Liberty Girl

By Barry Reese

During the dark days of World War II and well into the brighter days of the decade that followed, the Liberty Girl defended America from enemies at home and abroad. Beautiful, brave and powerful, the Liberty Girl was the living embodiment of America’s fighting spirit.

She vanished suddenly, without a trace, in the mid 1950s.

Fifty years later, the Liberty Girl reappeared as inexplicably as she had vanished. She was still young and as powerful as ever.

America’s Angel had returned in her country’s darkest hour.

The Liberty Girl is ready to defend the free world from the dark forces that threaten to destroy it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pro Se Press
• Release date: Oct 17, 2013

Book preview

LIBERTY GIRL

by Barry Reese

Published by Pro Se Press, in association with Heroic Publishing, at Smashwords

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters in this publication are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. No part or whole of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing of the publisher.

Liberty Girl

Copyright © 2013 Heroic Publishing

All rights reserved.

Give Me Liberty Girl…

A Few Words in Appreciation

by Roy Thomas

She’s beautiful… she’s powerful… and she’s more than eighty years old.

This gorgeous and fascinating super-heroine sprang full-grown from Dennis Mallonee’s overtaxed mind a few years ago, and she’s been going great guns ever since. She even has her own comic book series—not a bad accomplishment for a female, and one forged in the war of an era that is as distant to today’s average comics reader as Antietam, nay, Marathon, is to those of us who pored over four-color wonders back in the 1940s.

Why is she popular? Let me count the reasons…

She’s beautiful. (See first paragraph.) There’s a time-honored adage: if you want to sell a magazine to a male, put a beautiful woman on the cover…and if you want to sell a magazine to a female, put a beautiful woman on the cover. The gents will want to bed her, and the ladies will want to look (and perhaps be) like her. It works for me.

She’s powerful. (Ditto.) Ever since the days of Wonder Woman, and maybe before (given the fact that Quality’s non-costumed Miss America appeared a short time before the Amazon’s 1941 debut), comics readers have enjoyed seeing a strong woman toss around men, airplanes, and tanks. It all harks back, perhaps, to Hippolyte, mythological queen of the Amazons, and to Penthesilea, the Amazon warrior, who fought for the Trojans against the Greeks, according to the post-Iliad epic the Aethiopis. (But Hippolyte was bested by Hercules, and Pentesilea was killed by Achilles, while Liberty Girl is definitely a winner.)

She’s patriotic. Perhaps that’s become unfashionable in some circles since Korea, since Vietnam… and even more so in the age of Iraq. But there are still folks around who feel that a hero emblematic of America—whether male or female—is a worthwhile symbol, the more so since Liberty Girl is a thinking man’s, er, person’s hero.

For Dennis has straddled the supposedly simpler patriotism of the World War II years and the supposedly more complex world of today. (Ever notice how earlier times are always referred to as simpler by people who never had to live through them—e.g., trying to discern in 1933 whether Adolf Hitler was a threat to world peace and even humanity, or only a local leader who would restore a bit of national pride to a prostrate Germany and then be shunted aside by other, more rational statesmen?)

Liberty Girl combines the vaunted virtues and aura of that earlier era with the realities of today… and the result is a super-heroine who entertains, engages, and inspires on more than one level.

I’m proud to have played host to her, after a fashion, with her backup features in issues of my own Heroic Publications title Anthem (she’d have made a great member of that group) and even to have written a future episode of her adventures.

Long may she wave!

LIBERTY GIRL

The Return

Adapted by Barry Reese

Based upon the works of Dennis Mallonee

Chapter I

Time Stands Still

July 4, 2006

The Humvee bounced along the roughly carved road that led to the monitoring station. Behind the wheel, 2nd Lt. Carl Aschmann wondered about the wisdom of his morning decision to swap routes with Dusty Osten. Normally, Aschmann had the cushy job of hand-delivering the mail to the bigwigs back at nuclear testing site. That meant pushing a cart up and down a set of air-conditioned halls, which was far preferable to the stifling heat of Yucca Flats.

But this was a special occasion and Aschmann wanted to be there when his good buddy Sam Harbison saw what he was transporting. Sam was a class act in Aschmann’s eyes, especially since Sam had set him up with his sister Lucy on a series of dates last fall. The relationship had petered out, but Lucy had been a real looker and an even better kisser, which meant that Aschmann was in Sam’s debt.

The two men also shared a fascination with World War II-era heroes. The Greatest Generation was the tag applied to the men and women who had sacrificed so much in turning back the Axis horde and Aschmann thought it a perfect description.

Aschmann pulled to a stop just outside the station and turned off the engine. The air conditioner in the Humvee was on the fritz and he was all too aware of the sweat that was trickling down the small of his back. He stepped out of the car, a poster tube clutched in his right hand. He pulled at the front of his shirt, in a futile attempt to air out his body.

He walked up and pressed the flat of his palm against a security device mounted outside the building. A second later, a computerized ping indicated that his scan had been recognized by the government’s database. The door popped open of its own accord then, giving him approximately thirty seconds to get inside before he closed and locked.

Aschmann let out an audible sigh as the cool air hit him upon entering. He glanced at his watch, wondering if he could get away with visiting Sam for a while. It was a long drive back to base with no air, but he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea. His supervisor was a hawk when it came to monitoring people’s trips offsite and he couldn’t afford to get in trouble again.

Hey, Carl! What are you doing out here?

Aschmann grinned. Sam was about his height but possessed of a boyish face that made him seem younger than his thirty years. Special delivery! He held out the poster tube, laughing a little as Sam’s eyes lit up.

Oh, wow! Is this what I think it is?

I’m pretty sure it is, buddy.

Sam held it like it was a valuable commodity—which, in this case, is exactly how he viewed it. Want to see it?

Wish I could. Aschmann wiped at his brow with the back of a hand. Believe me, I wish I could. But old lady Braswell is a real stickler. She’s probably going to be waiting for me when I get back.

I’ll let you ogle it the next time you come over, Sam teased. He slapped Aschmann on the shoulder and sauntered back into the command center.

***

The usual crew was on duty and all of them were people that Sam considered friends. Given how gregarious he was, people tended to gravitate toward him, regarding him and his interests as something worth having around.

Lt. Col. Jacqueline Daniels was the officer in command and she was busy studying something on the room’s Smartboard when Sam stepped in. The high-tech screen was similar to those in use in classrooms all around the country, allowing for use as