Frank Miller's Ronin

Frank Miller's Ronin

By 1983, Frank Miller's work on Daredevil had garnered him sufficient praise and standing in the comics industry for him to be able to do a so-called creator-owned property for DC. 

'Frank Miller's Ronin' was issued as a six-issue series, starting in July, 1983, and appearing more or less bimonthly until August, 1984. This 1987 graphic novel compiles all six issues (unfortunately, however, the covers of the individual comics are not reproduced) and features an introduction by Jeff Rovin.

The setting: New York City ca. 2030, a wasteland inhabited by ultraviolent street gangs and under-city cannibals straight out of Escape from New York. 

Despite the city's horrible condition, the Aquarius corporation has nonetheless erected an enormous facility in the midst of this wasteland; within the facility, 'biocircuitry' has been engineered to create a sentient computer entity known as Virgo.

An armless and legless young man named Billy Challas serves as the main programmer / controller for Virgo, by virtue of his telekinetic abilities.

As the novel opens, in medieval Japan, the nameless ronin of the book's title is engaged in a death match with a demon named Agat; the ronin seeks vengeance, for Agat had killed his master.

Agat contrives to teleport both himself, and the ronin, to the far future - the New York City of Aquarius corporation. There, Agat uses his shapeshifting ability to take over the identity of Taggert, the corporate director for Aquarius.

The ronin finds himself alone and weaponless in the streets of the city; through some metamorphosis, part of Billy Challas's personality has merged with his own.

As 'Frank MIller's Ronin' unfolds, the ronin embarks on a hazardous, often violent journey through the unlikely hell of modern New York City, his goal: to find and kill Agat. The demon, for his part, unleashes the Aquarius security chief - a woman named Casey McKenna - to hunt down an eliminate the ronin.

But as the ronin leaves a trail of death and mayhem among the city's underworld, McKenna comes to question her mission, and the changes being made to the Aquarius corporation by a suddenly mercenary and amoral Taggert. Soon McKenna will have to make a choice: ally with the ronin, or her employer......

'Frank MIller's Ronin' mixes and matches a healthy quantity of early 80s sci-fi and pop culture tropes and themes. As I already mentioned, its vision of New York City is influenced by Escape from New York. There also are prominent elements of what at that time was the brand-new genre of cyberpunk. As well, the early 80s interest in all things Japanese finds an outlet in the character of the ronin himself.

In my opinion, 'Ronin' has not aged well. Much of this is due to the fact that Miller simply isn't a very accomplished draftsman. As with his other comics, 'Ronin' relies on a wide range of visual contrivances to direct attention from this fact......the use of unconventional panel configurations, unusual coloring schemes, multiple points of view within the same sequence of panels, as well as the elimination of all but a few sound effects. Other comic book staples - swoosh marks, external narration, thought balloons- are jettisoned.

In the absence of such staples, reading 'Ronin' can be tedious at times, particularly when Miller's artwork is so figurative that one cannot make out what, exactly, is going on. Too many times, in the absence of well-delinated artwork and external narration, the plot momentarily lapses into incoherence.

Modern readers are going to find Ronin's coloring scheme rather weak; the color printing of mainstream comic books of the early 80s simply isn't very good compared to what is now achievable with computer-aided composition and coloring.

'Frank Miller's Ronin' may be worth searching out if you are someone dedicated to comics of the early 80s, or are simply curious about Miller's initial forays into the medium, forays that since have led to his highly influential position in the comic book world of today. Anyone else will probably want to pass on this compilation.

'Heavy Metal' magazine June 1984

'Heavy Metal' magazine June 1984

 

June, 1984, and in heavy rotation on MTV is Billy Idol's 'Eyes Without a Face.'

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is out, featuring a front cover by Esteban Maroto and a back cover by James Cherry.

There is a great Contents Page illustration by Herikberto, titled 'Butterfly' :

Some good material in this issue, including more of Frank Thorne's cheesecake series 'Lann', Renard and Schuiten's 'The Railways', 'Salammbo II' by Druillet, and 'A Matter of Time' by Gimenez. I'll be posting some of this stuff later this month.

For now, here is the concluding installment of Charles Burns's 'El Borbah: Living in the Ice Age'.

Book Review: Bring the Jubilee

Book Review: 'Bring the Jubilee' by Ward Moore

1 / 5 Stars

'Bring the Jubilee’ first was published in 1953; this Avon SF paperback version (222 pp.) was published in May, 1972. The cover artist is uncredited.

The novel opens with an intriguing statement: Hodge Blackmaker, the first-person narrator, is writing this - his memoir - in 1877. However, he was born in 1921. How did Hodge Blackmaker come to be writing his memoir decades before he even was born ? 

The opening chapters disclose the circumstances of Blackmaker’s birth and upraising: born the only child of a dour couple of modest means, living in the town of Wappingers Falls, New York. In this ‘alternity’ of the US, the Union was defeated at Gettysburg, and the Confederacy triumphed in the Civil War.

The twenty-six states of the federal government are economically and culturally backward, akin to the plight of the Southern states in the post-Civil War era of ‘our’ timeline. European powers exploit the states of the Northeast, a state of affairs endorsed by the South, which, even as it prospers, has little interest in improving the lot of the defeated Yankees. For the overwhelming majority of US citizens, a joyless lifetime of indentured servitude is the best they can hope to attain.

With aspirations to find a calling more rewarding than scrabbling for a living from farming, the teenaged Hodge leaves home for New York City, where he finds employment, and greater awareness of the depressing state of a world made real by the defeat of the Union.

As the narrative progresses, Blackmaker is introduced to the underworld of Union resistance in a New York City where it's the early 1940s, and the Second World War has never happened. He will be confronted with a series of choices about his role in the effort to undo the changes wrought by the Confederacy – an effort that, as it turns out, may rely less on violent action, and more on the presence of the Wrong Man at the Right Time…….

‘Bring’ is regarded as a classic of alternate history / time travel SF. But in reality, I found it dull and plodding.

Author Moore decides to adopt a prose style that mimics the labored diction of 19th century novels: ‘As before in my discourses with Tyss on the subject of the free will and its illusory influence on the fate of the unknowing individual, my arguments in opposition to this stance brought little more than dismissive remarks from my employer…..’

This ponderous, wordy writing style, when combined with the fact that the crucial stages of the plot don’t unfold until page 206 arrives, essentially turn ‘Jubliee’ into a tedious exposition on the social and moral aspects of a 1940s – 1950s American society permanently mired in a 19th Century mindset.

Those few moments of action or drama that do pop up in the narrative are scant, and do little to impart momentum to a plot that consists almost entirely of conversations about philosophy and metaphysics, or the main character’s internal monologues on Life, Love, and Destiny.

The closing pages of the novel are its best feature, and the author is to be credited with avoid too pat an ending. However, it’s clear that Moore missed his chance to write a genuinely ‘modern’ novel about destiny, time travel, and alternate history. Instead of being a ‘breakthrough’ novel, ‘Bring’ is simply a conventional novel with a bit of sf content.

Training Cycle by Steve Sabella

'Training Cycle' by Steve Sabella
from Epic Illustrated No. 28, February, 1985

 

Most of the contents of the latter issues of Epic Illustrated were mediocre, but every once in a while a real gem would get printed. Such is the case with 'Training Cycle', which features some fine artwork, and a story with a neat little twist at its ending.............

Cody Starbuck episodes 1 and 2

Cody Starbuck
by Howard Chaykin
Episodes 1 and 2
from Heavy Metal magazines May and June 1981

May and early June, 1981: on FM radio, 'Her Town Too' by James Taylor and J. D. Souther, is in heavy rotation.

In the May issue of Heavy Metal magazine, a new serial is underway: 'Cody Starbuck', by Howard Chaykin.

Cody Starbuck had first appeared in the very first issue of the indie comic Star Reach in April 1974, as a black-and-white comic. The character appeared again in Star Reach in 1976 and 1978.

In 1981, Chaykin produced a full color, five-part serial of Starbuck for the May - September issues of Heavy Metal.

Chaykin  intended Starbuck to be a more satirical version of the space opera heroes like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Unlike traditional sf heroes, Starbuck is decidedly amoral and self-centered, doing good deeds only if the money is right.

While such a character was essentially unmarketable in mainstream comic books of the 70s and early 80s, he was perfect for the more sophisticated, European - influenced pages of Heavy Metal.

Below, I've posted first two installments of Cody Starbuck, from Heavy Metal 's  May and June 1981 issues. Stay tuned for further adventures in coming posts.

So, lets go back in time to the late Spring of 1981, give a listen to the mellow folk rock of Taylor and Souther and 'Her Town Too', and check out the doings of Cody Starbuck....

Book Review: Cruising

Book Review: 'Cruising' by Gerald Walker
celebrating Pride Weekend 2014 

2 / 5 Stars

'Cruising' was first published in hardcover by Stein and Day in 1970. Fawcett Crest issued a mass market paperback edition (192 pp.) in September, 1971. 

The feature film 'Cruising', loosely based on Walker's novel and starring Al Pacino, was filmed in the Summer of 1979 and released in February, 1980. During its filming in New York, the production was subjected to angry - sometimes violent - protests from gays, who considered the film exploitative. 

As a tie-in with the film, Bantam books reissued Walker's novel in January 1980.

Being long out of print, both the hardcover and paperback editions of 'Cruising' are exorbitantly priced, with bookjackers / speculators at amazon asking $1,250.00 for the hardcover and $75 for the paperback. I was fortunate to get a copy of the 1980 Bantam paperback for about $11 some years ago, and more recently, I picked up the Fawcett Crest edition for a couple of bucks at a used bookstore. 

The novel deals with a serial killer who preys on homosexuals, selecting his victims while 'cruising' the gay neighborhoods of Manhattan, ca. 1970. As the novel opens, four men have died, slain in a violent and gruesome manner, and the NYPD is desperate to make an arrest.

Captain Edelson, assigned to manage the investigation, decides to recruit a team of younger policemen and sends them out on the streets, undercover. Their mission: cruise the gay haunts as 'bait', and find the killer.

John Lynch is one of the policemen selected for the undercover detail. A heterosexual, he is repulsed and dismissive of the gay lifestyle, but recognizes that the assignment may be his ticket to fast promotion. Lynch adopts the clothing and mannerisms of a 'fag' and begins his undercover work.

Even as Lynch cruises the streets and bars, looking for a psychopath, the killer is also out cruising the same territory, looking for his next victim. Will John Lynch recognize his quarry in time ? Or will Lynch become yet another victim ?

As a suspense / thriller novel, 'Cruising' isn't very good. The identity of the killer is disclosed early on, and much of the narrative is preoccupied with tedious, lengthy monologues in which we are shown The Mind of A Serial Killer all its addled glory. When not belaboring the killer's thoughts, the narrative shifts its attention to Lynch's monologues, further leaching momentum from the plot.

Modern readers are going to find the novel politically incorrect.

All of the characters are hostile and dismissive towards blacks, Puerto Ricans, Jews, and homosexuals, not necessarily in that order. The growing squalor of New York City in the early 70s is communicated in brief, but effective, bits of exposition:

Careful not to be too abrupt about it, Lynch swiveled around to look out at the street. A drunken Puerto Rican was lying in a pool of urine in a tenement doorway.

These spics, Lynch thought. Some neighborhood - what a collection of human junk. The whole country was going soft and rotten, and here was one of the places you find the dregs....Walking these streets was like going for a stroll in a cesspool.

And the queers, Lynch thought, you wouldn't believe the queers. The big parade in Central Park West started just before dark, when those who had jobs came back from work. What was it he'd heard one of them call it ? Fag Harbor. Dozens, hundreds of fags waiting for their ship to come in. Holy Mother, he thought......twenty blocks loaded with queers.

The gays in 'Cruising' are not the sanitized, mainstream-media-friendly ones that appear on shows like Modern Family or Will and Grace. The gays in 'Cruising' are relentlessly promiscuous and filled with self-loathing; one of the book's more subversive subtexts is that some of the victims almost seem to expect to be harmed, or murdered, for having embraced their 'degenerate' lifestyle.

When all is said and done, 'Cruising' is one of those properties that, as a movie, is superior to the novel. If you want a good immersion in 1980s New York City in all its squalid glory, as well as some 'shocking' scenes that will have you laughing out loud, you're much better off viewing the film.