'Solarplexus' by Rick Veitch
from the Winter 1980 issue of Epic Illustrated

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 02

'Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 02'

Rebellion / 2000 AD, December 2010

Judge Dredd was created in 1976 by the English comics writer John Wagner, in response to a request from fellow freelancer Pat Mills. Mills was developing a science fiction comic book for UK publisher IPC. Spanish artist Carlos Ezquerra was responsible for crafting the visual design of the character, who was a lawman in a chaotic, near-future New York City.

Judge Dredd debuted in issue 2 (‘Prog 2’) of 2000 AD in March 1977 in a story titled ‘Judge Whitey’. Unlike the American import comics from DC and Marvel, which dominated a big segment of the UK market at the time, 2000 AD was an anthology issued on a weekly basis, with color covers and black and white interiors. Judge Dredd quickly became one of the more popular features in 2000 AD.

The Dredd adventures are set in the USA of 2099; most of the interior of the continent is a wasteland, the result of a series of nuclear and biochemical wars. Its inhabitants are mutants and outcasts. Judge Dredd is charged with maintaining law and order in the east coast megalopolis of Mega-City One (formerly New York City), Mega-City Two representing the west coast and the former L.A. The 400 million denizens of Mega-City One are crammed into enormous high-rise apartment complexes, while the undercity far below is a world of garbage, fetid darkness, and a prime hideout for criminals.

Starting in 2010, publisher Rebellion is releasing black and white, paperbound compilations of the early 2000 AD comics, including the Judge Dredd comics, in the format similar to that employed by DC with its ‘Showcase’ books, and Marvel with its ‘Marvel Essentials’ books. 

As of February 2012, four volumes in the Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files’ series have been issued. Volume 1 is perhaps the weakest, as the stories it contains are mainly 8 pages-or-fewer, one-shot episodes. 

Volume 2 (December 2010), reprints Dredd tales first published in April 1978 through 1979, by which time the 2000 AD team had begun to incorporate longer story arcs.

Volume 2 features the two major story arcs for the ’78 and ’79 appearances of Judge Dredd.

‘The Cursed Earth’ (May – October 1978) sees Dredd, an alien named ‘Tweak’, and (British) punk ‘Spikes Harvey Rotten’ on a suicidal mission to cross the blasted interior of the USA in order to deliver a vaccine to a plague-ravaged Mega-City Two. 

[Sadly, some episodes that appeared in the 2000 AD strips are deleted in this Rebellion reprint, following successful copyright infringement suits against IPC by General Mills (over a satirical depiction of ‘The Jolly Green Giant’), and McDonalds and Burger King (over the ‘Burger Wars’ episodes). As well, a satirical depiction of KFC’s Colonel Sanders (the 'Dr Gribbon' character in the ‘Soul Food’ episodes) also drew a complaint.]

The second major arc in ‘Case Files 02’ involves ‘Judge Cal’ (i.e., Caligula), and ran from October 1978 to April 1979. Here, Dredd finds himself a hunted outcast when the corrupt and decadent Cal takes over Mega-City One.

‘Case Files 02’ closes with some shorter episodes: ‘Punks Rule’, ‘The Exo-Men’, and ‘The DNA-Man’.

The artwork for these Dredd comics varies from the loose, if energetic style of Mike McMahon, to the fine draftsmanship of Brian Boland, Brett Ewins, and Ron Smith, which reproduces very well here. 

Compared to American comics of the late 70s, the Dredd tales were a fresh take, filled with violent action (there was no Comics Code hampering the UK industry), and plenty of irreverent, satirical humor, in marked contrast to the sententious, labored, and overwrought nature of many of the Marvel and DC titles of the same era.

Fans of comic books from the 70s, as well as fans of the unique way in which the British interpret the landscape of American popular culture, will want to take a look at the 'Judge Dredd Case Files' compilations.

Book Review: 'Eye of Cat' by Roger Zelazny

 

2 / 5 Stars

After moving to New Mexico in the mid-70s, Roger Zelazny (not unsurprisingly) became interested in the culture of the Southwestern US, particularly its Indian / Navajo culture, and its portrayal in the detective novels of Tony Hillerman.

‘Eye of Cat’ takes the Navajo –centered themes of Hillerman’s work, as well as a healthy chunk of Carlos Castaneda’s ‘Don Juan [Matus]’ symbolism, and awkwardly grafts them onto a science fiction novel.

Unfortunately ‘Eye of Cat’ is woefully overloaded with Zelazny’s New Wave affectations, which, by 1982, even he should have realized were fast becoming obsolete.

The plot is straightforward: Navajo tracker Billy Blackhorse Singer has earned a comfortable living, and world-wide renown, for his ability to track and capture exotic (often dangerous) alien creatures on a variety of planets.

When the government recruits him to help defend a diplomat from an alien, shapeshifting assassin, Singer realizes that the only way he can succeed is to fight fire with fire and enlist his own shapeshifter, the ‘Cat’ of the book’s title.

Cat’s price, however, is steep: ever since Billy first captured Cat and placed him in a zoo, Cat has nurtured a deep and abiding hatred for his captor. And once the alien assassin is dealt with, Cat wants the freedom to track down and kill Bill Singer without penalty. 

Lost in an existential funk, Singer agrees.

In due course Cat is freed, and the hunt begins; Singer takes advantage of the presence of ‘trip boxes’, or teleportation pods, to instantaneously travel around the globe and lose his hunter. But Cat has a number of abilities besides the gift of shapeshifting: he can read minds. 

Billy Singer soon discovers that losing his pursuer will be far more difficult than he had imagined….

At its core, ‘Eye’ could have been a well-crafted suspense story with SF elements, and at times the action is genuinely engrossing and holds the reader’s interest.

Unfortunately, Zelazny couldn’t resist encrusting his tale with all manner of New Wave contrivances reeking of a novel written in 1972.

The reader is forced to plod through segments of unpunctuated, Joycean stream-of-consciousness text, as well as blank verse poems using doggerel ‘Indian’ –sounding phrasing (‘My belt is a black arrowsnake’). 

Information about a subset of characters with various psychic abilities is relayed in the form of additional blank verse poems. Sundry gods and spirits of Navajo mythology materialize now and then to interject vague, rather stilted aphorisms and premonitions into the narrative.

The latter sections of the novel devolve into the over-written, phantasmagorical segments that Zelazny regularly inserted into his Amber novels, draining the impetus from the central narrative.

As a character, Bill Singer presents too readily as the stereotyped Indian; for example, his dialogue is devoid of contractions, as if Indians somehow have some sort of genetic defect that makes them unable to use phrases such as ‘ I’ll’ or ‘there’s’.

I won't reveal any spoilers regarding the book's ending save to say that Zelazny does a good job of keeping the reader guessing as to which antagonist will survive the contest.

I suspect that only die-hard Zelazny fans will  be willing to put up with the awkward, self-indulgent construction of 'Eye of Cat'.

'Deathlok the Demolisher'

in Astonishing Tales No. 26, October, 1974

The second appearance of Deathlok sees him tangling with the nefarious Major Ryker, creator of the military cyborg program.....

Heavy Metal magazine February 1982

'Heavy Metal' magazine February 1982

 

It’s February 1982 and the number one single in the US is ‘Centerfold’ by the J. Geils Band; a song I could’ve care less about at the time. 

The college radio stations were playing a UK Number One hit hit by a New Wave group called 'The Jam':  ‘Town Called Malice’,  which was an infinitely better song.

The February issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands, with a saccharine front cover by Greg Hildebrandt titled ‘Angel of the Gods’, and a back cover by Berni Wrightson titled ‘Cadillax’.

Along with new installments of the ongoing series ‘Den II’, ‘The Mercenary’, and ‘Rock Opera’, a new series by Jodorowsky and Moebius starts up: ‘The Incal Light’.  Also debuting is ‘Zora’ by Fernando Fernandez.

The ‘Dossier’ section features the most pretentious column yet written by ‘rok’ music critic Lou Stathis. Check out this sentence:

“Hassell collects skeletal components of indigenous, Far Eastern tropical musics  (the hypnotic, bell-like Javanese gamelan core of ‘Gift of Fire’), arranges them according to intuitive / primitive structures (minimalist repetition), and binds the elements with his trumpet’s fibrous texture and uncannily alive sound.”

There are a number of memorable singleton pieces in this issue, one of which is a 'Gideon Faust: Warlock At Large' adventure from Howard Chaykin, titled 'Urchin'; I've posted it below.

Heavy Metal ran another Gideon Faust adventure, which is a little too...risque...to post at the PorPor Blog. That episode, and another Faust tale from the 1976 comic 'Star Reach No. 5', are available at the Grantbridge Street blog here  and here, and at the Raggedclaws Network here.

Book Review: 'The Whole Man' by John Brunner

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Whole Man’ was first published in 1964 as a fix-up of three stories Brunner published in the late 50s in sf magazines. The novel went through a number of reprintings throughout the 60s and 70s; this Ballantine edition came out in August 1973, with a colorful cover illustration by Charles Moll.

The story opens in the near-future, in a city unnamed, but probably London. The social order has collapsed; anarchists are detonating bombs, and food is scarce. UN forces are converging on the city to restore order. Amidst this unrest, a sickly, impoverished woman named Sarah Howson gives birth to a son.

Gerald Howson is underweight, suffers from a clubbed foot, and a spinal malformation; as he matures, he becomes a recluse in his rundown neighborhood. When his mother dies at an early age Gerald is left to fend for himself as best he can. But Gerald has a gift to offset his deformity; he can ‘hear’ extraordinarily well. In fact, Gerald Howson is a telepath, perhaps the most gifted such being on the planet.

In due course Howson finds himself recruited into an elite unit of UN telepaths, stationed in Ulan Bator. The UN telepath unit is charged with using their abilities to control violence and conflict throughout the world. Gerald’s talent enables him to do more than simply tap into the thoughts of others; he is able to enter into the intense dream state, or ‘catapathic trance’, that can steal upon unwary  telepaths. Once lost in their trance-state the telepath risks starving to death, unable to break free of the vivid dream-world occupying their minds. Only the intervention of another telepath can free these unfortunates from their mental prisons.

When one of the UN’s most important telepaths becomes caught in a catapathic trance, it’s up to Gerald Howson to intrude upon the man’s fantasy and restore sanity. But such a therapy is not without risk, for once inside his patient’s daydream, Howson is vulnerable to the whims and decisions of his host; a false move, and Howson will find his own psyche fatally trapped within the selfsame trance…..

‘Whole’ is typical of Brunner’s fix-ups from the late 60s – early 70s; a workmanlike effort, but devoid of the conscious effort he applied to works such as ‘The Shockwave Rider’, 'Stand on Zanzibar',  and 'The Sheep Look Up’. It is, however, more accessible than those novels.

‘Whole’ suffers in part from its rather fragmented origins; the narrative thread linking the three main segments of the book is a bit thin. There is not much in the way of real action in the novel; rather, it is a deliberately-paced character study of Gerald Howson’s emotional journey from being a crippled outcast to the ‘whole man’ of the book’s title. 

I suspect ‘The Whole Man’ will really only appeal to Brunner completists and to those looking for the type of ‘inner space’ – directed novel that came of age during the New Wave movement.