Daredevil #31 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

When law partner Foggy Nelson and secretary Karen Page begin to suspect that attorney Matt Murdock might be the super-powered vigilante, Daredevil, Murdock invents the character of Mike Murdock. Matt's 'twin' brother, Mike is the antithesis of the real deal. He's brash, loud, charming and a bit of a jokester. Everything Matt Murdock has longed to be but keeps bottled up inside is allowed to flow out in the guise of brother Mike. 

In the previous issue, Mr. Hyde and Cobra have re-teamed. Instead of battling Thor, both go up against the Man Without Fear. Hyde concocts a formula that is intended to render Daredevil blind. Unknown to the villains, since Daredevil is already sightless, the chemical strips Matt Murdock of his radar-like abilities. 

Starting from where things left off, Mr. Hyde and his partner in crime are about to strike when the New York Police Department charges into the warehouse doubling as a criminal lair giving Daredevil a chance to escape. However, without his billy-club/white cane hybrid walking device, Daredevil is unable to make his way home. His stumbling attracts the attention of the populace, leading Daredevil to pose as Mike Murdock in order to convince friends Foggy and Karen that any reports of a possibly blind Daredevil is not linked to actual blind person Matt Murdock!

After convincing what has got to be two thirds of the most gullible law firm in all of New York, Daredevil must then fool Mr. Hyde and Cobra into believing that their compound didn't work and that the hero still has sight. With help from Foggy, Daredevil travels a tightrope strung between two buildings rather poorly. Yet the villains interpret the protagonist's clumsiness as showing-off and they retreat from their latest caper. Daredevil thinks he's bought some time and has Nelson escort him home. The chapter ends with Foggy being kidnapped by an unseen force and Cobra now pretending to be Daredevil's assistant. 

Speaking of gullibility, can Matt Murdock, who has been blind since childhood, really be fooled by the voice of Cobra as to being best friend, Foggy Nelson? It remains to be seen and in reality, it's pretty doubtful that he can be tricked. However, it's implied from the cliffhanger that everything is a-okay with Daredevil and fans should be terrified at the prospect of the Man Without Fear helplessly being at the clutches of his foes.

Fans of the Silver Age Daredevil, such as humorist Fred Hembeck, have pointed to issue #8, the first appearance of Stilt-Man, as the most absurd moment in the character's early history. This issue written by Stan Lee could easily be a contender for that distinction. The prospective cliffhanger is laughable. Did Stan the Man really think fans wouldn't expect Daredevil to know when he's being hoodwinked? A more plausible pause that would elicit an elevated heart rate would have a snipe aiming at the now super-powerless Daredevil. Just because Daredevil lost his radar ability, the change should not have diminished the enhanced hearing and other senses Matt Murdock has picked up since losing his sight. 

The artwork by Gene Colan saves this ludicrous issue from being a total lemon. John Tartaglione adds a smoothness to the dynamic artwork with his inks in panels that scream mid-1960s stylish Manhattan. Lettering by Artie Simek. Cover art by Colan with John Romita Sr. and Frank Giacoia.

Completing this review completes Task #17 (A Daredevil Story) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

The Beverly Hillbillies #18

Getting a comic book adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies has been on my wish list for a while. Finally over the winter break I was able to get a decent copy for a reasonable price. Yet somehow, this comic ended up in my REVIEW pile . It wasn't until yesterday that I realized I hadn't read this yet.

There are 4 stories in this issue. 3 star the Beverly Hillbillies. Story #1 has Granny feeling like she's got to get a job despite living in a mansion with all expenses paid. She takes a job as an ice cream man, thinking the work will be a piece of cake. However in true sitcom fashion, everything goes wrong on her first day.

Tale #2 has Jed hiring a pop art house decorator on the recommendation of Mrs. Drysdale. Of course, Granny hates the artist's aesthetic and will do everything in her power to keep her house the way it is.

The last Clampett story has Jethro head over heels in love with a department store sales clerk when he mistakes her salesmanship as romance.

The fourth and final story is about a character called 'The Shutterbug'. I've never heard of him. But I've found listings for this guy in a couple other Dell books. He's apparently this cub reporter who is sent on photo assignments, only to muck them up. In this story, Shutterbug is allowed to cover his first pro baseball game to disastrous effect.

The one page prose story, required for certain postage requirements, is about a truck driver that has a mishap while transporting a shipment of live chickens. I've read this story before. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell had a standard prose yarn that would be inserted into their entire line of books for the month. 

Unlike the Car 54, Where Are You? books that had great renderings of the stars of the show - but were swiped over and over, there's no sort of repetition in this book. None of the faces look like they were taken from promotional stills. But the characters look like who they are supposed to represent. Maybe that's because all 4 of the Clampetts wore costumes that never really changed. When Granny is acting as the ice cream seller in this book, you can tell it's her, not because she looks like Irene Ryan, but because the artist has Granny still wearing her patchwork dress underneath her uniform.

Mrs. Drysdale looks like a generic person. Not Harriet MacGibbon. I don't know who's escorting her to the Clampetts big unveiling of their newly redecorated mansion. But it sure isn't investment banker Mr. Drysdale. The guy on her arm doesn't even have a mustache! 

And where's Ms. Hathaway, Drysdale s ever faithful assistant? Surely, she would have been invited to that fete! If only to occupy the yokels when they got on Drydale's nerves.

The stories were entertaining. While formulaic, they're not rocket science. I've wanted an issue of the series for a long time and this was worth the wait. A great addition for a fan of classic TV like myself. I just don't see the average fan of comics seeking books like this anymore and that might be why I got a good deal on it.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Ghost Stories #19

I've had this 1967 comic book for several years now. I keep forgetting I have it until after Halloween. Thankfully, someone from a Dell FB group that I am a member of posted a pic of their copy recently. That photo jogged my memory and made 2023 the Halloween season I finally gave this book a read. 

This anthology contains 4 stories.

• A man on a subway car misses his stop. When he gets off in up-state Connecticut, he finds himself a man out of time, with everyone ignoring him.
• A trio of distant relatives scheme to do away with their wealthy uncle. His frequent talks with his deceased wife might be the foothold the family needs to have the man committed. Or maybe he really is communicating with his late wife...
• A treasure hunter who has just stolen a valuable idol runs afoul of the African tribesmen that he robbed.
• In the cover story, an astronaut is swept off course and faces spending the rest of his life lost in space. However, hope unexpectedly comes when another space capsule suddenly appears in the vessel's porthole. 

The last 3 stories each involve ghosts. I'm not so sure about that first tale. Maybe the man becomes a spirit when he misses his train stop. I'm just not sure. It definitely feels like it could be something from the Twilight Zone or other similar horror anthologies from 1960s TV and I liked that story very much. I just debate that the story was a legitimate ghost tale.

As for the real ghost stories, I wasn't such a fan of the story involving the treasure hunter. Maybe it's because the main characters are unlikable and so I wasn't upset at all when they met supernatural justice. I liked the story about the 3 gold digging relatives. It had lots of great twists and I thought the demise of those despicable family members was rather gruesome for late 1960s comics. 

The space story was a reflection of the times. 1967 was smack dab in the middle of the Space Race. An astronaut becoming stranded in space and floating for eternity in a space capsule coffin was a very real possibility. (If you believe some historians, a pair of cosmonauts actually are orbiting around our solar system due to a similar miscalculation.) I thought the story was thrilling and the ending was telegraphed, but it wasn't scary at all.

A good read with a mix of stories, one of which I do believe fits the theme of the comic. And it was the best of the 4 tales! But very high quality for the time period.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Ripley's Believe It or Not! #5 (True War Stories)

In 1965, Gold Key Comics released a book with the cover title of Ripley's Believe It or Not: True Wars Stories. It has one of those World War I planes on the cover and looks great. That is not this book. For some reason, when this comic was released in 1967, it was done as as part of another series based on the amazing world of explorer and champion of the macabre, Robert Ripley- Ripley's Believe It or Not: True Ghost Stories. This all very well may have to do with the limited number of titles the United State Postal Service aloud at the time for comics publishers in regards to first class postage.Regardless of what the issue is, there's a glowing oversight here: this book doesn't have any ghosts in it!

The opening story is set in the waning days of World War II. It tells of a Japanese commander who plans a massive attack on allied forces, even though the Emperor of Japan has declared the country's unconditional surrender. This story about honor and anger ends with that trademark Ripley's twist. But there's no spooks here. 

Stories set during the two World Wars fill the rest of this book. They all contain those killer twist endings. But again, there are no ghosts in this book.

All of the stories in the book are supposedly based on real stories. I would have liked something that expounded on these facts, like a behind the scenes letter from the editor. One requirement for comics to meet first class mailing was to include a prose story of at least 1 page in the contents. This book fills that requirement with 'The General Was a Spy'. Surely, a page or two digging deep into the facts behind all of these war stories would have counted as that prose requirement.

Though credits still weren't a common occurrence in comics yet, experts have determined that Sal Trapani, Andre LeBlanc and Joe Certa were the artists of these stories. Oddly enough, the artwork looked consistent throughout, as done by just one hand. That's the most Believe It or Not thing about this book.

A good collection of strange events in the history of warfare. Whether these were 100% factual or just based on anecdote is something I feel is missing from this book. But I enjoyed the read and I thought the artwork was amazing. But for the life of me, I just don't understand why this book is labelled and categorized as it is.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Movie Classic: Who's Minding The Mint?

This is a new addition to my collection that I've been looking forward to for quite some time. Who's Minding The Mint? was arguably my mom's favorite comedy film. I was introduced to the movie sometime around age 7 or 8 because I remember watching it the night I met who was to become my Aunt Cheryl and a couple of new cousins. Anyways, this became a movie that we'd watch whenever it came on TV, usually WGN from Chicago or TBS from Atlanta back when both were considered luxury channels on cable and not your standard editions on streaming these days.

The plot of the 1967 film is of a caper that was pretty much unheard 50 plus years ago- to print several million dollars in new bills overnight in the US mint in Washington. Today, with computers and other tech, such a caper isn't uncommon in film or even TV. 

Jim Hutton (Ellery Queen) plays Harry Lucas, a treasury department employee who lives beyond his means. To keep up appearances as a hip young bachelor, Harry furnishes his apartment and wardrobe on a trial basis. This includes chauffeured cars! Because of this, Harry's boss thinks he's embezzling funds from the mint. Plus, he's jealous that a very demure treasury employee has a crush on Harry, though the young man thinks only of her as a friend. One day, Harry accidentally takes $50,000 with him and destroys it in his garbage disposal. With his boss already suspecting Harry of being crooked, Harry has got to come up with something to replace the money and fast!

Harry has a friend nicknamed Pop, who was forced to retire just before he was about to become a printer for the mint. Pop is more than happy to finally get his hands on those presses. But he'll need a safe cracker to open the vault that holds the plates. Plus, they need a fence who can get supplies on the cheap, a tour guide of the underground sewer system leading to the mint, someone to build a boat small enough to fit through a manhole cover, and a lookout! Now Harry's $50K caper has ballooned into a $10 million dollar heist!

Along with Hutton, Who's Minding The Mint? had an all-star cast! My Darling Clementine's Walter Brennan played Pop. (To this day, I am a huge fan of Walter Brennan and will watch anything he's in!) The Rat Pack's Joey Bishop, TV legend Milton Berle, Victor Buono (Batman's King Tut), Bob Denver (Gilligan's Island) and Dorothy Provine (That Darn Cat) rounded out everyone involved in the crime of the century. M*A*S*H*'s Jamie Farr plays an important part as cousin Mario.

I've been wanting this book since I found out it existed pre-pandemic. Then I just couldn't find it anywhere. But then one day recently on a whim, I decided to go searching for it, finding a very good condition copy on Amazon of all places. I made sure the first night I added this bad boy to my collection that I read it cover-to-cover!

The renderings of the characters were really good. It wasn't SOP to list the artist credits just yet though DC and Marvel were taking big strides to do this by 1967. Thus I can't give credit to who the artist was. But I will surely offer the team praise. 

The anonymous writer of this adaptation did a great job too. I've noticed that with some comic book versions of films from this era, Dell had a bad habit of running out of book and basically shoving in a very abrupt and hasty ending; sometimes to the point, the end of the story split out to the back cover! (See my review of the John Wayne vehicle The Horse Riders as proof!) But with Who's Minding The Mint?, this 4-color version of the movie had good pacing and felt very faithful to the source material. 

Not every joke and character makes it to the screen. Corrine Miller's character of Harry's sexpot love interest Doris was probably cut because her presence probably violated Dell's wholesome promise of comics parents will approve of. The lengthy joke about sex rituals recorded in a recent issue of Playboy was definitely edited out. I'm not really sure why I thought that scene would be in this comic. But I did! Still, I was extremely happy with my purchase.

Now if only I could find this on TV. I'm really wanting to see it on celluloid of all a sudden.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Captain Nice 10211-711 (#1)

Captain Nice is one of those TV shows I remember from my childhood. Seeing it in rerun in the late 80s, Captain Nice was something that aired on Friday nights on WGN or Nick at Nite. I can't remember which. But I do recall that it was something I only would get to watch during the summers as it aired late at night like 10pm or later. 

As a kid, I loved Captain Nice. I thought it was goofy fun even though my mother swore that it was a stupid show. (Though why she'd keep watching it if it was so insipid is a mystery to me.) The William Daniels (Kitt from Knight Rider) series aired on NBC for only 15 episodes in 1967. Obviously, the American public thought this attempt to collect on the Batman TV series craze was pretty moronic. But for a 10-year old Madman, it was pretty funny.

Probably 30 years or so passed before I even thought of this show again. With the occasional appearance of Daniels on some TV show, I honestly never gave Captain Nice another thought. But then about 6 months ago, I started seeing people around the country on Facebook posting pics of finding this rare comic and adding it to their collection. With this revelation that there was a Captain Nice comic book, I immediately became intrigued and added the title to my wish list. 

Jump to early August. I got a tip on some really affordable Dark Shadows comics. That title was on my top 10 list of TV adaptations to add to my collection, so I went shopping. Needing to spend a few more dollars to achieve free shipping, I took a shot at seeing if I could add Captain Nice to my collection as well. The store had one in stock. The price was right. And in a few days, it was in my possession. 

That first night, I gave Captain Nice a read. Immediately, I am struck by a couple of things thanks to the photo cover and a number of stills from the show inside. One, William Daniels looks a heck of a lot older than you would think a young man just out of college would appear. (In reality, Daniels was 40 when the show aired). Second, the actress who played Captain Nice's mother isn't old enough to be a mother. (With that, technically, I am right. Alice Ghostly (Bewitched) was only 4 years older than Daniels in real life.)

As for the comics themselves, what is there to say that wouldn't prove my mother right. There are 4 shorts which are roughly 8 pages apiece. All of them are pretty goofy with Captain Nice bumbling about for 6 pages and then saving the day, mostly by accident, at the end. One story has Nice attempting to stop a rampaging flood. Another has the hero accidentally helping the very arch-villain he's sworn to stop! The best story involves a love triangle with Captain Nice, his sometime girlfriend meter-main Sgt. Kandy Kane and a slinky cat burglar. I cannot for the life of me remember what transpired in the fourth story. But I do know that every story was formulaic.

In every story, Nice as his alter ego Carter Nash is berated by his mother for not trying hard enough to be a better crime fighter. Kandy Kane tries to get Nash to woe her. Then a crime wave occurs. Ma Carter gets even more snarky, prompting Carter to act. Then, Kandy gets romantically frustrated being cast aside by Nash, now acting as Captain Nice, as he tries to save the day. Then the hero goofs frequently. But at least once, he lucks out and saves the day and though things don't turn out ideal, it's good enough for the citizens of whatever town Captain Nice operates out of.

The best story, that love triangle, at least doesn't follow that formula completely. Mom is mostly absent from that yarn and Nice ends up in the dumps. Literally!

This was a fun trip back to the 1980s. Sure, this book was down right goofy. But it was an entertaining goof. I don't feel like I wasted money on a dud. This was a parody of superhero stories. Maybe not perfect. But from the mind of the legendary humorist, Buck Henry (Saturday Night Live), the whole project has a little gravitas to it. 

I can't imagine many of these are still out there on the market. Like I said, it's rare. But rare doesn't always mean valuable and the few I've seen online aren't too expensive. So if you are looking to add a book to your Dell/Gold Key collections, this one shouldn't wipe out your bank account. 

Now ain't that nice?

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Blue Beetle #2 (2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Manipulated by his Uncle Jarvis, brilliant inventor Ted Kord unknowingly helps to create a nearly indestructible army of androids. Ted seemingly thinks that his uncle is dead and the project is kaput when an explosion wipes out the laboratory. But a discovery of plans that survived the blast led Kord to the remote Pago Island along with his friend, Dan Garrett. There, Kord learns that his uncle is still alive and with the formula of his androids perfected, Jarvis seeks to rule the world.

Activating his magic scarab, Garrett becomes the Blue Beetle. First freeing Kord, Garrett goes into battles with the mechanoids. Unfortunately, the fracas sends the roof of Jarvis' cavern lair down atop the villain, his creations and Dan Garrett. In his dying breath, Garrett asks Ted Kord to take his place as the Blue Beetle.

Back in his father's lab, Kord utilizes the parts of old experiments to develop a beetle shaped flyer, a high-tech uniform and a dazzling light and air-blast gun to fight evil anywhere it rears its ugly head. 

Thus is the origin of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle. Though the character had debuted about a year earlier as a back-up in the pages of Captain Atom #83 (November, 1966), Kord's back story would not be revealed until issue #2 of his short-lived 1967-68 series. 

One key difference between Ted Kord and Dan Garrett was the use of superpowers. An ancient Egyptian scarab gave Dan Garrett his powers. Kord had to rely on a prowess in martial arts and an array of gadgets. For one thing, Dan Garrett was trapped under heavy boulders and unable to pass on the scarab to Ted. But later on, once Kord obtained it, he never could get the antiquity to work. 

The Ted Kord Blue Beetle was the creation of Steve Ditko (The Amazing Spider-Man). This issue was plotted and illustrated by Ditko with a script by D.C. Glanzman. This creative duo also created the back-up feature starring The Question. In this story, The Question takes on a villain that operates a stolen flying costume powered by compressed helium. Called The Banshee by his victims, this flying fiend commits a number of robberies. But these crimes are small potatoes and the Banshee has his sights on Crown City, the home of the mysterious new crime fighter The Question. Only, the Banshee doesn't realize that he's being targeted also by The Question's alter-ego, newsman Vic Sage who is just as active in bringing the baddie down as The Question is. 

Other than Marvel Comics, was there a comic book publisher that was creatively killing it during the mid-60s like Charlton Comics? The answer is no, there wasn't. At this time, Charlton boasted a line-up of Ditko, Dick Giordano, Dennis O'Neil, Pat Boyette Jim Aparo and others. Yet, because of the insane popularity of Marvel and the boost is sales given off by the Batman '66 TV series, Charlton Comics was fighting for crumbs. Sadly, the quantity of sales could not outpace the quality of the books. Blue Beetle's rebooted run was canceled after only 5 issues. The Ted Kord Blue Beetle would not return to print in new adventures until 1985 with the Crisis on Infinite Earths establishing the Charlton characters as part of the DC Universe.

One last fun fact of note. Both stories in this issue were lettered by 'A. Machine'. This wasn't a human employee with a cool name but a fun pun for Charlton's Vari-Typer office composing machine. A cost cutting decision, in 1957, the Vari-Typer was used by the publisher to letter the captions and word bubbles of all of Charlton's titles until the company folded in 1985-86, the same time period in which Ted Kord, The Question and friends were welcomed into the DC Comics throng.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #8 (With an Animal in the Title) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

America's Best TV Comics #1

A comic book grail. This one had been on my wish list for a very long time. And while I am very excited to own it (as well as to have gotten a very good deal), I was a tiny bit disappointed about some of the content. 

Both the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man stories are abridged reprints. Okay, sure. I was foolish to think that the Marvel stories would have been new material. But the editing was a little sloppy. You'd go from one scene to another and yet there were be some really bad plot holes. So the editing wasn't very good. But the stories themselves were classics!

The other stories were of shows that also were to air on Saturday morning cartoons on ABC in the fall of 1967. I know that the Casper story was probably a reprint. But I'm not sure if the stories involving King Kong, George of the Jungle and Journey to the Center of the Earth were or not. I'm assuming the the latter was a comic book reprint of sorts as in one scene the heroes are going around and corner and in the next panel, they are surfing down a lava flow astride giant leaves. 

Okay- reprint or not; that story was a real stinker!

My favorite thing about this comic was all of the vintage ads for classic TV shows such as The Flying Nun, the live action Batman series and Custer! They made a TV show about George Custer? The biggest loser in Army history? Really??? Yikers.

This was a time capsule in a comic book. A true cool find. Maybe not 100% how I envisioned it all these years. But I don't feel like my money was wasted on this either!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Rango #1

We lost a comedic legend yesterday with the passing of Tim Conway. I have fond memories of watching him crack up not only his fellow cast members on The Carol Burnett Show but my mom and Grandmama and the rest of my family. Thus, as a sort of tribute, I dug through my vast collection and decided to give this comic a read.

My mother used to always say that Tim Conway was the kiss of death to a TV show. True, the actor did guest star on the ill-fated sit show Turn On; perhaps the only show in history to be cancelled midway through it's debut airing. Yet, Conway was an integral part of many hit shows. Along with The Carol Burnett Show, Conway was on the long running McHale's Navy, costar of many beloved 1970s Disney pictures and the star of a series of very popular direct-to-video shorts about a tiny man named Dorf. Later in his career, Conway turned to voice acting, most notably as Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob Squarepants. 

Alas, Rango was not one of those timeless hits...

Tim Conway was the title star. As Rango, the worst Texas Ranger ever, Conway's character was prone to accidents, a yellow belly with dreams of bravery and not-too-smart. Rango was often assisted by an Indian named Pink Clouds; though the Native American was mostly helping the bumbling law man on the sly. Rango often got the bad guy but only through his own dumb luck.

Rango was western comedy that ran on the ABC network for less than a full season. While not considered one of Conway's hits, Rango is one of the few representations of a work of the comedians that became a comic book. I am a member of quite a few groups devoted to comics on Facebook and I saw quite a few fans posting pictures of their copy of Rango #1 as a memorial to Tim Conway. 

Dumb luck seems to also be how I found my copy of this book. A few years back, I was leaving a thrift store when I found this issue and several other Dell Comic gems in a display case. Being closing time, I negotiated a sweet deal. But for one reason or another, after bagging, tagging and adding to my database, I never got around to reading any of these books. I guess I was waiting for such an occasion as this to finally get around to it.

Rango: The Comic Book, only ran for 1 issue. The cover proclaims that it's a collector's issue and oddly enough for such an obscure property, I have seen this issue pop up a lot in collector's posts online. There's 4 stories in this issue. Each one has Rango starting out being overlooked for some sort of mission. But by sheer coincidence, the Ranger ends up running afoul of the villain. Somehow, Rango captures the baddie and becomes the hero.

One thing that was oddly absent from the book was a love interest. You would think that it would have been set up where both Rango and either the captain of his Ranger unit or another Texas Ranger would be vying for the affects of the town's most beautiful and eligible belle. Her name would be something like Annabelle or Clementine and she'd always wear some pink frilly thing with a bonnet. Then Rango and some rival for her affection would compete to see who'd win the chance to take the lass to the town dance or something by being the one to capture the bad man of the week. 

Yet, no such rivalry occurred and I think by not being so formulaic, it spelled disaster for the comedy. Something that wouldn't fly on today's TV is the portrayal of the Indian, Pink Clouds. The character was played by an Italian-American actor and not a Native American. Plus, while the Indian is the smartest character of the entire cast, he plays the fool for Rango's benefit. I think had Rango been on TV today, it would have been cancelled before the credits of the first episode ran.

The stories were sub-par but the art was pretty good. None of the characters look like the actors playing them. But I have learned recently that this was the case of most artists and writers only had a story bible to help them navigate how to craft the comic book. So, I can forgive. But I do wish I knew who did the artwork as for it's time when adaptation comics were considered hack work, this was pretty good western fare. 

An okay read that I wish I was reading for other circumstances that to pay tribute to the late Tim Conway. It's not the best thing I've ever come across. I'm glad it's a part of collection if only for the kitschy oddity of it all.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol

Dozens of minute mysteries by Donald J. Sobol; the creator of that pint-sized detective Encyclopedia Brown. Wannabe Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Haledjian (how do you pronounce that?) is on the case, solving murders, thefts, and more.

Sobol uses a number of the plots from his Encyclopedia Brown series. That kinda fells like a cheat. This book was originally written in 1967. So a number of solutions rely on a knowledge of fashion standards and gentlemanly ways that have fallen out of the norm for quite a long time. To have read this book in 2019 and not solved as many of these mysteries as I did isn't a slam at my knowledge or lack thereof. 

Another aspect of Two-Minute Mysteries that seems outdated is the level of violence in some of these whodunits. There's quite a few victims that bought the farm due to gunshots, stabbings or assaults. There's also one or two puzzles which deal with heroin smuggling.

This book, as it's sister volumes and subsequent second, third and fourth printings have all been by Scholastic Press, a leading publisher of children's literature! I'm really surprised that these books haven't been meet with some sort of protest by parents, especially since I remember first reading these books at my elementary school library. I'm not saying that these books should be banned. I am just shocked that somebody hasn't tried to get these books removed from school shelves. (Don't you dare get any ideas, people!)

A nostalgic read but full of unfair solutions, many of which are outdated by about 25 years.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Flash Gordon on the Lost Continent of Mongo

Fierce warriors, ancient beasts and the forces of Ming the Merciless await Flash Gordon in this 1967 paperback!

Al Williamson (Star Wars) worked on the Flash Gordon comic strip in the 1960s. It's where he really honed his skills to where he became my all-time favorite Star Wars artist in the 70s and 80s. This book blows up the panels of the Flash Gordon daily strip to where only one or two segments appear on each page. But the art is incredibly crystal clear. Why today's publishers can't enlarge pictures without making things look fuzzy and pixelated in beyond me.

In this collection of 3 stories, Flash Gordon, along with Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov, embark on an expedition of an uncharted region of the planet Mongo. From just about the very start, the expedition goes poorly, being attacked by hostile natives. In the initial scuffle, Dale is kidnapped. Can Flash Gordon save his beloved? Will the expedition yield the secrets of Mongo? And why didn't the trio of heroes bring some extra muscle and weapons with them?

This was a visually enjoyable read. But there was an X-factor that I just wasn't a huge fan of. For one thing, Flash Gordon seems kinda stupid here. I remember that he was portrayed as a sort of dumb jock in the 1980 live-action movie. But I really thought that Flash was a near genius in the comics. I guess I remembered them wrong. 

Yet in the 1980s Guardians of the Earth comic book, Flash is the team leader and pretty straight-forward as the master planner. Maybe when Flash gets older, he gets wiser? Still, this is not the 'savior of the universe' that I am accustomed to.

The three stories also seem to follow the same plot. Flash and his team get attacked. Dale is kidnapped. Dr. Zarkov is no help as he gets injured. Flash scouts out his enemies. He then runs afoul of some monstrous beast and discovers something that will help him in the process. Gordon carries out his attack, saves the girl and returns to camp with Dr. Zarkov miraculously healed. The End. Repeat as needed.

Can you see why I wasn't such a fan of this book? Flash doesn't come close to ending his expedition in this book. The third story does have a happy ending. But more adventures on the lost lands of Mongo are teased in what I assume are further editions. While I would like to know what happens next, the predictability of these adventures haven't swayed me to scope out the internet to find book 2.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

A Classic TV Christmas- Advent 2017 Day 9

Today's classic Christmas episode is one of my all-time favorites. It's from the 1960s revival of Dragnet. Titled The Christmas Story, this 1967 episode is a remake from the original Dragnet series from the 50s. Not to mention, it was also a radio broadcast too! Other than the changing of the 1953's episodes title of The Big Little Jesus, the '67 episode used not only the exact same script but recycled some of the original actors from that first production as well. 

There's only a couple of days until Christmas and a church calls in Detective Friday (Jack Webb) and his partner Bill Gannon (Henry Morgan) to investigate a burglary. The church's nativity has been vandalized as the baby Jesus has been stolen. With Christmas Eve services hours away, it is vital that the statute be returned as soon as possible.

Over the course of Friday and Gannon's investigation, they interview a number of suspects including a choir boy and a vagrant. The choir boy was played by Barry Williams. Williams would in just a few short months be shot to international stardom as the eldest son Greg on The Brady Bunch. As for the vagrant, he was played by Bobby Troup. Troup may not be a very familiar name to you. But he's a household term here in the Madman household as Bobby Troup played Doctor Early on my wife's all-time favorite TV series, Emergency!

By the end of the episode it turns out that none of the usual suspects did it. Instead it was a little boy who took the baby Jesus. The little fella seems to have promised the Jesus statue that if he got a red wagon for Christmas, he would take Jesus out for the first ride. Apparently Christmas came early as the kid got his wagon and the baby Savior saw the City of Angels in a cherry red Radio Flyer. With the Jesus returned safely, no harm, no foul...

Other than the cool guest stars, one may wonder why this is one of my favorite Christmas episodes. It's because this actually happened. All of Dragnet's scripts were based on real stories taken from the LAPD police blotter. So sometime in a pre-1953 L.A. some kid asked a baby Jesus for a wagon and took the porcelain Christ for a victory lap when he got one! I just love the sweet oddness of this story!

Unfortunately, I can't find the 1967 episode for me to share. But I was able to find the full original episode. So, for my Advent present for you today, I present The Big Little Jesus from December 24, 1953. 

Enjoy and until next time- Merry Christmas!