Hap and Leonard’s most dangerous case yet, and for the first time, they have more than just their tails riding on the outcome─their loved ones are in the line of fire, too. The clock is ticking and the waters are rising: Hap and Leonard have to save the woman, and themselves, before the flood washes away friend and foe alike.”

Review

Elephant, plotwise, is one of the lighter entries in the Hap and Leonard series. That said, there’s plenty of quip-quotable dialogue and almost nonstop action to keep fans of the series riveted in this burn-through read, which introduces new, interesting characters, e.g. Nicole Beckman, the young albino woman fleeing an offshoot of the Dixie Mafia─a vicious organization that Hap and Leonard have tangled with before. While this is not the best book in the series to introduce new readers to the complexities of Hap and Leonard’s characters, it is an entertaining, fast-moving and damn-near-breathless tale that succeeds as a sometimes humorous, action-packed standalone work and a slight furthering of their characters.

Headhunter by Michael Slade

(hb; 1984: first novel in the fourteen-book Special X series. Followed by Ghoul.)

From the inside flap

“A headhunter is loose on the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia. The victims are everywhere─floating in the Fraser River, buried in a shallow grave, nailed to an Indian totem pole on the University of British Columbia campus.

“All are women. All are headless.

“Hysteria grows with each killing. Women look upon the men around them─police, neighbors, co-workers─with insidiously engulfing fear and suspicion.

“In the face of growing panic, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launch a full-scale investigation, calling a renown detective, Robert DeClercq, out of retirement to head the force. But because of a terrible tragedy in his own past, DeClercq is profoundly troubled by the brutality of this new case. Other members of the force find their mental equilibrium in jeopardy as the killings continue and the investigation runs into one dead end after another. Yet there are no doors they cannot break down in their massive and thorough probe, they can never enter the mind of the murderer.”

Review

Headhunter is an above-average police procedural thriller, with lots of suspicious-history characters, character-based plot-twists, grisly shock scenes and a fast pace that does not lag. This is a blink-and-miss-points read, so enjoy this when you’re fully awake, not when you’re trying to fall asleep─this should be obvious, yes, but some books are written to put you asleep, even if the authors didn’t intend it (wink).

[*From the “About the Author” section: “Michael Slade is the pen name of Jay Clarke, John Banks, and Lee Clarke. . . Jay Clarke and John Banks are Vancouver lawyers who specialize in the field of criminal insanity.”]

The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. van Vogt

(pb; 1951)

From the back cover

“The empire of Innelda Isher─dictatorial, proud, universal, unrivalled in power. Except for the Weapon Shops─buildings that appeared at will, urging citizens to purchase weapons that the government couldn’t defeator duplicate. And when the police, and the army, tried to stop this subversive sale they found that the Shops were impregnable fortresses open to all but soldiers and policemen.

“Into this explosive deadlock was thrust a man of the present, himself a weapon of time, threatening to end both the Weapon Shops and the Empire of Isher!”

Review

Weapon is a timely (in a potentially disturbing way), clever and fun science fiction novel with deftly stated anti-authoritarian themes and atypical characters. There’s even a worthwhile twist or two in this brainy mix of well-defined characters, lean action sequences, and often unpredictable setups. Good short read of a fragmented tale (it originally was a trilogy of linked stories*), worth reading.

[*Story titles: “The Seesaw,” “The Weapons Shop” and “The Weapon Shops of Isher,” published in Astounding Tales and Thrilling Wonder Stories. “The Seesaw” was originally published in the July 1941 issue of Astounding Tales as an anti-Nazi work.]

Dirty Harry #3: The Long Death by Dane Hartman

(pb; 1981: third novel in the twelve-book Dirty Harry movie tie-in series. Sequel to Dirty Harry #2: Death on the Docks.)

From the back cover

“Someone is grabbing young women from the bars, campuses, and streets of San Francisco and doing unspeakable things to their minds and bodies. Someone is setting up cops against black nationalistsin a violent inter-city war, playing both sides for bloody fools. Someone is looking for deadly trouble when a gorgeous policewoman baits ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan into a showdown that can only be settled by bare firsts and Magnum lead!”

Review

Eastwood’s Dirty Harry films (numbering five, 1971-88) are not known for their subtlety or cultural sensitivity, although they sneak in brief scenes where Harry Callahan shows humor, understanding and tenderness, between his shooting of odious criminals. The Long Death is no exception to that setup.That said, the patient cruelty of Long’s villains─who are pompous, sadistic or both─is noteworthy, even for a work centering around a dry-wit, San Francisco police officer and his meting out of rough justice. 

Long sports a giallo influence (e.g., its dread-drenched, bizarre, twenty-two-page opening, where a beautiful coed is stalked, raped─mostly in euphemistic phrasing─and further set up for Saw-like torture sessions). Dario Argento’s 1975 film Deep Red is shown in a college classroom while Harry and his partner, Fatso Devlin, fend off a multi-assassin assault, and Wes Craven gets a mention as well (think The Last House on the Left, 1972).

Hartman’s** writing is lean and thrilling, his dialogue sharp and his characters’ backstories effectively sketched out, with over-the-top gunplay and pursuit sequences making up most of its 163 pages. Characters from the first three Dirty Harry films are mentioned (past police partners and his dead wife, Elizabeth). This further, effectively links Long to its source works (Dirty Harry, 1971; Magnum Force, 1973; and The Enforcer, 1976). And I loved Harry’s interactions with his friend, ex-black militant “Big Ed” Mohamid, despite how Hartman─plot-wise─short-changed Mohamid’s character.

The book’s climactic shootout in a gothic, Angel Island mansion is a great capper to a barebones horror flick of a cop novel.

As I noted earlier, Long─published by Men of Action Books─is not a sensitive read (although Harry, fair-minded, shows empathy toward the victimized and the innocent). Long wasn’t a sensitive offering when it was published in 1981, and its brutal worldview could be viewed as more egregious today, although it’s more pre-now “ignorant” than mean-spirited than, say, many of the works of Mickey Spillane. (Beware blind presentism.)

Long is worth reading, if you’re looking for a burn-through, blast-‘em-up-Dirty-Harry book. 

Followed by Dirty Harry #4: Mexico Kill.

[**According to Wikipedia, Dane Hartman is the pen name of “several writers. . . [including] martial arts expert Ric Meyers and Leslie Alan Horvitz.” ]

The Best of Creepy edited and published by James Warren

(1964, 1971: regular paperback-sized graphic novel. “Introduction” by

Archie Goodwin)

Overall review

Creepy is an excellent sampler of the titular magazine’s superb early, macabre morality tales, one that thrilled me as a preteen and thrilled me anew as a fifty-year-old man. If these succinct stories are predictable and doomy, they have something that a lot of newer horror works don’t: succinct, plot- and character-driven storylines, great iconic artwork and an Aesop’s Fables vibe that makes these Creepy entries stick in one’s mind. Highly recommended for readers who love older horror stories, comic books and great illustrations.

Stories

“Sand Doom” – Archie Goodwin (author), Al Williamson (illustrator): A ruthless, desert adventurer accidentally falls into treasure room a scantily clad priestess of Nepthy and lots of snakes.

“Overworked” – Archie Goodwin (author), Wallace Wood & Dan Adkins (illustrators): Allan, a comic book writer/artist, finds that his life is being swallowed by his relentless job demands.

“Untimely Tomb!” – Archie Goodwin (author), Angelo Torres (illustrator): After a doctor (Beamish) accidentally contributes to a woman being married alive, his life take a turn toward murder and further horror.

“Vampires Fly at Dusk!” – Archie Goodwin (author), Reed Crandall (illustrator): Carlos and Elena Orsini, a count and countess, move into an old villa in a small village and a rapid string of killings ensue. Do they have something to do with them?

“Werewolf” – Larry Ivie (author), Frank Frazetta (illustrator): In the Gonteekwa Valley in Africa, a confident big-game hunter is hired to track and shoot a giant wolf, thought to be a supernatural creature.

“Grave Undertaking” – Archie Goodwin (author), Alex Toth (illustrator): In Merry Olde England, two resurrectionists get too greedy and pay a grisly price.

“Curse of the Full Moon!” – Archie Goodwin (author), Reed Crandall (illustrator): Bavaria. Sir Henry Langston’s coachman is ripped apart by a werewolf, leading him to deal with gypsies and hunt it.

“Collector’s Edition!” – Archie Goodwin (author), Steve Ditko (illustrator): An intense bibliophile and lover of rare books, Colin Danforth, seeks such a tome (Marquis Lemode’s Dark Visions), unaware that it most certainly will illustrate his doom.