STRANGE WORLD: Midwest Monster

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Here's an undated copy of Brad Steiger's syndicated "Strange World" column from the early '70s, which was "carried in 80 American newspapers and publications around the world." Here Brad reuses a Bigfoot story from prior work and adds a newer story on top.

Steiger had previously used the first story of the student outside Rochester, MN, in New UFO Breakthrough with Joan Whritenour, and The Abominable Snowman, writing as Eric Norman. In these books the student is christened "Bob." The second tale is from 1970 and so postdates those works, otherwise I'm sure Brad would have made multiple uses of it! Truck driver John Hartsworth describes the creature he saw (and Mike Busby tangled with!) as looking like "a giant cat running on its hind legs" ... yowza!

Close up on that little scamp

Unknown paper, unknown year!
 

SPEARMEN OF ARN by Del Dowdell

Bumper Phillips was nothing special on Earth ... but true to planetary romance, on Arn he becomes an unstoppable killer! The most interesting thing about this work from Mormon apologist Del Dowdell is the hook whereby Bumper travels to the world of Arn: he's a last minute addition to the doomed Flight 19, and as they fly out over the Bermuda Triangle they encounter a horrifying portal to another world! 

Author Del Dowdell (1936-2022)

This is a neat enough trick by Dowdell, as one of the Avengers planes had an empty navigator seat, and since Bumper jumps in too late to be added to the flight list, he's never listed as missing alongside the rest of the crew. After flying through the portal, Bumper and the real life crew of Lieutenant Taylor and student pilots Powers, Stivers, Gerber and Bossi (and the rest!) are attacked by spearmen riding gigantic birds! Only Bumper survives, and thus begins his quest to run roughshod over this alien world, in the classic sword and planet tradition.

First though, he has to be trained in Arnian language and combat by the blind Tamarra, who lives in the deadly snake pits that Bumper is dumped in after his first, failed battle with the locals. Tamarra gives us some exposition too, about the dread Thelonese and their Sluices, the portals they use to rob water from other worlds. While the Thelonese work their dread machinations, the rest of Arn engage in petty struggles and backstabbing, and soon enough Bumper finds himself in the middle of some courtly intrigue among a society of cave people descended from other lost Earthers. Bumper, by the way, is prophecised as the Tyjen, a hero who will break the Thelonese of their hold on Arn, which causes him all kinds of problems.

Crave a smoke while questing? Why not a Newport?

Unfortunately, Dowdell has a tin ear when it comes to characters. Tamarra and Otar and Pelan are all decent enough sword and sorcery names, but what are we to make of Sram D'Crooz and Scarduun O'Grlea? D'Crooz and O'Grlea are two of the cave people, and I get that Dowdell was going for the garbled descendants of Earth names in their case, but it falls flat for me. Can't win 'em all, I guess ... but it doesn't help when the book is riddled with typos and these names are also being constantly mispelled!

In fact, if you thought that barbarian hero Kyrik had a tough time with editing flubs, wait 'til you meet Bumper Phillips! This poor guy ... not only are names misspelled left and right, continuity blows up in our faces more than once. Over at the Black Gate fantasy review site, Charles Gramlich says "at least one chapter appears to be completely missing between Chapters 12 and 13."

Tuurla? I never even knew her!

Consider the mysterious "Tuurla" who Bumper reminisces over along with all the other people he's met in Arn ... except he never got around to meeting her! Later, at the climax, Bumper rushes into the slave quarters to grab his friends Ryssta and Otar - except they were supposedly left behind with the Lady Arrmon several chapters ago, and Bumper was explicitly sent alone to the Thelonesian slavers! Ay yi yi!

Dowdell includes a few creepy critters, but compared to John Jakes' inspired descriptions in the Brak stories, they're pretty lackluster. We get the giant birds, the snakes in the pit, some kind of octopus thing, and a big cat that's like a tiger. A few more or more interesting creatures might have livened things up, ho-hum! Mostly Bumper just wanders around getting into trouble with the locals, until he finally winds up in Thelonesian custody and upsets their apple cart. By the time the heat is on, we're practically done with the story! Dowdell sets us up for an ongoing series, but nothing doing: Bumper is a one and done hero.

Dowdell also wrote another standalone planetary romance, Warlord of Ghandor, starring Robert of Eire:

This title is also reviewed by Charles Gramlich at the Black Gate link previously mentioned. And as also mentioned earlier, Dowdell specialized in Mormon history/apologia, like the Nephi Code series:

A love for the absolute accuracy of the Book of Mormon hasresulted in this four-volume series of books regarding the numerous misconceptions about where Lehi landed, where the Nephites' Land of Promise was located, and who really settled in Mesoamerica--including who the Jaredites of Noah's posterity were and how and when they came to settle in the Western Hemisphere. In a way no other work has done, this thoroughly researched and footnoted series of books discloses the descrptions [sic] and clues Nephi, Jacob, Mormon and Moroni left us throughout their writings and abridgements [sic].

For all the bugjacked errors and a less-than-ferocious pace, Bumper's adventures in Arn earn a rough 2/4 rating. There's some fun stuff here, like Arn's bizarre cosmology and the pan-galactic water thieving Thelonese, but not enough to overcome the lows. For those who wish to follow Bumper Phillips into oblivion, Spearmen of Arn is available to read and download at archive dot org. The nifty cover art is by Doug Beekman, by the by.

Belmont Tower Books, 1978

ARCHIVAL UPDATES: STRANGE TIMES THREE!

Sure is strange! These three classic Forteana mixers for the Popular Library by Brad Steiger and Warren Smith are now available to read and download at archive dot org:

Strange Powers of Prophecy, by Brad Steiger

Strange Powers of Healing, by Brad Steiger

Strange Hexes, by Warren Smith

This marks the digital debut of all three titles!

For an example of Smith and Steiger's strange shared universe, psychic Al. G Manning is featured in Steiger's Strange Powers of Healing, and would later appear on Warren Smith's roster of psychic prognosticators in his Predictions for 197X series. Manning wrote bold (and sometimes ribald!) self help/psychic titles such as Eye of Newt in My Martini (1981) and The Miracle of Universal Psychic Power (1974).

Author photo for Manning (1927-2006)

Says the back cover of Eye of Newt: "If you like excitement, intrigue, sex, magic, prosperity and real enjoyment of life, this is a must for YOU!" Well, you don't hafta twist my arm!

Manning is just one of the countless psychic landmines awaiting the reader in this trio of bizarre bricolage from two of the hardest working writers in the field. Doc Anderson and John Pendragon, two other frequent flyers on the Steiger/Smith Express, also turn up in these pages, alongside psychic superstar Jeane Dixon and ... Oral Roberts!? Previous reviews are here, here, and here.

All three titles are courtesy Popular Library, 1967-1970.

SASQUATCH by M.E. Knerr

DEATH IN THE SNOW ... death that comes on two legs, eight feet tall, with arms of iron and hands that can tear the head off a man and fold his rifle into a pretzel! Author M.E. Knerr presents an all-too-plausible story of what could - no, what will happen, when a gentle forest giant is pushed into a frenzy by the encroachment of our modern world. When that happens, all will fear the name SASQUATCH!

Knerr's story is not quite the over-the-top gonzo thriller like Bogner's Snowman was, with its globetrotting, 20-foot-tall Yeti nukin' action, instead tracking the violent outbursts that threaten the small town milieu in Lodgepole, CA. Knerr's characters are cleanly drawn and get the job done well enough, and he doesn't waste too much time getting where he's going. Characters are here one minute, dead the next, as they tell each other what they know about the mysterious Sasquatch, argue about if he even exists, and run around on each other between the town's sole, sleazy bar and the ski lodge up the way. It all leads up to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it climax typical of vintage thriller writing. Where Knerr really excels is his sense of place: you can almost hear the snow crunching underfoot as cowboys and coppers skulk around the woods searching for the beast!

NEL's best ...

There's not a lot out there about author Michael Knerr, aside from that he worked under a lot of pseudonyms writing quickie sex and genre titles for cheapie publishers like Monarch and Pinnacle. A guest post by SF author John F. Carr at the Mystery File blog dredges up some biographical detail, including Knerr's relationship with classic SF writer H. Beam Piper ... be sure to read the comments, too!

Knerr's terror tale was originally published by Belmont Tower Books as Sasquatch: Monster of the Northwest Woods in 1977. This edition goes for ridiculous prices online due to kitsch value, which is why I finally wrangled a copy of the NEL edition from the following year and threw it up on the archive for all to read, absolutely free: here it is in all its scanned glory!

For simple pleasures and knowing glances, Knerr's Sasquatch earns a 3/4 rating.

New English Library, 1978 (original pub. 1977)

JAPAN'S MYTHICAL MARTIAL ARTS MASTERS by John Lindsey

A fantastic surprise lurks in an old issue of Black Belt magazine: Did winged goblins teach the ninja and the samurai? Author John Lindsey traces the martial mythos of the terrible Tengu, spiced with some Ancient Astronaut style pondering which echoes writers like Vaughn M. Greene and W. Raymond Drake:

Said Greene in Astronauts of Ancient Japan:

‘‘Tengu’’ are vampires that rage in the air. Each lives on his own mountain peak. Were they remnants of the old Gods? The giant Tengu “‘So Jo Bo’’ appeared to Ushi-Kawa and taught him the art of writing. These proud beings are divided in two groups. The ‘‘Officers'' wear red robes, have long noses, and long, matted hair. When Admiral Perry first landed in Japan, he was drawn by a Japanese artist like a Tengu. Other Tengu—the ‘‘soldiers’’—have bird heads (space helmets?) and wings. Tengu hold secret conventions in remote mountain valleys, like those the early Jomon inhabited.

Meanwhile, Drake in Gods and Spacemen of the Ancient East had this to say about the Tengu:

The ‘exceedingly long nose’ of the ‘winged creature in human form’ no doubt referred to some headpiece with breathing apparatus, for to some Extra-terrestriala our oxygenated atmosphere may be poisonous; we are reminded of Oannes, a Being with the body of a fish, who according to Berossus taught the Babylonians the arts of civilisation, his likeness to a fish probably denoted the Stranger was wearing a Spacesuit, perhaps one of those Jomon Dogu ‘pressure suits’ reproduced in the various statuettes found all over Japan? Since the long-nosed winged creature gave rise to a superstition it would suggest that his manifestations in the mountains of Japan were not infrequent throughout several centuries showing regular surveillance of the Children of the Sun.

This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Rack 'em!

From Black Belt magazine, Vol. 27 - No. 3, March 1989.