'Hunter II' from Eerie magazine issue No. 67 (August 1975)

After the initial run of ‘Hunter’ in Eerie generated considerable reader approval, Bill Dubay decided to resurrect the character in a ‘Hunter II’ iteration, with the first episode appearing in Eerie No. 67 (August 1975).

Hunter II featured a brand-new protagonist, and a more concerted effort to tie the storyline into that of other ongoing features (such as ‘Exterminator’) in Eerie. Paul Neary was retained as the artist, and Budd Lewis continued to provide the plots.

Succeeding episodes – which I’ll be posting here at the PorPor Blog – appeared in Eerie Nos. 68, 70 – 72, and 74.

A standalone, final episode in the series as a whole, appeared in Eerie 101 (June 1979).

 

 

Great Balls of Fire: An Illustrated History of Sex in Science Fiction

'Great Balls of Fire: An Illustrated History of Sex in Science Fiction' by Harry Harrison

 

‘Great Balls of Fire’ is a trade paperback (120 pp) in landscape format published in December, 1977 by Grosset and Dunlap.

The cover illustration is reprinted from Ken Barr’s painting for the cover of the Marvel / Curtis magazine Doc Savage, issue No. 3, December 1975 (‘The Inferno Scheme’). 

The book is divided into 9 (roughly chronological) chapters, covering the genre from the pulp era up to the mid 70s. One chapter focuses on S & M themes, another on whether Conan (and other barbarian heroes) are gay (!?), and another on the implausibility of interspecies matings. 

Harrison’s commentary is casual and conversational in style, rather than pedantic. 

The book is of course heavily illustrated, and although the illustrations are large in size, some taking up an entire page, many of the black and white images are poorly reproduced.

There are magazine covers from the pulp era, panels from comics, and a surprising amount of material excerpted from Metal Hurlant magazine (at the time ‘Great Balls’ was being written earlier in 1977, the English version of Metal Hurlant, Heavy Metal, was just getting started).

I’ve posted some of the PG-13 illustrations to give an idea of the pictorial content ( I’ve not posted some of the few R-rated images present in the book, rather than risk the Blogger ‘adult content’ warning).

Needless to say, modern audiences used to the cornucopia of internet porn are going to find the content of ‘Great Balls’ tame, even quaint.

People under 30 will probably be greatly amused at the idea of 70s stoners seeking, and finding, titillation in the depictions of naked vampire chicks, naked barbarian girls, and naked female astronauts in the pages of Heavy Metal, Creepy, Vampirella, and 1984.

The nearly 40 years since the book was published have seen such change in the genre and in popular culture that ‘Great Balls’ is best read as a manifestation of 70s nostalgia.

Something belonging on the shelf alongside Jack Boulware’s excellent ‘Sex, American Style: An Illustrated Romp Through the Golden Age of Heterosexuality’ (1997).

‘Great Balls’ is right at home alongside your puka shell necklace, your  royal blue with orange trim Puma running shoes, your butternut-hued shag carpet, your roach clip, and your Brut cologne.... and 'Brain Salad Surgery', by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, playing on your stereo......

Book Review: West of January

Book Review: 'West of January' by Dave Duncan

3 / 5 Stars

‘West of January’ (343 pp) was published by Del Rey in August 1989; the cover artist is uncredited.

On Vernier, the planetary rotation is so slow that a single day lasts for centuries. Instead of longitude and latitude, territory is measured by months and weeks, respectively. One-half the planet – equivalent to the distance spanned by six months of longitude - is bathed in sunlight, and is the Day Side. The other half is spanned by six months of longitude and is in darkness – this is the Night Side. Monday is the same latitude as the northern poles; Wednesday the Equator; and Sunday the southern poles. As Vernier slowly rotates about its axis, the dayside months shift eastwards into twilight, and the darkside months shift westwards into sunlight.

[The book provides maps at the end of every chapter to help orient the reader to this peculiar feature of Vernier’s astronomy.]

The descendants of the Terrans who colonized the planet several thousand years ago have splintered into various races scattered around the daylight side of the planet: herdsmen who wander the vast grasslands, wetlanders who live in proximity to the swampy areas, snake men who dwell in the jungles, and sea folk, who live amid the waves, camped on giant rafts of floating vegetation.

Technology has atrophied to a stone-age level. A small but influential group of learned men, the ‘angels’, dwell in an encampment called ‘Heaven’ near the twilight side of the planet. 

From their redoubt, the angels venture outwards on large, wind-powered carts, to periodically urge the tribes – ignorant of their world’s astronomy - to move ever West, staying out of reach of the ever-advancing, devastating solar Equinox, in which sunlight strikes the surface at a perpendicular angle, with merciless intensity, for decades.

‘West of January’ is narrated in the first-person by its protagonist, Knobil, the undersized son of a herdsman. Over the course of the novel Knobil grows to adulthood, and experiences various adventures among the tribes populating Vernier.

In many ways, the episodic narrative of ‘West’ mimics, in a readable way, the traditional Burroughsian fantasy adventure in which a doughty swordsman sets out to make his mark across his strange and colorful world.

However, Knobil is not the typical Burroughsian hero. Author Duncan takes pains to cast Knobil as a more ordinary hero than most, someone lacking in imagination, and thus, our protagonist is regularly subjected to use, and abuse, by the less-friendly inhabitants of Vernier.

These passages of mayhem and misery help propel the story along, and in their abeyance, the narrative tends to drag; for example, I found the chapters dealing with Knobil’s sojourn among the Seafolk to be rather slow and rather dull.

‘West of January’ is a competent, if not particularly memorable, sf adventure novel. The premise of the centuries-long Day is worked into the machinations of the plot with some skill, and Knobil, despite his faults, is a likeable character. Readers with a willingness to be entertained by a novel with a deliberate, gradual approach to storytelling may find ‘West’ worth their while.

'The Hunter' by Martin Springett
from the January, 1983 issue of Heavy Metal

Father Shandor: Demon Stalker in 'The Devil's Dark Destiny'
from Warrior (UK), Volume 1, Number 3, July, 1982

Book Review: Spock, Messiah !

Book Review: 'Spock, Messiah !' by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr.

3 / 5 Stars

'Spock, Messiah !' (182 pp) was published by Bantam Books in September, 1976; the cover illustration is by Gene Szafran.

As the novel begins, the Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Kyros, conducting a survey of Kyrosian culture and civilization. There is a novel twist to this particular mission: via use of 'telescan cephalic implants', Away Team members are able to telepathically link with an unsuspecting Kyrosian citizen, not only adopting that individual's persona, but accessing their memories, and fluency in language, as well. This technology allows the Away Team to investigate a foreign culture with as little artifice as possible.

As is typical for Star Trek scripts and novels, Something Bad takes place to put the ship in dire danger. This time it's a massive radiation storm of unknown origin, emerging from deep space and heading for the Enterprise. It's time for the ship to leave orbit before the storm fries the crew.

However, when the warp drive fails to engage, Kirk and Scotty make a dismaying discovery: the trilithium crystals have been removed from the engines, and the Enterprise is unable to generate enough power to leave orbit.

To make matter worse, it seems that Spock has stolen the crystals (!) and retreated to Kyros. It emerges that the Kyrosian with which Spock has entered into telepathic communication is one Chag Gara, a barbarian from one of the more primitive tribes of the planet. 

Thanks to the cephalic implant, Spock has mind-melded with a fanatic. No longer a Vulcan science officer, Spock is now a revolutionary with a Messiah complex, a revolutionary with few scruples about forcibly converting the entire population of Kyros to a new religion.

With time running short before the radiation storm strikes the Enterprise, Kirk and McCoy beam down, posing as Kyrosian healers.

Their desperate mission: find Spock, subdue him, and retrieve the dilithium crystals.

But Spock has no intention of relinquishing his Holy War and the amazing array of emotions roiling within his new personality. Kirk and McCoy will discover that even when insane, Spock is not one to be trifled with.....

'Spock, Messiah' was just the second Star Trek novel released by Bantam, 'Spock Must Die !' being the first. 

Looking back nearly 40 years later, it's hard to believe, but it took well into 1976 before Paramount and Bantam came to the realization that Star Trek fans, having read and re-read the James Blish novelizations of the series scripts, just might be hungering for all-new content.

'Messiah' is one of the better ST novels, and its origins as a mid-70s novel have much to do with this. The book is filled with politically incorrect references and attitudes, things forbidden in contemporary novels, but placidly part of the pop culture landscape in 1976.

For example, the female crewmembers are depicted as beset with repressed sexual desires for Spock, something the mentally unstable Vulcan is quite happy to alleviate (!)  An attractive Ensign is not only the regular target of sexist remarks from chauvanists Kirk and McCoy, but contributes to the away mission by using nude dancing to seduce besotted Kyrosians (!)

The novel doesn't shy from overt violence; Kirk severs an opponent's hand, and Spock's legions of fanatics aren't shy about using force to Convert the Uncertain.

And, the novel doesn't shy from referencing Mohammed and the rise of Islam as apt parallels for Chag Gara's rise to power on Kyros.....try inserting that meme into a modern ST adventure !

Whether you're a Trekkie or not, 'Spock Messiah' is worth picking up if you can find a copy on the secondhand book shelves.

'Heavy Metal' magazine, January 1983

 

The cold days of January 1983 unfold…. . and in the latest issue of Heavy Metal, Joseph Chiodo provides the front cover, and Douglas Beekman, the back cover.

In the 'Dossier' section, Rok Critic Lou Stathis holds forth on Art Rock, while Merle Ginsberg rhapsodizes over every hipster’s icon of early 80s affection, the since-forgotten Laurie Anderson. 

Samuel Delaney (resolutely referred to here as ‘Chip’ Delaney) is the Interview subject. Disney’s newly opened Epcot Center gets a less than stellar review. Captain Beefheart, another obscure musician beloved by the 80s rock hipster set, gets some favorable coverage.

 

Some good material in the pages of the January issue; new installments of ‘The Ape’, ‘Yragael’, ‘Freak Show’, ‘Starstruck’, and ‘Den II’. 

Also appearing are several very good one-shots. One is Charles Burns’s Heavy Metal debut, 'Robot Love', featuring El Borba, posted below.

 

   

'The Wizard's Castle' (El Castillo del Brujo) by John Howe
from Metal Hurlant (Spanish language edition) No. 32

As this army of demons learns, attacking a wizard's castle can have its downside....especially if the wizard is an acolyte of the Great Old Ones.....

Some great artwork from Canadian artist John Howe.

(my translation is paraphrased)

 The Wizard's Castle (El Castillo del Brujo)

This is how the legend goes: the sun rose slowly, like a wineskin full of blood, fog on the horizon thickening, as if to heal the wounds of dawn. The black birds took flight heavily after the earth rumbled....with a slow, rumbling cadence....

 The demon lord: "Alba blood ! A good omen !"

His lieutenant: "Yes, and this day will be scarlet. Look! Our goal is in that eternal sea of ​​mist....."

The lieutenant: "The  castle !"

The demon lord: "There lives the Wizard ! I can sense it.....I can sense his spell..."

His lieutenant: "Magic is an evil weapon !"

The demon lord: "No magic can resist a well-tempered steel weapon !"

"Look ! In the tower !"

"It's him !"

The demon lord: "Shoggoth !"

"You'll pay dearly for your insolence ! Forward !"

"Charge ! I want his head !"

"A hundred gold pieces to whomever brings me his head !"

"What about the fog...! I expect you to get up and move !"

The lieutenant: "No ! It is useless to try !"

The lieutenant: "They'll never get up! Pftaghn! Spells...a cowardly weapon! But nothing will avail him by the use of his spells!

The demon lord: "Forward !"

(fading out...)

So is the legend, that no army has crossed the walls of that castle, that no invader has trampled their feet upon the white tiles of its vaulted halls, since the wizard chose that place to be like home.

Newton and the Quasi-Apple

Book Review: 'Newton and the Quasi-Apple' by Stanley Schmidt

2 / 5 Stars

‘Newton and the Quasi-Apple’ was first published in 1975 as a Doubleday / SF Book Club hardbound book; this Popular Library paperback (188 pp.) was released in June, 1977. The cover artwork is by Carlos Ochagavia.

Chet and Tina Barlin are Federation anthropologists who covertly observe and explore alien cultures, while taking measures to avoid violating The Prime Directive.

Their subject is the planet Ymrek, a world populated by the Kengmorl humanoids, who are at a medieval / early Renaissance level of culture. The city of Yldac, in the country of Yngmor, shows particular promise of birthing a civilization that ultimately may discover the industrial age, atomic power, and spaceflight.

However, when Chet and Tina witness an attack on Yldac by a barbarian race known as the Ketaxil, it looks like any burgeoning civilization in Yngmor is going to be snuffed out before it can have a chance to develop. With the reluctant permission of a Federation official, the Barlins lead a field team to Yldac.

Their goal: pose as a troupe of magicians, and, with the aid of novel ‘quasimaterials’ and aircars, give the Kengmorl an edge in their fight against the Ketaxil.

Once on Ymrek, however, the Barlins discover a complicating factor. A young monk named Terek – the Ymrek equivalent of Isaac Newton and Galilieo Galilei – has independently discovered the laws of physics governing falling bodies. His discoveries are met with some hostility by the clergy ruling Yngmor, but Terek, firm in his beliefs, refuses to recant.

When the Federation team arrives in the city and use quasimaterials in their magic show – little plastic disks that levitate – Terek surmises that these are no ordinary travelling magicians. However, the senior cleric is only too happy to argue that the quasimaterials invalidate Terek’s theories.

It’s up to the Barlins to find a way to see that Terek follows the path opened by his discoveries…without angering the high cleric. But the Ketaxil are learning about new technologies, too, and time may be running out for any rescue of the civilization of the Kengmorl…….

‘Newton’ is a middling-quality sf adventure. The concept of a Federation covertly intervening in alien affairs certainly isn’t novel in the genre, and reincarnating the Galilieo – Church controversy in an alien setting doesn’t show much originality, either.

That said, author Schmidt writes reasonably well, avoiding New Wave temptations in terms of his prose style. However, too many passages are literary filler material, devoted to internal monologues on the part of the Barlins as they agonize over whether they are Doing the Right Thing. Deleting these passages would have made the novel a good 20 pages shorter and the narrative more focused.

‘Newton and the Quasi-Apple’ isn’t worth searching out, but if serendipity leads you to find it on a shelf, it may be worth picking up.

'Heavy Metal' magazine, January 1979

January 1979, and in heavy rotation on the AOR FM stations are singles from Toto’s debut album, including ‘Hold the Line’. Setting aside the band’s cutesy name, their album contained a number of good songs, including ‘Georgy Porgy’, ‘Rockmaker’, and 'Take It All Back’. 

The front cover of the January 1979 issue of Heavy Metal was ‘Rocking Centaur’ by Jo Ellen Trilling, with Kevin Johnson providing the back cover, ‘Three Men’. 

Lots of good material in this issue; the concluding installment of Duillet’s ‘Gail’, and ongoing episodes of Corben’s ‘Sinbad’, Bilal’s ‘Exterminator 17’, Macedo’s ‘Telefield’, McKie’s ‘So Beautiful and So Dangerous’, and Montellier’s ‘1996’. 

Enki Bilal also provided a neat little tale about interstellar diplomacy gone wrong: ‘The Ultimate Negotiation’, which I’ve posted below.