Monday, May 08, 2006

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If you're a Doc Savage fan, and I can't imagine why you wouldn't be, then you'll understand why I've been spending the last hour or so clicking through this absolutely wonderful site which contains a motherlode of information about all of the sagas, and also features the cover to every one of them, both Pulp and Bantam paperback! There were quite a few of the pulp covers, especially the post-War ones, that I hadn't seen.

I haven't read these stories in ages- they're stored in a box downstairs and I don't really have a good place to adequately display them. I have most of the Bantam paperbacks, all but about 2 of the single editions and a few of the later omnibuses (omnibi?). My first? 1935's the Majii, a corking good yarn which features Doc squaring off against "drugs and hypnotism" and a sinister menace. I especially loved the stories which would take him to exotic locales like Tibet.

Read most of these during my teenage years, so I have a lot of fond memories of collecting and devouring them in one or two nights. Boy, do I wish someone would make a good Doc movie, with lots of period atmosphere and a Sky Captain-type production design.

And as I do with so many of my reading experiences, I tend to associate a certain album, artist or song with them. My personal Doc Savage theme music? "Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)" from the first Electric Light Orchestra album, which I remember listening to quite often as I read. If you've ever heard this instrumental track, perhaps you'll understand. oddly enough, in my head, the second ELO album lent itself to the O'Neil/Kaluta Shadow- but that's a whole 'nother post.

Now excuse me while I go back and wallow in more nostalgia.

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