Radio Recap: Defense Attorney

"Ladies and gentlemen: To depend upon your judgment and to fulfill mine own obligation, I submit the facts, fully aware of my responsibility to my client and to you, as defense attorney."

Defense Attorney was a half-hour dramatic program about attorney Martha Ellis Bryant (Mercedes McCambridge) that aired on ABC from August 31, 1951 to December 30, 1952. It was originally sponsored by Clorets, later by Goodyear. The series' other regular was the character of Jud Barnes (Howard Culver), a newspaper reporter who would assist Martha on her cases and try to date her (but she always put her career first).

I'm a little surprised there's so little about Defense Attorney out there, considering in 1952 Mercedes McCambridge won the Radio/TV Mirror magazine award for "favourite dramatic actress." It certainly doesn't help that it aired on ABC, whose old-time radio archives are quite possibly the poorest of all the major networks.

The audition program (at which time the series was called the Defense Rests) lifted its plot (and lot of dialogue) directly from the 1948 movie Call Northside 777, only with attorney Martha replacing the film's reporter protagonist.

I find Defense Attorney to be an interesting program but it's not quite my speed; I think Mercedes McCamrbidge was one of radio's most talented performers but along a narrow range. Her voice was so bright and youthful I find she lacked the toughness that would have made the character of Martha a credible lawyer. Too often when Martha launched into impassioned courtroom speeches I found her delivery too gentle.

You can hear the 13 surviving episodes of Defense Attorney at the Old Time Radio Researchers Library at this link.

Guy de Maupassant in Old-Time Radio!

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a prolific author of short stories whose works were frequently adapted to the radio. I've blogged many times about adaptations of his short story "the Horla" (including Ernie Colon's adaptation in Inner Sanctum and Guillaume Sorel's Le Horla). "The Horla" adaptation on radio's Mystery in the Air was my introduction to Maupassant. I wound up reading English translations of all of his short stories based on how much I'd enjoyed "the Horla." Very little of his work could be considered horror; there was a lot of dark comedy in his writing and his works tended to be rather cynical. How faithful, then, could radio adaptations of his works truly be? I recently re-listened to all the old-time radio adaptations that are available of his works.

"The Coward" (1867) A man eager to fight a duel faces his own cowardice.

• Sleep No More (February 6, 1957) with Nelson Olmsted
• The World's Greatest Short Stories (November 12, 1940) with Nelson Olmsted

Nelson Olmsted had one of those voices that could make the telephone book seem dramatic. Both of these dramatic readings are good and faithful to the original story.

"The Hand" (1883) A man keeps a severed hand chained to a wall - for his own good!

• The Weird Circle (October 14, 1943)

The Weird Circle was not very faithful in adapting stories - their adaptation of "the Hand" is pretty faithful to the horror of the original story but lacks the dark humour of Maupassant's original text.

"The Horla" (1887) The story of a man haunted by an invisible presence.

• Columbia Workshop (November 7, 1937) with Alfred Shirley
• Inner Sanctum Mysteries (August 1, 1943)
• Mystery in the Air (August 21, 1947) with Peter Lorre
• The Weird Circle (October 24, 1943)

Peter Lorre's performance on Mystery in the Air remains an utter delight and it's impossible to top a man whose range had no top, but the other adaptations tried their best. The Weird Circle and Inner Sanctum Mysteries both made the mistake of having the Horla speak; it's a heckuva lot more frightening without a voice. The Columbia Workshop has music by Bernard Herrmann that's very similar to the compositions he used in the Mercury Theater on the Air's adaptation of Dracula a year later.

"Little Louise" (1867) A postman finds the remains of a murdered child.

• Theatre Royal (January 16, 1954) with Laurence Olivier

This is a decent adaptation, although it negates the bleak ending of the original text, which is disappointing.

"Mademoiselle Fifi" (1882) A lone Frenchwoman stands up to German invaders.

• Family Theater (September 14, 1949) with Wendell Corey

Although this obviously had nothing to do with World War II when it was written, in 1949 it would have been on everyone's minds. It's an okay adaptation, but the original text is a bit too naughty for Family Theater.

"The Necklace" (1884) A woman borrows her friend's valued necklace and loses it, then ruins her life trying to replace it.

• Family Theater (June 29, 1949) with Edgar Barrier
• Favorite Story (October 7, 1947) with Hans Conreid
• Hollywood's Open House (June 17, 1948) with Martha Scott
• Railroad Hour (July 14, 1952)
• The Unexpected (1948) with Gerald Mohr
• Your Playhouse of Favorites (April 22, 1948)

This is easily the most beloved of Maupassant's stories and the adaptations are very faithful. I have to really highlight that Railroad Hour production as something different - the entire drama is sung as though it were an opera (music by Cesar Franck)!

"A Piece of String" (1883) A man pauses to claim a lost piece of string, setting in motion his downfall in society.

• Favorite Story (September 21, 1948) with Herb Butterfield
• Hollywood's Open House (August 12, 1948)
• Radio Hall of Fame (March 18, 1945) with Claude Rains
• Radio Reader's Digest (October 30, 1947 with Claude Rains

A very good story; the Favorite Story version is a bit padded but Claude Rains' two adaptations are very good as he covers the protagonist's mounting desperation perfectly.

"The Rope of Hair" (1884) A man searching for a diary encounters a ghost.

• The Weird Circle (May 5, 1944)

Some doubt whether Maupassant was the author of this story (as it wasn't published under his name) but it's widely considered to be one of his. This Weird Circle adaptation is okay, but takes such pains to explain everything that the supernatural goings-on are robbed of suspense.

My major take away from these adaptations is that Maupassant was a bit too saucy for the conservative radio shows of the 30s-50s. Still, most of the adaptations of "the Horla," "the Necklace" and "a Piece of String" were very faithful to the original text. I think Maupassant came off well more often than not in his adapted works.

Radio Recap: Box 13

Box 13 was a half-hour syndicated program from 1947 produced by Mayfair, starring Alan Ladd as Dan Holiday. In the series, Dan was a writer who sought inspiration for stories in an unusual manner - he placed an ad in the Star-Times: "Adventure wanted - will go anywhere, do anything - Box 13."

Initially Dan would check with the scatterbrained Star-Times receptionist Suzy (Sylvia Picker) to learn if there had been responses to his ad. After the first few episodes, Suzy became his personal secretary and remained in that role from then on; Suzy was there primarily for comic relief. Often episodes ended with Dan, exasperated, declaring: "Good night, Suzy!" It was a little too similar to how Effie was portrayed on the Adventures of Sam Spade - except Suzy was the dumbest of all Dumb Doras in radiodom.

Everything about Box 13 was very smooth and competant, with the supporting players all professional actors. However, despite the series' "do anything" premise (that it shared with Let George Do It), I personally find the series is mostly a beige haze with little to set one episode apart from another.

Yet some episodes stand out; in "Three to Die," Dan worked among sandhogs and was nearly murdered through the 'bends'; in "Death Is a Doll," Dan tackled a case involving voodoo! In "Find Me, Find Death," Dan was stalked by a psychopath who took Dan's advertisement as a personal challenge!

The Old Time Radio Researchers have a YouTube playlist containing every episode of Box 13!

Creator Credits for Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

In brief: We seem to have reached a state where, between this and Superman, super hero filmmakers are tired of retelling origin stories and would rather hit the ground running. Which, the film certainly does have a steady pace.

As always, this represents my attempt at providing credit to those comic book creators whose works were seen in a Marvel Cinematic Universe property. If you recognize something I missed, tell me in the comments. My master list of Marvel Cinematic Universe credits is right here.

Jack Kirby: creator of H.E.R.B.I.E., robot companion of the Fantastic Four; co-creator of the Fantastic Four, a team of four adventurers who attempted a space launch that ended disastrously when cosmic radiation granted them superhuman powers; of Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, scientist and leader of the Fantastic Four with the ability to stretch his body to incredible lengths; of the Invisible Girl, Susan Storm, girlfriend of Reed Richards with the ability to render herself invisible; of the Thing, Ben Grimm, Reed's best friend and pilot, body mutated into orange, rocky form granting him superhuman strength; of the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, Susan's brother, with the ability surround himself in flames and fly, generating heat and flame as an offensive attack; of Johnny's love of high-speed racing; of the Mole Man, enemy of the Fantastic Four who considers himself an outcast, lives underground, wears protective goggles; of Giganto, an enormous green monster who serves the Mole Man (Fantastic Four #1, 1961); of the Fantastic Four wearing blue uniforms with a '4' on their chest; of the Fantasticar, flying vehicle used by the Fantastic Four; of the Thing and Human Torch having a squabbling relationship; of the Baxter Building, the Manhattan skyscraper which serves as the Fantastic Four's home; of the Human Torch shouting "Flame on!" and "Flame off!" as he uses his powers; of the Human Torch using the trails of his flame to create a giant '4' in the sky (Fantastic Four #3, 1962); of Dr. Doom, armored scientist garbed in green (Fantastic Four #5, 1962); of Dr. Doom wearing a green cloak; of the Thing visiting Yancy Street (Fantastic Four #6, 1962); of the Puppet Master, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #8, 1962); of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby being present within the Fantastic Four's adventures (Fantastic Four #10, 1963); of the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, a Russian spy with superhuman powers who battles the Fantastic Four with his superhuman ape companions; of the Fantastic Four visiting Earth's moon (Fantastic Four #13, 1963); of the Fantastic Four as celebrities with their own fan club (Fantastic Four #14, 1963); of the Mad Thinker, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #15, 1963); of the Invisible Girl gaining the ability to generate a force field; of the Thing going into battle yelling, "It's clobbering time!"; of Subterranea, the underground kingdom ruled by the Mole Man (Fantastic Four #22, 1964); of Diablo, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #30, 1964); of Susan and Johnny's mother dying in a car accident when they were teenagers, the incident traumatizing their father (Fantastic Four #32, 1964); of Galactus, immense cosmic being who devours planets, opposes the Fantastic Four when he attempts to devour Earth; of Galactus' spherical spaceship used for consuming planets; of the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus, wields the Power Cosmic, flies through space upon a surfboard (Fantastic Four #48, 1966); of the Silver Surfer turning against Galactus and helping the Fantastic Four save their planet from being devoured (Fantastic Four #50, 1966); of Galactus' blue bodysuit (Fantastic Four #74, 1968); of Susan and Reed's son named as Franklin Richards (Fantastic Four #94, 1970); of Latveria, European nation (Fantastic Four Annual #2, 1964); of Reed Richards and Susan Storm being married (Fantastic Four Annual #3, 1965); of Susan announcing her pregnancy to her family (Fantastic Four Annual #5, 1967); of Susan giving birth to she and Reed's son (Fantastic Four Annual #6, 1968); of a female version of the Silver Surfer (Silver Surfer, 1978); of the Wizard, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Strange Tales #102, 1962); of Galactus being the last survivor of the previous universe's existence (Thor #162, 1969)

Stan Lee: co-creator of the Fantastic Four, a team of four adventurers who attempted a space launch that ended disastrously when cosmic radiation granted them superhuman powers; of Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, scientist and leader of the Fantastic Four with the ability to stretch his body to incredible lengths; of the Invisible Girl, Susan Storm, girlfriend of Reed Richards with the ability to render herself invisible; of the Thing, Ben Grimm, Reed's best friend and pilot, body mutated into orange, rocky form granting him superhuman strength; of the Human Torch, Johnny Storm, Susan's brother, with the ability surround himself in flames and fly, generating heat and flame as an offensive attack; of Johnny's love of high-speed racing; of the Mole Man, enemy of the Fantastic Four who considers himself an outcast, lives underground, wears protective goggles; of Giganto, an enormous green monster who serves the Mole Man (Fantastic Four #1, 1961); of the Fantastic Four wearing blue uniforms with a '4' on their chest; of the Fantasticar, flying vehicle used by the Fantastic Four; of the Thing and Human Torch having a squabbling relationship; of the Baxter Building, the Manhattan skyscraper which serves as the Fantastic Four's home; of the Human Torch shouting "Flame on!" and "Flame off!" as he uses his powers; of the Human Torch using the trails of his flame to create a giant '4' in the sky (Fantastic Four #3, 1962); of Dr. Doom, armored scientist garbed in green (Fantastic Four #5, 1962); of Dr. Doom wearing a green cloak; of the Thing visiting Yancy Street (Fantastic Four #6, 1962); of the Puppet Master, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #8, 1962); of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby being present within the Fantastic Four's adventures (Fantastic Four #10, 1963); of the Red Ghost and his Super Apes, a Russian spy with superhuman powers who battles the Fantastic Four with his superhuman ape companions; of the Fantastic Four visiting Earth's moon (Fantastic Four #13, 1963); of the Fantastic Four as celebrities with their own fan club (Fantastic Four #14, 1963); of the Mad Thinker, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #15, 1963); of the Invisible Girl gaining the ability to generate a force field; of the Thing going into battle yelling, "It's clobbering time!"; of Subterranea, the underground kingdom ruled by the Mole Man (Fantastic Four #22, 1964); of Diablo, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #30, 1964); of Susan and Johnny's mother dying in a car accident when they were teenagers, the incident traumatizing their father (Fantastic Four #32, 1964); of Galactus, immense cosmic being who devours planets, opposes the Fantastic Four when he attempts to devour Earth; of Galactus' spherical spaceship used for consuming planets; of the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus, wields the Power Cosmic, flies through space upon a surfboard (Fantastic Four #48, 1966); of the Silver Surfer turning against Galactus and helping the Fantastic Four save their planet from being devoured (Fantastic Four #50, 1966); of Galactus' blue bodysuit (Fantastic Four #74, 1968); of Susan and Reed's son named as Franklin Richards (Fantastic Four #94, 1970); of Latveria, European nation (Fantastic Four Annual #2, 1964); of Reed Richards and Susan Storm being married (Fantastic Four Annual #3, 1965); of Susan announcing her pregnancy to her family (Fantastic Four Annual #5, 1967); of Susan giving birth to she and Reed's son (Fantastic Four Annual #6, 1968); of Shalla-Bal, an extraterrestrial woman whose world Zenn-La was threatened by Galactus, connected to the Silver Surfer; of the Silver Surfer's world Zenn-La threatened by Galactus, choosing to become Galactus' herald in order to spare the planet (Silver Surfer #1, 1968); of a female version of the Silver Surfer (Silver Surfer, 1978); of the Wizard, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Strange Tales #102, 1962); of Galactus being the last survivor of the previous universe's existence (Thor #162, 1969)

John Buscema: co-creator of Franklin Richards having vast cosmic powers (Fantastic Four #130, 1973); of Shalla-Bal, an extraterrestrial woman whose world Zenn-La was threatened by Galactus, connected to the Silver Surfer; of the Silver Surfer's world Zenn-La threatened by Galactus, choosing to become Galactus' herald in order to spare the planet (Silver Surfer #1, 1968)

John Byrne: creator of the Fantastic Four wearing costumes with a white neck (Fantastic Four #256, 1983); of Susan Storm calling herself the Invisible Woman (Fantastic Four #283, 1985); co-creator of Yancy Street as Ben Grimm's original borough (the Thing #1, 1983)

Carl Burgos: creator of the Human Torch, a man with the ability to surround himself in a sheathe of flame, generating heat and flame and with the power of flight (Marvel Comics #1, 1939)

Jim Krueger: co-creator of Franklin Richards seen as a successor to Galactus (Earth X #10, 2000); of Shalla-Bal as the Silver Surfer (Earth X #12, 2000)

Alex Ross: co-creator of Franklin Richards seen as a successor to Galactus (Earth X #10, 2000); of Shalla-Bal as the Silver Surfer (Earth X #12, 2000)

John Paul Leon: co-creator of Franklin Richards seen as a successor to Galactus (Earth X #10, 2000); of Shalla-Bal as the Silver Surfer (Earth X #12, 2000)

Jonathan Hickman: co-creator of the Future Foundation, an organization run by the Fantastic Four to better the world (Fantastic Four #576, 2010)

Dale Eaglesham: co-creator of the Future Foundation, an organization run by the Fantastic Four to better the world (Fantastic Four #576, 2010)

Tom DeFalco: co-creator of the Invisible Woman's force field being so powerful it can repel cosmic beings (Fantastic Four #400, 1995)

Paul Ryan: co-creator of the Invisible Woman's force field being so powerful it can repel cosmic beings (Fantastic Four #400, 1995)

Brandon Choi: co-creator of the Excelsior as the name of the Fantastic Four's spacecraft (Fantastic Four #1, 1996)

Jim Lee: co-creator of the Excelsior as the name of the Fantastic Four's spacecraft (Fantastic Four #1, 1996)

Roger Stern: co-creator of the Mole Man's real name as Harvey Elder (Marvel Universe #4, 1998)

Mike Manley: co-creator of the Mole Man's real name as Harvey Elder (Marvel Universe #4, 1998)

Ron Wilson: co-creator of Yancy Street as Ben Grimm's original borough (the Thing #1, 1983)

Larry Lieber: co-creator of the Wizard, enemy of the Fantastic Four (Strange Tales #102, 1962)

Karl Kesel: co-creator of the Thing being Jewish (Fantastic Four #56, 2002)

Stuart Immonen: co-creator of the Thing being Jewish (Fantastic Four #56, 2002)

Roy Thomas: co-creator of Franklin Richards having vast cosmic powers (Fantastic Four #130, 1973)

Radio Recap: Dragnet

"Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."

Dragnet is one of the best-remembered and still popular old-time radio shows of them all. It can be genuinely credited with altering not just the genre of police/crime radio dramas but the way in which radio drama was depicted from then on - to say nothing of the show's vast influence on television, particularly on Dick Wolf's Law and Order franchise. The original radio series was heard over NBC from January 1949 until March 1957 - although the show's final original episode was "the Big Close" (September 20, 1955) and all subsequent episodes were rebroadcasts.

The series originated with Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough as detective sergeants Joe Friday and Ben Romero, serving under chief of detectives Ed Backstrand (Raymond Burr), later Thad Brown (various actors). It's kind of amazing that a number of early episodes of Dragnet feature appearances by Harry Morgan as a variety of minor characters; nearly 2 decades later, he became famous as Joe Friday's TV partner Bill Gannon on the colour version of Dragnet.

The show hit perhaps its finest note when Barton Yarborough passed away during the show's 3rd season. Rather than eliminating the character of Ben Romero as though he'd never existed, it was written into the first episode following Yarborough's death- "the Big Sorrow" (December 27, 1951) in which Romero was killed and Friday must inform his family. Amazingly, that episode was also adapted to the Dragnet television show a year later.

Following Yarborough/Romero's death, Friday's new partner was Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), then Ben Romero's nephew Bill Lockwood (Martin Milner and Ken Peters) and finally Frank Smith who was portrayed by various actors until Ben Alexander took over the role in 1952 and held it through the Dragnet television series and feature film.

NBC was not known for giving a lot of rope to sustained programs (unlike CBS) but Dragnet wasn't sustained for very long; after it's successful run of summer shows in 1949, by the fall it was sponsored by Fatima cigarettes, who covered the series for many years to come; Webb performed in the commercials, giving testimonials about how fine Fatimas were.

Dragnet inspired a host of imitators, some I've written about before on the blog, most notably the Line-Up, 21st Precinct and Whitehall 1212. It set off a wave of programming that sought to find new angles on presenting crimes with authentic details; it's hard to imagine shows like Night Watch or Confession being greenlit had it not been for Dragnet proving there was audience interested in such programs. John Dunning noted in On the Air that Dragnet was also frequently compared to Gunsmoke, despite the differences in style and genre. Listeners recognized that both shows were striving for authentic-sounding realistic programming in genres that didn't always strive for such versimilitude.

Of course, Dragnet learned from its predecessors, improving upon the programming choices Calling All Cars and Gang Busters had made, kicking to the curb a lot of the tired old tropes of police dramas. But then, Dragnet itself became something that was seen as a bit tired and trope-y; certainly, you hear a lot of the same voices in each episode and also a lot of the same character types - the sullen youth, the indignant suspect, the gabby woman.

Television came upon Dragnet quickly; the series Chesterfield Sound Off ran a pilot for Dragnet on December 16, 1951 with the radio script from "City Hall Bombing" (July 21, 1949) and Webb and Yarborough reprising their characters. Their own television series debuted the following month but sadly, due to Yarborough's death, he only appeared in the first episode. The television version ran until the summer of 1959, during which Webb and Alexander also starred in the 1954 Dragnet feature film. Dragnet returned for a 1967-1970 run as a colour television program with Jack Webb starring opposite Harry Morgan.

Although Webb's particular clipped manner of speech had led him to being a subject of parody since all the way back to Pat Novak, for Hire, Dragnet's distinctive music, narration and performance style made it especially ripe for parody. Fortunately, Webb was usually a pretty good sport about that, giving his blessing to Stan Freberg for his comedy record "St. George and the Dragonet," even supplying Dragnet's musicians to supply the score for the sketch. Webb was also not above parodying Joe Friday himself in comedy sketches with Jack Benny and Johnny Carson on television.

However, the 1967-1970 Dragnet series brought in some less-than-affectionate parody, particularly because that series was essentially the same as the 1951-1959 series, only in colour. It was seen as hopelessly behind-the-times and out-of-touch, especially in its attempts to depict the ill effects of drug use (a long-time Dragnet staple), which tended to result in ridiculously hammy performances by the actors portraying addicts. Perhaps that's why the next time Dragnet was revived it was as a parody - the 1987 Dan Ackroyd/Tom Hanks comedy film (with Harry Morgan reprising his role from the '67-70 series). Of course, Jack Webb had died in 1982; he didn't see what had become of the franchise that made him famous.

Dragnet continued to be revived and for all I know, even as I type this, someone in Hollywood is trying to bring it back again. It came back in 1989 as a syndicated series starring Jeff Osterhage and Bernard White as brand-new protagonists; that series is mostly forgotten now. In 2003, Dick Wolf (whose Law and Order franchise had looked to Dragnet for inspiration) revived the series with Ed O'Neill and Ethan Embry as Friday and Smith; it lasted two very truncated seasons.

I'm particularly partial to the first year of Dragnet; the emphasis on action is a little bit stronger and I find Barton Yarborough to be Webb's best sidekick, his vocal twang being endlessly fun to listen to (I also appreciate hearing Raymond Burr in the majority of episodes). To me, the best of the early days include "the Werewolf" (June 17, 1949), the police impersonator in "the Red Light Bandit" (July 14, 1949), the mad bomber who tries to blow up city hall in "City Hall Bombing" (July 21, 1949) and the emotional Christmas episode ".22 Rifle for Christmas" (December 22, 1949).

The rest of Dragnet is good - the quality of the series' production values, writing and performances don't vary much across the years, even as Webb moved on to other partners for Joe Friday. Some episodes I enjoy include: Friday trying to prevent a suicide "the Big Jump" (January 11, 1951); the horrific fate of neglected children "the Big Children" (February 1, 1951); Friday and Romero interrogating a suspect who has a lot to say "the Big Cast" (February 8, 1951); Joe being injured, causing Ben to assume the lead and narration "the Big Ben" (March 15, 1951); an apparent suicide investigation "the Big Casing" (May 3, 1951); the two-part "The Big Mask" featuring an elusive masked bandit (December 28, 1952 and January 4, 1953; and the show's more heart-warming Christmas episode "the Big Little Jesus" (December 22, 1953).

I think it's a shame Webb decided at some stage that every episode should be "the Big"-something. It's harder to recommend Dragnet to fellow OTR fans when it takes so much work to figure out which of the 300+ episodes were the good ones; I think Webb wanted the titles to be stark, but they're also rather bland.

There are hundreds of Dragnet episodes online; some are network versions, others are clipped versions from the Armed Forces. Here's the Old Time Radio Researchers' YouTube playlist:

"But... we're so close to the miracle!" Usagi Yojimbo: Ten Thousand Plums review

Usagi Yojimbo: Ten Thousand Plums is the most recent entry in Stan Sakai's long-lived Usagi Yojimbo series. The series came back to Dark Horse Comics in 2023 but instead of an ongoing series, it's now a series of limited series.

However, Stan Sakai still writes Usagi Yojimbo the same way; although Usagi Yojimbo: Ten Thousand Plums is a five-issue mini-series, it is not a five-issue story! It's actually a three-issue story ("Ten Thousand Plums") followed by a two-issue story ("Tabo"). As before, Stan Sakai wrote, drew and lettered the series; Emi Fujii is the current colourist.

In "Ten Thousand Plums," Usagi, his cousin Yukichi and their friend Gen visited the Valley of Ten Thousand Plum Trees, where a massive grove of plum trees belonging to the shogun is kept. However, a supernatural fox who was wronged by the locals in the past plots vengeance by destroying the grove.

In "Tabo," Usagi and Yukichi travel with a number of pilgrims headed to a Buddhist shrine - but these pilgrims aren't Buddhists, they're Christians who believe the shrine is actually celebrating the Biblical Mary and that the shrine's statue can perform miracles. This brings up matters concerning Christians in feudal Japan that the Usagi Yojimbo series has visited before, as in Usagi Yojimbo: The Hidden. And since this is a world where many supernatural things exist, the characters have good reason to believe in the miracles!

The most touching part of "Tabo," however, is the afterword, where Stan describes his brother, who had recently passed away and inspired the titular Tabo of his story.

Usagi Yojimbo remains one my greatest delights in today's comic books and I'm so happy Sakai has managed to keep the series running these 40 years!

A most honourable publication

Judge was a US humour magazine that ran from October 29, 1881 until October, 1947. It was a weekly publication for most of its history but during the Great Depression, it became a monthly series as of 1932. It started out as a 16-page publication but went to 24 pages in 1910 and up to 36 in 1919; Christmas issues were much larger (sometimes up to 84 pages). Typically the front and back covers were in colour along with the 2-page centerspread illustration; by the 1910s, more of the interior started to feature colour (and the centerspreads were phased out) but it remained mostly black and white.

Judge grew out of the humour magazine Puck and most of its original staff of cartoonists had previously been published in that magazine; Judge wound up outliving Puck by quite a margin. Comparing early Judge issues to contemporaneous issues of Puck, you'll find the layout and format are practically identical; Judge eventually found a format all its own (which Life then copied to some extent). Judge was initially fairly political; the centerspread cartoon and covers for the first few decades were usually a work of political commentary or satire, but the magazine seemed much less interested in political fare after World War I (though never entirely out of it).

I became interested in examining Judge because it contained a lot of cartoons and some of the names are still known to fans of early comic strips: Bill Holman, R. B. Fuller, C. W. Kahles, John Randolph Bray, James Montgomery Flagg, Milt Gross, Art Helfant, Marge, Percy Crosby, Frank Beaven, Art Young, John Held Jr., S. J. Perelman, Otto Soglow; there's also quite a lot of early work by Dr. Seuss (the book Just What the Doctor Disordered is still in-print and contains many of Seuss' cartoons for Judge).

Initially, the magazine's top cartoonist was Eugene Zimmerman (aka "Zim"). Zimmerman stuck with Judge for decades, up to 1931. Zimmerman had a huge influence on the look of the cartoons and it seems clear to me that cartoonist T. S. Sullivant deliberately tried to copy his style (R. B. Fuller's early work for Judge also looked like Zimmerman's, but he grew out of it quickly). Grant E. Hamilton was the magazine's art editor for the first few decades and also contributed a lot of art to the magazine. Bernhard Gillam contributed most of the early years' covers and centerspreads, with his brother Victor Gillam following in his footsteps.

I've looked at issues from every year of Judge's publication and the trends across time are interesting to observe. Throughout the years of Prohibition, Judge mocked it mercilessly; there were many, many cartoons celebrating liquor and noting that everyone was drinking it, regardless of the law. A more unusual trend were the jokes about automobiles from around 1900-1930; it was pretty common to see more than one cartoon per issue about a pedestrian being hit by a car.

Another interesting trend is that in the magazine's early years, from time to time they ran cartoons with talking animals, particularly by H. C. Greening, Gus Dirks and John Randolph Bray; in the early 20s, Charles A. Hughes even had a recurring feature called Hughes' Zoo. I noticed the talking animal cartoons mostly disappeared after Norman Anthony became editor.

Judge loved golf, so much so that in the 1920s they usually gave over 2 pages to articles and cartoons about golf. I was also amazed by the crossword puzzle phenomenon; I didn't realize crossword puzzles were such a big deal in the 1920s but Judge had entire theme issues about them!

It was also interesting to follow Judge's jokes about William Jennings Bryan. Judge was politically a Republican publication and always took aim at Democrats, but Bryan was the gift who kept giving, since he remained in politics for so many decades and unsuccessfully ran for President three times during Judge's publishing years. When Bryan immersed himself in the 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" (in what was the last year of his life) it proved to be one last gift to Judge, as they were able to mock him before a new generation of readers.

It was heartening to find Judge was very anti-Klan, especially in the 1920s when the Klan was at its peak; although Judge ran plenty of racist cartoons of Black people in their early years, they'd mostly grown out of it by the 20s and seemed to have no problem mocking the Klan. It's also interesting that while in their first few decades Judge loved to make jokes about the Irish, they never seemed to take much interest in cartoons about Asian, Jewish or Mexican people, who were frequent targets in other publications.

Judge frequently ran theme issues, particularly in the 1920s under editor Norman Anthony (Anthony brought a lot of great talent to Judge, including Dr. Seuss; he eventually left Judge to become editor of Life and later still Ballyhoo). The theme issues included issues where college students created most of the issue's contents (among them in one issue was Chester Gould, years before Dick Tracy!). Other theme issues were designed as mock-ups of other famous magazines like the Saturday Evening Post. A lot of the satirical content in these issues - especially the fake advertisements - point to how much Anthony must have influenced Harvey Kurtzman's Mad.

Of course, Harold Ross was also briefly an editor on Judge; supposedly it was his time on Judge that inspired his publication, the New Yorker, which has been credited with cannibalizing Judge's audience and leading to its demise.

Judge had a number of recurring features, the best-remembered of which was Nervy Nat, a full-page comic book story initially created by James Montgomery Flagg (later by Fred Lewis). Nervy Nat wound up starring in a collection of his Judge strips and was adapted into four short motion pictures. Another was Little Johnny and His Teddy Bears by John Randolph Bray, which started simply tying into the teddy bear crazy of President Roosevelt's presidency; when Taft took office Bray tried to keep it going as Little Johnny and His Taffy Possums (I'm serious) to considerable less success. Gus Dirks had a series of Bugville strips that eventually received their own books. In the early 1900s there were a lot of "In Topsyturvy Land" cartoons, usually by H. C. Greening.

One of the magazine's longest-running recurring features was Laughs from the Shows, which shared a few jokes from a popular Broadway comedy alongside caricatures of the performers. It was initially by Robert Patterson but Jefferson Machamer stuck with it the longest. Another running feature was Laughs from Other Lands (often altered into various similar titles) where they ran cartoons from other countries, often translated from German, Spanish or French.

There were also recurring features C. D. Russell's Pete (who got his own comic strip later on), Bruce Bairnsfather's Old Bill, C. W. Kahles' Yarns of Captain Fibb, Marge's Dotty Declares, W. G. Farr's In the Year 2000, R. B. Fuller's Scrambled History, and various features by Charles Forbell such as Unconventional Conventions, Club Life in America or In Ancient Times.

As a publishing entity, Judge also printed a number of books - not just collections of Nervy Nat and Little Johnny but also a publication called Caricature that featured a few hundred pages' worth of Judge text features and cartoons. There were also a few books of Eugene Zimmerman's cartoons and at least one of Flagg's. But Judge also published completely unrelated material, such as reprinting stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Guy de Maupassant and Robert Louis Stevenson.

I've enjoyed delving into Judge, it's been an interesting journey and I'll probably continue to sift through issues now and then -- the Internet Archive have a very good collection of Judge scanned from microfilm that's almost complete from the first issue up until the magazine changed ownership in 1940. Judge at the Internet Archive.

Columbo's Day

Over the last two years I slowly watched every single Columbo movie/episode, from 1968's Prescription: Murder to 2003's Columbo Likes the Nightlife. Columbo was a program I knew a little about - I knew it starred Peter Falk as a slovenly detective who seemed distracted and disorganized but was always working steadily to build a case against a criminal; I knew the "one more thing..." line; I knew the format would feature the murder at the beginning so that the audience was always aware of who the killer was (as I discovered, though, there were exceptions to the format). But I'd never actually watched a Columbo until I sat down and started with Prescription: Murder, way back at the beginning.

I suppose one of the questions I had about the series was how it functioned as a mystery program when the killer was always known at the top of the drama. As I discovered, that's the key to what makes Columbo interesting to watch - to guess at what vital mistake the killer made. Particularly during 1971-76, the period where Columbo was a regularly-scheduled program (as opposed to a now-and-then TV movie), the killer was often presented as the point-of-view character, with Columbo on the fringes (often Columbo wouldn't appear until after the first half-hour). Now, not every Columbo featured a great mistake on the killer's part; the lazy path was for Lt. Columbo to simply doubt the killer's alibi because of an unusual piece of evidence and then wear him down until he confessed; the best Columbo episodes, though, had a piece of evidence that was set up at the beginning that would come back at the climax in a satisfying way. The episode "Lovely But Lethal" had a particuarly great example of that.

Because the show often followed the killer's perspective, I did find myself strangely rooting for them to outsmart Columbo, even though I knew it was impossible (it's Columbo's show, after all). There are also many, many times I noted that if the killer had simply refused to talk to Columbo or insisted on having a lawyer present, Columbo would never have obtained the information he needed to force a confession (since Columbo usually had, at best, very flimsy circumstancial evidence). In the 70s, though, usually the killer's biggest problem would arrive in the last half-hour when they'd attempt to throw Columbo off their trail by committing another crime (even another murder) that would instead backfire big time.

I found the series at its weakest when it meddled with the format; there are some - particularly in the final years - where there isn't even a murder or where the murder isn't depicted on screen, which means the viewers weren't given all the information they were normally supplied with. Falk's always great in the role, but the 1989-2003 movies are a huge step down from what had come before. I cringed particularly while watching the final movie, Columbo Likes the Nightlife, which is painfully trying to be a hip 2003 program (with a soundtrack that sounded imitative of Run, Lola, Run) and the last thing Columbo, of all programs, should ever have tried to be was "hip." It's far more dated than most of the 70s episodes.

For my money, the best episodes of Columbo were in the 70s; my favourites are: "Blueprint for Murder"; "Dagger of the Mind"; "The Most Dangerous Match"; "Any Old Port in a Storm"; "A Friend in Deed"; "Negative Reaction"; and "How to Dial a Murder."

Throughout, there were a lot of familiar names I was happy to see; it was certainly a surprise that the first actual episode of the Columbo series was written by Steven Bochco and directed by Steven Spielberg! And I enjoyed seeing actors like Patrick McGoohan, Robert Vaughn, Dean Stockwell, Robert Culp, Roddy McDowell, Ray Milland, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Donald Pleasence, Johnny Cash, Dick Van Dyke, Ida Lupino and William Shatner to say nothing of before-they-were-famous appearances by the likes of Martin Sheen and Jamie Lee Curtis. Even in the show's twilight years I appreciated seeing the likes of Robert Foxworth, George Wendt, Richard Riehle and Billy Connolly.

I found I really enjoyed the "how catch 'em" variant to the whodunnit; I'd seen it done before in the play and film of Dial 'M' for Murder (note that John Williams played a very Columbo-like detective in the Hitchcock film version; Williams was also on a Columbo episode!) but Columbo did it so well that I went looking for other examples of the format in mystery fiction. It seems as though R. Austin Freeman's stories of Dr. Thorndyke from the 1910s might be the first stories told in that manner. I also sought out the short story "Prescription: Murder" was based on ("Dear Corpus Delicti" by William Link) and the first TV movie that was made from the resulting play Enough Rope. I definitely recommend the Dr. Thorndyke stories and, even if you've seen "Prescription: Murder" you should read the original "Dear Corpus Delicti" because it's got an amazing surprise ending that's different from the Columbo version.

I'm happy I took the time to watch the entire series, it was very rewarding.

Radio Recap: Dangerous Assignment

"Bagdad! Martinique! Singapore! And all the places of the world where danger and intrigue walk hand-in-hand! There you will find Steve Mitchell on another Dangerous Assignment!"

Dangerous Assignment was a half-hour espionage and adventure program that starred Brian Donlevy as the heroic Steve Mitchell, a government agent who would often pose as a journalist while journeying around the world. His boss was a commissioner portrayed by Herb Butterfield and Betty Moran played the commissioner's secretary (who was only heard in the earliest episodes). It was an NBC program and aired four years from July 9, 1949 until July 1, 1953. After the show wrapped up it was revived in Australia as a syndicated program with Lloyd Berrell as Steve Mitchell; the Aussie version ran 1954-1955.

Donlevy was supported by a number of familiar radio voices such as Paul Frees, Betty Lou Gerson, Stacy Harris, Peter Leeds, Virginia Gregg, Ben Wright and William Conrad.

Dangerous Assignment feels a bit similar to the Man Called X, another radio adventure series about a nation-jaunting secret agent duelling with communists but for my money, Dangerous Assignment has the edge thanks to Brian Donlevy's performance; he had a great tough guy voice but could also sound flummoxed and frustrated very well -- which Steve Mitchell so often was as he tried to solve each week's problem.

The Old Time Radio Researchers have about 100 episodes of Dangerous Assignment:

"We are also of the cloth." Superman (2025) thoughts

The last attempt to create a cinematic universe from DC Comics properties resulted in the pretty good film Wonder Woman in 2017 and, uh, a whole lot of forgettable detritus.

At this stage, having seen DC twice attempt to roll out a slow-burn universe that attempts to ground itself in realism, I'm definitely ready for a change. James Gunn's Superman (2025) is certainly a change; I knew from his Guardians of the Galaxy films that he had a unique take on super hero properties, but is he really the kind of creative person to help build up an entire interconnected universe of films? That answer is, thankfully, 'yes.' And can he front a super hero story around an old-school stolid property like Superman, the very character who started the genre? There the answer is, 'no,' which is why the film is peppered with people like Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, Metamorpho and Guy Gardner.

At this point, I think - as Grant Morrison did with All-Star Superman - that the story of Superman is well-trod and well-known so there's no need to repeat his origin story - which is Gunn's take. The harder part is to get his character correct; it's hard for me to pin down how well Gunn did in that aspect since Clark Kent is barely in the film (maybe that's because films usually spend more time on Clark than Superman) but he's absolutely the Superman of the comics, especially by the standard of All-Star Superman - that he's powerful enough to handle most problems but doesn't always know the best path for applying his power. And, of course, he cares deeply for people. David Corenswet has the right mix of earnestness and toughness.

As a launching point for DC's latest attempt at a shared universe of films, I like the idea of coming in with the universe already well-inhabited and with a rich history of existing super heroes and villains, to say nothing of the tropes particular to Superman (his folks are still alive; he has his Fortress of Solitude, Krypto and Supergirl; and, in a very rare development, the Daily Planet not only has Lois Lane and Perry White but also Jimmy Olsen, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard and Ron Troupe, characters who are usually slighted by the films).

The film's version of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is a bit over-the-top - great for this film, but already possessing so many resources and such power that it's hard to see where he could go in any future films - it might actually be better to not revisit the character in this franchise. It's not the best interpretation of Luthor (Clancy Brown remains the standard) but again, it's recognizable as a version from the comics (All-Star Superman once more) and he has all the hubris of the best versions of Luthor; plus, he's loathsome, which creators sometimes forget is an important part in writing a villain.

I remain skeptical about the guest-starring heroes - they're fun and tell you something about how this time, the world is over-populated with heroes rather than totalling maybe a half-dozen guys. They distract from Superman, but they filled in some of the most enjoyable parts of the film. I am enough of a Mr. Terrific fanboy that I actually got excited when he donned a comics-accurate version of his leather jacket. And Nathan Fillion could probably make reading the telephone book entertaining, to say nothing of giving him one of comicdom's biggest jerks (Guy Gardner) to play around with.

I don't know if I'm interested in more stories set in this universe but I do know I like what I saw in this film and not against seeing more.