Book Review: Strangers

Book Review: 'Strangers' by Gardner Dozois

3 / 5 Stars

‘Strangers’ first appeared as a novelette in the 1974 anthology New Dimensions IV, edited by Robert Silverberg. Dozois received sufficient interest from publishers to expand 'Strangers' into a novel, which was issued in hardcover in 1978. 

This Berkley Books mass market paperback edition (166 pp.) of the expanded 'Strangers' was published in December, 1978. The cover artist is uncredited.

‘Strangers’ is set on the planet of Lisle; the country of Shasine; the city of Aei. Lisle is populated by a race of Vaguely Otter-ish humanoids known as the 'Cian'. The novel’s protagonist is a young German man named Joseph Farber, who works as a photographer for the Terran Mission to Lisle.

 

Self-absorbed, and often consumed with self-pity, Farber is neither a companionable fellow, nor very bright. As the novel opens, Farber – alienated from his fellow Mission staffers – wanders the night-time streets of Aei, where a festival is taking place. He meets a young Cian woman named Liraun, who is alienated from her own society, and an improbable interspecies romance begins.

When his fellow Terrans, and the elders of Cian society, disapprove, it serves only to spark petulance in Farber, and he makes a fateful decision to submit to the biotech scientists of Cian. The biotech scientists permanently alter his genetic makeup, allowing him to father children with Liraun. Subsequently, the two marry according to Cian rites, and set up house together in the Old Quarter of Aei.

Farber has, for the first time in his life, found a measure of happiness. But as time goes on, an awareness filters into his consciousness that the inscrutable nature of Cian culture hides some very disturbing secrets….and he has blundered into a situation from which there is no easy egress...........  

Some novelettes can survive being expanded to novel length, but in my opinion, ‘Strangers’ might better have been left as a shorter piece. To flesh out the narrative and its simple, straightforward plot, author Dozois relies on inserting dense passages, related in poetic and ornate language, that expound on the enigmatic behaviors and rituals of the Cian, while ever-so-slowly advancing the novel towards its Big Revelation. Negotiating these passages of the novel can require determination.

The Big Revelation, when it does arrive, is effective. 

‘Strangers’ is a novel whose deliberate, contemplative storyline may be rewarding to those sci-fi fans who like stories revolving around alien sociology and psychology, a topic much explored during the height of the New Wave Era. However, those readers looking for a fast-moving, action-oriented narrative will not find it in the pages of this novel.

Loner from Wildcat

Loner

Eagle / Wildcat, 1988 - 1990

The British boy's paper Wildcat was introduced in October, 1988, by UK publisher Fleetway. 

Wildcat was a sci-fi paper and featured four individual comics, all centered on the premise of the starship 'Wildcat' and its search of the galaxy for a new home for mankind. The captain of the Wildcat was a man named Turbo Jones, and its crew included the feminist Kitten Magee ('ex-leader of World Campaign Against Male Domination'), an alien named.....Joe Alien.........and Loner, a 'former mercenary'. 

Wildcat only lasted for 12 issues, until March 1989, when it was merged with the fellow Fleetway boy's paper Eagle. The four comics featuring Turbo Jones, Joe Alien, Kitten Magee, and Loner rotated through issues of Eagle until April 1990.

According to the Down the Tubes website, the artists for the 'Wildcat' strips consisted of  David Pugh, José Ortiz, Ron Smith and Vanyo working on all or most issues, with additional contributions from Massimo Belardinelli, Joan Boix, Ian Kennedy, Horacio Lalia, Carlos Pino, Jesus Redondo and Mike White.

'Loner' (and the other three Wildcat titles) didn't stray too far from the formatting that worked so well for Fleetway's premiere science fiction comic, 2000 AD. The black-and-white strips, usually about six pages in length per installment, emphasized action, and in the case of Loner, a remarkably inventive population of bug-eyed monsters (!). 

The casting of Loner as a black man with a Jimi Hendrix-style afro and headband is worth noting, as to my eye he seems very much a cousin to the character 'Sabre', created by the U.S. team of Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy in 1978 and later released in 1982 as an Eclipse comic book.

Below are two installments of Loner from Eagle from early 1989. Some great artwork here, well deserving of being reprinted for a modern audience.

Book Review: My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir

'My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir'

by Chris Offutt

Washington Square Press, April 2017

5 / 5 Stars

As a teenager and sci-fi reader during the 1970s, I was aware of Andrew J. Offutt (who often used the lower-case spellings of his first name and surname as a 'gimmick') as an author and editor of sci-fi and fantasy books. 

He and his contemporary, Karl Edward Wagner, represented a younger generation of fantasy writers who were inheriting the legacy of people like Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp. In large part, this inheritance consisted of writing new content, for the paperback publishers of the 1970s and 1980s, for Robert E. Howard properties like Conan, Cormac Mac Art, and Bran Mak Morn.

I thought that Offutt was superior to Wagner as both an editor of fantasy anthologies, and as a novelist. 

As the 70s gave way to the 80s, Offutt's profile gradually became less noticeable, maintained in large part by his contributions to the Robert Lynn Aspen shared-world series Thieves' World. By the end of the 80s, Offutt had pretty much disappeared from the sci-fi publishing landscape.

What I didn't know was that from 1982 to 1985 Offutt, under the pseudonym 'John Cleve', was the author / co-author of all 19 books in a softcore porn sci-fi series from Playboy Press called 'Spaceways'. 

I also didn't know that during the 60s and 70s, Offutt had published around 130 sleaze paperbacks under the pseudonym 'John Cleve'. Additional titles were published using any one of another 17 pseudonyms.

When the sleaze paperback market evaporated in the mid-1980s, the indefatigable Offutt began his own line of mail-order chapbooks, 'Winter Books'. Up until 2011 he issued over 250 porn novels under the Winter Books imprint, using the pseudonym 'Turk Winter'. 

Some of these Winter Books were written in conjunction with the famous fetish artist Ernest Stanzoni, Jr., better known as 'Eric Stanton'. While most Winter Books sold for $60 each, titles 'customized' for a client's particular sadomasochistic fantasies could sell for as much as $2600.

Indeed, as his son Chris Offutt makes clear in this memoir, Andrew Offutt was a pornographer who wrote science fiction and fantasy, rather than a science fiction writer who wrote pornography. The scope of his father's dedication to writing porn only became apparent to Chris Offut when, in 2013, the year his father died of cirrhosis, Chris inherited 1800 pounds of books, letters, manuscripts, comic books, and other media.

And, as is apparent from the earliest chapters of 'My Father', Andrew Offut was not a pleasant or likeable man. Andrew Offutt was an arrogant, self-centered martinet who considered his wife and children to be annoyances, a man who would erupt into anger over a perceived slight and bear a grudge for the rest of his life (the book describes how the UK writer Piers Anthony Jacob, aka 'Piers Anthony', mentored Offutt's first forays into sleaze paperbacks. But when Jacobs angered Offutt, one day the latter nailed one of Jacobs's books onto a log in the backyard of the Offutt family home in Haldeman, Kentucky).

left to right: Mary Jo McCabe Offutt, Andrew Offutt, unknown man and woman, 'Dead Dog' party, 1969 St. Louiscon. Jay Kay Klein archive, Calisphere

Rusty Hevelin, left, and Andrew J. Offutt, right, at Midwestcon 57, June 2006. MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive 

'My Father, the Pornographer' is a very readable memoir, one that will appeal to any fan of sci-fi and fantasy fiction published during the 60s and 70s (Chris Offutt's account of attending science fiction conventions during that era are laugh-out-loud funny, but also creepy). 

Baby Boomers will find the book an interesting account of growing up in that era; for example, when Chris Offutt writes about how his father took him to see Billy Jack in 1971, it's sure to evoke memories of a time and a place for any Boomer.

Chris Offutt posing with his father's media collection......and firearm. From The New York Times, February 15, 2015

My one complaint about 'My Father' is that it doesn't include any photographs. Including pictures of Offutt, his family, his Kentucky home and office, and period photographs of the town of Haldeman, would have helped flesh out the people and places mentioned in the memoir. 

Summing up, whether you're an Andrew Offutt fan, a fan of 70s sci-fi, a fan of sleaze paperbacks, or simply someone who enjoys a well-written memoir, then 'My Father the Pornographer' is worth searching out.

Gypsy omnibus

Gypsy Omnibus
Insight Comics

2018

‘Gipsy’ started as a bande dessinee (BD; Franco-Belgian comic) in January 1993, published by industry juggernaut Dargaud. Six volumes eventually were issued, concluding in May 2002 with the publication of ‘Aztec Laughter’.

An English translation of the first Gipsy BD (L'étoile du gitan), titled ‘Gypsy: The Wandering Star’, was published in the May,1995 issue of Heavy Metal magazine. According to PorPor blog reader Fred, five additional Gypsy stories later saw print as English translations in Heavy Metal.

After reading ‘The Wandering Star’ I thought that Gipsy was an entertaining, but not pathbreaking, Eurocomic. The writing, by Thierry Smolderen, was intelligent, and the art, by Enrico Marini, was in keeping with the more ‘cartoony’ style that was the norm for BD during that era. 

I would not have thought that the Gipsy franchise was deserving of a deluxe, slipcase, English-translation omnibus, but apparently the folks at Insight Comics did, and so we have a lavish ‘Gypsy Omnibus’, with a retail price of $60.

[ Insight publishes English translations of BD, as well as deluxe volumes devoted to overviews of Marvel properties like the Black Panther and the Black Widow. ]

I was able to pick the ‘Gypsy Omnibus’ up from a ‘bargain’ outlet for considerably less than its cover price.

This is definitely a well-produced hardcover book, with quality paper stock, sewn pages, and crisp, colorful reproductions of the art. Along with English translations of all six of the BDs, there is an appendix featuring biographical profiles of Smolderen and Marini, and a brief section of sketches by the latter.

Is the Gypsy Omnibus for you ? Depends on whether you're a big fan of the franchise, or 1990s BDs. If you are that type of person, then spending $60 for the omnibus may be worth your while. If you are less of a fan, but can find it for substantially lower price, then picking it up certainly is recommended, as it is at heart a fun comic with lots of sarcastic humor, pretty girls, T and A, and violent action. In short, the quintessential Heavy Metal comic !

Paperback covers by Steranko

 Paperback covers by Jim Steranko

Courtesy of 'The Drawings of Steranko' website, a nice, three-page gallery of Jim Sternako's illustrations for sci-fi, western, adventure, and fantasy paperbacks published in the 1970s and 1980s is available at this link.

The  website has lots of additional media done by Sternako, and is well worth checking out.

Skorpio magazine Argentina

Skorpio magazine

Argentina

Skorpio was a monthly Argentinian comic book magazine (revista) published by 'Ediciones Record' from July 1974 to January 1996 (No. 235). 

Its subtitle, el mundo de la gran historieta (literally, 'the world of the big cartoon') indicated that Skorpio had a wide scope in terms of the genres of comics that appeared in its pages.

(An Italian edition of Skorpio debuted in 1977; I don't know if it's still being published as of 2021.)

Among the serialized comics appearing in Skorpio in its early years (i.e., during the 1970s) were western strips, like 'Loco' Sexton; sci-fi, such as 'Yo, Ciborg'; the police thriller 'Precinto 56'; the occult adventure 'Nekrodamus'; and the imaginative 'Hor', about a barbarian warrior who adventured across time and space (often accompanied by nubile young women dressed in leather bikinis).

'Skorpio', a detective / secret agent character, himself was a recurring feature in the magazine.

Skorpio also ran some comics set in World War 2. Particularly impressive was as de pique ('Ace of Spades'), about the crew of an American B-17 'Flying Fortress' bomber in action during World War 2.

Most of the content published during the 70s was in black and white, with the occasional color section.

The artists who supplied comics for Skorpio were some of the most talented in South America (and, arguably, the world) and included such familiar names as Alberto Breccia, Hugo Pratt, Horacio Altuna, and Juan Antonio Giménez (whose work on as de pique is amazing), among others. Their draftsmanship is impressive and equal to that of the best of the illustrations in the Warren and Skywald magazines of the same era.

A free online repository of Skorpio issues from the 1970s, which can be downloaded as pdf files, is available at this link. If you are fluent in Spanish, it's worth your while to check out those old issues.

For those whose main language is English, well, it's perhaps unrealistic to expect that any of the comics from Skorpio ever will be reprinted in translated versions for the U.S. market. 

But then, the success of the English-language version of the Argentinian comic strip 'The Eternaut' (El Eternauta), which was published in 2015 by Fantagraphics (and quickly went out of print), certainly indicates that there is an audience out there for Argentinian comics of the postwar era..........so 'never say never' ?!

Book Review: Islands in the Net

Book Review: 'Islands in the Net' by Bruce Sterling

3 / 5 Stars

‘Islands in the Net’ first was published in 1988 by Arbor House. This Ace Books paperback (396 pp.) was issued in March 1989.

The cover illustration is by Jose Royo; as PorPor Blog reader Fred points out, this same illustration was used as the cover for the Winter 1989 issue of Heavy Metal magazine:

For 'Islands in the Net', Royo's illustration gives the impression that the novel is about a multitalented Danger Girl who is involved with intrigue and adventure in a cyberpunk setting. 

In fact, ‘Islands in the Net’ really is more along the lines of ‘Hi and Lois Meet Cyberpunk’……….

The novel is set in 2023. The Cold War has ended, nuclear weapons have been outlawed, and corporations – along with multinational bodies, such as the Vienna Convention - are the de facto rulers of the planet. Tying all these polities together, and serving as the medium for global commerce and communication, is the internet (the ‘Net’ of the book's title).

In the opening chapters we are introduced to the heroine, Laura Webster, who, along with her husband David, runs a beachfront lodge in Galveston. The Websters work for an enlightened international conglomerate called Rizome. Along with their infant daughter Loretta, the Websters are the perfect representatives of the 21st century All-American family: photogenic, and unselfconsciously banal.

The only fly in the ointment of this idealized New World is the presence of the data pirates: states that harbor, and nurture, hacker infrastructures designed to steal and sell corporate data. In an effort to co-opt, and ultimately de-fang, the data pirates, Rizome has scheduled a conference with representatives from the pirate states of Grenada, Singapore, and Benelux. Laura and David are nervous, but also energized, to host the conference at their Galveston lodge.

However, when an untoward event disrupts the conference, the fragile amity among the parties begins to fray. Desperate to salvage a deal, Rizome arranges for Laura to be its official liaison to the mistrustful data pirates, reasoning that her blonde wholesomeness and naivety will go further than that of a professional interlocutor.

As ‘Islands’ unfolds the reader joins Laura, David, and Loretta as they journey to the lands of the data pirates, and in so doing, become aware that their comfortable existence has shielded them from a clandestine conflict……one that threatens to bring a new era of destruction to the nations and peoples of the world. 

And it will be up to Laura, the unassuming housewife, to undergo all manner of trials and tribulations if she is to reveal the true identity of the cabal that is winning the conflict………….

I found ‘Islands’ to be a middling example of first-generation cyberpunk. While the idea of having a housewife be the lead character certainly has novelty, the passivity of the character of Laura Webster prevents the narrative from gaining much momentum; the reader, along with Laura, is in continuous reactive, rather than proactive, mode.

The final 80 pages of the book take place amidst Third World misery, and by so doing lend a much-needed tone of grimness and grittiness to the plot, although in these pages author Sterling tends to use lengthy dialogue passages as a vehicle for pontificating on First World’s neglect of the Third World. The denouement takes an optimistic path that wraps things up a bit too neatly for my tastes, but then, as I stated at the outset, this is not a novel where the lead character salvages the world through her intrepidness. 

Summing up, perhaps the best thing about ‘Islands in the Net’ is its segments dealing with the decaying landscape of the Third World as it struggles to cope with the economic and environmental derangements imposed by the advent of the New World Order. These prefigure the more impactful stylings of newer cyberpunk practitioners like Paul McAuley (‘White Devils’, 2004), Paolo Bacigalupi (‘The Windup Girl’, 2009), as well as Sterling’s own 2009 novel, ‘The Caryatids’.