SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: ICU

 "ICU" by Edward Lee  (first published in 999:  New Tales of Horror and Suspense, edited by Al Sarrantonio, 1999; reprinted in The Best American Mystery Stories 2000, edited by Donald E. Westlake [Otto Penzler, series editor], 2000; and in Lee's collection Carnal Surgery, 2011)

A disturbingly dark and uncomfortable story, not for the faint of heart...

"It chased him; it was huge.   But what was it?  He sensed its immensity gaining on him, pursuing him through unlit warrens, around corners of smothered flesh, and down alleys of ichor and blood...

"Holy Mother of God.

"When Paone fully awoke, his mind felt wiped out.  Dull pain and confinement crushed him, or was it paralysis?  Warped images, voices, smears of light and color all massed in his head.  Francis 'Frankie' Paone shuddered in the terror of the nameless thing that chased him through the ra.bbets and fissures of his own subconscious mind.

"Yes, he was awake now,  but  the chase led on:

"Storming figures, Concussion.  Blood squirting onto dirty white walls."

The room Paone was in was a blur; somewhere he had lost his glasses and now couldn't see three feet past his face.  There were metal poles with blurred blobs, a line descended to his right arm.  IV bags.  The smell of antiseptics and isopropyl alcohol...he was in a hospital.  He tried to move, but could not.  He was restrained.  He looked at his left arm; there should have been a hand there, but it was not.  On his right leg there as a stump just below the knee.

A figure approached.  A  nurse, cold and clinical.  She checked his charts, called him by his name.  Slowly, he began to remember what had happened.

Paone was a mob middleman, working for Vinchetti, the largest dealer of illegal films on the East Coast, especially of child pornography.  Paone would pick up the masters from the creeps who would film the stuff, and deliver them to Vinchetti, who would dupe hundreds of copies and then sell them worldwide through his illicit contacts.  Paone would closely examine the masters before turning them over, ensuring that the quality of the films were high.  He was not concerned about the morality of his work; money was money and the customers would receive the films one way or the other.   It was a sweet gig; Vinchetti's only competition in the illegal refused to be involved in kiddy porn, although he dealt heavily into snuff films, necro, beastiality, and S and M, leaving the entire kp market for Vinchetti alone. Two years earlier, Paone had served sixty-two month on distribution of child pornography charges.

Paone had been on a pickup:  five master from a real lowlife named Rotz and two grand a master.  While Paone was inspecting the goods for quality, Rodz was scanning the money for any trace of chemicals added to the bills that would mark them for the feds.  All ,looked well when the door burst open and the police burst in.  Rodz was killed instantly in the firefight.  Paone managed to kill two state police officers and a Justice Department agent before bullets left his hand and leg in shreds.

Now Paone was in a hospital, an ICU.  He was alive and this state had no death penalty.  Life inn prison held no fear for him.  As a cop killer, he would be elevated to the elite among the population and need not worry for his life.  He was looking forward to the best result of a bad situation.

Then the nurse turned on the radio.  The news had a story about the raid and the death of three law enforcement personnel and of Rodz.  The story concluded with the note that Paone had somehow managed to escape and was the subject of a statewide manhunt.  Escaped?

Paone's nightmare was just beginning...

As I said, the story is both dark and uncomfortable.  A surprising addition to Penzler's annual Best of the Year anthologies.  Author Edward Lee stated that he wanted to probe deeply into the psyche of a sophisticated modern sociopath, and to do so, he did "quite a bit of research involving the technical mechanics of child pornography, its statistics, its distribution, etc."  Better him than me.

"Edward Lee" (Lee Edward Seymour, b. 1957) is an extreme horror writer whose works include more than 40 books, many of them small press-limited edition hardcovers that have become collector's items; many others were released as mass-market paperback originals.  Among his works are Ghouls, Dahmer's Not Dead (with Elizabeth Steffen), and Goon (with John Palen ).  His short story "Mr. Torso" (from Hot Blood:  Deadly After Dark, edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett, 1994) was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and he has received the J. F. Gonzales Lifetime Achievement Award from KillerCon.  Two of his stories have been filmed as movies.  For those who are into extreme horror, Edward Lee is essential reading.

THE ADVENTURES OF SMILIN' JACK (1943)

 Smilin' Jack Martin anchored the longest running aviation comic strip in history, 40 years, from October 1, 1933 to April 1, 1933.  Created by 27-year-old aviation enthusiast Zack Mosley, the strip was originally titled On the Wing and the character's original name was Mack Martin, neither of which appealed to Chicago Tribune editor Joseph Medell Patterson, who in a nod to the strip's creator, renamed the character to Smilin' Jack Martin (Mosley's nickname was Smilin' Zach), and retitled the strip to The Adventures of Smilin' Jack later to be shortened to just Smilin' Jack.  The Smilin' Jack of the comics strongly resembled Roscoe Turner, a notable air racing star of the time.

In the 1943 Universal movie serial, Smilin' Jack is portrayed by Tom Brown (Judge Priest, Anne of Green Gables, Buck Privates Come Home).  It's 1941, and Smilin' Jack wishes to resign as an advisor to the National Chinese Army in order to enlist as an aviator in the American military buildup prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The Chinese, however have discovered the existence of a "secret road" from India to China that will be crucial in the Allied war effort.  Working against Smilin' Jack, and determined to gain the secret for themselves are both "The Black Samurai" -- Japanese espionage agents -- and Fraulein von Teufel, a German agent posing as an American newspaper reporter.

Also featured are Rose Hobart (A Lady Surrenders, East of Borneo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) as Fraulein von Teufel, Edgar Barrier (Journey into Fear, Phantom of the Opera, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman) as Tommy Thompson, Marjorie Lord (Sherlock Holmes in Washington, Boy, Did I Get the Wrong Number!, and television's The Danny Thomas Show) as Janet Thompson;  Keye Luke ("Number One Son" in the Charlie Chan films, Kato in the Green Hornet Serials, Master Po in television's Kung Fu) as Captain Wing; Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan  in 22 films, Blonde Venus, Dark Hazard) as General Kai Ling, Turhan Bey (Background to Danger, The Mad Ghoul, Adventuress of Casanova) as Kegeyama, and Jay Novello (Pocketful of Miracles, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, The Man from the Diner's Club).

Directed  by Lewis D. Collins (Don Winslow of the Coast Guard, Secret Agent X-9, Lost City of the Jungle) and action specialist Ray Taylor (The Royal Mounted Rides Again, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, Tarzan the Mighty).  Written by Morgan Cox (Gang Busters, Drums of Fu Manchu, Zorro's Fighting Legion).

The link takes you to all thirteen episodes.  Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2968

HYMN TIME

 Kori Withers and Friends -- Playing for Change

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_R6Gw9A-xA&list=RDb_R6Gw9A-xA&start_radio=1

SECRET AGENT X-9 (1936)

Secret Agent X-9 was a comic strip distributed by King Features and created by Dashiell Hammett and originally drawn by Alex Raymond.  It ran from January 22, 1934 to February 10, 1996.  Hammett wrote the first four story arcs (through April 20, 1935), and was replaced by Don W. Moore (April 22 - September 21, 1935), Leslie Charteris (September 23, 1935 - March 28, 1936), "Robert Storm" (a "house" name hiding the identity of the real author; March 30, 1936 - sometime in 1945), Mel Graff (1945 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Archie Goodwin (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Alex Raymond drew the strip through November 16, 1935, followed by Charles Flanders (November 18, 1935 - April 9, 1938), Nicholas Afonsky (April 11 - November 5, 1938), Austin Briggs (November 7, 1938 - June 1, 1940; Mell Graff (June 3, 1940 - March 19, 1960), Bob Lubbers (March 21, 1960 - January 28, 1967), Al Williamson (January 30, 1967 - February 2, 1980), and George Evans, (February 4, 1980 - February 10, 1996).

Secret Agent X-9 was one of many Big Little Books published by Whitman Publishing, beginning in 1932.  They were juveniles, often featuring popular radio shows, films, movie actors, comic strips and pulp novel characters.  The  cheaply printed, hardbound volumes measured about 3.5 by 4.5 inches and could carry up to 400 pages or more, with text on the text on the left and full page illustrations on the right.  Authorship of Secret Agent X-9 was credited to Charles Flanders, the artist for the strip at the time of publication.  Whether Flanders wrote the text for the book is unknown.

In the beginning X-9 was an unknown agent who worked for an anonymous agency.  Hammett gave him the name Dexter -- "it's not my name, but it'll do" -- and he was occasionally referred as Dexter during the early year of the strip.  In the Forties (long after this book appeared), he was given the name Phil Corrigan by writer/artist Mel Graff.  During the run of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, the strip was retitled Secret Agent Corrigan.  the anonymous agency employing X-9 was eventually revealed to be the FBI -- that is, until the 70s, when the FBI's reputation fell rather sharply and X-9's agency once again became anonymous.

This time around X-9 is after a gang of counterfeiters headed by the mysterious "Fang," who appears to have inside information about the operations of the secret service.  For this case, X-9 is teamed with Sally Ray, a young woman of whom we know little.

A bit about the link.  Somebody screwed up the page order of the book.  Page 1 of the comic books Plus link is actually page 168 of the book.  If you start at page 134 (the actual front cover of the book) and go page by page from there as the pages are actually in order.

Enjoy.

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=72621

FORGOTTEN BOOK : FACES OF FEAR

Faces of Fear by John Saul (2008)

This was John Saul's 30th, and penultimate, novel published under his own name.  (The count can be questioned.  His publisher claims this was his 35th novel, but they are counting the six separately published novellas that comprised The Blackstone Chronicles, while omitting the published version that contained the novellas; Wikipedia gives his count as 37 novels, but they are including all six novellas, as well as the published full version; he had previously published some ten books under unknown pseudonyms.  Whichever count you go by, Saul has racked up millions of sales over a period of thirty-three years, making him one of the best selling horror authors of the past half century.

Not unsurprisingly, Faces of Fear is another of Saul's trademarked children in danger stories.  Somewhat surprisingly, the book is not one of supernatural horror, but a serial killer novel with a hint of the mad scientist theme.

Alison Shaw is just a few months shy of her sixteenth birthday, an only child, not considered pretty by most and stuck with an adolescent's body, with small breasts and little chance for them to get larger.  Not that that bothers Alison.  She is content with her life, her studies, and her athletic abilities.  Her life comes crashing down when her father, a local television news executive, announces that he is leaving his wife for another man.  Although Alison's mother is devastated, she and Alison slowly come around to accepting what has happened.  Risa, the mother, eventually remains best friends with her ex-husband, as well as his lover, leaving Risa to move on with her life.

Conrad Dunn is universally accepted as the best plastic surgeon in the country, able to perform miracles with his scalpel, and donating much of his time to charity for birth defect and accident victims.  His wife, Margot, was one of his greatest successes.  Originally a good-looking woman, Conrad's skills turned her into the perfect woman and a top fashion model, acclaimed around the world.  Then she fell of their yacht when it was hit by a large wave and the boat's propellor severely scarred the right side of her face.  Margot considered her new look to be hideous and Conrad had not yet repaired the damage.  Margot's despondency became so extreme that she jumped off a cliff and smashed what was left of her face on the rocks below.

A year after Margot's death, Conrad and Risa married and Risa and Alison moved from Santa Monica to a rich enclave in Burbank, where Alison would start school at a posh and trendy academy.  Her new classmates were all rich and all appeared to already have had plastic surgery -- often breast implants -- courtesy of Conrad.  Alison was beginning to feel inadequate with her small breasts and Risa and Conrad suggested that he give her new breasts for her sixteenth birthday -- nothing odd about that, nosirree.

In the meantime, there is a serial killer on the loose, attacking young (and youngish) women, eviscerating them, taking their adrenal and thyroid glands, as well as a portion of their face -- ears, eyebrows, lips, nose, et cetera.  Ambitious reporter Tina Wong, who worked for Alison's father, has stumbled on a pattern to the killings and had uncovered similar killings in distant cities some fifteen years before, and has worked on the story for over a year, hoping this would lead to her big break with the networks.

Here's the spoiler,  but it's not a very big one since it had been telegraphed in large capital letters throughout the novel:  Conrad Dunn is an insane megalomaniac, obsessed with his dead wife and the "perfect" person he had made her into with his scalpel and his skills.  He wants recreate his dead wife but there's a problem.  Margot was made perfect because she had the rare bone structure to her skull that would allow it.  He had never come a cross a similar bone structure until he met Alison, who was to become his step-daughter.  No one realized then when he gave Alison her augmented breasts that they were identical to the breasts that Margot had had.  Conrad had blackmailed a former patient to harvest specific body parts from specific women -- each part identical to that which Margot had had.  He was going to recreate his wife -- his ultimate achievement -- with Alison.  He had even given Alison's her breast implants in order to get her to trust him; those implants would soon go because they were artificial (ptah!) to be replaced by real breasts harvested from one of his victims.

The book boils down to a deadly race against time to save Alison.  The plot is ludicrous from any common sense point of view, with holes large enough to drive a semi-tractor trailer through it, but somehow it works.  It is far-fetched enough that the abattoir nature of the novel, the stereotypical view of the ultra-rich and their offspring, and the hints of pedophilia -- augmented by a major plot twist -- can be minimized in a rush to turn the pages.

Uncomfortably effective.

SUSPENSE: A PASSAGE TO BENARES (SEPTEMBER 23, 1947)

The thirteenth episode of Suspense adapted T. S. Stribling's classic tale of exotic mystery, "A Passage to Benares" (Adventure, February 26, 2926; reprinted in Stribling's Clues of the Caribees, 1929).

From Old Time Radio Archive:  "[T]he exotic isle of Trinidad, where ancient temples hide dark secrets and every shadow tells a story.  In the heart of this tropical paradise, a gruesome discovery shocks then island's inhabitants:  a beautiful Hindu maiden is found beheaded in a sacred temple.  As the island's ragged beggars awake to find gold mysteriously placed in their pockets, the sense of unease deepens.  Who placed the gold there, and more importantly, who committed this horrific crime?  The story follows an American psychologist who arrives on the island, drawn by a fascination with the mystical and the unknown.  As he delves into the mysteries of the temple and the legends of the island, he encounters a world where the lines between life and the afterlife blur, and where every corner holds a potential clue to the dark truths hidden withing the temple walls.  With its vivid descriptions and haunting atmosphere, 'A Passage to Benares' weaves a tale of suspense that is both captivating and chilling.  The story builds to a shocking and unexpected climax that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew.  This episode is more than just a mystery; it's a journey into a realm where reality and mysticism intertwine, offering an experience that is as thrilling as it is thought-provoking."

The American psychologist is, of course, Dr. Henry Piggioli, Stribling's famous amateur detective, and the protagonist of some three dozen tales collected in Clues of the Caribees, Best Dr. Poggioli Detective Stories (1975), and Dr. Poggioli:  Criminologist (2005).  The stories in Clues of the Caribees are thought to be his weakest, although "A Passage to Benares," the final story in the book, remains his most famous Pogglioi story and a classic of the genre.  Outside of the mystery genre, Stribling wrote thirteen novels of social satire, most set in the South; The Store won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933.

The role of Poggioli was played by Paul Stewart.  Please note that the original story and the radio adaptation reflect attitudes of the time and may be off-putting for some.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=islmWOxRHOo&list=PLvu2oOrWFl_NykNNccUdjcSUFk0tuXPkG&index=6

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TAPPAN'S BURRO

"Tappan's Burro" by Zane Grey  (first published in Ladies' Home Journal, June 1923; reprinted in Pearson's Magazine, September 1923; in the author's Tappan's Burro (also published as Tappan's Burro and Other Stories), 1923; in Great Tales of the American West, edited by Harry E. Maule, 1945; in Zane Grey's Western Magazine, November 1951 [and in the Australian edition, February 1955]; in The Western Hall of Fame, edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg, 1984; in The Best Western Stories, edited anonymously and published by Hamlyn, 1986; in The Best Western Stories, edited anonymously and published by Mallard [ different book from above], 1990; as "Prospector's Gold" in Prospector's Gold/Canyon Walls by Zane Grey, 1990; in A Century of Great Western Stories, edited by John Jakes; and in Stories of the Golden West:  Book Three, edited by Jon Tuska, 2002, later reprinted as The Golden West, 2003; also available online at Project Gutenberg)

From Google's AI Overview (take it for what it's worth):  "It follows the perilous desert adventures of a lonely prospector named Tappan and his Jenet, his exceptionally faithful and intelligent burro.  The narrative focuses in the deep bond between the prospector and the burro as they navigate the scorching heat of Death Valley and blinding blizzards in Arizona.  Jenet repeatedly saves Tappan's life by locating hidden waterholes and guiding him through brutal terrain.  The story is best known for exploring themes of loyalty, survival, and the harsh realities of the untamed American frontier."  AI gets some of the plot right, but misses a lot, while lifting some of its overview from a GoodReads review:

" 'Quite by chance, as he was looking for some of his burros, he struck his pick into a place no different from a thousand others there, and hit into a pocket of gold.  He cleaned out the pocket before sunset, the richer for several thousand dollars.  "You brought me luck," said Tappan, to the little gray burro staggering around its mother.  "Your name is Jenet, You're Tappan's burro, an' I reckon he'll stick to you." '  -- from the book.  Prospecting was a lonely business for Tappan, but his burro Jenet was good company, and more.  She knew the trails and waterholes better than Tappan, from the scorching heat and poison air of Death Valley to the blinding blizzards of Arizona's mountains, Jenet tracked with him, faithful, his only friend.  And he repaid her loyalty, with a final supreme effort of heart, will, and spirit."

A tale of friendship and of human betrayal, with a harrowing final elongated scene of bravery, as Tappan attempts to bring himself and his burro through the bone-chilling deep snows of the Rim Rock country in Tonto Basin.

A magnificent bit of writing which defies my description.

Zane Grey (1872-1939) wrote adventure stories to offset the tedium of his dental practice and became one of the first millionaire authors.  His romanticized American West and view of Manifest Destiny was based on extensive research.  Although early critics panned his work, the reading public did not.  He wrote over ninety books, some published posthumously, and his sales reached 40,000,000.  His works have been adapted into at least 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series.  

Erle Stanley Gardner said of Grey that he "had the knack of tying his characters into the land, and the land into the story.  There were other Western writers who had fast and furious action, but Zane Grey was the one who could make the action not only convincing but inevitable, and somehow you got the impression that the bigness of the country generated a bigness of character."  Which goes a long way to explaining why Grey was one of the greatest all-time author of westerns and remains highly popular today.