GERRY RANSOM

Gerry Ransom is a sculptor.

That is definitely an interesting occupation to have and qualify for a position in a compendium of spy series but Ransom manages to do it. This feat is even harder since for the most part, Ransom is more of a con artist than an actual artist. Now he does make sculptures so in that regard he is on the level but a good number of people tend to accurately describe his work as "minimalist art", a polite way of saying there is very little to it.

Case in point, at the beginning of one of the recorded adventures, he is trying to work out the mechanism for a contracted piece of sculpture which would be man-sized exclamation mark. His problem was finding a way of suspending the long stroke above the dot. And for this he was going to be paid 5-6 figures. For the mid to late 60's, that is impressive money.

When he is not creating art which may or may not really be art, Ransom is a lover of women. He is a very good looking man with a very glib tongue and great confidence and being a major player in the art scene in New York as well as other jet-setting cities around the world, he gets lots and lots of opportunities to "mingle" with the fairer sex. Being a good con man, he never passes up an opportunity.

Which is how he invariably gets mixed up with spies and world figures and would-be world conquerors or destroyers. Somehow, Ransom has, for all his luck in his artistic world, some pretty amazingly bad luck when it comes to being in the wrong place at the very wrong times and the next thing he realizes, to stay alive yet another day, he has to stop this person's mad scheme or that person's insane plot or so on.

That fact that he succeeds is very impressive, to say the least.

'65-'69 was an interesting era to live in. I was a teenager during that period so was constantly amazed at the rapidly changing environment. Not in the publishing world as I was still a bit too young there and was too much into Tarzan and Doc Savage but a few short years later when my tastes expanded thanks to my love of James Bond, wow, was I surprised.

When I did notice these types of books, I saw and read a few Man From O.R.G.Y. and the Coxeman and more than a couple of Lady from L.U.S.T. But I never found until much later other series like the Man from T.O.M.C.A.T. or the Man from S.T.U.D. or Valentine Flynn. Or this series. I would not learn of it until the late 10's, a half century later. By then the prurience that these books were to appeal to had long ago lessened and the appreciation of good writing had increased to such a degree that some of these books are a bit hard to take.

But still, there is deep inside me that immature young man who would have loved these books back in the day and so I have to admit that I did not just get one and read it and then move on, I got 4 of the 5 and read them. And then moved on.

If you have a chance to read these, you might want to save a few bucks and just move on to begin with. Or not!