From 1935, one of the early Bantam reprints, and already out in double
reprints -- this one has it all!
Truly classic DOC -- a weird murder, a weird semi-human, and a weird
scheme soon involve DOC in an adventure to the very ends of the Earth.
This one is noted for some of the great bad guys ever in DOC. There's
Ool, being from another civilization, white-faced purveyor of the
butterfly death. "Watches" Bowen. brandy sipping criminal genius,
with his obsession for time pieces. And Hamhock Piney, the massive
Georgia Negro, Honey Hamilton, the mild-mannered killer, and Squirrel,
the cowardly explosives man,
All five of DOC's guys are on hand. The pig is here, but he actually
helps the plot along.
Before you know it, we've left NYC by dirigible for the wastes of the
Arctic Ocean, and before you know it there's a strange underground
civiliazation, with the inevitable beautiful princess, and a wild
fight to the finish.
Minor quibbles -- this degenerates quickly into the monk and Ham
show. Long tom and Renny do very little, and in an underground cave/
strange ciovilization sceanario, Johnny does virtually nothing.
And the new reprint shows how bad the original art in DOC SAVA?GE
magazine could be. The Bantam reprint had classic Bama -- the
goggles, muchrooms, weird folks. And the original interiors show only
one illo of the underground city (and in it we see that DOC and the
guys are wearing coats and ties).
One of two DOCs that Ryerson Johnson half-ghosted, this is classis,
maybe top 10, definately top 20.
Dave
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