Chuck_G
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 32
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Post by Chuck_G on Dec 4, 2012 17:04:55 GMT
Just finished reading The Slave Market! in the Casebook of Sexton Blake. This was my first read of a Blake story. I was sort of expecting a more Sherlock Holmes type of narrative, but I was pleasantly surprised at the pulp adventure style of the story. The scenes in El Blanco's fortress and slave market reminded me a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the escape up the river with the slavers in hot pursuit was very fun. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the stories.
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Post by ripper on Dec 6, 2012 8:39:45 GMT
I made a start on The Slave Market! last night and after 25 pages it's going fine. This is my first exposure to the pre-war Blake. It's a lot pulpier than a Holmes story, but that's no bad thing in itself imo and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I like the Holmes canon, but Blake is refreshingly physical, or at least he is in this story.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 6, 2012 9:34:45 GMT
It's such a shame that The Skipper's Blakiana site seems to have been targeted by malicious software as that was and, it is to be hoped, will be the best on-line source for all things Blake. Recently reread the chapter on SB in E. S. Turner's Boys Will Be Boys, and some of the pre-war stories in particular, sound absolutely outrageous. Such a shame Turner rarely provides titles as I'd particularly like to know more about the tragic Miss Death, and his housekeeper, Mrs. Bardell's flirtation with the Suffragette movement.
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Post by ripper on Dec 6, 2012 15:10:28 GMT
I have been trying to access the Blakiana site for a few days now to check out the listings of post-war Blake books, as I remember that there were quite a few there that had mini reviews associated with them. Let's hope that the site is up and running again before too long; it is a great place to find out about SB.
Also, I hope that more of the adventures of SB will be published; I am thoroughly enjoying The Slave Market!
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Post by ripper on Dec 9, 2012 11:42:19 GMT
I finished off The Slave Market last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Following the rescue of Sir Richard and Tinker from El Blanco's clutches the action stepped up several gears, and it was nice to see that Sir Richard and Lobangu weren't treated as just background characters, reliant on Blake for their safety. Instead, both were pro-active in plans and took more than their fair share of the action. I don't know if Sir Richard and Lobangu starred in any adventures without the presence of Blake, but on the strength of reading The Slave Market, I thought that the pair could sustain a series of their own, in a Rider-Hagard vein. I am looking forward to reading more of SB's adventures now that my appetite has been whetted.
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Post by ripper on Dec 11, 2012 9:18:57 GMT
I am working my way through the Wordsworth collection. Finished A Football Mystery and about 1/3 through The Man from Scotland Yard. A Football Mystery was a complete change of pace from The Slave Market, with some humorous moments, including Blake, Tinker and Sir James in disguise and being roundly abused by the fans as the trio take their places in the England team to face the dreaded Crimson Ramblers. Sadly, no sign of Pedro, but he's back in the next story, where his nose has already been put to good use in following a trail left by the villan.
I picked up a copy of Sexton Blake Library 417, Voodoo Drum, written by Peter Saxon and published in 1958, so I am looking forward to comparing it to the earlier tales in the Wordsworth and Mann collections.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 13, 2012 6:14:16 GMT
Eric R. Parker Steve Holland's Bear Alley Press have just reissued facsimile copies of the Amalgamated Press Sexton Blake Annuals for 1938, 1940, 1941 and 1942 featuring stories from, among others, Gwyn Evans, Anthony Skene, George H. Teed, John Hunter, Anthony Parsons, and Harold Blyth. More details and ordering information from Bear AlleyI've a hunch Peter Haining included a story from the 1942 annual, The Man Who Was Hammered, in The Television Detectives’ Omnibus (Orion, 1992), which he credits to 'Jack Trevor Story', though it seems a few years early to be his work? 'Jack Trevor Story' (?) - The Man Who Was Hammered: A brutal murder at Mabon's Court on the meanest street in Hoxton. The victim, Leslie Williams, disgraced stock-broker who, fifteen years earlier, slunk off to Canada with £10, 000 of his business partner's money. Said business-partner, Maurice Fletcher, reduced to destitution by his once-friend's treachery is the sole police suspect. Only Blake would take the word of a malodorous tramp at face value, though Mrs. Bardell has a soft spot for Maurice too. "I think 'e must be in disguise ... becos although 'e looks like a na'porth of dirt, 'e speaks like a gent." True to form, Blake exonerates his client and sees to it that the guilty party - a nasty piece of goods trading as 'The Southall Slasher' - is condemned to the gallows.
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Post by andydecker on Dec 13, 2012 10:29:44 GMT
You know, if one sees the care which put into the artwork - not that I think this cover particulary strong, but still - and compare it to todays monstrosities we seem to have taken a big step backwards.
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Post by ripper on Dec 17, 2012 14:41:49 GMT
I ordered a copy of Sexton Blake Wins edited by Jack Adrian on saturday. I have enjoyed the pre-war Blake adventures that I have read so far in the Wordsworth collection. I haven't read the SBL title I recently obtained, Voodoo Drums, as yet, but flicking through it I have noticed that after the end of the main story there is a "Crime Casebook" section about the Jack the Ripper murders, with particular reference to the visions of Robert Lees, so that should be an interesting read.
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 4, 2013 20:31:57 GMT
Steve Holland's Bear Alley Press have just reissued facsimile copies of the Amalgamated Press Sexton Blake Annuals for 1938, 1940, 1941 and 1942 featuring stories from, among others, Gwyn Evans, Anthony Skene, George H. Teed, John Hunter, Anthony Parsons, and Harold Blyth. Recently acquired Steve Holland's excellent book about Gwyn Evans, published by Bear Alley Press. It's large A4 size and 92 pages with lots of B&W illustrations and a full bibliography plus a few stories. Amazing how much info he's managed to gather. Evans was quite a tragic figure - lived life to the fullest in the London Bohemian set of the day and drank himself to death at the bright old age of 39 (1898-1938). At the end his novels for Wright & Brown were being ghost written by a young writer, Veronica Perry and his last book, The Sleepless Man, came out two years after he died.
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Post by ripper on Oct 4, 2020 18:56:13 GMT
I recently read The Law of the Sea from Casebook of Sexton Blake, it's one I didn't read when I first got the collection. According to David Stuart Davies, the story was published just 4 months after the sinking of the Titanic, and the first part is such a copy of the real-life tragedy that I don't know how they got away with it--was it controversial at the time, I wonder? Anyway, I was expecting the tale to be completely ship-based, but it is not. The sinking just sets up the rest of the story by the villain arranging for his rival in love to appear as a coward by jumping into a lifeboat meant for women and children, thereby destroying his reputation, and getting a white feather from his sweetheart. Blake comes to believe he was set up and swears to discover what really happened. The setting eventually moves to India, where Blake, Tinker and Pedro end up fighting against a native rebellion. It is certainly closer to The Slave Market than A Football Mystery, but doesn't quite have the former's frenetic pace.
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