Comic Book Review: Fleetway Picture Library Classics Presents: Rick Random art by Ron Turner
In the far future of the 2040s, Earth belongs to the Interplanetary Board, a coalition of worlds both in the Sol System and beyond. As it just so happens, it’s headquartered in what used to be the country of Great Britain. The investigative body of the Board is the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation, the lead agent of which is “the first detective of the space age”, Rick Random. Whenever inexplicable mysteries occur, he’s the man called.
The Rick Random stories ran in the Super Detective Library comic book series published in Britain in the 1950s. Artist Ron Turner, known for his excellent spaceship and alien designs, was paired with various writers. This volume reprints four representative stories, the first written by Conrad Frost, and the remainder by Bob Kesten. (Sadly, none of the ones by famed SF writer Harry Harrison.)
“The Planet of Lost Men” starts us off with a series of disappearances all over Earth, all of miners or mining engineers. Each of the men had been alone out in the open at the time of the disappearance, and no trace can be found of struggle or how they were removed. So it may seem odd at first that Rick Random is spending his time on a tennis date with pretty Jo Hauser, daughter of mining magnate Joshua Hauser. But we swiftly learn that Mr. Hauser is in fact behind the disappearances, all of men who work for one of his companies, either directly or through a shell.
Not making any direct headway there, Rick investigates a disappearance on the Cumberland moors, eventually working out how the abductions are done. But now he needs to find out why, so he allows himself to be disappeared.
After meeting up with Texan miner Ronnel aboard the freighter that’s been arranging the abductions, Rick is transported to the isolated planet Garganta. It seems that a massive vein of gold that nearly circles the planet has been discovered there, and Hauser is desperate to get it into his hands as he’s got a cash flow problem. The gold’s got to be dug up before the next Interplanetary Board inspection of the world in eighteen months. The rush timing and illegality of the maneuver is why the secrecy and abductions.
Despite the forced labor, the pay is good (even if the only place to spend it is the company stores) and miners are used to twelve-hour shifts. However, any slacking or dissent is met with exile to the forest with its monstrous wildlife and hostile natives with killer robots. After a few weeks on the road crew, Rick works out that the natives aren’t killing wounded and abandoned miners, so fakes his own death in a raid so he can be captured and brought before Princess Alona.
A world-building detail here is that most beings in the galaxy communicate telepathically so there isn’t a language barrier. Earthmen have learned how to do this, but prefer to speak aloud (and aliens living on Earth are expected to learn how to do that.)
Rick is able to convince the princess and her people that he’s on their side against the invaders, and is able to give them tips that make them more effective, but there’s still some wrinkles in the story.
The ending is a bit disappointing, as the baddies seem about to get away clean, even if they won’t meet all their goals, only to dispose of themselves due to an offscreen coincidence. And of course we also learn that if Hauser hadn’t been so greedy and rushed, he could have had everything he wanted without resorting to illegal means.
“The Riddle of the Vanishing People” starts with more disappearances, this time of scientists. This time there’s a witness, who crashes her car when a scientist vanishes while crossing the street in front of her. Even Dr. Fisher, the brilliant scientist who is the head of the Interplanetary Board, vanishes! Rick teams up with intrepid reporter Nora Eldra to investigate.
Good: There’s a diversity of male and female scientists involved, not just Western Europeans and Americans. “Great Negro scientist” M’bwango even gets to reappear in a later story. Admittedly, the foreign Earth scientists have stereotypical outfits and facial hair, but baby steps. In story the one bit of racism is fantastic racism as a loutish drunk Brit named Biff Kelly attacks Jupiterian scientist Mank Blorg for being a “bug-eyed monster” only to have his target vanish in the middle of their fist fight.
Less good: The story ends with a “the world is not yet ready” decision without resolving the fact that right up to just before the reveal, reporter Nora Eldra was helping Rick with the investigation, and certainly will want an explanation so she can make her own mind up about how to write her story.
“Sabotage from Space” switches from mysterious disappearances to people mysteriously suffering “the Madness” which causes them to do things that defy common sense and their training, often with fatal results. Rick works with psychologist Dr. Altha Bekins to investigate, eventually proving that this is the work of invisible aliens!
This one really emphasizes Rick’s work as a detective, working out bit by bit how to mitigate the effects of the Madness, what causes it, and how to contact the aliens that are causing it. And the ending is the most satisfying in the volume, not about punishing the hostile aliens, but removing the reason for their hostility to benefit all involved.
“S.O.S. From Space” concerns a mysterious object found near Sirius. It turns out to be the last message from an alien race wiped out by the Ebloni ten thousand years before. The Ebloni are a menace to the civilized worlds of the galaxy even now, so it’s a matter of great interest when the message reveals that the vanished race had developed weaponry that could be used against the Ebloni but pressed for time, had put themselves into cold storage instead.
Now Rick must infiltrate the Ebloni homeworld (actually the vanished race’s homeworld which was more desirable) with the help of horned Qonti Myla-Orst who clearly has more than a collegial interest in Rick. Can they find the resting place of the Gyzmanians? It’s a good thing that the Ebloni were already at war with the rest of the galaxy, as that ending would otherwise have been a causus belli deluxe.
It’s noted that the Ebloni are not very bright, and their brains aren’t developed enough for telepathy; it’s discovered they stole spaceflight technology from the vanished race before attacking them.
There’s also an introduction by John Lawrence that talks about Mr. Turner’s career, including a lucrative time making box cover art for model kits. And a list of everything Mr. Turner did for Fleetway if you’re the collecting type.
The art is sometimes betrayed by the fact that it’s had to be taken from the finished magazines, printing errors and all, but yes, Mr. Turner could indeed draw some fine machinery and nifty-looking aliens. Plus some fine women.
The writing is pretty good, though you can tell it’s for younger boys. While the treatment of women is reasonably good for the time period (the fourth story has a female starship pilot who is competent throughout), Rick Random is not interested in doing anything more than mild flirting. The first sign that a woman is really interested, and he’s out the door.
Content note: Most of the human characters smoke. If Rick’s not in action, he normally has a cigarette in hand. This is in keeping with habits during the time period the stories were written, but might be worrisome for today’s parents.
Overall: Primarily for collectors of British comics, but of special interest to science fiction fans (Ron Turn also did many classic Vargo Stratten covers.)
