Paul Bishop's Blog, page 12

GIL BREWER—THE DARK INVADER

   GIL BREWER—THE DARK INVADER *This post first appeared as the introduction to Stark House Press collection of two Gil Brewer novels, The Red Scarf and A Killer Is Loose, published in 2018...  
In 1969, I was fifteen-years-old and obsessed with collecting paperback tie-in novels based on my favorite spy and detective shows. Carefully read (so not to crease the spines) tie-in editions of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, Mission Impossible, The Mod  Squad, The Rat Patrol, Mannix, Get Smart, and others still sit on my bookshelves fifty years later—touchstones from my teen years.
These franchise tie-ins were traditionally written on a work for hire basis, which provided a one-time fee to the authors. The writers were often picked for their ability to deliver a quick manuscript turnaround (sometimes in as little as a week), prior tie-in experience, or those in desperate need of a quick payday. They received no royalties for their work—even when a book sold over a million copies, which was not unusual.
Many tie-in novels bore little resemblance to the shows on which they were based as they were frequently contracted to be written prior to the show’s television debut—sometimes even before final casting for the characters was decided. The writer might only be given the first draft of a pilot script to work from—a document which would invariably change significantly before the show went into production.
There was a trio of paperback tie-in novels connected to one of my favorite TV shows—It Takes A Thief (The Devil in Davos, Mediterranean Caper, Appointment in Cairo). For three seasons on ABC, Robert Wagner starred as Alexander Mundy, a world class cat burglar and jewel thief blackmailed into using his skills for the United States government in order to stay out of prison. As with most tie-in novels, the three It Takes A Thief paperbacks were designed with eye-catching glossy covers displaying publicity photos associated with the show.
I will admit these covers were my biggest motivation for collecting TV tie-ins. I was not sufficiently knowledgeable at the time to care who wrote the books. It wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest. The only thing I was interested in was collecting the new books and stories connected to my favorite shows. As a result, the importance and history of the author behind the three It Takes A Thief tie-ins completely escaped me.
Ten years later, I had transferred my obsession for TV tie-ins to the dark world of noir. While devouring Cain, Woolrich, Goodis, and Thompson, I stumbled across The Red Scarf, a noir novel by some guy named Gil Brewer…
Wait...Why was that name familiar? I perused my bookshelves and there they were—the It Takes A Thief tie-in novels all three written by none other than Gil Brewer. I would later understand they were not examples of Brewer at his best—more rough first drafts than finely crafted finished products. They were written between 1968 and 1969. This timing was the most likely reason for their lesser quality, as it was after Brewer had suffered a mental breakdown and while he was in the middle of a slow decline into alcoholism. Brewer continue to ghostwrite novels and churn out salacious hack work (of even more suspect quality) under pseudonyms until the mid-seventies, but the It Takes A Thieftie-ins were the last books published under his own name.
While the attributes of Brewer’s It Takes A Thief ventures were questionable, I quickly found something different in the pages of his novel, The Red Scarf. It was something dark, raw, and utterly brilliant. Brewer infused it with anguished prose as terse as Hemingway’s as he thrust his protagonists into a twisted plot where the only choices available were bad, worse, and wretched. This was noir at its finest—comparable to any exploration of human darkness before or since.
Brewer’s father had written stories for the early air action themed pulp magazines. While Brewer was heir to his father’s skills for popular fiction, he was also heir to his father’s penchant for the bottle. A high school dropout, Brewer had a checkered history of employment before he enlisted in the Army during WWII. After the war, he settled in with his parents in Florida, where they had relocated from upstate New York.
Florida would provide strong literary fodder for Brewer. The heat, the oppressive, humidity, and the swampy atmosphere made it the perfect setting for stories inhabited by slatternly women and men living on the ragged edges of society.
His parents finally grew tired of his literary affectations (ponderous manuscripts with pretentious titles such as House of the Potato), his drinking, and his seduction of a neighbor’s wife (whom he would later marry). When his mother tossed him out, Brewer found himself desperate for money. Having no skills and no desire to work in any other occupation, he was compelled to set aside his desire for critical acclaim and write for—gasp—money.
He would always perceived this situation as an injustice. In the depths of alcohol soaked delusions, he would fall into deep depression over the failure to achieve his rightful place in the pantheon of important writers. Depression led to more drinking, which led to more depression, and the deadly spiral continued. In reality, Brewer was blind to the cold truth. He was an exceptional talent. He was an important writer. However, his talent and his importance did not lie with the glitterati, but with the common man who devoured popular fiction, and whom he understood on a base level. 
In the face of pressing need, Brewer aimed his typewriter at the voracious and well paying market for paperback originals—fast, entertaining reads for the working Joe who wanted a little spice (or what passed for spice in the 1950s) with his fiction. With the help of agent and former Black Mask editor Joseph T. Shaw, Brewer sold Satan Is A Woman to Gold Medal, seeing it published in 1951. Gold Medal was a genre paperback line created by Fawcett Publications, and the noir address of some of the most revered genre masters of a generation.
He sold two more novels to Gold Medal—So Rich, So Dead and 13 French Street—in quick succession. It was between the covers of these Gold Medal paperback originals where Brewer found the true home for his stripped down, biting, prose—one hundred and forty pages of short, uncluttered sentences, featuring sharp dialogue and a blend of equal parts despair, lust, and bad decisions. If Dante had envisioned an eighth level of Hell, it would be populated with characters and situations created by Brewer.
Over the next fifteen years, Brewer wrote thirty-three novels under his own name. Almost all were variations on the theme of an ordinary man led into wanton corruption and to his ultimate destruction by the type of women for whom wolf whistles were invented. Brewer took this base theme and overlaid it with a patina of erotic sleaze, banking on his stated belief that “sex…is the big element we deal with in life every day—the push and pull of human nature.”
His third book for Gold Medal, 13 French Street, gave credence to this assertion. With raw lust fueling the book’s squalid sexual focus, it sold over a million copies. While this sales achievement should have been reason for celebration, not everyone was please by the perceived immoral content of the book. Shaw, his agent, asked him not to rely so much on flesh and sex angles, and his editor—concerned about rumblings from censors and the morals police—insisted Brewer tone down his narratives.
However, despite their editorial disapproval over the subject matter of 13 French Street, Gold Medal gladly relied on the book’s salacious reputation to pimp new titles by Brewer. Even Brewer’s last novel for Gold Medal, Backwoods Teaser, published in 1960, bore the banner, By the Author of 13 French Street.
13 French Street would go into eight printings and numerous overruns. With this burgeoning success, Brewer refused to listen to the voices of caution. After reading the blatant promiscuity Brewer described in the opening to his follow-up novel, Shadow on the Dust, Shaw implored him to build the narrative more slowly, so readers would have a chance to develop some sympathy for the nominal hero. Again ignoring the advice, Brewer kept pouring on the sexual heat, only to find the completed manuscript rejected by Gold Medal due to it’s plot being entirely reliant on sex.
This was a bucket of cold water, which should have shocked Brewer into compliance, but still didn’t (or couldn’t) get the message. He was obsessed by the demons faced by all noir authors—words, alcohol, and lust. While other writers had the ability to show some restraint, Brewer—in spite of his anguished, paranoid, distributing of blame when inebriated—willingly embraced his demons.
Gold Medal tried to keep a tight hold on Brewer’s fiction, but he continued his fixation on sexual enthrallment in titles such as Hell’s Our Destination, 77 Rue Paradis, and A Killer Is Loose. Instead of rejecting the novels based on their supposed contempt of the subject matter, Gold Medal was hypocritically happy to pad their bottom line with the profits from Brewer’s lewd take on the human condition.
Chasing cash, Brewer was also slinging words at the short fiction market. It was here, in 4,000 to 10,000 words, where he turned loose sexual themes too indecent (by the morals of the times) for the 60,000 to 70,000 word paperback market. Unlike Gold Medal, the short story crime magazines had no scruples over what they published as long as it sold copies.
Apparently a taste of sin in a short story was acceptable, but a full meal in a novel caused indigestion. However, these stories of window peepers, panty sniffers, gropers, and other sexual fetishes—even short ones—still incensed the official moral censors. Criminal charges of pornography and sending obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent matter through the U.S. Mail hellfired down on the editors of cheap digest-sized magazines—such as Accused, Guilty, Pursuit, andManhunt—all targeting those types of stories that were Brewer’s best work.
His addictions, unsteady work habits, and continued preoccupation with fetish based stories eventually led to him being dropped by Gold Medal (although he did make it back in to their ranks for a single novel a few years later). His novels spiraled down from the publishing high-rises (Fawcett Gold Medal) to the sidewalk (Crest, Lancer, Berkley) and then the gutter (Monarch, Banner). His short stories only occasionally found favor in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine or Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. More often they found minimal paying homes in Hustler, Adam, and even lower scale men’s magazines—which were almost always slow to pay what was owed.
Unfortunately, things got worse. A move to California with his wife Valerie left him without access to peer support of any kind. His struggles with alcohol took him away from the typewriter. His mental state was deteriorating. His inability to get the brilliance in his head onto the page resulted in confused and rambling book proposals destined for rejection.
When a serious traffic accident landed him in the hospital, he was not only physically injured, but virtually off the rails mentally. With professional help, he hauled himself back to the lip of the pit. He began writing solid prose again, but during his time away from the typewriter, the market for his stock in trade tales of dark sexuality had virtually dried up. He had traded Valium for alcohol, but the resulting addiction was even worse. He fought his way off the Valium, but took up with alcohol again—his need for addiction never defeated.
Moving back to Florida did not change the situation. With no choices left to him, Brewer gnashed and wailed, but was forced to turn to the lowest forms of hack work to establish any kind of cash flow.
He wrote sex books under a variety of house names, spicy stories for the lesser men’s magazines, and gothic tales under the name Elaine Evans. Writing pal Marv Albert paved the way for Brewer to write two entries in the men’s adventure series Soldato, which were published under Albert’s Al Conroy pseudonym. He ghosted tales for Ellery Queen, Hal Ellison, and five novels of the Israeli-Arab war, which bore the name of Harry Arvay, an Israeli soldier. An opportunity to join the ranks of ghosts writing the Executioner series was promising, but fizzled when his work didn’t match creator Don Pendleton’s vision of the series. And he wrote the three It Takes A Thiefnovelizations, which still grace my bookshelves.
The alcohol took it inevitable price as even the hack work he desperately needed to survive became scarce. Brewer and Valerie agreed to separate, even though she would continue to support him emotionally and financially. In January 1983, Valerie found him dead in his apartment. It was an ignominious end to the career of a writer whose talent deserved so much more.
The irony, of course, is within a relatively short time following his death, Brewer’s best work began to be recognized. It started with the French, who have always known a good noir when they see it. A French production company bought the rights to A Killer Is Loose for a five figure advance, releasing a film version in 1987. The Red Scarf was reprinted in both England and France finding a hungry audience. Brewer’s short stories were suddenly in demand for prestigious anthologies, which further fueled interest in his work and distinctive style.
The two stories that started the Brewer revival, The Red Scarf and A Killer Is Loose, are perfect examples of Brewer’s ability to create nerve-wracking hell of rides of classic proportions. The sheer frenetic energy of their prose and their pervading sense of impending terror make their selection for this collection a natural pairing.
Originally rejected by Gold Medal and other paperback houses, the hardcover rights for The Red Scarf were purchased by a small lending-library imprint for a paltry $300 advance. Perversely, Fawcett, Gold Medal’s parent company, overturned the original rejection, buying the paperback reprint rights on the cheap for their Crest imprint, which had a much lower reputation than Gold Medal.
The Red Scarf, however, is the perfect noir, making its odd publishing history unimportant. It was my first true taste of Brewer—It Takes A Thief tie-in novels aside—and I devoured it.
Small business owner Roy Nichols and his wife are caught between the razor and the strap. Faced with financial ruin after his brother reneges on a loan, Roy is loath to tell Bess, his sweet wife, they are going to loose the roadside motel into which they have sunk all their cash and dreams. Desolately hitchhiking home, Roy is the perfect sap. When sexually charged slattern Vivian Rise and her shady boyfriend, Noel Teece, give him a ride, complications—as they say—ensue. Those complications involve a briefcase of illicit cash, a drunken car crash, a gambling syndicate who want their money back, a mob enforcer, and police both corrupt and straight.
As each startling twist unfurls, the cogs and gears of the story interlock smoothly. As the darkness of inevitability presses down, one bad decision follows another, and Roy is dragged deeper and deeper into the quicksand of despair and fear. We want him to save himself and Bess, as we cringe with each rachet of suspense.
Brewer manipulates his plot masterfully. His characterizations of all involved is irreproachable, his prose sharp and controlled, his dialogue as terse and as dry as a twig in the Sahara. You can’t stop reading even though you find you have stopped breathing.
Comparatively, A Killer is Loose was Brewer’s sixth novel. His specialty of trapping his protagonist in a web of terror, paranoia, and dread and empathetically transmitting those feelings to his readers had been honed to the sharpness of a killer’s stiletto.
Written in less than two weeks through a haze of cigarettes, coffee, and booze, A Killer Is Loose is raw first draft with resultant awkward flashes. However, the sheer immediacy of the narrative connects readers not only to the characters, but unexpectedly attaches them directly to the writer himself. The thin veil between Brewer and those devouring the story is remarkable. It verges on breaking the fourth wall, yet maintains its structure due to the rapid-fire unfolding of events.
With damaged eyesight, a baby literally on the way into the world, a backlog of unpaid bills, and the threat of high hospital fees on the dark horizon, ex-cop Steve Logan is forced to make a hard decision. He elects to pawn his prize Luger to a bartender who handles those types of transactions. On the way, his life goes from tough to terrifying as norish coincidences and complications descend on him like a fever.
Reactively saving the life of Ralph Angers, a stranger getting off an incoming bus, is the first good intention paving the road to hell. Ralph is quickly revealed to be an eye surgeon living in a world of dangerous delusions. He has no compunction toward killing anyone he perceives as trying to stop him from his fantasy of building a hospital. To prove his point, he snatches Steve’s Lugar and wastes no time killing the bartender with the pawnshop sideline.
Here, Brewer excels at his craft as he creates a nightmare of paranoiac proportions—a desperate man and a former stripper (this is a noir after all) caught in unrelenting suspense by a calm, but brutal maniac.
Don’t expect to sleep well after reading these splendid tales, which display the power of Gil Brewer—a man out of step with himself in a world too slow to recognize noir genius before the curse of self-destruction caught up with him.

THE BLACK EAGLES

   THE BLACK EAGLESThere are numerous old school men’s adventure series to use the Vietnam War as a background. Two of the best are Saigon Commandos and M.I.A. Hunter. The Black Eagles isn’t quite in the same league, but with twenty-one titles it’s one of the longest running military action oriented men’s adventure series. The Black Eagles also sported cool thematic cover art, which was kept consistent for the entire run—a feature valued by collectors.


Published by Zebra between 1983 and 1990, The Black Eagles books were written by several different authors under the pseudonym John Lansing. As a result, the merit of the stories swings between mediocre and very good, with a couple of excellent entries. It was often Zebra's editorial policy that hurt the series by insisting on a high page count. This meant 180 pages of solid story had to be padded out to 250 pages of small print.


The highly revered men’s adventure writer William Fieldhouse, was the power behind The Black Eagles. He is perhaps best known for creating Gold Eagle’s Phoenix Force series under the pseudonym Gar Wilson. Phoenix Force, along with Able Team, were series spin-offs from Gold Eagle’s highly successful The Executioner series—the big daddy of all men’s adventure paperback originals. Phoenix Force ran for fifty-eight titles, thirty-two of which were written by Fieldhouse. He is considered ‘the’ Gar Wilson by serious Phoenix Force fans and collectors.


Prior to Phoenix Force, Fieldhouse had written for The Executioner series. He also wrote numerous standalone and series Westerns (The Klaw, Six-Gun Samurai, Gun Lust, etc.) and other contemporary action novels under numerous pseudonyms (M.I.A. Hunter, Stony Man, and others). Along the way, he created and wrote the military action series The Hard Corps under the pseudonym Chuck Bainbridge.


Fieldhouse created The Black Eagles series when he was approached by Zebra to create a house name series about the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Fieldhouse recalls: I was not keen on this. I’m an Army veteran, but I wasn’t in Vietnam. However, when I was taking BCT at Ft. Jackson, they started pulling troops out of Nam. The veterans of that ‘conflict’ had usually been depicted in a very negative manner (demented kill-crazy psychopaths or maybe psychotic). I figured I might be able to portray U.S. troops in Nam in a more positive manner. I was already writing two series. Really didn’t want another house name project. So I came up with basic format, characters and so on, acceptable by the publisher, and farmed out the actual writing to three individuals. 


This was much the same process Stephen Mertz used when creating his M.I.A. Hunter series. Both Mertz and Fieldhouse were expected by their publishers to ensure the books were of publishable quality and to do any rewriting required. This often led to a considerable amount of unexpected work. Due to the long running success of The Black Eagles this rubbing point was exacerbated, demanding far more effort on Fieldhouse’s part than he originally envisioned. In referring to the writers he chose, Fieldhouse stated: One was a good writer with an extensive military background. Another had a track-record, but also had extremist views (political and otherwise) that steadily became more obvious in his work. The third was quite intelligent, but inexperienced as a fiction writer.


The first entry in the series, Hanoi Hellground, was written by Mark K. Roberts, an experience pulpster whose credits included the even numbered entries in The Penetrator series and four volumes in the jingoistic Soldier For Hire series. Under the house name Patrick Lee, Roberts had also contributed to the Six-Gun Samurai series, for which Fieldhouse also wrote. Along with an off-kilter (and often inappropriate) sense of humour, Roberts had a penchant for overdoing Tuckerizations—the naming of characters after many of his writer friends. Politically to the right of Joseph Rosenberger (of Death Merchantfame—or infamy), Roberts would also indulged in rants about his views to pad out his page count. Later, Roberts would create and write the Liberty Corps series, another military oriented men’s adventure genre entry.


It was Patrick E. Andrews, however, who wrote most of the remaining Black Eagles books. An Army brat growing up, Andrews enlisted in the Army at age nineteen. He served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division in the active Army and the 12th Special Forces Group Green Berets in the Army Reserves. He left military service after being injured in a parachute jump.


After the Army, Andrew’s worked as a typesetter in San Diego while sending manuscripts to numerous publishers without success. He then became a technical editor and writer in aerospace while still pursuing his fiction writing. Eventually, he began to get published (like Fieldhouse and Roberts, he also wrote for the Six-Gun Samurai series). He went on to write more than fifty novels in the men's adventure, military adventure, Western, and historical genres. Andrews writes in a breezy style, which cleared some of the grimness from The Black Eaglesseries. His military background, however, kept his entries rooted in solid believability.


Paul Glen Neuman wrote only one Black Eagles novel, AK-47 Firefight. Neuman had previously written seven Phoenix Forcebooks, as well as two entries in the notorious They Call Me Mercenary series. Calling it grunt work, Neuman stated AK-47 Firefight was written under a tight deadline of six weeks for the book's approximate 240 pages. Personal interviews conducted with veterans of the War provided an insight, which proved invaluable for the novel's authenticity.


   David Cheney, who wrote at least two and possibly as many as four Black Eagles entries, is a bit of an enigma. A pharmacist in the San Diego Area for over thirty-eight years, he left the men’s adventure genre behind after writing for The Black Eagles. His only other publication appears to be a 2014 sci-fi novella, Mars—The Deep Con.


Despite the varied quality of the series, The Black Eagles is worth both reading and collecting. It is a prime example of the military sub-genre under the men’s adventure masthead.


   THE BLACK EAGLES


HANOI HELLGROUND
Captain Robert M. Falconi of the 5th Special Forces had his orders: the clandestine SOG needed an enforcement arm and Falconi was to put it together. Made up of the best jungle fighters if R.S. could muster, they were to take the war to Charlie - no matter where is Southeast Asia he tried to hide.


MEKONG MASSACRE
Falconi and his Black Eagles combat team are about to stake a claim on Colonel Nguyen Chi Ro—and give the Commie his due. But American intelligence wants the colonel alive, making this the Black Eagles toughest assignment ever...


NIGHTMARE IN LAOS
There’s a hot rumor that Russian in Laos are secretly building a nuclear reactor. And the American command isn’t wants it knocked out—quietly—and fast...


PUNGI PATROL
A team of specially trained East German agents—disguised as U.S. soldiers—is slaughtering helpless Vietnamese villagers to discredit America. The Black Eagles, the elite jungle fighters, have been ordered to stop the butchers before our own allies turn against us...


SAIGON SLAUGHTER
After being decimated by the NVA, Major Robert Falconi's killer crew, the Black Eagles, fight a private war against the enemy agents and assassins who still stalk them...


AK-47 FIREFIGHT
Robert Falconi and his Black Eagle fighters have been chosen to stop the deadly flow of mortars, AK-47s, grenades, and thousands of tons of ammunition to the NVA along South Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Trail. However, the Black Eagles find the North Vietnamese convoys so heavily guarded it seems a suicide mission. But the men believe their leader Falconi, and if he says they can do it, by God they’ll do it...


BEYOND THE DMZ
For the first time, the Black Eagles are ordered to strike deep into the heart of North Vietnam. It’s a suicide mission, but aided by a full complement of fearless Ping-Yan-Uen tribesmen the blood and the body count is sure to flow...


BOOCOO DEATH
When the only female member of the Black Eagles is captured by the North Vietnamese, Falconi and his squad of battle harden jungle fighters chase to rescue her. Finding themselves in an ingenious trap, they put their M-16s on rock-n-roll and come out blasting...


BAD SCENE AT BONG SON
Accompanied by an irritating embedded reporter, the Black Eagles don’t expect trouble in the Vietnamese’s low-lands. But when all hell breaks loose during a lashing wind and rainstorm, it’s come home as heroes, or not come home at all...


CAMBODIA KILL-ZONE
Major Robert Falconi's battle-hardened crew of jungle fighters are America's most effective killing machine in Southeast Asia. And when the big brass in Saigon uncover a secret Red plot to reinforce Cong units with combat teams from Iron Curtain countries around the globe, the Black Eagles are ordered to the Cambodian border to neutralize the situation quietly - and fast! But Algerian Colonel Omar Ahmed is a dedicated Communist who's ready to take on anything the free world can throw at him. And deep in the Cambodian jungle, on a battlefield splattered with hot shrapnel and blood, it's the Black Eagles against a band of fanatical Arabs in a duel to the death fought behind a news blackout imposed by both sides - and that means no medals but plenty of body bags for the men of The Black Eagles.



DUEL ON THE SONG CAI
When North Vietnamese patrol boats take control of the Song Cai River, it’s up to the Black Eagles to wade in over their heads and follow their unit motto: Calcitra Cllunis—Kick Ass...


LORD OF LAOS
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


ENCORE AT DIEN BIEN PHU
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


FIRESTORM AT DONG NAM
Lt. Colonel Gregori Kraschenko, a monster of a man and leader of the newly-organized Red Berets, the cream of the Iron Curtain’s elite forces. With a burning drive to destroy the Black Eagles and their leader, Major Robert Falconi, Kraschenko issues a deadly challenge—a neutral zone battle to the death between the Red Berets and the hardened jungle fighters of the Black Eagles—no backup, no heavy weaponry, just whatever they can carry in on their backs. If the Black Eagles refuse, the consequences to America’s intelligence apparatus will be devastating. There is only one choice destroy the Red Berets or die trying...


HO'S HELLHOUNDS
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


MONSOON HELLHOLE
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


MAU LEN DEATH ZONE
A top NVA general wants to defect and the Black Eagles will face the steaming jungle’s merciless dangers to get him out...


DURONG WARRIORS
Green hell in the highlands. Outnumbered and out gunned, the Black Eagles are determined to smash their way through the jungle to destroy the enemy’s Death Squad command...


HOA TIEN KILLERS
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


BO-BINK COMMANDOS
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...


NGUY-HIEM WAR ZONE
‘Nam down and dirty—the way our men had to fight it...

THE BLACK BERETS

  THE BLACK BERETSMen’s adventure paperback series writers come from all across life’s spectrum. In their private lives there has been a bigoted, drunken reactionary (Joseph Rosenberger—Death Merchant); a man who would become a woman later in life (Andrew/Andrea Sugar—The Enforcer); those who have considered their men’s adventure outings as slumming (Martin Cruz Smith—The Inquisitor), some have even been (gasp!) women (Gayle Lynds—Nick Carter: Killmaster/Molly Cochran—The Destroyer), and some who the mainstream would consider alternate lifestyle.

None of these personal traits, however, have anything to do with the quality of the individual’s writing, or of the series they created or for which they wrote entries. In considering their work in the men’s adventure genre, the lifestyles of writers should only be depicted in the objective context of who they are and never in judgment of the individuals or their work.

In the case of The Black Berets series, Mike McCray was a pseudonym shared by John Preston and Michael McDowell. Both authors were open about their homosexuality and became well known and revered for writing both fiction and non-fiction about the gay community. Unfortunatley, they would both die at an early age due to complications related to AIDS.

  John Preston was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement and the author or editor of more than twenty-five acclaimed gay-centric books. 


Along with The Black Berets series, he wrote for a number of other men’s adventure series, including numerous entries in Gold Eagle’s Soldiers of Barrabas series under the pseudonym Jack Hild. As Preston McAdam, he also wrote the three books in the Michael Sheriff: The Shield series (African Assignment, Arabian Assault, Island Intrigue).


In the early ‘80s, under the pseudonym Nathan Aldyne, Michael McDowell co-wrote four novels (with Dennis Schuetz) starring gay bartender Daniel Valentine and Boston detective Clarisse Lovelace. Vermillion, Cobalt, Slate, and Canary joined Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter novels as groundbreaking alternate lifestyle mysteries. At that time, McDowell was described by Stephen King as "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today."

McDowell was also active in writing scripts for movies and television. His screen credits include Beetlejuice, and collaborations on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Thinner. He wrote episodes for a number of television horror anthologies, including Tales from the Darkside. He also wrote the novelization of the movie Clue. The movie, based on the board game, featured three different endings, however the novelization was based on the shooting script and includes an additional fourth ending that was cut from the film. 

When interviewed about his writing in 1985, McDowell stated, "I am a commercial writer and I'm proud of that. I am writing things to be put in the bookstore next month. I think it is a mistake to try to write for the ages."

It is unclear if the thirteen books in The Black Beretsseries were co-written by Preston and McDowell or if the each wrote alternating entries. The series only gets brief mentions in bibliographies of their works, and is obviously considered of far less importance than their later writings.

  
THE BLACK BERETS
DEADLY REUNION In the dirty war of covert operations, they were the government's most deadly secret weapon—the CIA trained them for one thing and one thing only—to kill swiftly, silently and mercilessly. Then it turned them loose on the battlefields of Asia, sending them out on missions so ugly that not even the army could be told. But now the war was over. Beak, Rosie, Cowboy, Harry and Runt were in limbo until their old CIA control sent them back into the hell of Vietnam in search of a man who should be dead. Could five shell-shocked vets become a combat-honed killing machine again? And, if they could, how long would it be before the CIA acted to stop them, to shut them down—for keeps...

COLD VENGEANCEThey'd survived everything the Vietcong could throw at them. Now they'd throw it back...at the American renegade who'd betrayed them. The Black Berets had to hand it to Parkes, their former CIA case officer. First he'd sent them on a suicide mission to Vietnam. Then he'd sent some CIA hitmen to finish them off when the enemy couldn't. And the moment they set foot stateside, the world's meanest mercenaries found that Parkes had arranged another lethal welcome...Well, they'd never liked Parkes much. But how were they going to tell him? First they had to find him, and that would take Beeker, Rosie, Cowboy, Harry and Marty, from the bayous of Louisiana to an academy of terror in the Libyan desert, where they'd get a chance to say just what they had in mind-with bullets and a body bag...

THE BLACK PALMA Season of Slaughter...The Black Palm called themselves a nation, though their own people had cast them out. They called themselves an army, but made war on unarmed men, women and children. And in their fanatical crusade, they might strike anywhere. Even in the tiny Caribbean republic of New Neuzen...The only thing that stood between New Neuzen and a terrorist bloodbath were five American tourists. Those tourists happened to be the Black Berets, the dirtiest-and deadliest-warriors on earth. And they had not come to New Neuzen for a vacation. Unless your idea of a holiday is total war...

CONTRACT: WHITE LADYEveryone was the enemy in a lethal game where the stakes were acountry and a fortune in cocaine; the only rule was treachery. Even before they knew what the job was, some very heavy people were urging the Black Berets not to take it and driving their point home with lead. By the time they learned the particulars, they'd left too many dead to back out. Which was too bad...Because not even five berserkers relished taking a journalist through a South American war-zone where guerrillas might shoot before they showed their press pass-and federales were guaranteed to. Especially not when the opposition was armed and trained by the CIA and bankrolled by a billion-dollar coke syndicate. And definitely not when their charge turned out to be a seductive vixen who might set the Black Beret's at each other's throats before the enemy got them all in his cross hairs...

LOUISIANA FIRESTORMThe Black Berets have met the enemy-and he lives next door...Letting a struggling Chicano gas company run its pipeline across their Louisiana land struck the Black Berets as a good idea--especially once Cowboy got an eyeball on Isabella Cifuentes, its stunning, sultry president. But the contract, it seemed, contained some very fine and lethal print...A Texas oil magnate allied with a fanatical right-wing cult had made an unholy alliance to keep the territory free of Mexicans and competition-even if it meant taking his grievance to the people next door. But when your neighbors happen to be a quintet of renegade warriors, your backyard may become a burying ground...and the bone you came to pick may just turn out to be your own... THE DEATH MACHINE CONTRACTThe main event is manslaughter. Someone wanted to overthrow the government of San Sebastian, a country whose tiny army, nonaligned status, and location on the deadly curve of Central America made it ripe for subversion. The first try was an attempted hit on its president on a crowded street in Washington. The second was an invasion from the sea...Both times the Black Berets were there to keep the worst from happening. But how long could five men and one boy hold out against an army of the world's most skilled assassins? An army with limitless resources-and the patience to keep on killing...

THE RED MAN CONTRACT
In Mesa County, Nevada, the tide of history was about to change. A tiny tribe of Indians had just beaten the white man in his own court-and won title to some of the richest land in America. But some people were poor losers. And if they couldn't hold onto the land...they'd simply eliminate its rightful owners. With a handful of poorly armed red men facing a lynch mob led by the county sheriff and backed by corporate millions, Mesa County might be the setting for another Wounded Knee. Until the Black Berets got in on the action-and showed how professionals handle a massacre...

D.C. DEATH MARCHTen years later the war has come home-to the golden shores of California...In Washington, D.C., America is at long last erecting its monument to the Vietnam dead. While in L.A. the war is about to begin all over again-with a new twist. This time a wealthy cadre of South Vietnamese refugees are running a billion-dollar drug operation and using a private army of U.S. vets for protection...Marked for death, a lone Green Beret has come to the capital to warn his old comrades. But how can he convince anyone that the ringleader of the plot is a dead general without sounding totally insane? As a nation tries to bury the past, only the Black Berets can secure the future, drive the enemy from our shores and make them pay-in spades...

NIGHT OF THE JAGUARNational hero, military genius-too bad the Black Berets had him marked for death...The Lion of Salvador was the darling of the American press. But his heroic image disguised a vicious tyrant who ruled a vast drug empire that stretched from the coco fields of the Andes to the streets of New York. His savagery was unspeakable, his shock troops unstoppable, his firepower devastating. Solution: send in five good men...

CONTRACT: TERROR SUMMITThe worst nightmare has finally come true. Someone of immense wealth and power has illegally gained possession of five atomic bombs. The theft seems the work of some Third World lunatic...until a deadly raid on a Libyan terrorist training camp proves to be only a warm-up for the main event-in Portugal. Not even the Black Berets want to consider the consequences of failure. Can they find the bombs in time and crush a ruthless international cabal? Can five renegade commandos stop a summit of terror called by a madman bent on auctioning off doomsday to the highest bidder...

SAMURAI CONTRACTAgainst a deadly alliance of Japanese smarts and KGB savagery, they were striking back-with everything they had...Kyushu Electronics-it seemed a most unlikely target for the world's most feared team of fighting men. But the Soviets have turned it into a fortress where the country's top scientists are forced to complete a top secret project: a super-computer with enough byte to turn the Star Wars defense system into space debris. No one had to tell the Black Berets they'd be fighting the battle of their lives. For the five modern-day warriors had come to the land of the samurai and the ninja assassin ready to practice their own code of lethal arts-to die with honor or kill with a vengeance...

THE AKBAR CONTRACT
Only their cunning and lethal craft could stop a mad guru of death...So far all they had to go on was one brutally murdered woman, two stolen atomic bombs, and the phrase "Akbar Lives" written in pure gold. But that was enough to tell the Black Berets that something very ugly was going down in India-and whoever the opposition was, they had the ruthlessness, the firepower, and the bankroll to succeed. For once, even the world's most feared team of fighting men had to admit they'd met their match. Unless they could hold the team together long enough to stop a mad guru and his army of rabid disciples from igniting a holy war that would reduce them all to ashes...

BLUE WATER CONTRACTThey brought their lethal skills to a land of fun and sun-to stop a cold-blooded minister of death...Key Isabella-a tiny Caribbean hideaway for the rich and infamous only a hundred miles off the Florida coast. The island paradise had become the private fiefdom of a decadent prime minister whose illegal enterprises were protected by diplomatic immunity and a well-armed hit squad of sadistic "Vampires." Could the world's top covert commandos overthrow a corrupt regime and crush a billion dollar drug ring in Uncle Sam's backyard-without drawing undue attention? Though they didn't know it, the Black Berets were marching straight into a killing crossfire that could send them all on a permanent vacation-to kingdom come...

WELCOME TO MARWEN

WELCOME TO MARWENWelcome To Marwen has been reviled by the majority of critics, generated a barely lukewarm response in Rotten Tomatoes' audience poll, and has appeared in fewer theaters than a three hour art film. Despite an intriguing trailer filled with award winning possibilities, Welcome To Marwen has officially tanked at the box office. To paraphrase Monte Python, Marwen is a dead parrot...it is not pining for the fjords. It has passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker. It's stiff, bereft of life. It rests in peace. It has kicked the bucket and shuffled off this mortal coil. It is an ex-parrot. If it hadn't been nailed to the perch, it would  be pushing up daisies...  Based on the trailer, which solicited 'that looks great' whispers from my wife every time we saw it in theaters, Welcome To Marwen had been high on our 'must see' list. But the critical drubbing it received dropped it down to 'we'll wait to see it via the inevitable DVD/streaming release...maybe.' Then a friend, whose judgement we trust, asked if we had seen Welcome To Marwen. He and his wife went on to give the film an enthusiastic 'you gotta see it, two thumbs way up, it's fantastic' recommendation. We had a free evening, so we tracked the film down at the only theater in our county where it was playing and prepared to be underwhelmed.  What we experienced was a masterpiece of creative moviemaking. This may be slightly hyperbolic, but something outrageous has to be said to counter the undeserved avalanche of bad press Welcome To Marwen has received. We spent two hours riveted to the screen watching an amazing blend of flawless CGI animation cleverly and subtlety interwoven into the true story of a gifted artistic individual struggling to overcome horrendous trauma and find his place in the world again.  Welcome To Marwen, stars the versatile Steve Carell as Mark Hogancamp. A brutal hate crime, perpetrated because of his affinity for female shoes, wipes away all of Hogancamp's memories of his former life. Unable to afford therapy, Hogancamp tries to heal his PTSD through art therapy, constructing miniature WWII scenes featuring mostly female dolls repeatedly taking on a gang of Nazis with familiar faces.  Putting together pieces from his old and new life, Hogancamp meticulously creates the wondrous miniature Belgium town of Marwen, a place where he can heal and be heroic. This astonishing art installation is also a testament to the most powerful women he knows (both real and imagined) from whom he draws the strength to triumph over the crushing adversity of his real world experience. Welcome To Marwen is a bold and wondrous film, proving courageous imagination is a weapon more powerful than any devastation. It is an uplifting story about hope and triumph...and certainly a film worth making the effort to see...

 
 

STRIKE FIGHTERS/AFRIKORPS

  STRIKE FIGHTERS/AFRIKORPS TOM WILLARD In the early ‘90s, Tom Willard created two different Military men’s adventure series. The first was Strike Fighters, a nine book series which often crossed into techno-thriller territory. The second was the six book, post-apocalyptic Afrikorps, written under the pseudonym Bill Dolan, which was set two centuries hence after global warming creates a Ruined Earth, with Mutant armies pouring out of Africa, and other threats.

Willard, who was born into a military family, quit high school to join the army and served as a paratrooper and combat medic in Vietnam. He was wounded in action, losing a hand.  and decorated with the Bronze Star with "V" device for valor, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Purple Heart, among other medals. He is a University of North Dakota graduate who has lived in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is the author of over twenty novels and currently resides in North Dakota.

STRIKE FIGHTERS STRIKE FIGHTERS
A searing mission into the fiery arms of terrorism led by Strike Fighter captain Boulton Sacrette.

BOLD FORAGE
Captain Boulton Sacrette and the Strike Fighters face a harrowing race to stop a worldwide plot of death.

WAR CHARIOT
An explosive international air—sea race against time and death threatens to destroy Captain Boulton Sacrette and the Strike Fighters.

SUDDEN FURY
A thunderous clash with the world’s most ruthless terrorist. Strike Fighter Captain Boulton Sacrette jumps shore leave and disappears into the international underground, only to resurface with information about a plot so shocking that America launches the Strike Fighters

RED DANCER
A sizzling encounter into an explosive land conflict. A seventy-year-old legacy of passion and death echoes around the island of Babadar. The U.S. and terrorists clash for military advantage of Phillipe Mondragon's rich island fortress, while a darker plot evolves that threatens to consume them all. Drawn into the silent war is hardnosed veteran terrorist-hunter Captain Boulton Sacrette. His mission plunges him into the fire of the Green Dragon's assassins and the dangerous arms of the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.

DESERT STAR
Kuwait City: Surrounded by murder and mayhem, arms dealer Mohammad Reza Mostafavi struggles to keep hidden the royal Prince Sabah and his family. They cannot hold out much longer. He contacts the only man who can free them all. Somewhere in Iraq: Ghost Rider One is down. Captained by Sam McGee, the top-secret stealth fighter was damaged and forced to ditch. It is a prize Iraq would do anything to possess. Only one man can keep it safe. The Man: Veteran pilot, terrorist hunter, and Strike Fighter captain Boulton Sacrette. With lightning speed, he launches his desperate dual mission. And with freedom at stake, Sacrette will stop at nothing to succeed.
  BLOOD RIVER An underground terror force rises to do battle in the skies against the Strike Fighters and Captain Boulton Sacrette.  GOLDEN TRIANGLEThe Strike Fighters, led by Captain Boulton Sacrette, enter a sweltering battle in the deadly jungles of the drug warlords.   DEATH SQUAD The Strike Fighters and Captain Boulton Sacrette face a blistering battle against today’s deadliest threat.     AFRIKORPS AFRIKORPS A terrible cataclysm razed the earth. Now, in the 22nd century, the bold survivors struggle to reclaim the world from the mutants and marauders who threaten them all. A multinational force organized to revitalize the continent, the Afrikorps, struggles to reclaim a shattered earth from mutants and marauders.
 

IRON HORSE In 2175, the Afrikorps team guard a heavily-armored railroad train that will run through controlled territory. Then rumors of an impending attack of the eastern sector by mutant marauders send Captain TC Creighton and the squadron racing to battle for the future of freedom.

WHITE RHINO
In the valley, vicious Equinox Women perform deadly mating rituals with captive men. In a cave, an ancient man longs for the return of the mystical White Rhino, and in a prison, a killer who wants Creighton's blood escapes. Before AfriKorps can spread peace, unrest explodes into another war.
 
SEA STALLION
Captain Abe T.C. Creighton orders his squadron on a dangerous spy mission to the southern tip of the continent--the heart of Marauder territory—where a new war is waiting to explode.

LION MOUNTAIN
T.C. Creighton and the Korps travel deep into the Chimanimani Mountains where, surrounded by superstition, they make a startling discovery with potentially terrifying consequences.

COBRA CURSECaptain Abe T.C. Creighton and a special squadron of Afrikorps are on a routine mission to Egypt when they encounter a high-tech group of cataclysm survivors bent on ruling the world.

 
 
 

NIGHT STALKERS

  NIGHT STALKERSDUNCAN LONGNight Stalkers was a nine book men’s adventure paperback original series written by Duncan Long and published by Harper Collins between 1990 and 1992. Currently a freelance writer and illustrator, Long has written thirteen novels and over sixty tech-books and how-to manuals. Some of his manuals can be found in the private libraries of the CIA, US Marines, FEMA, the FBI, and other US agencies. Excerpts from his books and technical drawings have appeared in US Congressional hearings. Additionally, he's ghostwritten over a dozen titles for TV, radio, and stage celebrities under various pseudonyms.

The first book in the Night Stalker describes the unit’s function...Flying daring missions under cover of darkness, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), known as the Night Stalkers, provide helicopter support to America's most secret and dangerous military operations. 

   NIGHT STALKERSNIGHT STALKERS
After a team of rogue mercenaries launches a palace coup in a Caribbean island republic, Captain Jefferson Davis “Oz” Carson, his MH-60K crew of Night Stalkers, and CIA agent Larry Grant are the only ones who can uncover the sinister plot and put a swift end to the crisis.

GRIM REAPER
As a terrifying plot heats up in the dead cold Antarctic, the Army's Night Stalkers are called in. At a remote research station, the discovery of a long-forgotten man-made contagion leads to a chaotic outbreak and threatens to heat up conflict between Russia and the US, with countless lives at stake. Oz and his helicopter crew must conduct a daring rescue operation in the bitter cold and battle against all odds to stop the biological weapon from spreading further.

TWILIGHT JUSTICE
All military eyes are trained on Paris, France, and the international air show. Here, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union will unveil their state-of-the-art helicopters. At stake are pride, prowess, and quite soon, human lives. For as the Soviets roll out their astonishing Hind-K copter and America reveals its futuristic Super stealth, behind the scenes the fires of hatred are stoked into an inferno.

 
DESERT WIND
Captain Jefferson Davis 'Oz' Carson and the Night Stalkers helicopter pilots are assigned to transport a prince across a terrorist-teeming Sahara Desert, where they must contend with kidnappers, assassins, and intrigue.

 
SEA WOLF
Tangling with the Caribbean drug trade and naval mutineers-turned-hijackers, the US Army’s elite crew of Night Stalkers engages in a desperate race to stop a high-seas slaughter.

SHINING PATH
The Shining Path terrorist movement attacks a small village in Peru. The locals, led by American gold hunter Harlan Lloyd, valiantly and successfully defend their town and families. But all know that the guerrillas who lust after their country will soon return. Into the war zone comes Captain Jefferson Davis "Oz" Carson of the Night Stalkers. His cargo is the Vice President of the U.S., arriving to offer help to the struggling democracy in its battle against the Shining Path. Then, the terrorists strike... and the Vice President is taken. Now the tables have turned, the stakes are much higher--but not as high as when Harlan Lloyd strikes a vein of gold in a mine of bloodshed.

NEPTUNE’S THUNDER
On assignment in Europe, the Night Stalkers are abruptly called to join a secretive British military exercise. Suspicions of an imminent IRA attack on the Eurotunnel are high, and untold devastation will reign if the MH-60K crew can't survive a deadly betrayal and defy the odds to stop the terrorist strike in time.

BUDDHA’S CROWN
The young Dalai Lama, the supreme political and spiritual leader of Tibet, disappears amid a bloody kidnapping by a crack force of Major Chen Ling's communist Chinese commandos. To gain strategic international ground, the President orders the Night Stalkers to undermine the Chinese hold on Tibet—and rescue the Dalai Lama.

AVENGING STORM
During a typhoon, an American cruise ship runs aground on a tiny Pacific island held by Japanese soldiers who are still fighting WWII. On the ship is an illegal cache of modern weaponry which, in the hands of these desperate men, spells disaster. The Night Stalkers must write a bloody epilogue to a war that ended 40 years ago.

 
 

NIGHT STALKERS

   NIGHT STALKERS DUNCAN LONG Night Stalkers was a nine book men’s adventure paperback original series written by Duncan Long and published by Harper Collins between 1990 and 1992. Currently a freelance writer and illustrator, Long has written thirteen novels and over sixty tech-books and how-to manuals.  Some of Long's manuals can be found in the private libraries of the CIA, US Marines, FEMA, the FBI, and other US agencies. Excerpts from his books and technical drawings have appeared in US Congressional hearings. Additionally, he's ghostwritten over a dozen titles for TV, radio, and stage celebrities under various pseudonyms.The first book in the Night Stalker describes the unit’s function...Flying daring missions under cover of darkness, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), known as the Night Stalkers, provide helicopter support to America's most secret and dangerous military operations.    NIGHT STALKERS SERIES NIGHT STALKERS After a team of rogue mercenaries launches a palace coup in a Caribbean island republic, Captain Jefferson Davis “Oz” Carson, his MH-60K crew of Night Stalkers, and CIA agent Larry Grant are the only ones who can uncover the sinister plot and put a swift end to the crisis.  GRIM REAPERAs a terrifying plot heats up in the dead cold Antarctic, the Army's Night Stalkers are called in. At a remote research station, the discovery of a long-forgotten man-made contagion leads to a chaotic outbreak and threatens to heat up conflict between Russia and the US, with countless lives at stake. Oz and his helicopter crew must conduct a daring rescue operation in the bitter cold and battle against all odds to stop the biological weapon from spreading further.  TWILIGHT JUSTICEAll military eyes are trained on Paris, France, and the international air show. Here, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union will unveil their state-of-the-art helicopters. At stake are pride, prowess, and quite soon, human lives. For as the Soviets roll out their astonishing Hind-K copter and America reveals its futuristic Super stealth, behind the scenes the fires of hatred are stoked into an inferno.  DESERT WINDCaptain Jefferson Davis 'Oz' Carson and the Night Stalkers helicopter pilots are assigned to transport a prince across a terrorist-teeming Sahara Desert, where they must contend with kidnappers, assassins, and intrigue.  SEA WOLFTangling with the Caribbean drug trade and naval mutineers-turned-hijackers, the US Army’s elite crew of Night Stalkers engages in a desperate race to stop a high-seas slaughter.  SHINING PATH The Shining Path terrorist movement attacks a small village in Peru. The locals, led by American gold hunter Harlan Lloyd, valiantly and successfully defend their town and families. But all know that the guerrillas who lust after their country will soon return. Into the war zone comes Captain Jefferson Davis "Oz" Carson of the Night Stalkers. His cargo is the Vice President of the U.S., arriving to offer help to the struggling democracy in its battle against the Shining Path. Then, the terrorists strike... and the Vice President is taken. Now the tables have turned, the stakes are much higher—but not as high as when Harlan Lloyd strikes a vein of gold in a mine of bloodshed.  NEPTUNE’S THUNDER On assignment in Europe, the Night Stalkers are abruptly called to join a secretive British military exercise. Suspicions of an imminent IRA attack on the Eurotunnel are high, and untold devastation will reign if the MH-60K crew can't survive a deadly betrayal and defy the odds to stop the terrorist strike in time.  BUDDHA’S CROWN The young Dalai Lama, the supreme political and spiritual leader of Tibet, disappears amid a bloody kidnapping by a force of Major Chen Ling's communist Chinese commandos. The President orders the Night Stalkers to undermine the Chinese hold on Tibet—and rescue the Dalai Lama.  AVENGING STORM During a typhoon, an American cruise ship runs aground on a tiny Pacific island held by Japanese soldiers who are still fighting WWII. On the ship is an illegal cache of modern weaponry which, in the hands of these desperate men, spells disaster. The Night Stalkers must write a bloody epilogue to a war that ended 40 years ago. 
 

AQUANAUTS '66

THE AQUANAUTS ‘66The 1970—71 paperback men’s adventure series The Aquanauts did not originate the clever moniker referring to risk-taking SCUB divers—or underwater astronauts. The Aquanauts was also the name of an hour long TV show, which ran for 32 episodes on the CBS network during the 1960-61 season.  The Aquanauts aired Wednesday nights on CBS at 7:30 opposite the hugely popular Wagon Trainon NBC and Hong Kong with Rod Taylor on ABC. It was followed on CBS by Secret Agent with Patrick McGoohan at 8:30. The show chronicled the adventures of ex-Navy frogmen Larry Lhar (Jeremy Slate) and Drake Andrews (Keith Larson). As civilians, Lahr and Andrews kept their SCUBA tanks filled by becoming professional salvage divers. Braving the dangers of the deep while recovering sunken wrecks, the duo often came into conflict with dangerous adversaries who wanted to reach the wrecks first, had a vested interest in seeing what had been sent to the bottom stayed there, or were trying to hide something else in the vicinity.  The early episodes of The Aquanauts were produced by Ivan Tors, who had previously created Sea Hunt—which ran in original syndication from 1958 to 1961 and turned Lloyd Bridges into a cultural icon. Underwater footage from Sea Hunt was often recycled by Tors for use in The Aquanauts.  In The Aquanauts, Larson’s and Slate’s characters were younger, hipper versions of Lloyd Bridges’ Sea Hunt character, Mike Nelson. However, the plotlines of both shows were remarkably similar—each week, a given crime or eco-disaster could only be solved/prevented by scuba diving adventurers. The heroes were menaced by killer whales, killer sharks, found buried treasure, recovered rocket nose cones, were trapped in free falling shark cages, became the victims of murderous doubles, and were framed for murder.   After 14 episodes, Larson developed a sinus issue making it impossible to for him to dive. As Larson put it, "I began bleeding like a sieve when I went down thirty feet." His character was written out of the show as having rejoined the Navy. Ron Ely (later to become famous as Tarzan and Doc Savage) joined the show as Mike Madison, another ex-Navy diver. In an unforeseen future twist, Ely would take over Bridges’ role as Mike Nelson in a syndicated revival of Sea Hunt in 1987. The updated version was canceled after only one season. With the departure of Larson came other changes in the show. While still accepting freelance diving jobs, the characters of Madison and Lahr decided to move to Malibu and open a dive shop (appropriately called, The Aquanauts). Both divers were given cool ‘60s era bachelor pads, giving pretty girls in bikinis a place to show up in distress. Another new character, a salty sea dog named The Captain, was added to the cast as a good friend of the divers. CBS also took the opportunity to rebrand the show as Malibu Run, instantly making the sleepy little namesake beach town famous.  The network further meddled with the concept by trading exciting underwater dangers in favor of more traditional, clichéd, and cheaper land-based shenanigans. Consequently, the show sunk faster than a million dollar yacht scuttled for insurance money. Despite its short run, The Aquanauts was popular with the programmers at Buffalo TV station WNYP-TV, who at one point were airing the series every day at the same time. Unfortunately, the station inadvertently played the same episode every day for two weeks until someone noticed.  Even as the name and format changed from The Aquanauts to Malibu Run, Dell put out a one shot comic tie-in under The Aquanauts banner. It was dated May 1971, with art by Dan Spiegle, and listed as #119 in Dell’s four color series.  There was also a 1961 TV tie-in novel, The Aquanauts by Daniel Bard, published by Popular Library. The story featured Keith Larsen's character Drake Andrews. As was obligatory for any show worthy of TV tie-in items, The Aquanauts had their own roll, spin, and move board game produced by Transogram. 
   The Aquanauts producer Ivan Tors also produced the 1966 film Around the World Under the Sea. The movie starred Sea Hunt stalwart Lloyd Bridges. ATWUTS charted the adventures of the Hydronaut, a deep-diving nuclear-powered submarine with a civilian crew. The Hydronaut’s mandate was to circumnavigate the globe underwater while planting monitoring sensors to predict impending earthquakes. Although Jules Verne was not credited, his influence was clear throughout the film. Tors’ production company also choreographed and filmed the underwater sequences for the James Bond movie Thunderball-in which Tors actually used some shipwreck footage from The Aquanauts. THE AQUANAUTS EPISODE GUIDEParadivers
CollisionRendezvous: 22 FathomsSafecrackerDeep EscapeThe Stowaway Disaster BelowArms Of VenusNight DiveThe Cave DiversThe Big SwimUnderwater DemolitionRiver GoldNiagara DiveKillers In ParadiseSecret At Half Moon KeyStormy WeatherThe Armored Truck AdventureThe Defective Tank Adventure
 EPISODES AS MALIBU RUNThe Jeremiah AdventureThe Tidal Wave Adventure The Radioactive Object Adventure The Double Adventure The Margot Adventure The Rainbow AdventureThe Frankie AdventureThe Guilty Adventure The Landslide AdventureThe Kidnap AdventureThe Stakeout AdventureThe Scavenger Adventure The Diana Adventure  














 

THE AQUANAUTS

  THE AQUANAUTS Of all the paperback original men’s adventure series to hit the spinner racks in the 1970s, The Aquanauts is possibly the best example of a brilliant series concept sabotaged by moribund writing. In my opinion, the depths of the writing mediocrity of the series is as deep as the Marianna Trench, and it’s incredibly frustrating. I really want to like this series. I’ve tried several times to like this series. I’ve tried starting with different books in the series, but each time I simply can’t get past the first few chapters.

The series was written by journeyman scribbler Manning Lee Stokes under the pseudonym Ken Stanton. Prior to The Aquanauts, Stokes made his bones in the men’s adventure genre writing the initial novels (and many other entries) for The Expeditor series and the classic superspy Nick Carter series. Among numerous other pulp-based mysteries, sci-fi, and sleaze novels, he also wrote the eight books in the cult favorite Richard Blade series—which combined a heady mix of science fiction and adventure. Prolific: Check…Competent: Check…Entertaining: Check…Above Average: Rarely if ever...This is my checklist—other reader’s mileage may vary.

The Aquanauts are a team of highly trained operatives (is there any other kind?) who make up the elite Secret Underwater Service. Led by William Martin, codename Tiger Shark, the SUS is tasked with neutralizing terrorists planning to strike at America from the sea, or who plan to attacking U.S. Naval underwater facilities across the globe. This mission involves preparing the personnel who can handle the extreme difficulties of underwater battle, and carrying out those battles when ordered by the president.

The men chosen for the SUS begin their training designated as Minnows. Once they prove their suitability, they are promoted to the coveted designation of Shark. The top fish is the deadly Tiger Shark and is empowered to complete the missions of the SUS at any cost, including assassination.



When the series starts, the first Tiger Shark had been killed in action. To replace him, the President has promoted Navy lieutenant William Martin. Referred to informally as Bill, Martin is an Annapolis graduate and a decorated war hero, having been awarded a Navy Cross with oak leaf cluster. An imposing figure standing 6'2, the 30 years old Martin is (of course) in perfect physical condition—a rugged, fearless man who always puts the demands of the mission before any personal considerations.

The SUS has provided Martin with a top-secret one-man sub known as a KRAB, which he uses to take on Russian submarines, various criminally controlled ‘sea monsters’, and the plots of underwater megalomaniacs. Tiger Shark’s mission take him under the Iron Curtain, under the Bamboo Curtain, Under the noses of Chinese villains, and into the depths of everywhere from the North Pole to Australia and Cuba.

Sounds freaking fabulous doesn’t it? It should be freaking fabulous—but it’s as lumbering as a leaky lifeboat. The squandered potential of brine, barnacles, bombs and bimbos just kills me. The series was original published by McFadden/Bartell. Manor Books took over the series in 1971 dropping The Aquanauts series titles in favor of rebranding the series Tiger Shark...an anchor by any other name.

As long as you don’t dip into the prose, the cool cover art makes the series worth collecting. The covers all feature Tiger Shark—sporting the rugged profile of Steven Holland, aka: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Paperbacks—in diving gear being chased by sharks, subs, battleships, and sea monsters while brandishing his deadly diver’s knife.
     
THE AQUANAUTS COLD BLUE DEATH
Devilfish was the code name for a vital operation in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Someone was out to destroy the mission but Tiger was there to save it.

TEN SECONDS TO ZERO American submarines were becoming sitting ducks to the Soviet's new anti-sub missile called the Sea Serpent. Tiger must steal the secrets behind this dangerous weapon.

SEEK, STRIKE AND DESTROY
When a Chinese captain with a strange underwater craft lobs a missile at the U.S., the danger from the Bamboo Curtain becomes clearer but what of Madame Hee?

SARGASSO SECRET A marine biologist has come up with a way to feed starving millions but someone is not pleased with his success. Tiger must keep alive him and his daughter, Poppy.

STALKERS OF THE SEA The man behind savage attacks on U.S. interests is a Soviet spy of American origins. Tiger must track him down from icy northern waters to hot foreign bordellos.

WHIRLWIND BENEATH THE SEA Secret agent Tiger Shark and the underwater service are off to Australia to solve the mystery of an undersea eruption, a rising land mass and beautiful babes.

OPERATION DEEP SIX On her maiden voyage, the Navy's newest supersub, the J1, just disappeared. Now its sister ship, the J2, is ready for launch and Tiger is on site to keep an eye on her.

OPERATION STEELFISH The Soviet villain from Stalkers Of The Sea is back, trying to get his hands on the newest weapon the Navy is testing in the Caribbean. Tiger must find a way to stop the theft.

EVIL CARGO The Mob has stolen a Russian submarine in Cuba to smuggle drugs into the U.S. Tiger is sent to stop them but he is told for diplomatic reasons not to damage the sub.

OPERATION SEA MONSTER Some creature of monstrous proportions is randomly striking the underwater American sea lab and Tiger is ordered to find and eliminate the creature.

OPERATION MERMAID The report was that a Chinese sailor was attacked by a mermaid. As crazy as that sounded, Tiger is sent to find the truth. So too were several Soviet agents.

 
 

THE AQUANAUTS

  THE AQUANAUTS Of all the paperback original men’s adventure series to hit the spinner racks in the 1970s, The Aquanauts is possibly the best example of a brilliant series concept sabotaged by moribund writing. In my opinion, the depths of the writing mediocrity between the covers is as deep as the Marianna Trench, and it’s incredibly frustrating. I really want to love or at least like this series. I've submerged myself in it numerous times, even trying different books, but each time I simply can’t get past the first few chapters.

The series was written by journeyman scribbler Manning Lee Stokes under the pseudonym Ken Stanton. Prior to The Aquanauts, Stokes made his bones in the men’s adventure genre writing the initial novels (and many other entries) for The Expeditorseries and the classic superspy Nick Carter series. Among numerous other pulp-based mysteries, sci-fi, and sleaze novels, he also wrote the cult favorite Richard Blade series—which combined a heady mix of science fiction and adventure. Prolific: Check… Competent: Check… Entertaining: Check… Above Average: Rarely if ever... Strictly my opinion. Other reader’s mileage may vary.
 The Aquanautsare a team of highly trained operatives (is there any other kind?) who make up the elite Secret Underwater Service. Led by William Martin, codename Tiger Shark, the SUS is tasked by the President with neutralizing terrorists striking at America from the sea, or attacking U.S. Naval underwater facilities across the globe.  The men chosen for the SUS begin their training designated as Minnows. Once they prove their suitability, they are promoted to the coveted designation of Shark. The top fish is the deadly Tiger Shark, who is empowered to complete the missions of the SUS at any cost, including assassination. When the series starts, the first Tiger Shark has been killed in action. To replace him, the President has promoted Navy lieutenant William Martin. Martin is an Annapolis graduate and a decorated war hero, earning a Navy Cross with oak leaf cluster. An imposing figure standing 6'2, the 30 year old Martin is (of course) in perfect physical condition—a rugged, fearless man who always puts the demands of the mission before any personal considerations.

The SUS has provided Martin with a top-secret one-man sub known as a KRAB, which he uses to take on Russian submarines, various criminally controlled ‘sea monsters’, and the plots of underwater megalomaniacs. Tiger Shark’s missions take him under the Iron Curtain, under the Bamboo Curtain, under the noses of Chinese villains, and into the depths of every ocean from the polar ice cap to Australia to Cuba.
  Sounds freaking awesome doesn’t it? It should be freaking awesome—but the series is as lumbering as a leaky lifeboat. The squandered potential of brine, barnacles, bombs and bimbos just kills me. Originally published by MacFadden/Bartell, the series was commandeered by Manor Books in 1971. Manor dropped The Aquanauts name in favor of rebranding the series under the main title, Tiger Shark...An anchor by any other name.    As long as you don’t dip into the prose, the cool cover art makes the series worth collecting. The covers all feature Tiger Shark—often sporting the rugged profile of Steven Holland, aka: The Man Who Launched A Thousand Paperbacks—in diving gear being chased by sharks, subs, battleships, and sea monsters while brandishing his deadly diver’s knife.
  THE AQUANAUTS COLD BLUE DEATH Devilfish was the code name for a vital operation in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. Someone was out to destroy the mission but Tiger was there to save it.
TEN SECONDS TO ZERO American submarines were becoming sitting ducks to the Soviet's new anti-sub missile called the Sea Serpent. Tiger must steal the secrets behind this dangerous weapon.
SEEK, STRIKE AND DESTROY When a Chinese captain with a strange underwater craft lobs a missile at the U.S., the danger from the Bamboo Curtain becomes clearer but what of Madame Hee?
SARGASSO SECRET A marine biologist has come up with a way to feed starving millions but someone is not pleased with his success. Tiger must keep alive him and his daughter, Poppy.
    STALKERS OF THE SEA
The man behind savage attacks on U.S. interests is a Soviet spy of American origins. Tiger must track him down from icy northern waters to hot foreign bordellos.
 
WHIRLWIND BENEATH THE SEA
Secret agent Tiger Shark and the underwater service are off to Australia to solve the mystery of an undersea eruption, a rising land mass and beautiful babes.

OPERATION DEEP SIX On her maiden voyage, the Navy's newest supersub, the J1, just disappeared. Now its sister ship, the J2, is ready for launch and Tiger is on site to keep an eye on her.
OPERATION STEELFISH The Soviet villain from Stalkers Of The Sea is back, trying to get his hands on the newest weapon the Navy is testing in the Caribbean. Tiger must find a way to stop the theft.
EVIL CARGO The Mob has stolen a Russian submarine in Cuba to smuggle drugs into the U.S. Tiger is sent to stop them but he is told for diplomatic reasons not to damage the sub.
OPERATION SEA MONSTER Some creature of monstrous proportions is randomly striking the underwater American sea lab and Tiger is ordered to find and eliminate the creature.
OPERATION MERMAID The report was that a Chinese sailor was attacked by a mermaid. As crazy as that sounded, Tiger is sent to find the truth. So too were several Soviet agents.