QUICK SHOTS: Hitman #3: The Girls Who Came to Murder by Kirby (Kin Platt) Carr

I took me a bit to get back to The Hitman series by Kin Platt writing as Kirby Carr. I read the first two fairly close together and they are some of my first blog reviews. Ah, memories. Kin Platt was an interesting guy, noted YA author, comic book writer and artist and novelist of this series, a couple of standalones and the Max Roper mysteries. Other than the cold hard cash, I often wondered while reading this one why exactly he was writing the Hitman books. The publisher Canyon was pretty low on the totem pole, and he was publishing the Roper books and his YA work at the same time at nicer publishers. It seems odd that he couldn't get a Men's Adventure series off the ground at a better joint like Pinnacle or Popular or even Curtis. Ah, mysteries. 

Platt had a sense of humor though, that's what really shines through in the Hitman books. They whole thing is SO over-the-top its wild, not to mention totally depraved and oozing with a thick layer of sleaze. Mike Ross is the Hitman, a 'Nam vet who is a super-badass with an ancient martial arts teacher as his only real buddy. He comes back from 'Nam and sets up as a Pulp Hero from the 30's basically. Imagine Norvell Page's The Spider in an avocado and wood paneled world and you have a taste of what The Hitman is. Ross wears an all-black "Commando" suit, drives around in a custom action-van with his MAB 9mm and his little Erma Luger .22 he shoots anyone he deems to be an evil doer. He does have a little crisis of faith in this book when he has to kill a bunch of teenage/college-age woman. But he quickly gets over that.

This is one of the Manson/Cult plots that are pretty prevalent in M.A. fiction of the time. A guy name Harvey barely has to utter a word or lift a finger and a score of teenagers go out and kill for him. Which is far-out to him since he really didn't even ask them too. But he's really just a douche who wants women and cash. All the while there's a sub-plot about Raj Bab, a young Indian who hit his head and who was sold by his parents to be taken to America by a conman to become a guru, basically. This plot here goes nowhere, disregard. So, Ross investigates both by going to a show and just basically shooting every hippie he comes across. Once the book is done, you realize that nothing much happened and what has happened just barely had the dots connected enough to make sense. Platt either had a deadline or an upcoming vacation to get to while pounding this one out on the keys. 

All that sounds like a dig, and it is. But hell, I still enjoyed the book. Platt's writing is always pretty interesting, the satire and humor helped me move right through the pages. I wish there was more Ross in the book, he's easily the third lead in the story and it suffers from that. But these aren't long or challenging books to tackle. I will say this is the weakest of the Hitman's I've read, I missed the slightly supernatural angle of the first couple and the full-blown action. This one has a more private-eye/detective feel then a Spider adventure. I think I'll try "The Impossible Spy, the stand-alone Platt did as Carr next which is about psychic espionage. And sleaze, I bet it's also about sleaze. 

Hitman #2: They Me Kill You, Sweetheart by Kirby (Kin Platt) Carr

Kin Platt was an interesting individual, a cartoonist and writer who produced work in a most mediums, comic books, YA novels, advertising, kids books, radio, film, adult novels, "adult" novels (wink) and TV. Most of the work I've read by him has a definite satirical bend to it. He's most well known for his children's novels, which tackled a lot of "mature" topics for kid's books, divorce, drugs, mental issues and such. He also wrote a pretty fun adult mystery series about Max Roper. While looking into Platt I stumbled upon his YA novel "The Blue Man," and had a long-forgotten memory of the book nudged out into the open in my brain. I think I read it many years ago, I'll have to track it down (cause I need more books?) to double check.

But his entry into the world of Men's Adventure fiction is what I'm talking about today (or whenever you read this) and that is Mike Ross a.k.a. The Hitman who packs heat and dresses in all black complete with cowl with "slit eye openings" to hunt down criminals. It's a series that's on one hand very much in the Pulp Hero mold, he operates very much like The Spider or The Shadow and on the other owing to Platt's comic book history. It's a world where spooky things, (vampires, witches etc. etc.) can exist? Maybe? Sometimes they seem to and it comes out of nowhere and then some are "Scooby-Doo" villains who get their rubber mask pulled off. It's probably owes more to the "one draft" novel approach of some of these lower-class publishers then a straight artistic choice. But who knows, I enjoy them for their seat-of-the-pants-kitchen-sink style. Platt was probably having fun writing them; just letting them pour out. 

SIDE- BAR: I often find myself on pdf's of archival material that authors have donated to universities. Their full of little tidbits of information and "lost" work type stuff. You have to get used to how their laid out but it's a interesting rabbit-hole to fall down into. I've done it with Michael Avallone and the Kansas author L.V. Roper. When this Covid-19 loosens it's death-grip on the U.S. (seriously where's The Spider to blast it into submission with his blazin' .45s?) I might make a pilgrimage to Roper's collection which seems to house unpublished novels in his "Renegade Roe" series.  Platt's is at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and pouring through the stuff in the collection I've found the original titles to some in the series. As follows: 

1. "The Vampire People Eater Caper"

2. "The Big Blue Kill" or "Cop Killers"

3. "The Young Deceivers" 

4. "The Scorpion Contract"

5. "The Tough Kill" or "The Hard Kill" 

He seems like he might have given up on naming them once we figured out that Canyon Books was going to name them whatever the hell they wanted. But there's a nice little nugget of usless information for you.

Platt does seem to have a firmer grip on what he wants the character and the world to be in the second novel, the first is a bit looser and free-wheelin' but Platt has all his character stuff set it seems and the world built and is now just playing around. His mentor Lo doesn't play much of a part in this episode, but his other secondary characters i.e. his S&W Model 29 .44 Magnum, the Baby Erma .22 Luger, and his "burpgun" have a lot to do. The action comes often and nice a gory, but is over fairly quickly. There's obvious humor scenes and colorful character names which make the books really stand out among the rest of "The Executioner" clones. The plot is convoluted as hell and fantastic. Cops are being killed all over the country and The Hitman wants to stop it. The mob is involved, also a cult, also witches and a home-grown terrorist outfit. The final big-bad reveal is a bit of a stretch is wrapped up so quickly Platt must have know he was close to his word count. There's a lot of goofy stuff that will turn people off, odd scenes and asides about occult matters that really don't go anywhere. But if you in the right mind-set its a helluva ride. 

The books are too hard to get and pricey to boot, it'd be a fun series to see reprinted but I don't know if it'll happen. Platt's Max Roper books are available as ebooks so that's something. If you dig 30's-40's pulp heroes or their modern counterparts it's fun to see what the forefathers of the pulp-revival were doing in the 70s. Watch out on the blog for more Hitman reviews and even a review of "The Impossible Spy" by Kirby Carr, the only non-Hitman book Platt did as Carr which promises psychic spies.