Michael May's Blog, page 174
October 12, 2013
Taran 101 | Burroughs' Later Years
Celebrating Tarzan's 101st anniversary by walking through Scott Tracy Griffin's Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration.
Two months after he finished writing his final novel, Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, in 1944, Burroughs' first wife Emma passed away from a stroke. He was still a war correspondent at the time, but got leave from the army - as did his and Emma's son, Hulbert - to return to California to be with the rest of the family and settle Emma's affairs. It was Christmastime and the first time Burroughs had celebrated the holiday with his entire family in 11 years.
In February 1945, he returned to duty in Hawaii and embarked on a final army tour shortly after Germany surrendered in May. On one leg of that tour, he was piloted by swashbuckling film legend Tyrone Power who was serving in the Marine Corps at the time.
After the war with Japan ended in August, it took Burroughs another couple of months to prepare and move back to California. Sadly, his health was already failing and he suffered from various heart ailments as well as Parkinson's disease. He started a new Tarzan novel in California, but only got 15,000 words into it before giving it up.
Sol Lesser was making Tarzan movies at the time and Burroughs stayed in contact with the productions. He got to see Tarzan and the Leopard Woman and one of his last outings was to the set of Tarzan and the Slave Girl. Ultimately though, his health declined to the point that he was confined to a wheelchair and he spent his final days watching TV (a new invention in the late '40s and Burroughs loved watching sports on it) and receiving visits from family and friends.
He died of heart failure in bed on Sunday morning, 19 March 1950, reading the Sunday Tarzan strip in the paper. His ashes were buried under a large tree in front of the ERB, Inc. office.
31 Werewolves | "Werewolves of London"
Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon met guitarist Waddy Wachtel in Los Angeles in 1972 when Zevon was playing piano and Wachtel was playing guitar for the Everly Brothers. When the Everlys split up the following year, the two musicians went their separate ways, but rejoined when Zevon recorded his second album and asked Wachtel to help out.
It was while making that album that the two of them and Wachtel's friend Leroy Marinell came up with "Werewolves of London," though the song wouldn't be used until Zevon's third album, Excitable Boy. According to Wachtel, the trio wrote the song in an afternoon, based on an idea that Phil Everly had had for a song title. Everly had been working on a solo album and wanted Zevon to write a song for him. As Zevon put it, "[Everly] said, 'Write a dance song. Like… "Werewolves Of London."' That's exactly what he said. I just said, 'O-kaayy...'"
Wachtel came up with the "ow-ooooo" and a bunch of imagery from London, since he'd just returned from a trip there. He wrote the first verse, then handed it over to Zevon and Marinell who wrote the rest. Marinell also contributed a guitar lick he'd been sitting on for a while and the rest is history.
With its focus on Victorian horror and hedonism, "Werewolves of London" is actually more true to the themes of werewolf mythology than the subjects of other recent posts in this series like Man-Wolf and The Wolfen. Jackson Browne, who produced Excitable Boy, said that the song's about "a really well-dressed, ladies' man, a werewolf preying on little old ladies. In a way, it's the Victorian nightmare, the gigolo thing. The idea behind all of those references is the idea of the ne'er-do-well who devotes his life to pleasure: the debauched Victorian gentleman in gambling clubs, consorting with prostitutes; the aristocrat who squanders the family fortune. All of that is secreted away in that one line: 'I'd like to meet his tailor.'"
When they recorded it for Excitable Boy, Zevon sang and played piano, Wachtel played guitar, and they were joined by Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on drums and bass.
I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,
Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.
He was looking for a place called Lee Ho Fook's;
Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
If you hear him howling around your kitchen door,
Better not let him in.
Little old lady got mutilated late last night.
Werewolves of London again.
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amuck in Kent.
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair.
Better stay away from him;
He'll rip your lungs out, Jim.
I'd like to meet his tailor.
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Awoooooo!
Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the Queen
Doing the Werewolves of London.
I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the Queen
Doing the Werewolves of London.
I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect.
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Draw blood...
Awoooooo!
Werewolves of London!
Tarzan 101 | Edgar Rice Burroughs' Fantastic Worlds
Celebrating Tarzan's 101st anniversary by walking through Scott Tracy Griffin's Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration.
Griffin's chapter on Burroughs' non-Tarzan stories is probably also the longest and with good reason: There's a lot to cover. Griffin highlights the best of the many other series and standalone stories that Burroughs wrote, with short summaries of each. I'm going to condense it into an easy list, but as usual, Griffin's version has more details than mine.
Before I do that, though, I want to point out that Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. is adapting some of the most famous of them (plus Tarzan) as weekly webcomics on the ERB site. There's a subscription of $2 a month, but you get about 24 pages of comics/month for that and the first few pages are free.
I should also mention that Griffin includes a whole other chapter called "The Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs." It's simply a list, so I won't reproduce it, but it's complete and also includes all the movies, TV and radio shows, Broadway productions, and comics.
Martian novels
Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and Warlord of Mars: The original John Carter trilogy in which the hero goes to Mars, meets its various inhabitants, and fights against the cult of a horrific goddess.
Thuvia, Maid of Mars: John Carter's son, Carthoris, rescues and woos a Martian woman.
Chessmen of Mars: Carter's daughter, Tara, and her husband are forced to battle as living chess pieces in an arena.
The Mastermind of Mars: A new earthman, Ulysses Paxton, arrives on Mars and battles an evil scientist.
A Fighting Man of Mars: Another hero fights another mad scientist to rescue another princess.
Swords of Mars: John Carter returns to combat an assassins guild.
Synthetic Men of Mars: The villain from Mastermind creates more trouble and has to be defeated by yet another Martian hero.
Llana of Gathol: Combines four novelettes featuring Carter and his granddaughter, Llana as they try to stop a megalomaniac.
John Carter of Mars: Combines two novellas in which Carter meets a giant and travels to Jupiter.
Venusian novels
Pirates of Venus, Lost on Venus, Carson of Venus, and Escape on Venus: A more humorous approach than the Martian series as Carson Napier accidentally ends up on the wrong planet and chases a princess and fights monsters in an attempt to rescue her.
Lunarian novels
The Moon Maid, The Moon Men, and The Red Hawk: Set in the future, humans try to take Earth back from alien invaders.
The Time novels
The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss: Burroughs' other lost land besides Pellucidar, which Griffin covered in an earlier chapter due to its crossover with Tarzan. But though Pellucidar and TLTTF are Burroughs' most famous lost worlds, they're not his only ones.
Miscellaneous fantasies
The Lost Continent: Burroughs' third lost land is set in a future in which the world has been devastated by a long war.
Jungle Girl: A doctor discovers a lost civilization, and a princess of course.
The Cave Girl: An ill-equipped smartie-pants is marooned on an island and learns to survive with the help of a primitive woman.
The Monster Men: A Tarzan/Frankenstein hybrid in which a mad scientist creates a heroic giant.
The Lad and the Lion: Another Tarzan-esque tale where a young man tries to survive in North Africa with a lion companion.
Beyond the Farthest Star: Burroughs' final space story wasn't as romanticized as the Martian or Venusian ones. A WWII pilot finds himself on an alien world beleaguered by its own war.
The Mucker trilogy
The Mucker and Return of the Mucker: An anti-hero from the slums of Chicago fights samurai warriors on an island.
The Oakdale Affair: Continues the story by following the Mucker's hobo companion in a murder mystery.
Real-life novels
The Efficiency Expert: A dude becomes an efficiency expert with no prior experience.
The Girl from Farris: A romance between a wealthy businessman and a poor woman.
Marcia of the Doorstep: Burroughs' attempt at the Great American Novel, but with island marooning, a Western ranch, and a Hollywood stunt pilot.
The Girl from Hollywood: A thinly disguised homage to life on Burroughs' ranch and how it was way better than Tinsel Town.
Baltic romances
The Rider: Inspired by books like A Prisoner of Zenda, Burroughs wrote this story of mistaken identity between a dashing highwayman and prince.
The Mad King: Another mix-up between an adventurer and a royal.
Historical romances
The Outlaw of Torn: Medieval English adventure.
I Am a Barbarian: Fun times in Caligula's Rome.
Westerns
The War Chief and Apache Devil: Highlight the perspective of the Apaches during their wars with the U.S. cavalry.
The Bandit of Hell's Bend: A more conventional Western.
The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County: Adventure on a New Mexico dude ranch.
October 11, 2013
31 Werewolves | Wolfen
Whitley Strieber's werewolf novel was published in 1978 to mostly positive reviews. Told from the dual perspectives of a race of people descended from wolves and the police detectives investigating their grisly work, The Wolfen offers a scientific - instead of a supernatural - explanation for werewolves. In fact, the Wolfen aren't technically werewolves at all, though they've inspired those kinds of legends.
A couple of years later, the book was adapted into a movie starring Albert Finney and Diane Verona as the detectives. The film differs from the novel's plot in several respects, but a couple of huge differences are the way it ties the Wolfen specifically to Native American folklore and a heavy environmental theme. The Wolfen are predators, but in the movie they're predators with a cause.
Strieber followed up The Wolfen with a vampire novel, The Hunger, which was adapted into a Tony Scott film starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. A few years after that, he wrote the controversial Communion: A True Story , which claimed to be an accurate account of his abduction by aliens. Communion was also made into a film, this one starring Christopher Walken.
Ground to a Pulp card set on Kickstarter
I don't usually talk about other people's Kickstarter campaigns on this blog, but it's not because I have anything against doing that. I just don't typically think to blog about them. But Evan Driscoll of Studio Hades has a unique project that deserves some extra attention even though he's blown past his goal.
I'm embedding the Kickstarter video below, but basically Driscoll is creating a set of retro, '30s-inspired bubble gum cards featuring pulp heroes and sports stars from the era. As he hits stretch goals, he's adding cards to the base set, so a C'thulhu card has already been unlocked and with just under a week left in the campaign, there's a Phantom card on the line if additional backers pledge less than $300.
Anyway, check out the video and the Kickstarter page. There are some great reward levels and I'm sure this is right in the wheelhouse of a lot of people who read this blog.
October 10, 2013
31 Werewolves | Man-Wolf
I'm not sure why Marvel needed another werewolf character only a year after the introduction of Werewolf by Night, but they did and I'm glad. Even if Man-Wolf isn't a supernatural creature, but a pseudo-scientifiction version.
J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut son John had been around since Amazing Spider-Man #1 and got into a couple of scrapes with the web-slinger before he turned into the Man-Wolf in #124. On a secret mission to the moon, young Jameson discovered a red gem and felt compelled to possess it. Though he turned it in after the mission, he went back for it and made it into a pendant. On the next full moon, the gem reacted with the moonlight and caused Jameson to transform, while also fusing to Jameson's throat, so that he couldn't remove it.
Thanks to the intervention of Spider-Man and other Marvel heroes, Jameson has periodically been freed of the curse, but of course it always ends up coming back to him. He's been a steady fixture in the Marvel Universe and was even briefly married to She-Hulk.
Super Busy
31 Scares and Werewolves will resume, but this has been a crazy week. Sorry for the delay. 
