September is Western Month

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we like to take a break from reading and reviewing sci-fi, horror, and fantasy novels to spend time with books from other genres.

For September 2020, we’ve decided to focus on western novels, particularly those published from around 1968 to 1988, the same time interval we use for our sci-fi surveys.

You can go into any used bookstore and among the shelves devoted to western fiction find stacks of books written by Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Max Brand, and Luke Short……….as well as what seems to be fossilized piles of ‘Longarm’ westerns by ‘Tabor Evans’.

We will not be reviewing those novels.

Instead, we’ll be taking a look through the above layout of books for those titles that are less traditional, less formulaic, in scope. These include titles from more obscure authors, along with entries from such series as ‘Edge’ and 'The Gringos'. 

We’ll also be taking a look at some novels that deal with the ‘modern’ west, as well as some graphic novels that offered up something different from the usual Cowboys-and-Indians themes. And why not offer up some CD reviews as well.... !?

Reading western novels published during 1968 – 1988 is going back in time to an era when men read for entertainment; when it was routine for shelves to hold paperbacks under 200 pages in length; and paperbacks could feature page inserts advertising cigarettes.

So strap on your gunbelt, grab your hat, pull on your boots, and prepare to ride the range......

Irving Greenfield RIP

 Irving A. Greenfield, RIP

February 22, 1929 - April 1, 2020

Somewhat belatedly, I discovered that Irving A. Greenfield passed away on April 1, 2020, at age 91. Greenfield was a one-man publishing machine, having authored over 300 novels, as well as plays, short stories, and essays. Greenfield's novels represented many different genera, including sci-fi, crime / thriller, sleaze, western, horror, action / war, and historical. 

Reminiscences about Greenfield, from the actors and directors who performed his Off-Broadway plays, can be viewed at this website.

For me, Greenfield always will be associated with his 1975 Cro-Magnon Splatterpunk novel 'Aton', which was eagerly passed from hand to hand in my freshman year at high school.

While trying to assemble all the pulp fiction that Greenfield wrote is impractical, I do have several of his novels in my possession.

(I think I even have a copy of 'Campo Verde' - aka 'Succubus' - that I've yet to scan, in a box somewhere in my basement)

Some of Greenfield's sci-fi novels look like they are best left on the shelf - over at the 'Science Fiction and Suspect Ruminations' blog, Joachim Boaz was underwhelmed (to put it politely) by Greenfield's 1967 Waters of Death.

I can't speak for Greenfield's naval adventure novels (the Depth Force series), nor his short stories in highbrow journals and chapbooks, but his westerns (the 'Carey' series) are engaging enough. 

Given his enormous output, it's reasonable to assume that not everything Greenfield wrote was a literary find. But with that caveat in mind, if you see some of his titles on the shelf of your favorite used bookstore, giving them a look might be worth your while. 

Book Review: Pilgrimage

Book Review: 'Pilgrimage' by Drew Mendelson

3 / 5 Stars

‘Pilgrimage’ (220 pp.) is DAW Book No. UE1612, and was published in April, 1981. The cover illustration is by John Pound. This was the first novel from author Mendelson (b. 1945), who also published several short stories in sci-fi anthologies and digests in the 1970s. His only other sci-fi novel is the self-published 2018 title ‘Dark Sea Rising’.

'Pilgrimage' is one of those DAW Books that I frequently saw on used bookstore shelves back when I began this blog in 2008...........I picked up a copy that year, but I haven't gotten around to reading it until now.

So:

On a far-future Earth, the City is three miles high and forty miles in circumference; its 25 million residents live among its 113 tiers. The City is constantly moving forward by virtue of the fact that now-ancient machinery, operated by the Structor caste, is dismantling the mass of the metropolis’s Tailend and shuttling it forward to the Frontend, where new tiers are being erected to house those displaced from Tailend. 

The residents of the City have become so conditioned to generations of life indoors that they are not only physically small, but have no concept of the World outside the confines of their giant metropolis. Simply traveling from one tier to another is a days-long journey using the back-alley stairways and passages festooned throughout the City, unless one can talk their way onto the increasingly frail and over-used elevators……..

But as ‘Pilgrimage’ opens, change is coming to the City. For Brann Adelbran, a teenage boy and Tailend resident, it means that his entire tier will have to make the epochal Pilgrimage to Frontend. However, Bran’s grandmother Ebar has been filling his head with stories about the entirety of the City, its inhabitants, and the World outside. These stories suddenly become something more than idle entertainment when strange tremors shake the City, breaking conduits and passages, sending floors crashing down atop one another, triggering fear and apprehension among the residents of the tier. 

Accompanied by his girlfriend Liza and his friend Halsam, Brann decides to forego the Pilgrimage, and sets out on a quest to find the Post Guild, who have free rein to travel throughout the metropolis and are best equipped to understand what is causing the disruption to the City’s structure.

As they trek through the labyrinths of the City, their journey will expose Bran and his companions to strange peoples and places……….and a final revelation about the fate of the structure that all of mankind calls Home………..

‘Pilgrimage’ is a three-star sci-fi adventure novel. It gets its world-building and its characters right, but the middle chapters tend to drag a bit as our heroes wander from one locale to another, expanding their knowledge and awareness with each encounter, but never really coming into sufficient danger to lend much intensity to the narrative. 

A chapter that involves some highly mutated City dwellers with telepathic capabilities seems too contrived to be convincing, as does the prominent role played by a ‘magic’ jewel that is inert most of the time, but conveniently flares into action when our heroes find themselves in dire straits. 

The verdict ? ‘Pilgrimage’ is another of those DAW novels from the early 80s (and the novels of Edward Llewellyn, such as ‘The Douglas Convolution’ come to mind) that doesn’t transform the sci-fi genre, but fits comfortably within it.

Spain: Street Fighting Men

Spain: Street Fighting Men
Fantagraphics Books, November 2017

'Spain: Street Fighting Men' (304 pp) was published by Fantagraphics Books in November 2017. Like all the titles from Fantagraphics, this is a well-made, heavy slab of a trade paperback, printed on high-quality paper stock with reproductions as crisp as possibly can be made from scans, negatives, and printed copies of decades-old drawings, photographs, and comix.

Born and raised in a working-class neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, Manuel ‘Spain’ Rodriguez (1940 – 2012) was a pioneering figure in underground comix and alternative media. ‘Street Fighting Men’ is the first in a planned five-volume series of graphic novels compiling all of Rodriguez’s illustrations and comics. (As of August 2020, Fantagraphics has issued the first two volumes in the series.)

Patrick Rosenkranz (Rebel Visions) is the premiere historian of the underground comix era, and thus ably qualified to edit this book, which is divided into five parts:

‘The Complete Trashman’ compiles all of the comix featuring this seminal character. You get all of the Trashman stories from his first appearance as a one-page strip in The East Village Other in 1968, up to his final appearance, in the comic Zero Zero, in 1995. All the Trashman stories from Subvert Comics are present and accounted for. This compilation is superior to the 1997 Fantagraphics book, 'Trashman Lives' (used copies of which have asking prices close to $30, which is the same price as 'Street Fighting Men').

Growing up, I really liked Trashman, so being able to get all of his adventures in one volume, reprinted on glossy paper stock, in 'Street Fighting Men' is a real bargain. All of the intricate details - such as Spain's careful use of Zip-A-Tone - that were hard to make out in the original comix are easier to see, and appreciate:

‘Sometimes I’m So Happy I Can’t Stand It’ is Rosenkranz’s biography of the Buffalo, NY ‘Road Vultures’ motorcycle club; Spain joined the club in 1961 and participated in many of its activities, including its road rides and bar-room brawls.

Full of anecdotes and reminiscences by Spain and other members of the Vultures, accompanied by press clippings, photos from personal archives, early drawings by Spain, and even excerpts from a Scholarly Dissertation (?!), this essay is a very entertaining overview not just of the history of a motorcycle gang during the 50s and 60s, but a history of blue-collar Buffalo and Upstate New York in their golden years before the advent of economic decay and the establishment of the Rust Belt.

‘The Complete Road Vulture Comic Strips’ section features Spain’s semi-autobiographical accounts of the adventures of the club, ‘….back when Harleys still ruled the road’.

‘Arm the Vagrants’, another essay from Rosenkranz, is a narrative history of Spain’s relocation to New York City in the mid-60s. There, Spain played an important role in the nascent underground comix movement, mainly through his duties as the art director of the influential counterculture newspaper The East Village Other. Anecdotes about the ‘real creepy place’ in New York city that Spain and fellow comics artist Kim Deitch lived in during the mid 1960’s conjure up authentic Escape from New York, The Wolfen, and Fort Apache the Bronx vibes……. well before any of those films hit theatres.

Closing out ‘Street Fighting Men’ is a very short section of ‘Manning’ comix, one-pagers about a vigilante cop that Spain incorporated into early issues of The East Village Other.

Whether you're an underground comix fan, an aging hippie seeking nostalgia, or an acolyte or historian of American pop culture, 'Spain: Street Fighting Men' is a worthy investment. 

I would pick it up sooner, rather than later, as eventually these Fantagraphics titles will acquire out-of-print status.......... and high prices. 

Impacto Directo

 Impacto Directo
(Direct Impact)
by Paul Kirchner

from Zona 84 Almanac, 1987

I can't remember if this one-pager never appeared in Heavy Metal. How it wound up in the Spanish magazine Zona 84 1987 'alamanac' is anyone's guess..... 

But then, those crafty Spaniards had a habit of piling lots of U.S. - made material in their magazines during the 80s and early 90s.........whether the creators got any compensation is perhaps an....... untactful....... question..........

The Smiths from Look-In magazine

The Smiths
from Look-In magazine (UK)

March 24, 1984

Book Review: Cestus Dei

Book Review: 'Cestus Dei' by John Maddox Roberts

4 / 5 Stars

'Cestus Dei' (283 pp) was published by Tor Books in June 1983. The cover art is by Kevin Eugene Johnson.

This novel first was published, in greatly shortened form, as a hardback book titled 'The Strayed Sheep of Charun', issued by Doubleday / The Science Fiction Book Club in 1977. 'Charon' was John Maddox Roberts's (b. 1947) first published novel. Roberts went on to be a prolific sci-fi and fantasy author during the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, writing novels for the Dragonlance and Conan franchises, as well as for his own 'SPQR', 'Stormlands', 'Cingulum', and 'Island Worlds' properties. 

It appears that Doubleday - for reasons unknown - cut 'Strayed Sheep' off at 180 pages (the final sentence in 'Strayed Sheep' has an awkward quality signalling that further plot developments were in the offing). The 180 pages of 'Stayed Sheep' are present in 'Cestus', along with another 103 pages of additional content. 

So: while I found 'Strayed Sheep' to be a competent novel even in its truncated form, to get the complete story, you'll want to pick up 'Cestus'. 

The plot: after centuries of isolation, the Flavian System once more re-establishes contact with the Federation. The United Faiths - a sort of Galactic ecumenical council representing Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism - approves of proselytizing in the Flavian System......on a first-come, first-converted basis, of course.  

Anxious to see millions of converts added to the fold, the Pope dispatches a Jesuit priest named Miles, and a Franciscan brother named Jeremiah, to the Flavian homeworld of Charun and its capital city, Augusta, where they are to begin their Missions. 

There is a marked contrast between the two: Miles is a man of action; brilliant in mind, devious and calculating in his ability to read, and exploit, the motives and desires of those he seeks to convert. And, by virtue of being trained on a heavy-gravity world, Miles is a masterful fighter in both hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. For Father Miles, a member of the eponymous Brotherhood of Cestus Dei, the use of venality and violence are perfectly acceptable, if they bring souls to Salvation..........

Jeremiah, on the other hand, is the quintessential Franciscan: meek, mild, seeking to convert the heathens through kindness and generosity of spirit. He is at times discomfited by the mercenary nature of Father Miles's tactics.

But once they arrive at Augusta, both men realize that converting Charun will not be easy. Although peopled by the the descendants of European spacefarers, monotheism has long since been abandoned on Charun, and in its place, the Consul has established the Roman practice of bread and circuses. Gambling, prostitution, drug abuse, and bloody gladiatorial games distract the populace from their impoverished misery. Allegiances among the ruling oligarchs are made solely for personal gain, and betrayal is simply another tool of statecraft.

Which strategy for conversion will win out - the hard-edged practicality of Father Miles ? Or the humble persona of Brother Jeremiah ? Whatever strategy to be employed must be immediately successful.........for it turns out the Muslims also have their eye on the Flavian System.........

'Cestus Dei' is a straightforward space opera, written in a clear and declarative prose style. What motivated me to give it four stars is the author's decision to color the actions of Father Miles and his church with a slight, but undeniable, note of extremism. For Miles and his superiors, lethal measures are quite justifiable if they protect the innocent and deter sinners......and the pirates and the warlords of the Flavian System are unashamed sinners. 

By avoiding a predictable narrative, in which the pacifism and selflessness of Father Jeremiah (improbably) winds over the hearts of evildoers, 'Cestus Dei' exhibits a transgressive sensibility that I found entertaining. For that reason, this novel is worth picking up.

Tarzan and Jane

Tarzan and Jane
by James Michaelson
from Zona 84 issue 20, 1985

This illustration was part of the promotional package for the 1981 film Tarzan, the Ape Man, starring Bo Derek. It apparently was considered too risque to appear in mainstream advertising in the US, and never was used. 

While the illustration certainly is striking, whether it would have made a difference in the film's reception had it been used in advertising is debatable. Despite Bo Derek's reluctant agreement to appear semi-nude throughout the film, Tarzan, the Ape Man is considered one of the worst movies ever made, and flopped at the box office.

Book Review: Generation

Book Review: 'Generation' edited by David Gerrold

2 / 5 Stars

‘Generation’ (236 pp) was published in July 1972 by Dell Books. The cover illustration is by Robert Foster.

Like Gerrold’s 1971 anthology ‘Protostars’, also co-edited with Stephen Goldin, ‘Generation’ is an all-new compilation of ‘speculative fiction’ pieces from both established and new authors. In his Introduction, Gerrold reveals that the anthology was assembled in 1969 and scheduled for publication in 1970, but circumstances beyond his control delayed publication until 1972. 

One thing that will get the immediate attention of modern-day readers is the un-Woke nature of Gerrold’s introductions for some of the female authors. Of Kathleen Sky, Gerrold writes:

Kathleen Sky may be the most liberated woman I know.

First of all, she is a supple and delicious creature. There may be girls in this world who are prettier than Kathleen Sky – but certainly not sexier. This girl exudes such a warm femininity that every man in her presence notices her.

[ Perhaps Gerrold also could have casually mentioned that Kathleen Sky happened to be the wife of his co-editor, Stephen Goldin. Nothing like nepotism to get you into print........ ! ]

And for Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, we are told:

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is a cuddly little lump of blond femininity. She has a cute nose, a smile that never quits, and is a seemingly boundless source of energy and enthusiasm.

………Yeah, times sure were different back in 1972……….!

Upon finishing ‘Generation’ it is quite apparent that few contributors were willing to submit quality pieces; most of the entries in this anthology are short, fragmentary, tossed-off works that signal that the rates Gerrold and Dell were offering were Low at best…………..indeed, ‘The Shortest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told’ by Roger Deeley consists of just three words. 

[ This may have been the height of hipness in the New Wave era, or perhaps an in-joke between Deeley and Gerrold……..but I’ll let the reader make his or her own conclusions. ]

My capsule summaries of the 25 entries, starting with the best:

It’s Very Clean, by Gene Wolfe: I consider Wolfe to be an over-rated author, but this tale from early in his career - about the future of prostitution - has coherent prose, a tangible plot, and a worthwhile denouement. That’s really all anyone can ask from a New Wave era story………… 

Psychedelic Flight, by Robert Ray: some hippies find that their new choice of recreational drug triggers unpleasant revelations. Stands alongside Harlan Ellison’s ‘Shattered Like A Glass Goblin’, and Avram Davidson and Grania Davis’s ‘The New Zombies’, as an effective treatment of the dark side of the hippie movement. Gerrold’s own ‘All of Them Were Empty’ (below) arguably belongs in this select company, too.

The Galactic Clock, by Vonda N. McIntyre: Elroy Finchwood is one of those unfortunate people for whom life is one constant trial. Can a hippie commune save him ? This story prefigures M. John Harrison’s 1975 tale ‘Breaking Down’ as an insightful examination of infection with entropy.

Beside Still Waters, by Edward Bryant and James Sutherland: an urban fantasy – with a John Cheever-ish tenor - about a swimming pool.

Here’s A Health Unto His Majesty, by Roger Deeley: here, Deeley provides a complete short story. Tavern patrons in Merrie Olde England muse over the arrival of a man who claims to be from 1962.

Then there’s Gerrold’s own entry: ‘All of Them Were Empty’, in which junkies Deet and Woozy enter a decaying tenement in search of a strange new trip.

 

In his introduction to the story, Gerrold proudly states that he wrote it spontaneously after smoking pot, and listening to the Donovan Leitch song 'Sunny Goodge Street'. Ominously, Gerrold boasts that (save for some grammatical corrections) the published story is a first draft.  Be that as it may, under its ‘trippy’ prose this story has a functioning plot and a convincing denouement. Hooray !

The remaining stories in ‘Generation’ consist of fables and parables from Stephen Goldin (‘Stubborn’), Robert E. Toomey, Jr. (‘The Re-Creation’), Barry M. Malzberg (‘Vidi, Vici, Veni’), Kathleen Sky (‘One Ordinary Day, With Box’), Edward Bryant and Jody Harper (‘Nova Morning’), Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (‘Everything That Begins With An ‘M’’), Joseph F. Pumilia (‘The Porter of Hell-Gate’), and C. F. Hensel (‘A Sense of Time’). 

Two entries from Alice Sheldon / James Tiptree Jr. are unremarkable. ‘Through A Lass Darkly’ is a satirical treatment of a future Valley Girl and her diction, while ‘Amberjack’ is a plotless short-short story featuring stream-of-consciousness-New-Wave-Hipster Jive. 

‘Reprisal’, by Alice Laurence, is a very earnest and overly labored example of the hallowed New Wave era practice of using sci-fi tropes to say something Profound about Racial Prejudice. In this case, people born with wings suffer discrimination........ at the hands of those born without wings.

Other entries are uninspired, workmanlike efforts at satire: ‘Every Fourth House’ by Evelyn Lief; ‘Up Schist Creek’ by Piers Anthony Jacob; ‘The Birthday Boy’ by James Stevens; ‘The Lady Was for Kroinking’ by David R. Bunch; ‘…..After They’ve Seen Paree’ by Dennis O’Neil, and ‘Constitution in E Flat’ by Paul A. Carter. 

Surprisingly for an anthology issued during the Vietnam War, Gardner Dozois’s ‘Conditioned Reflex’ is the sole antiwar story. Although it is set in a fictional future conflict, its allegorical nature should have been quite clear to anyone reading it in 1972. 

The verdict ? Save for aficionados of New Wave fiction, there's not a whole lot of impressive content in 'Generation'. It's best regarded as an exemplar of a particular time and place in sci-fi history, rather than as a story collection to be treasured through the passage of the decades.

Zetari by John M. Burns

'Zetari' by John M. Burns

According to his interview in George Khoury's 2004 overview of British comics artists,True Brit, John M. Burns (b. 1938) first began illustrating comics in 1954. Over his 50+ year career, he provided illustrations for an impressive gamut of titles from UK publications such as 2000 AD, Look-In, Eagle, Diana, and Marvel UK. 

Burns also illustrated a number of comic strips for UK newspapers, including the cheesecake strip Jane and the private-eye strip The Seekers.

From 1984 to 1988, Burns teamed up with the Dutch writer Martin Lodewijk to produce 'Zetari', a fantasy comic featuring a female lead. Zetari was serialized in Panorama magazine, the Italian magazine L'Eternauta, and the Spanish magazine Zona 84.

This 96-page, 2018 German-language graphic novel (or 'integral'), from publisher ERKO, compiles all the Zetari comics in a very nice hardcover edition. 

Not being fluent in German, I can't comment on the writing of this graphic novel, but the excellence of Burns's artwork is quite evident. The cheesecake elements lend the book an undertone of humor that balances the occasional bouts of bloody swordplay.

'Zetari' has not, to the best of my knowledge, been published in the U.S. Hopefully someone like Titan Books, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, or Avatar will recognize Zetari as a gem of 1980s comics and graphic art, and arrange to issue a U.S. version.