Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Arghh, do you know what today is? Doc sure does as these covers attest!

Doc ran across his fair share of modern day pirates as well as a couple of masquerading as ghosts. More so than most pulp heroes I suppose. And, in Murray's recent book, The Infernal Buddha, Doc gets to impersonate one as well. It's a testament to the versatility of stories that the concept of Doc and his crew can be plugged into. The Shadow and his ilk always seemed a bit out of place when taken away from their urban streets of skyscrapers, high society swells and back-alley thugs. But, Doc's stage was the world, from lost societies to farthest arctic reaches to dense jungles and hidden tribes to the mines and ranches of the American West. Interestingly, the one place he didn't seem to appear to much in was in that staple of pulp fiction, Chinatown. Why settle for Chinatown when could go to the Far East itself?

 Have to admit, I have a special fondness for the Bama cover of "The Pirate's Ghost". "Ghost Pirates from Beyond" from Marvel's b/w Doc Savage comic magazine is also one of his best outings in the comic book world.

Along Came A Spider

To hold you over to the next review I hope to have finished written soon... searching the web can find some interesting things. Some creative people out there have taken various Bama Doc Savage covers and done mock-ups of crossovers with other prominent characters: Frankenstein, Buffy, Edward Hyde, etc in the Bantam paperback style. But this one just looked too cool of a mock up. Especially since it's taking two covers to make one, both of which using the same model to portray the hero. It's Steve Holland and Steve Holland!

Part of me would like to read such a story, but another part recognizes the two characters exist in almost mutually exclusive relative realisms. To be completely faithful and be good would take one helluva writer because it would have to be more than just a synthesis of pulp and styles but a whole 'nother thing entirely. It would have to be a serious look at Doc's treatment of criminals. While I think of Wentworth as being a hero, I also think that his brand of justice and heroism could not be allowed to remain standing once Doc got involved. I could see Doc coming to an agreement of sorts with the Shadow as in the DC comic, but the Spider's methods are too extreme, too much bordering psychopathic behavior. The only way it would work would be as a "final" novel ending in either of the characters' deaths or the "curing" of Richard Wentworth.