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Doc Savage Magazine #8: Review

Mar 1977
Doug Moench, Ernie Chan

Story Name:

The Crimson Plague

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Doc Savage Magazine #8 Review by (February 15, 2010)
Additional credits: story plotted by John Warner and John Whitmore. a) Final issue in this series; b) in issue #6, editor John Warner said this story would feature John Sunlight; plans change; c) artist Ernie Chan is the same person who inked issue #2 of the color comic under the name Ernie Chua; d) Doc demonstrates his expertise in psychiatry/psychology for the first time; e) for the first time we learn that there is a branch of the Hidalgo Trading Company in Los Angeles (and more elsewhere presumably); f) error: Doc knows that Ham was planning to accompany Renny on his trip to Hollywood, even though he wasn’t present for the discussion; g) not an error: though World War II was declared on September 3, 1939, no military engagements took place for several months, hence it isn’t odd that there is no mention of the war in London or Paris. Additional comments: a) Issue also includes “Mail of Bronze” a letters column; b) the cover by Ken Barr is nicely lurid with its dark blue-green color scheme (though the monster is supposed to be red—note the story title), but Doc’s face is identical to the one on the previous issue (angle, expression, etc.); c) inside front cover has a portrait of Doc with a rocket pack, courtesy of Tom Sutton; d) Ed Davis contributes another montage portrait, this time of Long Tom, making him look as sickly as usually described for the first time; e) a full page portrait of Doc surrounded by the Roadster, Autogyro, Amberjack, and Helldiver by Bob Layton and Dick Giordano follows; f) John Warner supplies an essay, “Editorializing on the Bronze Side in Two Parts!” Part one announces the magazine’s cancellation; part two explains that the current story was a fill-in kept in the inventory for just such an emergency, clarifying the matter of the new creative team.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Doc Savage Magazine #8 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Doc Savage returns from a funeral in Acapulco to tell his aides of an amazing incident: he had gone there in response to a summons from a friend, biologist Miguel Hernandez. He found Hernandez wandering the streets, his mind erased. Doc returned Hernandez to his home where they were attacked by a huge glowing tentacled creature which paralyzed Doc and killed the unfortunate biologist before vanishing. Next, a similar event happens to physicist Scott Merrill in New York except that the police are able to drive off the monster and save his life. Doc listens to the man’s muttering about an “octo-brain” and an impending horror in London, Paris, and Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Renny has been offered a screen test by a movie studio and has gone to Hollywood accompanied by Ham as his agent. Doc hurriedly contacts them by phone only to hear Renny and Ham overpowered and abducted by a gang. Doc pieces together a plot against great scientists and he and his men split up to investigate further. Long Tom and Johnny fly to the London observatory of astronomer Winston Veldt and manage to defeat a gang bent on kidnapping the scientist, then eluding a pursuing aircraft as they bring Veldt back to New York for his protection. Monk goes to Paris to contact botanist Francois Lemonde but both he and the scientist are captured by the enemy. In Hollywood Doc visits the movie studio but its leader Randolph Dorn tells him Renny never arrived. After Long Tom reveals to Doc that he knew his attackers were stuntmen by their movie lingo, Doc returns to the studio for a light-night visit. After fighting off the thugs and releasing Monk from a cell, Doc confronts Randolph Dorn, who is draining the minds of scientists into his brain-bank with a fantastic device. Linked to the machine, the megalomaniacal Dorn is bigger, stronger and smarter than Doc Savage, and intends to add the mind of the Man of Bronze to his collection. Doc uses judo to hurl the villain into his bizarre device and it explodes, killing him. In the hospital Doc manages to restore the intellects of the captured scientists.


Ernie Chan
Ernie Chan
Ken Barr (Cover Penciler)


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