Booksteve Reviews: The Only Criminal by Tim Lucas

 I’m on record as being a big fan of writer and former Video Watchdog editor/publisher Tim Lucas. Full disclosure, I have known Tim personally for more than three decades, although not well, and we don’t speak often. I recently reviewed a couple of Tim’s non-fiction collections of film criticism and had a great time going through them. I quote liked his relatively recent novel, The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes as well, and I’m a big fan of his first published novel, Throat Sprockets. In fact, my bookstore did his first autographing for that one. 

 

All of which leads me to say I’m sorry I really couldn’t get into Tim Lucas’s new book, The Only Criminal. The long text section accompanying the story details the book’s evolution and how important it was/is to him. For Tim, The Only Criminal is that book that everyone has inside of them just kicking, screaming, and clawing to get out. For most of us, it never makes it out but, in his case, here we are.

 

The premise of The Only Criminal is certainly unique. The story takes place in a world where there is only one bad guy and he’s responsible for not only all crime, but all music as well. He’s never named and only one person, The Only Witness, is known to have seen him and lived, and yet all the books, magazines, newspapers, and television shows are about him as well. Here begin my problems. How did the world get to such a point for one, but more importantly, how is it logical to anyone in that world in any way, shape, or form?

 

Okay, suspension of disbelief. It just is, somehow. Our protagonist, Dr. Paul Vaguely, is obsessed with the Only Criminal. Outside of work, his life is built around his obsession. Then one day, his work and his obsession converge as the one person to have seen the Only Criminal alive becomes Dr. Vaguely’s patient, and the world wants details. 

 

Soon, the world Vaguely knew changes in ways he can’t seem to understand, and he begins to realize that he has a higher calling…sort of, in a sense.

 

I like the premise. As untenable as it is, it’s original and intriguing. The back matter tells the reader how much effort went into the story over decades, which makes me feel bad about not being able to really connect with it in any real way. The author’s non-fiction is always learned and informative, understandable without talking down to the reader. His prose, here, feels overwritten and for the longest time we simply have the premise reiterated as we go through several sections of what feels like set-up, without even a hint of the book’s overall plot. 

 

Tim writes that the book was largely inspired by the works of the great French director Georges Franju, including Judex, starring Channing Pollock, and Shadowman, which, surprisingly, Tim saw double featured with The Stranger’s Gundownat Cincinnati’s International ’70 theater—the same time and place I saw it. Like Tim, it was only later that I discovered Judex but it became a real favorite of mine, too. 

 

The Only Criminal distills basic concepts from these influences without lifting them whole and mixes them up into a literary, literate stew of (pardon the expression) vaguely philosophical, satirical metaphorical, and metaphysical ruminations on life, love, and responsibility. While I admit there were points where it certainly did make me think, in the end I realized I wasn’t sure exactly WHAT I was expected to be thinking about. As I said above, we all have that ONE book inside of us that needs to get out. That doesn’t mean that said book will resonate with everyone who reads it. 

Huey, Louie, and Dewey at 87

87 years ago today saw the debut of Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

 

Peanuts and Butternut Bread--Again

If you had Butternut Bread in your area back in the 1970s, then you were pretty much always getting lots of cool Charle Schulz specialty art, freebies, ads, and offers. We ran some previously. Here's more.

 

Batman Was Coming-1966

Back in the lead-up to BATMAN's mid-season premiere in January of 1966, the ABC publicity people made sure that EVERYONE knew Batman was coming! Oddly enough, Marvel Comics had done the same with numerous little announcement tags that "The Hulk is Coming" prior to ol' Greenskin's comic book debut a couple of years earlier.

Booksteve Reviews: The Complete Betty Brown

 

Tom Heintjes, as some of you may know, is the editor/publisher of the amazing, long-running magazine Hogan’s Alley, which celebrates newspaper comics strips and their creators new and old. Tom Heintjes is also the editor and publisher of the recently published book, The Complete Betty Brown, Ph. G—Her Full Story, 1934-1948.

 

“Betty who?” you ask. Well, until now Betty Brown was almost completely unknown and yet she has a unique place in the history of comic strips and Tom has done readers a great favor by introducing the world to her.

 

You see, even if you were old enough to have seen Betty during her original run, the odds are you didn’t, because her strip ran only in a weekly periodical distributed exclusively within the pharmaceutical trade, called Drug Topics. You see, “Ph. G” is a no longer used degree meaning Graduate of Pharmacy. Betty Brown was an independent druggist, a medical professional. 

 

This current volume reprints her entire run in lovely, large-sized strips, two per page. That means that it starts out as a somewhat crudely-drawn strip by Grant Powers entitled Bob Steele, Ph. G. Within a year, though, Zack Mosley, already well-known for his Smilin’ Jack syndicated strip took over and Betty was introduced. It wasn’t long before the new character took over both the strip and Steele’s drugstore.

 

There are some single strip gags but for the most part, it becomes a continuity strip and the storylines involve more than just pharmacy-related topics. Over the years, Betty has a number of beaus and comes close to the alter with several. She’s conned by gangsters, finds a baby, fights off a cutthroat rival, and ends up opening several stores of her own.

 

Helping her throughout is her trusty sidekick, Ragtime…and therein lies the book’s biggest problem. Ragtime is a comic relief African-American of the worst sort of visual, non-human stereotype. He’s also portrayed as not particularly smart or educated, not speaking English well, always carrying a pair of loaded dice, and armed with a knife. Such characters were, sadly, fairly common in all forms of entertainment back in the day but are completely unacceptable in our more understanding times. For historical purposes, nothing has been changed, although the character is addressed in the Introduction. If you’re at all interested in historical entertainment, you should be able to understand and appreciate the intent of this heart-of-gold character even if you shake your head when he shows up. 

 

Betty herself is portrayed as a strong businesswoman with a caring heart, quite the change from the way women tended to be in comics back then. 

 

With Mosley on the art, it should be no surprise that his assistant, Boody Rogers, would also assist here. In fact, Rogers—later the cult-favorite artist on strips like Sparky Watts—takes over the strip for its best period. He even introduces a character who looks like a freckled Sparky!

 

Like most complete comic strip collections, especially story strip ones, The Complete Betty Brown works best if you don’t try to read it straight through. These strips were never meant to be read that way. They were originally published one per week over a period of fourteen years (with time off for Boody’s military service. We’re told Betty joined the WACS, too.) and the strip works best when read in shorter clumps. The art is extremely well-done overall, the characters endearing and well-crafted, and their stories fairly engrossing all the way through, even if you’ve never been a pharmacist. Tom Heintjes has done an exemplary job with this volume and I really hope he might produce other volumes of rare but well-done comic strips in the future. 

 

Booksteve recommends.  

 https://www.lulu.com/shop/tom-heintjes/the-complete-betty-brown-phg/paperback/product-zm82g7d.html?page=1&pageSize=4&fbclid=IwY2xjawFr4pBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfYjVTuXhH9DtapEqG2En-DrLUYWHdkE-YQaFInn5hiHhZMLmFJ8Ig-Wkw_aem_1omGfV9Q2z1FqU0-cqVGwg

 

The Studio by Theodore Sturgeon

Here's an oddity. It's a review of the great 1982 art book, THE STUDIO, about the art collective of Barry Windsor-Smith, Michael Kaluta, Jeffery (later Catherine) Jones, and Berni(e) Wrightson. The review is written by the indisputable science-fiction master author Theodore Sturgeon and it appeared in, of all placed, an issue of Larry Flynt's HUSTLER.

 

Pop Culture Retro Sets Sail

SET SAIL WITH McHALE has been out since late April. My co-author, Denny Reese, and I have recently started appearing on podcasts to discuss the book and the TV show, McHALE'S NAVY. Our most recent appearance--actually recorded in July--went up this week in both audio and video versions. 

 This was POP CULTURE RETRO, Jonathan Rosen's wonderful podcast, currently with co-host Moosie Drier. Moosie was a child actor I used to see on everything from ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN to OH, GOD! with George Burns. He's also an impressive interviewer and it was a delight for us to appear on the show.

If you're the visual type, go here. Unless they get it fixed, there's currently a glitch where this version ends 13 minutes early. 

https://youtu.be/OKvSXpJS2EM?si=ReEOnQulUgLp_SUT

If you're an audio-only kind of guy, search any of our favorite podcast sources and you'll find the episode there, UNCUT! Complete with the missing 13 minutes. 

If you're at all intrigued, we'd appreciate it if you'd try our book, available here:

https://www.amazon.com/Set-Sail-McHale-Denny-Reese/dp/B0D1YHND35/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.iaAn4cVjBJ0e5zCNlD0iw7vJby75ufu7RYBnQoYGyiIeRvedapHliqlz4mWHE0ZOIVKiz-hl_dFNhcBf6jprFZiVn6s0R0tHP5klRWKVt7c.Xdai-eVL_Baui3OYKVEQg9URLbcBIxvNVpl6M9cui3M&dib_tag=se&qid=1726908734&refinements=p_27%3ADenny+Reese&s=books&sr=1-1&text=Denny+Reese

And also our regularly updated Facebook page for the book, which acts as a kind of DVD extra discussing the series and its stars, as well as the folks behind the scenes!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559226718109

Thanks! Let us know in the comments what you think, please!