A Dead Man's Chest Part 2 of 2

A Dead Man's Chest

(Part 2 of 2)
(from 'Death Rattle' issue 3, volume 3, 1986)

'Death Rattle' issue 3, volume 3

‘Death Rattle’ first appeared in 1972 as an underground comix title from Kitchen Sink Press. Ultimately three volumes were published (each volume with its own issue No 1, issue No. 2, etc.) over the course of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Issues from the first volume fetch high prices on the comix collectibles market.

‘Rattle’ was devoted to horror and SF themes and echoed the work of the EC comic books of the 50s, as well as previous underground comix such as ‘Skull’ and  ‘Slow Death’.

The story I have excerpted here, 'A Dead Man's Chest', is from issue 3, volume 2 (February 1986). The story and art are by Doug Hansen.

A Dead Man's Chest

(Part 1 of 2)

 (to be continued)

Book Review: Earth Has Been Found

Book Review: 'Earth Has Been Found' by D. F. Jones

3 / 5 Stars

At first glance ‘Earth Has Been Found’ (Dell paperback, 1979, 267 pp., cover artist uncredited) seems like a schlocky effort to cash in on the popularity of the movie ‘Alien’, which was released in the same year. But ‘Earth’ is actually a pretty decent sci fi thriller in its own right.

The beginning of the novel reads like a UFO mystery, focusing on the mysterious disappearance, and reappearance in space and time, of military and civilian aircraft.

The first of these events takes place in April 1974, when a US Air Force F4 Phantom flying above California vanishes from the radar. The jet reappears in August, but this time near the Pacific island of Guam; the pilot is disoriented and winds up crashing and burning on the Guam airbase.

Then in March 1976 a Soviet transport plane disappears mid-air during a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk; it reappears in January 1977 over the Arctic Ocean. The pilots survive to land the aircraft but they are bewildered to learn that what to them was a momentary blackout has translated into the loss of nine months of time in the real world.

Air Force officer Frank Arcasso is asked to head a covert US government team, code-named ‘Icarus’, to investigate these disturbing phenomena.

When in September 1982 a Boeing 747 full of tourists from the upstate New York town of Abdera disappears en route from Paris to New York, all the Icarus team can do is wait in suspense. When the 747 re-materializes in the air over Des Moines in December, it is clear that an event of unprecedented magnitude has taken place. The travelers aboard the plane are confused but healthy. Have they been abducted by aliens ? Has the plane entered and departed a Time Warp of some sort ?

The truth, one could say, is in the very early stages of gestation...

I won’t spoil the read by divulging anything more about the plot, but suffice it to say that author D. F. Jones had written several novels prior to ‘Earth’ and he knew how to put together a readable thriller.

His writing is clear and straightforward in the ‘Michael Crichton’ model and the alien parasites, while not as impressive as those from the ‘Aliens’ franchise, are still formidable adversaries, with a biology based on that of Terran insects.

‘Earth Has Been Found’ is a good ‘alien infection’ novel, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for it on the used book shelves.

'Doc Savage' issue No. 1 ('First Wave', DC)

DC just launched the first issue of another of their ‘First Wave’ imprint titles, this time it’s a series devoted to the Man of Bronze, Doc Savage:

Things start off without much of a preamble as Doc, piloting his airship, encounters some deadly lightning attacks on his skyscraper in the heart of New York City:

I’m unsure about this latest series for Doc Savage. The placement of Doc in the modern era seems a little unconvincing despite the studied use of the Art Deco motifs to the illustrations. While the effort to start things off from page one with a great deal of action is understandable from a point-of-sale marketing standpoint, the book doesn’t do much to try and orient the reader as to exactly who Doc and the Fabulous Five are, settling for some dialogue-mediated self-disclosures by Doc, even as he’s plummeting down an elevator shaft with two kids in his arms. 

I’m concerned that for younger comics readers, who may have little in the way of advance knowledge of the Doc Savage canon, this series will come across as just another effort by DC to try and get something out the door before their licensing rights lapse.

The book also includes a supporting strip, ‘Justice Inc.’,  starring the other major Street and Smith character authored under the house name ‘Kenneth Robeson’: ‘The Avenger’. The artwork, atmosphere, and storyline for this supporting tale are well done, coming across as something from a Vertigo imprint title; this section of the book actually impressed me more than did the main feature.

Unfortunately, previous efforts over the past four decades at a successful Doc Savage comic, by a variety of publishers, were mixed financial successes. Hopefully this iteration by DC will break the trend, but it’s too soon to tell. I will go ahead and pick up the second issue of ‘Doc Savage’ and see if writer Paul Malmot can do something new and noteworthy with the franchise......

Book Review: Systems

Book Review: 'Systems' by W. T. Quick

3 / 5 Stars

William Thomas Quick is the author of nearly 30 novels, many of them ‘Clan of the Cave Bear’ – style romances written under the pseudonym Margaret Allan.

A second-generation cyberpunk author, Quick wrote a number of well-received novels during the late 80s and early 90s, with ‘Dreams of Flesh and Sand’ (1988) and ‘Dreams of Gods and Men’ (1989) his best-known efforts in the genre.
 

‘Systems’ (Signet, 251 pp, 1989, cover illustration uncredited) takes place in the San Francisco area early in the 2030s.  Josh Tower, formerly a covert operative in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), now earns a living as a ‘datahunter’ for corporate clients. As he and his pregnant wife are returning from dining out, their air taxi suffers a malfunction and crashes to the ground. Tower endures a painful recovery from his injuries to find himself a widower.
 

Bereft and depressed, Tower tries to make sense of the disaster by looking into the online databases for clues to the nature of the accident; he soon discovers that the accident may have been deliberate. His inquiries lead him to a small, nondescript corporation called Condor Securities. His efforts to delve further into the nature of Condor Securities elicit a strong reaction from what seems to be a rogue element of the DIA. In short order Tower finds himself on the run from a squadron of killers, anxious to eliminate the one man who may know too much about a plot to undermine the world economy.
 

‘Systems’ is a near-future  thriller with some cyberpunk frosting, more like the novels of Dean Ing (whom Quick salutes in his Acknowledgement) than a novel akin to that authored by Gibson, Sterling, Shirley, or Jeter.
 

This is not a bad thing; with the exception of a few too many passages wherein various characters muse a little too long about the Meaning of It All, the narrative flows along at a good pace with plenty of gunplay and some rather gruesome scenes of violence. Tower is by no means a superman, and his escape from his pursuers never easy or taken for granted, and the clandestine organization devoted to snuffing him out sports a collection of suitably malevolent assassins. 

The technology of the 2030s is reasonably well extrapolated based on the state of computing technology at the time the book was written, and the plot machinations that Quick introduces later in the novel are unsurprising but never contrived.
 

Readers interested in a more action-oriented, early cyberpunk novel will want to give ‘Systems’ a look.

Preview: Killraven Meets 'Marvel Zombies' ?!

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The latest installment of the franchise, 'Marvel Zombies 5', picks up on the storyline used in Zombies 4, in which a reluctant Machine Man was drafted into action in order to eliminate a zombie infestation in yet another alternate Marvel Universe. 

The first issue of Zombies 5 takes place in the setting of the old Marvel western comics, and involves well-known characters like the 'Two-Gun Kid' and 'Kid Colt'. 

The issue ends with a one-page preview of the second issue of 'Zombies 5', showcasing none other than Killraven and the 'War of the Worlds' storyline - ! It will certainly be interesting to see one of the PorPor Blog's favorite 70s icons make the Zombie scene....

Killraven: Amazing Adventures No. 27

Killraven: 'Amazing Adventures' No. 27 (November 1974)

The cover for ‘Amazing Adventures’ No. 27 (November 1974) is uncredited but judging by the intricate style of the artwork and the ‘cosmic’ background, it’s probably Jim Starlin (and maybe the illustration was originally designed for an issue of ‘Captain Marvel’ or ‘Warlock’ ?).

‘The Death Breeders’ is scripted by Don McGregor, and Craig Russell provides the artwork.

The book opens with Killraven and company iceboating on Lake Michigan, where they are attacked by giant lampreys (?!). This is less cheesy than it sounds; as the scan’s I’ve posted below indicate, it’s a harrowing battle that sees poor Grok the mutant nearly exsanguinated...

This issue introduces Volcana Ash, a woman with the attributes of Medusa and the Human Torch. She leads the rebels to Milwaukee, where the Martians have set up a colony of human slaves who are treated most heinously. It’s Killraven’s intent to free the wretched slaves, but the Martians have other plans…

This issue is a welcome change from the rather mediocre efforts of the previous several installments of ‘Amazing Adventures’. Russell’s artwork is dynamic and shows attention to detail, and McGregor’s plot provides as much brutality and bloodshed as a Code-approved book could allow in 1974.

The Marvel Bullpen page trumpets the forthcoming hardbound book ‘Origins of Marvel Comics’, as well as a new magazine called ‘Nostalgia Illustrated’ (?!) which seems to have been yet another a spur-of-the-moment effort by Stan Lee to cash in on the nostalgia craze then gripping the popular culture.

Editor Roy Thomas’s essay refers to the staff’s pastimes in that Summer of '74:

“Steve Englehart and Gil Kane were basking languidly by their swimming pools – and maybe sneaking a fast dip or two between deadlines.”

Book Review: Dying for Tomorrow

Book Review: 'Dying for Tomorrow' by Michael Moorcock

2 / 5  Stars

‘Dying for Tomorrow’ (192 pp., DAW Book No. 282, 1978) first appeared in Britain in 1976 as ‘Moorcock’s Book of Martyrs’. The striking cover illustration is by Michael Whelan.

‘Dying’ collects 7 short stories that appeared in print earlier in Moorcock’s writing career, during the 60s, and 70s, in SF magazines such as New Worlds.

In the first story, ‘A Dead Singer’, Mo - an unemployed roadie - travels the back roads of Britain in a camper van; his meanderings are spurred by a foreboding assortment of recreational drugs, and Mo’s conviction that Jimi Hendrix, returned from the dead, is traveling alongside him in the van. 

This is a downbeat tale that perfectly captures the disillusionment that gripped so many erstwhile 60s flower-power children as they confronted the reduced expectations of the early 70s. It’s able to stand alongside Harlan Ellison’s ‘Shattered Like A Glass Goblin’ as a cruelly accurate portrayal of the squalor and self-inflicted misery that came with the dying years of the hippie movement.

The next entry, ‘The Greater Conqueror’, is a sword-and-sandals tale of a mercenary named Simon, seeking fame and fortune in the Middle East at the time of Alexander the Great. Simon becomes involved in a seemingly hopeless fight against occult forces seeking to use Alexander as a portal for the conquest of the world. Published in 1962, this is one of Moorcock’s earliest short stories and while the prose lacks polish it’s a serviceable enough adventure tale.

Moorcock’s best-known short story is ‘Behold the Man’, in which a neurotic British Jew named Karl Glogauer travels in a time machine to the Palestine of 28 AD. No one has heard of a great prophet named Jesus, but the local populace think that Glogauer, a strange visitor from some far-off realm, may be someone special in his own right…..This story remains a provocative and well-crafted examination of the intersection of history, myth and religion more than 40 years after its first appearance.

‘Good-bye, Miranda’ is a short (three page) tale of a girl haunted by a rejected suitor.

‘Flux’ is a sardonic retelling of the H. G. Wells classic tale ‘The Time Machine’. In a near-future European Union facing economic and social collapse, the multi-skilled genius Max File is sent 10 years into the future to see what happens, and how it might be corrected. Things go awry and Max finds himself in times and places far beyond the scope of his original mission.

‘Islands’ is an unconvincing story about a schizophrenic young man who seems to experience multiple possible realities simultaneously in time.

‘Waiting for the End of Time’ is a very New Wave-ish tale of the last pair of humans on the last city on the last planet in the galaxy, on the last day before the implosion of the galactic center eliminates all life and matter. There is much metaphysical prose. Like so many New Wave stories that tried to present Entropy as Art, it hasn’t aged well.

In summary, ‘Dying for Tomorrow’ contains a few memorable tales, but on the whole, this collection confirms that Moorcock’s best efforts at fiction tend to be in the novel-length format. Unless you’re a Moorcock completist, ‘Dying’ can be skipped.

Slow Death comics No. 3

'Slow Death' comics No. 3



‘Slow Death’ No. 3 (1971) features a cover illustration by Richard Corben, who also provides the (untitled) lead entry in the comic. Corben also contributes ‘Heirs of Earth’, a grimly funny little two-page story. Two of the longer pieces in the book come from Larry Weltz (‘The Sleeping Continent’), and Jaxon (‘Gene Shuffle’).

But the best entry in Slow Death No. 3 is another small masterpiece from Jim Osborne, which I have excerpted here, titled ‘Harbinger’. The entire four-page comic contains neither dialogue balloons nor text narration, but is nonetheless very successful in building up a feeling of religious awe and dread.

In utilizing a drawing style reminiscent of an engraving, Osborne’s piece is a homage to Lynd Ward (1905 – 1985), whose work I was vaguely familiar with from the children’s books I read in the 60s and 70s.

Ward does not get much attention nowadays, but in his time (1920s – 1970s) he was one of the premiere book illustrators and graphic artists in the US. He employed a distinctive style in his illustration, and devotees of graphic art will want to be acquainted with Ward’s body of work.

(Who says reading trash like underground comix won’t teach you something ?)

Book Review: Dark is the Sun

Book Review: 'Dark is the Sun' by Philip Jose Farmer

4 / 5 Stars

‘Dark is the Sun’ (Ballantine SF, 1980, 405 pp) is the paperback version of the novel that first appeared in hardcover in 1979; it features a fine cover illustration by Darrell K. Sweet (depicting, left to right, Sloosh, Aejip, Deyv, Vana, and Jum the dog).

It’s 15 billion years into the future, and Earth is peopled by primitive tribes who wander amidst long-forgotten machines and structures; a variety of quasi-human species descended from past genetic engineering projects; and plenty of dangerous animal and insect life. The planet has been physically moved, by technologically gifted elder civilizations since decayed, into an orbit far from the remains of the Sun, which is now nothing more than a Dwarf Star.

The galaxy, and perhaps the universe as well, are contracting and a ‘heat death’ is imminent in the next few centuries - if not sooner.

Deyv, a young man of the Turtle Tribe, is unaware of the colossal events taking place in remote space; instead, he is worried about leaving his tribal homelands on a mandatory Vision Quest to seek a mate. This means trekking into jungles filed with all manner of monsters and hostile tribes. To make things worse, once his quest is underway, Deyv loses his Soul Egg- a potent talisman- to a thief. If he cannot recover his Soul Egg, Deyv will be condemned to life as an outcast.

Deyv finds himself teaming up with a mutant centaur named Sloosh, and an attractive cannibal (!) girl named Vana. Together with Deyv’s unique pets Aejip and Jum, the party sets off to find the Soul Egg thief. But they soon discover that the thief has an agenda of his own, and there are revelations about the Earth, and its fate, that will require their utmost attention…if Man is to survive the coming collapse of his Universe.

By 1979, when he published this novel, Philip Jose Farmer had been producing at least one, (more often several) SF and fantasy adventure novels per year for more than two decades. This experience is put to good use with ‘Dark Is the Sun’. It’s meant to be pure escapist entertainment, an adventure in the ‘Barsoom’ genre founded by E. R. Burroughs, but with a more sophisticated and engaging prose style.

Farmer knows what he is doing: his writing is very readable and the characters, both human and unhuman, are interesting and offbeat. Many of the creatures and landscapes of the far-future Earth are drawn with imagination and an eye for the bizarre. The perils that beset our adventurers are many and keep the narrative rolling along at a good clip.

Somewhat inevitably the pace starts to drag a bit in the book’s middle third, and the novel could have been 50 pages shorter in length. But I got the sense that Farmer was having a lot of fun with his characters and was reluctant to cut the thread short.

‘Old School’ SF authors like Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, and the underrated Edmund Cooper could do this sort of thing so effortlessly that it’s easy to assume that it required unremarkable effort and training on their part. But in fact, more and more as I read contemporary SF and fantasy novels, many featuring lengthy narratives dealing with complex world building and large casts of characters, it’s clear that conceiving and writing a Readable Novel is considerably harder than many aspiring novelists think it is. These guys knew how to do it, and they made it look easy.

‘Dark is the Sun’ is a fun read, and I recommend it to every SF fan.