A Game Most Dangerous, Part 2: Gypsy Johnson

To begin my series of A Game Most Dangerous posts in earnest, I'm turning to a very early Archie comic book: Blue Ribbon Comics issues #5-6 (1940), featuring Gypsy Johnson! The artist is John Bulthuis. There's very little I can say about who the character is - he's introduced as a "Texan soldier of fortune" and he's "just been mustered out of the Foreign Legion." Blue Ribbon Comics #5 marks the character's 2nd appearance, so apparently his time in the Foreign Legion lasted but one issue. Clearly he's called 'Gypsy' because he's a wanderer, rather than anything to do with his ethnicity.

We open in Morocco as Gypsy leaves the Foreign Legion and rescues a white woman from being kidnapped by Arab slave traders. The white woman is Dorothy Collier and she's looking for her brother; it seems her brother gambled away their money, stranding them in Morocco, but now an aunt has wired them money so they can return to the USA. Leonard is a drunk and doesn't like Gypsy but Gypsy goes along with them aboard a tramp steamer.

And now we get to the Most Dangerous Game material: the beacons at sea guide the steamer into a reef. Leonard abandons Dorothy but Gypsy helps her float from the wrecked ship by hanging onto a floating crane. Gypsy drags Leonard to their crane and guides them to a nearby island. On the island they're greeted by Baron von Krasner, a monocle-wearing figure in a Russian cap who has a swarthy, silent servant and hunting dogs. As the story ends, he hopes they'll provide him with entertainment. Weirdly, a caption claims this is a Pacific island, which can't possibly be correct; someone got their oceans mixed up.

Continuing into Blue Ribbon Comics #6, Baron von Krasner hosts a dinner party for Gypsy, Dorothy and Leonard. The Baron explains his scheme immediately (hey, when you've got only 5 pages a month, you gotta hit the plot points fast!). "I am a great hunter, and you men shall be my quarry. I am bored hunting animals, they are too easy!" So yep, this is certainly shaping up as a legitimate rip-off. The Baron grants Gypsy and Leonard a four hour head start and will set them free if they win. The Baron's swarthy servant is named Solti and it turns out he can speak!

Gypsy suggests they cross a bridge then cut the ropes so the Baron can't follow them. Inexplicably, Leonard thinks this is a trap Gypsy has set and he runs the other way in terror. Gypsy has to drag him across the bridge. Since Leonard is afraid of the bridge, Gypsy rolls a giant boulder across the bridge, snapping it in the center. Supposedly this proves they shouldn't have crossed the bridge. I don't know, it looks like that boulder is significantly heavier than the two of them!

Later on, Leonard is caught in a bamboo trap the Baron set but Gypsy drags him along and they hide in a swamp. Gypsy ambushes the Baron, exchanges their clothes then fires the Baron's gun. This brings the Baron's dogs who attack their master and kill him. Then the dogs turn on Solti because they're "blood-thirsty". Gypsy, Dorothy and Leonard escape the island using a boat they take from the Baron's things and soon rendezvous with another ship at sea.

Summing Up: This is very obviously inspired by the 1932 motion picture version of The Most Dangerous Game what with the presence of the drunken brother and the sister. There's not too much to this comic - it's competant, but nothing special.

Let's rate it!

The Hunter:

• A Russian nobleman (4/4 points)
• Who is a big game hunter (4/4 points)
• But is no longer challenged by big game (4/4 points)
• So he hunts men on his secluded island (4/4 points)
• Justifying this through a eugenics/Darwinian philosophy (0/4 points)
• He is aided by his servants, including a disfigured mute (2/4 points)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (4/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (4/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (3/4 points)
• As a further example of his sense of "sportsmanship", he will deliberately prolong the hunt if he finds it interesting (0/4 points)
• His victims are placed on display in his trophy room (0/4 points)

The Hunted:

• A famous big game hunter (0/4 points)
• Who philosophizes about what (if anything) animals sense while being hunted (0/4 points)
• He is cast overboard and finds himself on the hunter's island, alone with a drunk and his sister (3/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (0/4 points)
• When he learns the hunter's scheme he refuses to hunt alongside him (0/4 points)
• Hunted by the hunter, he flees into the wilderness trying to avoid detection (4/4 points)
• His only tool is a knife which the hunter gave him (0/4 points)
• In time he constructs traps to kill the hunter or his servants (0/4 points)
• He survives the ordeal by leaping over a cliff (0/4 points)
• Although the hunt is over, he confronts the hunter and duels him to the deathleaves him to be killed by his own dogs (1/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the CaribbeanPacific? The writer flunked geography (2/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (4/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (4/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

Final score: 47/100!

More to come!