Cover Cavalcade

 

DECEMBER IS DICK TRACY MONTH!

This 1976 paperback was part of a three-book series that taught me just how awesome Dick Tracy's comic strip adventures were.

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

Whelan's art graced a 1979 edition of Anderson's fun SF novel. 

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 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

 

A 1979 edition of Burroughs' novel. 

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 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

    

The first Xanth novel, published in 1977.  I think the series lost steam after the first six books, but the early ones were a ton of fun. 

Cover Cavalcade

 FEBRUARY IS MICHAEL WHELAN COVER ART MONTH!

 

This super-cool Elric cover is from 1976.

Cover Cavalcade

 

OCTOBER IS LONE RANGER MONTH!

An awesome paperback cover from 1976, reprinting a novel first published in 1936. I couldn't find an artist credit.

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February is KILLER ROBOT MONTH! This one is from 1955.

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January is Wooden Ships and Iron Men Month!

The artist of this 1975 cover is uncredited.

Revisting the Great Locomotive Chase

 

A few years ago, I wrote briefly about the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase, comparing it to Buster Keaton's comedy The General, since both were based on the same historical incident. 

I hadn't known the Disney film had been novelized until I ran across that novelization in a used bookstore. Naturally, I was obligated by Law and Nature to buy it. Written by MacLennan Roberts, the book uses both the film and historical documents to bring the story of the Andrews Raid to life.

Andrews--a spy for the Union during the Civil War--led a team of twenty men behind enemy lines and captured a train. Their intent was to burn key bridges as they rode north. They were foiled by the incredible persistance of the train's conductor, who relentless pursued them on foot, by hand car and by other trains he commandeered along the way. At one point, he was following them on a train that was running in reverse. 

It's an exciting piece of real-life history. The Disney film is a relatively accurate recreation of the event. The book retains and perhaps even expands this historical verisimilitude, with excellent prose and story construction. The action is exciting and the various characters all given their own personalities. 

There is one interesting thing to note about the novelization. The movie did not directly discuss the causes of the Civil War. Nor did it need to do so, just as a novel set in World War II doesn't necessarily need to discuss the politics and morality of the overall war. 

The book was also under no obligation to discuss the war's causes either. But it includes a very well-written scene in which some of the Union spies, posing as Confederates before the raid begins, stay with a Southern family. At first, at least one of the spies is beginning to feel guilty about lying to a nice family. Then word arrives about an escaped slave. The head of the family takes his dogs out to hunt down the slave, while the inate hatred of the slaves among the rest of the family becomes palpable. Even the otherwise genial matriarch casually expresses this hatred both in speech and mannerisms. 

There is no hint of the "Lost Cause" myth here. The book makes it very clear that slavery and the evils it generates are the main reasons the war is being fought. I found this very interesting--in 1956, the Lost Cause myth was still pretty prevelant in pop culture. We still end up respecting the train conductor for his tenacity and courage in chasing down the stolen train, but this passage makes it clear that there was no moral equivalency betwen the Union and the Rebs. 

So The Great Locomotive Chase is yet another item to keep an eye out for when you visit used bookstores. 

The Cover Demanded I Read It!

 

Jack Higgins (real name Harry Patterson), the author of seemingly countless (and usually excellent) adventure novels, died recently. His 1975 WWII thriller The Eagle has Landed is one of my favorite novels ever and I plan to re-read it within the next few weeks. 

But I had found the above novel in a used book store a few weeks ago and bought it mostly because that cover is simply awesome. Seriously, how can any sane man look at THAT cover and not want to read the book?

 I didn't know it was a Higgins book. Prior to hitting it big with Eagle, he used a number of psuedonyms and I simply didn't know that James Graham was one of them.

That is is a Higgins book was pointed out to me by several members of the wonderful Men's Adventure Paperbacks of the 20th Century Facebook group (the best group ever). So when Higgins' death was announced soon after that, I decided to read The Wrath of God (1971) right away.

And, gee whiz, it is good. Three men with violent backgrounds are in Mexico in 1922 and are forced to team-up--given the job of finding and killing a bandit leader.

What makes this novel extraordinary isn't just the strong, action-packed plot, but also the unusual characters. The first-person narrator is Emmett Keogh, a former terrorist (or freedom-fighter, depending on your point-of-view) whose background included a stint at medical school before being drawn into the Irish War of Independence and the ensuing Irish Civil War. One of his partners in the "kill the bandit" mission is Oliver Van Horne, a would-be priest turned bank robber. Van Horne carries a Tommy gun around in a Gladstone bag and he knows how to use it effectively.

Both are bitter and cynical, but Higgins manages to give them unique and three-dimensional personalities that allow for gradual, believable character growth. Higgins works events into the story that SHOULD be contrived and corny, but instead are a natural part of the story's flow and the various character arcs. For instance, Keogh--the former medical student--must at one point deliver a baby and deal with a breach birth. Van Horne, whose role in the mission includes pretending to be the new priest sent to a poor village, finds himself drawn into that role in reality. In both these cases, the potentially contrived plot twists seem right and natural. Though the novel does still reflect a cynicism about some aspects of human nature, it is overall a redemption story done right, with characters and emotions we think of as real.  And it does this without losing track of how messy real life it--there is also no guarantee of a happy ending for anyone.

As far as plot and action is concerned, the story steadily builds tension, punctuated by truly exciting action set pieces. The end scene, in which Keogh and the bandit leader stalk each other through an abandoned village, is superb. When the violence erupts in The Wrath of God, you know it's going to be good. 

Cover Cavalcade

 

This 1962 edition of Christie's 1928 novel features a cover by Harry Bennett.

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A Ken Kelly cover from 1982.

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A 1962 reprint of the original Buck Rogers novel. (Though he wasn't nicknamed Buck until he spun off into a comic strip.)

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From 1954. If I had been around in the 1950s and 1960s, I would have been starving and homeless because I would have been driven to spend every last cent I made on books with covers like this one. How can you NOT want to read it?

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An effective cover from 1951.

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By golly, I have no doubt he WOULD kill me next! From 1954.

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Yet another great cover by an unknown artist. From 1957.

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A great cover from 1954.

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The movie tie-in edition of one of Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake) excellent Parker novels. This edition was published in 1968.

Cover Cavalcade

 

From 1970. A superb Frank McCarthy cover for Elmore Leonard's second-best Western.