Crash Ryan

'Crash Ryan' by Ron Harris
Epic Comics, 1984

The four-issue limited series 'Crash Ryan' was written and illustrated by Ron Harris, and released by Marvel's 'Epic' line in October 1984 - January 1985.

As Harris indicates in his Introduction in issue 1, he was inspired to do the series by the serials he watched in the movie houses of his youth, as well as his reading of Norman Bel Geddes' 1929 design tome 'Horizons', and the 1936 movie Things to Come.

I've posted previously on the concept of 30s retro-futurism and Dieselpunk, and allied depictions of an alternate America where the skies are filled with art-deco airplanes sporting all manner of un-aerodynamic fairings, wing configurations, and engine assemblies. 

'Crash' fits neatly into this sub-genre of scif-fi. Harris's artwork and pacing expertly captures the flavor of both the Indiana Jones serials,  the technological stylings of the 'Airboy' comics, and their more modern incarnations, such the as videogame 'Crimson Skies'.

.cbr files of all four issues are available here.

 

Book Review: The Edict

Book Review: 'The Edict' by Max Ehrlich

4 / 5 Stars
 
This paperback version of ‘The Edict’ was released in January 1972, and represents a novelization of the screenplay by Max Ehrlich and Frank de Felitta. 

The film derived from ‘The Edict’, ‘Z.P.G.’ (Zero Population Growth), was also released in 1972, and starred Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin; a low-budget production, it got less than stellar reviews.

As I’ve indicated in a previous post, the early 70s were the heyday of the Population Bomb / ZPG craze, and ‘The Edict’ stands as a pretty good cultural artifact from those long-ago days of yore.

The story is set in the early 21st century; the Population Bomb and Eco-Catastrophe have combined to place the planet dire circumstance. 

The output of the plankton farms and the algae fields cannot keep pace with the hungry bellies of the fecund billions, and scientists have had to abandon desperate measures to make minerals and rock dust edible (!). Food riots and cannibalism are rampant in countries outside the former United States.

The World Government institutes a drastic remedy, the Edict of the novel’s title: for a span of thirty years, no woman will be allowed to give birth. Any couple who conceive a child without government approval will be liquidated, along with their offspring, without recourse to appeal. For only by observing ZPG can the earth’s billions be assured of sufficient food to keep them alive.

For Russ Evans and his Certified Partner, Carole, life is considerably easier than for the teeming multitudes in the cities. Russ is a security guard at the State Museum Number 42, devoted to late 20th century America, and he and Carole live on the museum grounds. 

Not only do they have their own home, but they have a garden where they can grow a few vegetables for their own consumption. And Russ and Carole are free to take in the exhibits of quasi-extinct creatures (like dogs and cats), and the quasi-extinct plants (such as flowers), any time they wish.

Russ is good friends with the Museum’s head of security, George Borden. Indeed, as part of WorldGov’s ubiquitous cultural conditioning, Russ routinely ‘wife-swaps’ Carole for George’s partner Edna, as the WorldGov considers sexual promiscuity to be a useful way of keeping people’s minds off the strictures imposed on their reproduction.

To satisfy the Maternal Urge, the WorldGov allows qualified couples to adopt synthetic ‘babies’ designed to cry, wet themselves, and even burp. But Carole is deeply unsatisfied with her selection from BabyMart. Carole doesn’t desire an android infant. She wants a real, live human infant of her own….

‘The Edict’ is one of the better ‘Overpopulation’ novels of the era. Ehrlich avoids adopting the New Wave prose stylings then ruling sf, and instead uses crisp, direct language, and believable dialogue, to keep his narrative continuously engaging. The near-future scenario is ably presented, often with a sardonic note to remind readers of 1972 just how good they had it. 

Ehrlich avoids interjecting false optimism into the novel’s ending, settling instead for an ambiguous finish, one that goes well with the book’s stance as a cautionary note about a potentially disastrous future.

Readers with a fondness for the Overpopulation sub-genre of sf, as well those who appreciate a well-written adventure novel, will like ‘The Edict’.

Heavy Metal magazine March 1982

'Heavy Metal' magazine March 1982

The March 1982 issue of ‘Heavy Metal’ is a special issue devoted to Rock music; the front cover (‘Pattie Flying An Atomic Potato Through Megacorporate Musicland’) is by Victor Stabin, while the back cover (‘Electric Splendor’) is by Philippe Druillet.

This month’s Dossier section focuses on science fact, with the launch of the space shuttles as a cultural and scientific impetus. Somewhat surprisingly, Lou Stathis’s ‘rok’ album reviews are actually more readable, and less burdened with pretention, than usual; I suspect that, having reached the apogee of pretentiousness in his reviews in the February 1982 issue, Stathis simply had nowhere else to go.

There are ongoing installments of Segrelles’ ‘The Mercenary’, Moebius’s ‘The Incal Light’, Renard and Schuiten’s ‘At the Middle of Cymbiola’, and Corben’s ‘Den II’.

The special Rock-themed pieces are, on the whole, disappointing. Easily the best of them is Macedo’s ‘Jungle Rock’, which I post here. Featuring bright colors, Rasta musicians, and of course copious T & A, it’s the perfect comic strip for those late-Winter doldrums.

Best of all, thuggish droogs, demented scientists, homicidal robots, and other malcontents common to Macedo's 'Telefield' comics don't make an appearance to upset the mellow grooves of this particular happy couple.....

'Arzak' by Moebius

from the June 1977 issue of Heavy Metal 

On March 10, 2012, Jean 'Moebius' Giraud passed away at age 73. 
 

Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D.

(graphic novel) Marvel Comics 1989

This trade paperback compiles the six-issue limited miniseries 'Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D.' that was published from July - November 1988. The miniseries was designed to generate advance interest among Marvel fans prior to the launch of a 'Nick Fury: Agent of Shield' monthly comic book.

[This is a thick chunk of a trade paperback. Copies in good condition are available online for less than 10 dollars, while a hardcover edition can be purchased for under 20 dollars.]

The series opens with Nick and a S.H.I.E.L.D. team engaged in a risky recovery mission aimed at retrieving the nuclear cores from the remains of the Helicarrier. No sooner has Nick successfully accomplished this task, then a regiment of Hydra assailants come swooping out of the skies. Needless to say, there is some frenetic action in place to kick off the first issue of the story arc.

True to form for a S.H.I.E.L.D. tale, the plot gets steadily more incoherent with each episode. By the time I finished issue 3, I had no idea what was going on, as the narrative had devolved into at least three separate conspiracy threads (that I could figure out)..........

If you approach it as an over-the-top exercise in crazed inspiration, 'Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D.' is an enjoyable read. I won't divulge any spoilers, but writer Bob Harras clearly intended to shake up the SHIELD franchise with some of his plot developments. 

The artwork by Paul Neary suffers to some degree from the less than crisp printing technology and coloration in use in comics in the late 80s, and more than a few of his panels have a washed-out appearance. But overall the artwork is serviceable, and occasionally even evokes the illustrative style of Sternako's classic work on this franchise.

"Nick Fury Vs S.H.I.E.L.D.' doesn't take itself too seriously, unlike some of the other miniseries Marvel issued in the late 80s. I recommend picking up a copy if you see it on the shelves.

'Red Light' by Christian Gossett (art) and Geoff Johns (story)

from Metal Hurlant (comic book) issue 2, September, 2002

Book Review: New Dimensions IV

Book Review: 'New Dimensions IV', edited by Robert Silverberg

 

2 / 5 Stars 

‘New Dimensions’ was of course one of the two major, yearly sf anthologies that featured 'New Wave' content (the other being Damon Knight’s ‘Orbit’ series) during the movement’s heyday in the 70s.

‘New Dimensions IV’ was published as a Signet paperback in October 1974; the cover artist is uncredited.

In contrast to Damon Knight's policy in 'Orbit', editor Silverberg approached the New Dimensions imprint a bit more inclined to include traditionally structured stories, along with the obligatory ‘Speculative Fiction’ content. So it was with ‘New Dimensions IV’.

My thoughts on the entries:

Richard A. Lupoff’s ‘After the Dreamtime’ takes the traditional starship-as-a-sailing ship theme, and crews it with a spacefaring race of Australian Aborigines. Somewhat inevitably, a shipload of snobby white people is invoked to remind the reader of the racism and other tribulations visited upon our noble Aborigines. All else aside, 'Dreamtime' s clear writing and straightforward plotting make it one of the better stories in the collection.

Laurence M. Janifer’s ‘The Bible After Apocalypse’ is a vague tale of bewildered humans reacting, in half-hearted, existential fashion, to an alien invasion.

Felix C. Gotschalk contributes two stories. ‘Outer Concentric’ is a satirical look at old age, and retirement, in a dystopian future. ‘The Examination’ is an absurdist treatment of a test proctor who finds out that the little girl to whom he is administering an IQ exam may have more to her than is apparent to the eye. Both of these stories suffer from labored, overly wordy prose, and are stark examples of how poorly most New Wave fiction has aged in the years since it was first written.

Terry Carr’s ‘The Colors of Fear’ is another of the more accessible tales in the collection. ‘Colors’ features a decrepit Earth under siege by a race of nebulous aliens. The story’s imaginative quality, fused with uncontrived prose, gives it an offbeat edge otherwise absent in most New Wave treatments of this same theme.

Roger Elwood’s ‘Ariel’ is an awkward tale of a black astronaut and his efforts to escape bigotry in a dystopian, near-future US. The story, which consists of a linked series of short paragraphs, suffers from all sorts of New Wave contrivances: stream-of-consciousness musings on the part of the narrator, segments of vertically aligned ALL CAPS text, figurative descriptions of otherworldly vistas, etc., etc.

Three entries: ‘State of the Art’ by Barry Malzberg, ‘Among the Metal-and-People People’, by David R. Bunch, and ‘Animal Fair’, by R. A. Lafferty, vie for the dubious honor of being the worst in the anthology. Malzberg’s tale features famous authors arguing among themselves in some sort of ‘afterlife’ version of Paris. Bunch’s story deals with a military robot who makes an expedition to confront an adversary, while Lafferty’s tale deals with a suburban backyard that attracts a bevy of talking animals. All are overly-earnest efforts at crafting absurdist, 'Speculative Fiction' pieces.

At novelette length, Gardner Dozois’s ‘Strangers’ is easily the longest story in the collection. ‘Strangers’ features as its main character a Swiss citizen named Joseph Farber. Farber is a stolid, unimaginative man, one of a number of staffers of the Terran enclave on the planet Lisle, home to the feline, humanoid race known as the Cian.

Lonely, and alienated from his fellow Terrans, Farber begins a romance with a Cian female and eventually marries her, although with the realization that many aspects of their society are withheld from his knowledge. As he embarks on life as a stranger among the reticent, rather xenophobic Cian, Farber gradually learns some stark truths about marriage and family among his adopted culture.

‘Strangers’ is a slow-paced piece, filled with many descriptive passages and quasi-philosophical musings, and author Dozois is deliberate in unveiling revelations about Cian society to his readers. Much of the novelette’s air of increasing disquiet is the result of the limited intelligence and imagination of Farber, its Terran protagonist. Nonetheless, readers willing to shoulder a contemplative treatment of an alien society will find ‘Strangers’ to be another of the better entries in the anthology. 

Summing up, ‘New Dimensions IV’ (not surprisingly) showcases the Speculative Fiction content much in vogue in sf during the 70s. I suspect modern audiences will be underwhelmed by this content; however, those readers who persevere will find several stories worthy of their time.

'The Rising of the Moon' by Bill Mantlo (writer) and Polly Law (artist)

from the April 1981 issue of Epic Illustrated