Now on Comixology: Dark Reign: Accept Change

Comixology is now selling a digital copy of Dark Reign: Accept Change, a trade paperback which collects a number of books from the 'Dark Reign' event, including my own book, Dark Reign Files.

Dark Reign: Accept Change
Collects Dark Reign: New Nation, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign, Dark Avengers #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual #2, Dark Reign Files And Marvel Spotlight: Dark Reign.
The Invasion is over, and the shape of the world has changed, with new and returning players now center stage. Get the lowdown on what's going on across the Marvel Universe as we enter DARK REIGN. In DARK REIGN: NEW NATION, we meet the Secret Warriors, the Skrull Kill Krew and other Marvel players as they embark on their own adventures in the wake of Secret Invasion. Then DARK AVENGERS #1 kicks off an explosive new era in the Avengers mythos. Who are the Dark Avengers? A simple question with a shocking answer! Plus, learn the truth about Emma Frost’s secret past in UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #2.

You can buy it from Comixology here.

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 15: Conclusion

Today I'm going to wrap up A Game Most Dangerous by looking back on my scoring method to see how the stories fared. First, let's arrange the 12 scored entries from highest score to lowest score:

1. 57 points: A Game for a Mad Huntress
2. 49 points: Joe Barton
3. 47 points: Gypsy Johnson
4. 45 points: Island of Death
5. 42 points: Billy the Kid
6. 39 points: Isle of the Beast
7. 36 points: The Dreamer
8. 35 points: Lance O'Casey
9. 33 points: Daredevil
10. 32 points: Conan (2nd)
11. 29 points: Conan (1st)
12. 28 points: Jack Armstrong

Of course, this is a grading scale where 100 points = Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game. A low score doesn't mean I thought it was a bad comic - heck, you could argue Jack Armstrong was the most original of the 12 and "A Game for a Mad Huntress" was the most derivative of Connell.

Obviously, however, that 57% score for "A Game for a Mad Huntress" doesn't mean too much as it's set in a completely different part of the world, has a female villain and a ton of supernatural content! It owes a lot to Richard Connell, yet still added a lot of distinctively original material.

The criteria I used to come up with 100 points was based entirely on the original short story; if I had included a way for the elements of the 1932 motion picture to score points then some of these would have reached higher in the ranks - Gypsy Johnson and Lance O'Casey in particular drew from the movie version of the story.

With twelve entries being judged against 25 categories with a possible 4 points each, there were 48 possible points to be awarded in each category. Let's total up all 12 scores and see what kind of data that produces:

The Hunter:

• A Russian nobleman (26/48 points = 54%)
• Who is a big game hunter (40/48 points = 83%)
• But is no longer challenged by big game (37/48 points = 77%)
• So he hunts men on his secluded island (40/48 points = 83%)
• Justifying this through a eugenics/Darwinian philosophy (0/48 points = 0%)
• He is aided by his servants, including a disfigured mute (28/48 points = 58%)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (16/48 points = 33%)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (15/48 points = 31%)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (12/48 points = 25%)
• As a further example of his sense of "sportsmanship", he will deliberately prolong the hunt if he finds it interesting (4/48 points = 8%)
• His victims are placed on display in his trophy room (12/48 points = 25%)

The Hunted:

• A famous big game hunter (10/48 points = 21%)
• Who philosophizes about what (if anything) animals sense while being hunted (4/48 points = 8%)
• He is cast overboard and finds himself on the hunter's island, alone (27/48 points = 56%)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (13/48 points = 27%)
• When he learns the hunter's scheme he refuses to hunt alongside him (0/48 points = 0%)
• Hunted by the hunter, he flees into the wilderness trying to avoid detection (40/48 points = 83%)
• His only tool is a knife which the hunter gave him (11/48 points = 23%)
• In time he constructs traps to kill the hunter or his servants (21/48 points = 44%)
• He survives the ordeal by leaping over a cliff (12/48 points = 25%)
• Although the hunt is over, he confronts the hunter and duels him to the death (20/48 points = 42%)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (30/48 points = 63%)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (24/48 points = 50%)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (11/48 points = 23%)
• And high cliffs (19/48 points = 40%)

I came up with these 25 categories because they are distinctive elements of the original story which help identify imitators as being derivative of Richard Connell. Obviously some of the elements are more likely to appear than others - it is almost certain any of 12 stories will involve a big game hunter hunting men on an island, but the other categories vary in usage.

Two of my categories came up with 0% - the hunter justifying his hunting of men and the hunted person refusing to hunt alongside the hunter. Both of these are crucial to Connell's original story - the hunter's justifications for hunting men, the exposure of his sense of superiority over others is something which disgusts the hero and brings into focus the differences between men and animals. The hero's refusal to hunt side-by-side with the hunter is what makes them enemies and shows that while our hero may have been similar to the hunter, he has undergone character development.

I had a lot of fun going over these stories and I hope you enjoyed it as well. Thanks for reading!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 14: Lightning Round!

Happy Valentine's Day! Today's post has nothing to do with that!

Today I'm going to briefly touch on some other stories which I could have featured in A Game Most Dangerous but decided not to. My rationale for excluding these stories is pretty much identical in each case: they are stories in which super heroes are placed into a version of The Most Dangerous Game. That's not an automatic disqualifier (it worked very well in The Dreamer, you'll recall) but most of these stories do not use the island setting or even place the hero within any sort of secluded locale. The heroes tend to within their usual environment, be it Manhattan or Gotham City, with allies no more than a phone call away. Then, too, super heroes have abilities which place them above that of a proper protagonist for a riff on The Most Dangerous Game and the more the hunt has to scale up to overcome the changes in power and environment, the less it has to do with Richard Connell's story.

Therefore, I'm just going to briefly touch on some other stories of this type.

The largest shout-out belongs to the character of Kraven the Hunter, who debuted in Amazing Spider-Man #15 (1964). Indeed, Kraven is a Russian who hunts big game; bored with the challenges of animals, he sets his sights on costumed heroes for his prey. Pretty much every Kraven story owes a debt to Richard Connell.

You have to hand it to Otto Orion, an intergalactic big game hunter who decided to hunt Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in "The Hunter!" by Jim Shooter and George Papp (Adventure Comics #358, 1967). Hunting that many heroes is a tall order! And obviously, he failed.

Batman has been in the Most Dangerous Game scenario at least once in Detective Comics #401 (1970) by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Joe Giella when a villain called the Stalker hunted him through Gotham City.

Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night, faced Joshua Kane, would-be hunter of werewolves in Werewolf by Night #4 (1973) by Gerry Conway, Mike Ploog and Frank Bolle. It can't help but remind us of "Isle of the Beast".

Mike Grell placed his hero Jon Sable into a Most Dangerous Game story in Shaman's Tears #8 (1995).

In Wolverine #158 (2001), Joe Pruett, Sunny Lee and Harry Candelario pit Wolverine against Zaran the Hunter. Zaran sets up the familiar Most Dangerous Game scenario by hunting Wolverine on an island.

In Ultimate X-Men #54-57 (2005), Brian K. Vaughan, Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger and Scott Koblish created an 'ultimate' version of Mojo who would hunt mutants as a form of entertainment; Vaughan's story was titled "The Most Dangerous Game" to ensure no one missed the reference.

Even super villains get in on the act; in the story "Predators" by John Ostrander, R. B. Silva and Alexandre Palamaro (Secret Six #23, 2010) the Secret Six were brought to an island and hunted by a whole team of big game hunters.

And there was some nimrod named Nimrod who tried to hunt Superman in Action Comics #10 (2012) by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales and Rick Bryant. What a dope.

Tomorrow I'll wrap up A Game Most Dangerous by comparing the 12 entries which received scores!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 13: Conan (again!)

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! Our Cimmerian friend Conan has one more black & white adventure to share with us; this time it's "Hunter's Moon" from Savage Sword of Conan #171 (1990) by writer Doug Murray and drawn by Dave Hoover & Tony DeZuniga.

This time we're somewhere... vaguely European? Conan is working as a mercenary when his band are attacked and his comrades killed; Conan takes a poisoned arrow to his left shoulder but escapes his enemies and reaches a vast farmland. A young woman named Kerin brings Conan home to tend to his wound, but a spy sees Conan's arrival and heads to the nearby castle of Lord Theobold to tell him about the Cimmerian. After days of rest Conan is able to rise from his bed but his body is still fighting off an infection.

Conan attends the wedding of Kerin's sister Jenne "under the eyes of Mitra", but Lord Theobold rides in to disrupt the ceremony, claiming that "as the lord of this land, I do have my... duties-- even if some are less burdensome than others... she is, after all, a fine wench!" Droit du seigneur, I suppose? Theobold rides off with Jenne, promising to return her the next day: "Unless, of course, I find her pleasing!" You can always count on Conan comics to make your flesh crawl. Kerin explains to Conan that her people settled in this area under Theobold's protection because he keeps their farms safe from raiders. For his part, Theobold wanted the land preserved so he could hunt. But the price of his protection is that each year on the night of the Hunter's Moon, one of the village's young men must agree to be hunted; if the man should survive, Theobold would grant the village independence. So far, none have survived.

Since Conan is still recuperating (this ain't no Michael Fleisher comic - Murray's Conan can feel pain), he spends time scouting the land to better understand Theobold. He's most interested to find that the supposedly wild forest where Theobold hunts is actually quite tame - basically a game farm. The deer in the woods are so accustomed to humans that they walk right up to Conan. Thus Conan realizes Theobold isn't the "great hunter" he claims to be. When the day of the Hunter's Moon arrives Conan steps forward to take Theobold's challenge, having now fully healed from his injuries. Theobold gives Conan a dagger but the Cimmerian discards it as he heads into the woods. Conan has had time to consider how he'll react to the hunt and quickly conceals himself in the treetops so he can spy on the hunting party. Stealthily, he attacks and kills two of Theobold's men and takes their weapons. Conan is about to fire an arrow at Theobold when Theobold reveals one of his men is holding Kerin as a hostage. Undeterred, Conan kills the man holding Kerin instead then begins massacring the rest of Theobold's men.

Stunned, Theobold decides to flee the carnage but Kerin hits him over the head (this ain't no Michael Fleisher comic - Murray's women have at least some agency). When Theobold comes to he finds he's been stripped of his clothes. Conan informs him he's lost the challenge so the villagers are now free of him. But the hunt isn't over: "Unlike you, I'm a fair man," Conan muses. Conan orders Theobold to enter the wild forest - not the game forest where he normally hunts. If Theobold can survive in there with nothing more than a dagger, then he'll live. Needless to say, he encounters a sabretooth tiger within minutes and ends up dead. Kerin wants Conan to stay with her and they have sex that night (this ain't no Michael Fleisher comic - no seduction or rape required), but a farmer's life could never suit our Cimmerian hero; he rides off into the sunset. "Men like him do not become farmers," Kerin's father muses. "Men like him become kings!"

My thoughts: I suppose it's obvious that I prefer this story over the previous one. Dave Hoover was no John Buscema so the art is not as pretty, but Hoover managed the material well.

The Hunter:

• A RussianEuropean nobleman (3/4 points)
• Who is a big game hunter (4/4 points)
• But is no longer challenged by big game [because he tamed the wilderness] (3/4 points)
• So he hunts men on his secluded islandin his secluded forest (2/4 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 (0/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 daysone night; 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 hunterbarbarian (1/4 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 (0/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (1/4 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 (4/4 points)
• In time he constructs traps to kill the hunter or his servants (2/4 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 deathsends him to his death (3/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (0/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

Total score: 32/100!

Tomorrow I'll have some other trophies to put on display.

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 12: Conan

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! By Crom, now that we're into black & white magazines it's time to look upon The Savage Sword of Conan #88 (1983) and the story "Isle of the Hunter" by wrtier Michael Fleisher and the art team of John Buscema and Rudy Nebres.

We open in Zamboula, "westernmost outpost of the Turanian Empire, a major trading center in the Kharamun Desert" as Conan stealthily rides a horse into town while a proclamation calling for his capture is read aloud. Ignoring this, Conan heads into the Inn of the Black Falcon for some of their "renowned" Stygian ale. Within the inn, two scantily-clad twin "wenches" are dancing before the patrons, who holler their approval. "What I wouldn't give for a night of doubling my pleasure with those two!" declares one. The twins are named Sabrina and Saroya and they egg on their admirers, telling the men that if they get into a brawl they'll sleep with whoever is the last man standing. Cue the bar brawl! Conan ignores the brawl until one unfortunate soul makes the mistake of clubbing Conan over the head with a bottle. If this were real life, Conan would be unconscious right now. Since Conan exists strictly in the realm of larger-than-life, instead he flies into a rage and starts beating up everyone in the room. Without meaning to, he wins the twins' contest. Conan is still more interested in getting drunk than having the women, but the commotion has drawn the attention of the town guards who arrest our Cimmerian hero.

Conan is taken to be executed but Sabrina and Saroya interrupt the ceremony by killing the executioner and liberating Conan. Conan and the twins fight their way out of the palace and ride away on three horses. He wonders why they came to his rescue; they explain they want his help in plundering "the vast treasure trove of Wazir Hassan Hassad Khan, one of the wealthiest men in the world." It seems the Wazir occupies a castle on an uncharted island in the Vilayet Sea. Conan suggests rounding up some of his allies to help rob the castle but the twins insist this is a one-man operation - that's why they staged the fight in the inn, to find "the one whose cunning and brawn we need!" Conan is concerned about staying ahead of the soldiers who have been sent after them but the twins insist they have a half day's head start now. "Would a huge-chested stallion like yourself be inclined to take only one mare to stud--" asks one twin, "--when he could just as easily have two?" the second finishes. And so cue the polyamorous sex scene, taking advantage of the lack of Comics Code Approval on black & white magazines (but still pretty chaste - it amounts to one panel of the women being naked but framed to strategically prevent any actual nudity).

The next afternoon Conan and the twins continue their trip and reach a boat hidden by the sea. So they set sail to the island, encountering a giant sea monster as they travel, but the twins tell Conan the monster is under the control of the Wazir. As they near the island's shore, one of the twins clubs Conan over the head. I guess his head is thicker than the earlier fight suggested? Or maybe Conan has taken so many concussions over the years that he only feels every other dent to his skull? Anyway, a band of men greet the twins at shore and carry Conan off.

Conan awakens in a forest to find himself unarmed and being hunted by unseen forces armed with bow and arrows. Without any exposition, Conan seems to realize he's in a Most Dangerous Game scenario so starts building traps to kill the hunters in gory fashion (well, about as gory as any of the horror comics I've featured, anyway). Meanwhile the twins are in the Wazir's castle, celebrating with him. The Wazir goes into his Zaroff speech: "As you well know," he begins (but that doesn't prevent his exposition) "I've stalked and bagged all the world's great game beasts in my day! Lion, leopard, unicorn. Even the great ice bear! But, when all is said and done, what sort of quarry, however magnificent, can possibly hope to rival the sport provided by a cunning, battle-seasoned man!" (no question mark, so was that was a rhetorical question?) You might wonder why, if the Wazir wants to hunt Conan, he's not out there right now participating in the hunt. Well, it seems his men are intentionally driving Conan toward the castle: "--So that, as he reaches the very peak and zenith of his barbaric fury, I can dispatch the wild-eyed Zuagir like the savage beast of prey he is!" Err... look Wazir, I'm sure you know your business, but that's not "hunting". At best, you're staging the most dangerous duel.

While Conan flees from the Wazir's men it seems the pursuing soldiers have followed Conan to the uncharted island. You might wonder how they could have possibly followed Conan's trail across the sea, especially since the island is uncharted. Look, it's convenient to the plot, okay? Anyway, Conan's enemies start killing each other while Conan heads to the castle. Just as the Wazir intended! Which, uh, remains a pretty stupid plan.

Conan confronts the Wazir, who permits the barbarian to select any weapon he likes for their duel. Conan then proceeds to easily win the fight and kills the Wazir. Sabrina and Saroya then draw their weapons to fight him, but Conan disarms both women with two swipes of his sword. He then takes the "wenches" hostage because "I may need to barter you for provisions somewhere between here and Zamboula." The twins refuse to come with him so he carries them off, one under each arm until he finds a pair of manacles and chains them up and drags them behind him. Cruelty to women! Just in case you forgot this was a Michael Fleisher comic book! Conan brings the women back to the boat and considers gifting them to his soldiers, noting it's not often his men "enjoy one woman's company, let alone two!" Our hero, wenches and gentlemen. The soldiers see Conan departing and get back to their ship but Conan has taken the Wazir's conch shell, which can be used to control the sea monster from earlier. The monster obligingly destroys the soldiers' boat for Conan. But later Conan's boat springs a slow leak and he observes they'll have to jettison some weight. At this, Sabrina and Saroya turn on each other, trying to murder each other in the hopes of being the one Conan spares. "Lying bitch!" one exclaims as they fight. They go overboard, completely ignoring Conan as he points out they're both going to die. Then the sea monster returns and eats both women. The last word spoken by either twin is "Slut!" The monster leaves Conan alone and our hero sails back across the sea.

My thoughts: It's too bad about Michael Fleisher... not about his reputation as a misogynist, he forged that chain for himself, link by link, yard by yard (and famously lost a libel case over it). No, it's too bad that he set up a perfectly good 'Conan in The Most Dangerous Game' scenario then threw it away. The hunter never even leaves his castle! Frankly, he was more interested in the twins than in the story's supposed antagonist.

There are basically two kinds of women in a Fleisher Conan story: those who submit to Conan and later die and those who refuse to submit to Conan and later die. When it's the woman who propositions Conan rather than the other way around, you know you're headed into scenario #2. When Conan is sexually aggressive towards a woman, that woman is pretty much fated to die (or in certain circumstances end up with another man) so that Conan will briefly experience angst. When a woman is sexually aggressive towards Conan, that woman is almost certainly evil and will be punished for her slutty behaviour.

The Hunter:

• A RussianMiddle Eastern nobleman (2/4 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 (0/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (0/4 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 hunterbarbarian (1/4 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 (0/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (1/4 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 (4/4 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 death (4/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the CaribbeanMediterranean (3/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

Total score: 29/100!

Conan faces another hunt tomorrow!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 11: Isle of the Beast

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! Let's turn again to the horror genre for another one-off variant on The Most Dangerous Game as found in Warren Magazines' Eerie #9 (1967) and the story "Isle of the Beast!" written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Steve Ditko!!! So right off the bat, that's the single best creative collaboration this blog series has seen thus far!

The story seemingly wastes no time on set-up but opens on our protagonist Amberson, running desperately through the jungle while being hunted for sport - but then the magazine's host Cousin Eerie steps in and the story steps back to explain itself. Amberson washes ashores on a Caribbean island after his ship is sunk. A man named Rochefort welcomes him to the island and plays host in his manor. But Rochefort wastes little time in bringing Amberson to his trophy room to show off his collection of human heads!

Amberson passes out. Two days later he awakens to find Rochefort standing over him with a gun drawn. Rochefort explains himself: "Perhaps you're familiar with a short story by Richard Connell, 'The Most Dangerous Game'?" Ah, just like the Dreamer story, this one isn't afraid to admit it's a reworking! Rochefort was a big game hunter loved Connell's story so much that when he tired of big game hunting he started hunting men. But even that wasn't enough, so he used biochemistry to transform himself into a weird 'beast', granting himself something of an ability to hunt men like an animal. Amberson is desperate to get back to the mainland but Rochefort intends to make him his next sport, imploring him to prove himself "worthy of the hunt".

After a grace period, Rochefort adopts his 'beast' form and tracks Amberson. It doesn't take long before he finds his quarry and he admits to being disappointed in Amberson for leaving such an obvious trail. But Amberson has a surprise for the hunter: you see, it's a full moon tonight. Amberson was trying to get to the mainland so that friends there could chain him up. But now nothing can stop his transformation into a werewolf! Rochefort might be a 'beast' but Amberson is the superior animal as he leaps upon his prey! Cousin Eerie returns to joke that unless Rochefort has "a set of silver teeth" that he just lost the hunt.

My thoughts: This was a pretty good story! The Most Dangerous Game, Goodwin, Ditko - three things I like! And boy, Ditko's Warren stories were so beautiful with those lush black & white tones. The twist to the story is pretty basic by Eerie standards but it's an interesting twist on The Most Dangerous Game to have both men essentially become animals rather than fight like men.

The Hunter:

• A RussianEuropean? nobleman (2/4 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 (0/4 points)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (0/4 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 (0/4 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 (4/4 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 (4/4 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 death (0/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (4/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (4/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

Once again I'm awarding an arbitrary +1 to the story's score for directly referencing Richard Connell's story.

Total score: 39/100!

This black & white game is most cunning; let's hunt up another tomorrow!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 10: Joe Barton

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! Today I'm setting my sights on yet another publisher in still another genre: it's off to St. John Comics and Wild Boy of the Congo #9 (1953) for the story "The Big Hunt" starring Joe Barton, by scripter Ed Silverman and artist Carmine Infantino!

We open on a tiny boat on the stormy seas "off the mid-west coast of the Dark Continent." Ah, we're headed back to Africa. Our hero is the intrepid white hunter Joe Barton, whose boat is tipped over during a storm. Barton "native boy" Natombo can't swim so he drowns in the storm (said "boy" sure looked to be a grown man). Barton is washed ashore and awakens in a cozy bed with a beautiful woman standing over him. "Looks like I made Heaven at last!" Joe quips. Boy, gotta love that white privilege! The woman introduces herself as the Countess Selenka; her "native boys" found him on the beach of her uncharted island. (and yes, I will document every disparaging use of "boy", sue me) Selenka's husband, the count, is away on the mainland, hunting.

Selenka treats Joe to a grand dinner in full dress clothes but they're interrupted by the arrival of Count Boris, her husband. Boris tells Selenka to leave as he's eager to speak with Joe. "Your fame precedes you, Mr. Barton!" Boris leads Joe to his trophy room to show off the many animals he's slain. Joe imagines Boris is very proud of his trophies but Boris is modest to a fault. "As an experienced hunter, you must know that once you've got a beast lined up in your sights, he's pretty helpless against the power of your rifle!" Boris then asks how Joe would react if he were the hunted instead of the hunter. Joe imagines, "Because a human being has the power of reason, and can adapt himself to situations, he would attempt to outwit the hunter instead of foolishly rushing his opponent as a beast does! But that's something we'll never know!" Au contraire, stupid white protagonist! Count Boris draws a gun (coloured orange for some reason; it makes Boris look like Scaramanga) and insists they'll find the answer that very night. "You, sir, shall furnish me with an evening of rare sport!"

Selenka is put out by her husband's rude behaviour (I imagine hunting guests to their doom looks bad in the society columns) but there's nothing for it; Boris gives Joe a two hour head start into the jungle, then the hunt will begin. Joe quickly begins using his brain to build traps to snare Boris, but Boris is too clever and sees through them (good to see this element from the original story being used). For some reason Selenka follows along with Boris during the hunt. Joe finally tries to hide in a cave but it turns out to be a dead end and Boris corners him. The two men struggle hand-to-hand, but Boris is stronger than Joe. Just as Boris is about to clobber Joe with a boulder, the countess takes her husband's rifle and shoots him in the back. She justifies her actions because "He was cruel! He was mad! I could not stand by and watch him take the life of the one man who was gallant enough to risk his life for mine!" Hold the phone, "risk his life for mine"? When did that happen? Anyway, Joe asks the countess to leave the island with him but she politely declines, sending him away with a new boat. He hopes to return one day to finish his dinner with her, if you know what I mean.

My thoughts: This story uses a few of The Most Dangerous Game tropes which the other versions ignored, mostly due to Joe Barton being a professional hunter like the Rainsford of the original story. But boy, Joe isn't much good; while the other protagonists were either much, much better than the hunter villain or at least evenly-matched, Joe is the hunter's inferior and needs to be rescued. The departures from the usual formula are nice and Carmine Infantino's artwork is quite good!

All images courtesy of The Digital Comic Museum

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 (0/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (0/4 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 (4/4 points)
• Who philosophizes about what (if anything) animals sense while being hunted (4/4 points)
• He is cast overboard and finds himself on the hunter's island, alone (4/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (4/4 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 (4/4 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 death (0/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the CaribbeanAtlantic, near Africa (3/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (4/4 points)

Total score: 49/100!

This game is proving interesting. Let's continue tomorrow!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 9: Game for a Mad Huntress

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! This time our pseudo-version of The Most Dangerous Game is from Ace Magazines' The Beyond #13 (1952) and titled "Game for a Mad Huntress" by artist Jim McLaughlin.

We open near an island off the Scottish coast. Hunter and explorer Walter Chatham is on a pleasure cruise when the weather starts getting rough, the tiny ship is tossed and Walter goes overboard. Walter awakens on the island and is shocked to be confronted by three disfigured men; the men grab Walter and drag him to meet their mistress: Duchess Donna Savage, rightful queen of Scotland!

Walter is brought before this fearsome figure to find... she's actually a very pleasant-looking young woman dressed in contemporary garb. She doesn't even have an accent in her dialogue. The men identify Walter as a spy; he explains he's a hunter and explorer who fell overboard. Donna replies that she doesn't trust him but she's glad he's there: "But it is good that you are a hunter! At least you'll have a chance in my hunting game!" She explains that she loves to hunt but there are no animals left to hunt on the island so she has substituted the game with humans.

Donna shows off her trophy room, the human heads of other castaways who had the misfortune of landing on her shore. But Donna is excited that as Walter is a hunter he'll "make the game more exciting!" Walter spends a night in a cell, then in the morning it given a dagger (from Boma, a Senegalese warrior) and released into the wild. Walter runs through the woods but finds himself at a cliff; he quickly climbs a tree but Donna and her men arrive and shake the tree; Walter falls over the cliff but lands safely on a ledge, unseen by Donna and her men. Donna assumes he's dead and whips her men for ending the hunt so quickly.

From the ledge Walter crawls into a tunnel which leads into the cellar of Donna's chateau, where many barrels of gunpowder have been stored for Donna's supposed rebellion. Returning to the grounds of the island Walter is attacked by Donna's mute servant and stabs him to death with the dagger. Much to his surprise, the mute's body is instantly disintegrated! Boma charges him next but Walter throws a rock at Boma's head, takes Boma's sword and slices him clean through; Boma dissolves as well. Then Walter kills the blind sailor and returns to the chateau where he finds Donna standing before the heads of three of her trophies - the three servants he just killed! It seems Donna has supernatural powers! "These creatures you killed were dead men, who lived only at my command!"

Donna draws a pistol to kill Walter but he shoves her into her fireplace; the whole chateau goes up in flames and the gunpowder destroys everything while Walter escapes. By now a rowboat has arrived at the island to rescue Walter. When he begins to relate what happened the sailors tell him Donna Savage died in a struggle with three mutilated servants 200 years ago!

My thoughts: It isn't a bad idea to mix the supernatural with The Most Dangerous Game but this story is a bit too wild for its own good. She's a insane Scottish duchess who wants to start a rebellion to claim the throne -- but she's also a ruthless hunter who hunts men for sport -- but she's also a necromancer who raises dead men to help her hunt!

All images from The Digital Comic Museum

The Hunter:

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

The Hunted:

• A famous big game hunter (4/4 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 (4/4 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 (4/4 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 (4/4 points)
• Although the hunt is over, he confronts the hunter and duels himthrows her into a fireplace to the death (3/4 points)

The Island:

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

Total score: 57/100

The game's afoot! More to come!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 8: Billy the Kid

This time out I'm taking A Game Most Dangerous into new territory; the westward territory; the western genre! Yup, I'm going to look at a comic book adventure of Billy the Kid from Toby Magazines' Billy the Kid Adventure Magazine #4 (1951) and the story "Manhunt", drawn by Leon Winik. Like nearly all of Billy the Kid's comic book adventures, this story has very little to do with the historical person.

As we open, Billy the Kid and his pal Joe are riding through the woods when a man who has been spying on them telephones another figure (telephones?!?). A man garbed in glasses and a pith helmet stalks them and shoots Billy dead with his rifle. For this, Billy is accused of murder and sent to prison. The glasses-wearing man's confederate turns out to be Pete Jameson, a deputy and he smuggles a gun into Billy's cell. Billy escapes the prison and rides to the home of the glasses-wearing man, Zuko, whose address was given to him by Pete. Zuko promises to help hide Billy from the law. Over dinner, Billy sees Zuko's chess set and Zuko boasts "I play the most exciting game of all...!"

He goes on to list all the animals he's beaten but "Animals are dumb! Except one variety! You see, I've discovered the most dangerous game of all... I hunt human beings!" Zuko intends to hunt Billy the Kid and has already emptied the Kid's guns so he can't simply shoot him. Billy exits the house and tries to escape on horseback but Zuko shoots Billy's horse dead. While Billy runs into the woods, Zuko and his men prepare their hunting dogs. Billy's escape is compliated because he's still a wanted man and can't simply head to town for help. Billy falls into a pit but when one of the dogs follows him he punches the dog in the face, knocking him unconscious.

Billy next finds a quicksand trap but tricks the hunting dogs into dragging one of the hunters in, killing them. Then Billy goes to a steep cliff and hangs over the ledge. This time the dogs run over the ledge, dragging Pete by their leashes. Boy, these dogs are dumb, to say nothing of these men too thick to let go of a leash! This leaves Billy versus Zuko but when Zuko shoots his rifle it kicks up a cloud of smoke; Billy isn't hit but feigns injury to draw Zuko in, then knocks him out with his fists. The sheriff arrives and Billy identifies Zuko as Joe's killer. When the sheriff asks why Billy fought a man armed with a rifle he replies: "I got tired of running away!"

Thoughts: Relocating The Most Dangerous Game not only from an adventure scenario to a western but from an island to the countryside is a bit risky. I debated covering this story at all because taking it away from an island mutes a lot of the original story, but this version still retains so many familiar elements from The Most Dangerous Game that it would have been an injustice to omit it. It's perfectly fine as a western adventure hero comic story.

All images courtesy of The Digital Comics Museum

The Hunter:

• A Russian nobleman (0/4 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 islandproperty (3/4 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 (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (0/4 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 islandstranded on the hunter's property, alone (1/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (4/4 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 (4/4 points)
• He survives the ordeal by leaping over a cliff (4/4 points)
• Although the hunt is over, he confronts the hunter and duels him to the deathpunches him (2/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (0/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The islandarea has a dangerous swamp (3/4 points)
• And high cliffs (3/4 points)

Total score: 42/100

The trail has not yet gone cold! More to come!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 7: Island of Death

Welcome back to A Game Most Dangerous! This time I'm veering over to one of the much-beloved 1950s horror comics published by EC: it's "Island of Death" from Vault of Horror#13 (1950) by Harvey Kurtzman.

Steve and Alec are two pilots flying over the Pacific when their motor gives out and they crash near an island. Steve is separated from Alec in the crash and washes up on the island, where he's surprised to find a castle. Steve collapses at the castle doors but the people inside bring him in and share their hospitality. The next day Steve (full name Stephen Crane; not that Stephen Crane!) greets the owner of the castle, Count Alvar Cabeza.

Count Alvar and his silent servant Mulok show every consideration to their guest. After dinner, the count shows Steve his impressive trophy room full of the most dangerous animals on Earth (many familiar names to readers of Richard Connell's story such as the cape buffalo). No longer challenged by pitting his wits against animals, Count Alvar wants to hunt "the craftiest of animals... homo sapiens... man!" The count tells Steve he has 12 hours to hide in the island's jungle, then the count will hunt him with a crossbow.

Heading into the jungle, Steve finds his only tools are what was in his pockets: a cigarette lighter, handkerchief and his pocketknife. He finds some wreckage from the plane washed ashore and uses it to help build a trap. The count, Mulok and their hunting dogs come after Steve but Steve's traps kill Mulok and the dogs. Still, the count finds Steve and is about to kill him when Alec appears and uses his pistol to shoot the count in the arm. Alec quickly explains he washed up on the opposite side of the jungle. The count stumbles away from the two men and right into a nest of wasps which sting him to death. The two pilots find a boat at the castle and use it to depart.

Thoughts: There was a time when EC was considered by comics fandom to be the unchallenged master of horror comics, thanks largely to the effort EC's professionals placed into promoting themselves. Nowadays, EC is considered "good by the standards of the 1950s" and more and more there are reappraisals of horror comics by other publishers of the time (Atlas/Harvey/Fawcett).

All of this is to say that EC were just as fallible when it came to ripping off other people's ideas as anyone else in the field. This has to be laid at the feet of Harvey Kurtzman, not only as the writer/artist/editor of the story but because his single greatest failing as a creator was that he couldn't manage his deadlines. From that view, it's not surprising at all that he'd rip-off Richard Connell.

But now that I have that off my chest, this is the best story I've featured on A Game Most Dangerous thus far; it's very faithful to the story and depicts the various details of the story to an extent which the other entries have largely ignored. And boy, that Kurtzman knew how to draw!

The Hunter:

• A RussianEuropean nobleman (3/4 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 (4/4 points)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (4/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby ships (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (0/4 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 (4/4 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 himwas in his pocket (3/4 points)
• In time he constructs traps to kill the hunter or his servants (4/4 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 death (0/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the CaribbeanPacific (3/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (4/4 points)

The total: 45/100

The hunt is still on! Be back next time!

More of Kirk Douglas in OTR

Here are a few more appearances Kirk Douglas made on radio:

On September 25, 1946, Douglas made what seems to be his radio debut on Academy Award Theater for their adaptation of "Guest in the House". The motion picture Guest in the House is a bit of an odd one - it's a film noir picture which won an Academy Award yet somehow ended up forgotten and in the public domain until recent years when it's become reappraised as an unheralded classic of the genre. Douglas wasn't in the film version but stepped in to cover Ralph Bellamy's role for the radio.

• You can hear "Guest in the House" at archive.org by clicking here

Douglas' 1949 boxing film Champion came to radio twice, both times with Douglas reprising his starring role. First came the Screen Guild Theater on October 13, 1949. The drama is a little undermined by the audience, who begin giggling during a supposedly intense scene; I have a feeling one of the actors was making faces. A few months later he delivered another version for Screen Director's Playhouse on March 17, 1950.

• You can hear the Screen Guild Theater version of "Champion" at archive.org by clicking here

• You can hear the Screen Director's Playhouse version of "Champion" at archive.org by clicking here

Finally, one of Douglas' great films of the 50s was 1951's Detective Story. It was adapted into a one-hour drama for Lux Radio Theater. It was a rough story for its time, although the radio version is a little more tame than the film.

• You can hear "Detective Story" at archive.org by clicking here

RIP: Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas died today; he was 103 years old.

The man had quite a long life and quite a remarkable career; nearly everyone is eulogizing him as the star of the 1960 film Spartacus; he's also the father of Michael Douglas, who remains a popular actor. I'm personally very fond of Kirk Douglas' performance in Paths of Glory from 1957.

But I'm eulogizing him today because he was also one of the stars of Suspense, one of my favourite old-time radio programs. Way back when Douglas began his career, he and Burt Lancaster were two of the hot-ticket post-World War II actors who brought a new intensity to film acting; he and Lancaster wound up making 7 films together and both men appeared on Suspense during those post-war years when the prestige (and ratings) of Suspense made it one of the biggest shows on the radio.

Douglas' first appearance was on April 10, 1947 in the episode "Community Property". Douglas is a long-suffering heir who finally comes in to inherit the family fortune - but as he despises his wife, he decides to murder her before she can divorce him!

• You can download "Community Property" from archive.org here

Later that same year Douglas returned on October 2nd, 1947 to star in "The Story of Markham's Death", in which he played a hack writer who stumbles upon a lost manuscript by Edgar Allan Poe; he decides to pass it off as his own work.

• You can download "The Story of Markham's Death" from archive.org here

About 3 years later Douglas made his final Suspense performance on February 9, 1950, and BOY! he delivered! The story was called "The Butcher's Wife" and Douglas plays yet another heel, this time a grocery store employee who can't help but notice the store's butcher has a very lovely wife. But that butcher is insanely jealous! This episode has particularly excellent sound effects!

• You can download "The Butcher's Wife" from archive.org here

Rest in peace, Mr. Douglas.

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 6: Jack Armstrong

Jack Armstrong!

Jack Armstrong?

Jack Armstrong!!

Jack Armstrong?!

Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy was a juvenile adventure serial in the 1940s, famed for shilling its sponsor Wheaties. The program has always been too juvenile for me, but I do have a lot of affection for the 'Jack Headstrong, the All-American American' parody sketches which Bob & Ray performed. From 1947-1949, Jack Armstrong starred in his own ongoing comic book series published by Parents' Magazine Press. They're an unusual publisher when it comes to adventure comics - they primarily published 'true fact' comics and hybrid children's magazine/comic publications. Above all, Parents' Magazine Press promoted itself as educational and wholesome; Jack Armstrong was definitely one of the most wholesome heroes they could have possibly published!

To continue my feature A Game Most Dangerous I'm looking at Jack Armstrong #12 (1949) and the story "Madman's Island". Sadly, no one at the Grand Comics Database knows who created this story, but I would suspect Bruce Elliott wrote it and Howard Larsen drew it.

We open on Jack Armstrong, his pal Billy Fairfield and Jack's Uncle Jim aboard a seaplane headed to a a medieval castle on a jungle island - an island called "Madman's Island", if you can believe it. After landing their plane they use a raft to paddle to the castle so that their landing site can't be located. The castle is inhabited by General Xavier Rojas, an exiled military leader from South America who considered himself as "the second Napoleon". Finally, his own men turned on him and drugged him, then brought him to "Pan-American headquarters" to be tried. The court sentenced him to permanent exile on Madman's Island along with "those of your fanatical soldiers who wish to follow you!" A year into Rojas' exile, Uncle Jim's superiors (at the FBI?) asked him to investigate whether Rojas was scheming to start a new campaign. Uncle Jim is posing as a private citizen to gather intelligence.

As they near the castle, Uncle Jim, Jack and Billy are confronted by rifle-wielding men in sombreros who get into an argument about whether to shoot them or throw them into the castle's moat to be eaten by alligators. General Rojas calls off his men and offers his hospitality to his guests until their plane is repaired. Uncle Jim claims the plane crashed to keep Rojas from investigating further, but Rojas already knows who Jim is and is plotting the three Americans' deaths. At a banquet for his guests, Rojas informs them he is indeed preparing to guide his army back into battle; as a training exercise, he's going to release the three men into the wilds of the island for his men to hunt. "Hunting your boys in the jungle will teach me much about fighting guerrillas," Rojas muses. Uncle Jim is held in the castle to keep Jack and Billy from simply leaving the island, although Jim tells the boys to leave and tell the authorities. Heck, the boys could probably radio for back-up from the airplane, right?

Jack and Billy run into the jungle while Rojas schemes with his hunting parties. Jack builds a few traps using tree limbs (much like in the original story! but these traps are non-lethal). however, the soldiers design a "crude version of the British 'dustbin'" which sets off traps by being pushed ahead of them. However, Jack and Billy still manage to get the soldiers with a swarm of angry bees. Rojas leaves out food for the boys to snare them, but Jack realizes it's bait and sets off the explosives left on the items. Angered, Rojas unleashes his full army and hunting dogs against the two boys (he's looking like a pretty impotent military commander if he can't handle two unarmed boys). Even there the boys outsmart Rojas by tying banana leaves to their feet to get the dogs off their scent.

Billy heads to the castle and feigns surrender so that Jack can knock out a pair of guards with coconuts then they enter the castle and free Uncle Jim. When General Rojas sees them escaping he throws a sword at Jack, which misses; Jack takes the sword and engages Rojas in a sword fight but Rojas clumsily back into a bust of Napoleon. The bust hits him in the head and kills him instantly. What a dope!

Thoughts: This is an acceptable 1940s kid's comic; it's interesting to note how carefully the story avoids violence - Jack and Billy hit various soldiers in the head - until the climax when Rojas is killed. But boy, this is the most tension-free version of The Most Dangerous Game I've reviewed yet - there's never a sense that Jack and Billy are in real peril. Heck, this is the first version I've read where the heroes intentionally walk into the villain's lair!

All images courtesy of The Digital Comics Museum

The Hunter:

• A Russian noblemanSouth American general (1/4 points)
• Who is a big game hunter (0/4 points)
• But is no longer challenged by big game (0/4 points)
• So he hunts men on his secluded island (3/4 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 (0/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days; if they are alive at the deadline, they win the hunt (0/4 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 (0/4 points)
• The hunter knows him because of his reputation (3/4 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 killinconvenience the hunter or his servants (3/4 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 death (4/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the Caribbean (4/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (0/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

Final score: 28/100

The hunt will continue!

A Game Most Dangerous, Part 5: The Dreamer

For this entry in A Game Most Dangerous I'm going back to an old favourite on this blog - the Canadian whites! Yep, I'm examining one of the many characters published in Canada during World War II. The character is called the Dreamer and he was published by Bell Features in Wow Comics under the pen of Jerry Lazare.

Jerry Lazare did quite a few characters at Bell, including the Phantom Rider, Jeff Waring, the Wing, the Young Commandos, Nitro and Drummy Young. He was pretty talented - not up there with Adrian Dingle, but certainly better than Ross Saakle.

The Dreamer actually has a very fascinating backstory, an unusual one for a 1940s super hero - it seems he's a psychiatrist, Kent Marlow, and he analyzes his own dreams in order to solve crimes! The 1940s were certainly the decade where psychoanalysis broke into pop culture in a big way (check out the films Spellbound and the Snake Pit for instance) so the Dreamer's existence makes sense along those lines, but he's a very pleasant oddity within super hero comics.

For the purposes of A Game Most Dangerous, I have to cover the Dreamer stories from Wow Comics #29-30 (1946). Previously, the Dreamer's dreams had led him sneak aboard a ship which proved to be smuggling gold. That story came to an abrupt end in Wow Comics #28 when the ship hit a reef. Wow Comics #29 opens with the Dreamer awakening from the shipwreck on Moon Island. Two men - Rabar and Nod - find the Dreamer ashore and drag him to Rabar's home. The Dreamer has a dream of being hunted by Rabar, then awakens to meet his host.

After dinner, Rabar informs the Dreamer that he'll never leave Moon Island. "Luck brought you to my island and I shall take advantage of it!!!!" Rabar hints darkly at the contents of his trophy room, even though the Dreamer has already noticed the island has no wildlife. But then Rabar shows the Dreamer a copy of the novel The Most Dangerous Game! The Dreamer recognizes the book and realizes "You mean to tell me you're going to carry out the plot of that book?? You're going to hunt me down like some animal??" Rabar nods. "Exactly! For after all, Marlow... what are we but animals???" The Dreamer refuses to cooperate so Rabar and Nod throw him into a pit until the time for the hunt has begun.

Continuing in the pages of Wow Comics #30, the Dreamer has been dressed in his costume (he lost the cape and mask at sea) for the hunt. He knows he has no chance against Rabar: "This island is an open book to you, every rock, every tree..." Rabar opines that because the Dreamer is younger than him he has that advantage to his credit. He gives the Dreamer 24 hours to evade him in the hunt; if he survives, Rabar will send him back to the mainland.

As the Dreamer exits Rabar's home to use the one hour head start he's been granted he recalls another dream he's had: "Something about a prophecy! The - the rabbit who flees from the hunter has no hope of escape!! But, the rabbit who faces the hunter has a fighting chance!!!!" He quickly interprets the dream's meaning and hides in the trees nearby Rabar's home. As soon as Rabar exits the house to begin the hunt, the Dreamer sneaks around into Rabar's house and knocks out Nod with a frying pan.

Rabar realizes the Dreamer has doubled back and returns to the house but the Dreamer overpowers him in a fight and takes away Rabar's gun. All at once, Rabar becomes meek: "Did I mention murder? No Marlow, I wouldn't have killed you!!!" he insists, offering his wireless set to the Dreamer so he can radio for help. The Dreamer obligingly uses the wireless set - and calls for the authorities to arrest Rabar and Nod.

My thoughts: What a delight! Not only is the Dreamer a wonderfully unique premise for an adventure hero but this was a fun riff on the Most Dangerous Game which wasn't afraid to admit its influences. I also appreciate the Dreamer's solution to the scenario - to refuse to play the game by its rules but instead leave the hunting grounds and thereby level the playing field.

The Hunter:

• A Russian noblemangentleman (1/4 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 (3/4 points)
• And his vicious hunting dogs (0/4 points)
• He obtains his prey by scuttling nearby luckily receiving people from wrecked ships (2/4 points)
• His victims are given a time limit of 3 days24 hours; 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 (3/4 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 (4/4 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 (0/4 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 death (0/4 points)

The Island:

• Is a tropical island in the CaribbeanAtlantic? (3/4 points)
• Surrounded by dangerous reefs which wreck ships (4/4 points)
• The island has a dangerous swamp (0/4 points)
• And high cliffs (0/4 points)

I'm awarding an abitrary bonus +1 for being the only rip-off of The Most Dangerous Game so far to own up to its inspiration!

Total score: 36/100!

More hunting to come!