Journeyman: The Art of Chris Moore

'Journeyman: The Art of Chris Moore'

Chris Moore (b. 1947) is an English illustrator and artist; his first commission for a paperback cover came in 1972, when he had just finished college. He began to take on more assignments for sf covers in the 80s, and by the 90s he was one of the more sought-after artists in the genre.

‘Journeyman’ (Paper Tiger, UK, 2000) is an overview of Moore’s work from the early 80s through the late 1990s. The book intersperses reproductions of Moore’s work with text; the latter is a combination of a narrative of several  visits to the artist’s studio in East Lancashire by author Gallagher; as well a lengthy interview with Moore generated from these visits. 

While in most art books the text is something of a superficial overlay, in ‘Journeyman’ it’s actually quite interesting. As an interviewer Gallagher touches upon a variety of subjects, and Moore seems quite happy to respond, with anecdotes about producing album covers in the early 80s for UK bands and artists such as Rick Wakeman and Rod Stewart. (One of Moore's album cover paintings for Wakeman was so unusually life-like the record company staff thought it was a photograph).

In addition to discussing his painting techniques, Moore also comments on the business aspects and financial realities of being a commercial artist. 

Anyone interested in sf art, and commercial art in general, will want to keep an eye out for ‘Journeyman’.

(endpapers)

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick, 1989

Tygers of Wrath by Philip Rosenberg, 1991

Buddy Holly (poster), 1985

Dark Wing by Richard Herman, 1993

The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, 1998

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, 1998

 

We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick, 1990

 Emphyrio by Jack Vance, 1998

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, 1998

The Weight by Allen Steele, 1994

The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke, 1986

Stalking the Great Graphic Dream

'Stalking the Great Graphic Dream' by Archie Goodwin

from the Winter 1980 issue of Epic Illustrated

An interesting perspective by Goodwin on the graphic novel concept, which, in 1980, not only meant comic artwork printed or reprinted in book format - which is how the graphic novel is primarily marketed nowadays -  but also the production of text combined with copious illustrations, in the manner of the publications of Byron Preiss and his 'Visual Publications' library.

Of the three comics featured as illustrations in Goodwin's article, the 'Frankenstein, Count Dracula, Werewolf' story by Neal Adams, as well as Hama and Golden's 'Bucky O'Hare', appeared in Adams's 'Continuity Comics' anthology series Echo of Futurepast, starting with issue 1 in 1984.  

I can't figure out if Ed Davis's 'Riders to Galaxy's End' ever saw print.

Epic Illustrated Winter 1980

'Epic Illustrated' Winter 1980

The Winter 1980 issue of 'Epic Illustrated' is issue No. 4. The highly decorative front cover is by William Michael Kaluta.

This issue contains further installments of Starlin's increasingly labored 'Metamorphosis Odyssey', Tim Conrad's 'Almuric', and P. Craig Russell's 'Elric'. 

Harlan Ellison's short story 'Sleeping Dogs' is presented as text with b & w illustrations by Ken Steacy, and there is an essay by editor Archie Goodwin on 'Stalking the Great Graphic Dream', an interesting overview of the state of the nascent 'graphic novel' concept, which represented undiscovered territory at the time.

Among the shorter comics in the Winter 1980 issue is 'Elephant Grass' by Marc Hempel, which I've excerpted below......

Jean-Michel Nicollet: Book covers

Jean-Michel Nicollet: Book covers

One of the most memorable and accomplished of the French artists contributing to Heavy Metal / Metal Hurlant in the late 70s and early 80s was Jean Michel Nicollet. 

His distinctive style is showcased at this website, 'Neo' (the acronym for 'Nouvelles Editions Oswald'), which provides images of French paperbacks for which Nicollet did the cover art.

I'm not fluent in French, but I gather that Neo is a specialty publisher in the 'fantastique' genre. The paperbacks, all of which were issued in the 70s and 80s, reprint famous works of fantasy, sf, and mystery genres. Represented are well-known authors like Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, William Hope Hodgson, and Brian Lumley, among others. 

Also receiving cover artwork from Nicollet are some of the 'Harry Dickson' ('The American Sherlock Holmes') novels by the Belgian author Jean Ray. 

[Nicollet apparently ia a big fan of the Harry Dickson stories, which remain tremendously popular in Europe but sadly, have never been widely translated into English, and given the wide dispersion for US consumption that they deserve.]

Needless to say, Nicollet's illustrations for these classics are equal (if not superior) to those of Frazetta, Vallejo, and other well-known artists. 

Unfortunately, those few Neo editions that are available from US vendors are prohibitively expensive.

Book Review: The Road to Corlay

Book Review: 'The Road to Corlay' by Richard Cowper

 3 / 5 Stars

'The Road to Corlay' was published by Pocket Books in September 1979. The striking cover painting is by Don Maitz; it seems safe to conclude that it was inspired in some part by John William Waterhouse's famous oil painting 'The Lady of Shallot' (1888).

Richard Cowper was the pen name used by the British author John Middleton Murray, aka Colin Murray (1926 - 2002). 'Road' was the first volume in what eventually became a trilogy; the other two volumes are 'A Dream of Kinship' (1981) and 'A Tapestry of Time' (1982).

'Road' is set in a future UK, circa 3000 AD, some one thousand years after global warming has left a large percentage of the planet's lower-lying terrain submerged under the oceans. Civilization has regressed to a medieval level, and what used to be the UK is divided into a set of seven islands, or 'kingdoms'.

This future UK is ruled by a Church Militant and its harsh theology. The people instinctively yearn for some alternative, some signs of a belief system free of orthodoxy. There are rumors and whispers of the advent of the 'White Bird', a sort of Jungian archetype of the Holy Spirit. However, the theology associated with the White Bird relies on the evangelical trope of a personal encounter with the Divine, a tenet viewed with considerable disfavor by the Church.

The novel opens with a prologue, 'The Piper At the Gates of Dawn,' a title borrowed of course from a chapter of Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows.'

The Piper of Cowper's story is Tom of Cartmel, a thirteen year-old lad raised by the wizard Morfedd, and bestowed by that worthy with a forked tongue, and a magic pair of pipes. We learn that Tom's musicianship has an eerie effect on its listeners, evoking a temporary, transcendent state of consciousness. When this passes, the listener is dazed; sees his or her world in a new light; and adopts the fervor associated with those who believe in the coming of the White Bird.

The succeeding chapters focus on the adventures of a White Bird acolyte named Thomas of Norwich, who finds himself (somewhat against his will) fashioned into a saint for the faith. Forced into an existence as a hunted man, Thomas must evade the forces of the Church Militant and reach the citadel of Corlay, in Brittany, where the Queen has granted sanctuary to the Kin.

The novel's sf element is promoted in a parallel sub-plot, set in 1986, and revolves around the efforts of a team of English researchers to explore an esp-derived link with Thomas and his followers.

'Road' shows clear signs of being influenced by Keith Robert's seminal novel 'Pavane', which is not a bad thing. As Roberts did with his Catholic incarnation of England in 'Pavane,' Cowper's future UK under the thumb of a stifling theocracy is presented with some degree of ambiguity. 

Cowper regularly inserts passages into his narrative depicting this world with a highly descriptive, quasi-poetic prose style designed to highlight its pastoral beauty. The reader is informed that however heavy may lie the influences of the Church Militant, life in this future UK is not necessarily be as dire as the torments and terrors attendant to our own 'modern' civilization.

'Road' also does a good job of communicating the dedication of the White Bird devotees, and the suspense that accompanies their efforts to flourish despite the depredations of the Church Militant.

Readers who enjoy 'Pavane,' and similarly-themed material ('The Cloud Walker,' by Edmund Cooper, comes here to mind) will be interested in 'The Road to Corlay.'

The Sand Man by Loustal

'The Sand Man' by Loustal

from the January 1982 issue of Heavy Metal

Jacques de Loustal (b. 1956) provides a downbeat, existential tale, with even mixtures of dark humor and creepiness.....

Book Review: The Crystals of Mida

Book Review: 'The Crystals of Mida' by Sharon Green

Gor Fanboy Score: 4 / 5 Stars

‘The Crystals of Mida’ is DAW Book No. 484, released in June 1982. The cover artwork is by Ken Kelly. It’s the first of five volumes of the ‘Jalav: Amazon Warrior’ series that author Green published from ’82 to ’96.

Somewhat surprisingly, despite the tremendous financial success of the ‘Gor’ novels by John Norman (the pen name of John Eric Lange), it took until 1982 before DAW Books realized that if the fanboys were ready to snap up each installment of the Gor novels, they might also snap up imitators. 

As the back cover blurb of ‘Crystals’ states, “If you like John Norman, you will like Sharon Green.”

Sharon Green (b. 1942) authored a large number of sci-fi and fantasy novels throughout the 80s and 90s, and is adept at mimicking the prose style of Norman’s novels. As with the Gor books, ‘Crystals’ uses a deadpan first-person narrative on the part of our heroine Jalav to relate various escapades and intrigues on a planet in the grip of barbarism.

Adding spice to the mix is a peculiar habit of the beautiful Jalav and her equally alluring amazonian tribeswomen: they have a habit of abducting studly males and drugging them with a potion that renders their bound captives quite responsive to erotic stimulation (!)  That's right, helpless male captives forced (wink-wink) to serve the insatiable, lust-filled desires of stunning warrior chicks …!

Yes, it’s something to make every Gor fanboy’s palms sweaty, his brow wet, his vision blurred..…

It’s easy to laugh at this picture of fanboy manipulation, but remember, this is 1982. There is no Internet, and there is no such thing as a cornucopia of free porn delivered to you with a mouse click. So the 'Jalav' novels were heady stuff for the fanboys in those long-lost days.

To her credit, Green infuses “Crystals’ with subtle humor that satirizes the whole Gor Concept.

At 352 pp. this is a thick chunk of a book, and at times the action drags and it’s a chore to continue reading. However, the last few pages deliver a satisfactory, even offbeat, ending.

‘Crystals’ isn’t for everyone; any argument that it represents a progenitor sci-fi ‘feminist’ novel is stretching the book’s simple intentions. And, I suspect readers who have since grown out of the Gor books will not find ‘Crystals’ capable of fueling more than a bit of nostalgia. 

But readers of the ever-expanding genre of sci-fi and fantasy romances, which now dominate DAW’s release lists, may want to investigate the Jalav series for a take on how things were done…. back ‘In The Day.’

Mates by Moench and Maroto

'Mates' by Doug Moench and Esteban Maroto

from Comics International No. 3, Warren publishing, 1975

Some alluring Amazons turn out to have a sinister secret......

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: Science Fiction: What It's All About

Book Review: 'Science Fiction: What It's All About', by Sam J. Lundwall

 3 / 5 Stars

Sam J. Lundwall (b. 1941) is one of Sweden’s most influential SF fans, authors, editors, and publishers. His novels ‘Bernhard the Conqueror’ (1973) and ‘2018 AD, or the King Kong Blues’ (1975) were published in the US by DAW Books.

Lundwall published ‘Science Fiction: What It’s All About’ in Sweden in 1969. Having met Lundwall during a world SF convention in London, Donald A. Wolheim, then the editor of Ace Books, offered to publish the book in the US (Lundwall is fluent in English).

‘SF:WIAA’ (256 pp., black and white illustrations) was released in 1971, with cover art by Dean Ellis.

As Wolheim points out in his Introduction, SF has primarily been viewed as a manifestation of American popular culture, with the genre’s standing in non-American countries being something of an afterthought among fans and publishers.

Thus, Lundwall’s overview of the genre provides a useful ‘Eurocentric’ perspective; more so when one considers that in the early 70s, there was no Internet or World Wide Web, and cross-cultural communications more laborious and cumbersome than today.

‘SF:WIAA’ is divided into chapters dealing with the early history of SF; early Utopian ideals in the genre; contemporary SF and its rather pessimistic view of the world; and the advent of fantasy / sword and sorcery literature as a cultural phenomenon. 

Successive chapters focus on traditional SF, and major writers such as Asimov and Heinlein; the field’s treatment of robots, women, and aliens; mass culture approaches to SF, such as comic books, television, and feature films; and SF fandom. The final chapter predicts where the genre would be headed as the 70s unfolded.

It goes without saying that SF:WIAA is outdated, as such books inevitably become within a few years of their release. Not surprisingly, a book of this length can only skim certain aspects of the genre, and gaps in coverage exist. For example, Lundwall rarely acknowledges that SF is a business, and that marketing and profitability play salient roles in determining what is, or is not, published. As well, Lundwall rarely passes up opportunities to remind his Anglophone readers that (arguably) seminal works of SF were produced in Scandinavia and Europe, an aspect of SF history that, in his opinion, has been given short shrift by the US component of SF fandom.

However, fans interested in a readable overview of the genre as the New Wave era became more prominent, and some degree of turmoil accompanied its advent, may find SF:WIAA worth a look. Lundwall himself is rather skeptical of the New Wave movement, seeing it as too fixated with the negative, but he also criticizes traditional SF for its conservatism and stodginess about social mores and attitudes (remember, in the late 60s – early 70s Sweden was the hallmark of a progressive country, what with its release of ‘explicit’ films such as ‘I Am Curious / Yellow’). 

'SF: WIAA' stands as an interesting snapshot of the genre when it was on the cusp of growing into the massive cultural phenomenon of the later 70s.