by Scott Hampton
from issue 17 (April, 1983) of Epic Illustrated
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Heavy Metal April 1983
'Heavy Metal' magazine, April 1983
April, 1983, and on MTV, no can escape seeing Styx's 'Mr. Roboto' video.
On the newsstands is the latest issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine, with a front cover by Chris Achilleos, and a back cover by Tito Salomoni.
In the Dossier section, there is a decided focus on early 80s hipster material.
We start off with a review of films being made by pretentious NYC indie filmmakers; one of the decade's biggest poseurs, Lydia Lunch, gets prominent mention.
From there, the Dossier turns to something called 'Classical Modernism', with a spotlight on somebody named Karlheinz Stockhausen. I imagine that even the most ardent hipsters began to get glazed eyes here.
The comics pages cover releases by Jack 'Jaxon' Jackson, and Gil Kane, among others. 'Judge Dredd' and '2000 AD' comics, in the form of 'The Cursed Earth' series, shows up on the HM radar.
Among the better comics appearing in the April issue is 'Power to the People', by Angus McKie, which I've posted below.
On the newsstands is the latest issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine, with a front cover by Chris Achilleos, and a back cover by Tito Salomoni.
In the Dossier section, there is a decided focus on early 80s hipster material.
We start off with a review of films being made by pretentious NYC indie filmmakers; one of the decade's biggest poseurs, Lydia Lunch, gets prominent mention.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Book Review: 'The World Next Door' by Brad Ferguson
2 / 5 Stars
‘The World Next Door’ (342 pp) was published by Tor Books in October 1990; the cover artwork is by David Mattingly.
‘World’ is set in an alternate USA in the late 1990s. In this particular USA, World War Three took place in 1962, and most of civilization has been destroyed. In the Adirondack region of upstate New York, the small town of McAndrew is beginning to recover from the decline caused by the War.
The main protagonist of ‘World’ is Jake Garfield, a young guitar player who, along with his friend Prosper Cross, tours the back roads of the Northeast US as a busker, storyteller, and all-purpose laborer.
As the novel opens, Jake and Prosper find a warm welcome in McAndrew, and soon become integrated into the daily life of the community. As the narrative unfolds, it transpires that the townspeople are being troubled by the advent of unusual dreams.
These dreams are not so much nightmares, as they are vivid glimpses into the lives of people in another USA….what turns out to be ‘our’ USA. And as the 20th century comes to a close in Our USA, events in Europe take a dangerous turn, perhaps towards the starting of World War Three.
Will the dreams of the citizens of McAndrew presage death and destruction for the parallel world ‘next door’ to them ? Will the catastrophe taking place in the parallel world spill into the adjoining world-line and leave McAndrew a charred cinder ?
‘World’ is light on sf content, and light on action. Author Ferguson devotes the bulk of his narrative to a slow-paced, folksy recounting of the domestic intrigues and romantic interactions of his cast of townspeople.
The backstory behind the collision of the two alternate realities is perfunctory, even contrived, serving mainly as a plot device, rather than an in-depth exploration of 'alternate reality' physics and cosmology.
A subplot, involving the depredations of a team of ruthless militiamen, takes its time unfolding, but it does lend the latter chapters some verve.
Readers looking for a low-key, character-driven drama about managing life in post-Apocalyptia will probably find ‘The World Next Door’ to their liking. But readers looking for an engaging, imaginative exploration of the parallel-world theme likely will find ‘World’ a disappointment.
2 / 5 Stars
‘The World Next Door’ (342 pp) was published by Tor Books in October 1990; the cover artwork is by David Mattingly.
‘World’ is set in an alternate USA in the late 1990s. In this particular USA, World War Three took place in 1962, and most of civilization has been destroyed. In the Adirondack region of upstate New York, the small town of McAndrew is beginning to recover from the decline caused by the War.
The main protagonist of ‘World’ is Jake Garfield, a young guitar player who, along with his friend Prosper Cross, tours the back roads of the Northeast US as a busker, storyteller, and all-purpose laborer.
As the novel opens, Jake and Prosper find a warm welcome in McAndrew, and soon become integrated into the daily life of the community. As the narrative unfolds, it transpires that the townspeople are being troubled by the advent of unusual dreams.
These dreams are not so much nightmares, as they are vivid glimpses into the lives of people in another USA….what turns out to be ‘our’ USA. And as the 20th century comes to a close in Our USA, events in Europe take a dangerous turn, perhaps towards the starting of World War Three.
Will the dreams of the citizens of McAndrew presage death and destruction for the parallel world ‘next door’ to them ? Will the catastrophe taking place in the parallel world spill into the adjoining world-line and leave McAndrew a charred cinder ?
‘World’ is light on sf content, and light on action. Author Ferguson devotes the bulk of his narrative to a slow-paced, folksy recounting of the domestic intrigues and romantic interactions of his cast of townspeople.
The backstory behind the collision of the two alternate realities is perfunctory, even contrived, serving mainly as a plot device, rather than an in-depth exploration of 'alternate reality' physics and cosmology.
A subplot, involving the depredations of a team of ruthless militiamen, takes its time unfolding, but it does lend the latter chapters some verve.
Readers looking for a low-key, character-driven drama about managing life in post-Apocalyptia will probably find ‘The World Next Door’ to their liking. But readers looking for an engaging, imaginative exploration of the parallel-world theme likely will find ‘World’ a disappointment.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
'Hunter II: Time in Expansion' from Eerie magazine issue No. 71 (January 1976)
In the third installment of the 'Hunter II' franchise, our hero, again teaming up with Eerie's ongoing 'Exterminator' character, confronts an attack by hordes of goblins (i.e., mutants).
Things look pretty hopeless for Hunter and Exterminator.....but is there a last-minute intervention ?!
In the third installment of the 'Hunter II' franchise, our hero, again teaming up with Eerie's ongoing 'Exterminator' character, confronts an attack by hordes of goblins (i.e., mutants).
Things look pretty hopeless for Hunter and Exterminator.....but is there a last-minute intervention ?!
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Heavy Metal magazine April 1977
'Heavy Metal' magazine, April 1977
April, 1977, and on the FM radio stations, David Soul is getting major airplay with 'Don't Give Up On Us'.
I didn't know it at the time, but the very first issue of Heavy Metal magazine was on the stands, and with it, a revolution in the way graphic art and comics were presented to readers in the US.
Issued by National Lampoon publisher and owner Leonard Mogel, HM was the American incarnation of Metal Hurlant, a magazine Mogel had seen on newsstands in France.
The inaugural issue staff included Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant as Editors and Julie Simmons (who would go on to be Editor herself in several years) as the Associate Editor.
The 'Origins' statement provided in the first issue lays out - in exaggerated 70s hipster style - how this all came to be....
I didn't buy an issue of HM until November 1978, mainly because I had limited money in my pocket (I was only 16 years old) and what money I did have was spent on sf and fantasy paperbacks.
It's too bad I didn't pick up, and save for posterity, the first issue of HM; copies in good condition go for $50 on up to greater than $100 on eBay.
Issue 1 contained the opening episode of Corben's 'Den', an outstanding installment of Gal and Dionnet's 'Conquering Armies', an 'Arzach' episode by Moebius, and a first look at Terry Brooks's 'The Sword of Shannara', featuring illustrations by The Brothers Hildebrandt.
And, of course, a great comic from Sergio Macedo: 'Selenia', posted below. This is the kind of stuff late 70s stoners went goggle-eyed over, as they drew a toke on their joint or their bowl.....ray guns, spaceships, giant robots, and A NUDE CHICK !
All of this cripsly rendered in black and white / graytone on 'magazine stock', glossy paper....!
Unlike the non-Comics Code black and white magazines from Warren and Marvel / Curtis, HM was definitely European, and definitely adult, in content. During the first few years of its existence, it was mailed, in brown wrappers, to subscribers in some areas of the country. Since I was only 16 in April, 1977, I'm not sure if I actually could have purchased the inaugural issue of HM in those more innocent times.....
April, 1977, and on the FM radio stations, David Soul is getting major airplay with 'Don't Give Up On Us'.
I didn't know it at the time, but the very first issue of Heavy Metal magazine was on the stands, and with it, a revolution in the way graphic art and comics were presented to readers in the US.
Issued by National Lampoon publisher and owner Leonard Mogel, HM was the American incarnation of Metal Hurlant, a magazine Mogel had seen on newsstands in France.
The inaugural issue staff included Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant as Editors and Julie Simmons (who would go on to be Editor herself in several years) as the Associate Editor.
The 'Origins' statement provided in the first issue lays out - in exaggerated 70s hipster style - how this all came to be....
I didn't buy an issue of HM until November 1978, mainly because I had limited money in my pocket (I was only 16 years old) and what money I did have was spent on sf and fantasy paperbacks.
It's too bad I didn't pick up, and save for posterity, the first issue of HM; copies in good condition go for $50 on up to greater than $100 on eBay.
Issue 1 contained the opening episode of Corben's 'Den', an outstanding installment of Gal and Dionnet's 'Conquering Armies', an 'Arzach' episode by Moebius, and a first look at Terry Brooks's 'The Sword of Shannara', featuring illustrations by The Brothers Hildebrandt.
And, of course, a great comic from Sergio Macedo: 'Selenia', posted below. This is the kind of stuff late 70s stoners went goggle-eyed over, as they drew a toke on their joint or their bowl.....ray guns, spaceships, giant robots, and A NUDE CHICK !
All of this cripsly rendered in black and white / graytone on 'magazine stock', glossy paper....!
Unlike the non-Comics Code black and white magazines from Warren and Marvel / Curtis, HM was definitely European, and definitely adult, in content. During the first few years of its existence, it was mailed, in brown wrappers, to subscribers in some areas of the country. Since I was only 16 in April, 1977, I'm not sure if I actually could have purchased the inaugural issue of HM in those more innocent times.....
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Book Review: 'Jack of Shadows' by Roger Zelazny
5 / 5 Stars
‘Jack of Shadows’ was first published in 1971; this Signet paperback (236 pp) was issued in August, 1972, with a cover illustration by Segrelles.
The story takes place in a future Earth where one side of the planet is perpetually in shadow, and the other side, in daylight.
Jack the Thief, using magical powers that are activated whenever he is standing within shadows, employs his considerable skills to amass much wealth and treasure. As the novel opens, he is attending a fair in the Twilight realm of the world, and contemplating stealing a fabulous jewel called the Hellflame.
Things don’t go well for Jack, and soon he finds himself helpless and alone in the nether regions of the world, at the mercy of his enemies. Can Jack survive his trials and tribulations, and win through to vengeance and a return to power? Or will he find himself remade in ways he cannot have foreseen ? For as goes Jack, so goes the Darkside of his world……
‘Jack of Shadows’ is one of Zelazny’s better novels. Written at a time when the author was a dedicated follower of the New Wave approach to sf, ‘Jack’ nonetheless succeeds in avoiding the excesses of the movement, while yet retaining the imaginative approach to writing that the New Wave ethos engendered in its adherents.
The landscape through which Jack has his adventures is novel and offbeat, and nothing quite like it had been presented before in fiction representing the as-yet unnamed (in 1971) genre of ‘adult fantasy’.
The twilight world of ‘Jack of Shadows’ has its monsters and demons, as well as its pacts and players. There are formidable foes, and the occasional ally, for our hero. Zelazny takes care to present Jack as a more complex individual, than the predictable New Wave-issued caricature of an anti-hero.
In terms of its world-building, and its deliberate ambiguity towards the moral themes of the traditional heroic fantasy, ‘Jack’ is very much the precursor to the contemporary ‘dark fantasy’ sub-genre.
And by introducing idea of the Thief as a hero, Zelazny was to exert considerable influence on the burgeoning field of fantasy pop culture, as can be witnessed by the deployment of the ‘thief’ character in the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, the ‘Thief’ series of video games, and more recently, the regular usage of thieves / assassins as lead characters in modern fantasy novels (‘The Night Angel’ trilogy, ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ series, ‘The Farseer Trilogy’, 'Prince of Thorns', and even the lead character in the recent Legendary Comic 'The Tower Chronicles: Geisthawk', etc., etc.).
'Jack of Shadows' is required reading for any fan of sf and fantasy.
‘Jack of Shadows’ was first published in 1971; this Signet paperback (236 pp) was issued in August, 1972, with a cover illustration by Segrelles.
The story takes place in a future Earth where one side of the planet is perpetually in shadow, and the other side, in daylight.
Jack the Thief, using magical powers that are activated whenever he is standing within shadows, employs his considerable skills to amass much wealth and treasure. As the novel opens, he is attending a fair in the Twilight realm of the world, and contemplating stealing a fabulous jewel called the Hellflame.
Things don’t go well for Jack, and soon he finds himself helpless and alone in the nether regions of the world, at the mercy of his enemies. Can Jack survive his trials and tribulations, and win through to vengeance and a return to power? Or will he find himself remade in ways he cannot have foreseen ? For as goes Jack, so goes the Darkside of his world……
‘Jack of Shadows’ is one of Zelazny’s better novels. Written at a time when the author was a dedicated follower of the New Wave approach to sf, ‘Jack’ nonetheless succeeds in avoiding the excesses of the movement, while yet retaining the imaginative approach to writing that the New Wave ethos engendered in its adherents.
The landscape through which Jack has his adventures is novel and offbeat, and nothing quite like it had been presented before in fiction representing the as-yet unnamed (in 1971) genre of ‘adult fantasy’.
The twilight world of ‘Jack of Shadows’ has its monsters and demons, as well as its pacts and players. There are formidable foes, and the occasional ally, for our hero. Zelazny takes care to present Jack as a more complex individual, than the predictable New Wave-issued caricature of an anti-hero.
In terms of its world-building, and its deliberate ambiguity towards the moral themes of the traditional heroic fantasy, ‘Jack’ is very much the precursor to the contemporary ‘dark fantasy’ sub-genre.
And by introducing idea of the Thief as a hero, Zelazny was to exert considerable influence on the burgeoning field of fantasy pop culture, as can be witnessed by the deployment of the ‘thief’ character in the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, the ‘Thief’ series of video games, and more recently, the regular usage of thieves / assassins as lead characters in modern fantasy novels (‘The Night Angel’ trilogy, ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ series, ‘The Farseer Trilogy’, 'Prince of Thorns', and even the lead character in the recent Legendary Comic 'The Tower Chronicles: Geisthawk', etc., etc.).
'Jack of Shadows' is required reading for any fan of sf and fantasy.
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