Sable and Fortune 1-4 March to June 2006

 

Written by Brendan Cahill and art by John Burns (1-3) and Lauren McCubbin (4)

So there’s a new Dominic Fortune in town for this story.  Is he a new person taking the name? Is he the original deaged?  Let’s read and see.

The story opens with Silver Sable on a mission that goes wrong and it’s part of a string of failed missions.  Sable is furious and dissolves the Wild Pack certain she has a traitor or two. She tracks down a missing team member and finds the phrase “Single Malt Sunrise”.

She’s off to his last known location in Monte Carlo where she hears someone else try to order a Single Malt Sunrise.  Turns out it’s Dom, and if it’s a new guy he’s just as good a gambler as the original.

He introduces himself and Sable says “Wait..Dominic Fortune? As in Brigand, adventurer? Circa 1930? That Dominic Fortune? The years have been kind. “

Dom’s response “You might say that.” Neither gives a hint that they worked together 20 years ago (as seen in Web of Spider-man 71 & 72).

Dom reveals that he got to Sable’s contact before he was killed and can tell her where her rogue agents are.  Agreeing to work with him, Sable and Fortune rescue a kidnap victim but are being watched by our criminal masterminds, the kidnap victims are important.  There ends issue 1.

Issue 2

Turns out the kidnap victims are Manchurian Candidates – brainwashed to become killers with the right command and someone has given the command to the hostage they have rescued.  He attacks the pair but they knock him out and offer him the chance to help as computer support. They track a suspect and as Dom does the sneaky stuff as Sable provides a distraction, but Dom gets caught and shot as Sable jumps out the window to catch the data that Dom has stolen.  There ends issue 2.

Whew after that cliffhanger, Sable catches the data, shoots a grappling line and rescues Dom.  Jasper the rescued kidnap victim, works to decode the heavily encrypted data. They discover the network of Manchurian Candidates and the location of the handover to the buyer.

Jasper tags along and we discover that “Single Malt Sunrise” is a verbal trigger for the condition and he attacks Sable and Fortune, allowing the villains to mount an offensive. Sable and Fortune manage to stop the triggering of all the agents and destroy the laptop. Dominic gets caught on camera and the pair decide to form a partnership using Dominic’s goodwill for the rescue caught on camera  and Sable’s knowledge and contacts.

That’s where issue 3 ends and issue 4 opens with Dom meeting a woman in a bar, she tells him she lost her job in marketing and he tells her about his boss (Silver Sable) and how they tracked down the final few sleeper agents.  And wouldn’t you know it, the woman in the bar is the final assassin they have to track down.  They deactivate the programming and Dom suggests that they hire her as their new marketing manager.

The End.

It appears that there were some problems with the miniseries, Issue 1 was labelled as 1 of 6 but issue 2 was 2 of 4. And the fourth and final issue had a different artist.

The letter column in issue three says that “circumstances dictated the miniseries be cut down but the final two issues were a stand alone story.”  And that John Burns had to return to the UK for pressing matters. No further details were given.

I’m ok with the shortening of the miniseries – sales may not have justified running the full 6 issues.  I do have more of an issue with the replacement for John Burns.

Burns is a UK artist who worked on many comic strips based on TV series like UFO, Dr Who, Mission Impossible, Magnum as well as stories in 2000 AD and Judge Dredd and most interesting to me Modesty Blaise.  For this series he has a painted realist style that just looks lovely.  Burns just recently announced his retirement.

Stylistically McCubbin couldn’t be more different.  I’m not saying it’s a bad style (and I am intrigued by Quit City that she drew for Warren Ellis’ Apparat line of comics) but it is a very different style.  More cartoony, abstract and expressionistic.  Where Burns paints, McCubbin uses heavy lines.  Burns uses a dark and rich palette, McCubbin (and her colourist) use pastels.  It’s a tonal whiplash and while I wasn’t asking for an artist who imitates Burns, I would have preferred one that had a closer aesthetic.

Goldtiger.

I am a big fan of Modesty Blaise and following through some of the series that she inspired through several generations has lead me to several interesting series – The Baroness, The Seekers, The Girl Factory, Black Swan, Conversant USA, just off the top of my head. So I am searching ebay for Modesty Blaise when Goldtiger pops up. A supposedly forgotten series from the sixties crested to rival Modesty Blaise dropped from the paper because the leads were gay. The book reprints the first story and some behind the scenes interviews. So I order the book and the damned pandemic means I have wait months for the book to arrive. It finally arrived and it's a trip. Lily Gold and her partner John Tiger are former mercenaries turned fashion designers who trouble shoot on the side their first adventure has them tracking down disappearing ships on the Thames. There's a master villain with a plot that would make a Bond Villain blush. Hench men and women who are memorable. Interspersed with the strips are behind the scenes interviews, letters and articles with the writer Louis Schaeffer and artist Antonio Barretti. The relationship between the pair is strained as the artist is crazy and prone to ignoring the scripts and inserting himself into the strip. There are portions of the strip missing and we get sketches of strips, rough outlines from the artist and an extract from the novelisation. At one point Baretti inserts himself into the narrative as what Schaeffer has written is too boring and he wants to draw Rio. The ending is so audacious and meta that I can’t even. Of course, the truth is Goldtiger was never a real strip, Baretti and Schaeffer never existed and Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton made the whole thing up and was published by 2000AD through a Kickstarter. The strip is a nice companion to the lovely Modesty Blaise strips collections that Titan books had been putting out indeed it’s almost a satire of them. Throughout are plent of wnks and nods to Modesty Blaise - the aborted Goldtiger movie had Terrance Stamp as John Tiger, Stamp had played Willie Garvin in Modesty Blaise. A letter to the editor of the paper that runs Goldtiger is written by Jim O'Donnell a reference to Jim Holdaway and Peter O'Donnell the artist and writer for Modesty Blaise. You know for all the hubbub about the characters’ sexualities there is almost nothing of it in this book – John Tiger tells a female assassin, Farina Karesh, he’s picky about what he lets people stick in him as she tries to stab him with her talons. And Lily Gold asks Anouska, the Russian Doll of death – what appears to be a large cloaked woman is actually three thin women “Where have you been all my life?” Sadly the fight between them is lost but we are told that it is as sexual as it is violent. Part of the gag is that Baretti keeps trying to revive the strip I get the feeling that I may have to reread this a few times to really get the story

This is the End: Modesty Blaise (novels)

I'm sure that I've mentioned my love for Modesty Blaise.  The character started as a comic strip in 1963 and by 1966 there was a plan to make a movie.  Peter O'Donnell wrote the screenplay which the movie makers then rewrote and reportedly only one line ended up in the final product,  However, O'Donnell also wrote the novelisation and he used his script as the basis for that.  SO O'Donnell adapted his first comic strip into a movie script which he then adapted into a novel. Phew! Now the 1966 movie was less than successful (and less than faithful*)  and most people wouldn't be aware that the novel started out as a novelisation.

 

*I mean they made it a musical, dress Monica Vitti as a near perfect recreation of the comic strip and then go "nope not doing that" and have her run around as a blonde.

Given that the movie didn't gain a sequel and O'Donnell wrote another ten novels and two short story collections, I'd suggest that maybe they should have went with his script.

So I still need to read all the comic strips but I recently read all the novels.  Some like Modesty Blaise and Cobra Trap for the first time.

The books are really good I love all the recurring characters - Stephen Collins and his eventual wife Diana, Doctor Giles Pennyfeather.

The novels give us a more detailed look at the world of Modesty and Willie, more than we can in the strips.

I heartily recommend reading the books and the comic strips (perhaps best to miss the 1966 movie and the 1982 TV pilot both available on youtube)  The 2004 direct to DVD movie My Name is Modesty is okay but really get the DVD for the special features interviews with Peter O'Donnell, Quentin Tarantino and an overview of the comics.

Now O'Donnell supposedly has in his will that Tarantino is the only one who can make a movie. Tarantino has said he will quit making movies after 10 films and he has made 8 already - one of those last two had better be a Modesty Blaise movie.

2014 - a year in writing

Oddly for a year where I did a fair bit of writing the only thing published was "The Roads not Taken." in More Blood: A Sinanju Anthology - available in paperback now from Amazon!  Subtle Plug I know.  What's it about?  The basic idea is that while in Viet Nam, Remo first hears the legends of the Masters of Sinanju and what he thinks they are like.  I manage to include references to several other paperback vigilante series, TV shows and movies  I actually wrote this back in 2005 for the New Blood Anthology So it's interesting to see how much I've grown in the decade or so between then and now.

So what did I write this year?

For DREAMER'S SYNDROME: NEW WORLD NAVIGATION  edited by Mark Bousquet, I wrote "The Case of the Hooded Shark".  This is set in the same universe as Mark's DREAMER
S SYNDROME novels and short stories/  The basic premise is that God gave an order that everyone got to live out their dreams of what they wanted to be at ten years old.  Naturally Mark's stories only cover a small part of the world and this anthology opened up for other stories taking place around the world.  My starting point was at ten I was obsessed with teen detectives, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, The Dana Girls and Trixie Belden, so I created a character who wanted to be a detective. I gave him a "Watson" an ex-military man, the idea for him was he had dreamt of being in the army at ten - joined at 18 served around the world and came back from Afghanistan with PTSD and found a new dream job.    Then the world changed and he finds himself back in the army.  I played with a lot of Holmesian tropes as well as the nature and perception of Australia. Part of my inspiration was the Taiwanese news coverage of The Buxom Bandit

 

 

The idea that she would ride a kangaroo to a robbery just made me laugh.

 

 

Next up was "The Adventure of the Empty Throne" for Chris Sequera's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR WHAT?  which had Sherlock Holmes working with a Doctor other than Watson.  I had Holmes working with Guy Boothby's Doctor Nikola to investigate a plot to destroy the British Empire.  I used another Boothby creation as the villain and referenced some EW Hornung.  Thankfully The Hooded Shark got the Study in Scarlet references out of my system and I was able to craft a different take on the Holmes/Nikola fused universe.  Nikola is a great character and I will return to him one day, as I will with  Sherlock Holmes.

 

I'm not sure if I can share Paul Mason's awesome and amazing artwork for the story. (but I got the original for Christmas and there's a picture on my Facebook page.

 

I also wrote "The Domino Lady's Triple Threat" for Airship 27 which looks like it will appear in Domino Lady volume 2.  Domino Lady versus the American-German Bund who are keen to kidnap an old friend of Ellen Patrick's father.  I took inspiration from the opening of the Sydney Harbour bridge in 1932.  I slipped a few classic and new pulp references into the story and some ancestors of my favourite characters.

 

 

 

 

That brings us to the final three and a bit stories which form my own shared universe that I call "Australis Incognito"  (Above is the awesome cover painting by Jeffrey Hayes a print can be bought here.

 

The first story that I wrote (mostly in 2013) was Risqué: Strip Poker which introduced my 1920s Sydney vigilante Risqué.  A lot of the inspiration for her and this story came from Underbelly: Razor true crime series that ran on the Nine Network here in Australia.  (I recommend watching if you get the chance, Sydney in the 20s feels so pulpy - it's also an odd time where the two big criminal gangs were run by women Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine.)  Think of this as a prequel to the main Australis Incognito series.  I subtly foreshadowed a couple of things that will become important in the main series.  This story will be published in POKER PULP by Pro Se Productions

 

(As an aside I also wrote a short comic story featuring Risque's daughter Jasmine who works as a spy in the 1960s under the code name Risqué Brent with her partner codenamed "Flynn" as a homage to Modesty Blaise.  I submitted the story to Ashcan, a Brisbane based comic book anthology but it didn't find an artist.)

 

The first contemporary Australis Incognito story I wrote was Bus Bait Blues starring The Question Mark.  The Question Mark is a young woman who investigates why a Russian mob boss would be in a bar picking up a girl fresh off the bus.  Of course she discovers a much larger criminal conspiracy.

 

The Second story "Thunderstruck" features the third generation Risqué facing against an opponent who can appear anywhere at will.  the only way you know you've been hit is the sound of thunder and a calling card that reads "You've been Thunderstruck".

 

 

The third Australis Incognito story "The Rusting Death" is currently being written.  The title came from the misreading of a Doc Savage adventure The Rustling Death.

 

These are part of Pro Se's Single Shot line of stories and will be published in the near future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



White Flesh, Black Market: Spies in the House of Lust Book Two (2014) by Barbra Novac - Wah Wah Funk Publishing

The second book in this series picks up from where the three agents are on assignment. Aston is undercover with the Russian Mafia and meets up with Vicar Irk.  Porsche is in Monte Carlo trying to get in with Clon Daedalus and Mercedes infiltrates Daedelus' island base.

In this instalment, the three agents really get into their assignments Aston discovers just how much the Russian Mafia knows and that they have the a waitress who witnessed the massacre at the start or part 1.  Porsche manages to get the attention of Clon Daedalus and manages to snoop around his papers.  Mercedes infiltrates the island making several discoveries.

I found that Mercedes's adventures are the ones that stay with me the most - that could be because she is confronted with the physical reality of what the other two only find written reference to.

I just realised that Aston sleeps with Irk and Porsche has sex with Clon - Mercedes doesn't have any sexual encounters in this part.

This adventure ends on a cliff-hanger and all the three agents are about to be reunited.  I won't say just how or why the three agents are to be reunited but  I found this cliff hanger ending to be far more satisfying for me as a reader. 

And I am seriously hanging out for the release of part 3.

White Flesh, Black Market: Spies in the House of Lust Book 1 (2013) Barbra Novac, Wah Wah Funk Publishing

So you might be wondering why I started the Sexy September tag here on the blog and reposted several of my old reviews that covered some of the more risqué books. 

Well it turns out that I'm not the only one fond of sexy heroines fighting crime or spying.  The Baroness Yahoo Group suggested these books.  The Baroness is a definite inspiration for this book as is Modesty Blaise and Mrs Peel (from The Avengers TV series)

The novel opens with the death of a group of  KGB agents including a couple of  American moles during an orgy.  The Russian detective Vicar Grogshh Hotly Irk is assigned to the case.  He is contacted by ROTA and is informed that this was part of a larger plot with the death of 250 agents around the world on both sides of the political divide. 

ROTA (we are not told what it stands for) is sending their top agents DISC

Porshe Worthington - Blonde, owner and editor in chief of Voir magazine, widow of William Marlowe.

Aston Knight - French scientific genius and model.

Mercedes Merlin - Waif like red haired model, an orphan who travelled and trained in China.

The first instalment introduces the agents and gets them into their various assignments as the villain is suspected immediately.  I felt a little disappointed at the end of this volume as it felt like the story had just gotten started, the players all in place.  Porshe was meeting with Clon Daedalus, Mercedes arrives on his private island and Aston is undercover with the Russian mob who are looking to buy Daedalus's technology.

Barbra Novac does a really great job introducing the main characters and giving us several sex scenes that felt were part of the plot and not just thrown in for the sake of having a sex scene.

I should also mention how much I love the covers for this story.  If you are a fan of sexpionage adventures of The Baroness or the espionage adventures of The Avengers and Modesty Blaise I would whole heartedly suggest getting this book but be aware that this is one adventure across three books.

Hot Rail to Hell (Conversant USA #1) Deluxe Edition by Robert E Vardeman Cenotaph Road 2011

originally posted Monday, April 2, 2012 5:45:51 PM

Welcome to Conversant USA, the premier counter industrial espionage agency. This private agency was founded by Vanessa “Nessie” Court. Ms Court became a world class scientist working with her first husband Roberto Bandini who died in a lab accident and wealthy after the death of her second husband and son by terrorists from Chechnya. Vanessa Court found and killed the men responsible for the death of her family and found that she enjoyed the action and excitement and formed Conversant USA to use her unique skill set.

Vanessa Court is joined by her team:
Tancredo “Dodo” Cardoso – Brazilian born MMA master
Kate Li – Psychologist and communications expert
Rich Blaine – Electronics expert
Web Singh – Computer expert
Pascal – German Shepherd who can mind link with Nessie through SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) allowing Nessie access to his impressions of clients and suspects.

In Hot Rail to Hell, Conversant USA tracks down the person responsible for stealing the blueprints of a new hot rail gun for use by the United States Military. The Conversant Team races around the world to prevent the blueprints from being delivered to a foreign power.

I was really impressed by this book, Robert Vardeman has turned out an exciting and sexy new story that calls to mind the best of Modesty Blaise and The Baroness and is hopefully the first of many books. Vardeman is an ideal writer for this type of series, he contributed an unpublished Baroness adventure back in the seventies and he discussed with fans of The Baroness what they liked about the series.

While Baroness Penelope St John Orsini and Vanessa Court share very similar backgrounds, Vanessa is her own character. While The Baroness dealt with devices that were science fiction back in the day, some devices are everyday items now, Vardeman takes Nessie and offers similar cutting edge scientific devices.

I purchased the deluxe edition which features an essay by the author about how the book came about and a short story “Deserts, Death and Drugs” showing an earlier adventure of Conversant USA chasing down stolen medicines. There is a neat twist to just who is the bad guy in this scenario.

There are sex scenes in both Hot Rail to Hell and “Deserts, Death and Drugs” but there were part of the plot and not tacked on like similar scenes I’ve found in similar works. (I felt that some of the sex scenes in The Baroness #1 The Ecstasy Connection were merely there for the sake of a sex scene).

Vanessa Court is a worthy “granddaughter” of Modesty Blaise and well worth reading.