The Thing from Another World issue 2

The Thing from Another World
Issue 2
Chuck Pfarrer (script) and John Higgins (art)
Dark Horse / Universal Studios
1991

 

The Thing from Another World issue 1

The Thing from Another World
Issue 1
Chuck Pfarrer (script) and John Higgins (art)
Dark Horse / Universal Studios
1991

One of the greatest comics of the 1990s was the two-issue sequel to the classic 1982 film 'John Carpenter's The Thing'.

By 1991, mainly through the success of its Aliens titles, Dark Horse comics had become the king of presenting licensed film properties in comic books. When the company got the rights to do a sequel to The Thing, they didn't botch the opportunity.

This is due to an excellent script by Chuck Pfarrer, who stayed true to the concepts and themes of the film while introducing new elements that kept the reader turning the page.

And of course, the artwork.

By 1991 John Higgins was an established artist in the UK, with work in comics, advertising, magazines, and other media to his credit, but in America he still was best known as the colorist for the DC comic book series Watchmen. 

With his outstanding work on The Thing (including one of the most memorable covers ever done for a comic book), he became a household name among the U.S. comic book-reading public. 

While copies of the two-issue sequel still can be had for reasonably affordable prices, the followup series (Climate of Fear and Eternal Vows) are long out of print, and copies in good condition have steep asking prices. Maybe one of these days, Dark Horse will re-release all of its Thing from Another World comics in an omnibus edition.

Till then, posted below is the entirety of issue one of The Thing from Another World. 

Issue 2 will be posted next.

Book Review: Soldiers of Paradise

Book Review: 'Soldiers of Paradise' by Paul Park

3 / 5 Stars

‘Soldiers of Paradise’ first was published in 1987 in hardcover by Arbor House. This mass market paperback edition (281 pp) was published in January 1990 by Avon Books. The striking cover illustration is by Gary Ruddell.

‘Soldiers’ is the first volume in the so-called ‘Starbridge’ trilogy, with ‘Sugar Rain’ (1989) and ‘The Cult of Loving Kindness’ (1991) the succeeding volumes. 

A 1989 Science Fiction Book Club edition, titled ‘The Sugar Festival’, is an omnibus edition of the first two novels in the trilogy.

On a nameless planet, each season lasts for a century. For the city of Charn, located in the temperate zone, the advent of Winter brings with it a protracted struggle for survival, a struggle that is at its direst in early Spring, when the earth is devoid of all vegetation, and the barren earth awaits the life-giving Sugar Rains. 

Order and disciple in Charn are maintained by the oligarchs of the Starbridge clan, who use a complicated theology, loosely centered on predestination, to alternately goad and coerce the Lumpen Proletariat into acquiescence. Dissent is cruelly suppressed.

As the novel opens, Abu Starbridge, a prince of Charn and an alcoholic, is on another of his self-absorbed jaunts into the slum districts. Abu Starbridge is accompanied by his friend, the doctor Thanakar. The two men are aware that their civilization is deeply dysfunctional but, lacking any ideas as to how to correct it, are mired in depression; the visits to the slums serve as a sort of lowlife-associated escapism.

As the Spring advances, and with it the advent of the Sugar Rains, the already fragile fabric of society begins to break down. There are race riots, pogroms, religious cults, madmen, and anarchists loose on the streets of Charn. Abu Starbridge and Thanakar the Doctor find themselves forced to choose between perpetuating the established order, or forsaking their lives of privilege in order to address their consciences. Either choice brings with it a risk of death and damnation……..

‘Soldiers of Paradise’ is not a very accessible novel. Author Park is quite earnest in his desire to employ an ornate, even poetic prose style, one that relies heavily on descriptive passages plentifully endowed with ‘empty’ sentences, metaphors, and similes. This obliges the reader to persevere, particularly in the opening chapters when the narrative is preoccupied with recounting the travails of a wasteland dweller (or 'Antinomial') whose interactions with the Starbridges have been marked by considerable violence.

While this authorial style works reasonably well in terms of world-building and characterization, it renders the plot as something of a thin scaffolding. Indeed, the first major plot development (a clash between armies of the state church and those of Argon Starbridge, a heretic) doesn’t arrive until the book’s half-way point. As well, I found the novel's denouement to be underwhelming; this perhaps was because author Park was reluctant to hamstring the narratives of the followup volumes. 

As for subplots, these tend to pop up, and some (such as Thanakar's experiments into reversing the slow suicide of those Starbridges deemed too old and infirm to be of value to the oligarchy) are interesting. But overall, they tend to have a half-formed quality, which means they leave little impact on the narrative as a whole.

I finished ‘Soldiers of Paradise’ thinking that it is very much a foundational predecessor to the modern-day Dark Fantasy genre, and a signpost to its well-known practitioners such as China Mieville, Alan Campbell, and Tim Lebbon. 

If you are at ease with reading novels with a high index of surrealistic / phantasmagorical content, and writing which focuses on atmosphere and mood rather than action, then you may have the patience to finish ‘The Soldiers of Paradise’. Others, however, likely will not find the novel very rewarding.

Outside-In by Bruce Jones

Outside-In
by Bruce Jones
from The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones
issue No. 1
Eclipse Comics, February 1986

I can't find out where this story originally appeared before being reprinted in The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones, a four-issue series of reprints - often colorized - of stories previously printed in black-and-white in Warren magazines.

UPDATE: reader 'hsc' notes:

This Bruce Jones piece was supposed to have been printed in the 4th issue of WEB OF HORROR, but the magazine folded unexpectedly and was never published.

Frank Brunner managed to get a portion of the original art out of the office, and the work wound up in fanzines:

http://enjolrasworld.com/Richard%20Arndt/Web%20Of%20Horror.htm

"Outside-In" wound up in Robert Gerstenhaber's REALITY #2, published in 1971:

http://www.kenmeyerjr.com/uploads/5/5/7/8/55780583/reality2.pdf



'Outside-In' calls to mind the EC Comics of the 50s, with its twist on the theme of the Hollow Earth..............

Book Review: Wizard World

Book Review: 'Wizard World' by Roger Zelazny

4 / 5 Stars

'Wizard World' (411 pp) was published by Baen Books in October 1989. The cover art is by David Mattingly.

This is an omnibus edition, compiling two novels by Zelazny: 1980's Changeling and its sequel, 1981's Madwand. 

These novels are set in an un-named Fantasy World, parallel to our own, where magic (rather than technology) holds sway.

It's difficult to provide a synopsis of a two-volume omnibus such as this, without giving away spoilers. So I'll say that the first volume introduces the reader to one Pol Detson, the Changeling of the novel's title. Pol is the son of Det Morson, one of the most powerful wizards of the un-named fantasy world serving as a counterpart to Earth, a fantasy world where most of the action takes place.

To save him from his father's enemies, Pol is raised by an unwitting family on 'our' Earth. As a young man, Pol takes for granted his unusual, 'magical' abilities, and makes a name for himself as a folk guitarist.

However, the elderly wizard Mor travels between the worlds to meet Pol, and send him back to his place of origin.....there to battle a usurper. A usurper from 'our' Earth, who is using technology to impose his will on a land and people who have no experience of machines.

The winner of the battle will control the fate of the world...........

'Changeling' works well as a straightforward adventure novel that mixes both sci-fi and fantasy elements. 

'Madwand' is that rarity, a sequel that is better than its predecessor. 'Madwand' delves into the rationale and practice of magic, and how an apprentice can gain mastery. There is an underlying drama that, somewhat surprisingly, contains a quasi-Lovecraftian atmosphere, an atmosphere that drives conspiracies and hidden motives among its wizards and warlocks. This gives 'Madwand' a darker tone that 'Changeling'.

Perhaps indicating a desire on Zelazny's part to move away from the prose styles he employed in the New Wave Era to a style more 'commercial' in nature, both volumes of 'Wizard World' have relatively clear language and avoid the overwritten, phantasmagorical passages that were commonplace in the 'Amber' novels.

The verdict ? If you're looking for fantasy novels that are very readable and don't require a Glossary to be understandable, then either 'Changeling', Madwand' or the 'Wizard World' compilation are worth picking up.