Alex the Droog 12" action figure

A Clockwork Orange Action Figure

12" Window Box packaging

Mezco, 2018

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim and we sat in the Korova milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening.

The Korova Milk Bar sold milkplus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking.

This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Our pockets were full of money so there was no need on that score, but, as they say, money isn't everything.

Unlike the ONE:12 series Alex Delarge action figure recently released by Mezco, this figure is considerable taller (12"), comes in a traditional windowbox package, and has just two accessories - a sword cane and a mask. 

I am quite pleased with the fidelity of the figure. This is a high-end product with a very affordable price (about $40). If you are at all a fan Kubrick's film, then you should be asking Santa for this A Clockwork Orange action figure for Christmas.............. 

Ten Years of the PorPor Books Blog

Ten Years of The PorPor Books Blog 

I can't quite believe it, but it's been ten years, and over 1,400 Posts, since I launched this blog on December 2, 2008 with a review of The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series V.

Back in '08 the presence of Google Blogger meant that you didn't have to learn html in order to start up a blog, nor pay a fee to have the blog maintained for you on a private server. So I sat down and composed some initial posts, and on December 2, I launched this blog.

My ambitions in starting the PorPor Books Blog were simple: I wanted to archive and share sci-fi, horror, and fantasy pop culture from the era of 1968 - 1988 with fellow Baby Boomers.

I also wanted to have a way of letting the younger generation of sci-fi fans know that there was a large body of worthy material from the New Wave era, up to the beginnings of Cyberpunk, that they would want to investigate. I wanted them to realize that sci-fi and fantasy novels didn't have to be 500 pages long in order to be engaging and entertaining.

Like most folks new to blogging, I was a bit naive back then, thinking that within a few weeks of starting up I'd have several thousand hits per day. Needless to say, after several months I had received less than a hundred...........I was disappointed and wondered how to build up my readership.

I reached out to Curt Purcell at the Groovy Age of Horror blog and asked if he could post a link to my blog. Curt of course generously agreed, and within a matter of days, my readership doubled. Curt also provided some useful guidance concerning what was permissible in terms of considering material to be in the 'public domain', or eligible for excerpting for 'review purposes', when it came to creating posts.

Nowadays I average about 425 Pageviews per day, according to my Google Blogger stats. For reasons that are a complete mystery to me, my most visited post of the past decade was one I did on genital herpes in the 1970s that brought in 16,371 Pageviews........?!

My appreciation to all who visit the PorPor Books Blog, whether you visit the site on a daily basis, or on a more occasional basis. I've spent quite a bit more money and time on the blog that I had anticipated, but it's been a very rewarding thing to do. So I'm looking to keep it going for another few years, if not longer.....!?

Book Review: Godsfire

Book Review: 'Godsfire' by Cynthia Felice

2 / 5 Stars

'Godsfire' (264 pp) was published by Pocket Books in June 1978; the cover illustration is by Boris Vallejo.

On a distant planet live a race of feline Manimals and their human slaves. Technology is at a medieval level, primarily due to the fact that the felines' civilization ekes out an existence wholly within the shadow of an immense, Saturn-like ring that circles their planet's equator. Within the shadow there is perpetual gloom and rain, and diets consist of fish, mushrooms, snails, and lizards.

The main character also is the smartest member of the felines: a young woman named Heao, who is of the scholarly caste. Heao has her doubts about the cosmology of her world as it is interpreted by the priestly caste, who preach that the ring is a 'skybridge', from which the Rainmaker god decants water. The brief glow of sunlight on the edges of the ring's northern and southern horizons at each dusk and dawn represents the 'Godsfire' of the book's title. The priests declare that the Godsfire is an actual conflagration, triggered by the Gods for purposes unknown, bu Heao has her doubts as to the veracity of this theory.  

The first two-thirds of the novel are occupied with detailing the world of the felines, interspersed with recitations of the various religious and political conflicts between the scholarly and priestly castes, conflicts which Heao attempts to exploit for her own purposes (sometimes with harmful consequences).

The final third of the novel sees Heao mount a long-pursued expedition designed to explore the territories outside the shadowfall. Accompanying the expedition is the High Priestess, who is actively seeking to discredit any challenges to her sacred interpretation of the World. Further complicating matters is the mystery of the origin of the human slaves, whose legends and myths speak of the land beyond the shadow as being the homeland of the Gods.

As the expedition progresses, it will uncover revelations about the nature of the world and its inhabitants, revelations that will threaten the existence of the feline civilization...........

'Godsfire' has much in common with the novels of C. J. Cherryh in terms of meticulously constructing an alien society and expounding on its social, political, and cultural idiosyncrasies as compared to 'our' civilization. 

Unfortunately, 'Godsfire' suffers from the same problems that tend to afflict Cherryh's novels: so much effort is expended on world-building that the plot becomes secondary. In the case of 'Godsfire', I found myself struggling to continue through the first two-thirds of the book and its seemingly endless stretches of conversations in which the felines argue and spar over one thing or another. 

The final third of the novel does see the long-awaited advent of a number of revelations and accompanying action sequences, but these - perhaps inevitably - have a rushed, contrived quality that could have been avoided with more energetic pacing in the earlier stages of the narrative.

Summing up, readers willing to exercise patience with the first two-thirds of the novel may find the closing chapters sufficiently interesting to impart some reward to completing 'Godsfire'. All others, however, are better off passing on this novel. 

Alex the Droog action figure

A Clockwork Orange Action Figure

Alex DeLarge ONE:12 Collectible Figure

Mezco, 2018

Just in time for Christmas 2018 comes your very own Alex the Droog Action Figure !!!!!

Made for the higher-end action figure collector, this 'ONE:12' series reproduction stands about 6.7 inches tall. It's available from your favorite online retailers (pricing can vary, but is usually around $80).

Mezco also is marketing a 12" Alex figure in a traditional 'window box' package, with just the cane and a single mask as accessories, for around $40. I'll have a post on that figure forthcoming. 

Note that to complicate things even further, Mezco also makes a 'stylized' 8.5 inch Alex DeLarge action figure with a 'big head', also priced at around $40..........it's easy to confuse these three models of action figures.

The ONE:12 edition of the action figure is elaborately packaged in a special slipcase box.

Your Alex figure comes with all sorts of clever accessories: a cane and knife; a glass of milk straight from the Korova Milk Bar; seven interchangeable hands; and two different interchangeable heads - one representing Alex in all of his Droog glory, the other, his visage battered after being worked over by his former mates 'Dim' and 'Georgie'.

I can't help laughing to think what the reaction would have been to such an action figure had it been released alongside the film in 1971. I'm sure there would have been a tsunami of outrage. It just goes to show you how times have changed.

Hex issue 1

Hex
Issue 1
by Michael Fleisher (story) and Mark Texeira
DC Comics, September 1985

By the Summer of 1985 it was becoming clear to the comics publishers that the rise of dedicated comic book shops was going to revolutionize the sales and marketing of comics. 

This was welcome news, for this 'direct market', as it came to be called, was likely to rescue the entire industry from extinction as newsstand sales plummeted, and more and more distributors became indifferent to comic books and the few cents of profit they earned from each sale. 

Superhero titles were the main beneficiaries of the direct market, which led DC comics to contemplate reducing its lineup of non-superhero titles, particularly ones with poor sales records. A potential casualty of this attitude was the long-running comic Jonah Hex, which by 1984 was a bimonthly title.

As is detailed in essays available at DC in the 80s, One Fangirl's Opinion, and Matching Dragoons (warning: they have spoilers) longtime Hex writer Michael Fleisher was willing to radically change the title in an effort to revive sales.

'Hex', which debuted in September 1985, sent its hero into the year 2050, into a United States turned into a mashup of post-apocalyptic pop culture references like Mad Max, Escape from New York, and even the 1983 B-movie Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn. 

Below is the contents of the first issue of 'Hex'. If there is interest, I'll post additional issues.

 

Book Review: Stellar 6

Book Review: 'Stellar 6' edited by Judy-Lynn del Rey

1 / 5 Stars

'Stellar 6' (186 pp) was published in January 1981. The awful cover art is by Jon Lomberg. 

This is the sixth volume in the 'Stellar' series, which began in 1974. Ultimately, 7 volumes were published. All of the stories in the series were first-time entries.

I had misgivings about picking up this title: the 'Stellar' series was inaugurated as an alternative to the sf anthologies of the early 70s that showcased stories associated with the New Wave movement. 'Stellar' was designed as an outlet for all-original stories that represented traditional sf, with an emphasis on plots that dealt with the 'hard' sciences. However laudable this goal, it did mean that some of the entries in a given 'Stellar' anthology could be bland and underwhelming. 

This is the case with 'Stellar 6', which shows signs that the series was running out of steam by the early 80s.

My capsule summaries of the entries:

Till Death Do Us Part, by James P. Hogan: in the near future, the wealthy can arrange to temporarily occupy a 'manufactured' body via downloading their persona into the body. A con man looks to take advantage of this technology.

This is the best story in the anthology. In some ways it has a proto-cyberpunk flavor, which Hogan combines with the theme of 'committing the perfect crime.'

All Ye Who Enter Here, by Jack Williamson: a team of four astronauts journeys to Jupiter to conduct an up-close investigation of the Great Red Spot. There is much interpersonal conflict en route.

While the concept is promising, the story can't rise above the limitations of Williamson's history as a pulp writer. Characters in 'All Ye' don't just speak; they rasp, they gasp, they grit, and they even grate....when these verbs accompany awkward dialogue, it's clear that Williamson's prose style is stuck in the 40s.

A Gift of Space, by Margaret C. Hewitt: In the future, genetic testing determines an individual's occupation. When a young man desperate to be a space pilot learns that a congenital condition will disqualify him from flight school, Dr. Hannah Kemp is asked to bend the rules.......

This is a competent, if not overly exciting, story that examines the conflict between the promotion of humanistic values, while also adhering to standards that are designed to promote the greater good of a society. 

The Cerebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras III, by Martha Dodson and Robert L. Forward: Dodson (Forward's wife) co-authored this tale with her husband. It has something to do with the efforts of a scientist to use combinations of DNA from different animals to endow a frog-like alien species with expanded intelligence. It's very dull.

Cinderella Switch, by Anne McCaffrey: at the annual ball held on the grounds of the Official Residence on Formalhaut 5, three young rakes vie for the attentions of a beautiful woman who arrives without an invitation. There is witty repartee. Yep.........this story is that lame.

Byte Your Tongue !, by Clifford D. Simak: a computer named Fred, designed to service Senators in Washington DC, dreams of flying the world's first starship. 

The best thing I can say about this story is that it's not as corny as McCaffrey's........

Grandfather Clause, by L. Neil Smith: veteran time traveler Bernie Gruenblum resents having to take his misbehaving grandson Ellington to the Temporal Museum. 

Smith tries to imbue this story with the sort of quirky, Borscht Belt humor promoted by writers like Ron Goulart, event to the point of rendering Ellington's lisped dialogue phonetically. The result is.........painfully trite.

The Slow-Death Corridor, by Mark J. McGarry: in a vast hospital complex located a kilometer underground in the Edmonton Sector, Davis Mergensohn has a job attending to the inert bodies of those who are clinically dead, but exploited for use as living biofactories.

This story has an interesting, even provocative premise, but fails to do much of anything with it, focusing instead on the psychological and emotional turmoil associated with.........unrequited love. Huh ?!

Summing up, 'Stellar 6' is a dud. With the exception of James Hogan, its contributors were content to 'phone in' manuscripts from their personal slush piles. Anyone reading this anthology in 1981 would have been justified in thinking that sf was a genre in its dotage......

Men of the Legion Part Two

Men of the Legion
Part Two
Alfredo Grassi (story) and Alberto Salinas (art)
from Merchants of Death, Eclipse Comics
Issue No. 4, November 1988

The torture scene in this episode is a bit graphic........but that's what you got, in your Spanish adventure comics of the mid-70s.................