Yes!

Thanks to Crystal, I learned of a Kolchak graphic novel I had to get hold of. It came yesterday and I happily devoured it. Here is my review of it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kolchak-Tales-Annual-Featuring-Shadows/dp/B004PPZP0G/ref=sr_1_43?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306984711&sr=1-43

I forgot to mention that I watched an episode of Have Gun Will Travel the other day. I was half-asleep while watching it and I couldn't quite make sense of what was going on. I wasn't that impressed with the episode at first, and then there was a twist near the end that made me decide I definitely wasn't crazy about it.

But then there was another twist at the very end that cancelled the one I hadn't liked. It made me squeeful and happy and made me decide I liked the episode after all. (And it woke me up enough that I went and rewatched some of the scenes to better grasp what was going on.)

The episode is the last episode of season 1, The Statue of San Sebastian.

Hmmm.

After watching Justice Deferred again, and discovering anew how chilling the episode really is, I'm a bit torn. Mel Barnes and William Poole are both highly disturbing in their own ways. But as for who's the most so, I'm not sure that can be fully determined.

Both are serial killers, always going after women, always breaking the necks, and both singing/whistling something unique that helps lead to them being proven guilty.

As for their differences ...

On the one hand you have Barnes, who is said by Gladys to dislike women, even to hate them deep down. That, along with his lust, makes for a horrifying combination. Barnes has no redeeming qualities at all.

On the other hand you have Poole, who says he kills because he wants to touch the women's soft hair and skin and they don't understand. He doesn't seem to hate women; possibly he even longs to be with one and settle down, judging from comments he made to the widow he was working for. And he claims to have loved a woman who was killed in a demolition accident. What we never find out is whether she really died accidentally (and if that possibly caused Poole to completely flip out) or whether she was simply the first person Poole killed and tried to blame on an explosion.

With this unclear mystery, and the possibility that the woman really did die accidentally and caused him to crack up, I feel some semblance of pity for Poole. He's clearly mentally ill, although the source for that is never revealed.

I feel no pity for Barnes. He never shows that he is anything more than a conniving pleasure-seeker who likes breaking women's necks after he's had his way with them.

In Poole’s last scene, he loses all semblance of sanity and screams that he’s a Thunder Man, a god, and no force in Heaven or Earth can bring him down. Little Joe then has to shoot him. Poole drops the nitroglycerin he’s holding (seemingly deliberately) and kills himself before the bullet kills him.

So ... a lecherous misogynist or a delusional false god. Take your pick on who’s the most disturbing.

And meanwhile I will marvel again over Simon Oakland’s incredible talent at playing these horrid men, and many wonderful men too, and making each role come alive.