Monopoly

A night-time raid by the the howling Bounders.
Interior art by Virgil Finlay

I've previously complained about science fiction stories built around the idea that there is only one planet in the galaxy where some valuable resource can be obtained. The short story "The Howling Bounders" by Jack Vance is another such story (Startling Stories, March 1949). We are told that ticholama can only be grown on the sixth planet of the Naos star system. Ticholama is a valuable crop because it is the source of resilian molecules, prized for their "tremendous elasticity and tensile strength".

Ticholama on Naos VI

Magnus Ridolph
"The Howling Bounders" is a Magnus Ridolph story, so we must expect Mr. Ridolph to turn adversity into profit when he buys a ticholama plantation. Almost immediately upon taking ownership of his land on Naos VI, Magnus is dismayed to hear the haunting sound of a horde of howling Bounders invading the fields of his plantation. The problem that disrupts Ridolph's latest get-rich-quick scheme is that part of his ripening ticholama crop is being plundered each night by the howling Bounders, native humanoid creatures who feed on ticholama.

Strangely, nobody else has ever been able to capture and study a Bounder, but Magnus quickly captures thousands of them and he discovers that they are also composed of resilian. Magnus makes a handsome profit by selling the bounty of resilian that he obtains from the bodies of the many Bounders that he captures and kills.

Flexo, 1940. An artificial lifeform?

You are what you eat
I'm imagining that resilian is something like rubber. Many plants use latex for protection against insects and other animals that would otherwise eat the plant. Latex usually contains many toxic molecules while the rubber content might act to seal wounds.

On Earth, there are some microbes that can metabolize rubber, but as far as I know there are no animals that incorporate ingested rubber into the tissues of their own body. Animals such as we humans make their own elastic protein molecules such as elastin.

One Word: Plastics
Rubber shortages were a major concern during World War II. When he was starting his career as a science fiction story teller, Vance's thoughts apparently turned to an exotic alien source that could serve as a rubber substitute.

rubberman vs IRON ACE (1943)

The Rampage of Rubberman
In 1940, a comics magazine robot named Flexo appeared. Flexo was "made out of live rubber", but was called "the rubber man". Originally equipped with remote controls, Flexo later got an upgrade and became a completely self-propelled robot.

In 1943 there was a new "rubberman", Herr Riktor, a man who suffered an industrial accident that replace his skin with a synthetic rubber-like material which could deflect bullets.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by
Earle Bergey, Wojtek Siudmak and
also see this french cover.

After that promising beginning, the Nazi rubberman seems to have had a short career, bouncing off of IRON ACE and landing in heated vat that killed the rubbery Riktor. Since this was during World War II, nobody in the world of American comics was sad to see the demise of Herr Riktor.

Chil Con Carne
I like to imagine that in an alternate Reality there might have been slightly different versions of some of the science fiction stories that we have here in our Reality. "The Howling Bounders" is the 4th Magnus Ridolph story that I've read, and as I keep reading more of these old stories I'm waiting impatiently for Magnus to become involved with a female character.

Magnus Ridolph seemed to enjoy the life of a drifter, free to travel on a whim and try his hand at any odd job or adventure that came his way. Maybe part of his great wisdom was that he had a total commitment to avoiding entanglements with women.

Vance tells us that Chook is "dwarfish".

The planet Naos Six seems like a frontier world, although the ticholama grower who sells land to Magnus claims to have a wife and a school-age daughter. "The Howling Bounders" centers on one particular native tribe, the Bounders, but Vance tells readers that the sixth planet of Naos has at least one additional tribe of natives.

Alternative adventures for Magnus
Ridolph in the Ekcolir Reality.
A tall, female Chook from Naos 6.

Arriving on Naos Six, Magnus takes up residence on his plantation, living in its modest cottage. He hires a native servant (named Chook) who sweeps the cottage floors and cooks Ridolph's meals.

Ridolph's cook is a much less violent type of native than the wild, howling, ticholama-consuming Bounders depicted by Vance throughout most of the story. Given Chook's "boneless rope-like arms", it is easy to imagine an alternative version of "The Howling Bounders" in which Magnus learns how to protect his precious ticholama crop by learning from Chook everything he needs to know about the Bounders.

Fiamella

Sadly, in Vance's tale, Chook is male and has nothing useful to tell Magnus. Chook only knows how to cook either stew or chili, which makes for little excitement during the time that Magnus spends in the cottage on his ticholama plantation.

Related Reading: 2020 celebration of Jack Vance
                     more Magnus Ridolph

Next: the Men-men of Moritaba

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