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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2011 19:13:16 GMT
William Johnston - Captain Nice (Tempo, 1967) When the dastardly, devilish Thomas Fidget threatens the lives of Big Town's city fathers, shy, weak Carter Nash takes a swig of the secret formula that turns him into Captain Nice, the indestructible superman who chokes on his mother's apron strings. In the action that follows, all Big Town is turned into an arena (never mind a shambles) by the battle between Fidget's forces of evil and our hero(?).
"Faster than a speeding bullet ... more powerful than a locomotive ... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound . . ." that's how Mrs. Nash views her super son. That the other citizens of Big Town have somewhat different views does not deter her from spurring Captain Nice to ever greater attempts at glory.
How Carter Nash as Captain Nice tries to foil the fearsome Fidget makes a zany tale that will keep you laughing long after you have read the book.broke one of my golden rules in handing over 50p for this one, namely "never touch a book that utilizes words 'zany' or 'wacky' in blurb as some kind of endorsement", but there were mitigating circumstances. This, and the copy of Martin Jenson's Echo On The Stairs propped against it, were in such filthy condition that you couldn't actually read the back covers for dirt. Fortunately, after subjecting the pair to intense forensic testing, the bride established that all that blackening was charcoal and very sportingly set about cleaning 'em up. the downside, of course, is that now my alarming faux pas came to light. William Johnston is/ was (?) an old school pulp hack who specialises in the lightening fast TV/ movie tie in. Essentially, he has novelised everything. Episodes of The Flying Nun (including one for Ace entitled The Littlest Rebels: that Mark E Smith will pilfer from anywhere). Classic Amicus portmanteau horror Asylum (Bantam, Dec. 1972). Happy Days: The Invaders - Fonz versus a biker gang - is one of his. The first of the Then Came Bronson paperbacks (Nel, Jan, 1971), which, if it is even remotely in the same league as the third entry, Chris Stratton's Rock!, equates solid gold must-have. Anyway, i don't know why i felt compelled to elaborated so. Truth to tell, i only bought Captain Nice because it looks so unutterably s**te.
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Post by pulphack on Sept 2, 2011 15:07:33 GMT
ah, the joys of tempo books. 'GetSmart' is a supposedly landmark tv series to some (mainly becasue mel brooks was involved, i suppose) but it was always a dissapointment to me because when i finally saw it it was nowhere near as whacked out and surreal as the books.
another of those 'ballast and ship 'em out cheap' newsagent jobs from a misspent youth, really. the local p/b emporium must have had seberal of these, years after their publication. i read from Get Smart #5 to #9 and enjoyed them all. even managed to pick up a couple a few years back.
i don't know about 'whacky' or 'zany', but if capt nice is anything like the get smart books, then it's surreal, packed full of pointless jokes that work despite themselves, and boings from one impossible set up to another with scant regard for anything approaching logic.
if so, then it's great!
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