'The Experiment' by Justo Jimeno

from the Spring 1986 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Heavy Metal magazine ran into difficulties in 1986. 

The magazine adopted a quarterly publication schedule, with Editor-in-Chief Julie Lynch declaring the change was expressly designed to provide readers with a longer-length magazine with 3 - 4 complete stories in each issue, as opposed to the previous philosophy of running stories in monthly installments. 

This may have been true, or it may simply have been a way of putting a brave face on the reality of decreasing circulation.

By 1986 mainstream color comics were exploding in terms of titles and circulation, a phenomenon aided and abetted by the arival of dedicated comic shops. 

These shops served as comic book-centered brick-and-mortar retail outlets, replacing the five-and-dime and drugstore outlets that, up until the 80s, were the primary retail outlets for comic books. 

Significantly, the existence of these shops also meant that non-Code approved books had a ready sales outlet perfectly timed to exploit the advent of a large demographic of comic book purchasers over 21. 

Soon, the more 'adult' or 'mature' material that had been the sole playground of the Warren magazines, Heavy Metal, and Epic Illustrated, was flowing from myriad color comic books issued not only from the major publishers, but from an ever-expanding list of indie publishers. Stoners and emerging blocs of fanboys no longer had to spend 3 to 5 dollars for an issue of Heavy Metal or Creepy for their T&A; they could get it for $1.25 or less from a non-Code approved comic book.

Still, some good, shorter-length material did continue to appear in Heavy Metal, albeit more sporadically. Among the more memorable pieces was this creepy proto-Steampunk story, featuring outstanding artwork from the talented Spanish artist Justo Jimeno Bazaga. 

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: A Spaceship for the King

Book Review: 'A Spaceship for the King' by Jerry Pournelle

4 / 5 Stars 

‘A Spaceship for the King’ first was serialized in Analog in the Winter of 1971 - 1972. A revised version was published by DAW, as Book No. 42 (157 pp.), in February 1973. The cover artwork is by Kelly Freas.

Subsequent printings of the novel by Orbit, Simon and Schuster, Pocket Books, and Baen, used the title 'King David's Spaceship'. 

After engaging in internecine warfare for centuries, the Galactic Empire emerges victorious but badly depleted. Re-establishing its hegemony over the various colony worlds scattered around the galaxy will have to be done on the cheap. Accordingly, individual destroyers are sent out to convince those planets unenthused about re-joining the Empire…. and paying taxes…of the error of their ways. Only those planets with starflight capability are immune from coercion, as the Empire has no desire to battle any forces with a technological capacity equal to its own.

On Prince Samual’s World, the arrival of an Imperial destroyer causes consternation. For centuries the citizens of Samual’s World, where the technology is at a level similar to that of Central Europe ca.1950, have occupied themselves with various Ruritanian wars and intrigues. At first they resist the Imperial force, but after several of their cities and armies are burned to cinders by the orbiting destroyer, they have no choice but to submit to the Empire.

King David the Ninth, the ruler of Samual’s World, is ill disposed to seeing his planet become a  vassal to the distant Empire. There is one loophole that he can exploit: any planet possessing spaceflight is granted a measure of independence from Imperial rule. But how can Samual’s World build a functioning starship when the Empire carefully restricts access to advanced technology ? 

The answer: on the planet Makassar, now descended into barbarity and anarchy, stands a Temple with a library filled with data records from Old Earth – including records on how to construct a starship.

Former colonel Nathan MacKinnie finds himself the lead agent on a desperate mission for King David: under the guise of a Trader, MacKinnie is to board an Imperial Trading Association starship heading to Makassar. Once on Makassar, MacKinnie is to locate the Temple and gain the library records that will lead to freedom for Prince Samual’s World.

But the mission will not be easy. The Empire has no interest in sending an escort to protect a group of traders and merchants on a backwater planet like Makassar. It will fall to MacKinnie to make his own way through pirate fleets and barbarian hordes to the Temple…and once there, he has to convince the ruling aristocracy to let him have access to the sacred records no off-worlder is allowed to see….

‘A Spaceship for the King’ is a well-written, solid SF adventure with a military bent. Author Pournelle has tended to be overlooked by the SF establishment at large, primarily because of his libertarian / conservative political attitudes and the decidedly commercial nature of much of his fiction (Pournelle, along with longtime co-author Larry Niven, never embraced the New Wave ethos or its creed of Art before Commerce).

There are passages of ‘Spaceship’ that get a little too self-indulgent; a description of a sea engagement comes across as an excerpt from a Patrick O’Brian ‘Aubrey’ novel, and a chapter dealing with a ground engagement goes a bit too deeply into the tactical aspects of sword and shield warfare.

Overall, however, ‘Spaceship’ is one of the better of the early releases by DAW Books, and is worth searching out.

Killraven Amazing Adventures No. 39

Killraven: 'Amazing Adventures' No. 39

(November 1976)

This is it ! 

It’s early Fall 1976 and the final issue of the 22-issue ‘War of the Worlds’ series, starring Killraven, is out and in the pages of ‘Amazing Adventures’ (November 1976).

The cover tells us it’s ‘The Final Glory’….is this the final battle, the ultimate showdown with the Martians ? Will Killraven and his crew engage in one last desperate struggle to overthrow Earth’s conquerors and make the planet free again ?

Nope…! 

In fact, this last installment of the original Killraven saga is one of the lamest conclusions in the history of modern comics !

‘Mourning Prey’ has nothing to do with the Martian at all. Not only are there no Martians in this issue, but it’s pretty plain that Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin had no intention of commissioning a special concluding story arc. Killraven’s sales were bad, the series was being canceled, so they simply ran whatever story writer Don McGregor had in the queue.

‘Mourning Prey’ is McGregor’s writing at its worst: clumsy flashbacks, poetic, purple language, empty phrases designed to communicate Something Profound. Toss in the fact that the main adversary is a Butterfly Woman (?!) who’s mad at Killraven for slaughtering some purple caterpillars (?!), and you have the makings of a real underwhelming story………

As always, artist Craig Russell’s work is of good quality and struggles to express itself under McGregor’s verbiage.

So here it is in its entirety, the last issue of the ‘Killraven / War of the Worlds’ series from the mid-70s:

'The Origin of Vampirella' 

from the UK first issue of Vampirella magazine, February 1975

While the first issue of Vampirella appeared in 1969 and featured an 'origin' story, for the premiere UK iteration of the magazine, a newer, slightly modified origin story was printed (below). 

The plot by J. R. Cochman remains barely coherent, but the artwork by Jose Gonzalez is distinctive, and possesses great 70s flavor.

'Vampirella' was the brainchild of 'Famous Monsters of Filmland' creator Forest J. Ackerman. 

A little-known, but thoroughly creepy, segment of Ackerman's life revolved around a pubescent girl named Heidi Saha, who came to 70s geek conventions in a Vampirella costume....(!) 

Book Review: Unisave

Book Review: 'Unisave' by Axel Madsen

1 / 5  Stars

‘Unisave’ (264 pp.) was published in February 1980 by Ace Books; the cover illustration is by Davis Meltzer.

‘Unisave’ is one of the worst SF book’s I’ve ever read.

I gave up on it at page 116, and getting that far was a real struggle.......

The premise is interesting, if not particularly novel: in the year 2188, the extension of the human lifespan to ages of 125, or even 150, has led to the growth of Earth’s population to unsustainable numbers. 

People live in enormous domed cities, while all land outside the domes is devoted to agriculture. Space colonies provide some degree of extra room, but the choice facing mankind is stark: the population must be reduced before catastrophic famine overwhelms the planet.

Unisave is a UN agency devoted to addressing the issue of overpopulation. Comprised of a multicultural team of sociologists, agronomists, demographers, and politicians, it will be up to Unisave to determine what, if any, measures can be used to avert a crisis. The number one contingency plan: forced euthanasia of randomly selected adults, based on a mass lottery, with no exemptions or exceptions.

The moral and philosophical dilemmas raised by employing such a measure in a humanistic society would seem to be suitable for some kind of dramatic narrative, but author Madsen simply isn’t up to the task. 

The reader is subjected to a remarkably dull and plodding narrative consisting of conversational exchanges between various UN bureaucrats. These passages of dialogue are eye-glazingly boring. 

There are SF terms and themes regularly popping up into the text, but so many other aspects of the book go awry that these themes simply are window-dressing. 

Madsen can’t even get the names of his characters right; every character sports a first name and surname of no more than two syllables, like in postwar-era, juvenile sci-fi novels: Sal Belem. Viv Bord. Nilo Dor. Flo Hoo. 

One unfortunate woman even bears the appellation Ter Ki ……

Even readers with a fetish for overpopulation novels will find ‘Unisave’ hard going. This novel is best left forgotten.

'Whoodoo the Voodoo ?' by Caza

from the July 1981 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Quirky humor, and great artwork, by Caza.