Ultraterranium

'Ultraterranium: The Paintings of Bruce Pennington' 

edited by Nigel Suckling

'Ultraterranium' (128 pp) was published by Paper Tiger (UK) in 1991.

Bruce Pennington was born in Somerset in 1944, and attended Beckenham College of Art, later the Ravensborn College of Art, where he embraced the Op art and Pop art styles very current in the early 60s.

From 1964 to 1966 he worked on movie posters. In Spring 1967 he received his first commission for a book cover, for Panther Book's 'The Defense', by Nabokov. His first SF book cover came later that year, for 'Stranger In A Strange Land' for the New English Library.

Since that time Pennington has continued to provide artwork for books, magazines, as well as noncomissioned paintings, some of which are presented in Ultraterranium.

Ultraterranium covers Pennington's cover illustrations for books (primarily from UK publishers) in the SF, horror, and fantasy genres from 1970 - 1990. Pennington's skillful use of color and composition meshed well with his subject matter, making him one of the more accomplished of the sf illustrators of the 79s and 80s. His later works, in particular, have an ornate, Dali-esque style to them.

Pennington's website is at: http://www.brucepennington.co.uk/index.htm
 

Heavy Metal magazine July 1982

'Heavy Metal' magazine July 1982

The Summer of '82 rolls on. In heavy rotation on MTV are Paul McCartney and Wings with 'Take It Away'. Featuring John Hurt, George Martin, and Ringo, it is still one of the best Wings songs ever.

The July issue of 'Heavy Metal' features a front cover by Thomas Warkentin titled 'Cadmium Anniversary', with 'In Flight', by Chris Achiellos, on the back cover.  

The Dossier contains a number of argumentative columns on sci-fi, film, and what Rok Critic Lou Stathis calls 'Electro-Popism', but could just as well have been called 'New Wave'.

 

The  ongoing  essay authored by David Black, 'The Third Sexual Revolution', continues, this time on the topic of 'macho woman' (?!), with an illustrated accompaniment by Caza. It's too bad that editor Julie Lynch didn't just delete Black's hokey essay and substitute a full-length Caza comic strip.

There are continuing installments of Corben's 'Den II', Jodorowsky and Moebius's 'Incal Light', 'Nova 2' by Garcia and Bequer, 'At the Middle of Cymbiola' by Renard and Schuiten, 'Zora' by Fernandez, and 'The Voyage of Those Forgotten', by Bilal, which is posted below. 

Sabre issue 1

'Sabre' issue 1

Eclipse Comics, August 1982

'Sabre' was first published in 1978 as a 38-page black-and-white graphic novel by Eclipse, an independent comic book publisher. The book is considered by some to be the first 'graphic novel' ever to be released, although I would argue that Gil Kane's 'Blackmark', from 1971, was actually the first work to merit the title of a graphic novel.

Sabre represented an effort by writer Don McGregor to produce material not stifled by the restrictions of the Comics Code, or the heavy hands of the senior editorial staff at the major publishers. 

In 1982, Eclipse comics released the graphic novel in issues one and two of Sabre, a newly launched, full-color comic book. 

Another 12 issues of original material followed, before the series ceased in 1985 with issue 14.

Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, McGregor wasted too much time presenting himself as a talented wordsmith battling the ignorance of the System, and too little time actually being a good writer. 

Much as he did with the Killraven series for Marvel, McGregor buried Paul Gulacy's exceptional artwork under turgid, overwrought prose.  Even by the standards of comic book writing of the 70s and 80s - in which prolixity was commonplace - McGregor showed a signal lack of restraint.

Still, it's worth taking a look at the 1980s run of 'Sabre', for every now and then, when McGregor allowed Gulacy's illustrations to take center stage, the book rose above and beyond the usual.

The first few pages of Sabre No. 1 introduce us to the dystopian state of the US in 2020 AD:

Here's a nice example of what Paul Gulacy could do when given a text-free page with which to work:

Unfortunately, too often Gulacy's artwork had to maneuver around large chunks of text:

My synopsis of issue two / part two of the original 'Sabre' will be posted next month.

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: The Earth Strikes Back

Book Review: 'The Earth Strikes Back' edited by Richard T. Chizmar

4 / 5 Stars

This year sees the fortieth anniversary of the highly influential book The Limits to Growth, published by The Club of Rome. 

Along with Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, Limits defined the eco-catastrophe mood that dominated intellectual circles and pop culture during the late 60s - early 70s.

(For an interesting take on The Limits to Growth after 40 years, see this article by the economist and skeptic Bjorn Lomberg).

A number of eco-catastrophe - themed sf anthologies were issued in those golden days, but starting in the mid-70s, the genre began to lose its appeal, and fared rather poorly throughout the 80s.

With the 90s, eco-catatrophe experienced something of a mini-renaissance in sf circles, and one of its best manifestations is this 1994 anthology from horror / fantasy publisher White Wolf.

‘The Earth Strikes Back: An Anthology of Ecological Horror’ (462 pp) is, as its title suggests, devoted to eco-catastrophe in that good old 70s style. 

All of the 20 entries were produced exclusively for this anthology. The authors are the ‘usual suspects’ of horror / sf writers for a mid-90s anthology: Charles de Lint, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Poppy Z. Brite, Ed Gorman, etc.

The first entry in the collection, Dan Simmons'  ‘My Copsa Micas’, is not really a fiction piece, but rather, a disorganized, rambling essay touching on ecological / environmental themes. Apparently the submission deadline caught Simmons without a finished short story, and this is what he hastily came up with.

‘Harvest’ by Norman Partridge, ‘Ground Water’ by James Kisner, and ‘Cancer Alley’ by Nancy Collins, focus on ‘environmental injustice’, in which hapless minorities, and low-income folks, live in neighborhoods since converted into toxic wastelands.

A number of contributions acknowledge Joe R. Lansdale, and appropriately enough, go for frank horror (exemplified by toxic goo dissolving people). These are: ‘Double –Edged Sword’ by Barry Hoffman; ‘Tyrophex-14’ by Ronald Kelly; and ‘Toxic Wastrels’, by Brite. Gary A. Braunbeck’s ‘The Dreaded Hobblobs’ features gross-out humor in the inimitable Lansdale style.

Themes of corporate corruption and (sometimes) comeuppance are dealt with in ‘Where It’s Safe’ by John Shirley; ‘Binary’ by Roman A. Ranieri; ‘Please Stand By’ by Thomas Monteleone; and Yarbro’s ‘Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200’.

End-of-Civilization / Nature’s Vengeance topics are explored in Thomas Tessier’s ‘I Remember Me’, William Relling Jr’s ‘Expiration Date’, Mark Rainey’s ‘Torrent’, Rick Hautala’s ‘Toxic Shock’, and Hugh B. Cave’s ‘Genesis II’.

Ed Gorman’s contributions to 80s and 90s anthologies could be hit-or-miss, but his ‘Cages’ turns out to be one of the best entries in ‘The Earth Strikes Back’. With a prose style that mimics a good Harlan Ellison tale, an imaginatively warped near-future setting, and plenty of black humor, ‘Cages’ stands out.

Richard Laymon’s ‘The Fur Coat’ incorporates some dark, politically incorrect humor in its portrayal of vengeful environmentalists.

‘The Forest is Crying’, by de Lint, is the worst story in the anthology. It’s a mawkish tale of a cynical detective who comes to recognize the Sanctity of Mother Earth, via (naturally enough) the intervention of Native Americans (because, as we all know, only Native Americans truly understand the abomination of the White Man and his despoilment of the Earth).

Taken altogether, ‘Earth Strikes Back’ is a decent anthology, and, if it had been issued in 1971, would have been received as a stellar story collection, well in keeping with the eco-disaster themes then predominant in sf.

If you’re into that sub-genre of sf, then you’ll want to pick up ‘Earth Strikes Back’.

Hunter episode 3 from Eerie No. 54

'Hunter' from Eerie magazine (Warren)
episode 3
from Eerie No. 54, February 1974

Book Review: 'Stolen Faces' by Michael Bishop

5 / 5 Stars

‘Stolen Faces’ was first published in 1977; this Dell paperback (207 pp) features a cover illustration by Steve Hickman, and was released in July 1978.

As the novel opens, Lucian Yeardance, a middle-aged starship navigator, has been demoted for insubordination. His new assignment is that of chief administrator at Sancorage, the headquarters for the leprosarium on the planet Tezcatl.

The leprosarium harbors fewer than a hundred people, all infected with ‘muphormosy’, a disease caused by a bacterium native to Tezcatl. This bacterium causes symptoms - loss of viable tissues and nerves in the extremities, and attendant mutilation and disfigurement – reminiscent of the Terran form of the disease.

Yeardance soon discovers that his charges are by no means the saintly sufferers Father Damian encountered at Molokai. The ‘muphormers’ of Sancorage are a squalid congregation of violent, unwashed, self-loathing individuals, who think nothing of elbowing aside their more feeble brethren during the scrabble for weekly food distributions.

Yeardance also learns that the bureaucracy in charge of the leprosarium would prefer that the muphormers as soon die in obscurity, as garner increased assistance. As far as his superiors are concerned, the less of a commotion Yeardance makes, the better.

Yeardance, moved by the plight of his wretched charges, seeks to improve their lot. But his efforts bring to light some disturbing truths about the muphormers, the nature of their disease, and the influence of Tezcatl society and its Aztec-inspired cultural mores.

‘Stolen Faces’, like many New Wave –era sf novels, is centered on the themes of anthropology and sociology, rather than the ‘hard’ sciences.

The book’s opening chapters require some patience on the part of the reader, as Bishop introduces many neologisms, as well as belaboring a juxtaposition of the linguistic stylings employed by the Aztec-inspired culture of Tezcatl, and the Slavic / Soviet culture of the Galaktik Komm federation.

Despite these obstacles the narrative starts off on a promising note, with shadings of a medical mystery.

However, the middle chapters tend to lose momentum, as author Bishop devotes much of his attention to the burgeoning psychological turmoil experienced by Lucian Yeardance, as this formerly self-centered starship navigator becomes a Reluctant Humanist.

The novel’s final pages do regain momentum, as the deep secret of the muphormers is dramatically brought to light, and the note of creepiness underlying the narrative comes to fruition.

‘Stolen Faces’ is one of the better examples of New Wave sf: an offbeat, imaginative novel that, while initially something of a chore to read, rewards the reader who perseveres. Accordingly, it deserves a Five-Star rating.