The Stealer Of Souls!

Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone is a fascinating character, a hero for sure, but also a villain to many. He is a traitor to his own people in order to fulfill his own desire for vengeance on his enemy and as a result his beloved dies, and his ancient city falls. He becomes a nomad, and his people lose control of the ancient and sorcery-rich lands that had been theirs for countless generations.

I recently re-read the first few Elric "novels" in the first edition of the most recent series from Ballantine Books which offers up the texts as they originally appeared in magazine serial form in issues of Science Fantasy in the early 1960's. I can't say much for the John Picacio illustrations, which frankly left me rather cold, but the stories bristled with the youthful energy Moorcock was able to muster in these early outings of sword and sorcery. Elric is more in the wizened tradition of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser rather (which Moorcock likes a lot) rather than Robert E. Howard's seminal Conan (which Moorcock likes somewhat less). The stories are sardonic in tone at times and Elric is a protagonist always, but often far from a hero in any sense we might casually understand that term.

The "Stealer of Souls" referred to in the title is a sword, a sword named "Stormbringer" and it is this sword, a black blade which contrasts so starkly with the albino white skin of Elric himself which completes the character Michael Moorcock created so very long ago. Inspired to some extent by the anti-villain Zeno the Albino from the adventures of Sexton Blake. Stealer of Souls really is made up of five connected novellas, each complete in itself but moving the Elric story along as he meets a supporting cast of sorts, in particular his partner Moonglum.

More cohesive as a novel is Stormbringer, which brings the Elric saga to a close and follows up on the themes established in the earlier collection. In this saga, again comprised of four linked novellas, the action is more focused in time and the action in each follows on pretty much immediately from its predecessor. In this story Elric battles the sorcerer Jagreen Lern who is using the forces of Chaos, which Elric also serves, to conquer the known world. The Lords of Chaos and of Order actually appear in these stories and do battle directly as Elric is thrown into their midst. Death is the commonplace in these stories as the intent is to bring the story to a finale.

But of course Elric proved too popular to finish, so though we see his end, we are still left with a broad and sprawling life to explore and Moorcock has been doing that ever since.

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Sherlock Holmes - The Albino's Treasure!

The Albino's Treasure pits the inimitable Sherlock Holmes against an exceedingly worthy foe, the mysterious albino of the title. Stuart Douglas weaves a compelling Holmes mystery here with all the right moving parts and a real feel of proper tone and pacing.

Holmes and Watson are once again saving the British Empire, or think they are at the very least. They chase a couple of gangs it turns out as they vie for a prize which purports to be of staggering national significance. The case gets underway when an anarchist slashes a painting in the National Portrait Gallery and both Watson and Holmes work separately and together to unravel an elaborate puzzle hidden inside some paintings from hundreds of years before.

Spoilers below, so tread with care. 

Holmes really seems to have some worthy foes this time, and not just the Albino who it turns out is someone I knew already. Zenith the Albino was a longtime foe of Sexton Blake and his turning up in a  Sherlock Holmes story seems logical enough in a literary universe where all characters seem to be part of a larger tapestry.

The irony for me, and a literary coincidence for me personally was that just before reading this story I had just finished on a whim Elric of Melnibone's debut adventures contained in the volume The Stealer of Souls. (More on this tomorrow.) Elric's connection to Zenith is widely acknowledged by creator Michael Moorcock and to unexpectedly find Zenith so quickly on the heels of reading of his literary child was a pleasant surprise.

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State Of Confusion!

Today I awoke to a literal state of confusion. The governor-elect of my humble little Kentucky is now a  carpetbagger and Donald Trump wannabe, a man who is pugnacious, intemperate, and seems to bear a tremendous grudge against a political and social system which has made him rich several times over. Matt Bevin was elected last night as my future governor, a man disliked by his own party and soon to be disliked by many, if not most in Kentucky, even those who in a bout of blindness elected him.

But I suspect he never really expected to win, and now that he has he's left with the task of trying to live up to the irresponsible promises he made as part of the no-nothing Tea Party which rose up in unreasoning opposition to all things Obama. Kentucky is not a donor state, which means that we take more from the federal coffers than we contribute, a state which has been wracked traditionally by its isolated mountainous geography and culture, left to idle while other regions around it thrive. Kentucky has long been like a colony, full of rich natural resources used by other more industrialized neighbors for the betterment of their populations. The romanticism of horse racing clouds over a century of poverty.

Now that said, it seems the state would be ripe for the promises of a man or woman with a vision forward. That's true, but this mope ain't that guy. As is the practice for these Tea Party types he's full of vitriol for the existing status quo but desperately lacking in any specific plan to improve things other than the bellwether blather to lower taxes (the only true goal of most Tea Party enthusiasts despite lip-service to other causes). In this new society we live in nowadays such murmurings find purchase, but they don't speak to the future, only the here and now.

These folks are defined by what they are against, not what they are for. In Bevin's case he's against Common Core (though I doubt he'd be able to articulate what it is about that system he particularly objects to and ironically Kentucky was a pioneer in this effort making improvements long before the current crisis of wisdom struck the benighted), Obamacare (called KYNECT in this state, the best state exchange developed and the model for other states when the reforms went forward some years) gay marriage (the Supreme Court decision was likely why Bevin won really), unions, public education (the oft-proven disaster of charter schools), and of course government (starve the beast) itself. What is he for? He's for cutting taxes and I suspect he likes puppies, though I don't have evidence to support that. That's not responsible leadership, that's the warm glow of nostalgia for a time when things were better, but when and how remain scandalously vague.  

Bevin was elected with the mindless assistance of many current and former public employees who were either blinded by their irrational fear and loathing of Obama (who has exactly one more year in office) or the terror of gay marriage (see miscegenation fifty years earlier and ironically also Obama now) and either cannot or choose not to see that this maroon is a threat to their short term and long term interests. If I could imagine for a moment they were being selfless I'd have some heart, but I know they are just being knot-headedly short-sighted.

We've watched over the last few years as ultra-conservative governor in Kansas has ransacked that state driving it into economic ruin with tax cuts and budget shortfalls which have decimated the state's credit rating. Kentucky is not a state which has that much room to spare. We do have a legislature which can, for the time being slow the change I dread coming, but who knows how long or effective that bulwark might prove to be.

Heavy sigh now; heavy drinking later. Salute!

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Holmes And Kolchak - Cry For Thunder!

Cry for Thunder is an oddball teaming of The Night Stalker's Karl Kolchak and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. They never meet of course, since they are separated by a century of time, but the story they work on separately does link up. 

This is a Kolchak story though for the most part with the Sherlock Holmes bits, properly narrated by his worthy companion Dr. Watson through a document Kolchak uncovers occupy about a third of the total narrative. The story begins in the American wild west where two cowboys encounter a mysterious shadow and then there is the enigmatic photograph of said cowboys with a giant bird which seems to be a very dangerous item to know about or handle.

Sadly this isn't much of a mystery and Kolchak's handling of it seem fairly chaotic and unfocused as he plumbs the depths of Native American mysticism and pursues a properly cretinous villain. I did though have a hard time keeping his motivations in focus as he ambles about the story doing Kolchakian things. Likewise Holmes seems muted somehow in his sections of the tale.

This is a prose adaptation of a comic book story written by Moonstone's publisher Joe Gentile, a hale fellow well met. I have not read the comics, nor do I much care to, but I did eagerly look forward to this prose handling of two of my favorite characters and I sadly have to say that the result is a decided ho-hum. I was disappointed.

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Ash Versus The Evil Dead!

Watched the debut episode of Ash Vs. Evil Dead this past weekend on Starz, and I have to give it an unabashed "Groovy"! This one does an exceedingly nifty job of picking up a story that has lain dormant for nearly twenty-five years since the release of Army of Darkness in 1992.  But the elements are still all there, and Bruce Campbell still has that quixotic charm which has made him a favorite movie and TV star now for several decades. Never an "A-List" celeb, Bruce is the king almighty and high overlord of "B-Listers".

Groovy Trio - Pablo, Ash, and Kelly

There's not much to announce about the story but I will attempt to avoid too many spoilers. Ash Williams has fallen victim to time, and now an aging one-handed denture-wearing wannabe Don Juan, he trolls the bars right at closing to pick up the desperate and the lonely to fulfill his base needs. That's the hero of this yarn, which shows us a world which quickly comes under attack by "Deadites" from another dimension, who invade the bodies of human beings and transform them into hideous and leering monsters bent on death and destruction. At the center of this is the Sumerian Book of the Dead made literally of flesh and blood, and in the keeping (so to speak) of Ash. Ever the "hero", Ash's first response to the "Deadite" invasion is to run away. But Pablo, a fellow employee who rather idolizes Ash tries to talk him out of that decision. Then fate takes a hand (so to speak) and things really start to slide into the gutter and by the end of the first episode we know that it will be Ash and company to the rescue. We are in so much trouble.

The power of Bruce!

Bruce Campbell is as funny as ever, blending that special dash of classic heroics with a heavy smear of sarcastic cowardice, he never does exactly what you expect, but always what you fear he might do. But in the end he is forced to do the right thing, but how long that lasts is anyone's guess. Sam Raimi makes this TV show look and feel just like the later installments of the Evil Dead franchise, a weirdo blend of gross-out horror and gross-out humor blended with just enough actual real suspense to make me yearn for the days when movies were actually a little bit scary.

This one is a winner, at least based on the pilot. Give it a chance. Bruce needs your support. For my thoughts on the Evil Dead movies check this out from many years ago now. Sheesh!

Now we need a big-screen adaptation of Brisco Country Jr. 

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Kolchak - A Black And Evil Truth!

When Moonstone got the rights to Kolchak; The Night Stalker they really went all out in putting material into the marketplace featuring the idiosyncratic 70's paranormal reporter. Comics of course, short stories eventually, and finally novels. A Black and Evil Truth by C.J. Henderson published in 2007 claims to be at the time the first Kolchak novel in over a decade (since Grave Secrets by Mark Dawidziak I'm guessing) which would make it the fourth novel in the series overall (by my unofficial count).

The Kolchak of this story is a much more restrained and reflective individual, less the mildly cartoonish bumbler so beautifully overplayed at times by Darren McGavin and more the conflicted protagonist of Jeff Rice's original novel. Still in all there are times in the book when it doesn't feel like Carl Kolchak at all.

The story is a whopper as Kolchak is sent by an unexpectedly sympathetic Tony Vincenzo to the Virginia and West Virginia border town of Gore in West Virginia to examine the weird murders of two people in two towns separated by a twenty miles and a state line. The murders are savage and utterly mysterious and that mystery grows even more pronounced when an entire family falls victim to the brutality. Kolchak finds a town full of people who are mostly friendly and he finds cops who greet him without the usual skepticism he encounters from big city police forces. He also finds love of a sort and that is really strange.

There's nothing that Kolchak does or doesn't do in this novel that strikes me as implausible for the character, but the tone seems at times too relaxed given the wild nature of the crimes encountered. Henderson does do a great job of dropping hints at the ends of chapters which keep you pulled into the narrative and it is an entertaining diversion, though I have to confess the finale left me a bit cold. The mythology of the Kolchak stories is intact here so fans of the movies and the TV series won't be left out, that's true enough.

I found A Black and Evil Truth a rousing read which works for me right up until I find out the answer to the mystery, then it sort of stops working for me. There's a heavy-handedness to the ending which undermines the great build up, but maybe that's just me. This strikes me as a "your mileage might vary" kind of book big time.

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Angels And Apes!

Why do we love apes? I guess it's because they remind us of us. That said, this month will see the second "Ape Month" in the "Rip's Favorite Cover" Feature. The Dojo featured apes last year during November, and it seemed well past time to use up the rest of those awesome primate-themed covers gathered. There are hundreds of them, if not thousands.

Also November will not have any large themes other than what comes to mind. I've got several book reviews coming up and there is a general trend towards mysteries since that's what I've been mostly reading and viewing over the last many months. Some of these reviews have been rattling around in the dusty closets of the Dojo for months waiting their turn to emerge and shine, and this month I need to finally dust them off and get them out for the sake of the adoring public.

So it's going to be hopefully another fun-filled month here. Hang on to your branch my fellow semi-evolved amigos!

A comics series that bridges the minor interests this month of apes and mysteries is the delicious DC series Angel and the Ape, a weird brew about a beautiful girl named Angel O'Day and her comics artist partner who just so happens to be a talking gorilla named Sam Simeon. Created by E. Nelson Bridwell, it's such a weird concept, so out there, and yet so fresh, that I'm stunned it's never been made into a TV series. It's a natural. And now for no better reason than I love the lively artwork of Bob Oksner, especially the way he draws dames, here's a vintage Angel and the Ape cover gallery.

They keep Sam a mystery on the debut cover in Showcase.

He's featured front and center on the debut issue of the regular series.

Shares equal space with Angel on the second cover.

Moves behind her but is still very prominent on the third installment.

The fourth issue sees a logo change with Angel getting great play and poor Sam begins to diminish.

Still equal in size but just one of the elements in this hectic monster-rich cover. Bob Hope where are you?

But the monsters take over in the sixth issue with Sam reduced to a back bencher. Note we are invited to "Meet Angel and the Ape", an ominous portent.

Sadly by the seventh and last issue Sam was gone from the cover and "Ape" was gone from the logo. We were invited instead to "Meet Angel" alone. Sam is in the issue though.

These need to be collected, along with Inferior 5.

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