Alternative Comics in 1970s New York City

'A Personal Journey Through the World of Alternative Comics in 1970s New York City'

by Michael Gonzalez

A very entertaining article at the 'CrimeReads' website. 

Michael Gonzalez was 13 years old when, in 1977, he bought his very first issue of Heavy Metal magazine, an action that, over the ensuing two years, inspired him to try and publish his own sci-fi comic magazine. Gonzalez touched base with many of the comic world's illuminaries in his journey (he even telephoned and talked with Leonard Mogel !).

A great reminiscence of an important era in American comics and graphic art. Even though some of the art stars Gonzalez dealt with were pricks...........!

(link to CrimeReads courtesy of the 'We Are the Mutants' Twitter feed)

Book Review: Berserker's Planet

Book Review: 'Berserker's Planet' by Fred Saberhagen

2 / 5 Stars

'Berserker's Planet' (173 pp.) is DAW Book No. 147 and was published in April, 1975. The cover illustration is by Jack Gaughan.

This is one of a substantial body of novels and short stories that made up Saberhagen's very successful 'Berserkers' franchise, which began in 1967 with the eponymous novel. Additional books in the series were published well into the new century, with 'Rogue Berserker' released in 2005, just two years prior to Saberhagen's demise.

'Berserker Planet' consists of two narratives that eventually coalesce. In one narrative, a space ship, the Orion, whose passengers are three men and three women, all of them thrill-seekers in one sense or another, makes landfall on the planet Hunter. There the male passengers are to engage in hunting the native wildlife, an exercise by which they hope to inflate their machismo, and thus enjoy the favors of the women, who are to play the role both of cheerleaders and concubines. 

The space ship is piloted by the wealthy and very self-assured Oscar Schoenberg. Carlos Suomi, a business acquaintance of Schoenberg, is the one hunt participant who has misgivings about its purpose, a stance which does not elevate him in the eyes of Schoenberg.  

The other narrative deals with a uniquely brutal competition being held by the priestly caste of Hunter's mountaintop Holy City, Godsmountain. Sixty-four men, originating from the various districts of the planet, have been invited to participate in a tournament involving edged weapons. The one-on-one matches are to the death, and with each succeeding round, the combat arena moves closer to the summit of Godsmountain, where, the contestants are assured, the solitary victor will sit beside Thorun, the God of the Warriors, in a kind of Hunterian version of Valhalla.

The contestants, all fighting men with what could charitably be called limited educational backgrounds, eagerly risk death in the hopes of gaining their empyrean reward. Early in the tournament, the crew of the Orion arrives at the site and its passengers are intrigued, and excited, to witness the spectacle of men slicing, dicing, and bashing each other into oblivion. 

What the contestants, and the crew of the Orion, don't know is that a Berserker not only is residing on Hunter, but has plans to manipulate the parties to bring about the planet's subjugation. And after that, the galaxy awaits...........

'Berserker Planet' was not a particularly strong entry from Saberhagen, and I am comfortable with giving it a two-star Rating. 

Its construction suggests that Saberhagen may have taken two independent draft novels, or novelettes, and merged them to make a sellable novel. The forced fusing of the narratives of the tournament-to-the-death contest, and the adventures of the crew of the Orion, gives the book a strained character. Although Saberhagen imbues the myriad fight scenes with due intensity (the winner never is assured), and the final chapters feature some disturbing splatterpunk imagery, as a whole, 'Berserker Planet' lacks the quality that was apparent in the franchise's entries from the 1970s.

It's true that Saberhagen was an author who wrote to earn a living, and it's unreasonable to suppose that everything he produced would be exemplary. However, 'Berserker Planet' fails to do much that is novel or imaginative with the 'killer robot' concept, and I can't recommend it to anyone other than Saberhagen enthusiasts.

The Hero by Trillo and Salinas

The Hero
by Carlos Trillo (story) and Jose Luis Salinas (art)
from Merchants of Death (Eclipse Comics) No. 1, July 1988

Here's another pen-and-ink gem from the Argentinian artist Jose Luis Salinas, taken from issue one of the 40 page, magazine-sized comic book Merchants of Death, that Eclipse Comics debuted in 1988. 

Other Salinas stories from this short-lived magazine that I've posted are available here and here.

Along with meticulous draftsmanship, what's also impressive about 'The Hero' is the care and attention that Salinas brings to depicting the clothing and accoutrements of the 18th century era in which this story takes place. 

Book Review: Stephen King's Danse Macabre

Book Review: 'Stephen King's Danse Macabre'

3 / 5 Stars

'Stephen King's Danse Macabre' first was published in hardback in 1981. This trade paperback edition (400 pp.) was issued by Berkley Books in July 1982. The book doesn't have any reproductions of book or magazine covers, but is illustrated with black-and-white stills from films.

I remember reading 'Danse Macabre' in 1982, by which time King firmly was established not only as a bestselling horror author, but one of the bestselling novelists in the USA, period. At that time I found 'Danse Macabre' competent, but not particularly remarkable. How does it stack up when re-read more than forty years later ?

The book is designed to provide an overview of horror in the popular culture from the Victorian era all the way up to the early 1980s, and, as such, necessarily can only address the initial stages of what in the 80s was turning out to be a horror boom. There are chapters devoted to the seminal works of Shelley (Frankenstein), Stoker (Dracula) and Stevenson (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), horror programs on the radio during the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the era of 'classic' horror films. King also covers the horror films of the postwar years and, in a particularly lengthy chapter, the modern era of horror novels. 

Interspersed with these chapters, is one devoted to King's own childhood and adulthood as an aficionado of the horror genre. King clearly intends this chapter to be a riposte to the belief on the part of some observers that, as a horror author, he somehow is afflicted with psychological and spiritual imbalances that drive his affection for the morbid and the distasteful.

'Danse Macabre' tries to find a difficult middle ground between the academic treatise and a popular analysis and does reasonably well in this regard. For the most part King's forays in the 'literary' attitude are restrained; such as, for example, promoting the idea that most horror media reflects the conflict between the Apollonian and Dionysian world views. Elsewhere in the book, however, he'll lurch into lowbrow culture and reference the Penthouse Forum, something no academic ever would do.

Not surprisingly, many of the novels and short story collections that are featured in King's 'Top 10' modern horror works since have receded from the public consciousness. Thus, I don't believe that many contemporary readers under the age of 50 are going to have familiarity with Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, Anne Siddon's The House Next Door, Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, and Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man. But, to his credit, King includes Peter Straub's Ghost Story, Ramsey Campbell's The Doll Who Ate His Mother, and James Herbert's The Fog among his Top 10, which should resonate with horror fans under the age of 50 (as well as devotees of Paperbacks from Hell). 

King's personal opinions are, as one might expect, applied to the media under consideration. He dismisses John Saul (Suffer the Children), Frank DeFelitta (Audrey Rose), William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist), and Richard Lortz (Lover Living, Lovers Dead). He does express considerable fondness for Harlan Ellison, and provides a lengthy, and entertaining, footnote from Ellison describing Harlan's adventures with the script of what would come to be Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

The book's appendices provide a list of King's top 100 or so horror films, as well as a list of 100 top books. While bearing in mind that these lists inevitably are dated, looking through them certainly will lead the reader to some further investigations. For my part, I went and obtained the Harry Crews' 1976 novel, the Southern Grotesquerie Feast of Snakes. 

I finished 'Danse Macabre' with mixed feelings. While there are some sections that are engaging and informative, there are others than belabored the subject and tried my patience. Hence, a three Star rating is advisable. I can't recommend the book to all horror and fantastic fiction fans, but those who are interested in an overview of the genre as it stood in the early 80s, on the cusp of the Paperbacks from Hell explosion, may find it valuable.

Blackmark 1971

'Blackmark' by Gil Kane
Bantam Books, January 1971

I was able to pick up a copy of 'Blackmark' (128 pp., Bantam Books, January 1971) for a couple of bucks from a used bookstore. Speculators at amazon are asking for nearly $40 for a copy in good condition (and one Bookjacker is asking for $902, which is ridiculous).

According to the Afterward by Gary Groth in the expanded trade paperback edition of 'Blackmark' published by Fantagraphics in 2002, back in the early 70s, Gil Kane had a tentative offer with Bantam Books to provide a projected eight volumes in the series. Kane had finished the second volume by the time the first appeared on store shelves early in 1971.

However, distributors and retailers had no idea how to market the nation's very first graphic novel; was it to be placed with the science fiction paperbacks ? Or with such paperback compilations as 'Mad' magazine and 'Peanuts' ? The failure of the first volume to find an audience led Bantam to drop the arrangement with Kane, and the second volume, titled 'The Mind Demons', never saw print until Marvel published it in Marvel Preview magazine early in 1979.

I could only make scans of the margins of my copy of the Bantam book for fear of cracking the spine, but I think these scans give an idea of the contents of 'Blackmark'.

One thing that becomes immediately clear is that Kane (with assistance from Harvey Kurtzman, Howard Chaykin, and Neal Adams) was meticulous in his applications of up to three different Zip-A-Tone patterns to every panel in the book. 

In the early 70s this was not a trivial thing to do; there was no Photoshop back in those days, and each sheet of Zip-A-Tone had to be cut out and trimmed to overlay the drawing on which it was applied. That Kane managed to do this for 'Blackmark', while at the same time meeting his obligations for illustrating comic books for Marvel and DC, is evidence of an impressive work ethic.  

As for the plot of 'Blackmark', which apparently benefited from input from Roy Thomas, it's a competent tale of an orphan who is marked for great things and overcomes all manner of adversity in his path to ascendency. 

Summing up, if you're nostalgic for Old School comics and art, then picking up a copy of 'Blackmark' (if you can find it for a reasonable price) is worthwhile. It's also worthwhile to look for an affordable copy of the 2002 Fantagraphics trade paperback, which has long been out of print and has steeply rising prices for copies in good condition.

Overground by Caza

'Overground' by Caza

from Heavy Metal magazine, October 1981

Another fine comic from Caza, set in the same public housing project building (presumably designed by Le Courbousier, and located in a banlieue district of Paris) as many of his other comics from the era. This time, it's a bourgeoisie couple who are complaining about the presence of 'hippies' in their building. The husband makes a fateful decision to render his concerns in person..........

 

What is particularly noteworthy about this strip is the sophistication of the color renderings; remember, this was well before computer / digital coloring was in use.

Book Review: Swampworld West

Book Review: 'Swampworld West' by Perry Chapdelaine

2 / 5 Stars

Perry Chapdelaine (1925 - 2015) was an American high school teacher and science fiction fan when, in 1950, he read L. Ron Hubbard's book 'Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health'. Chapdelaine became an enthusiastic supporter of Dianetics, serving as an 'auditor' and running centers for the teaching and promotion of the topic. In 1954, following waning public interest in Dianetics, Chapdelaine reduced his involvement in the movement, but maintained his interest in science fiction.

A comprehensive account of Chapdelaine's life, with an emphasis on his involvement in Dianetics and Scientology, is posted to the 'scientolipedia' website. 

Chapdelaine published a number of stories for the digest market during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He also published, in the UK, two novels, 'Swampworld West' (1974) and 'The Laughing Terran' (1977). Neither was released in the US.

'Swampworld West' (156 pp.) first was published in hardback in 1974 by The Elmfield Press. The cover artist is uncredited. A paperback edition was issued in the UK by Coronet Books in 1976. 

The eponymous Swampworld is a planet, the entire surface of which is covered by water to a depth of four feet. Occasional outcroppings of dry land offer some degree of variety from the seemingly limitless vistas of swamp. The planetary ecology has, unsurprisingly, evolved life forms at home in shallow water; among these life forms are the Splurgs (depicted on the book's cover). The Splurgs are manlike beings, with sufficient sentience to live in tribes. Some tribes are content to live in the water, while others have, on dry land, erected villages comprised of rudimentary dwellings.

An unfortunate peculiarity of the Splurgs is their tendency, every five years, to engage in abnormally violent behavior. During this time of amok, they will kill each other, and any humans in the vicinity. The bouts of amok have crippled the advancement of Splurg society, and demand vigilance on the part of the Terran settlers, who have been colonizing the planet for generations.

While not the ideal choice for many settlers, Swampworld offers those of limited means the chance to own property and to attain a modest degree of financial independence. The Terran Emigration Bureau operates a spaceport on Swampworld, and provides a small, understaffed security force to oversee law and order. The settlers reside in compounds on the islands of Swampworld, and travel its watery courses in shallow-draft boats.

The novel is focused on two lead characters. One is Bob Carseegan, a rugged individualist with dark secrets in his past. The other is a Splurg named Marjac who, unlike his fellow Splurgs, has an intense curiosity about the strange aliens who have come to live on Swampworld.

In one plot thread, a reluctant Carseegan finds himself pressed to lead a flotilla of hapless settlers hundreds of kilometers, across a large swath of Swampworld, en route to a safe haven at Fort West. In another plot thread, Marjac entreats a Terran physician to investigate the cause of the amok and perhaps, propose a treatment.

In the closing chapters of 'Swampworld West' the two plots converge and with them, the future of the planet will be decided.

Author Chapdelaine's prose style can be overly wordy (the swamp grasses don't just stand above the water, they 'spire' over it). However, it's clear that the author has put some care and deliberation into constructing the ecology of the Swampworld.

I approached the final chapters of the novel inclined to give it a three-star rating, but then dropped it to two stars upon completion, mainly because the Big Revelation about the etiology of amok came across as overly complicated and contrived. Given that the causation of amok is a prominent theme throughout the narrative, it's too large a flaw to overlook.

Summing up, I can't say that 'Swampworld West' is worth searching out. However, those with the patience for a novel that mixes the 'Wagon Train in Danger' theme of Western literature with a treatment of an exotic planetary ecology, may find the book rewarding to some degree.

Do You Know by Secret Affair

'Do You Know'
by Secret Affair

from Get It Together (ITV)

Season 7, Episode 8, October 20, 1981

Secret Affair began in 1978 as a collaboration between London musicians Ian Page and David Cairns, who were interested in performing songs reminiscent of the Mod era of the 1960s. Recruiting Dennis Smith on bass, Seb Shelton on drums, and Dave Winthrop on saxophone, the band released their first album, Glory Days, in 1979 and went on to perform and record until splitting up in 1982.

While the Jam, another Mod revival band, got some exposure in the US, Secret Affair never got an equivalent amount of notice, which is a shame, because they were a pretty good band. 

'Get It Together' was a music show that aired in the UK on the ITV network from 1977 to 1981. The show was intended for children, and relied on lip-synched performances from Top 40, pop-centered acts. Often the material in a given episode could be insipid. 

The show tried to attract an older viewership by featuring New Wave acts, among them, the Pretenders, the Vapors ('Turning Japanese'), Madness, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Mink DeVille, and a young U2.

The October 20 1981 episode of 'Get It Together' features Secret Affair performing their song 'Do You Know' which was a track off their forthcoming third (and final) album, 'Business As Usual' (January 1982). The band begins at the 4:48 mark of the video. Yes, it's lip-synched, but still, a great song. 

Book Review: Deathworld

Book Review: 'Deathworld' by Harry Harrison

5 / 5 Stars

'Deathworld' first was published as a serial in Astounding Science Fiction in 1960, with a paperback compilation issued by Bantam later that year. This particular Bantam paperback edition (154 pp.) was published by Bantam in 1969, and features cover art by Jim Sharpe.

'Deathworld' was well received, so much so that Harrison went on to write two more volumes starring the lead character, Jason dinAlt. 'Deathworld 2' was published in 1964, and 'Deathworld 3', in 1968. There are softcover and hardcover omnibus editions of the 'Deathworld' trilogy available from publishers such as Orbit and Gollancz.

As 'Deathworld' opens, dinAlt - who is gifted with psi powers, including telekinesis -  is preparing for some recreational gambling at a casino on the planet Cassylia when he is approached by a squat, powerful man named Kerk Pyrrus. Kerk wants to bankroll dinAlt's gambling, to the tune of 27 million credits. With the proviso that the first 3 billion credits won by dinAlt will go into Kerk's pocket.

dinAlt initially objects to the proposal, but the lure of playing for high stakes makes him change his mind. As well, dinAlt is intrigued by Kerk and the planet he originates from: Pyrrus, an obscure world that does not readily welcome outsiders.

In due course, Jason dinAlt decides to travel to Pyrrus, where he discovers that the planet is a 'deathworld'. Not only is the weather treacherous and unpredictable, with hailstorms one moment and sweltering temperatures the next, but every living thing on the planet is unrelenting hostile to the human settlers, who struggle to maintain the walled city that serves as their final redoubt. Something as simple as a brief walk out of doors exposes one to an assault by plants, insects, and mammals, all with one goal in mind: the death of Homo sapiens. 

Recovering from his initial horror and amazement over the brutal reality of life on Pyrrus, dinAlt sets his mind to work on the mystery underlying the vicious contest between the native flora and fauna and the stolid, but unimaginative, Pyrrans. Was the planet always a deathworld ? And what is the story behind the 'grubbers', the detested outcasts who live in the wild lands far beyond the protection of the city walls ? 

Jason dinAlt is intent on finding the answers to these questions, but he needs to hurry. For the attacks on the city are growing more intense, and soon, even the indomitable Pyrrans will find themselves losing a battle they can't win.........

 

Perhaps because he began his career as a writer for comic books, Harrison doesn't provide much verbiage in the pages of 'Deathworld'. His prose style is crisp and devoid of affectation, save for brief segments of dialogue in which dinAlt tries to apprise the Pyrrans of philosophies that are markedly different from their 'shoot first, ask questions later' stance. The novel features the well-composed and well-written action scenes that were to become a major component of Harrison work. The only area in which I found 'Deathworld' to falter was in the Big Revelation that appears in the closing pages; it seemed a bit too glib, but then, by the standards of the denouements of early 1960s sci-fi novels, it is rather more imaginative than most.

Summing up, more than 60 years after its first publication, 'Deathworld' stands the test of time as an engaging and highly readable action-adventure novel, and one of the better sci-fi works of its era.

New reading for 2023

New Reading for 2023

Heading into January 2023, I invested in some eclectic paperbacks. Some fantasy, some sci-fi, some horror, and ('The Movement'), Youth Behaving Badly.These should see me through the upcoming Winter, if nothing else.

X-Men: God Loves Man Kills

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills
Marvel Graphic Novel No. 5, 1982

'X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills' was written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Brent Eric Anderson, with letters by Tom Orzechowski, colors by Steve Oliff, and edited by Louise Jones.

This was one of the inaugural Marvel Graphic Novels, which were designed to take advantage of the 'Direct Market' model of distribution and sales brought about by the growth of dedicated comic book stores across America. 

By 1982 the X-Men franchise was one of the most popular and profitable in comics and it was not at all unusual that Marvel would elect to issue a graphic novel about the superhero team. 

The lead writer for the X-Men, the UK-born Chris Claremont, had begun working at Marvel in 1969, and by 1982 had specialized in producing overwrought story lines which relentlessly, and unimaginatively, hammered home the concept that the struggles of mutants against bigotry and hate were stand-ins for the civil rights struggles taking place in America.

In ''God Loves, Man Kills', the X-Men confront the Reverend William Stryker, a fanatical Christian preacher who nurses an abiding loathing for mutantkind. Stryker has sent covert 'Purifier' teams to hunt down and either kill or abduct mutants, and also is lobbying the government to classify mutants as a danger to the welfare of the citizenry.

Across the 96 pages of the graphic novel, the X-Men battle the Purifiers, and Charles Xavier's pacifism in the face of Stryker's persecution sorely is tested. Magento allies himself with the X-Men, a development that is crucial to the team's chances of defeating Stryker's unholy crusade.

At the time it came out, 'God Loves, Man Kills' garnered a great deal of praise, with some reviewers at amazon claiming that reading the book back then, and now, brings to them deep emotion, even tears.

However, for me, 'God Loves, Man Kills' comes across as badly overwritten, with Anderson's art struggling to have an effect, burdened as it is by too many speech balloons. As for Claremont's script, it is so sententious and moralizing that it soon veers, and stays, into a kind of unintentional self-parody.

The only engaging segment of 'God Loves, Man Kills' is when the action moves to the ghetto, and some black and Puerto Rican gang-bangers (!) who decide to involve themselves in a faceoff between Kitty Pryde and the Purifiers. Alas, this segment, however promising, ends all too soon. It's something that, if even in a faint way, approaches the admirably irreverent stance the writers at 2000 AD and Judge Dredd brought to the 'mutant' theme.  

Following release of the 1982 edition, Marvel subsequently published the 'God Loves, Man KIlls' graphic novel in other softcover and hardcover printings, including an 'extended' version in which Claremont and Anderson provide additional pages.

Summing up, to me, 'God Loves, Man Kills' is an exemplar of the orotund, self-indulgent writing that characterized so much of Marvel's output during the 1980s and 1990s. 

If only U.S. readers had had greater access to material from the UK and 2000 AD, then there would have been the chance for them to see that there was more to be had from comics than the gaseous virtue signalling of the X-Men franchise.