Bulldog Drummond!

I don't remember when I first ran across the name "Bulldog Drummond", but it was most likely in one of Philip Jose Farmer's fictional biographies of either Tarzan or Doc Savage. All I knew about the character was that he was British and a significant physical specimen. Getting and reading a Bulldog Drummond story has been a low-grade ambition for many many moons.

So when I stumbled across a Wordsworth edition of the first four novels featuring the character I snapped it up. Such was my condition that I could read the first novel immediately and it was a whopper. "Sapper" who is in reality writer H.C. McNeile, fashioned a peppery adventure full of brawny and brave men and dastardly villains.

Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is a World War I veteran, a man who found in the trenches a sense of purpose and a lust for danger and adventure. At home he is bored and like most British heroes leads a life of relative comfort (properly attended to by a just-assumed-to-be-there servant) and then he puts an ad in the paper essentially asking for trouble. He finds it when a beautiful woman answers his ad and he finds himself battling his arch-enemy Carl Peterson for the first time. Peterson is the name for a mysterious master villain who has a big gang of thugs and who seeks to undermine the British government itself to enrich himself and his associates. But as ruthless as Peterson is, we find that Drummond is no less a man of violence, a veritable bear of a man who uses his wits and his brawn to escape sundry dangerous situations.

Drummond is helped by his mates, men and veterans like himself. I was much reminded of Doc Savage's aides as Drummond's main men fell into place, each with a distinctive personality, but all brave and thoroughly gung-ho. We find in Drummond a powerful personality, a man who is comfortable leading others into danger and who is more than willing to take not only the law but destiny itself into his powerful hands.

I've seen some of the Bulldog Drummond movies and they are dandy entertainments, but none of them that I've seen were as good or had the fundamental weirdness of this novel. 

It's easy to see why these adventures were such a hit. The story explodes and propels itself along. I'm most eager to read the sequel at the soonest opportunity.

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How To Torture!

I don't know what it was exactly which attracted my attention to this pair of 1948 comics, save perhaps for my own decades-long marriage. I'm reminded that for a very long time comics were for adults and reflected the day-to-day concerns of adults, especially richly funny results of the interaction of the two sexes.

H.T. Webster, a local boy from Parkersburg, West Virginia is the cartoonist and though mostly forgotten today, is most remembered for his strip The Timid Soul which gave us the name "Caspar Milquetoast". For more of his material check this out and this. 

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Jet-Pack Adventures!

I haven't been getting everything IDW has been publishing relative to The Rocketeer created by Dave Stevens, but I did get hold of The Rocketeer Jet-Pack Adventures a few days ago.

This is a prose collection of short stories dedicated to the Stevens characters and looks like it has the right spirit. Illustrated by Jeff Bone, this one has a somewhat too cartoony feel in that department, but the yarns themselves have the same feel as Stevens was able to connote, at least on first glance.

More when I've plumbed this volume's depth a bit more.

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The Bridge!

 

Over the past few years among the shows on my must-see short-list has been FX's The Bridge. The first season was enthralling, a mysterious and atmospheric search for a serial killer brought together American detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) and Mexican detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) and the two are dynamic. Cross, a singularly dedicated officer plagued by demons about her sister's murder and her own Assbeger syndrome is a fascinating and unpredictable character. Ruiz, an experienced and capable officer is a man of many passions and seeming contradicitons, love for his family but with a roaming eye. One understands only the truth and the other understands all too well the nature of lies.

Cross and Ruiz are wonderful on screen, visually different and at this point pleasantly not romantically connected. That would be a mistake as it fundamentally alters their effect on one another.

Sonya is also very much influenced by Lieutenant Hank Wade, a man who is all but a father to her. Ted Levine is one of my favorite actors and it was his presence in this role that first made me give this show a chance. Wade has some secrets of his own, as have been revealed in the second season. More on that later.

Running parallel to the story of the two detectives is the sub-plot of two reporters. Daniel Frye (Matthew Lillard) and Adriana Mendez ( Emily Rios) are two friends of sorts who seek the truth at significant cost to their personal lives. "The Story" seems to be the most important thing to both these characters as it is of course to the audience as well.

The villains in this show are everything though. After the first season the serial killer was disposed of and I wondered how the show would continue. They started with a real bang this year introducing Elaneor Nacht (Franke Potente) a lapsed Mennonite murderess and large dark secrets as well as startling tatoos. She's a full-blown nutcase, but weirdly fascinating.

Always entertaining is Monte Flagman played by Lyle Lovett, who adds some homespun whimsy to a show which can be exceedingly dark. He's not a good man, but he seems to have some limits, though this last season showed him a bit darker indeed.

And it's this current season which almost got me off the show. It started with a blood-saturated bang, but some episodes have been pretty undeveloped and while important I realize lacked the punch of last season. I was just considering getting out of the show after this year when the most recent episodes the show has picked up the tension missing from the middle and I'm back in the saddle.

The show is very unconventional, and when it degrades into a mere cop show it loses its way. It's more about weirdness and the depraved nature of men and women and how that percolates through the culture at all times despite the lies which are perpetrated to keep the lid on. This is ain't cops and robbers, this is about evil and the how that evil is in the very heart of every man and woman alive.

Sonya and Marco look in as much as they look out. Sonya relentlessly seeking the truth and Marco trying to make sense of the lies. Both fight desperately to save innocent lives.

If you ain't watching The Bridge, you might consider starting. It's a hoot.

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Guardians Of The Galaxy!

The opportunity presented itself and I ended up in a theater watching Marvel's latest movie success story Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a hoot, and I have to say a very entertaining movie. But I've been reading many stories proclaiming this as the best Marvel movie yet, and that's not the case.

First let's establish that these are not my Guardians of the Galaxy, the heroic space heroes I fell in love with when I was but a boy. Very little remains of the story Arnold Drake and Gene Colan cobbled together decades ago. No Vance Astro, no Martinex, no Charlie-27 to be seen. Yondu is in it, but it's a different Yondu than I remember. 

This review is loaded with SPOILERS, so tread at your peril. 

This is the first of these movies not to deal primarily with characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and/or Steve Ditko. The only characters in this movie created by Stan and Jack are Groot (the first Atlas creation to get into movies I think) and Ronan the Accuser. I did gleefully spot one of Jack's Celestials too, Gammenon I think. But otherwise, we have characters created in the 60's by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan (the aforementioned Yondu) and Stan Lee and Don Heck (The Collector). There are mostly though characters created in the 70's by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan (Star-Lord), Marv Wolfman and Sal Buscema (Nova Corps), Jim Starlin (Gamora, Thanos, Drax), Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik  (Howard the Duck), and finally Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen (Rocket Racoon).

It's a rich brew and so remote from the consciousness of the whole planet save for the most devout comic fans that most of the audience has no frame of reference. More people who saw this movie recognized Stan in his cameo than any single one of the characters in the story proper. That freedom allowed the movie makers to have a field day with a host of concepts and they blended them well in a slam bang action piece.

Peter Quill, the Star-Lord is the heart of the movie. His relationship with his mother is the emotional core of the tale and the source of the AM pop soundtrack which has enamored so many reviewers. Quill is a successful smarmy hero, cocky and simultaneously charming. As played by Chris Pratt he's a proper rogue. The quiet beginning of the movie was a real hit with me and a surprise as these Marvel epics go.

Zamora was pretty close to what Jim Starlin created so long ago. She looks less like a lounge dancer as played by Zoe Saldana, but she is a nice action heroine. Saldana did a bang up job some years ago in the action flick Columbiana and she's just as convincing here in the fight scenes. The emotional stuff, not so much. Her romantic scenes with Pratt didn't get over for me, but they weren't what I was there for.

I bought my ticket to see Rocket Racoon. Rocket is a thoroughly convincing character, and I only later realized I never doubted his reality or questioned the special effects. It's a real breakthrough for this kind of creation. Loved Rocket!

I was somewhat less taken with Groot. As opposed to Rocket, Groot almost always looked like a special effect, though admittedly they made good use of a character who can really only say three words. His range of plant powers was pretty creative at times and I'm glad his cutting survived to see the sequel.

I must confess to being a bit disappointed in Dave Bautista's Drax the Destroyer. He was not green enough for my tastes, as I'm a big big fan of Starlin's original design. Of course that look wasn't going to get over, but I wish they'd made him greener. Given Zamora's greenness, I understand the decision, but I never really ever got Drax from him. The literalness was funny though.

Perhaps the most perplexing character for me was Yondu. This ain't the Yondu I remember from Marvel Super-Heroes #18, that's for sure. Michael Rooker gave his usual compelling job, but this Yondu shares only his Yaka arrow with the original aboriginal creation. It was great fun to see said Yaka arrow on display, it didn't disappoint.

The Collector has always been a fave villain, so it's nice to see him here. Bencio Del Toro on the other hand is not one of my favorite actors, but he does a decent job here and he's not on screen that long, so his usual grating manner doesn't last long. Actually his usual what-planet-am-I-on approach to his characters actually played into Tivan Taneleer, a creature of a different kind indeed. The final scene with Howard was a treat.

Nebula was a surprise for me and she was nicely performed by Karen Gillian. I didn't recognize her in the role necessarily, but she was always impressive in the many close-ups she got.

 

Now I have to admit that Ronan the Accuser is one of my favorite Marvel baddies. This Ronan ain't the Kirby creation, but he's close and the Kree fanaticism was a proper motivation for his villainy. With ISIS in the news, this Ronan felt downright torn-from-the-headlines as he spouted his murderous rationalizations.

All in all I was fully entertained by Guardians of the Galaxy, though at times in the middle it did feel a bit video gamey. The scenes at the end in the stark daylight of Xandar were especially effective. But I don't really see why this one is any particularly better than what Marvel has released before. It's on par with the Thor movies to my eye and lacks the punch of the Cap movies or the satirical snap of the Iron Man efforts. It measures up well with The Avengers movie, but had fewer "cool" moments for me at least.

This is one is plenty cool though.

I will always love the name "Guardians of the Galaxy", it's so thoroughly pulp and heroic. This movie did it no harm. Cheers to a very entertaining movie.

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Finger Lickin' Good!

 

I never knew this promotional comic existed. It's a curious artifact from 1969 when the Kentucky Fried Chicken brand went public soon after the Colonel sold his business for what seems now a paltry sum of two million. But as a spokesman for the firm he became one of the most recognizable men on the planet. That's worth something I guess.

Certainly the Colonel was an ideal candidate for his own comic. Given the claim at the top of this comic about its flavor, I'd imagine few of these exist today. 

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A Christmas Miracle!

I know what I want for Christmas. This second awesome volume featuring Jack"King" Kirby's original artwork from the Fourth World series hits the racks in the second week of December, just in time for the holiday shopping season. Often when asked, I'm uncertain what I might want under the tree come Christmas morning, but not this year. I want my very own Christmas miracle unleashed and ready for enjoyment.

And given that Scott Free was a son sacrificed by his Father to bring about peace, it's an appropriate story for the season. You tell me "Mister Miracle" ain't "crucified" on nearly every cover. Hosanna!

Here the issues contained in this opus, one of the greatest stories Kirby ever told.

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