Michael Avallone - The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

[dem]

Michael Avallone - The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Ace, 1965)

Blurb
IN UTANGAVILLE, AFRICA, it took two days....
IN SPAYERWOOD, SCOTLAND, it happened overnight ...
In each town, the people suddenly turned into mindless, babbling creatures who thrashed about wildly, uttering weird, half-human cries—and died.
Doctors and scientists were baffled as to the cause. A sudden plague, some mysterious virus?
But to the members of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement, there could be only one answer: THRUSH had a deadly new weapon for world conquest.

Got this for £1 from friend Mark Defoe's stall at Spitalfield Market this morning. David McDaniels' The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #6: The Vampire Affair is adorable, but this is MICHAEL AVALLONE, i.e., the thinking man's Edgar Allan Poe, so chances are, the blurb is most exciting thing about it. Matters not a jot. Any novel promising a virus that turns people into mindless, babbling idiots deserves a chance, so, once G.N.S.'s revolting Cannibals is behind me ....

[ripper]

I can only remember reading a single 'Man from UNCLE' tie-in, probably 30+ years ago. The title eludes me but it was something about a flying saucer.

[dem]

From what I can gather, the fans don't think very highly of this one, the first of the tie-ins, as Illya Kuryakin barely gets a look in. Inner cover blurb makes it sound quite Gothic.

It started with two beautiful girls.

Napoleon Solo met Denise Fairmount in Paris, and that night in his hotel suite they were attacked by an eerie barrage of killing sound.
He met copper-haired Jerry Terry in a plane going to Germany, and before long they were shot down ...
Then they met the twisted genius Golgotha, whose face was a skull-like travesty of hideously scarred tissue, and he learned of the endless variety of horror.

David M. Munsey provides capsule reviews of all 23 paperbacks here.

[ripper]

Scanning those short reviews I think it was probably 'The Doomsday Affair' that I read all those years ago.

[dem]

Feb 22, 2016 9:16:06 GMT ripper said:

Scanning those short reviews I think it was probably 'The Doomsday Affair' that I read all those years ago.

Seems the likeliest suspect. Don't know whether to be delighted or terrified that Mr. Munsey regards The Vampire Affair as the series' high-water mark.

Should any of you be in the vicinity of Spitalfields market on a Sunday, you could do a lot worse than check out Mark's stall, especially if you are into old annuals and TV tie-ins (though he's not so hot on paperbacks these days).

[kooshmeister]

Ah, Michael Avallone, who I know fondly as the author of the Hornets' Nest adaptation.

[jamesdoig]

i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv221/jamesdoig/SAVE2438_zpsjq80loo2.jpg

Robert Hart Davis, The Million Monsters Affair, in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, Jan. 1968

"Napolean Solo whistled softly. His companion, Illya Kuryakin, turned to see what interested his friend. He saw a girl. And from her becomingly tousled blonde hair down along curves designed for a bikini to splendidly lithe legs, she was a marvel to behold."


Waiting for a plane at LA International Airport Solo is attracted to a beautiful young woman. Suddenly her appearance changes: "Her pale skin suddenly flushed. Her Madonna-like beauty receded. Her eyes snapped open and there was pure hell in them. Her face contorted in a mask that was viciously beautiful, but deadly as a murderess. Her lovely lips snarled back, exposing teeth that gleamed like a young Dracula."

She tries to shoot the men from U.N.C.L.E. but Solo grabs her and knocks her out with a tranquiliser hyperdermic concealed in his watch - yet she keeps attacking them! It turns out the woman is Marsha Mallon, daughter of horror movie producer, Fred B. Mellon, who has just completed a picture called The Million Monsters. They learn she is trying to make a career for herself as a research scientist.

At a meeting at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters, Waverley tells Solo and Kuryakin that Mallon had sent him a strange letter, which reads in part: "There is a hideous threat building up because of a THRUSH offensive directed at American teen-agers." Waverley agrees something evil is afoot, pointing to the recent spate of teenage riots and puts Solo and Kuryakin on the case: "Gentleman," he said gravely, "I know it is unscientific to depend upon hunches. But I have an uneasy feeling that this may prove to be the most difficult case we have ever encountered."

Back at LA International Airport Solo and Kuryakin are attacked by a bunch of buff, hairy hippies who keep attacking them even after they are shot. Solo contact Waverley on his watch phone, who feeds the information Solo has gathered into the Probability Computer. Waverley tells him, "After weighing all the facts, the computer lists an international THRUSH threat as the number one probability. The probability points to some kind of mind control device."

[dem]

David McDaniel's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #6: The Vampire Affair (Ace, 1966) is a lot of fun, but this sounds even .... something.
Incredibly, some kindly soul has transcribed the story in it's entirety here. And yes. I am going to.

According to David M. Munsey at manfromuncle.org, Rupert Hart Davis was the house name and The Million Monsters Affair was written by I. G. Edmonds. Frank Belknap Long wrote Jiuly 1967's offering, The Electronic Frankenstein Affair, while other familiar ghosters include John Jakes, Bill Pronzini, Talmage Powell, and Richard 'Squirm' Curtis.

[jamesdoig]

Sept 11, 2016 5:53:53 GMT dem said:

David McDaniel's
According to David M. Munsey at manfromuncle.org, Rupert Hart Davis was the house name and The Million Monsters was written by I. G. Edmonds.

Thanks Dem. Just to finish this guff off - that night Solo and Kuryakin go to Mallon's mansion to find out what's going on. The headlights pick out a bikini-clad woman running off into the bushes, while inside they find Mallon murdered, clutching a poster of The Million Monsters - clearly he wanted to leave a clue before getting knocked off. The mansion is suddenly bombed by THRUSH agents and the men from U.N.C.L.E. barely escape with their lives when the building falls on them.

Driving back to their Beverly Hills hotel they see a crowd leaving a showing of The Million Monsters. The teenage movie-goers suddenly go crazy and a riot ensues - leaving Solo to conclude that the film is somehow affecting the minds of young people: "My guess is that this film has some sinister hypnotic affect on its audiences. This renders them susceptible to some sort of brain wave generator that can send out impulses on the same wave length as the human mind. When their conscious mind is dormant, they react to orders from this THRUSH brain wave transmitter." The Probability Computer confirms Solo's suspicions.

Later on in the riot Solo and Kuryakin see a THRUSH agent waving around a camera which they believe holds the transmitter - Marsha Mallon appears, unaccountably wearing a bikini beneath her coat (which, come to think of it, is never adequately explained), and tries to kill the THRUSH guy and then disappears in the chaos. The Men from U.N.C.L.E. learn that the brain wave impulses only work on people up to the age of 25, and works intermittently on people between 25 and 30 (which was why Marsha Mallon tried to kill Solo at the airport and later shows her anti-THRUSH colours).

Kuryakin travels to Paris to interrogate a French movie importer, and barely escapes with his life when a dead body blows up; then the plane he's about to catch back to LA blows up. Solo follows Marsha Mallon and both are captured by THRUSH. After further madness Solo, Kuryakin, and Marsha, who, as it happens, invented the subliminal transmitter which was hijacked by THRUSH, end up in Mallon's film studio where THRUSH is printing thousands of copies of the film prior to transmitting the evil brain wave impulses from a Telstar satellite, thus detroying the world. They manage to hijack the transmitter and Solo sends a message the youth of Los Angeles to come and destroy the studio. THRUSH is defeated once again and Solo calls off the teenagers: "I think we can call off these Frankenstein teenagers now."

[Michael Connolly]

I read about this years ago and found it online at ashiverinthearchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/a-wyn-and-ace-books.html

A.A. Wyn (1898-1967) founded Ace Books in 1952, having worked for many years previously in the pulps and the comics under the business name of Ace Magazines. Generally he was known for paying authors as little as possible. But one author, David McDaniel (1939-1977), found a special way to protest. He wrote for Ace Books some original Man from U.N.C.L.E. novels, based on the television series, including the 8th book in the series, The Monster Wheel (1967).

What McDaniel did was design the chapter titles so that if you read down just the initial letters from chapter 1 through chapter 16 (ignoring section titles), it reads: AAWY NISA TIGH TWAD or "A.A. Wyn is a tightwad."

[jamesdoig]

Sept 16, 2016 11:48:18 GMT Michael Connolly said:

What McDaniel did was design the chapter titles so that if you read down just the initial letters from chapter 1 through chapter 16 (ignoring section titles), it reads: AAWY NISA TIGH TWAD or "A.A. Wyn is a tightwad."

Heh, heh. That's another Doug Anderson find I think.

[cromagnonman]

Sept 9, 2016 22:06:46 GMT jamesdoig said:

Robert Hart Davis, The Million Monsters Affair, in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Magazine, Jan. 1968

"Napolean Solo whistled softly. His companion, Illya Kuryakin, turned to see what interested his friend. He saw a girl. And from her becomingly tousled blonde hair down along curves designed for a bikini to splendidly lithe legs, she was a marvel to behold."


Waiting for a plane at LA International Airport Solo is attracted to a beautiful young woman. Suddenly her appearance changes: "Her pale skin suddenly flushed. Her Madonna-like beauty receded. Her eyes snapped open and there was pure hell in them. Her face contorted in a mask that was viciously beautiful, but deadly as a murderess. Her lovely lips snarled back, exposing teeth that gleamed like a young Dracula."

She tries to shoot the men from U.N.C.L.E. but Solo grabs her and knocks her out with a tranquiliser hyperdermic concealed in his watch - yet she keeps attacking them! It turns out the woman is Marsha Mallon, daughter of horror movie producer, Fred B. Mellon, who has just completed a picture called The Million Monsters. They learn she is trying to make a career for herself as a research scientist.

At a meeting at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters, Waverley tells Solo and Kuryakin that Mallon had sent him a strange letter, which reads in part: "There is a hideous threat building up because of a THRUSH offensive directed at American teen-agers." Waverley agrees something evil is afoot, pointing to the recent spate of teenage riots and puts Solo and Kuryakin on the case: "Gentleman," he said gravely, "I know it is unscientific to depend upon hunches. But I have an uneasy feeling that this may prove to be the most difficult case we have ever encountered."

Back at LA International Airport Solo and Kuryakin are attacked by a bunch of buff, hairy hippies who keep attacking them even after they are shot. Solo contact Waverley on his watch phone, who feeds the information Solo has gathered into the Probability Computer. Waverley tells him, "After weighing all the facts, the computer lists an international THRUSH threat as the number one probability. The probability points to some kind of mind control device."



Not being an Uncle devotee at all I was surprised to discover only recently that the magazine ran Weird Tales reprints in its Department of Lost Stories section. Who would ever have thought it? Obviously a cheap source of page filling material at the time it now makes the mag a useful resource for WT collectors I would imagine.

[jamesdoig]

Sept 20, 2016 21:14:09 GMT cromagnonman said:

Not being an Uncle devotee at all I was surprised to discover only recently that the magazine ran Weird Tales reprints in its Department of Lost Stories section. Who would ever have thought it? Obviously a cheap source of page filling material at the time it now makes the mag a useful resource for WT collectors I would imagine.

In that issue, the last one published, there's a Ray Bradbury short story, "The Night", which originally appeared in Weird Tales.

[cromagnonman]

Sept 21, 2016 6:11:09 GMT jamesdoig said:

Sept 20, 2016 21:14:09 GMT cromagnonman said:

Not being an Uncle devotee at all I was surprised to discover only recently that the magazine ran Weird Tales reprints in its Department of Lost Stories section. Who would ever have thought it? Obviously a cheap source of page filling material at the time it now makes the mag a useful resource for WT collectors I would imagine.

In that issue, the last one published, there's a Ray Bradbury short story, "The Night", which originally appeared in Weird Tales.

Thanks James. I do know that Robert Bloch's "Hell on Earth" was another story reprinted in the Uncle mag. And to this day that can be a difficult Bloch tale to obtain. Also that Theodore Sturgeon's "The Perfect Host" was run as well. And I've been advised that stories by Heinlein, Leiber and C L Moore were used too. Would be useful to have a definitive list wouldn't it, to help with WT researches. 

[dem]

Sept 21, 2016 11:05:06 GMT cromagnonman said:

Sept 21, 2016 6:11:09 GMT jamesdoig said:

In that issue, the last one published, there's a Ray Bradbury short story, "The Night", which originally appeared in Weird Tales.

Thanks James. I do know that Robert Bloch's "Hell on Earth" was another story reprinted in the Uncle mag. And to this day that can be a difficult Bloch tale to attain. Also that Theodore Sturgeon's "The Perfect Host" was run as well. And I've been advised that stories by Heinlein, Leiber and C L Moore were used as well. Would be useful to have a definitive list wouldn't it, to help with WT researches. 

Complete listing of contents for Man From U.N.C.L.E. Magazine. Begins here.

Courtesy of Galactic Central