Superman/Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told

As DC’s best-known characters, Superman and Batman have been teaming up to battle various super-villains for more than fifty years. Since I like both characters, it makes sense that I’d enjoy SUPERMAN/BATMAN: THE GREATEST STORIES EVER TOLD.

Most of the stories in this trade paperback are from WORLD’S FINEST, the comic book that featured Superman/Batman team-ups for most of its run. The first story, though, comes from a 1952 issue of SUPERMAN and tells how Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne learned each other’s secret identities. Up until that time, they had worked together a few times as Superman and Batman but neither knew who was really behind the other mask. From that point until the first reboot of the DC Universe in the Eighties (a move that I still disagree with, but that’s beside the point), Clark and Bruce not only work together to combat the bad guys but also form a lasting friendship. To tell the truth, that sense of friendship is the most appealing thing about many of these stories, which tend toward mild little puzzle yarns with no real sense of danger or adventure. Later, of course, in the stories from the past twenty years or so [Curmudgeon Alert!], things get a lot more grim and angsty, and the art gets more manga-influenced and hard to follow. But they’re still fairly entertaining.

Science-fiction author Edmond Hamilton, who also had a long career in comics, wrote about half the stories in this volume. Curt Swan, the quintessential Superman artist, provided the art for several of them. One short-short about a near-meeting between Clark and Bruce when they were children was written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale, two of my favorite modern comics creators. When I was a kid reading comics, I always regarded WORLD’S FINEST as one of DC’s second-tier titles. Actually, back then I wasn’t all that fond of any of the team-up books, like THE BRAVE & THE BOLD or over at Marvel, MARVEL TEAM-UP. Reading the stories now, though, I find them pretty enjoyable and a nice shot of nostalgia, as well as being well-crafted in their own right. If you like Superman and Batman, you’ll definitely like this volume.

Duma

When I was a kid, I was a fan of boy-and-his-animal yarns, like the horse books by Walter Farley, dog books by Jim Kjelgaard, and even, yes, OLD YELLER. The movie DUMA is clearly in that tradition. Set in Africa and based on actual events, it’s the story of young Xan, who adopts an orphaned cheetah cub and raises it. The usual sort of complications that crop up in these stories cause Xan and the now full-grown cheetah, Duma, to find themselves on their own in the wilderness, trying to get back to the area where Duma was born.

Along the way they encounter various dangers from animals and the elements, as well as a mysterious wanderer who may or may not have their best interests at heart. It’s an adventurous tale with a pace that seldom slows down for very long, and I enjoyed it. While the plot was somewhat predictable, I was never sure how things were going to turn out, and that’s always a plus. Also, the movie is beautifully photographed, which is no surprise considering that it was directed by Carroll Ballard, the director of the well-regarded THE BLACK STALLION (speaking of Walter Farley). DUMA is a very likable, family-friendly film and well worth watching.

Flyboys

I’m usually out of steps with the critics and the public both, and FLYBOYS is a good example. It got mediocre reviews and did lousy at the box office, and I think it’s a wonderful movie.

It’s the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, Americans who became pilots for the French before the United States entered World War I. Although there’s a graphic at the start of the movie that says it’s based on a true story, the characters are all fictional and most of them are war movie stereotypes: the tough cowboy, the spoiled rich kid, the Bible-thumper, the black prizefighter, the guy with a dark secret, the confident guy who cracks up under pressure, the pilot who’s a grizzled veteran despite his relative youth . . . You get the idea. You’ve seen this stuff before, going all the way back to THE DAWN PATROL, but the makers of FLYBOYS do such a good job of it that I didn’t mind if it was hokey and predictable. I got caught up in it anyway and thoroughly enjoyed it. The big finish is telegraphed early on, but that didn’t stop the grin on my face when the pay-off scene finally arrived.

People who know a lot about World War I aviation will tell you that this movie is riddled with historical inaccuracies. That may well be true. Even though I’ve written a little about the subject (the novel UNDER OUTLAW FLAGS and the novelette “Devil Wings Over France”), I’m far from an expert on the subject. And this is one of those relatively rare cases where I don’t care. John Wayne and Stuart Whitman shouldn’t be carrying Winchesters and Peacemakers while Texas is still a republic, either, but that doesn’t make me love THE COMANCHEROS any less. Just think of FLYBOYS as a film version of a George Bruce pulp novel from WINGS or DARE-DEVIL ACES (there’s even an evil German flying ace called the Black Falcon, another pulpish touch), and you’ll have a great time with it. The subtle tributes to Charles M. Schulz and Snoopy don’t hurt anything, either.

The Barbed Wire Noose -- Harold Adams

This is another Depression-era mystery set in the small town of Corden, South Dakota, featuring ne’er-do-well detective Carl Wilcox. This time around, while continuing to help his parents run the hotel they own, Carl is also called on to temporarily replace the town’s one-man police force when the local cop falls sick. Naturally a murder coincides with this development, as one of the town’s more enigmatic citizens is hanged with a length of barbed wire. This results in several relatives and associates of the murdered man showing up in Corden, and one of them winds up dead, too. Throw in a blizzard on top of these crimes, and Carl has his hands full sorting everything out.

That’s one of the drawbacks in this book: the plot is pretty complicated, and while Carl eventually uncovers the murderer, I’m not sure everything really hangs together. There are some continuity glitches, too, as a character changes hair color not once but twice, and the timing of a mysterious death in the past is given as five years earlier in one reference and ten years in another. Whether those are minor quibbles or major problems pretty much depends on the reader, I suppose. They bothered me, but I still enjoyed the book quite a bit. Adams has a wonderful way with characters and dialogue, and I love the dry wit with which Carl narrates these books, as well as the convincing but not overdone sense of time and place to be found in them. I’m sure I’ll read more entries in this series, not right away, but fairly soon.

Death Head Crossing Review

Gonzalo over at the Saddlebums blog has some kind words about DEATH HEAD CROSSING, including the hope that it's the first book in what will turn out to be a series. I share that hope, but as of right now, I have no idea if such a thing will come about.

Bart Spicer's Westerns?

Juri Nummelin points out in his comment on my post about the Saddlebums blog that Brian Garfield, in his interview there, includes Bart Spicer in a short list of Western writers he admires. Juri didn't know that Spicer, best known for his series of novels about private eye Carney Wilde, had written any Westerns, and I didn't, either. I'm still not sure he did, but as the covers above indicate, Spicer certainly wrote some historical novels. Both of these appear to be Revolutionary War stories, and he wrote at least one other novel with a Revolutionary War background, BROTHER TO THE ENEMY, about Benedict Arnold. By the way, the cover for THE DAY BEFORE THUNDER is by James Bama. Never saw any women like that on those Doc Savage covers Bama is justly famous for.

Rat Patrol Novels

Randy Johnson mentions the Rat Patrol novels in his comment on the previous post. There were five of these published by Paperback Library in the Sixties, when the show was still on the air. The first one was by veteran pulp author and paperbacker Norman Daniels, the other four by David King. I don't know anything about King except that he wrote a Western or two under his own name and also wrote at least one Slocum novel as "Jake Logan". I read all the paperbacks when they were new (bought 'em right off the spinner rack -- boy, I miss spinner racks sometimes!) and liked all of them. I've thought about rereading them to see how they hold up, but I have no idea where my copies are and haven't worked up the enthusiasm to search for them. There was also a Whitman juvenile novel based on the series by I.G. (Ivy) Edmonds that I wasn't aware of until I looked up the books on ABE. Edmonds is another author that's mostly a mystery to me. I know she wrote some stuff for the Girl From U.N.C.L.E. digest magazine and a few paperbacks, but that's it.

31 and Counting

It was 31 years ago today that Livia and I got married. In some ways it doesn't seem nearly that long ago, and in others it seems like we've been together forever. I guess that's what happens when you're lucky enough to find the right person the first time.

In the swag department, Livia got me an iPod so I can have music while I'm walking (I try to walk at least a mile a day, but the hot weather in the summer cuts into that some) and boxed DVD sets of both seasons of THE RAT PATROL, one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

Saddlebums Blog

If you're interested in Westerns -- and I know some of you are -- or even if you're not, you need to check out Saddlebums, a new blog devoted to all things Western. The first feature is an excellent, wide-ranging interview with Brian Garfield. Take a look at it here.

The Crimes of Jordan Wise -- Bill Pronzini

I’ve been a fan of Bill Pronzini’s work ever since I read his Man From U.N.C.L.E. novella “The Pillars of Salt Affair” in the MFU digest magazine sometime in the late Sixties. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that Pronzini had written that story. It was published under the house-name Robert Hart Davis, a tribute by publisher Leo Margulies to Bob Davis, an early pulp editor with whom Margulies had worked. Anyway, I was a huge U.N.C.L.E. fan and really enjoyed “The Pillars of Salt Affair”; I remember the ending of it to this day. It was a few years, though, before I discovered that Pronzini wrote it.

By that time I was also reading and enjoying his Nameless Detective series, one of the great private eye series of all time. Over the years I’ve fallen behind on reading the Nameless books, but I’ll catch up on them sooner or later. In the meantime, I’ve just read this stand-alone suspense novel by Pronzini, and THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE lives up to the high standard of his other work.

In classic noir style, accountant Jordan Wise meets beautiful-but-only-as-good-as-she-has-to-be Annalise Bonner (even Annalise’s name sounds like something out of a Gold Medal novel), and before you know it Jordan has embarked on a daring plan to steal a lot of money in order to win her over. That he succeeds is almost a given, but you also know that the idyllic life Jordan and Annalise make for themselves in the Virgin Islands isn’t going to last. Things Will Go Wrong. And they certainly do.

What makes THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE such a fine novel isn’t the plot, which won’t contain many surprises for regular readers of this sort of book, but rather Pronzini’s writing, which is some of the smoothest you’re liable to encounter. Like Lawrence Block, there’s nothing fancy about Pronzini’s words, no verbal pyrotechnics, just good old-fashioned storytelling that draws the reader farther and farther into the story with well-constructed sentences, concise characterization, and occasional bursts of action. THE CRIMES OF JORDAN WISE gets a high recommendation from me.