Men Of Violence!

[dem bones]

Justin Marriott (ed.) - Men Of Violence (June, 2009)

I'll come clean and admit to having read just one of the novels mentioned in Men Of Violence and was quite happy about the fact until yesterday. But then this 20-page A4 special flopped through the letterbox and there's bloody Justin with his usual 'there's really nothing to recommend this one!'s and 'difficult to justify on any level!'s, his shameless indications that such and such a book is beyond too terrible to have ever been published, immediately bestowing them 'must have at any cost' status.

The Butcher: Kill Quick Or Die: 'Stuart Jason's ultra-violent adventures of a former Mafia enforcer whose defection from the syndicate hasn't gone down well with his former employers. James Dockery, Lee Floren and the always there or thereabouts Michael Avallone were among those responsible for Gotham Gore, Instant Dead, Grecian Holocaust, Go Die In Afghanistan, etc., and even the ones with crap titles have ace covers so they get you one way or the other.

How The Executioner Started A Publishing Revolution: Another guy who set the streets awash with Mafia blood is Don Pendleton's impossibly durable 'Mack Bolan', a Green Beret turned self-styled Law Enforcement Officers (of sorts) whose family were taken out by the Mob while he was doing his bit in 'Nam.

John Eagle: Expeditor: A blow-by-blow account of the fourteen book series featuring "half Scottish, half Apache Indian, all action!" Mr. Eagle, recruited by wheel-chair bound billionaire crime-buster Mr. Merlin to blow up secret bases across the globe. Originally published by Pinnacle and later MEWS, that bit about the moneybags invalid is a bit of a giveaway and sure enough the great Robert Lory was responsible for five Eagles although it was already off the ground by the time he got involved.

And then we arrive at Manor Books and, more specifically Blood, Blood And More Blood, Dean Ballenger's three book 'Mike Gannon' series (1973/4). Gannon's the guy you go to when you've a rich bastard on your case and want them brutally shoved off it. It's not like Gannon cares for the poor, more that he likes killing rich bastards but, when it comes down to it, he despises everyone. As with John Eagle, Mack Bolan and the rest, when he's not killing, he's shagging, quite a neat trick to pull off when your best chat-up lines include "Shut up you officious bitch or I'll tear off your tits and slap your face with them!" (You're already googling, aren't you?). You get the impression that Justin is very taken with Blood Fix, Blood For Breakfast and Blood Beast. "Their spectacularly foul-mouthed narrative style and class-war manifesto set them apart from their contemporaries. I've never read anything quite so outrageous, with the only rival in terms of shock prose being barf-bag horror Eat Them Alive also from Manor Books"

Finally, Nelson De Mille: The Real Story: Dovetailing neatly with Steve's recent Manor From Hell post, A brief look at Manor's Keller & Ryker series' plus some slightly incongruous 'true' 'I was attacked by a Shark - and lived' Jaws cash-in's to send us all off happy.

I gather Justin plans more of these occasional one-off (?) publications and that can only be good news.

[bushwick]

Well recommended, this is a tasty publication. The ludicrous number of Men's Adventure series out there means you could probably do a few of these.

The Executioner stuff was very interesting, the series that started the whole thing, a reaction to liberal artsy-fartsy hippiedom - post-Nam tough stories for the regular short-haired workin' man. This stuff was absolute anathema to 'liberals' and back in the humourless 80s will have been viewed as social evil to a lot of people. Interestingly, Don Pendleton's warrior philosophy makes it all seem more noble and easier to stomach. Also, many of the later associated series like 'Able Team' and 'Phoenix Force' feature multi-ethnic groups of heroes - the inference being, it's OK to be black or Chinese or even God forbid, RUSSIAN, as long as you love America and are not a) a commie, b) a terrorist or c), Mafia.

As Justin points out, Mack Bolan is like the friggin' Dalai Lama compared to some of these guys. After reading this, I amazoned one of the De Mille 'Ryker' novels, which hasn't come yet, and 'Gannon 2: Blood Fix' which has, and is absolutely straight out of the gutter. If I do an article called 'The Most Masculine Pulp Fiction of All Time', Gannon would be in there. The prose style is fascinating, pure hepcat slang, clipped as hell, reads really fast. The polar opposite of the Revenger book I read by Terry Harknett (OK, but Terry's wordier, slightly more old-fashioned style really works for Edge but not so much for an Executioner clone).

Reading the Gannon book, the brutality, audacity and brevity of the prose and the almost parodic levels of misogyny and violence - it really reminded me of that Brannigan Western by Tom Ryan that I bought recently and keep going on about. Wonder if they're by the same guy?

Anyway, digressing, this is great mag. Are you going to do a post-apocalypse one Justin? There's lots of material there. Despite my limited knowledge, I would be happy to research my arse off and maybe write something about Doomsday Warrior or the Phoenix series?

STUPID EDIT: I wrote 'research my a s s off' (US spelling) and the bloody filter thing wrote 'research I disagree off'. Ludicrous! No such problem with superior UK spelling of 'arse'.

[andydecker]

Of course I am biased after reading Justin´s dedication. But it is a great issue regardless


I bought a lot of THE BUTCHER. It is ages that I read them, and I have forgotten most of the plots, but not the particulars. I have a dim memory that the early stories mostly didn´t made a lot sense, but had this edgy feeling. which the later ones missed. The character itself was simple yet unforgettable. Bucher the Butcher. Pure genius. Ironically the mafia gun-fights in back alleys tells of a much simpler and somehow safer time. Today it would be street gangs killing by a drive-by shooting because of some idiotic reason. I know the genre as a whole is dead, but the whole vile Gangsta thing would be more topic enough for such a series

Liked the EXECUTIONER article. I think Justin is spot on with the conviction thing. If this series is one thing, it is safe reading. No grey tones here, no complex world views. Killing a lot of undesirables and be home for tea.

I am not a big fan of the british covers. Maybe because I always liked the Gil Cohen art on the originals. Still, it is funny that they gave Terry Harknett´s Revenger exactly the same layout out of spite. Wonder how many bought it unseen and got a surprise. I personally think that those REVENGER covers are among the most sleazy and misogynistic ever put on british paperbacks. What were they thinking?

Today´s cover on THE EXECUTIONER are mostly awful, but so are the novels. The series had a german edition in the mid-seventies, but after the first 16 or so they stopped. It is funny that they are still published in France. On the cover is always a nude girl with a gun, which of course has nothing to do with the mostly sexless novels itself.

The DeMille stuff is fascinating. The whole series was also published in Germany, under the Cannon name. They were published at a quite liberal time, so most of the atrocities are in. I guess the translations took some edge out of them, still there is enough left to marvel. A good laugh of course is that DeMille´s german publisher put those out and not a word is mentioned about the real writer on the covers.

After the topic came up I re-read the beginning of The Cannibal, and it is unbelievable in it´s sleazy violence. A G.I. in Vietnam gets trapped in a tunnel-labyrinth with some VietCong where he becomes a cannibal to survive. Then he makes it back to New York and starts munching in Chinatown. These first chapters must be in the top ten of gruesome writing and reminds one of todays torture porn. Compared with that Mack Bolans adventures are like a sunday school outing. This is relentlessly dark stuff, and it is a wonder they not only printed this in the first place but did re-issues.

This issue of MoV was a good reason to browse your shelves again or order some stuff.

[bushwick]

'The Smack Man' ('Jack Cannon' Grafton edition) turned up today. Might read this next (tossup between that and the second Casca book I found the other day).

Andy, interesting comment about reviving this genre in a modern 'gangsta' context. It's a really good idea, and surely saleable? I read Victor Headley's 'Excess', the sequel to 'Yardie', not too long back and remember being disappointed with the wasted potential. It was quite tame in terms of crime, violence and badness, quite slow, with many plot threads that never get properly developed. An unsatisfying climax. It did remind me of later Richard Allen in some ways - not enough action and a bit of a swiz. The best sections of the book are the more soap-opera type parts dealing with Jamaican culture and families, and the long section that describes a dancehall soundclash in great detail. The crime and depravity is weak in comparison.

These were written in the early 90s, and as we all know, things on the street have got a lot worse since. Maybe it's a good time for a completely exploitative, socially irresponsible modern tough-guy crime novel. Fill it full of the following current affairs hot tickets - knife crime, kid gangs, religious and ethnic tensions, human trafficking, bloody rivalries on the music scene etc - in reasonably priced, short novels cynically aimed at the very youth market it exploits, a la 'Skinhead'. Try and orchestrate some shocked-and-appalled publicity by getting quotes from shocked MPs and fascistic Daily Express writers. This could revive the pulp industry! People still read, don't they? Let's encourage the youth to read books - if there was enough negative publicity and the content packed a punch, it'd take off. Kids need something for when they outgrow Harry Potter...

Set in the UK, lead character either a cop, failed/ex-cop, or just a civilian with a grudge (and probably Falklands/Gulf experience) who's been pushed too far down the vigilante route. Maybe a lapsed liberal whose opinions regarding crime and offenders change drastically when THE GANGS START MESSING WITH HIS FAMILY. Something like that.

I'm serious. Who wants to tag-team write this with me?