Saturday, April 9, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE in "Thousand-Headed Man" Conclusion

When Last We left our Heroes...
James Bama cover for the paperback of the pulp novel. It was cropped and reused as the Gold Key comic's cover.
Doc Savage and his men are drawn to Cambodia to find a missing explorer and investigate a fabulous lost city and rumors of a "Thousand-Headed Man" who rules it.
Upon arriving, they are strafed by an aircraft owned by Sen Gat, who also seeks the lost city, and it's treasures...
The End of The Thousand-Headed Man.
But Doc Savage Will Return...
At least, that was the intent of the movie producers, who wanted to create a James Bond-level franchise, beginning with this novel.
Tune in Monday for that tale!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE in "Thousand-Headed Man" Part 2

An unmarked package thrown to Doc Savage at an airport contains only a plastic key.
When a trio of men seek the Man of Bronze to acquire the key, Monk drives them away with putrid-smelling gas.
Doc follows them to their leader, Sen Gat, and hypnotizes them all.
Sen Gat reveals he wants the key to use with one already in his possession to gain access to the mythical City of the Thousand-Headed Man in Cambodia. He also informs Savage that a third key, owned by the daughter of a famed husband-wife explorer team, is needed to complete the set and that he sent burglars to get it.
Savage races to the daughter's home, is almost skewered by a spear-wielding woman, and discovers Sen Gat's thieves, dead.
A newspaper photograph shows the girl who almost killed him, then escaped, is the explorers' daughter, Lucille.
Now, on to Part 2 of Doc Savage's only Silver Age adventure...
 How Will Doc and the Amazing Five Survive This Attack?
Tune in Tomorrow for the Exciting Conclusion!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE in "Thousand-Headed Man" Part 1

Have NO Fear! The Man of Bronze is HERE!
From 1966, a never-reprinted Silver Age tale, one of many one-shots from Gold Key based on classic properties during the Superhero '60s!
Script by Leo Dorfman, based on the novel by Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent).
Art by Jack Sparling.
The mystery deepens for the Man of Bronze...tomorrow!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

YouTube Wednesday: THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN "Flaming Havoc!"

Continuing our weekly feature "YouTube Wednesday"...
After the events of the first serial, Britt Reid and Kato head to Hawaii for a well-deserved vacation.
Unfortunately, Crime never takes a holiday.
In Reid's absence, a racketeer has managed to place one of his men as Managing Editor, killing any attempt by The Daily Sentinel to publish racket-busting exposés!
Lenore Case sees what's going on, but is powerless to stop it, since she's "only a secretary".
She telegraphs Reid, but the gangsters discover the publisher's on the way back and intercept him...


The Green Hornet serial did so well that Universal rushed a sequel into production within six months.
(It usually took a little longer than that, even for popular chapterplays. There were two-year gaps between each of the Flash Gordon serials.)
Warren Hull, who had recently played both Mandrake the Magician and The Spider in other serials replaced Gordon Jones as Britt Reid / The Green Hornet. In addition, the use of the voice of radio Green Hornet Al Hodge, when Reid was masked, was dropped.
Most of the first serial's cast returned, including Keye Luke as Kato, Anne Nagel as Lenore Case, and Wade Boteler as Mike Axford. However, Managing Editor Gunnigan is said to be incapacitated by a broken leg.
Following the same format as the first serial, The Hornet and Kato chip away at various rackets run by Crogan, played by Pierre Watkin (Perry White in the Superman serials), until the climactic confrontation in the final episode.

Want to see what happens next?
YouTube provider MedigoCobra has posted the entire serial HERE.
Or you can download it in a variety of formats HERE.

And don't forget to check out...
The Classic Green Hornet Store

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Weed of Crime Bears Profitable Fruit...

Conde Nast, the corporation that owns the rights to the Street & Smith pulps including The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Avenger, was swindled out of $8,000,000 by someone pretending to be their printing vendor!