BETTER LIVING THROUGH OLD COMICS #2: "La Fiesta!"

From the inside cover of Dell FOUR COLOR #933 [A Disney ZORRO comic] ...

Sounds great, doesn't it?  While we're at it, here is a mural of the same subject from a High School in Lawndale, Cal.  It was painted by a WPA artist named Virgil Zenor in 1937!

"A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance..." Ecclesiastes 3:4

PEACE

"ROY ROGERS Finds Blood In The Badlands" DELL Comic from 1945!

COOL STUFF FROM LIBRARY BOOKS #15-- J. WILBUR CHAPMAN: "In the presence of mine enemies."

"In the presence of mine enemies." Psalm 23:5

"The good man has his enemies; he would not be like his Lord if he had not. If we were without enemies, we might fear that we were not the friends of God, for the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Yet see the quietude of the godly man in spite of and in the face of his enemies."

There was an old Roman custom, which may have prevailed even in David's time, which would shed light on this part of the psalm. When a soldier had won a victory and taken the enemy prisoners, a feast was made for him, and the captives were bound to the pillars of the banqueting-hall; and in their presence he was made to sit down and eat. This certainly may be realized in your experience and mine.

A man's foes are they of his own household, and our worst enemies are from within. With some it is temper; with others, pride; with still others, unholy thoughts; and with many, the disposition to actual outbreaking sin. But there is deliverance from all, and there may be so complete a submission to Christ that he, becoming the master of your life, will bind them all and cause you to feast in their presence.

Suggestions for To-day.

1. Open your eyes to the fact that you are not free from danger. Sin is not dead, and the old nature may be easily revived.

2. Remember that sin is mightier than your resolution or your will. Determination not to sin is not the secret of victory.

3. Put your whole life in the undisputed control of Christ. He is the secret of victory always and everywhere.

From The Secret of a Happy Day: Quiet Hour Meditations by J. Wilbur Chapman. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, ©1899



HYMN TIME #1: "Brethren We Have Met To Worship"

This is one of my very favorite Hymns. "Brethren we have met to worship" or Holy Manna, was first published in the Baptist Hymnal "The Columbian Harmony" [words by George Atkins, music by William Moore] way back in the Year of Our Lord 1825! To hear it today is to hear the very Spirit of the American Camp Meetings of nearly 200 years ago.  As Dr. James Sightler has noted, this hymn "echoes the blessings of the past while it faintly envisions, as through a glass darkly, the Great Things God has in store for us in a better and brighter world to come."

The version here, by a family group called The Seminole String Band, captures it perfectly! Take a listen:

"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation."
Psalm 95:1

ANOTHER UNUSUAL WESTERN: Mark Twain's "DOUBLE BARRELLED DETECTIVE STORY"

In 1902 Sam Clemens was 67 years old and he and his alter ego Mark Twain were already safely lionized as "the Lincoln of our literature" [according to the oft-quoted assessment by William Dean Howells.]   His greatest literary achievements were all behind him to be sure, and he was by all accounts dogged by increasing depression and skepticism,  but he was still churning out cleverly crafted tales and essays which, amazingly enough, are mostly still worth reading today.

That same year he decided to return to the "mining camp" settings of his earliest  successes, and lampoon the current craze for mystery fiction all at once in one tersely entertaining novella called "The Double Barrelled Detective Story."

Now... I like old westerns of all kinds, and I was raised on Mark Twain [my father was an enormous fan-- his favorite book beside THE BIBLE was THE INNOCENTS ABROAD] so it was natural that, when scrolling through the free offerings on my new Kindle device I would jump at the chance to read this story.

"We ought never to do wrong when people are looking."

These are the very first words spoken in this detailed and complicated little story. Twain quickly introduces us to one Archy Stillman, the bastard son of a wronged woman who is blessed with superhuman olfactory senses -- basically a human bloodhound.

When he's sixteen, Archie's mother convinces him to find the trail of his biological father and then enact a scheme to elaborately wreak havoc on his life and reputation, all to fulfill her own pathological blood-lust for revenge.

Five years later, after Archy's quest has literally taken him around the world, he ends up in a mining camp in Denver, Colorado where the nephew of Sherlock Holmes [Yes, the Great Detective actually makes a cameo in this forgotten Twain classic] has murdered a man by blowing up his cabin. Holmes uses all of his bizarrely detailed scientific methods to reach a brilliant-- and totally preposterous-- conclusion, only to be completely disproven by humble Archy's common sense and amazing sense of smell.

If old Twain is known for any one thing above all else, it is probably his epic, legendary, and thoroughly American Irreverence, which is, all said, in fine form here.  In fact, if you are a huge fan of the Doyle tales of Holmes and Watson,  the fun the author has here just might make you cringe.  I guess it figures that a world-class hater of pomp and snobbery like Twain would have no patience for a mastermind like Sherlock, and this may just be the earliest "Holmesian pastiche" to derive its humor entirely from painting the world's favorite consulting sleuth as a glorified and duly worshiped blowhard, idiot and fascist megalomaniac. [The portrayal here reminded me most of the Michael Caine movie version in the 1994 revisionist classic WITHOUT A CLUE.]

As usual with Twain, the plot is convoluted and relies heavily on coincidence, but these are hardly even negatives at this stage-- they are now more like essential  elements we expect as part of the charm of this greatest of American Authors.

All in all I recommend it.  It never fails to entertain... and more than once it even made me chuckle as I read it.  Also it contains some great  prose and really evocative frontier descriptions.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

PEACE.

BETTER LIVING THROUGH OLD COMICS #1: "Build A Dog Sled"

Here is the inside front cover of Dell's SERGEANT PRESTON [Four Color #344, 1951]  I don't have much use for it here in AZ, but it was too cool not to pass on... MUSH!

 

HILARIOUS NOVEL: JIMMY THE KID by Westlake

The late, great Donald Westlake was the undisputed King of the "Comic Caper Novel"... and his books about unlucky master thief John Dortmunder form probably the only truly and consistently "laugh out loud" mystery series in publishing history. I suppose the fans of these stories will always have their favorites, and mine remains the 1974 classic JIMMY THE KID.

Here is a good description of the main character from the "THRILLING DETECTIVE" website:


"The thing about Dortmunder is that he's a genius, a certifiable criminal mastermind. He's also the world's unluckiest crook -- no matter how careful his schemes, no matter how brilliant and elaborate and intricately plotted, right down to the (almost) last detail, something always goes wrong. No wonder Dortmunder, already a two-time loser, is plagued by worry. And it doesn't help that his usual co-horts are, uh, more than a little eccentric. And not exactly the brightest Crayolas in the box."

In this entry Dortmunder and his gang have been inspired by a real crime novel, CHILD HEIST, actually written by Westlake himself under his Pseudonym Richard Stark as part of the famous hard-boiled Parker series! They use the novel-- acquired by one of the inept gang members during a prison stretch-- as a kind of a guidebook, attempting to follow it step by step and commit their crime in the same smooth, professional way that Parker does. Westlake has a great deal of fun with his Stark "alter-ego" in this novel, and even includes a few actual excerpts from CHILD HEIST, which are uniformly followed by Dortmunder and gang’s bungling attempts to imitate it.

Nothing [of course] goes quite as planned, and DW derives a great deal of amusement out of actually damaging the mystique of his Stark "self" by repeatedly pointing out how many things just happen to go Parker’s way in fiction... and what would inevitably happen if things were just a little more real and different.

This book on the whole is VERY amusing-- I guarantee you will laugh out loud several times-- and a couple of moments (such as the actual kidnapping in particular) are extremely funny. Folks who aren’t familiar with Westlake’s classic series are in for a real treat if this is their introduction, and Dortmunder fans who have missed it somehow should acquire a copy ASAP!.

Highly recommended. PEACE. 

[An artists conception of the Dortmunder gang]