Book Review: SuperManChu

Book Review: 'SuperManChu' by Sean Mei Sullivan

3 / 5 Stars

'SuperManChu' (139 pp) was published in April, 1974 by Ballantine Books.

[The novelization is based on the super low-budget 1973 Kung Fu film The Stormy Sun.] 

It's a measure of how popular the whole Kung Fu experience had become by the start of 1974, that a paperback novelization of the film would be issued to capitalize on the craze sweeping the popular culture in the US. 

(Later that year, for example, the song Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas would top the charts in the US, and one of Marvel's best-selling comic books was The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu. )

The plot of 'SuperManChu' is a standard revenge tale: Han Ching is a modest young man who works at a country inn owned by his parents. One day, while Ching is out getting water from a distant spring, a group of fast-living gangsters, led by the evil Lee Ta-yeh, decide to stop at the inn. After downing some wine, the thugs seek the favors of Yu-lan, Han Ching's sister; when she refuses their advances, mayhem ensues....... and Ching's parents and sister are brutally murdered.

Returning to the hotel from his excursion to the spring, Ching is horrified to see the carnage inflicted by Lee Ta-yeh and his thugs. Ching vows to travel to the city and revenge the deaths of his loved ones. 

Lee Ta-yeh and his gang at first dismiss Han Ching as a simpleminded country boy, easy fodder for elimination. But what Lee Ta-yeh and his fellow thugs don't know is that Han Ching has studied Kung Fu......and when it's time for battle, Han Ching becomes SuperManChu..........!

Super cool !

Super quick !

Super deadly !

I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that SuperManChu will have to take on an array of villains before he can exact any revenge on Lee Ta-yeh and his thugs.

Author Sullivan does a good job of keeping the narrative rolling along, staying true to the script of the film and avoiding any over-writing. It's about all one can ask from a novelization.

Along with a section of black-and-white stills from the film, interestingly, 'SuperManChu' has an Introduction, written by Sullivan along with Han Bing-soo (1933 - 2007), master of hapkido whose role in popularizing and promoting the discipline in the US made him the Korean analog of Bruce Lee. 

Han Bing-soo was responsible for supervising the fight scenes in the 1971 film Billy Jack.

In the introduction, Han Bing-soo and Sullivan review various Asian martial arts disciplines, stances (depicted using a series of line drawings), and philosophies. 

The verdict ? I can't call 'SuperManChu' a must-have, but if you see it on the used bookstore shelves, and you're a fan of 70s pop culture, then it's worth picking up.

DC Showcase Presents Jonah Hex Volume 2

Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Vol. 2

DC Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume 2 (544 pp) was published in 2014. It compiles - in black and white - issues 34 - 38 of Weird Western Tales, and issues 1 - 22 of Jonah Hex, covering the collective interval from May-June 1976 to March, 1979

Most of the 27 issues in this compilation were written by Michael Fleisher, with David Michelinie providing plots for several issues in 1978. The majority of the artist chores are handled by the well-known Spanish artist Vincente Alcazar, with George Moliterni, Bill Draut, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Rich Buckler, and Ernie Chan also filling in.

Some of the stories Fleisher wrote later were 'recycled' by Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti in their revival of the Jonah Hex comic for DC's Vertigo imprint in 2006 - 2011.

Almost every issue in this collection is a standalone episode, which means that the plots often have a contrived note as the writer tries to wrap things up in the last page or so. That said, there are some decent episodes here, many with a gritty edge and acts of violence that are a bit surprising in light of the fact that all of these issues were subjected to the Comics Code.

As far as the artwork goes, Vincente Alcazar is certainly one of the most capable artists ever assigned to the Hex franchise. He had a talent for Western illustration, rendering gunfighters, saloons, landscapes, horses, trains, and Indians all with necessary authenticity and verve.

It's fair to say that Alcazar was to Jonah Hex as Moebius was to Blueberry.

Copies of DC Showcase Presents: Jonah Hex Volume 2 can be purchased from the usual online bookstores for reasonable prices. However, as with a lot of these 'Showcase' volumes, prices will shoot up with the passage of time, so if you are a fan of the Jonah Hex character or of Western comics in general, getting a copy sooner - rather than later - is recommended.

Gideon Faust: Warlock at Large

Gideon Faust: Warlock at Large
by Howard Chaykin (art) and Philip DeWalt (colors)
from Star*Reach Classics No. 5 (Eclipse Comics, July 1984)

This 12 page comic first appeared in Star*Reach No. 5 in July, 1976, as a black and white comic. When Eclipse Comics began reprinting selected Star*Reach strips in its 'Star*Reach Classics' comic, this was among those selected for reprinting in colored format.

Although nowadays the sub-genre of 'steam-fantasy' is well established and represented by many titles on the shelves of bookstores, back in '76, using it as a theme for a comic was 
imaginative for its time.

Book Review: The Apocalypse Brigade

Book Review: 'The Apocalpyse Brigade' by Alfred Coppel

3 / 5 Stars

‘The Apocalypse Brigade’ (342 pp) first was published in hardback in 1983; this paperback version was released by Ace / Charter Books in April 1983.

The novel is set in the ‘near future’, i.e., 1989, at which time all the geopolitical nightmares birthed in the late 70s, such as the Iran Hostage Crisis, successive Oil Embargos, and the rise of Political Islam, have conspired to render the West a collection of ‘timid democracies’ led by particularly inept and spineless politicians…..

In the U.S., the president - a party hack named Vincent Todd Loomis - is paralyzed with indecision in the aftermath of an Islamic revolution that has overthrown the Saudi government, throttled oil production, and (worse yet) led to yet another hostage crisis, as radicals toting AK-47s parade captured U.S. Embassy personnel in Riyadh before the TV cameras, accusing them of crimes against the people.

Calder Smith Davis, wealthy magnate, philanthropist, and the head of the global nonprofit enterprise the New Peace Corps (NPC), offers to secretly negotiate with the radicals in an effort to free the captives. Loomis agrees, calculating that any failed rescue effort will reflect poorly on Davis, while a successful effort will make Loomis a hero and master statesmen.

But what Vincent Todd Loomis doesn’t know is that Calder Smith Davis is no George Soros, seeking to bring corporate benefit to the disenfranchised of the world. Davis is in fact the most dangerous of men……..a megalomaniac with a vision for how the world should be re-made, and the money and connections to make it happen……..

‘The Apocalypse Brigade’ was published in the era before ‘techno-thriller’ became a household word (Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October wouldn’t be published intil 1984). However, in many regards ‘Apocalypse’ qualifies as a proto-techno-thriller, one with some nods to the style of Robert Ludlum.

Alfred Coppel (1921 – 2004) was already a well-published, prolific author at the time ‘Apocalypse’ was released, so it’s not surprising that the novel is reasonably well-written. It adheres to the thriller novel style of the 70s and early 80s by having multiple sub-plots, a large cast of characters, and a main plot that takes so long to unfold that the eponymous Brigade doesn’t go into action until the last 40 pages. Although the denouement has some contrivances, it also doesn’t wrap everything up with a Happily Ever After fade-out, either.

I can’t see any younger readers being all that captivated by ‘The Apocalypse Brigade’, although Baby Boomers who remember the atmosphere of the late 70s, and songs like the Kink’s ‘Catch Me Now I’m Falling’, may find memories revived upon reading ‘Brigade’. As well, the conservative, hard-right political opinions that Coppel advocates for within his novel may – arguably – be just as relevant to our modern age as it was in 1981………..

Hawkmoon: The Jewel in the Skull issue 4

Hawkmoon: The Jewel in the Skull
First Comics, 1986
Issue 4 (November 1986)
art: Rafael Kayanan and Rico Rival, story: Gerry Conway

(Scans of issue one , issue two, and issue three)

The fourth and final issue of this saga........