QUICK SHOTS: The Owl by Robert Forward

Robert Forward, as in forward momentum I assume because "The Owl" is all about making you run through the pages. Ya'll like action? How about some mystery? Sex? Violence? Yes, of course you do. Why else would you read a blog like this? Anyhow, Bob Forward has a long history writing for animated T.V. shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, even Super Dave. In the haze of writing some of mine and your favorite 80's cartoon's he squeezed out two novels about Alexander L'Hiboux aka "The Owl," a L.A. crimefighter with who doesn't sleep and likes public transport.

Lying somewhere between Norvell Page's The Spider and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, The Owl is "justice for hire," not really a classic P.I. but not a moralistic "Batman-type." He's a guy who wanders the streets as a scourge to the bad guys with a killer reputation and since he doesn't sleep, he's got a lot of time on his hands to be badass. He's an 80's off-the-grind, bulletproof-jacket wearing, Peacemaker-packin' version of Race Williams. You hire him and turn him loose.

The teenage daughter of a guy gets her face blow-torched and dies, the father wants vengeance and for a price, The Owl is on the case. Along the way there's a lot of shooting, chasing, murder, sneaking around, bus rides, shady bars and the slowly unfolding backstory of The Owl. Forward really never lets The Owl take a breath, even after some bullet-holes The Owl is up and back on the case which is a nice twisting and turning tale of smuggling, blackmail and death. 

There was even a T.V. movie with Highlander-star Adrian Paul, which I watched after reading the book. Which really didn't capture the feeling. You'd need a full-80's-era motion picture budget and mood to capture the full impact of the book. I couldn't help thinking of the late-80's T.V. adaptation of Mike Grell's Sable while watching, which was full of the big ideas of the AWESOME comic but lacked the dollar signs to fully realize it. But as an aficionado of that era of action shows, it wasn't too hard to sit through, feeling like comfort food for my action-junkie soul. 

"The Owl" is a nice mixture of the narrative thrust of a Spillane novel with the trappings of some of the 70's Men's Adventure heroes and a much bigger dollop of pulp heroes. As I was reading, I was also reminded of F. Paul Wilson Repairman Jack series, albeit without the supernatural stuff. Forward is a fine writer who write clean so you never get hung up as your gliding through The Owl's violent adventure. It's a shame there's only one more novel in the series "The Scarlet Serenade" which was never published in the U.S. (I have a NEL paperback) until Lee Goldberg's wonderful Brash Books reprinted them both. So, their easy to pick up and enjoy...which I'm sure you will. 

A Tale of Two "Challengers of the Unknown" by Ron Goulart

After the passing of Ron Goulart a while back, I knew it wouldn't be too long before I pulled one of his books off the shelf and gave it a whirl. He's one of my go-to-guys for light, fun adventuring and mystery. Besides being a helluva readable wordsmith he was a great historian and his books on the pulps and collections are top-notch. "The Hardboiled Dicks" sparked my love of Black Mask and Dime Detective. Then you got his John Easy books, his entries in The Avenger books, mysteries starring Groucho Marx, the Vampirella's...I could go on and probably will.

Goulart was a long-time comics fan and historian. It just makes sense that he adapted comics into novels, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Captain America, the Hulk...and The Challengers of the Unknown. I stumbled upon the Challengers via Joseph Loeb and Tim Sales's "The Challengers of the Unknown Must Die" which is a FANTASTIC run on these pretty much forgotten characters. So, The Challengers are basically big monster/bad guy fighters who go out and be adventurers to help people after almost dying and living on "borrowed time." There's Prof, Rocky, Ace, Red and June. It's a clean set up for comic booky-adventures. The early comics were drawn by Jack Kirby and a little later the set-up might have helped the Fantastic Four along, too. The Challengers don't really have a big footstep in the DC universe anymore (or ever really) so it's kinda surprising that this got a paperback. I mean, where's Cave Carson's book?

Goulart was an old hat at this kind of derring-do when he tackled this book, and it shows. It's a well-oiled machine of a pulp novel. Little bit of mystery, little bit of globe-trotting, little love-stuff, action and banter. There's enough of a hook for each character for them to bicker at each other and enough bad guys for them to fight. Basically, they go down to down to South America to get tangled up with a swamp monster and a political hot-bed of armies, spies and presidents and it just zooms right along to a fairly wide conclusion. 

Look, none of this was taxing. It's a simple, clear-cut pulp novel. Doc Savage could have had this adventure, the weird late-60's Shadow could have had this adventure. Or Goulart's own take on The Avenger team. It's not going to change your life, but you'll have a brisk little thrill-ride for an hour or so and that's what you need sometime. Goulart was an unpretentious writer, just out to entertain you. It's probably not his best book (those John Easy books are hard to beat) but if you were wondering what a 70s TV movie of the Challengers of the Unknown might have been like, here ya go. And that hits a lot of the right buttons for me.

Funny thing happened to me on the way to writing this review: I needed TWO COPIES of this slim Dell paperback to get it done. Why, you ask? Well, my first copy stopped with thirty pages to go and filled the page count with the previous thirty pages like it was VCR stuck on rewind. So, I had to wait for the mail to send me another copy for my resolution. It was like a proper Cliffhanger Serial. That's the first time I have ever had anything like that happen with a paperback and I was especially surprised that it was a Dell and not a Leisure or Manor book that did it. 

Anywho, Goulart is just one of those divisive writers. I love his work, or mileage may vary. But isn't that just the way it goes?

QUICK SHOTS: The Phantom Detective: The Daggers of Kali by Robert (E. Hoffmann Price) Wallace - UPDATED

The Phantom Detective is probably no one's favorite pulp hero. Though he must have been plenty of folks back in the day because he outlasted the greats, i.e. The Shadow and Doc Savage. I have a feeling this is mostly because he's not as outlandish or, well, memorable, giving his tales a mildly flavorful punch but generally more palatable for a general audience. No, wild adventures or exotic mysticism, they seem to run toward straight mysteries. At least in the ones I have read, there's tons of Phantom tales and I'm no expert. 

I came to the Phantom Detective via a couple of the old Cornith paperbacks purchased with a fistful Doc's one day at a flea market. I tried one and found it lacking in the pulpiness I was craving. I think I mistakenly assumed that all Pulp Heroes were like The Spider. After that I took to reading other kinds of tales from the pulps and later when I tried the Phantom again I liked him a bit more. Sometimes you need to figure yourself out.

What Secret Agent X and Operator 5 did for the espionage tale; The Phantom Detective does for the golden age mystery. The Phantom (as he's called in the text, sometimes confusing me into thinking he's wearing purple tights) tales are a lot of the time fairly straight pulp mystery tales with sprinkles of the fantastic. When I first started reading them, that wasn't what I wanted from a pulp novel. I don't think I read very good ones either. The Phantom Detective had a rotating authorship and as any M.A. aficionado knows, that breeds inequality. 

Awesome authors like Norman A. Daniels, Ray Cummings and D.L. Champion wrote for the series but E. Hoffmann Price was the writer behind "The Daggers of Kali" and it was him that made me finally pull another Phantom off the shelf. I dig a lot of his work, especially the occult detective Pierre d'Artois series and his adventure tales in the spicy magazines. He's an interesting author who lived an adventurous life himself and it comes through in his work. I was curious what he would do with (to me) fairly bland Phantom Detective. 

And what did he do? He delivered the most slam-bang Phantom Detective novel I've read. Easily my favorite in the series so far. There're mysterious stolen (maybe cursed) daggers, multiple lock roomed mysteries, superweapons, missing scientist daughters, mobsters, villainous characters with names like The Tiger and The Baron, deadly cults, daring escapes and tons of disguises. The pedal is all the way through the floorboard on this one as Price grabs your collar and pulls you along with the ups and downs of the Phantom as he rushes around and plays hero. The Phantom Detective's I've read often suffer from a lacking villain; Price avoids that with the Tiger. He's nasty and an equal to The Phantom in brains and brawn. Price knows to keep the clues, fighting and knockouts coming quickly and writes the action in a clean and crisp way and pushed the narrative to a satisfactory conclusion. In short, he's a pro.

The Phantom Detective is probably a C-List pulp hero. I certainly would rarely pick up one of his adventures as opposed to a nice Norvell Page Spider or even an apocalyptic Operator 5, but I'm glad I finally read another one. Maybe I've been too hard on The Phantom in the past, or maybe this is an outlier. I wouldn't recommend him for your first pulp novel but it's pretty good when you've ingested as much of it as I have. The Phantom Detective has been reprinted quite a bit so it's easy to tracks down a sample for testing.

UPDATE: 

Welp, folks. I was wrong. Apparently, Malcom Wheeler-Nicholson wrote this adventure of The Phantom Detective. I was corrected by none-other than pulp maestro Will Murray, so you know he's correct. I'm going to leave the review the way it is because I'm sorta lazy and I'm working on the next one, but I had to put an amendment on here to show that I don't know much, and I'll have to read something else of Wheeler-Nicholson's and do him justice. Thanks. 

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. 

Ed Noon Double Feature: High Noon at Midnight & Death Dives Deep by Michael Avallone

Every now and then you got to dive into the Nooniverse. In the plethora of literary private eyes there's none like Ed Noon, a true man for all seasons and problems. One the same time he's an old school tough-guy detective out of "Dime Detective" and sometimes he's a Don Quixote in the world spies, evil scientists, femme fatales, crooks, cops and even Presidents. He's all of that as well a movie and baseball buff who has soft heart and a (luckily) hard head. Ed Noon is a wonderful filter for Avallone's passions and obvious love of fun, action/mystery yarns. 

I found Ed a long time ago, when I was in high school with a short stack of used paperbacks. They were in rough/falling apart shape and patched with tape. A lot of Avallone's books in used bookstores seem to be a rough shape. I think these were read, passed around and read again. That's a nice compliment to a writer. Over the years I've managed to get a pretty complete set (a couple still illudes me, dammit) but it's not the easiest run to collect as Avallone and Noon bounced between publishers from Perma and Gold Medal to longer runs at Signet and Curtis. Like the back and forth of publishers the series conforms itself to the paperback trends at the time. 50's hardboiled detective novels that morphs itself into a P.I./Spy for the President that transforms itself if a kooky 70s mystery series full of quirks and pulpy death into a transcendent novel of an alien invasions, Gary Cooper and forgotten indemnities. 

If you're new to Ed Noon "High Noon at Midnight" isn't the book to start with though it's one of the pinnacles of the series. Ed's taking a vacation when a little man comes up to him on the plane and offers him a job as an assassin. Then the little man is knifed in the back. Then the plane explodes. That's just the beginning. Ed's flung into a world of androids, impending invasions, alien abductions, evil asylums, fembots, growing old, Gary Cooper as the voice of the good in the world, socks to the jaw and the love of old friends. Ed spends a lot of the books not knowing if he's sane or not, if what is happening is ACTUALLY happening or if he just fell off the rockers. Scenes flow back and forth in time and space as Ed's broken brain (with the help of Cooper) tries to do what he does best: stick the pieces of the puzzle together. The chorus line of Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers et. all is a highlight, Ed getting a pep talk from his childhood (and adulthood, Ed never grew up) heroes to make it through is a nice touch.

Noon is different from most paperback private eyes in that he's not the ultra-tough Hammer-type, nor is he the therapist-turned-detective that Archer is. He's got a little both in there, but mostly he's just a regular joe thrown into wild situations straight out of the pulps.  Even the proposed alien invasion kind of works like one of the many invasions of "Operator 5" pulps. "High Noon at Midnight" also has echoes of Avallone's previous works the mind-controlled Noon adventure "Shoot it Again, Sam" and the spy-adventure "The Man from Avon" which tackles dem pesky aliens. Avallone surely had them in the back of his brain as he wrote what would be the final Ed Noon. Though there are rumblings about an unpublished sequel "Since Noon Yesterday" that might surface someday. I read it too early. I might have been too young and dumb, but on this second read it just struck me how it's such a wild and fittingly melancholy final chapter in the series. 

Back when Ed Noon had a red, white and blue direct line to the President to get his adventures he got sent a funky manuscript straight out of "Argosy" in "Death Dives Deep." This was one of the books that I got in first round of Ed Noon madness back when I was a teenager. I had always fondly remembered it as it was one of those books that broke me out of my reading rigidness. At the time I pretty much just wanted straight-private-eye-mysteries of the hardboiled variety. I had passed through my secret agent phase and wanted something like Mike Hammer all the time, with the occasional Shell Scott palate cleanser. I went into the Noon's thinking that they would be a little like Shell. Of course, they aren't, they're ain't nothing like an Ed Noon. Back then I still preferred the older Perma/Gold Medal/Ace Double era of Avallone's work. Now I'm all about how weird and wild it got as he crossed over into the Curtis run. Those are pure id on the page. 

"Death Dives Deep" starts out with a little manuscript that starts all the trouble. It's a wild sea-tale of adventure with gold and killer mermaids. IT'S FUCKING GREAT. You can pull it straight out of the book and run it as a short story without any trouble. Makes me wonder if that's where it started. The Prez sends it to Noon and the yarn spins from there. Some of the Spy-era Noon's read a lot like Spillane's Tiger Mann books (cockeyed of course) where a lot of the espionage takes place in the jungles of the New York City with blazing .45's. By the time we get on the way to Florida by the femme fatale-super-villainess the book is almost over, but it's a slam bang ending. Along the way we tackle The Bermuda Triangle angle, various murders, an FBI shanghai, the Communist threat, Noon's love of the one-of-a-kind Melissa Mercer and a President in critical condition. There's a lot of stuff packed in here. This is where the Noon's really start a more experimental stage. What's started here is the nugget of what "High Noon at Midnight" expanded on. It's the kind of progression that rarely happens in a long running series. It keeps the later ones just as fresh and vibrant as the early ones, just in different ways. 

I mean, I can go on and on about Michael Avallone and Ed Noon. They taught me a lot about writing, about an author's voice and series character writing. Avallone wrote a ton of books. I pretty much always get some joy out of them, but so were obviously for paychecks and that's no dig. People turn their noses down on professional pulpster/paperback writers. That's a lot of crap, it's incredibly hard to write for money AND still make it entertaining. He proved it time and time again from "Mannix" to "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." to "Friday the 13th." Will I ever get to the "Patridge Family" novels he wrote? Hell, maybe. I'm re-reading to avoid reading the final unread ones on the shelf, saving them for some mythical rainy day or sunny backyard with a cold beer read. A day with some friends between the pages. 

Once More a Hero by William Overgard

"Pieces of a Hero" is one of my favorite books I've read in the last couple of years. I imagine it'll be an often thought of book for the rest of my life. One of the ones you compare other books too and debate if the new shiny one was a good. And I also imagine that they won't be. You might want to head back in the archives to read my review of the first one to get some background. William Overgard is more famous as a cartoonist working on newspaper comics like "Kerry Drake," "Steve Canyon" but most notably "Steve Roper" when it became "Steve Roper and Mike Nomad," Nomad was a creation of Overgard himself and became popular enough to usurp the strip from the stalwart Roper. Overgard also had a run of TV movies that he wrote and played a big hand in the "ThunderCats" cartoon in the 80's that was a childhood favorite of mine. He was a helluva writer and cartoonist. So, much so he's in that elite group of artists Roy Lichtenstein "borrowed" from for "I Can See the Whole Room." And besides doing all that he found time to write a few (not enough) books. 

During my on-going research of Overgard and adventure comic strips in general, I found myself pursuing the collection of papers for Allen Saunders ("Kerry Drake" and "Mary Worth") stored at Bolling Green State University. It's something I do often, just so you know how cool, exciting and action packed my life is. Anyway, I stumbled onto a record of "Hero Haggity comic strip typed story ideas; small black and white glossies of characters [by William Overgard]" that is from the "1960s?" Allen Saunders worked closely with Overgard on the Steve Roper strip. It's not surprising that Hero Haggity was devised as an adventure strip before he was a novel character. Overgard was devoted fan of Milton Canniff and "Terry and the Pirates," and vibe/tone is similar. "Terry and the Pirates" is one of those fairly forgotten pieces of media that permeated pop-culture hard for a while and soaked itself into a lot of books, comics, TV and movies with its influence but it's all but forgotten these days. I find it gets mentioned in Men's Adventure and thrillers (especially in the 70's) a lot. I'm sure a lot of writers grew up reading it. Robert Culp always maintained that "Terry and the Pirates" is what he had in mind he wrote his (the best) episodes of the series. 

So, what do you get when you mix "Terry and the Pirates" style high-flyin' adventure, the "Sweat" mags, loads of humor, a giant soldier of fortune named Hero who's missing a leg, an eye, and a hand, incredibly well-endowed strippers, the mafia, the CIA and an African revolution? A dynamite book. One of my only problems with "Pieces of a Hero" was that Hero wasn't front and center a lot of the time. "Once More a Hero" fixes this and you spend a lot of time with the rude and crude dude who smokes cigars and shoots his Broom-handle Mauser. On the run after wasting some mob-types who said some untoward things about his lady Happy. Happy was a major character in the previous book but takes to the wings for this one which is a shame cause she's a lot of fun. So, after killing some hoods Hero gets hooked up with Zafra, a librarian who represents a group who wants to go to Africa and perform coup d'etat and have Hero lead a squad of all African American soldiers (who pose as Harlem Globetrotters knockoff) to fight the war. Complications ensue including "the black Truman Capote" being Commander in Chief, a CIA killer named The Toyman who is drafted/taken hostage for the action, a little love, tons of tough-guy shenanigans, prostitutes, knife fights, a little war, the secret police, etc. etc. Plus, 'ol Hero being his gruff self and making trouble which is what he was built for. There're little nods throughout that tell you Overgard was a comic-man. Hero never misses "Dick Tracy" and "Gasoline Alley," and calls Zafra "The Dragon Lady," at one point. Overgard wears his inspirations on his sleeve. It's not surprising that he's a very visual writer, laying it all out like a comic panel of words. It's a fatter book then a lot of Men's Adventure novels and the action is spread out with fun banter, but when the action comes its fast, hard and cinematic.

"Once More a Hero" might not be quite up the high standards of the first one. It's certainly less complicated. "Pieces of a Hero" had a complicated double or triple-or more-cross aspects with slippery characters cutting throats. This one's more straight forward, which I think has more to do with Hero being all the way up front. He's too much of a straight shooter to pull any cloak-and-dagger bullshit. It's a small dig, I still enjoyed the book immensely. Some of the racial politics a laughably outdated but I got over it, it's no worse than most 70's novels that dip into the quasi-Black Panther stories of African American revolutionaries. It's just a fair warning. This is a bawdy book out to shock and awe full of gruff mercs, spies and revolutionaries it's going to be a little rough around the edges. One thing this one has got over the first one is a fantastic cover done by Overgard himself. Much better than the first. Sadly, all of Overgard's novels (and most of his comic work) are out of print. The books can get picked up cheap enough, I have them all and now I'll have to dive into his non-Hero books which sound just as good.

QUICK SHOTS: "Silent Murder: A Team Three Case" by Chet Cunningham

My recent discovery of Irwin Zacharia's books got me to buy a big stack of other novels put out by the low-rent and possible money-laundering scheme that was Carousel. Most of the authors that wrote for Carousel didn't have much of a career after their short stint (at least as far as I know, which isn't much) save writers like Mike Newton and Chet Cunningham. If you've been knocking around the world of Men's Adventure books for any length of time you've probably ran into a book by Chet Cunningham, whether or not it was under his name. He wrote about everything, from western series like Jim Steel and Brad Spear to YA post-apocalyptic series like Turbo Cowboys to more traditional M.A. stuff like writing Mack Bolan and The Avenger series. Plus, with Mark Roberts her wrote half of The Penetrator books which are really some of my favorite Men's Adventure books, having the right balance of craziness and action. So, when I came across Cunningham's name in the Carousel back pages, I eagerly bought up the two books that comprise the "Team Three Case" series. 

I accidently read the 2nd book before the 1st one by grabbing it for waiting to get a Covid test with nothing else to read I just dove in. The basic Mod Squad-esque setup is that there's a white private eye named Ted, a Latinx ex-cop named Carmen and a black ex-cop named Barry. All together they are Team Three, get it? Together they solve mysteries. That's about it, it's a nice, uncluttered set-up. In "Silent Murder" Barry is visiting an old buddy in a small California town to see him perform at an art show where he is bizarrely murdered in front of everyone i.e., the titular silent murder. So, Barry starts poking his nose and even gets deputized to track down the killer. Carmen and Ted come up to help otherwise it'd be a Team One Case. There are attempted murders, speargun attacks, orgies, blackmail, nude modeling, a KKK douchebag, .38s, pocket .22's, firebombs, CB radios, and weirdo artists. Barry gets the most screen-time here, but that's not to say they any of them are fleshed out characters. This is a seriously short book, big print at around 150 pages and it moves lightning fast. It's really more of a mystery (though the solution is kinda easy to spot if you're old-hat at these type of things) so don't expect Cunningham in action mode. 

I enjoyed the book; it had a sleazy Cinemax does an 80's detective show vibe and I like the set-up. I'm sure they didn't pay enough for Cunningham to flesh anything out past a nice first draft so that's what he seemed to lay down. The defects are easy enough to overlook and Cunningham's no-frills style makes for fast enjoyment. He's a total pro. I'm glad I have another Team Three Case to tackle, I wonder if one of the other of the Three take front stage. A rotating lead would make sense with the set up. The Carousel books are hard and kind of pricey, I got good deal on mine, but I don't know if I'd recommend dropping too much on them. After all the cover price is $1.75, its certainly more than that in terms of thrills but not upwards of $20.

SHORTS ROUNDUP - Hugh B. Cave, E. Hoffmann Price, Manly Wade Wellman, Robert E. Howard and John Jakes

"The Evil Flame" by Justin (Hugh B. Cave) Case -- Cave is mostly known these days from his stand-alone horror work and his "Weird Tales," uh, tales. From Robert Weinberg and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz's "Hard-Boiled: 23 Great Stories from Dime Detective Magazine" I discovered his wonderful Peter Kane mysteries which have been collected a couple of times. They're a lot of hard-boiled, booze-soaked fun. Cave tells us that the "Spicy" pulp racket offered him more money to write for them, so under the tongue in cheek name "Justin Case" he did just that. A number of them are about "The Eel" who is out "gentleman correspondent" who has loose morals and an eye for the scantily clad ladies that do seem to pop up in the spicy pulps. In "The Evil Flame" he's at least pretending to be a private eye in Florida when an odd, beautiful dame asks him to help find her sister. What follows is a weird, voodoo, snake lust tale with plenty of tough guy and horror shenanigans with tons of fist fights, creepy crawlies, and night trips into the Florida swamps. The Eel is fun guy to hang around with, you know nothing about him but that just adds to the charm. The horror element was a nice surprise and I'm looking forward to the rest of The Eel tales.

"The Peacock's Shadow" by E. Hoffmann Price -- Pierre d'Artois is a bit of a forgotten occult detective from the pulps. The characters debut was right about the same time Seabury Quinn's Jules de Gardin appeared and became popular. Not wanting to seem the copycat Price discontinued his swashbuckling French paranormal investigator. It's a shame, the more I read about d'Artois the more I like him better than Gardin. d'Artois is a master swordsman and spooky adventurer who with the help of his manservant and E. Hoffmann Price-stand-in Glenn Farrell get into all manner of supernatural escapades. Having read the first story in this collection and "The Peacock's Shadow" I realize that I am in the middle of a loose novel about d'Artois battle with the Peacock King or ya know Satan. There's a Sherlock Holmes/Watson dynamic going on between Farrell and d'Artois to give him the right amount of mystery, there's mysterious stolen mummies, there's women who look exactly like ancient paintings plus blackjacks, Lugers and battle axes. It's great fun, at some point the series works its way into the Spicy Pulps which are really becoming a guilty pleasure of mine, so I can't wait for that. Wildside Press 99 cent eBook is a treasure trove (like most of their collections) and for a buck you really can't go wrong. 

"Rouse Him Not" by Manly Wade Wellman - Wellman's a helluva writer. A lot of folks prefer his "Silver John" stories, the magical man who wanders with his silver string guitar and quells supernatural evils. For me it's a toss-up, cause the tales about John Thunstone, wealthy man-about-town and monster hunter are equally as entertaining. They all exist in Wellman's own universe along with evil sorcerers like Rowley Thorne, ancient creatures like the Shonokins, and kindly Judge Pursuivant who happens to be an occult scholar. Wellman is often a rural writer, spinning yarns about what lurks in the deep woods or innocent small towns of America. It really sets him apart. "Rouse Him Not" is the last Thunstone short story he wrote (he wrote two novels after the story) appearing like 30 years after the previous one. But 'ol Thunstone is up to his old tricks poking his nose into the death of a sorcerer in the 1700's, probing an evil sinkhole and dueling with what lies beneath with his trusty silver-sword cane. It's all wrapped up quickly and efficiently, it might could have used some more meat on its bones but it's a really fine example of an old pro tingling your spine.  

SIDE NOTE: In 1988 the TV series "Monsters" adapted "Rouse Him Not" starring Laraine Newman and Alex Cord as John Thunstone. It shrank the character list, upped the sitting around talking and upped the amount of guys in rubber suits. It's a "meh" adaption of Wellman's work. It compressed the wrong things and drew out the exposition over like 20 of the 22 minutes of run time. That being said Alex Cord makes a fine John Thunstone, he's who I picture in my head when I read him and Laraine Newman really tries to make her character something, but the writing and direction let her down which probably has a lot to do with the lack of time and money I'm sure working on "Monsters" had to deal with. It's available on Amazon Prime and on YouTube. 

"Rattle of Bones" and "The Castle of the Devil" by Robert E. Howard - Howard's obviously the man. You don't create Conan the Barbarian and not be THE man, but his other creations are often lost in the Barbarian blitz. I, like a lot of high school boys, went through a Conan-phase. Blood, guts, boobs, Franzetta covers, and unrelenting adventure is a spicy combination. As I got older, I grew to prefer his other characters like Kirby O'Donnell, Sailor Steve Costigan, John Kirowan, Steve Harrison and SOLOMON KANE! I set off to read just "Rattle of Bones", but it was so short that I just found myself halfway through "The Cast of the Devil" before I knew it. Reading Howard is like potato chips, I suppose. Anywho, I'm sure I've read these stories before, but I remembered nothing of "Castle" but remembered most of "Bones. Both the tales have old grumpy-gus Solomon Kane in The Black Forrest meeting a new friends, fiends, and enemies. Plus, skeletons, spooky happenings in castles, having copious sword fights and thwarting evil at every turn. "Rattle of Bones" is a very effective, very short horror tale while "The Castle of the Devil" is a bit sluggish even in a few short pages. But sluggish Howard is still going 50 miles an hour faster than most.  

"Ghoul's Garden" by John Jakes - Speaking of Robert E. Howard...John Jakes own barbarian hero Brak may be easy to dismiss as one of the dem Conan clones that popped up in the 60's and 70's but Brak is pretty powerful stuff. You might not want to discount him too soon. John Jakes is an interesting writer, before he was simply known as a "historical epic" kind of guy he wrote everything from sci-fi to mystery and crime. His short story collection "Crime Time" is chocked full of detectives, spies and the like. Plus, the books about his diminutive private eye Johnny Havoc are a hoot. "Ghoul's Garden" is a Brak full of asshole Frairs, squat and freakish wizards, a hot actress, monsters, portions, spells, gore, big robot terror-birds and a maze-like garden inside a silk handkerchief. It is so jam-packed that in a lot of ways it reminded me of an 80's cartoon episode, something like "Thundarr the Barbarian" or "He-Man" only R-Rated. I hadn't read a Brak tale in a while and now I'm going to have to keep up the pace. 

Michael Avallone's The Man from Avon and Other Book Selling Men of Action Plus Bettie Page

I had a fever when I picked up "The Man from Avon," man. I felt like a heap of crap, I needed me a pick me up and in that fevered state I figured I was in the perfect mindset to visit the "Nooniverse." Okay, "The Man from Avon" isn't an Ed Noon story but the wild antics and undisputable laws of the Nooniverse apply to the entirety of Michael Avallone's work. So, just go with me here, okay? Plunge into the weird. 

Ironically it was his novelization to "Cannonball Run" I read first without knowing who the author was, but that's another story of misspent muscle-car driving youth. Then I knew his name before I had knowingly read one of his books though the seemingly always snarky "online critics" of his work. Their words made it sound like his writing was bad, but hell, it sounded SO good. After that I actually discovered who/what a Avallone book actually was via a four-pack of dollar used books one day at my local dealer. Two Ed Noon's, his Man from U.N.C.L.E. and finally "The Man from Avon." I was hooked. The years past and I discovered Avallone wrote all the stuff I like, hard-boiled private eyes, Men's Adventure vigilantes, super spy-fi spies, tawdry little noir-types, novelizations, and most of all PULP! 

It had been too long between readings of Avon for me to remember much about it. I just remember finding it to be a bunch of fun bounded together between paper. Jerry McKnight is the top salesman for Avon books which works as the perfect cover for his actual job as the Government's top super-duper secret agent hunting down them pesky U.F.O.'s. Jerry is a little more idolized then my old buddy Ed Noon. Noon is a bit of a regular schlub thrown into the crazy, mixed-up action. Larry is Steve Holland with a case full of books. After a very real U.F.O. is seen by a sexy librarian in Old Bridge, New Hampshire Larry is parachuted down with different sexy lady with his Avon case in tow to investigate. The book actually owes a lot to the Operator No. 5 pulp tales, stalwart hero against a seemingly fantastic enemy. It boils into a cross-country chase full of strangely electrocuted victims, U.F.O. chases, spy-fi weaponry, beautiful virgins, characters named Gil Kane, odd city-wide blackouts, and valuable information about Avon book's products. Seriously, if you dig old paperbacks (who doesn't?) this part of the book is worth the price of admission. Clues hidden in rejected of Robin Moore's "The Green Berets," discussions of John Creasey's The Baron, spy books and even John D. MacDonald. Not to mention a little about how the book selling business actually worked back then. It's only let down by a slightly rushed ending, but still a more than worthy entry into Avallone's library.  

You'd think this would be the only example of spy/bookseller in the paperback world, but a year later in 1968 Sphere book across the pond put out "The Man from Sphere" by John Gaunt. This is a bit more traditional (from perusing) Bond-like spy tale about a hero named Galahad Brown. I'll report back on this one. But here's where it gets even wilder, there's another HIDDEN (sorta) Larry McKnight adventure.

"A Rep for Murder" stars Avon salesman Larry McKnight Jr. on the trail of a missing (naturally beautiful) romance novelist and running from a murder rap. Larry Jr. isn't Steve Holland, he's a bumbler trying to save his skin, job and trying not to dishonor the McKnight name. This book was written as a promotional "not for sale" item for Avon's 50 year anniversary it appears on some bibliographies of Avallone, but not all. The book is clearly a work of Avallone's its wild, wacky that barrels forward at break-neck speed and its full of wonderful old mystery clichés. Avallone seemed to have a lot of fun writing it. Plus there's tons of references to Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder, Ed McBain's 87th Precinct and other great Avon titles. It's a hoot, very much like Avallone writing on of those 40's mystery B-Movies.

Want more? Larry McKnight shows up again! This time in Michael's son David Avallone's work on the Bettie Page comic book put out by Dynamite. In fairness, I received this graphic novel from David Avallone himself, not to review but as a thank you for sending him a harder to find Ed Noon for eBook transfer. And I'm very happy I did, Vol. 1 is a blast! McKnight is Bettie Page's boss as she works for the government as a spy hunting down wild villain's, filming a sci-fi movie, clashing with cults, and basically being a wry comic book hero which is enough for me. It's a rollicking good time and it's nice that old McKnight is still kicking around. Also check out David's work on the Elvira comic, its just as good and enjoyable. I need to catch up with more of his work as he's written both The Shadow, Zorro AND Doc Savage! Too cool. Though a Ed Noon comic book would be something...*cough* *cough*

Can you tell I like Michael Avallone? He was a one-of-a-kind writer and that's something commendable, not many authors have a voice strong enough to to be instantly recognizable. I like one-of-a-kind writers, just like I like one-of-a-kind people, they kind of folk you can yak at for hours and hours. Reading an Avallone is sorta like listening to a buddy spin a yarn at you. Do yourself a favor pick up a Avallone and have a good time. And don't trust just any online reviewer...

Oh, wait...

Quick Shots: Jeff Pride #2: The Duplicate Stiff by Archie O'Neil

Archie O'Neil's Jeff Pride series has been with me for years. It's a simple story: I picked up a couple of cheap books years ago cause of the cover and promptly buried it in a sea of other books. Flash forward to man years later when Paperback Warrior reviewed the first book in the series and it got my off my duff to see what this series is all about. Go over to Paperback Warrior to read about who Archie O'Neill really was and just generally enjoy a much slicker kind of book review of the first book, which I also read, really dug it and then went out (to the internet) and picked up the rest of the books.

I got to admit the reason why I didn't read the series before is that Jeff Pride is a travel agent. It was hump I couldn't traverse. An action-packed mystery solved by a travel agent? Meh. Chalk it up to my prejudice against people who book tickets, I guess. Anyhoo, Jeff Pride is a lot more then simple trip planner, no he's got a background as an "international private investigator" (where do I apply?) for an outfit called Phoenix Security from which he's semi-retired from. He's also got Cherry. Cherry is one of them dames who only exist in the minds of men. She's hot-stuff, witty and wants Pride's bod. BUT she's also his ward (like Batman and Robin) after her father died and asked Pride to watch after her and Pride isn't that creepy. Cherry is a lot of fun and her and Pride have a nice plutonic Nick and Nora vibe of bickering going on. Pride's or O'Neill's sarcastic nature and wit really propel the books past a lot of the standard fare that used to clutter book racks. 

In "The Duplicate Stiff" Pride is in his Paris office and in walks trouble or more accurately trouble (in lady form) bumps into him on the street and causes a stir. She wants Pride to help save her husbands neck with his company after the man he hired had been embezzling. Pride wants nothing to do with but gets dragged into after a murder rap hangs over his head. The plot is nicely standard, like a Taco Bell in a different town. There's a few women for Pride to boink, a seedy/dangerous Private Eye to tangle with, colorful friends, gunfights, car chases and a hardnosed French cop. The Paris scenery and Pride's relationship with Cherry combined with his Pride's glib telling of the facts give the book a nice flare. Jeff Pirde would have been right at home at 60's brand of Gold Medal Paperbacks is Archie O'Neill started writing them sooner. He could have shared drinks with Chet Drum, Constaine and McCall or Shell Scott and fit right in.

Though Shell would have tried to lay the mack on Cherry. 

Quick Shots: The New Adventures of Frankenstein #1: Frankenstein Lives Again by Donald F. Glut

Unlike Popular Library's "Frankenstein Horror Series" this 70's paperback Frankenstein series, actually stars Frankenstein. And yes, I'm going to call the monster Frankenstein cause that part of my brain stayed ten-years-old. Any-who, monster-fan, filmmaker, and writer of books, comics, TV and movies Donald F. Glut took up the mantle to tell a absolutely buckets of fun Frankenstein pulp novel. I'm a big fan of Universal Monsters and 70's paperbacks, so this like Robert Lory's Dracula series is like just tailor made for me. They exists in the right pocket of thrills and chills for me, not out-and-out horror tales, but a gothic-type horror but with adventure mixed in. It's a monster-kid book, pure and simply, like I can picture the characters in "The Monster Squad" having these on their bookshelf back home when they are off kicking Wolfman in the nards. 

Dr. Burt Winslow thinks that Dr. Frankenstein really did make the monster and that Shelly's novels is actually fact. So, being a pure-paperback hero with a bank account full of spendable cash he takes off across the globe to Ingolstadt, Germany to buy the Castle of Frankenstein and then brave the frozen tundra to find the big 'ol Frankenstein-ice-cube to haul him back to revive him, tackling Inuit's who believe the frozen Frankie is a god. After a short trip Burt and his love interest Lynn are in the castle with Frankie and the villagers in town are about to boil over with torch-carrying fury. Plus a traveling mesmerist baddie named Dartani and his ghoulish muscle Gort are in the mix. Like a lot of dudes who mess with monsters, Burt immediately regrets his decision what with Frankenstein going on his customary rampage right after waking from his slumber. It all comes to an enjoyable head at the end, with fun action and nods to the classic story.

Glut certainly knows what a monster-fan wants and fully delivers. The book suffers from some "early writing" by an author, it doesn't detract enough to ruin it. Mostly in the form of easy plot convenience and some shallow character stuff. But it swiftly moves along like a real fun B-Movie with a big budget. The originals releases are by the British publisher Mews and aren't the easiest to get. Mine came from all over the world, but the covers were just too damned gruesomely pretty for me to resist. Luckily, Pulp 2.0 has recently republished the whole series, plus the continuations that Glut had written over the years into two big omnibuses that looks great, I'll have to pick them up and Glut's Brother Blood, a Blacula-inspired novel that looks too cool for school. 

Quick Shots: Flash Gordon: The Ice Monster by Al Williamson

This slim paperback is chock full of adventure. I've always been a fan of Flash Gordon, an early exposure to the character as being as part of the foundation of "Star Wars" and the 1980 film with the killer soundtrack. Now days "Star Wars" is fairly boring to me, but I still love Flash. Images of the old serials and the comic strips may flash (get it) in my head, but the foundation of my love of the character was the novels in the Avon paperbacks that were mostly written by Ron Goulart. They were fairly close adaptations of the comic strip itself, albeit with Goulart's own wild humor creeping in every now and then. I picked my incomplete collection at a my local library's big book sale, the kind where you fill up bags for a couple of bucks. I remember I got a big stack of Tarzan and Doc Savage novels at the same time. Then I spent a good chunk of  a years worth of summer days blowing through the year after graduating high school and going to college reading them before and after work. I was THAT cool. So, the three characters are tied together in my mind.

Al Williamson is a damned good and The Ice Monster a full-throttle thrill ride. It basically comprises of three short tales that sort of strung together. After starting with a "previously on Flash Gordon" catch-up were plunged right into the adventure. Flash, Dr. Zarkov and Dale are on a mission to Mongo for the mineral Radium to use back on Earth. but so they go and have a mini-vacation while Barin has the radium loaded onto their ship. But surprise an Ice Monster pops up. Flash saves a princess and then gets involved in some castle intrigue involving an anti-aging serum. It's a solid little adventure but probably the least of the three in the book. "The Mole Machine" takes up the middle of the book and it's probably my favorite. Zarkov and Flash take a ride in his new mole machine to the center of the Earth which is wet and monster filled. But save another princess and is taken prisoner by the King, he's happy to have them but they can't return cause us top-dwellers ruin everything. But with some fisticuffs and after redirecting a river of lava they leave anyway. It was a fun "Journey of to the Center of the Earth" tale and I'm a real sucker for those. The final tale is "Death Trap on Mongo" and if your were wondering when Ming showed up its here (sorry to ruin the thin disguise) it's a neat little tale in the classic Flash mold. Dale gets zapped to Mongo and Flash and Zarkon rush to save her only to find the place is a madhouse after other prominent citizens are zapped away. Ming's behind it, there's some nice sword-fighting and swash-buckling and then it's over.

The whole paperback-sized graphic novel is something that takes a little getting used too. The format isn't the best and it's easy to see why it didn't last too long. It's simply not big enough. But I love 'em anyway, having burned through Dick Tracy and some of the Mighty Crusader reprints I guess I got used to it. It's a slim book and a SUPER fast read, seriously well under an hour but its' a lot of bang for you buck. 

The Hardy Boys Casefiles: Cult of Crime by Franklin D. (Steven Grant) Dixon

An early icy morning must have made me feel nostalgic because for some reason I pulled this Hardy Boys novel off the shelf from a stack of them. The Casefiles series was my gateway into the Hardy Boys and probably wetted my appetite for mystery fiction in general. They are very much a product of their time, late 80's-90's but that's the right time for my nostalgia button so it worked out. The whole series is aimed slightly higher age-wise than the original run of books, wanting to hook early teens with a bit more action and a spy angle. I read them checked out from school libraries in the form of the kinda-Frankenstein paperback/hardback that libraries used to do. Between the Casefiles and a probably bad in retrospect Canadian TV series from the same time-frame I 've been a Hardy Boys fan ever since. Though I haven't read one in ages or pretty much any "young adult" fiction. 

I found out that comic author Steven Grant wrote for the series a while back which peaked my interested. I'm a fan of his "2 Guns" comic and his work on the Punisher. Veteran pulpster Ron Goulart also wrote a couple and I'll probably have to read one of his next, I always enjoy Goulart's work. It's fitting that both of these two writers have Men's Adventure/comic-booky backgrounds because the Casefiles series has a definite feel of a teen's Men's adventure series. Frank and Joe have a tricked out van with all the electronic gizmos, get into a ample fist-fights, handle a gun or two and get chased around to take down the bad guys. While still hitting all the right buttons for a Hardy Boys tale, their large group of friends and their private detective father who never seems to do much.

"Cult of Crime" is about a cult (obviously) and a rescue mission to save a (maybe?) unwilling friend of Frank and Joe. Frank starts by going undercover into a cult where that their friend has joined and who their father Fenton had tracked down. The girl is 18 so Fenton couldn't bring her home, but Frank and Joe being the Hardy Boys decide to step in and take matters into their own hands. Along the way they get framed for murder, hop a train, met a crazy old hermit draft-dodger/smuggler and take his under ground tunnels to safety, fight off murderous cult-members/criminals, try and stop a riot and bank robbery and then uncover a deep dark family secret. It's sort of like a teenage Race Williams novel with a bit of a Lew Archer book mixed in. I read it in an hour or so between sips of a lot of coffee and had a lot of fun. Steven Grant keeps the pace moving in a breakneck-cliffhanger style and if I didn't read it when I was a kid, I missed out cause I would have loved it. It was nice to step back from the blood-and-guts for a minute and enjoy a tamer version of all of the stuff I enjoy. 

Quick Shots: The Butcher 31: Death in Yellow by Stuart (Michael Avallone) Jason

Throughout the 31st volume of The Butcher phrases and names stick out, Fu Manchu, Tarzan, Shiwan Khan, "The Master of Men," this is Avallone wearing his pulp-love on his sleeve and acknowledging what kind of novel he's writing. Michael Avallone is one of my favorite writers, if not my favorite. His Ed Noon books spanning thirty-years is a towering work, an ever-evolving take on the generic private-eye tropes told in a incredibly unique, funny, thrilling and snappy manner. It's something few writers could have done, write that much about one dude and never make it stale. He was a one-of-a-kind writer. 

Avallone took over The Butcher series with number 27 and wrote all of the remaining books in the series. James Dockery wrote most of the rest of them and I've never made it through one of his entries. The inception of the series is interesting because it was originally offered to that utterly badass writer Ennis Willie to continue his Sand series. He didn't want to do it and passed it off to Dockery who made a very pale copy of Sand and left out all the tight-writing and excitement of Willie's writing. It's my recommendation to only bother with the Avallone Butchers but also buy Ennis Willie's Sand books too and cry to know that there could have been more Sand in the world. Basically Butcher is "the only man to walk out on the mob," who has a price on his head but now works for the government. He likes ladies, blasting baddies and his silenced Walther P-38, that's about all you need to know.

"Death in Yellow" is a yellow-peril book, a spin on Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels and the decedents of Fu Manchu. Those sensitive to racial issues might have a problem with it, but "Death in Yellow" is no where as bad as a actual Fu Manchu in terms of being VERY racist, the novels villain just happens to be Vietnamese who acts Chinese and enjoys the "evil mastermind" stereotypes. Avallone is playing in a sub-genre that could easily make a reader feel uncomfortable. I can read and enjoy things and look past the out-dated prejudices, though I do understand and acknowledge that parts of certain novels are problematic but not everyone can and that's okay. There's plenty of books in the world.

But this a corker of a book, straight-to-the-point and pedal down. Butcher barely has time to breath as he is assigned by "White Hat" a super-spy organization to go to Florida to check in on a super-gas that can kill swaths of people. As per usual with the series, it opens with a mafia hit-man trying to collect he price on Butcher's head and spoiler, failing. Then he gets wrapped up with Gorgeous Jean and he muscle-bound morons, gets laid, is attacked by rabid rats, gassed, knocked out, and trapped in Lo Te Tsang's Spanish Ruins complex of death in the Florida swamp to save a scientist and get some revenge then there's some more double-crosses and picking up pretty waitresses. It's a busy coupla days for Butcher.

This is pretty much what I look for in a Men's Adventure book, lots of adventure, ladies, comforting action tropes and a slight tongue-in-cheek approach. Avallone has a fun, loose way of telling an adventure story, you strap yourself down, let it roll and you'll have a good time.

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.

Quick Shots: Big Brain #1: The Advark Affair by Gary Brandner

The Big Brain books are mostly known for their eye-popping (or brain-popping) covers than anything. Here's the deal, it's a bit of false advertising, "Big Brain" or Colin Garrett doesn't have a translucent skull where you can see his big 'ol brain, no apparently he looks pretty normal. Gary Brandner is best known as the author of "The Howling," which is like the best werewolf movie ever (sorry American Werewolf) but he had a long career, post-Howling mostly writing thick horror novels. Though he also appeared pretty regularly in the mystery digests of the 70's and 80's, having a few good private eye characters like D. Stonbreaker and Dukane. He clearly had a affinity for the mystery/thriller genre.

And there's the rub, the Big Brain books are mystery/thrillers for the most part, not crazy pulp science fiction as they appear. It was probably the reason the series didn't last longer. Mystery fans might have liked it but were turned off by the sci-fi covers and vise-versa. The whole set-up seems like a bit of cash-in on "The Six Million Dollar Man" with some Doc Savage thrown in for good measure. Colin had be raised from birth to be a mental giant who gets roped into working for a secret government agency as a trouble-shooter. It had TV-Pilot-Movie potential written all over it. I can see big Kenner action figures where you could pop the top off of Colin's head to see his gooey big brain. 

The novel operates a espionage mystery, scientists on the hush-hush Advark program are suddenly reduced to drooling, babbling nincompoops. Big Brain is pulled away from his lady-friend and whisked away to solve the problem. Colin's a likeable-character who dispite his vast knowledge is still an amateur in the spy game, he can't really shoot or fight. Maybe he'll memorize a karate pamphlet in one of the next adventures, but it's a pleasant change from some Men's Adventure heroes who are pretty perfect. There's Russian spies, home-grown mad-men, double-crosses, luscious women, getting hit on the back of the head, and LAZERS. It's fun for the whole family.It worked for me, I can see how it wouldn't work for everyone, but it's a nice set-up for a series as Garret can't seem to get the taste of cloak and daggers out of hi mouth by the final chapter. I'm glad I have the rest of the series to see where it goes, word on the street (internet) is that the final book "Energy Zero" is the best, but sadly it has the worst cover. Kinda fitting.

Men's Adventure in Digestable Form

I've been a book slump; what I pick off the shelves just hasn't been hitting me right or maybe the outside world is just keeping too much of my attention. Whenever I get like this I turn to short stories and novellas, punchier works that don't take anytime to devour usually screws my head on straight. When this strikes, I turn to my digest and anthology shelf. I'm a big fan of digests, but they can be a headache to collect, their scarcity and higher prices has made my collection modest, though I buy them whenever I can. I keep dreaming of the find of a full big box of Mike Shayne's, Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen's but it hasn't happened yet, dammit.  Anyway, here's a smattering of short reviews for short works.

"Seven from INTREX" by Michael Avallone in The Saint Mystery Magazine, September 1966

Michael Avallone is one of favorite authors and it had been a while since I dipped into his work. The David Seven series (four stories) all appeared in The Saint Mystery magazine over the course of 2 years. Seven (cool name) is an agent for a independent crime-fighting agency funded by rich people (if only) to work toward Peace, man. 

David Seven himself is a fairly standard secret agent-type, not surprising that Avallone wrote the first Nick Carter, Killmaster AND the first Man from U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novel. This is very much his own version the super-agent. Knowing Avallone's love of the pulps, it wouldn't surprise me if Operator 5 or Secret Agent X helped in the process. Seven's partner Miles Running Bear Farmer, who gets himself in trouble in this story and Seven has to work to get him out. It's a whole lot of fun, short and too the point with all the nice comforting 60's spy-fi tropes that make me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. I would have loved it if Avallone wrote expanded Seven's world to novel, but it seems like he was busy enough at the time. Though if David Avallone ever reads this, I'd be first in line with a handful of money for a collection of Michael Avallone's short works.

"A Fox on Broadway" by Gary Phillips in "Crime Square" edited by Robert Randisi

I've long been a fan of Gary Phillips, his Ivan Monk mysteries are some of the most unsung private eye novels of the 90's. Plus his stand-alone novel "The Perpetrators" is a stone-cold action novel classic, one of the most high-octane books I've ever read and one of the few I've read more then once. This story is set in the early 80's and stars Pete Atlas, a Men's Adventure private eye who's just plain cool. Not to mention that it name-drops Angela Harpe, star of the "Dark Angel" series by James Lawrence! (Which got me to spend WAY too much to pick up a entry in the series, god, I'm a sucker)

"A Fox on Broadway" is a hoot! Man, it doesn't seem like Phillips ever revisited the Atlas character and that's a bummer. It reads like a super-condensed paperback novel in one of the "Sweats." The opening grabs you (there's a hat-wearing man in a gorilla suit chasing a naked woman down the street) and then throws you on a wild, tight little escaped involving brain-washing and damned 'ol Nazis. The only problem is that its short, I could have read a lot more about Atlas and his adventures. 

 

"The Majorcan Assignment" by Bill Pronzini and "The Cinder Man" by Jeffery Wallermann in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, October, 1972

It took me a while to realize that I was reading a "Nameless" detective story from Bill Pronzini, it dawned on me about the time I thought, "gee, did I miss this guys name?" then I felt dumb. I've read a big chunk of the Nameless series in my teens (I was that cool) and always enjoyed them, especially the early ones and the ones centered around pulp magazines. He's a little more hard-boiled in this early story then I remembered him, but it's been a while since I read one of the novels.

"The Majorcan Assignment," finds Nameless in Majorca to deliver some hurried cash to a rich man's son, he's looking at it like a nice vacation, but once there and after a smack in the face he knows trouble is brewing. This is a nice, clean and to-the-point private eye tale with a little more heart then you average tough-guy tale. I'm going to have to dig out one of the novels to read, as it's been too long since me and Nameless hung out.

Jeffrey M. Wallamann wrote with Bill Pronzini some so it was only fitting that I check out his tale, "The Cinder Man," starring insurance investigator Sam Culp. I had read another Culp story in the "Pure Pulp" anthology and enjoyed it. It's a bit by-the-numbers but Culp's a likeable character and it built to some nice tension. I must have liked it well enough because it got me to order Wallermann's novel "The Spiral Web." 

"The Busy Corpse" by Stephen Mertz in The Executioner Mystery Magazine August 1976

The Executioner Mystery Magazine was a short-venture, it probably didn't get a lot of traction because unlike other "stars" of mystery magazines, like Shell Scott, Mike Shayne or The Man from U.N.C.L.E. there is no novella staring Mack Bolan in the magazine, he just lent his nickname to the title. But there's good stuff in them, old stalwarts like Talmage Powell , Gil Brewer, and Richard Demming had stories in them, so you know it's got class.

Stephen Mertz has written a lot of books, including "Some Die Hard," which I reviewed a while ago. He's a fantastic old-school writer of tough-guy fiction who's work is clean, professional and most importantly very entertaining. "The Busy Corpse" is his first published work and it already showed that he was guy who had the goods. It's a clever and fun private eye story and maybe the secret inspiration for "Weekend and Bernie's." I need to pull his newer series about Kilroy, the 70's set Denver P.I. who's already had a few adventures, off the shelf and give the rest of them a spin and review them. "The Busy Corpse" is also easily available in "The King of Horror and Other Stories," a collection of Mertz's short work.


"A Trip to the Islands" by Edward Y. Breese in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine February 1971

This issue of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine not only has one of favorite characters from MSMM Johnny Hawk, but it also as a Jules de Grandin reprint and the Mike Shayne story was a ghost-work by noted sci-fi and Lovecraftian author Frank Belknap Long, so it's got a lot going for it. But I'm in for the Johnny Hawk tale, so:

Johnny Hawk is a super-hard boiled trouble-shooter with a cut-down .45 Colt New Service and a penchant for getting into and out of jams. Hawk got a lot going for him, he's suitably tough and without a strict background his stories can be mysteries in the private eye mold or more of the secret agent type tale. He would have made a great paperback hero, but Breese kept busy ghost-writing Mike Shayne tales for MSMM and selling stories to other digest. "A Trip to the Islands," is a nice south of the border type adventure with dangerous dames and bad-baddies. I'm on a mission to collect all the Johnny Hawk tales.