Deathlok the Demolisher origin

'Deathlok the Demolisher' origin

Astonishing Tales No. 25, August 1974

 

One of the more offbeat sci-fi - based comic characters of the mid-70s, and a forerunner to the Cyberpunk heroes of the following decade, was Marvel's 'Deathlok the Demolisher', created by Rich Buckler. Deathlok debuted in the August 1974 issue of Astonishing Tales. 

Deathlok was inspired to some degree by 'The Six Million Dollar Man', which originated as a made-for-television movie in March 1973, and became a weekly series in January 1974. ('Man' was of course adapted from Martin Caidin's 1972 sf novel 'Cyborg').

Unlike the Six Million Dollar Man, Deathlok operated in a dystopian near-future US marked by decayed cities and a dictatorial government. As well, Deathlok was by no means a hero in the traditional meaning of the word. He was a government-trained super-assassin who had few compunctions about killing his adversaries; even with the relaxed Comics Code standards that were in place by 1974, this was something novel and different from the way things were usually portrayed in Marvel comic books.

Deathlok was one of those strips that the very busy Buckler fitted in when he had the time and energy. While never given his own series during this era at Marvel, the character appeared in a number of different comics, such as Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Two-In-One, and even issues of Captain America, before going on extended hiatus in late1983.

Since that time, the character has resurfaced in several limited-run series, with middling success. The most recent run, a seven-issue production released in 2010, featured fine artwork by Lan Medina, but uninspired plotting by Charles Huston.

Here is the first episode of the Deathlok saga, from 1974. (Since original issues of the Deathlok comics are very expensive, these scans are taken from the Marvel masterworks compilation published in 2009).

Book Review: Rolling Hot

Book Review: 'Rolling Hot' by David Drake

3 / 5 Stars

'Rolling Hot (280 pp.) was published by Baen Books in September 1989; the cover art is by Paul Alexander.

This is an entry in Drake's 'Hammer's Slammers' franchise, about a mercenary outfit that roams the galaxy, intervening in various planetary conflicts......for the right price, of course. 

Throughout the 'Slammers' series, the hiring governments, and their armed forces, are almost always incompetent, if not hopelessly inept. This is true of the planet Prosperity, whose National Government has hired the Slammers as part of an effort to quash a long-running civil war with the World Government, aka The Conservatives.

This iteration of the series centers on a detachment of the Slammers led by Captain June Ransom; as the novel begins, they are bivouacked in a seemingly safe area, away from the front, enjoying a badly-needed respite from the fighting. 

However, the Slammer's R & R is rudely interrupted by an attack by enemy saboteurs.

Once the mess gets cleared up, Captain Ransom is given an order by Alois Hammer himself: she and her detachment of three tanks and five APCs are to immediately set off cross-country to the city of Kohang, which is about to fall to a surrounding force of Conservative troops.

If Kohang falls, so does the National Government, and if the National Government falls, then the Hammer's Slammer's don't get paid.

June Ransom and her team realize that it's a suicide mission, but orders are orders. So they roll out, on their way across 300 miles of terrain filled with hostile enemies. But sometimes, friendly fire can do as much damage as the people on the opposite side....

'Rolling Hot' adheres closely to author Drake's brand of military SF. The narrative moves along at a fast clip; death comes frequently and without rhyme or reason; one relies on one's buddies to survive the snafus and mischance that comes with combat.

Drake's writing about armored vehicles has a realism that comes from his time served in Viet Nam as a member of the 11th Armored Cavalry. That said, at times the narrative becomes overly preoccupied with the technical nuances of the operation and maintenance of the Slammer's ground-effect tanks and APCs, and my eyes began to glaze.

The combat scenes are well-written, and (with the exception of Alois Hammer, of course) all characters are expendable, so you never know who is going to 'buy it' when the action heats up.

Readers who are not fans of military SF will probably not need to seek out 'Rolling', but fans of the genre, and the 'Slammers' in particular, will find it rewarding.

The Vengeance of Arn: Fragments

'The Vengeance of Arn, Fragments' by Dionnet and Gal

from the April 1985 issue of Heavy Metal

After appearing regularly in the late 70s in Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal , Jean Pierre Dionnet and Jean Claude Gal discontinued their strip 'Conquering Armies'  and focused on a quasi-spinoff, titled 'Arn', throughout the 80s. 

By and large HM didn't present many installments of Arn, but here's a brief tale from April, 1985.

The Illustrated Harlan Ellison

'The Illustrated Harlan Ellison'

edited by Byron Preiss, Baronet Publishing, 1978

 

‘The Illustrated Harlan Ellison’ (1978) was one of several trade paperbacks, in a groundbreaking graphic format, released by Baronet Publishers in the late 1970s under the auspices of ‘Byron Preiss Visual Publications’. The other volumes were ‘The Illustrated Roger Zelazny’, 1978; and ‘Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, Volume One: The Graphic Story Adaptation’, 1979.

Being long out of print, copies of ‘The Illustrated Harlan Ellison’ can have high asking prices from online vendors. If you do decide to invest in a copy, MAKE SURE you are getting the trade paperback published by Baronet, and NOT the abridged mass market edition issued by Ace Books in 1980 !

As indicated on the back cover of the book, ‘Ellison’ featured 8 chapters / sections. Some of these were traditional comics, and some had been excerpted in early issues of Heavy Metal magazine: ‘Croatoan’, ‘The Discarded’, and ‘Shattered Like a Glass Goblin’. Other chapters were text stories with accompanying illustrations: ‘Deeper Than Darkness’, ‘Riding the Dark Train Out’, ‘I’m Looking For Kadak’.

There is a brief portfolio of paintings by Leo and Diane Dillon, Ellison's favorite artists.

The chapter devoted to an illustrated version of ‘“Repent, Harlequin !”, Said the Ticktockman’ is unusual in that Jim Steranko provided 3-D images, which the reader viewed with the aid of a pair of crude spectacles, with red and blue cellophane lenses, which were inserted into the book’s binding much like a detachable subscription renewal card. The 3-D effects genuinely work, and are another example of Steranko’s genius as an artist and designer. An article on Steranko's design process is available at this website dedicated to the drawings of the artist.

By and large the contents of ‘Ellison’ will appeal to fans of that author’s work. The ‘Croatoan’, ‘Discarded’, and ‘Glass Goblin’ pieces are outstanding, and ‘Dark Train’ also stands out.

The only real dud in this collection is ‘Kadak', which comes across as a too-contrived effort by Ellison to recover his Jewish Roots by working up a humorous fable heavily littered with Yiddish words and phrases.

Unfortunately, the high production costs of books like ‘Ellison’ were difficult to recoup through sales. The result was that Baronet went defunct in 1980. Back in the late 1970s the major retail outlets for books were the shopping mall-centered chain stories like Waldenbooks, and these retailers were just beginning to contemplate devoting precious store space to something as seemingly juvenile as paperback compilations of comics.
 
Indeed, if Baronet had started its line in the mid 80s, the chances of success would have been much higher. As is stands, they remain one of the early innovators of the graphic novel format that is widely represented in retail sf and fantasy commerce nowadays.

Book Review: Witchblood

Book Review: 'Witchblood' by Will Shetterly

3 / 5 Stars

‘Witchblood’ (197 pp) was published by Ace Books in March 1986; the cover art is by Penalva.

Author Shetterly is best known for his shared-world series from the 1980s, set in the city of ‘Liavek’. He also authored the initial, and succeeding, volumes in the successful Young Adult series ‘Bordertown’.

‘Witchblood’ is set in a quasi-Oriental fantasy world, where those who practice magic – the Witches of the book’s title – have been forced to live apart from others, a consequence of wars and atrocities committed by their forebears against the common folk.

The novel’s protagonist is one Rifkin, a Zen adept and practitioner of Kung Fu; the narrative is a first-person flashback of his days as a wanderer.

During his travels off the beaten path, Rifkin finds himself obliged to serve as the bodyguard for a young witch named Naiji. This is no easy assignment, for the castle within which Naiji and her brother Talivane make their abode is due to come under attack by a warlord named Komaki. The castle’s defenders are badly outnumbered; can Rifkin teach them enough of the Art of the Warrior to ensure their survival ?

This perilous situation isn’t helped by Rifkin’s growing awareness that he has magical powers of his own. Are the powers his to control, or do they originate from a more sinister source ? As the forces of conquest move on Castle Gromandiel, Rifkin and his small force of defenders must find some way to wrest victory from what seems to be certain defeat ….

‘Witchblood’ is a competent take on infusing a sardonic, world-weary approach to the sword-and-sorcery theme.

As a protagonist, the diminutive Rifkin shies from the bellowing derring-do of a ‘Conan’ or ‘Brak the Barabarian’, preferring instead to avoid combat / bloodshed if at all possible (in the best Zen Martial Arts tradition). He delivers his koan-inspired aphorisms with more than a hint of humor. Indeed, with his constant quips, skepticisms, and wisecracks, Rifkin has more the personality of a Jewish, New York City-based standup comic than the traditional fantasy hero.

The novel relies heavily on lengthy passages of dialogue and banter to impart its story, and the action takes some time getting underway, but once the battle scenes start, they hold the reader’s interest.

Author Shetterly makes it clear that in this contest, complete victory may not be achievable, giving his novel a more gritty, realistic quality than that exhibited in other ‘Oriental’-themed fantasy novels, such as the ‘Rajan’ series by Tim Lukeman.

Telefield by Macedo

'Telefield' by Sergio Macedo

from the December 1977 issue of Heavy Metal

Just when Cedryll and Cyris, our swingin’ New Age couple, decide it would be far-out to do some meditation in the nude, some nasty bikers, or mad scientists, decide to come by and lay some heavy negativity on the scene. 

But, as is always the case, the good vibrations of the couple’s psychic energy fields are sufficient to repel the bad guys…..and the meditation in the nude can resume !

Book Review: The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5' edited by Lin Carter

2 / 5 Stars

'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 5' is DAW Book No. 370 (204 pp.) and was published in January 1980. The cover artwork is by Jordi Penalva.

This edition of the ‘Year’s Best’ primarily features tales that saw print in 1978 and 1979 in other anthologies, or small- and large- circulation magazines. As a reflection of the lean pickings available in the 1979 (as well as, perhaps, editor Carter's preferences), some old chestnuts get recycled, too.

The anthology leads off with ‘The Troll’, written by T. H. White in the 1930s; more a horror story than fantasy, it deals with a tourist’s unlucky excursion to Sweden.

There are several shorter pieces. ‘In the Balance’, by Tanith Lee, is a fable about students and their pursuit of magical training. David Mallory’s ‘St George’ takes the legend of the virtuous knight, and tries too hard to do something hip and smarmy with it. 

Grail Undwin’s ‘Rhian and Garanhir’ is a slight tale of unspoken yearnings between a knight and a princess. Evangeline Walton’s ‘Above Ker-is’, originally written in 1927, deals with a  self-righteous cleric and a mocking village maid. Marvin Kaye’s ‘Ms Lipshutz and the Goblin’ is an effort at fusing fantasy with New York City-style Yiddish humor.

As was typical for Carter, this volume contains at least one entry relating to R. E. Howard or his creations. ‘The Gem in the Tower’, written by de Camp and Carter, is a modestly successful Conan tale in which our barbarian hero, doing a turn at pirate, investigates a sinister structure on a remote tropical island.

Yet another ‘unpublished’ REH manuscript, ‘discovered’ by literary agent Glenn Lord, finds its way to ‘Year’s Best: 5’ (even Carter expresses some incredulity at the frequency with which these unpublished manuscripts appear). 

This time it’s a story titled ‘Lord of the Dead’, starring belligerent detective Steve Harrison, blundering around Chinatown, and its Inscrutable Orientals, on the trail of an assassin. Devoid of fantasy elements, and apparently composed by Howard for publication in a detective / Oriental themed pulp, the inclusion of ‘Lord’ indicates editorial fatigue on Carter’s part.

There are two stories featuring female protagonists. Pat McIntosh’s ‘Child of Air’ is a rather oblique tale in which Thula the warrior maiden sees herself contested over by rival mages. In Janet Fox’s ‘Demon and Demoiselle’, Arcana the lady wizard seeks to retrieve her familiar from a powerful warlock; there is an emphasis on satiric humor.

Humor is also the main ingredient in Craig Shaw Gardner’s ‘A Malady of Magicks’, in which the down-at-heels wizard Ebenezum delves into strange phenomena at an otherwise prosperous farm.

Adrian Cole contributes ‘Astral Stray’, in which a familiar, seeking the protection of a new master, plays dangerous games with the patrons of an otherworldly inn.

In summary, this is one of the weaker editions of the ‘Year’s Best’ compilations. To be fair, this was a reflection of the rather limited availability of print outlets in the late 1970s, wherein one could find worthy short fiction pieces devoted to the genre. 

But it’s also clear that Carter was becoming increasingly uninspired in executing his editorial duties for this particular anthology. With 'Year's Best' No. 5, he was getting by on his status as a well-known fantasy enthusiast, rather than putting real effort into ferreting out above-average entries suitable for consideration.

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Skull and Crossbones by Caza

'Skull and Crossbones' by Caza

from the December 1981 issue of Heavy Metal

As Though They Were Living by Corben

'As Though They Were Living' by Richard Corben

from Vampirella No. 30, January 1974