GUNSHIPS
Published by
Zebra (Star in the UK) between 1983 and 1986, the four book Gunships series was one of the earliest men’s
adventure series set during the Vietnam War. The series was the work of UK
editor and comic writer Christopher Lowder using the pseudonym Jack Hamilton
Teed. In the world of British comics, Lowder was known for his Judge
Dredd stories in the comic broadsheet 2000
AD, as well as many other titles. Using the pseudonym Jack Adrian, Lowder wrote
a number of fantasy novels and a well-received Dracula tale.
In 1985, under
his Jack Adrian persona, Lowder created Gold Eagle’s Deathlands series, including the bible for all the characters and
concepts. However, before Lowder could complete the first book, he became too ‘ill’
to continue. British pulp stalwart Laurence James was asked to complete the
book, which was published in 1986 as Deathlands
#1: Pilgrimage to Hell using Lowder’s Jack Adrian pseudonym on the cover.
Starting with
the second Deathlands book, Gold
Eagle published the books under the house name James Axler. This unusual change was made because Lowder owned the Jack Adrian pseudonym. Reportedly, there
were enough hard feeing over the situation that Lowder never wrote another Deathlands novel. Laurence James
continued writing the Deathlands series
until 1995 when he was unable to continue for health reasons. Mark Ellis took
over the series from there, while also creating and writing the Outlanders series beginning the
following year.
Gunships is basically a Vietnam War version of
The Dirty Dozen—a group of military misfits
with military criminal records varying from rape to drugs to shooting a
superior officer. When the anti-heroes are gathered together in the first book
there is a purposeful designed to fail
twist, which puts a different perspective on the concept, which helps suspend
disbelief.
Strangely,
the rescue mission of the first books has little to do with helicopter gunships.
Possibly when Lowder was commissioned to create the series, Zebra stuck him
with the Gunships title and told him
to make it work. Either not wanting to write about helicopters, or reluctant to
do the needed research, Lowder lamely solves the problem by having a minor
character make an off-hand comment about how every soldier in Vietnam is a human gunship.
There are also
some odd quirks of language in the books, which I attribute to Lowder being
British. It had to be tough for him writing about the American Special Forces. Lowder’s
Britishness also extends to his villains. While they are slaughtered with
impunity, the North Vietnamese are only there to add local color. Army corruption,
traitorous generals, CIA supported rogue redneck special forces, CIA supported Corsican/Sicilian
mafia henchmen (in Vietnam?), and the Chinese wanting a testing ground for
their new nerve gas, all take center stage—the Vietnam War as perceived by a an
uninvolved writer. Overall, however, Gunships
is a solid men’s adventure series, which in different hands, with the focus
more on gunships and the actual Hell of Vietnam, might have run longer.
*On a side note, Nicholas Cain—who has written an extensive list
of Vietnam related men’s adventure novels—credits Gunships for helping get his
first novel published. When his wife came across the series, she urged a
disheartened Cain to send his many times rejected book about MPs in Saigon to Gunships
publisher, Zebra. There it caught the eye of editor Michael Sideman, who
offered Cain a four book deal if he would fictionalize his stories and throw in
some additional sex and violence. All of this led to the excellent, long
running, Saigon Commandos series.
GUNSHIPS
The
blistering stories of soldiers caught in a war where glory was a dirty word and
every man was a loser... The
Hell that was Vietnam. It is a land where every tree and bush can kill, where
the most lethal technology of war is allied with man’s basest instincts. Where
a soldier’s bloodlust can throttle his better self like a jungle creeper. And
sometimes a man has less to fear from the enemy than from his own side.
THE KILLING ZONE
Col. John
Hardin, is a brass hating, cynical, Special Forces vet who knows a lot about
the dirty side of war. Determined to expose a corrupt American general’s
cover-up of a massacre, Hardin makes some dangerous enemies. When Hardin is
betrayed and captured by the Viet Cong, a rag-tag band of misfits, each more
dastardly than the next, are pulled from the military stockade and sent on a
suicide mission into enemy territory to get him back. Complications,
double-crosses, and violence ensues.
FIRE FORCE
A journey
into the war-torn hell of ‘Nam. They were America's finest, well-trained
troops, armed and deadly, and sent to fight in jungles as lethal as any enemy
they were to face. Special forces teams are being ambushed at an alarming rate
in Laos. A gunship incursion into Cambodia results in the helicopter being
ambushed and shot down. The sole survivor to escape, Captain Marco, insists the
trap was sprung by renegade Americans. Assigned to find the traitors, Colonel
John Hardin and his criminal killers take to the bush in for the fight of their
lives.
COBRA KILL
Vietnam was a
four letter word. Colonel John Hardin, U.S. Special Forces, was about to
investigate the wreckage of a downed Cobra gunship when a Cong force appears
out of nowhere. Hardin set his M-16 on full automatic and began blasting away,
dead sure they would overrun his position before he could even expend the
clip...But the Cong didn’t kill him. They went straight for the Cobra, took
something they wanted, and melted back into the jungle. Their big mistake was
they let Hardin live. The last thing the Cong ever expected was for Hardin to
follow them. But Hardin had to know what they took from the gunship even if it
killed him.
SKY FIRE
A vivid
journey into the hell hole of Vietnam. When Colonel John Hardin and his criminal
killers come upon a squad of marines under attack at a temple, they intervene
only to find themselves stuck guarding a beautiful photojournalist. Word has
leaked that remote villages in Laos have been attacked with Sky Fire, a highly
deadly never gas of Chinese origin. It’s up to Hardin and his motley crew to
keep the photojournalist safe until she leads them to her source. She wants a
story. Hardin wants to destroy the gas before it’s used in Vietnam against U.S.
troops.
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