Wednesday, August 26, 2020

TAPS FOR A DRUMMER

Sgt. Fury had been circling the cancellation drain for years. When it was still published monthly, every other issue was a reprint. Artist Dick Ayers used to complain he was losing work to his past self. When the title switched to all new stories, it was cut back to a bimonthly title. Dick couldn’t catch a break.

I was part of a quartet of Marvel editors and writers who plotted Sgt. Fury #117 [January 1974]. Writer Gerry Conway was swamped with work and Dick needed something to work on. I can’t speak for every one in the room that afternoon, but I always want to make sure my friend had work. In my mind, Dick was one of my personal Big Four of Marvel artists with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck. Those were the creators who, with Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, launched the then present day Marvel Universe.

The room was my editorial office, which I shared with my assistant Chris Claremont and Michelle Wolfman because we had space for three desks. I’m not 100% sure what Michelle’s job was at that time, but she had been working somewhere away from the rest of the Bullpen. Moving into my office brought her closer to the action.

Neither Chris nor Michelle were in the office that afternoon which might have been an early evening. Besides Gerry and me, the gang of plotters included Marv Wolfman and Don McGregor. We plotted a 19-page story in an hour or two tops. I came across that plot during one of my explorations into my old file folders. You’ll get to read it starting in another paragraph or two.

My memory is shaky at the exact details of who did what, but I am fairly certain of three things. The “Taps for a Drummer” title was mine, as was the idea of paring down the cast to just Nick Fury and Gabe Jones for the main action. I did most of the typing because it was my office and I was a fast typist.

Because Gerry was the regular writer of the title, I’m guessing he came up with the part of the plot dealing with Nick’s dealing with the trauma he had suffered while a prisoner of Baron Strucker. The “deadly plague” thing sounds like something I’d have come up with, but I'm not 100% on that. The use of an old friend of Gabe’s was inherent in my title. That character’s ultimate fate doesn’t sound like something I would have suggested, but, as I said, my memory is shaky as to some of the exact details.

Here’s the plot as it was created sometime in the fall of 1973 or thereabouts...
                                                                                   

Splash page shows the Howlers jumping and ducking into mud, etc., as Fury firing a machine gun over their heads. He’s not giving them much space for breathing. They should be really puffing to meet his expectations.

They start crawling, ducking, Dum-Dum goes off a small cliff into a lake, gets angry, picks himself and hat out of the water, puts hat on head, water and fish come out.

Back in barracks, they are muttering to themselves how Fury is being awful hard on them since he’s returned. They’re wondering if he’s as fully cured as they thought he was.

Dum-Dum is saying yes he’s cured. Fury comes in angry. Barracks is a mess. Why hasn’t somebody been keeping this place in order? Clothes and stuff all around. Fury messes up more by throwing stuff to the floor and everything. Kicking things around. Get this damn place cleaned up or you’ll be doing KP.

Dum-Dum hand on shoulder. Take it easy. Fury knocks it off. They start facing off as messenger from Sam comes. Says Gabe and Nick are to report to him yesterday. Walking towards Sam’s office. Enter. Sam at desk. Insults them. Starts story.

Cut to (flashback): One week ago, Nazi camp.

Black POW in Nazi camp. Going to be test case for new chemical warfare discover. Is thrown into lab. He gets up. Attacks guards. They knock him down to the floor again. Beat him with guns. He can’t get up. But he keeps cursing them.

Some doctor...thin SS-type person, elite, is explaining the reason this POW was chosen. You are Black, less than human, totally expendable, giving your life is the greatest thing you can do. Tells POW to look to the right.

At right, a test cage full of dead and half-dead test animals, all dying rom home horrible plague. They should look horrible, too.

“Now we want to do our first human test of the plague and you are the one we have chosen.”

He is thrown into metal partition. Starts pounding on metal as gas is pumped in. Clouds of icky-looking gas.

Outside and above. Air raid. The Nazis start running for shelter. The doctor says wait. “The experiment!” Looking at vials on the desk. An officer says no time. They must flee.
                                                                             

The bombs start bursting about the lab, one destroying the door to the small metal room. The POW coughs, staggers out, saying he better get going. He sees the vial and runs. Grabs it. He can give this to the U.S.

Nazis outside see him escaping, shoot at him. He ducks, leaps from cliff into river and swims off amidst fireworks and bombs.

Cut to Sam Sawyer’s head. Ending the flashback. Saying that the Nazis actually got in touch with the Americans - knowing the POW probably did - and telling them there is no cure for the virus at all. They were merely experimenting with it. They must all find him before the time limit of 24 hours comes and he becomes contagious.

[NOTE: Most of the above was eliminated in the actual writing. Sam got the information from intelligence sources. The Nazis continued to be 100% evil. Good call on Gerry’s part.]

Fury asks why he and Gabe were called. Sam says the guy was Drummer Bellman. Gabe reacts. Drummer taught him everything he knows about jazz. He worked with him back at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Sam says that’s why Gabe was called in. He might know how Drummer would react to things.

The thing must be kept secret. They have to find Drummer cause he hasn’t given himself in for one reason or another. He must be caught before the time limit. He is someplace in London.

The Nazis are after him. They want the vial he stole from them. The good guys want him to stop him from contaminating everything.

They can’t even reveal anything because there would be instant panic. So Fury and Gabe must find him. There are other small crews. The rest of the Howlers must not know. It could be dangerous.

Back to barracks. Fury is packing. Dum Dum asks where he and Gabe are going. Fury says bug off and the two of them leave. Dum Dum is angry, sweating if Fury doesn’t change soon, he wants to leave the Howlers for good.

Cut to Drummer. He’s in a back alley, clutching vial, saying he can’t go to the Americans because he doesn’t want either side to have this destructive power. He has to somehow escape, go where neither side can find him. Switzerland.
                                                                         

Fury and Gabe hanging around bars. Questioning people. Make this a montage-shot. They go to the bar where Fury met his girlfriend of last issue. She makes small talk, tells about a fantastic drummer who say in on the quartet one night and then disappeared. But he’s been seen hanging around some bombed-out buildings on the bad side of London.

Cut to Nazis in civilian clothing. Make them mean-looking. They see Drummer by a bar drinking something. They begin firing. He ducks. Fury and Gave hear noise. They are in the area. They investigate, see Drummer disappearing and the Nazis shooting. Big fight. Fury and Gabe are creaming Nazis. Catch one in pulled-down fire escape. Smash another with a gun. Last Nazi says there are many agents all over London trying to find Drummer...and they will.

Montage shot of Drummer running. He’s scared, keeps looking over his soldier.

Finally, Drummer comes to a stop in some bombed-out (not completely bombed-out) old building. Some kids are playing near by. He thinks he’s alone when Gabe finds him. Always knew you like the back of my hand, Drummer.

He tells Drummer that he has to die. He could contaminate all of London. Drummer explains that he can’t let either side get vial. It looks like the two old friends are going to have a confrontation when Fury enters the scene. Followed by Nazi agents shooting at him. The kids scurry for cover. Fight breaks out.

When it looks like the Nazis are going to beat Fury, Gabe and Drummer, a bomb raid starts. Bombs are falling all over the place. Drummer tries to get the kids to cover. Pushes them out of the way and runs as the bombs put a small barricade between him and the others. He won’t let himself be killed. He can’t.

Back to Fury. He is killing a few more Nazis. It is very important to reach Drummer. Gabe and Fury race off. Gabe says Drummer was never a quitter.
                                                                             
     
Flashback to Gabe. Very young. In nightclub. Drummer, also young, teaching him how to play the horn. Gabe looks down and out while Drummer is helping him.

Back to present. Gabe says he owes a lot to Drummer. The man means something to him. Fury says he knows what it’s like to lose someone close. He’s done it. He also knows that perhaps his own problems are a little bit lighter than someone who KNOWS he’s going to die.

Switch to Drummer. He takes out the vial. He says this is the cause of the problems. But, no matter what happens to him, he won’t let it fall into anyone’s hands...and he drinks it. He knows what this will do to him, but he doesn’t care. He’s going to die anyway.

Drummer is running past stores, etc. He must get out of there. Get away. London Bridge is before him. He’s racing towards it when, suddenly, a shot hits him in the leg and he falls to the street.

A Nazi officer and several others in civilian garb are running up on the Bridge. They place a gun to his head and demand the vial. He says it no longer exists. He drank it. The Nazi is angry.

A car comes up and it’s the Nazi doctor from before. He heard they found him. Where’s the vial? He’s told it was swallowed. The doctor says to take Drummer back.

Meanwhile, Fury and Gave are there and there is a grand fight that lasts a few pages. Several Nazis thrown off London Bridge. One or two by Gabe and Fury. One Nazi throws Gabe over, but Gabe catches onto the side and flips himself back. The Doctor takes out a gun and is about to shoot Fury in the back, but he dies as a gunshot hits him. Drummer killed him with a gun from one of the Nazis. Fury finishes off the Nazis.

Drummer calls Gabe to come down to him. Speaks. Gabe asks why Drummer did it. Drummer says he had responsibility, not only to the Americans but to the world. He couldn’t let one side get the power at all. He has two favors to ask of Gabe. Whispers them. The first is to kill him. The next is to play his favorite song over his ashes.

Gabe says he can’t kill him. Drummer says it’s the only way. He’s dying anyway.

Fury asks what Drummer said. Gabe doesn’t answer. He merely rises, looks quietly at Drummer, takes out his gun, clenches his eyes tight and fires, a tear coming down his cheek. We DO NOT see the actual firing. Just Gabe’s face reacting to what he’s done and one silent panel of Fury’s shocked reaction.

The last panel - a 1/3 strip across the bottom of the page - with Gabe at the graveside. Playing the trumpet. The Howlers standing silently behind.

                                                                                 

Some final notes. I didn’t do all the typing. I know this because, in retyping this, I had to change “Nazi’s” to “Nazis” a number of times. That’s not a mistake I would have made.

This was a longer plot that most Marvel artists were given. While I usually wrote panel-by-panel plots - while telling artists that the pacing was not carved in stone - most Marvel writers did much looser plots. I just felt I had more command of the story when I worked out the pacing for myself.

Dick Ayers was a masterful storyteller and not a bad writer. When he drew this story, he made it more visually workable. His pencils gave Gerry Conway a lot to work with. All these any years later, I still think Gerry did a fine job.

It hadn’t occurred to me until I re-read this issue and the gang-conceived plot for it that I was again fulfilling the promise that I had made to myself as a teenager. That, if I were lucky enough to work in comics, I would try to create and work with characters of color. I’d forgotten about Drummer until now. Maybe someday I will get a chance to write him again.

That’s it for now. I’ll return as soon as possible with more bloggy stuff to thrill you anew. Until then, stay safe, stay sane, and be good to one another.

© 2020 Tony Isabella

3 comments:

  1. Did I miss something? Why did Butte, Montana get a plotting credit?

    Scott Lovrine

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  2. thanks for this entry, i love sgt fury and had read several inteviews with Dick about how they were killing him with reprints so he was basically competing with himself. in 2005 i saw him and his wife at a ny comic and got him to sign my "It" stories and told him what a fan I was of the characters and the When Monsters Dwell series. I bought his autobio graphic novel and an issue of Cracked he worked on and I told him how much I liked the stories you did with him and he said "Oh, Tony writes some good stories!". I remember that exact quote and also that Dick said "golly" which Id never heard anyone say in person before lol. This brought back good memories!

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