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| Hutchinson (UK) 1970 |
In 1966, Michael Moorcock produced a few spy novels under the pseudonym of Bill Barclay. These books featured the exploits of “Nick Allard of SMASH”, although in later editions under Moorcock’s own name they were rewritten with new character names. Most notably, Nick Allard became “Jerry Cornell”, another in the line of “J_C_” characters beginning to pop up throughout Moorcock’s 1970s literary landscape.
Like Elric, Nick/Jerry was a genre “spoiler”, in that his character was something of a parody of the kind of British super-spy made famous by Ian Fleming (SMASH is of course an acronym for a spy organization just as SPECTRE was for the Bond series). Besides being generally allergic to any sense of duty or to figures of authority, Nick also has a degenerate family not too dissimilar in some ways to Elric’s Melnibonéan clan. However, unlike Elric, Nick is decidedly short on nobility and therefore a bit unlikable (by design).
Moorcock’s anti-establishment take on the British spy genre began as his ghost-rewrite of a James Moffatt ("Roger Harris") spy pastiche, The LSD Dossier. Although Moorcock’s re-envisioning of the character as a selfish, adulterous civil servant annoyed Moffatt, “Bill Barclay” was assigned to continue the Nick Allard series. After being shown the prospective covers of the following pair of books (chosen by the publisher), Moorcock proceeded to fit his plots to these graphics. Each of these sequels took no more than 2 or 3 days to churn out.
As mentioned, the Nick Allard books were later re-published under Moorcock’s own name and with the names of the characters changed, but not much else (The Chinese Agent also included an added opening chapter). The recalcitrant spy’s name was changed to Jerry Cornell, but the character himself is a different character from the Jerry Cornelius of The Final Programme. However, both series obviously satirize the conventional spy template, and some of the grotesqueries found in Cornell’s cast have counterparts in Cornelius’ world (probably a stylistic tendency rather than a deliberate linkage - I think).
Moorcock's approach to satire here is fairly broad and a few choice examples from The Chinese Intelligence are below. Some of it may seem a bit "off-color" (offensive) to modern readers, but I suppose if one were going to parody Cold War era spy fiction, one might as well go all the way. The first passage ridicules Jerry's Chinese nemesis, "Kong Fu Tzu":
“Another Egg Foo Yong Burger.” He spoke softly, adding menacingly: “And go easy on the soy sauce this time.”Jerry's degenerate "secret" family also gets some brutally evocative lines below:
“The Cornells had been …the subject of a documentary that had been deemed too disgusting for public showing… and once cited in 'A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English' (Cornell: Any debased or depraved action, as in ‘he cornelled the poor old creature out of her pension money’…)"
"(Jerry’s sister Deanna) lounged in a decrepit wicker chair near the sideboard, reading a magazine taken from a pile beside her. It was called "All-Male Action", and on the cover a black-booted soldier in a Russian uniform, but wearing Nazi swastikas all over him, was whipping several overdeveloped young women in what appeared to be the tattered remnants of bikinis. The title of the leading article was ‘Red Nazi Homos in Death Torture Rites of Sex Agony’. "Meanwhile a sense of fantastic whimsy can be seen in this flash-forward of the first book's aging femme fatale, Lilli von Bern:
"She had turned over a new leaf. She had decided to become an honest woman. Less than a week later she found herself a job as a photographer (naturally, she had been highly trained in photography) with an all-female exploratory expedition to the Upper Amazon and disappeared into the South American hinterland, where, as it happened, she and her fellow explorers stumbled upon a lost tribe of Incas who worshiped her as the goddess she was and obeyed her every wish…"
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| Compact Books 1966 |
In Brief: A jewel thief named Hodgkiss accidentally comes into possession of secret plans which are being sought by both British agent Jerry Cornell and the Communist spymaster Kong Fu Tzu. While escaping from a larceny attempt on Portobello Road, Hodgkiss is knocked out by a merchant’s cart and the plans accidentally fall into the hands of Jerry’s filthy Uncle Edmond. Although Jerry and Kong Fu Tzu scheme against Edmond to obtain the plans (with each episode becoming more and more absurd), the plans are eventually accidentally eaten by a horse. Finally, Kong Fu Tzu tries to set up a death trap at the Tower of London for his oblivious “arch-rival” Jerry Cornell, but Hodgkiss arrives on the scene and unwittingly defuses the bomb. Jerry is congratulated for saving the Crown Jewels and defeating the Chinese Communists.
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| The Macmillan Company 1970, Art: Carl Titolo |
Detailed Synopsis
Wikipedia Entry
Wikiverse Entry 1
Wikiverse Entry 2
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| Compact Books 1966 |
In Brief: Just before his death, Agent Thorpe implicates a comic strip titled the “Devil Rider”. When Jerry’s murder investigation takes him to a Russian diplomat’s house, he draws the attention of two Russian spies, Joseph K and Zhivako. Meanwhile, writers associated with the “Devil Rider” comic are gradually killed off one by one. In fear of his life, Jerry decides to hide outside the city with a beautiful blonde woman named Polly Snapgirdle. When a “real” Devil Rider appears and kidnaps Jerry and Polly, they are rescued by a mysterious Woman in Black (later revealed to be Jerry’s possessive wife Shirley). Polly eventually confesses to being the real killer all along, and has been using the “Devil Rider” comic to pass secret intelligence to the Russian embassy. With Polly’s arrest, the Russian agents are so impressed with Jerry’s “superior abilities” they defect to the British.
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| Savoy 1980, Art: Harry Douthwaite |
Detailed Synopsis
Wikiverse Entry 1
Wikiverse Entry 2
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| Ace 1971, Art: Joseph Lombardero |
For more information on the Nick Allard/Jerry Cornell books, this is an excellent article: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/cornell-or-the-unfunny-clown/.
Next Chapter: Elric Returns: "The Singing Citadel"
(Previous Chapter: Jerry Cornelius: The Final Programme)
