Quantcast
Channel: The PorPor Books Blog: SF and Fantasy Books 1968 - 1988
Viewing all 1665 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

Escape from New York comic book

March 1, 2015, 8:24 am
$
0
0
Escape from New York
Christopher Sebela (story) and Diego Barreto (art)
Boom ! Studios, 2014 - 2015


In December 2014, indie comics publisher Boom! Studios issued the first issue of a series of 'Escape from New York' comic books, a sequel to the classic 1981 sf movie from John Carpenter.

[Earlier in 2014, Boom! had released a comic book series based on Carpenter's 1986 film, 'Big Trouble in Little China'.]

The 'Escape from New York' sequel evidently is scheduled to last for 6 issues.

Given my opinion of the contemporary comic book scene, I didn't have major expectations for the new series, but I was willing to pick up the first two issues to see what it was like.



On the one hand, the series does start things off right where the movie left off, which is good....our hero has made the President a laughing stock and threatened World Peace, and Bob Hauk is ordered to put Snake right back into NYC prison. Snake, of course, has no intention of complying, and makes a break for freedom.

But the plot, by Christopher Sebela, too quickly becomes utterly frenetic and haphazard. For example, within a series of only three panels, Snake stands atop a speeding jeep....climbs onto the skid of a hovering chopper.........and makes his way into the cockpit to hijack the aircraft...?! This rushed, facile approach to the narrative gives the comic a hyperactive quality completely out of character with the movie.



Diego Barreto's artwork has the cartoony, manga-inspired styling that dominates much of the contemporary comic book aesthetic, and when it's combined with a flat color scheme from colorist Marissa Louise, the result is less than impressive.....I got the impression I was reading a sequel to 'Escape from New York' produced by Hanna-Barbera.



I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say the plot has Snake escaping New York and lighting out for Florida, now an independent, anarchistic state which protects itself from the federal government via a mine field of Cuban nukes buried along the state's northern border.....



The movie was set in 1997, albeit a 1997 as imagined by a film-maker living the early 80s. Unfortunately, there's little effort on writer Sebela's part to communicate any information on the year in which this sequel is set, and thus, the narrative is devoid of any real stylistic continuity with the backstory, and atmosphere, of the film. It comes across as a rebooted 'Escape' set in a decrepit USA ca. 2015.




There are still four issues of 'Escape from New York' to go, but if the first two issues are any indication, this is yet another unimpressive retooling of a franchise that deserves much better.........
↧
Search

Book Review: Nomads

March 3, 2015, 6:26 pm
$
0
0
Book Review: 'Nomads' by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro


2 / 5 Stars

This novelization (232 pp) of a script by John McTiernan was published by Bantam in May, 1984; the cover artwork is by Jeff Adams. The movie itself was released in the US in March, 1986, and marked the directorial debut for McTiernan, who later would go on to direct Predator and Die Hard.

I watched Nomads on VHS some years after its release, and found it a mildly entertaining film, albeit one limited by its low budget. The film had a very '80s' aesthetic, featuring the sort of visual schemes and synthesizer-heavy soundtracks that are familiar to anyone who watched MTV, and feature films such as American Gigolo and Miami Vice.

The film and novel follow each other with little variation. 

Without disclosing spoilers: 

In one plot thread, a French-Canadian anthropologist named Jean-Charles Pommier moves into a rented home in LA to start a teaching career. Pommier is shocked to discover that the house previously was the scene of a gruesome murder, and that a group of vicious-looking California street thugs regard the house as a shrine. Pommier, whose specialty is the study of nomadic tribes, is repulsed, but also intrigued, by the thugs, and soon follows them as they make their rounds in the greater LA region.

Pommier gradually realizes that these modern-day 'nomads' are in fact of supernatural origin, living o the edge of human awareness. He also learns that they don't take kindly to being scrutinized by strangers.

In the other plot thread, an emergency room doctor named Eileen Flax discovers, to her dismay and horror, that she has a 'psychic' connection with Pommier. As a result of this connection, she is prone to lapsing into a trance, where she is a passive onlooker to his interactions with the nomads.

As the narrative unfolds, both Pommier and Flax will find themselves targeted by the nomads.....but how can they convince the world that these 'modern ghosts' are not only real, but capable of murder............ ?

Looking at the clips of the film that are posted at YouTube, Nomads is handicapped to a considerable extent by its low-budget origins. Most of the film's content revolves around tedious sequences of psychodrama shot exclusively in close-up, as well as out-of-focus tracking shots of people walking down corridors and hallways while ominous music plays in the background.

And unfortunately, this novelization shows the limitations of being based on a script for a low-budget film. It's a good 40 - 60 pages too long, with too little actions, and way too much unnecessary exposition on the anguish-driven mental states of the major and minor characters.

Those few moments of action that take place in both the film and the novel are limited in scope, and tend to rely on the passivity of Pommier and Flax, as helpless victims of the nomads, rather than a gripping life-and-death struggle with the 'forces of darkness'. 

The nomads themselves are rather underwhelming villains; again, the low-budget nature of the film means that on screen and in the novel, they are come across more like ill-behaved extras in an 80s New Wave music video, than a coterie of truly dangerous outcasts.

If you are hungering for nostalgia, then 'Nomads' may be worth picking up. But if you are looking for a forgotten gem of an 80s horror novel, then you're going to be disappointed.
↧
↧

Epic Illustrated June 1984

March 5, 2015, 9:29 am
$
0
0
Epic Illustrated 
June,1984
No. 24

One of the better singleton entries in this issue is 'The Jewel in the Clouds', by first-time contributor and artist Jon Zack. According to the 'Overview' section of the magazine, editor Archie Goodwin was alerted to Zack's artwork by Boris Vallejo. 

Goodwin asked Zack to contribute a feature, with Goodwin providing the 'script' (which essentially consists of a trite prose peom).

Despite Goodwin's unimpressive text, Zack's offbeat, imaginative art style is well worth viewing. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information about him with a Google search....so this Epic Illustrated entry may well have been his only graphic art to ever be published.
↧

Book Review: Monument

March 7, 2015, 11:07 am
$
0
0
Book Review: 'Monument' by Ian Graham


5 / 5 Stars

‘Monument’ first was published in hardback in 2002; Ace Books released this mass-market paperback version in March, 2005. The outstanding cover painting is by Jerry Vanderstelt.

I don’t usually review books published after the late 80s – early 90s, but in the case of ‘Monument’ I am making an exception, mainly because it’s one of the best fantasy novels published in the last 20 years, particularly in the sub-category of ‘dark fantasy’. It’s superior to any number of novels from authors like China Mieville, Tim Lebbon, Patrick Rothfuss, Peter Brett, Alan Campbell, Mark Lawrence, Brent Weeks, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, etc. etc.

And what makes ‘Monument’ all the more impressive is that it’s the first - and only - novel from Ian Graham, a bookseller who lives in a village in northern England.

(In an interview published online in 2008, Graham indicated he was working on a prequel to ‘Monument’, a work still under construction as of 2015…..it is likely that, since 2002, Graham is suffering from a severe case of writer’s block, which is unfortunate.)

‘Monument’ is set in Druine, a medieval world where magic exists, but is outlawed by the oppressive Pilgrim Church, whose Wardens have the power to summarily arrest anyone they suspect is violating the Church’s precepts. Heretics so apprehended are often condemned to a painful death, their heads mounted upon the trunk and branches of the Penance Oak in the city square.

The protagonist is a huge, ugly, unkempt man named Anhaga Ballas. Ballas is a vagrant, a thief and a drunkard. Ballas is not your usual fantasy hero; lice crawl through his hair and his food-matted beard, and the stench from his un-washed body leads gentler folk to avoid his company. 

Ballas is utterly amoral, and will quite happily knock an innocent senseless if it will allow him to steal enough coins for a flagon of rotgut wine and a dalliance with the cheapest of prostitutes.

As 'Monument' opens, Ballas is lying prostrate on a back alley of the city of Soriterath, the victim of a severe beating. He is rescued by a conscientious priest named Brethrien. When Ballas recovers his health, Brethrien sends him on an errand to the house of a scholar named Calden. There Ballas glimpses a jewel of unusual design and craftsmanship…..a jewel he endeavors to steal.

But as the unwitting Ballas is to discover, the jewel he covets is no ordinary trinket, but an artifact potent with the magic of Druine’s former inhabitants, the long - exterminated race of the humanoid Lectivins. And when the Pilgrim Church discovers what Ballas knows about the jewel, they will issue an Edict calling for his capture and execution, and they will pursue him over the entire width of Druine.

For Ballas, the only hope of survival rests upon fleeing across hundreds of miles to reach the northern refuge of Belthirran…..but no one he meets believes that Belthirran even exists……..

‘Monument’ is at heart a chase novel, built around a straightforward narrative that deals with Ballas’s efforts to escape the ever-tightening noose being drawn by the Church. Graham avoids the over-writing so common to many contemporary fantasy novels, and instead relies on a clean, unadorned prose style that, despite the book’s length of 452 pages, keeps the plot continually moving along in a true 'page-turner' manner.

Graham also relies on frequent episodes of violence to impart momentum to the narrative, acts of mayhem related in the sharp, crisp style reminiscent of the best crime fiction.

‘Monument’ isn’t perfect; its characters are overly prone to launching into extended speeches, and Ballas at times seems to lead so charmed a life that his encounters with his pursuers are predictable in terms of outcome. But what this novel does so very well is to merge the day-to-day reality of a medieval world, in all its gritty, nasty, and brutish glory, with the tropes and trappings of a fantasy novel. The elements of fantasy and magic that appear in ‘Monument’ are infrequent, but always well-placed and not contrived, giving the book the sort of grounding that is absent in many others of the genre.

If you have yet to read ‘Monument’, then it’s certainly worth picking up. And it’s also worth hoping that author Ian Graham finally will be able to deliver a followup volume.
↧

Den II: Muvovum

January 13, 2015, 4:36 pm
$
0
0
Den II: Muvovum
by Richard Corben

 


'Den II: Muvovum' was one of the longest-running serials in Heavy Metal magazine, running in 13 parts from September, 1981 all the way to March, 1983. While these installments all were very short in length, each of them delivered the D-cup imagery, T & A action, and sly humor that made the HM readership fond fans of Corben's work.



This trade paperback from Catalan Communications was printed in 1984, and compiles the entire 13-part series. It's a quality trade paperback, with 'slick' paper and very good color separations that show off Corben's unique color printing process - all the more impressive when you consider this was the early 80s, well before PC-based coloring was a mainstay of the industry.

It's not necessary to have read the first installment of 'Den' ('Den: Neverwhere') in order to understand the comparatively simple plot of 'Den II'. Without disclosing any spoilers, Den joins his friends in Zegium for a trip to the neighboring territory of Muvovum, there to search for the powerful Stones of Nar, the magic of which can transport Den and his increasingly truculent girlfriend Kath back to Earth.



No sooner have Den and Kath been transported to Earth, when trouble arrives in Zegium, in the form of the Queen, who seeks the Stones for her own use.


Events get even more dire when Den's friend Tarn goes astray in the Dramite country of Muvovum. Be prepared for some uniquely gruesome monster action......

It's up to Den to return to Neverwhere and set things aright....but he's not going to have it easy.

 

The softcore porn sequences that may have seemed racy back in the early 80s will probably be observed by contemporary readers with eye-rolling amusement; however, no matter how young and hip you are, Corben's artwork should impress.



'Den II' is an entertaining comic, whether you're reading it for nostalgia value, as an accompaniment to getting stoned, or both. I was fortunate to get this reasonably good-condition copy of 'Den II' for $5. Unfortunately, copies of this trade paperback compilation in good condition go for exorbitant prices.........indeed, this is true for many of the compilations of Corben's work Catalan issued in the 80s. 

Maybe Dark Horse / New Comic Company, or UK publisher Titan Books, will reprint some of this work in new, affordable compilations.....?!
↧
↧

The Venus Interface

March 11, 2015, 2:37 pm
$
0
0
The Venus Interface
Heavy Metal magazine graphic novel
1989






In January of 1980, Heavy Metal editor Tim White decided to emulate the magazine's French counterpart (i.e., Metal Hurlant) and add monthly review columns for books, comic books, music, and films. The 'Muzick' column was assigned to Lou Stathis.


Lou Stathis, NYC, Summer 1986

[Note to modern-day readers: nowadays, the occupation / pastime of 'Rock Critic' has all but vanished from the cultural and media landscape. But back in 1980, 'Rock Criticism' was still a major component of pop culture. Although the genre would not survive the arrival of the Internet in the 90s, in the 80s, the magazine shelves contained a number of titles devoted to the topic. The foremost, and still surviving, example was Rolling Stone, but there also were Creem, Circus, and a sizable, ever-changing lineup of other, more fleeting titles.]



Stathis (1952 - 1997) wrote columns that were not very different from those being produced by other rock critics of the era. Like those other critics, Stathis adopted an arch, too-hip-to-be-fully-understood tenor in his writing (for example, he used the word 'rok' in place of 'rock'); and his columns were less about actually reviewing music, and more about showcasing Stathis's exquisitely jaundiced, world-weary attitudes regarding a variety of cultural topics. 

Stathis - like every other rock critic of the late 70s - early 80s - routinely praised performers in the Punk, New Wave, Electronic, and avante-garde genres, while disparaging 'mainstream' acts. 

Stathis was particularly prone to showcasing 'alternative' rock groups that were laboring in (often well-deserved) obscurity, since for him, searching out and showcasing these bands was a potent reminder to readers as to just how cutting-edge Lou Stathis could be.

Here's an excerpt from his column for the May, 1980 issue of Heavy Metal, in which Stathis waxes eloquent about a single from the New Wave band 'Fad Gadget', issued on an obscure UK label called 'Mute Records'. 

Note Stathis's use of phrases such as 'electrotunesmiths', 'manic minimalism', 'aggressively optimistic electropop', and 'counterpointed synthesizer melodies.' That's how Rok Criticism is done !




[There actually is a surviving Fad Gadget video clip posted to YouTube, titled 'Collapsing New People'...........!   While it's unintentionally funny, it's no better, and no worse, than any other New Wave / Synth Band song issued on the indie labels in the UK back in that era.]


Later on in the decade, Stathis was eventually promoted to Associate Editor at HM, and when the magazine dropped the review columns, he began writing some of the comic / graphic content of the magazine. 

Which brings us to 'The Venus Interface'. Released as a 'Heavy Metal Graphic Novel' (although in reality it's a just typical, square-bound version of the magazine) it was issued in 1989. The story was written by Stathis, with the artwork is supplied by a team of 7, including well-known HM contributor Arthur Suydam.

In his Author's Note, Stathis indicates that (inevitably) William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick were his literary inspirations, while the New Wave band Joy Division's track Interface was "........a song that helped set my mind during the writing."


Without revealing any spoilers: the heroine of the story, named Sheldon, possesses the ability to take the shape of any of the hundreds of races populating the galaxy. When not shape-shifting, Sheldon (conveniently for HM readers) is a lithe brunette who wears little - if any - clothing.



Sheldon's ability catches the attentions of the Director of the Coca-Farben conglomerate. The complex life-extension treatments that have kept The Director alive are failing, and his only hope for survival is to collect various tissues and essences from a number of the galaxy's races. Once collected, the tissues will be extracted to create a formula for eternal youth.




Sheldon has misgivings about the assignment, but the pay - and the prospect of getting her own dose of the rejuvenation formula - lead her to accept.

The bulk of the story deals with Sheldon's efforts to acquire the needed specimens from some of the galaxy's more bizarre, and unpleasant, worlds. These efforts require Sheldon to adopt the forms of lubricious teletubbies, robots, fish, and insects....

Stathis's writing isn't very original, using the first-person narrative of the world-weary private-eye who is taking on what they know will be a dirty job. There is a determined effort to mimic the writing style of Burroughs; most of the dialogue is a stream of cynical quips, and tart one-liners. The plot also shows the influence of the Cyberpunks, which isn't surprising.

The artwork in 'Venus' is, overall, pretty good. Arthur Suydam's contributions are particularly noteworthy.....it's yet another case of outstanding draftsmanship and coloring buoying an underwhelming story.



Mark Pacella also contributes some pleasing artwork.



I found the section contributed by Peter Kuper to be unimpressive.......


That of Kenneth Smith is a bit too garish and cartoony for my tastes, but it does work......


Michael Uman's art strikes me as being too derivative of Bill Sienkiewicz........


While that of Jim Fletcher - which bookends the opening and closing segments of 'Venus' - holds up well.......


Summing up, I read 'The Venus Interface' with the expectation that it would mirror - for the worse - the self-indulgent, pretentious writing style Stathis employed for his Rok columns. But all things considered, 'Venus' is better than I expected it to be, mainly because the majority of the artwork is fine enough to buttress the plot.

If you are a fan of the Heavy Metal issues of the 80s, and you can find a copy of 'Venus' for $5 (which is what happened to me), then it is worth picking up. Compared to contemporary sf graphic novels, like The Manhattan Projects, Black Science, and the over-praised Saga, it fares well.
↧

Book Review: Hecate's Cauldron

March 14, 2015, 8:32 am
$
0
0
Book Review: 'Hecate's Cauldron' edited by Susan M. Schwartz

3 / 5 Stars

‘Hecate’s Cauldron’ (256 pp) was published by DAW (book No. 469) in February, 1982; the cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.


In her Introduction, Editor Susan Schwartz describes on the role of the witch, or sorceress, in world literature, indicating that in assembling stories for this anthology, she elected entries that avoided the traditional treatment of the witch as a figure necessarily limited to medieval European legend and history. 

Accordingly, the majority of the stories in ‘Cauldron’ are not tales of warty old crones casting spells and riding brooms, but rather, are fantasy stories that prominently feature female characters.

All of the stories in this volume were specially commissioned or solicited for this book.

My short summaries of the entries:

Boris Chernevsky’s Hands, by Jane Yolen: in the far future, a young man of Russian descent encounters Baba Yaga.

Mirage and Magic, by Tanith Lee: at this period of her career, Lee routinely over-wrote her fantasy short stories; this tale, however encrusted with self-consciously ornate prose, deals with a sorceress who is converting a city’s young men into shambling simpletons.

Willow, by C. J. Cherryh: Cherryh, also intent on using a prose style heavily modeled on the prose of Ye Olde Mythes and Legendes, offers a dark, brooding tale of a battle-weary knight and his encounter with manifestations of the Goddess.

Moon Mirror, by Andre Norton: a Witch World tale; the young woman protagonist has an encounter with a magical pond. A rather unremarkable tale from Norton.

The Sage of Theare, by Diana Wynne Jones: the weakest entry in the anthology. This story uses a humorous approach to the adventures of the mortal son of the God Apollo, who finds his earthly destiny with the aid of the mage Chrestomanci, a character from Jones’s previous fiction. Devoid of any witches, sorceresses, or other lead female characters, this story undoubtedly showed editor Schwartz what happens sometimes with these invited anthologies: you’re stuck with what your contributors give you............

The Harmonious Battle, by Jessica Amanda Salmonson: derived from Japanese myth and legend, this story deals with a female samurai and her adventures in the spirit world.

Science is Magic Spelled Backwards, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg: a contemporary setting is used for this humorous tale of a young woman, an engineer at a nuclear power plant, who gets timely advice from her mother and her mother’s coven.

An Act of Faith, by Galad Elflandson: this is really the only entry in the book that is set in medieval Europe, in this instance, Norway. It’s a grim, violent story about the village seeress and herbalist who confronts the depredations of Christians seeking to convert the heathens. Its treatment of Christianity is unabashedly scathing.

Witch Fulfillment, by Jean Lorrah: another contemporary setting, and another humorous tale; Mary Sue Clyatt consults occult wisdom and makes a bargain with a demon for earthly fame, riches, and romance.

Ishigbi, by Charles Saunders: Saunders, the author of the 'Imaro' stories, offers a downbeat and bloody tale about an African witch who takes vengeance on a fellow sorcerer. One of the better stories in the anthology.

Bethane, by Katherine Kurtz: a Deryni story. The title character, and elderly healer and herbalist, confronts old hatreds when asked to render aid to the children of the nobility.

The Riddle of Hekaite, by Diana L. Paxson: the Queen of a besieged kingdom makes a fateful bargain with the Goddess, who demands her due. Another of the better entries in the collection.

Reunion, by Jayge Carr: retelling of the myth of Persephone, with a modern, slightly sardonic tenor.

Summing up ? ‘Hecate’s Cauldron’, while inevitably containing its share of underwhelming entries, is a reasonably successful anthology overall. It’s an indication that by the early 80s, fiction by women was coming into its own in the world of fantasy publishing, and that DAW was at the forefront…. And thus, ‘Cauldron’ is a premonition of the fact that women would come to constitute the major audience for fantasy literature.
↧

Heavy Metal magazine March 1985

March 17, 2015, 2:51 pm
$
0
0
'Heavy Metal' magazine March 1985




March, 1985, and in heavy rotation on FM radios and MTV is Julian Lennon's second hit single, 'Too Late for Goodbyes'.

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands, with a front cover by Luis Royo and a striking back cover by Caza.

The 'Dossier' section has a review of Philip K. Dick's novels by erstwhile 'Rok' Critic Lou Stathis.....Stathis tosses in K. W. Jeter's 'Dr. Adder' as being in the Dick Canon.




Another Dossier page provides reviews of recently released sf novels, including Scholz and Harcourt's Ace Special 'Palimpsests.'  Reviewer Robert Morales praises the novel's 'Pynchonesque narrative' and 'Ballardian introspection'........personally, I gave up on 'Palimpsests' after the first 25 pages, because it sucked..........


The third part of Charles Burns's El Borbah comic 'Bone Voyage' is published; I have posted it below, and for the sake of continuity, I also include the second installment, which had appeared in the February,1985 issue of Heavy Metal.












↧
Search

Palm Sunday

March 21, 2015, 8:41 am
$
0
0
Palm Sunday
by Alan Weiss (script and art)
from Amazing High Adventure (Marvel Comics)
Issue 2, September 1985



Amazing High Adventure was an anthology comic book that Marvel published intermittently for 5 issues, from August 1984 - December 1986.

The book was edited by Carl Potts, one of the more talented artist / writers on the Marvel editorial staff at the time, and Potts selected material that was, by and large, of good quality and presented as well as anything could, in an era when Marvel and other major comic book publishers has switched to cheaper, plastic printing plates.

Amazing High Adventure was a conscious effort on Marvel's part to create an anthology that mimicked the classic 'men's adventure' magazines of the 50s and 60s. Rather than stories centered on superheroes, AHA focused on 'realistic' stories set in actual historical periods.



The second issue, released in September 1985, featured a nicely illustrated tale by writer/artist Alan Wiess titled 'Palm Sunday'. I've posted it below.







↧
↧

The Hacker Files issue 2

March 23, 2015, 2:21 pm
$
0
0
The Hacker Files
by Lewis Shiner (story) and Tom Sutton (art)
issue 2
DC Comics, September 1992




In episode two of 'Soft War', we learn a bit more about why Jack Marshall so dislikes corporate types, and those from Digitronix, in particular. We also meet the members of the hacker collective that support's Marshall's efforts.....and the crisis taking place in the Pentagon's network takes a turn for the worse......

In the absence of any letters yet, Lewis Shiner devotes the letters column to an informative, 'I Was There' rundown of the history of cyberpunk....definitely worth reading !



























↧

The Bus

March 25, 2015, 2:31 pm
↧

Book Review: The Last Gasp

March 28, 2015, 7:02 am
$
0
0
Book Review: 'The Last Gasp' by Trevor Hoyle



3 / 5 Stars

‘The Last Gasp’ first was published in 1983; the Crown / Doubleday hardback (top) features a striking cover by Michael Booth.

The Zebra Books mass market paperback edition (above) was published in March, 1985 (the cover artist is unknown). Zebra Books was at that time a major publisher of the ‘Men’s Adventure’ novel genre (think ‘The Survivalist’, ‘The Warlord’, ‘Depth Force’, etc.) and so the publisher marketed this book to that audience, rather than to an sf readership........such are the vagaries of international publishing and marketing.

Trevor Hoyle (b. 1940) is a UK writer who published a number of standalone and series (‘Blakes 7’, ‘The Q Trilogy’) sf novels, in the 1970s and 1980s. He since has moved away from sf to focus on publishing novels that examine the darker side of the social order, and working-class life, in northern England.

‘Gasp’ opens in 1990 in Antarctica, at Halley Bay Station, where a young marine biologist named Gavin Chase is attending to some instruments. Chase is astonished to see a snow sled approach the station; on the sled lies a man, incoherent and near death from exposure. Chase brings the man into the station, where he is attended to by the medical team. When the man revives, Chase cannot converse with him, as the man speaks only Russian; however, before the man is evacuated, he scribbles a chemical reaction equation (describing the dissolution of carbon dioxide in seawater) onto a page of a notebook. Chase is mystified by the meaning of this act….what, exactly, have the Russians been researching at their outpost in the Antarctic ?

In the equatorial waters of the Pacific, marine biologist Theo Detrick finishes his latest measurements of phytoplankton populations in the warm salt water offshore of Canton Island in the Phoenix Island atoll. He finds the results disturbing, too disturbing to ignore: the population of the phytoplankton has steadily been decreasing. This portends disaster, for the phytoplankton are responsible for supplying most of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere………

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the research ship Melville is deploying a trawling net to sample the tiny flora and fauna lying just two meters under the surface of the water. Cheryl Detrick – Theo Detrick’s daughter – is astonished when the sampling net is submerged beneath an enormous field of red algae – a sign that the ocean ecosystem is being subjected to degradation…….

In Washington, DC, General George Nelson Wolfe and Lieutenant Lloyd Madden are heading a 'black ops' clandestine program, one conducted in partnership with the JEG chemical corporation. The program’s goal: develop potent new formulations for mass delivery of herbicides, including the highly toxic compound TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo para-dioxin). The purpose: to wage environmental warfare against the Soviets……..

As the later years of the 20th century unfold, all of these events will coalesce and bring about the greatest Eco-disaster in the history of the earth: the decline of oxygen in the atmosphere, and the gradual asphyxiation of every higher organism on the planet. Unless Gavin Chase and a small group of visionary scientists can alert the world to the coming catastrophe, all of Mankind inevitably will be taking its last gasp of breathable air………

With ‘Gasp’, author Hoyle is clearly trying to write the type of straightforward, didactic type of science fiction novel that Michael Crichton routinely produced in the 70s and 80s. This is not a bad thing; however, at 590 pp in length, ‘Gasp’ ultimately suffers from being too long and too unfocused. 

The myriad sub-plots and sub-sub-plots involve all manner of tropes taken from the thriller genre, including crazed, homicidal end-of-the-world Cultists; megalomaniacal military officers, who are happy to destroy the earth’s ecology if it means eliminating the Commies; greedy CEOs who are comfortable with carelessly peddling toxic chemicals for profit; super-computers at government installations whose data analysis points unerringly to the Coming of Doom; and a dwindling band of heroic and selfless scientists, who face a seemingly futile battle to alert the Powers That Be that time is running out.

What with the continual insertion of these sub-plots, the main narrative winds up becoming so diluted that most of the novel simply lurches along from one episode to another. 

In the final 100 pages author Hoyle finally seems realize that it’s time to restore some immediacy to the main plot, and does so with some entertaining – if contrived – mutant- and monster- action that would be right at home in the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas video games. But after the meandering tenor of the novel’s first 490 pages, it’s a case of too little, too late to really enable ‘The Last Gasp’ to be a classic entry in the Eco-disaster sf genre.

What you’re left with is a book that requires considerable patience to negotiate…..but if you are a dedicated fan of the Eco-disaster genre, then this one may be worth tackling.
↧

Bats by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, and Duffy Vohland

March 31, 2015, 3:19 pm
$
0
0
Bats
by Doug Moench (script) and Paul Gulacy and Duffy Vohland (art)
from Vampire Tales (Marvel / Curtis), issue 7, October 1974


Entirely wordless, these kinds of comics look like they're easy to pull off, when in fact they are heavily reliant on the skill of the artist......and this comic does a great deal with its seven pages, thanks primarily to some great illustration by Paul Gulacy and Duffy Vohland.

Also of interest in this issue, a review of four Pinnacle / Zebra paperbacks from long, long ago....I have never heard of any of these. 


But then again, if they were representative of the typical Zebra horror novel, I'm probably not missing much.....

Anyways, here is 'Bats'.....







↧
↧

Showcase Presents: Doc Savage

April 3, 2015, 4:35 pm
$
0
0
Showcase Presents: Doc Savage
DC Comics, 2011



Doc Savage has been bouncing around the comic book scene since the 1940s, in the hands of publishers such as Gold Key / Western, Marvel, Millenium, Dark Horse, and DC. 

[Starting in December, 2013, Dynamite Entertainment - the comics company perhaps best known for its Deja Thoris, Red Sonja, and Vampirella ultra-cheesecake comics - was the latest owner of the comic book rights to the franchise, and has released color comics with writing by Chris Roberson and artwork by Bilquis Evely.]

Probably the best of all of these Doc Savage comic book incarnations are the eight issues Marvel released in 1975 - 1977 in black and white, magazine-size format, under its Curtis Circulation imprint.



These first of these issues of `Doc Savage' debuted in the Summer of 1975 as part of a tie-in with the movie. The movie of course bombed awfully, permanently scarring many Savage fans even unto the present day. Nonetheless, Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin kept the magazine going for seven more issues, into 1977.



Demonstrating the sometimes esoteric nature of licensing legalities, in 2011 DC - who owned the comic book rights to the franchise - compiled all the Curtis issues into this Showcase volume. 

Needless to say the words `Curtis' or `Marvel' are not mentioned anywhere at all in this book, not even within the ISBN credits. Indeed, unless buyers know the history of the Doc Savage comics, they would be correct in presuming that all the material in this volume originated with DC....





What you do get in this Showcase volume are 450 pages containing all eight of the Curtis issues, including the cover art and pinups. [The other, non-comic art features that appeared in the magazines are not included, however].



Note that these comics were all originally printed in black and white, and they reproduce very well here (even though the book uses the cheaper grade of `phone book' quality paper).




Although the Curtis comics were technically magazines, and therefore exempt from adhering to the Comics Code, writer Doug Moench wasn't too adventurous with the series. His plots mimic those of the Lester Dent novels, featuring evil villains equipped with superweapons; damsels in distress; journeys to lost cities; jungles filled with giant insects and dinosaurs; etc. The Fabulous Five are active participants in all of the action, rather than being relegated to sidekicks making occasional appearances (Monk even starred in his own brief solo series !).


It's the artwork, by John Buscema, Tony DeZuniga, Val Mayerik, and later Ernie Chan, that makes this volume well worth getting, as it remains among the best the franchise has seen, and among the best Marvel issued in the 70s in its magazine format.



If you are a fan of 70s comic books, Doc Savage, or just well-illustrated comics, period, then getting a copy of this 'Showcase Presents' volume is necessary. Copies in 'very fine' condition can be had for $20 or less, but I expect that the longer the volume stays out of print, the higher the prices will go, so it may be best to act quickly...... 
↧

Article 0

April 5, 2015, 8:55 am
$
0
0
Book Review: 'Armor' by John Steakley




2 / 5 Stars

‘Armor’ (426 pp) was published in December, 1984 as DAW Book No. 605, with cover art by James Gurney.

At the time, the genre of military sf was just beginning to take shape and was hardly the highly successful sub-genre it is today. Indeed, prior to ‘Armor’, the only military sf novels in existence were (arguably) ‘Starship Troopers’ and ‘The Forever War’.

‘Armor’ sold extremely well, going through 44 printings at last count, and remains one of the best-selling entries of the entire DAW catalog.

Despite its status as one of the foundational novels for the modern military sf genre, it’s actually a very mediocre book..........

For all practical purposes, the novel can be divided into thirds.

In the first third, we are introduced to G. Felix, a seeming everyman who is recruited as a Scout in the interstellar war between the Federation and the insect-like ‘Ants’. Every foot soldier is issued one form or another of the eponymous armor, a high-tech battle suit that protects the wearer from all but the most lethal of attacks.

Felix is teleported (‘Dropped’) onto the planet Banshee as part of the Federation’s first assault on an ant homeworld. The high hopes for a Federation victory soon are dashed by the realization that the ants, which are 8 feet tall and protected by a strong exoskeleton, attack in relentless waves, straight out of the 1997 movie Starship Troopers. As Federation casualties mount, it is Felix who emerges as an effective warrior, due in part to his ability to involuntarily enter into a kind of depersonalized, fugue state that makes him temporarily fearless.

The book then embarks on its second segment, which shifts its focus entirely away from Felix, and onto the first-person adventures of one Jack Crow, a notorious interstellar pirate. This shift is so abrupt and awkwardly managed – it’s utterly devoid of any attempt to give the reader any sort of framing exposition - that it leads me to believe that author Steakley may have decided, in the writing of the book, to take another, unpublished manuscript he was working on, and to graft it onto the ‘Felix’ narrative.

The second segment relates how Jack Crow, fleeing a certain death sentence in a harsh alien prison, takes refuge on the remote planet of Sanction, whose less fortunate inhabitants dwell in the single slum village of Sanction City. The luckier residents of Sanction are workers at the top-secret Federation research station located a short distance from the City.

Relying on his notoriety and personal charm, Crow befriends the research station director and most of his staff, and soon becomes involved in an unusual project, one that is tangentially involved with the armor worn by Felix.

The third segment returns to Felix, who has attained legendary status for his ability to survive Drop after Drop onto Banshee. As this third segment opens, Felix makes yet another Drop, this time as part of a special operation to erect an impregnable fortress, one that will attrit the Ants into oblivion by sheer firepower. But as formidable as the base’s firepower is, Felix can’t help feeling that something, somewhere has been overlooked…..

This segment also features some awkwardly managed revelations about who Felix is, and how he came to be enrolled in the Federation army.

In the closing chapters, the two storylines – Felix and Jack Crow – come together, albeit in a contrived way. The book ends on a note of ambiguity.

Author Steakley’s prose style is the major weakness to ‘Armor’. It relies heavily on lengthy conversations that are written in what can only be termed a ‘wooden’ style. 

Then there are copious internal monologues that are intended to provide the reader with Deep Insight into the post-traumatic stress that wracks both Felix, and later, Jack Crow. These monologues are overwrought, crammed with stilted prose, and burden, rather than support, the narrative.

While the combat scenes, when they do take place, are reasonably exciting, the fact is, the narrative in ‘Armor’ is meant to serve as a platform upon which author Steakley endeavors to demonstrate that his book is not a War Novel, but rather, a profound examination of the effects of modern combat on the human psyche…..

My verdict ? ‘Armor’ gained a lot of its commercial success from being in the right time, at the right place, when publishing was just beginning to embrace the military SF genre. In the years since its release, more deserving military sf novels have been published (Christopher Rowley’s The Vang trilogy comes readily to mind) than ‘Armor’.
↧
Search

Altered States advertisement

April 7, 2015, 3:33 pm
$
0
0
Altered States
magazine advertisement, 1981

↧

Solar Wind by Peter Jones

April 10, 2015, 2:43 pm
$
0
0
Solar Wind
by Peter Jones
Paper Tiger (UK) 1980




Peter Jones was born in London in 1951 and began illustrating sf paperbacks in 1974, while he was a student at St Martin's School of Art in that city. He quickly became one of the most successful illustrators of UK sf and fantasy books during the 70s and 80s; today he does a variety of commercial and studio art works under the rubric of his company'Solar Wind'.

clockwise from the upper left: Scenaptic Manhunt,Dark Twin,The Warlock in Spite of Himself, The Chalk Giants 

Solar Wind, the book, is a collection of Jones's sf and fantasy artwork published during the interval 1978. While the majority of Jones's commissions were for UK-based publishers like Granda, Futura, and Sphere, some of his works are going to be recognized by US readers, particularly those repurposed as cover illustrations for classic early issues of Heavy Metal magazine.


The Second Experiment

Jones's artwork during the 70s had a more consciously 'artistic' sensibility as compared to some of the other artists also providing book covers at the time, such as Chris Foss. 

Jones tended to avoid a hard-edged, representational approach of Foss's compositions, and instead relied on depicting the spaceman, swordsman, serving-wench, or spaceship in a metaphorical, fmore igurative style.

Inferno

The Fabulous Riverboat


The Robert E. Howard Omnibus: 'Kidnapped'

If you were a sf and fantasy fan during the 70s, then it's highly likely that you'll be familiar with the works for which Peter Jones painted book covers. But there are likely to be some titles that are new and seeing Jones's artwork may lead you to investigate reading them.  

A World Out of Time (top); Infinite Dreams (bottom)

So for that reason, as well as for those who simply appreciate great sf art, picking up a copy of 'Solar Wind' is well worth the effort. Both hardbound and softbound copies in good condition can be had for very reasonable prices, and as with all Paper Tiger / Dragon's Dream art titles, the reproductions are of good quality.

The Venus Trap (Perry Rhodan)

clockwise from the upper left: Buy Jupiter, Nightwatch, Today We Choose Faces, The Best of Robert 'E' Silverberg



The Wizard of Anharite

To Here and the Easel

Neural Atrocity


New Eden
↧
↧

Heavy Metal magazine April 1985

April 13, 2015, 5:49 pm
$
0
0
'Heavy Metal' magazine April 1985



April, 1985, and on MTV, Murray Head's 'One Night in Bangkok' is in heavy rotation.



The April issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine features a super-cheesecake front cover by Boris Vallejo, and a back cover by Michael Gross.

This issue also features the initial installment of a new serial by Corben, titled ' Bodyssey'. There are new installments of strips by Manera ('An Author in Search of Six Characters'), Pepe Moreno ('Rebel'), and Charles Burns's 'El Borbah', which I've posted below.....






↧

Book Review: The Forbidden Tower

April 16, 2015, 3:01 pm
$
0
0
Book Review: 'The Forbidden Tower' by Marion Zimmer Bradley


2 / 5 Stars

‘The Forbidden Tower’ (364 pp) was published by DAW (book No. 256) in September, 1977. The cover artwork is by Richard Hescox.

This is the third of the ‘Darkover’ novels I have read and by now I am well aware that these novels are primarily melodramas, that focus on the interrelationships of a set of characters who usually are gifted with telepathy, and other extrasensory abilities.

Battles between fleets of spaceships, life-and-death struggles with alien invaders, intrigues involving rebellious mutants, and other elements of ‘action’ – oriented sf are not ingredients for Darkover novels.

Even with this qualification in mind, I found ‘The Forbidden Tower’ to be a weird cross between a sci-fi novel, and the vintage 1969 film about wife-swapping, ‘Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice’……. !


‘Tower’ is a sequel to Bradley’s 1974 Darkover novel, ‘The Spell Sword.’ The four main characters from that novel are present; these are: Andrew Carr, a Terran marooned on Darkover; his newly acquired girlfriend Callista Lanart, gifted telepath (or ‘Keeper’), and daughter of Don Esteban, leader of the Alton Clan; her sister Ellemir Lanart; and Damon Ridenow, longtime friend to Don Esteban and the Alton Clan.

Most of the narrative takes place within the confines of Armida, the Castle stronghold of the Alton Clan, and deals with the psychodrama attendant to Callista’s decision to marry Andrew…..a decision complicated by the fact that her training as a Keeper has left her frigid (?!). Andrew gallantly agrees to withhold acting on his Manly Desires, until such time as Callista can overcome her condition and participate in conjugal bliss as a truly Sensuous Woman.

For an sf novel written in 1977, ‘Tower’ shows the influences of the New Wave approach, and thus, the plot is primarily concerned with the ‘inner space’ of the four lead characters, and the complex mental pathways through which they communicate their emotions and intentions. This inevitably leads to much overwrought prose and contrived drama.

There are a few side-plots that, thankfully, intrude now and then to lend some momentum to the main plot. One of the side-plots involves treachery on the part of a clan member; another revolves around an increasingly bitter dispute with the overlords of the telepathic communication nodes that have been misappropriated by Damon and his friends. The conflict generated by this latter dispute serves as the grist for the novel’s climax, which, unfortunately, is underwhelming.

Summing up, ‘The Forbidden Tower’, like the other two Darkover novels that I have read, is really only going to be embraced by dedicated fans.
↧

The Hacker Files issue 3

April 18, 2015, 8:11 am
$
0
0
The Hacker Files
by Lewis Shiner (story) and Tom Sutton (art)
issue 3
DC Comics, October 1992

In this, the third installment of the 'Soft War' four-issue arc, Jack Marshall - out to Save the World - heads to the NORAD installation at Cheyenne Mountain, there to investigate the culprits who have placed a virus into the US military network. 

Jack's investigation reveals the hidden machinations of the Digitronix Corporation.....but not in time to prevent what may be World War Three...........

....also in this issue, the Letter Column gets up and running, and - not surprisingly - some of the submissions are indicative of some degree of eccentricity on the part of the writers.....but then, this is a hacker comic, not a superhero comic, after all.....
↧
Viewing all 1665 articles
Browse latest View live
Search