John Gorka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9VB8aN8Yd8
Small House of Everything
Saturday, January 31, 2015
LEX BRAND #18
Here's an interesting comic book. I have no idea what it's about.
Why?
Because it is in Dutch.
It was written and drawn by Ben Abas and published by Bell Studio in Haarlem. Not much is known about Abas. He was a minor figure in the comic book scene in the Netherlands. From 1947 to 1953 he created several popular series of "beeldromans" (illustrated books; i.e., comic books), including "Spot Morton," "Tom Wells," "Kara Ben Nems," Texas Ranger," "De Groene Straal," and "Lex Brand." He also did newspaper and magazine cartoon strips. Eventually (probably in the late 50s or in the 60s) he moved to Australia, after which I could not find any information about him.
Issue #1 was published in 1949, so this one was from the early 50s. And there were at least 22 issues in the first series, which implies that there was at least a second series.
This issue takes place in Mexico. There's a gang of vampires. There's a lot of shooting and fighting and a stalwart hero. And that's about all I've got.
But it's interesting, because you can make up your own story to go with the pictures. Or you can make up a caption to go with individual frames. It's fun! For example, in panel 6 on page 5: "Victor hoped the rest of the gang had not noticed that his tights were riding up!"
Have fun!
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=56764
Why?
Because it is in Dutch.
It was written and drawn by Ben Abas and published by Bell Studio in Haarlem. Not much is known about Abas. He was a minor figure in the comic book scene in the Netherlands. From 1947 to 1953 he created several popular series of "beeldromans" (illustrated books; i.e., comic books), including "Spot Morton," "Tom Wells," "Kara Ben Nems," Texas Ranger," "De Groene Straal," and "Lex Brand." He also did newspaper and magazine cartoon strips. Eventually (probably in the late 50s or in the 60s) he moved to Australia, after which I could not find any information about him.
Issue #1 was published in 1949, so this one was from the early 50s. And there were at least 22 issues in the first series, which implies that there was at least a second series.
This issue takes place in Mexico. There's a gang of vampires. There's a lot of shooting and fighting and a stalwart hero. And that's about all I've got.
But it's interesting, because you can make up your own story to go with the pictures. Or you can make up a caption to go with individual frames. It's fun! For example, in panel 6 on page 5: "Victor hoped the rest of the gang had not noticed that his tights were riding up!"
Have fun!
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=56764
Friday, January 30, 2015
FORGOTTEN BOOK: JONAH HEX: RIDERS OF THE WORM AND SUCH
Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such by Joe R. Lansdale (1995)
If your only familiarity with Jonah Hex is from the 2010 botched movie, you just don't know Jonah Hex. If your only familiarity with the comic book Jonah Hex is the character created by John Albano and continued by Michael Fleisher, then you don't know Joe R. Lansdale's Jonah Hex.
Although Jonah Hex had appeared in 27 issues of Weird Western Tales, there was nothing supernatural or weird in the early stories, except for the appearance of the character -- the right side of Hex's face was hideously deformed. Even though there was no hint of the weird, the series felt weird. The series itself (IMHO) jumped the shark by having Hex taken to the future several times, teaming up with various DC heroes for mega-battles.
Then along came Lansdale, who put his own special mojo on the character. If Jonah Hex felt weird, why not make it weird? And few people do weird better than Lansdale.
Teaming up with artists Timothy Truman and Sam Glanzman, Lansdale wrote the five-comic book series Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo, in which every one's favorite deformed bounty hunter/gunslinger goes up against zombies. Then came the five-comic book series Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such, discussed below. Lansdale, Truman and Glanzman's final outing with the character came in a three-comic book series Jonah Hex: Shadows West, in which he encounters Spirit Bears.
In Riders of the Worm, we find the bounty hunter with a bounty on his own head. Hoping to cash in, a gang of six thugs have tortured and killed a couple who had provided Hex with shelter and then had headed toward the barn where Hex was hiding. The thugs didn't realize that Hex was hiding under a pile of dung and each met their end by a rather odiferous Jonah Hex. Wounded, Hex rides off and eventually passes out. He's found by and treated by a couple of saddle tramps (one of whom is Billy the Kid) who bind up his wounds. The three take refuge in an abandoned shack. Something with a lot of tentacles starts to come out of the ground, rips the heads off all three horses and sucks out their guts, and then it kills one of the saddle tramps, leaving Jonah Hex and Billy the Kid to wonder WTF.
In the morning, the two pick up their saddles and begin to trek across the empty countryside, where eventually the come across the bodies of many cattle with their heads torn off and their guts sucked out.
There's a Cthulhu-type monster, a forgotten race of once-intelligent worm-beings, brutish hybrid worm-men, an English expatriate running a ranch of resentful singing cowboys, a speeding underground armored truck, lots of violence, lots of gore, lots of language that would not approved in any church that I know of, and some great story-telling in the best East Texas tradition.
(This series caused musicians Johnny and Edgar Winter to file a defamation of character suit against DC comics and the series creators because two of the more disgusting characters resembled them. They lost the case, but the publicity certainly helped the series.)
The original graphic novel reprinting the series is pretty hard to get. Luckily, Vertigo reprinted the graphic novel and Lansdale's two other Jonah Hex series in an omnibus volume last year, Jonah Hex: Shadows West.
Lansdale may not be everyone's cup of tea and graphic novels are not everyone's favorite, but Lansdale remains one of the most original, innovative, and readable authors in any genre. Recommended.
If your only familiarity with Jonah Hex is from the 2010 botched movie, you just don't know Jonah Hex. If your only familiarity with the comic book Jonah Hex is the character created by John Albano and continued by Michael Fleisher, then you don't know Joe R. Lansdale's Jonah Hex.
Although Jonah Hex had appeared in 27 issues of Weird Western Tales, there was nothing supernatural or weird in the early stories, except for the appearance of the character -- the right side of Hex's face was hideously deformed. Even though there was no hint of the weird, the series felt weird. The series itself (IMHO) jumped the shark by having Hex taken to the future several times, teaming up with various DC heroes for mega-battles.
Then along came Lansdale, who put his own special mojo on the character. If Jonah Hex felt weird, why not make it weird? And few people do weird better than Lansdale.
Teaming up with artists Timothy Truman and Sam Glanzman, Lansdale wrote the five-comic book series Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo, in which every one's favorite deformed bounty hunter/gunslinger goes up against zombies. Then came the five-comic book series Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such, discussed below. Lansdale, Truman and Glanzman's final outing with the character came in a three-comic book series Jonah Hex: Shadows West, in which he encounters Spirit Bears.
In Riders of the Worm, we find the bounty hunter with a bounty on his own head. Hoping to cash in, a gang of six thugs have tortured and killed a couple who had provided Hex with shelter and then had headed toward the barn where Hex was hiding. The thugs didn't realize that Hex was hiding under a pile of dung and each met their end by a rather odiferous Jonah Hex. Wounded, Hex rides off and eventually passes out. He's found by and treated by a couple of saddle tramps (one of whom is Billy the Kid) who bind up his wounds. The three take refuge in an abandoned shack. Something with a lot of tentacles starts to come out of the ground, rips the heads off all three horses and sucks out their guts, and then it kills one of the saddle tramps, leaving Jonah Hex and Billy the Kid to wonder WTF.
In the morning, the two pick up their saddles and begin to trek across the empty countryside, where eventually the come across the bodies of many cattle with their heads torn off and their guts sucked out.
There's a Cthulhu-type monster, a forgotten race of once-intelligent worm-beings, brutish hybrid worm-men, an English expatriate running a ranch of resentful singing cowboys, a speeding underground armored truck, lots of violence, lots of gore, lots of language that would not approved in any church that I know of, and some great story-telling in the best East Texas tradition.
(This series caused musicians Johnny and Edgar Winter to file a defamation of character suit against DC comics and the series creators because two of the more disgusting characters resembled them. They lost the case, but the publicity certainly helped the series.)
The original graphic novel reprinting the series is pretty hard to get. Luckily, Vertigo reprinted the graphic novel and Lansdale's two other Jonah Hex series in an omnibus volume last year, Jonah Hex: Shadows West.
Lansdale may not be everyone's cup of tea and graphic novels are not everyone's favorite, but Lansdale remains one of the most original, innovative, and readable authors in any genre. Recommended.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
ARCH OBOLER'S PLAYS: BIG BEN
Arch Oboler's Plays was an anthology series that ran on NBC radio from March 25, 1939 23, to March 23, 1940. The show was resurrected for a summer run in 1945 on the Mutual network. Oboler wrote, produced, directed and introduced each show.
Oboler (1909-1987) was one of the great radio writers. His classic "Chicken Heart" episode from the show Lights Out caused a mini-panic a la Orson Welles invasion from Mars. Two mildly risqué sketches he wrote for The Chase and Sanborn Hour resulted in NBC banishing Mae West for fifteen years (not only was West banned, but the network forbade the very mention of her name). NBC, looking for a radio writer to rival CBS's Norman Corwin, okayed Arch Oboler's Plays, perhaps in part because Oboler financed the entire commercial-less project himself. Arch Oboler's Plays was a great success and, after it's first year run, gained Procter & Gamble as a sponsor with the show then being called Everyman's Theatre. Oboler then moved on to several series of anthology shows with a propaganda slant: Plays for Americans, To the President, Free World Theatre, and Everything for the Boys -- Oboler also contributed anti-Nazi scripts for the second series of Lights Out! In 1940, Oboler began his move to film (among those that he wrote and directed were 1952's Bwana Devil and 1953's The Twonky -- based on a Henry Kuttner story). He also wrote a Broadway play (Night of the Auk) which, despite its all-star cast, folded quickly. Oboler also wrote for television, produced one novel, and wrote several short stories.
In the radio play below, "[a] cranky mantel clock is the god a native chief prays to while waiting to kill a baby." Classic Oboler.
Enjoy.
http://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/thriller/arch-obolers-plays/big-ben-1964-11-14
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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