The third and final volume in Collins' thematic trilogy of comics controversies: who really owned Superman, the Al Capp/Hal Fisher fued, and now this, Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1950's crusade against comic books that ultimately resulted in the creation of the self-censoring Comics Code Authority. A roman à clef, the book turns Dr. Wertham into Werner Frederick, Bill Gaines into Bob Price, Mad magazine into Craze, and so on. And it's all about what happens when one of the players in this comic imbroglio gets murdered. It's a lightly written, occasionally amusing mystery aimed at undiscriminating fans of comic book history, people who won't mind that the heroes (Jack and Maggie Starr) may inhabit the 1950s but think and behave like people from our own 20-teens, nor that Collins takes the path of least resistance (and highest personal resonance) by casting Wertham as evil, misguided, and foolish for daring to question the suitability of some comic stories and artwork for young readers. Takes its title from Wertham's own book, unintentionally preserving its warning to the unwary.
**
The third and final volume in Collins' thematic trilogy of comics controversies: who really owned Superman, the Al Capp/Hal Fisher fued, and now this, Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1950's crusade against comic books that ultimately resulted in the creation of the self-censoring Comics Code Authority. A roman à clef, the book turns Dr. Wertham into Werner Frederick, Bill Gaines into Bob Price, Mad magazine into Craze, and so on. And it's all about what happens when one of the players in this comic imbroglio gets murdered. It's a lightly written, occasionally amusing mystery aimed at undiscriminating fans of comic book history, people who won't mind that the heroes (Jack and Maggie Starr) may inhabit the 1950s but think and behave like people from our own 20-teens, nor that Collins takes the path of least resistance (and highest personal resonance) by casting Wertham as evil, misguided, and foolish for daring to question the suitability of some comic stories and artwork for young readers. Takes its title from Wertham's own book, unintentionally preserving its warning to the unwary.
0 Comments
** Short, unadorned potboiler, written on the heels of James Dickey's Deliverance (1970), about three couples whose white water rafting trip on the Salmon River in Idaho is crashed by four violent escaped convicts. Not in the least introspective, yet not hardboiled, either, as hero Jack Trahey intermittently wonders whether murderers and rapists deserve to die. Reduced to two couples for a 1975 TV movie starring Vince Edwards (Ben Casey), Carol Lynley, Vic Morrow, and Neville Brand. ***** Psychologically disturbed woman commits one crime too many, ending up in a coerced marriage with a man who believes he can help her. The basis for Alfred Hitchcock's film but with a significant difference in emphasis: the book isn't about a man trying to tame a woman; it's about a woman discovering that she has a problem. Written with humor and élan, Marnie emerges as one of the great women of genre fiction. She's pathological yet utterly charming. Marnie's crimes, however, are only one manifestation of her mental condition. The other is her detestation of men. One leads to her marriage, the other threatens to destroy it. It all plays out against a tense backdrop of jealousy, frustration, and intrigue. Quite possibly the best book ever adapted by Hitchcock. ** In Mexico, several self-involved young men and women hike to the site of a "fabled archaeological dig" (a mine shaft at the top of hill) and fall prey to a scary vine. Highly thought of horror novel might have been better if the characters, from whose various perspectives this story is told, weren't themselves the titular ruins or the subtext (the creeping decay of modern civilization) were more overt. As it is, this is an unpleasant and terminally frustrating read. Made into a film in 2008. ** Koontz shoots his wad with the ominous first half of this science fiction novel about a beautiful young woman who finds herself trapped in her own home, held prisoner by a sentient computer, the "enviromod" that runs the entire house. Degenerates rapidly thereafter as Koontz gives increasingly more time to the computer itself and its adolescent desire for sex and procreation. Made into a film in 1977 starring Julie Christie, and rewritten by the author in 1997 as entirely from the computer's point of view. **** Fine character study, even if the author himself doesn't appear to understand him. Meursault is a young Algerian man who never quite does anything the way society expects him to, including murder. He drifts through life entirely in the present, without regrets, without deep attachments, without empathy, and without a conscience. He is, in a word, pathological. The character is both beautifully consistent and remarkably true to life, and because Camus himself introduced murder into the equation, it might be said that this book provides excellent insight into a type of real life murderer, showing us that they aren't Jekyll and Hydes at all but how instead, for them, horror and normality spring from the same source and are connected by indifference. Nothing really frightening happens in this book, yet it is one of the scariest books you will ever read. Yet Camus later wrote of Meursault that he is a man "condemned because he does not play the game," which makes the poor guy sound like a victim himself. In fact, he is, just not for the reason Camus offers. At one point in the story, Meursault muses that he could have done things differently had he chosen to, and Camus seems to believe this. Yet the portrait he draws proves just the opposite: that Meursault is a man who is what he is, a victim of the genetic lottery, even less likely to act against his nature than the rest of us, being somewhat simpler than everyone else for the lack of certain basic human characteristics. This lack makes him fascinating, but we might all be better off if we reserved the bulk of our sympathy for his victim. ** Young spiritualist teams with old Indian medicine man to battle an evil spirit growing like a tumor on the body of an attractive young woman. Turns out the spirit belongs to a seventeenth century Native American who isn't too pleased with the white man. Masterton's first novel is sort of the kiddie (and possibly kidding) version of The Exorcist, mixed with superficial Indian lore, modern technology, and H. P. Lovecraft. Told in an irreverent tone to match the spiritualist's narration (he's a happy charlatan), but with buckets of blood and gore. Not amusing enough to be funny and not believable enough to be scary. Made into a movie in 1978, and followed by several sequels. **** Superior mystery, winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, introduces the character of Irwin Maurice Fletcher. Here, he's a hot-shot reporter working undercover to expose drug operations on a California beach when a rich industrialist makes him an offer he can't refuse: he'll pay Fletch fifty thousand dollars to kill him. Macdonald relies predominately on dialogue without adornment (James M. Cain-style) to reveal both the mystery and Fletch himself, who is funny, sarcastic, clever, and oddly romantic (a clear precursor to Nelson De Mille's John Corey). Not the "master of disguise" played so well by Chevy Chase in the movie adaptation, Fletch here is just as amusing as an accomplished manipulator of social intercourse, playing off people's expectations to get them to open up to a complete stranger. A fast and thoroughly entertaining read. Followed by Confess, Fletch. *** FBI trainee Clarice Starling is tapped to interview incarcerated psychiatrist-turned-serial-killer Hannibal Lecter in the hope he can shed some light on a series of murders in which women are partially skinned; Lecter obliges by doling out just enough information to keep Starling on the case. Features a better ending than its predecessor, Red Dragon, but falls short in nearly every other respect, with a less interesting killer and a bifurcated plot (the primary purpose of which is to set up Harris' next book in the series, Hannibal). Still, a satisfactory thriller, and the greenhorn Starling (though unnecessarily gorgeous) is appealing enough. Jodie Foster stars in the movie adaptation, directed by Jonathan Demme. **** Intelligient, perceptive, and well-voiced tale told by and about an alienated and undisciplined 17-year-old boy whose social and academic failures are a complete mystery to himself. The kid, Holden Caulfield, isn't always wrong in his antisocial observations (that is, he's rarely entirely wrong), which makes the book that much more readable, but may make it of questionable value to younger readers who may find in it more validation for similar views than cause for concern. Absolutely on the mark, though; so much so that the setting -- Pennsylvania and New York in the early 50s -- is almost irrelevant. Written with verve and humor, and, concerning Holden, not entirely depressing. |
KinoLivresBooks. Movies. Mostly. Archives
July 2017
Categories
All
|