Looking For a Kiss: Happy New Year!

Happy New 2009 Year folks. It's gotta be better or it could be worse!

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES 187: "A Death in the Chapel"

Part One http://pulphero.blogspot.com/2008/12/star-spangled-war-stories-186-man-of.html

This was actually the first issue of the Michelinie/Talaoc run I read. I'd picked up most of the run without knowing its quality, simply because I'd always liked the surreal Unknown Soldier "weird war" type character. I was about to get an education, and it didn't take long to figure it.

The Nazi who attacks Aschermann is killed in seconds by the Faceless Commando, and Aschermann proceeds to relocate the bodies to Father Memmoli's church.

Memmoli does indeed discover the bodies, and the ruse of Colonel Weile. Confronting Weile, Father Memmoli vows the villagers will learn of the deception. However, Weile places Memmoli under armed guard...the guard of Father Memmoli's young orphan-turned-soldier, Rico, with orders to kill the priest should he attempt to leave. Memmoli pleads with the young man to understand the wrong the Nazis represent, but Rico wishes to remain a loyal soldier. Father Memmoli will not be deterred from his duty to inform his people, and Rico is unable to shoot the kindly man of God.

Father Memmoli is off to find his people, and Aschermann follows to "insure" Memmoli's passage. However, Memmoli strays too close to the American lines and is accosted by a unit of GIs. Knowing if the Father is detained, the mission will be in jeopardy, Aschermann takes out the GIs barehanded and sends Memmoli on his way. Confused, Memmoli proceeds. Soon, the villagers and their weapons are turned on the Nazis.

Colonel Weile finds Father Memmoli in the church, discovering Memmoli's involvement. Accompanying him is Leutnant Aschermann. Before Aschermann can stop him, Weile kills Father Memmoli. Aschermann executes the Colonel, who manages to tear the Soldier's mask. Father Memmoli's last words are for the Soldier to help young Rico. The Soldier cannot promise to help, and after Memmoli dies, he says "I'm sorry, Father...but I'm afraid that's not part of the job."

Just then, Rico himself arrives, witnessing the Soldier/Aschermann kneeling over Memmoli's body. The young soldier tries to gun him down, and the Soldier blows apart Rico's right arm with his own Luger. Thus, the Soldier has spared Rico, and delivered a wound that will "be a ticket home for the duration."

The Soldier realizes the "kid" will hate him forever, believing him responsible for killing the only family Rico ever had. Rico crawls to Memmoli's body and collapses atop it. The Soldier escapes, accepting (once again) the anguish of the individual lost under the tidal wave of history.

The epilogue shows the Soldier being congratulated by Intelligence, only to learn the Americans are pulling out of the village and abandoning the once-critical mountain pass. The Soldier is enraged and storms out, sickened.

Again, the Soldier's primary drive, to end the War as soon as humanly possible, is betrayed by his own efficiency. His mission succeeds but "when you're playin' a game with thousands of lives, the individuals always tend to get lost in the shuffle..."

The Soldier's "big picture" continues to get smaller as Michelinie shows the "killing machine" having a poignant understanding of tragedy. No matter how "dehumanizing" the Soldier's training, he is still a man and still affected by the details of the War, swept under the bootheels of history.

The last is not seen of the young Rico, as this particular drama, as in life, will have long-reaching effects for the Soldier.

Out of Five for the Two Parter

STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES 186: "Man of God...Man of War"

The first multi-part story from Michelinie/Talaoc begins in an Italian village called Monte Grande in the Apennine mountain range. The village is occupied by the Nazis, though the village itself does not actively support the Axis. At this time, the Nazis are battling Americans in the mountains, with villages like Monte Grande caught in the middle.

After the Nazis have captured an American soldier in the village, the Nazi commander Colonel Weile attempts to convince Father Memmoli, the village priest, to sway the villagers to fight the Americans. Father Memmoli refuses, as "war is not God's way."

Just then, a small unit of American soldiers intiates an escape for their comrade, running down and killing several innocent village children with their jeep. Father Memmoli, grief-stricken, finds himself ready to assist the Nazis. The villagers battle the Americans at a "bottleneck" in the Apennines, keeping the Allies off-balance while the Nazis fortify.

As reported to the Unknown Soldier by Intelligence, this village's efforts undermine the Allies, and thus must be stopped. The Soldier is directed to infiltrate the village as an "escaped" Leutnant named Aschermann, using one of his mask disguises. Once there, the Soldier must eliminate Father Memmoli.

In order to authenticate who he is, the Soldier as Aschermann uses a GI's .45 to wound his own left arm. Aschermann then stumbles to a villager unit, who take him to Colonel Weile.

Once at the village, Weile directs the only local doctor, Father Memmoli himself, to dress Aschermann's wound. Father Memmoli reveals his inner conflict over having been "forced" to choose between the Allies and Nazis. While Memmoli's back is turned, Aschermann is about to kill him when a young Nazi footsoldier named "Rico," a former orphan raised by Father Memmoli. While the two greet warmly, Aschermann learns why Memmoli has joined the Nazi cause. Aschermann is secretly incredulous however, as no Intelligence record of the rescue exists, as far as the Soldier knows.

Taking his leave, Aschermann finds a Nazi-guarded house, raising his suspicions. After dispatching the guards, Aschermann overhears two Nazi soldiers discussing why they are in hiding. Working for Colonel Weile, these men portrayed the "American soldiers" who raided the village and intentionally killed the village children, to sway Father Memmoli.

Aschermann executes the two and prepares to display their bodies in Father Memmoli's church, surreptitiously unveiling the deception. Preparing to drag the bodies, Aschermann is unaware of another Nazi soldier approaching with a knife, to kill him.

This issue is set up, and a lesser entry in the Unknown Soldier run. However, some nice character bits with the Soldier at the Intelligence HQ, and his jarring self-wounding, along with some Talaoc-rendered karate, keeps the story snappy and visually interesting.

Also of note, the events begun here will influence another conflict later in the run. Michelinie is already preparing to usurp the usual formulae of the "one and done" war story.

Friday Night Fights! Ka-Zar and Your Short Ribs

This is what happens when Ka-Zar decides you need a "talking to." The simple fact of the matter is Ka-Zar delivers his John Buscema-rendered punches just about better than anybody. He also has a pet sabretooth tiger. You can't even begin to feel shame from chastizement delivered by Ka-Zar's thews.

Quote of the day: "...bend before the Will of Ka-Zar!" From ASTONISHING TALES 16 by Mike Frederich on script, Rich Buckler handling half the art chores and some cat named Buscema on the rest. Because back in the day, that issue was coming out, no matter who had to fill in.

http://www.spacebooger.com/ just stands in your doorway, uttering the immortal question: "Do you wanna f**k? Or fight?"

Jingle Jangle Jumble

I was never a DC Comics reader growing up in the 1970s. Even remotely. The 1970s was the decade of the Hulk on television, whose impact on seven year old Carter was immeasurable by any scale.

Marvel Comics wasn't necessarily blowing the doors off the creative Coup de Ville, but during the 1970s Marvel knew exactly how to talk to readers of any age. Readers wanted that included feeling, the clubhouse effect, of Marvel. All the Marvel readers were hip, they all knew the continuity, and they were getting exposed to some of the future artistic luminaries of the field just starting out (George Perez, John Byrne) and other legends of their decade (Barry Windsor Smith, Frank Brunner, Michael Golden.)

It hasn't been till recent times I've discovered the DC Comics of the 1970s. There was interesting things going on then. Some of it worked and some didn't. DC was competing with the runaway train of Marvel and trying new stuff, while trying to be the "down-home" comics tradition it had always been. Which didn't work, and ruined their one big coup (welcoming the greatest living artist and disgruntled primary creator of Marvel, Jack Kirby, into DC's ranks in 1970, ostensibly giving him control of his own books and then wresting that control away, alienating Kirby and driving him back to Marvel by 1975.) The sad thing is: DC could have competed. By 1981, according to stats from COMIC READER, DC's top seller, SUPERMAN at 195,000 sold, couldn't crack Marvel's Top Ten books, with AMAZING SPIDER-MAN nearly doubling DC's number one in sales. That's horrific.

Of course DC did finally reclaim a huge portion of that lost ground in the 1980s, but the worm has turned again. DC languishes far behind Marvel.

But what I've discovered in my aged years, the best of DC in the 1970s are some the best comics I've ever read, and speak to me more now than they ever could when I was a kid. Weird, that, considering Marvel's 1970s product supposedly targeted the college age, while DC retained their appeal to pre-teen readers. Yet I get more from the better DC comics of that era than from Marvel (well, barring MAN-THING or TOMB OF DRACULA.)

I've added some great Christmas-themed covers from the 1970s and slightly beyond, which bespeak of DC's bizarre approach to the Holidays. No garish Treasury Edition Holiday Specials for DC: the subtle implications of Christmas, in most cases, was supposed to clue you in. It's too bad we don't get these neat little zingers much anymore!

Nick Cardy

Jim Aparo

Jose Garcia Lopez

Joe Kubert

and Gil Kane round out the luminaries involved in these covers.

Friday Night Fights: Don't Bring a Hammer to a Hulk Fight!

It won't end well: Courtesy of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee from the Hulk's aborted first series (six issues)...the best part of this is the hammer flying off to the left of the redirected cannonball guy. I keep wondering where this guy ended up, and how many bones were broken before and after he lands. And god help anyone hit by that flying hammer.

http://www.spacebooger.com/ brings the cucumber to the facial!

A New Discovery, a Pulp Hero: Night Raven!

Not too long ago, I ran into a reference for this character in connection with PROJECT SUPERPOWERS spearheaded by Alex Ross, a project dealing with characters in the Public Domain, which means the characters' copyrights had lapsed over time (many from the 1940s) and allowed any creator to pick them up and use them as they see fit, based on the original incarnations.

Night Raven is included as a cameo, probably just as a homage. Still, I was intrigued.

Recently I ran into the above trade paperback of a Night Raven adventure, published in the mid-1990s. Apparently Night Raven had been around for a while, created for the "Marvel UK" line at the end of the 1970s.

Artist David Lloyd, most well-known in this here country for V FOR VENDETTA alongside Alan Moore, and John Bolton drew many of the back-up type stories of Night Raven, and Alan Moore apparently wrote some text pieces using the character.

Basically, Night Raven is a pure Pulp archetype, sprung from the Shadow and the Spider, with twin revolvers and a full dehumanizing face mask. In his spare time, he enjoys marking his kills with a raven brand as a warning to other criminals and evil-doers.

So essentially Night Raven was created just for me. When I stumbled across a Night Raven "graphic novel" I snatched it up.

Written by Jamie Delano (one of those Brit cats who seemed to take over where "Bigger Names" left off; he's worked on a bunch of stuff I hadn't read, but his name "seemed familiar" as the case is with writers of that time period not named Alan Moore or Warren Ellis or Grant Morrison, ect,) "House of Cards" shows a mysterious, shadowed janitor obsessed with a local moll/torch-singer. The janitor is the Night Raven, and he's busy trying to break the local mob. He's also a little bit off. His interior monologues come from the Travis Bickle school of crusader, the one who is going to hurt you to save you, whether you like it or not.

NIGHT RAVEN: HOUSE OF CARDS oozes a nasty Pulp/Noir ambiance. Night Raven is an unrepentant executioner who believes he can alter the doomed course of the gutter trash struggling all around him. He performs many of the usual obsessed hero functions, including annihilating anyone who gets in his way and marking them with his raven brand.

The surprising aspect of this book is how Delano and Lloyd manage to take a shadowed, creepy avatar of justice speaking in first person and still create concern for him. Night Raven is compelling, he must be followed. More than that, you feel sorry for him when the eventual whirlpool of hell destroys his innermost desires and leaves only the stench of blood and ruined lives over which he continues to seek meaning. In a way, it's almost like Night Raven is trying to find a face to wear, and among the denizens of the dark streets he might find it. But in the end, he's left still without an identity, only a purpose.

I loved this work, and I hope to find more soon as I can. HOUSE OF CARDS is not to be missed for a nice literary interpretation of the more vicious justice-committers in retro Pulp.

Images taken from some of the basic online reference pages, including this work to the left which is by the great Alan Davis.