My Name Is Bruce!

I watched the movie My Name is Bruce, a frothy indy flick starring Bruce Campbell. The story involves a version of the real-life Campbell in conflict with a risen and murderous Chinese demon Guan-Di (war-god of the dead and bean curd).

Mark Verheiden in the behind-the-scenes documentary indicates the idea for the story came to him while reading a vintage DC Alan Ladd comic book in which Ladd was presented as himself and brought into adventures apparently because his screen persona presented him as an experienced fellow in such matters. So it is with the new Campbell flick, he's in monster movies, so he can battle monsters. Clever device.


Bruce Campbell is an engaging actor who isn't afraid to make light of himself or the others around him. His self-made movies are highly self-referential and full of grade-B moments. The movie is a Dark Horse Indie Films project, and features cameos by both Verheiden and Mike Richardson, the publisher of Dark Horse. The version I got came with a tiny comic book version of the Dark Horse adaptation of the movie. It's also loaded to the gills with extras like behind-the-scenes stuff galore and other gags.


There's even a bogus movie in a movie called CaveAlien 2 and that gets a trailer in the extra features along with its own behind-the-scenes video. They seemed to have a lot of fun making this movie and it shows. It's got an Indie gloss for sure, but it watches like a professional film. They do a pretty good job hiding the low budget. I was reminded of the classic Big Trouble in Little China.

Highly recommended.

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The Abominable Snowman!

I've at long last gotten a copy of this Hammer classic. And with all the snow we've gotten in the last few days, I can't imagine a more ironic time for it to arrive.

I don't remember when it was exactly during my boyhood, but some Halloween or other during one of those luscious all-night film fests they used to have I stayed up, clinging to wakefulness and watched this Hammer movie through. It scared the bejeezus out of me then, and still unsettles me a little today. It plays neatly against expectations, setting up a somewhat chatty and somber story about the usual gaggle of Western types (a hunter, a huckster, a scientist, a sensitive) and throws them up on a mountain to find the elusive myth. Whether they will find anything at all is kept at bay for a good long time, and then only in masterfully controlled bits and pieces.

It turns out the Abominable Snowman is real, but isn't all that "abominable" at all. These are wisemen of the mountains, incredibly long-lived giants with thoughtful eyes and gentle ways who don't harm people directly, but sadly do act as catalysts that cause men to bring harm to themselves. It's that Val Guest chose consciously to hide the creatures, giving only glimpses that makes them such powerful images in my mind. I've seen scuds of bigfoot and yeti movies, but none are so moving or memorable as this one which shows us almost nothing. Guest knew quite well that my mind could conjure a creature far more awesome than anything possible by special effects of the time. He was right.

There is a curious commentary on the dvd I got, offering up the comments of both Val Guest the director and Nigel Kneale the writer. It seems that these two have squabble a bit about this movie in the past, or at least done interviews expressing contrary views. The two are interviewed separately but the interviews are run concurrently. This creates some duplication in information, but does offer up some interesting counterpoint. Both men seem to respect one another's talent, or express that anyway, but clearly they differed on how this movie should've worked. Guest defends his decision to keep the creatures off camera and Kneale clearly thinks though it was a brave decision it undermines the final effect. Kneale seems in particular to want to say nicer things about the movie than he has perhaps in the past, and is in the unique position to contrast the film version with the BBC TV version first done. He ultimately says that changes in the film version help the story.

One thing I did learn is that the Himalayas shown in the movie are actually the Pyrenees and finally getting to see the movie in widescreen, it's possible to really enjoy the setting completely.

Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker star in this B&W Hammer movie, and they form a neat contrast. Cushing offers a quiet if nimble screen presence while Tucker is bombast personified. The other actors, typical of Hammer films, are solid pros and the movie though a bit stagey in places nonetheless delivers a pointed morality tale of man looking for the unknown, and as most often is the case, finding only the truth about himself.

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The Sarge Steel Reports - File #110

Secret Agent Volume 2 #10 is dated October 1967. This is full year after the previous issue. Since that last issue Sarge Steel became a back-up feature in Judomaster and also guest-starred in a few Thunderbolt issues. I've covered the Judomaster appearances, and I'll get to the T-Bolt stuff in a later series. The cover is by Dick Giordano and the sub-title is "The Iron Man with Steel Fist - Sarge Steel". The story is drawn by Dick Giordano, scripted by Steve Skeates, and lettered by D. Brazycki.

Part I of File #113 "The Case of the Third Hand" begins right in the middle of the action as bullets are fired at Sarge and his date a lovely lady named Linda Velvet. Sarge orders her to stay down as he tries to get at the shooter which he does, wounding the fellow but not before Linda is shot and seriously hurt. Sarge rushes her to the hospital and after seeing to her and making a report returns to the crime scene but is unable to identify the sniper. Filled with guilt he uses all his resources both official and unofficial to uncover the culprit, but he is shocked when his secretary Bessie tells him he has a visitor, an old friend name Lowell Wade from the C.I.A. Wade tells Sarge that Velvet was actually an informant for the spy ring "The Third Hand" and that was why she was shot. Sarge doesn't believe him, but then news comes that the hospital where Velvet is staying is under attack. Sarge and Wade rush to the site, but are too late as Velvet has been killed by a gas grenade attack. Sarge vows to bring the villains to justice.

Part II "Photo Finish" begins with Sarge going to Velvet's apartment to investigate but he finds two thugs there already. After a struggle he is caught in a powerful bearhug by one of the thugs, a giant of a man and knocked out. When he comes to, he finds a beautiful woman kneeling over him. She is Sarah "Sally" Tempest and she claims to be a friend of Velvet's. The apartment has been ransacked. As they talk another man appears, a friend of Tempest's named Hobart Jeffries. All three chat but then Sarge finds a clue a picture of a two-bit gunsel named Johnny Vance. Sarge goes to his own apartment to find it too has been ransacked but the interlopers are still there. The take him at gunpoint to meet with Johnny Vance at his fancy home. After a few questions which Sarge refuses to answer Vance orders his men to attack.

Part III "Blues for Linda" begins with Sarge getting punched around by Vance's thugs, but he turns the tables and using his superior skills defeats the thugs, even getting to Vance who winces from a shoulder wound. Now Sarge knows that Vance was the man who shot Linda and is the man he had wounded. He knocks Vance out and heads back to his office having fully unlocked the secrets. He finds Sally Tempest in his office going through his desk and tells her that he knows the whole story. She is the one involved with The Third Hand and used Linda, playing on their friendship. She had used blackmail to keep Johnny Vance at bay when he wanted her position in the organization and there were documents she had that he wanted. Linda had them and when Vance had learned of her betrayal he had tried to shoot her. The documents were still missing though. While Sarge is relating this tale a hand appears from nowhere and knocks him out. When he recovers he finds Hobart Jefferies has arrived and it was Hobart who had killed Linda with the grenade at the hospital. But Sarge is able get Sally to think that Hobart has betrayed her and when she shoots him, Sarge is able to disarm her and turns her over to the authorities. Later he talks to Wade and shows him a Coney Island plush bunny which had been in his car and had belonged to Linda. The documents were inside all the time. The story closes as Sarge somberly reflects on the romance that might have been.

The back-up feature is Tiffany Sinn. Tiffany Sinn had two previous appearances in Career Girl Romances #38 and #39. The story is titled "Muscle Beach Style!". It's written by David A. Kaler and drawn by Jim Aparo. The tale begins with the beautiful Tiffany preparing for a new case while reflecting on her previous ones. As she finishes her make-up she is anxious to see what the latest C.I.A. caper will bring. She flies to California and on the flight is given her briefing papers by the stewardess and later is given more information by a cabbie. She is to uncover how vital fuel formulas are being stolen and transmitted to foreign agents. After a night's sleep and a shower she begins her new job at the laboratory and meets Aldo Bateman a handsome fellow who immediately begins to woo Tiffany. They begin to date and he takes her to the beach where she gets some sun while he goes through a meticulous and rigorous exercise regimen. They date a few more times, each date the same. The agency decides to plant some bait and announces a new formula. Tiffany notices that Aldo is very interested in this new information and on their next date, again at the beach she notes that his exerices regimen, to that time very rigid, was extremely different. She takes note that some men with binoculars are closely watching Aldo as he goes through his moves. Aldo notices her keen interest and suspicious as she attempts to report grabs her up and attempts to carry her out to the surf where he plans to drown her. Others at the beach think they are just two playful lovers and ignore Tiffany's struggles. At last she uses her judo skills to defeat Aldo and drags him back to the beach. It seems his exercises were a complex code he used to to transmit the secret information. He is arrested and Tiffany tries to dry off and rest on the beach. Her bosses want her to come back in report but she says she can't with hair such a mess.

And that completes the run of Sarge Steel/Secret Agent comics. This is a solid issue with a return of the series to a more detective/noir feel. The first-person narration adds to that feel as does the real emotion Sarge seems to feel for Linda. While he is doubtless a cad, Sarge does seem to have some feelings for the women in his life and that has been missing in some of the previous issues. Steve Skeates is pretty wordy in this one, the explanation requiring a lot of exposition. The twists are here, but they are a bit difficult to follow if you don't read carefully. The maguffin is discovered at the end, but there was not really any real foreshadowing of its ultimate location as there might've been in a tighter mystery story. The Tiffany Sinn story was a lot of fun. Jim Aparo was a dang fine artist and his skills as a storyteller are well on display here. As I said Sarge Steel shows up in the back of Judomaster and in Thunderbolt. I'll get around to that Thunderbolt appearance in a later series.

For now no more to come.

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The Real Snow Plan!

Is this the next step? They cover us up and then attack in force.

The truth is out there you know.

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Were-Woman? There Woman!

I was prowling around the internet as I often do and I found the cover image below for Spaceman magazine, an off-shoot of Famous Monsters of Filmland. This is a wonderful cover featuring some really slick artwork by Wally Wood. Among the bevy of beauties surrounding the lounging spaceman, is one that reminded me an awful lot of Tigra the Were-woman. Not the Tigra who developed (ahem) after a time, with darker colors and such, but the Tigra of the actual debut in Giant-Size Creatures #1 alongside Werewolf by Night. She was lighter in color, and to my eye very much like the cat woman in the Wood cover image, right down to the bikini.

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The Sarge Steel Reports - File #109

Secret Agent (formerly Sarge Steel) Vol.2 #9 is dated October 1966. The cover is by Dick Giordano and is a variation of the splash page by Montes & Bache with Sarge in a more active role. The credits list Pat Masulli again as creator, Joe Gill as storyteller, with pencils by Bill Montes, inks by Ernie Bache, and letters by Jon D'Agostino.


Part I of File #109 "The Warmaker" begins with that splash featuring four returning Sarge Steel baddies and one new one. Back for another taste of the steel fist are The Lynx, Ivan Chung (his third appearance), The Smiling Skull (his second Steel appearance but his third Charlton appearance), and Werner Von Hess (who only appears on the cover and the splash). The new badguy is named Mister Ize, the guy with the wonky glasses. The story begins in a dojo where Sarge is sparring with another karate devotee when that guy suddenly attacks Sarge for real trying to kill him. Sarge defeats him with the steel fist, but when he tries to take a shower hot steam erupts from the nozzle and he is just able to save himself again. In the background of one panel is The Smiling Skull who as Sarge leaves the dojo reports to Mr.Ize. As Sarge is driving away Ivan Chung shows up alongside in another car and tries to wreck Sarge's car, but Sarge is able to wreck Chung's by firing a .357 Magnum slug at him. As Sarge enters his apartment building, Mr.Ize and The Lynx sit outside in a car and follow him in, but after Ize calls Kapitan Werner Von Hess and tells him to keep his forces available for back up (this is the only reference to Von Hess in the story and we never see him). Mr.Ize uses his glasses to hypnotize the doorman and later he uses the specs to burn open the lock on Sarge's door. When Sarge arrives he knows something is up but before he can do much Mr.Ize hypnotizes him and the gang of villains leaves with Sarge in their control.

Part II "The Looters" begins with a jet flying over a burning oil tank in the country of Kuwania. The jet lands and Mr.Ize explains to Sarge that the fire was set with weapons to make the leader of Kuwania think his neighbors attacked him from which Mr.Ize will profit. They next use gas to storm the capitol city and take control of the palace to rob it apparently. Sarge follows orders and helps in the attack but during the gunplay a bullet ricochets and grazes his head and they assume he is dead, so he is left behind. He awakes and the effects of Mr.Ize's gaze are gone. But Sarge is captured by Kuwanians and imprisoned, but he quickly escapes by using sleeping gas hidden in cigarettes. He gets to the airfield and uses his steel fist to block bullets while he steals a plane and pursues Mr.Ize and his cohorts. Mr.Ize uses his goggles to shoot Sarge down and he is recaptured but pretends to still be under their influence and control as the whole gang uses a cargo plane to leave the area.

Part III "The Warmaker's Stronghold" is set in the Atlas Mountains where the cargo plane touches down and unloads. Sarge still pretends to be in their thrall, but is soon discovered by The Lynx as he tries to learn more, and she orders her big cat to attack him but Sarge dispatches the cat with one steel punch. The Smiling Skull shoots at Sarge but a running tackle takes him out and likewise Ivan Chung is knocked out by a grenade which Sarge throws but doesn't have time to take the pin out of. He gets the drop on the gang and uses grenades to begin to blow up the facility but is confronted by Mr.Ize who again tries to hypnotize Sarge, as he does this he relates how his power was developed while he trying to develop special glasses for surgeons and chanced on the hypnotic goggles which he immediately used to gather up the thugs who told him that Sarge Steel was the one man they feared. Sarge though at the last minute uses the mirrored surface of his steel fist to reflect Mr.Ize's rays back to him and the villain has his own brain warped. Free of Ize's control the other villains immediately scatter and Sarge is sure in time he as a special agent wil be able to gather them up so they can face justice.

"Sarge Steel's Scapbook Of Judo!" begins with a new splash page by Frank McLaughlin I suspect (though credit at GCD is given to Dick Giordano) with Sarge and a boy explaining talking how the lessons from previous issues have shown the true nature of judo. After this splash are two reprints of earlier "Sports of Judo" three-page features by Frank McLaughlin from previous Sarge Steel issues.

Clearly the title change was an attempt to spike the sales on the series. The cover advertises a really hair-raising adventure and there is lots of action for sure. But the cheat on Von Hess is strange and even stranger since he's on both the cover and the splash page when clearly he was never in the story to begin with. Both Ivan Chung and Smiling Skull are diminished by their appearances here, two masterminds reduced to henchman duty. The Lynx gets enough space to seem threatening, but the other two not so much. Mr.Ize is a neat weird villain who reminded me more than a bit of Doc Ock. One thing of note is that the first-person narration dropped in the last two issues of Sarge Steel is back in this one and to good effect.

More to come.

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High And Dry!

Here are a couple of charming Charlton covers, both using the same visual gag. I prefer the Popeye one by George Wildman, it's got slightly more character. But the Timmy one also by Wildman is dandy too, and since it's earlier I guess we have to consider it...ahem...a dry run.

I crack myself up.

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