Garrison's Gorillas #2 (2024 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Spinning out of the popularity of 1967's The Dirty Dozen, Garrison's Gorillas debuted on the ABC airwaves the following year. It followed a commando unit compromised of 5 American convicts given a chance at parole and having their records wiped clean if they serve on a suicide squad in World War II Europe. Consisting of a con man, a safe cracking mechanic, a demolition expert and a cat burglar, the Gorillas were led by 1st Lieutenant Craig Garrison, referred to as 'The Warden.' The cons knew that if they refused to serve in the most dangerous of missions behind enemy lines, the Gorillas won't be sent back to prison; they'd be executed by firing squad for desertion. 

As a tie-in to the 1968 live action series, Dell released a comic book adaptation that ran for 5 issues. 4 of the books featured art by Sam Glanzman including this sophomore effort. A Navy veteran aboard the USS Stevens during the second World War, Glanzman's war comics are notable among fans for it's extreme keenness to detail. The artist's renderings of the actors might not be that close to real life, but Glanzman's illustrations of military vehicles are second to only that of the manuals servicemen used to operate them!

There's two stories of behind the lines espionage in this issue. The first story has the Gorillas posing as crashed American airmen in an attempt to locate whose providing the Nazis with the plans of the Holland resistance. Story two takes place in occupied France with the commandos tasked to destroy a gigantic Nazi super cannon that travels via railroad.

Neither story is all that different from other war comics of the day. If the plots of the TV series are indicative of this issue, it's no wonder that the show only lasted for a 26 episode season. Ironically, Garrison's Gorillas would see a tremendous resurgence in 1980s China of all places. Reruns of the war drama were so popular, it's rumored that the Chinese government would schedule their meetings around times Garrison's Gorillas was due to air. While that story is probably just American propaganda or folklore, is it true that the Chinese government did award the series a public service award for being so popular that even criminals would stay home when it was on. No word on if any of the producers or stars of the show were ever presented with a tangible certificate of merit for the government honors.

With the abrupt cancellation of the series, whether all 5 members of Garrison's Gorillas made it to the end of World War II unscathed and earned their pardons has never been revealed. But if Garrison's Gorillas was to end similarly to that of The Dirty Dozen, you can be sure that at least one or two of these commandos earned their freedom.

Completing this review completes Task #4 (A Dell Comic based off a Live-Action TV Show) of the 2024 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

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.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 23

 

Roots is the main topic of this January 27th copy of Jet.

Yesterday I promised that I'd be covering a big cultural touchstone today. It fact, it's pretty massive. 40 years ago today, the epic miniseries Roots debuted on ABC. Based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel of the same, it was a massive hit featuring a slew of stars. Over the course of 8-nights, Root was literally the only thing anyone watched.

First Edition Cover of the novel.

     Roots was the number one program watched on all 8 nights it aired. Forty years later, every episode still ranks in the top 100 viewed American TV shows of all-time. In 1977 in an America which still had a long way to go in the ways of Civil Rights and race relations, this program attracted viewers of all races and ages. In fact, there's been documented proof that some viewers even changes their views on race (for the better) thanks to Roots. I think one reason Roots appealed to everyone was it's huge all-star cast!

     Beloved actors like Ed Asner (Lou Grant) and Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) shocked views as sadistic slave traders and owners. Louis Gossett Jr. (Enemy Mine), Ben Vereen (Pippin), John Amos (Good Times), and Cicely Tyson wowed in their performances as slaves forced to work in a world that was not their own, and really didn't want them either. Big names such as Sandy Duncan, Yvonne DeCarlo, Burl Ives, and Lorne Greene also played bit roles throughout the course of this epic program. But the actor who literally stole the show was newcomer LeVar Burton.

Author Alex Haley, circa 1986.

     Burton played the younger version of Kunta Kinte, a young African male who Alex Haley credits as his first descendant into the New World. I later feel in love with LeVar Burton thanks to his tireless work as on Reading Rainbow and as Star Trek: The Next Generation's  Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge. 

Publicity still of LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte.

      The aftermath of Roots was mixed. As I mentioned, lives changed for the better and the miniseries racked up over a dozen Emmy and Golden Globes. But Roots also resulted in 2 lawsuits. Haley was sued by two authors for plagiarism and the author actually settled with one of them, confessing that he took some parts from a 1967 book called The African.

     Despite the scandal behind Roots, it's legacy has been long and positive. Two sequels and a spin-off  were produced. One of which was a 1988 Christmas themed film, that saw Burton returning to the role that made him a star, Kunta Kinte. In 2016, a remake aired on the History Channel but it didn't garner nowhere near as many viewers as the original ever did.

Online advertisement for the 2016 History Channel remake.

    I have to admit that I've only seen about half of Roots. At 9 hours, it's long. Add commercials and for a child or teen, it can be darn right infinite. But I remember watching some of it during a holiday break of some sort. I wish I could just remember when I saw what I did.

    Honestly, I also lost interest after LeVar Burton's role in the film was done. Don't get mad- there's nothing wrong with that. Shows lose actors all the time and when they go, so do viewers. Oddly enough, when Roots first aired, the ratings for the later episodes improved! 

      Speaking of odd, I can't find a listing of Roots airing in some sort of celebratory fashion on TV. So many other great shows get anniversary specials. So why not this one? Yes, Roots has gotten lots of due respect and love on many other retrospective programs. But really, TV Land or BET or even ABC dropped the ball on this one by not airing the program or even an anniversary special about it. 

     Maybe you can Netflix it...

The Human Target Special #1

Folks, you remember this show, right? Mysterious Christopher Chance is a soldier for hire, putting himself in the line of fire to protect his clientele from terrorists, murderers, and kidnappers. Sometimes he’d appear in public as the intended victim’s bodyguard. And sometimes he’d dress up as the target in order to end the threat to his customer’s livelihood. And it starred Rick Springfield????

The comic I read was based on the first attempt to bring the Human Target to TV. The show aired on ABC for a whopping 7 episodes. Needless to say it was a colossal fail. This version of the show is so obscure, I don’t think you can find it on VHS or DVD. I highly doubt anyone except maybe a diehard Rick Springfield fan even has this show on video anymore period.

I’ve only come across one copy of this in my years of trolling comic book stores and bargain boxes. This very issue, which I bought for less than a dollar is it. The book itself isn’t bad. The art is tag-teamed by the legendary Dick Giordano and Rick Burchett. It’s very classic Christopher Chance and it very clean. The stories themselves aren’t bad either. Both involve Chance’s organization being hired to help protect people whose lives are in danger.

This special also acts as a quick introduction to potential viewers of the show of the cast and characters- as well as their area of expertise. (This comic was published almost 8 months before the show finally aired after 2 years of sitting in ABC programming limbo.) Some of the dialogue is stale and the banter between Chance and his “booking agent” and obvious love interest on the perspective TV show is cloying. But the action, adventure, and plots of this special are top notch.

While I have no qualms to the limited lifespan of the TV show, I am disappointed that this didn’t spark more interest in the comic book. I like the idea behind the Human Target and years later, Fox would get it right with a series that at least for the first season was an instant classic. Hopefully, DC will create a Human Target collection of stories under their Showcase Presents line. I’d pay full price for that and in my case that speaks volumes.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.