Heavy Metal magazine, June 1983

'Heavy Metal' magazine, June 1983

June, 1983, and on MTV, Rod Stewart's song 'Baby Jane' is in heavy rotation ( a woman in a neon pink bodysuit, heavy mascara, platform soles, and playing a saxophone, was very 'eighties'). 

The latest issue of Heavy Metal is on the stands, with a front cover illustration by Barclay Shaw, and a back cover by Angelwine.

The Dossier opens up with Merle Greenberg's fevered coverage of someone named..... Robert Ashley ? (No, not Rick Astley). Then there is fawning coverage of one of the 80's most over-rated film directors, Wim Wenders.

Byron Gysin (1916 - 1986), a British artist and poet, whose greatest claim to fame was palling around with William Burroughs, gets an interview.
 

  

 A 'Zippy the Pinhead' comic collection gets an approving review.

The comic content sees more 'Tex Arcana', 'Starstruck', 'The Man from Harlem', 'The City that Didn't Exist', and 'The Odyssey'.

Among the better strips in this issue are Corben's 'Doomscult' (which I'll post later), and a 'sneak preview' of the film 'Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone', with artwork by Jerry Bingham, and a script by Heavy Metal's editor, Julie Simmons-Lynch.

The film, a low-budget B-movie that starred Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald, quickly slid into oblivion after its release, but is something of a cult favorite nowadays.

Unfortunately, a Spacehunter graphic novel never materialized. Too bad, because this little sneak preview is a decent comic......How you can go wrong with with a gang of well-proportioned, feral girls who lurk in the sewers, and spout dialogue like: "Look girls ! A good breeding man !"

 

Book Review: Tengu

Book Review: 'Tengu' by Graham Masterton

3 / 5 Stars

‘Tengu’ (380 pp) was published by Tor Books in April, 1983. The cover artist is uncredited.

Appropriately enough for a horror novel, ‘Tengu’ opens with an act of gruesome violence, as Sherry Cantor, a starlet living in an LA apartment, is murdered by a mysterious assailant possessed of superhuman strength.

Sergeant Skrolnik, the Hollywood PD detective assigned to investigate the murder, questions Cantor’s friends and acquaintances, but cannot link any of these individuals to her bloodspattered demise.

Things quickly get complicated when some LA beat cops stop a speeding van, and die in violent combat with a man of superhuman strength – possibly the same individual responsible for the death of Sherry Cantor. Onlookers report the man was wearing an Oriental mask of unique design.

Jerry Sennett, Sherry’s neighbor and a WWII Pacific Theatre veteran, and Mack Holt, Sherry’s former boyfriend, begin their own investigation of the murders. Jerry becomes alarmed when learning of the mask worn by the assailant. For it signals that there are occult forces associated with the murders; occult forces involving Japanese / Shinto mythologies, and the presence of demons from the netherworld.

Foremost among these demons, in terms of malevolence, are the long-nosed Tengu. Legend has it that, under the right circumstances, a willing acolyte of the dark arts can allow himself to be possessed by the spirit of a Tengu, and in return, assume a strength and vitality well beyond those of mortal men.

Who has decided to loose the Tengu among the inhabitants of Southern California ? As Jerry Sennett and his friends seek an answer to that question, they find themselves drawn into a dangerous web of black magic and violence, and a confrontation with a villain who plans to wreak a terrible vengeance on the United States….

‘Tengu’ is a quick and engaging read, and one of the better Graham Masterton horror novels.

(For in-depth analysis of Masterton’s output, readers are directed to the ‘Too Much Horror Fiction’ blog.)

Although the book features a large cast of supporting characters, and switches among a number of subplots, Masterton doesn’t allow too much in the way of distractions or contrivances to dilute the essential mission of ‘Tengu’ : provide pulp horror in an easily digestible package.

By keeping his narrative liberally spiced with splatterpunk sequences and softcore porn, Masterton holds the reader’s attention, in contrast to other early 80s horror novels – and here Ramsey Campbell’s ‘The Parasite’ comes too quickly to mind – that were more ‘artistic’, but utter duds.

Masterton also inserts quite a bit of satiric humor, aimed at the early 80s Southern California lifestyle, into the plot.

As well, the intense interest in Japan and things Japanese that dominated early 80s pop culture are channeled here as well; think of Trevanian’s ‘Shibumi’ (1979), Eric Van Lustbader’s ‘The Ninja’ (1980), the Chuck Norris film ‘The Octagon’ (1980), and tee-shirts and bandanas, imprinted with Kanji, sold at Spencer Gifts in the nearest mall.

If you like Masterton’s fiction, and by extension the works of James Herbert, Clive Barker, Shaun Hutson, and the other 80s splatterpunks, then ‘Tengu’ is worth picking up.

'Hunter II: Goblin' from Eerie magazine issue No. 68 (September 1975)

Oops....my Hunter posting for Eerie issue 70, 'Hunter II: Goblin Thrust' was out of order, as the first installment in that miniseries is actually 'Hunter II: Goblin', from issue 68, posted here and now. 

And of course, both precede my other posting for 'Hunter II: Time in Expansion' from issue 71.... !

Anyways, here's 'Hunter II: Goblin', in which Exterminator, who knew the first Hunter, meets up with Hunter II...

Punk: The Whole Story

 

‘Punk: The Whole Story’ (American edition) was published in trade paperback in 2006 by Dorling Kindersly. (The trade paperback version is considerably smaller in size that the hardcover version).

The book’s introduction indicates that its entries draw on archived material from the UK music magazines ‘MOJO’, ‘Q’, and ‘Sounds’, but it’s unclear to what extent or degree the entries in P:TWS adapt previously published stories.

The majority of the entries are four- to eight-page overviews of various punk groups or solo artists. Interspersed with these entries are smaller overviews of punk fashion, memorable venues, punk magazines and newsletters, punk art, and top singles and albums of the punk era.

There are numerous portfolios, mostly in black and white, taken in the heydey of the Punk Era, i.e.,. 1976 – 1979.

 

 Somewhat inevitably in a volume such as this, the inclusion of some groups or singers as being ‘Punk’ will generate argument. For example, I personally consider Patty Smith to be the utlimate ‘punk poseur’, someone who fed on the aura and energy of the movement for the purposes of enhancing her own marginal talent, but she gets quite a bit of coverage in P:TWS.

As well, the inclusion of groups such as Generation X, The Stranglers, and Green Day stretches the boundaries of the definition of punk. The absence of any coverage of The Police, while more ephemeral groups such as The Buzzcocks and The Damned are given dedicated entries, indicates some snobbery on the part of the editors.

 In the mid- to late- 70s I was aware of punk more as an interesting, if annoying sidelight to Rock Music proper. Indeed, that was the attitude of just about everyone under 25 in those days. Radio airplay was reserved for what is now labeled ‘classic rock’ : The Eagles, Elton John, Wings, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynrd, etc.

 In 1976, The Ramones were regarded as a novelty act, on par with groups like Sha Na na, who re-did 50s songs as part of the nostalgia craze. The Sex Pistols were seen as gimmicky, relying on contrived ‘shock value’ to cover up their lack of musical talent. The full impact of punk on the US music scene really didn’t come until 1979, when record company execs began churning out albums from the emerging genre of ‘New Wave’.

But as a easy-to-read overview of the punk era at its peak, and the second-generation groups that sprang up in its wake, P:TWS does a good job.

Seeing photographs of the Ramones, Blondie, and The Clash circa 1976 will bring on some nostalgia in anyone who remembers those days when having a crewcut meant you were either a 'skinhead', a Marine, or someone with leukemia.....

Book Review: Set of Wheels

Book Review: 'Set of Wheels' by Robert Thurston

1 / 5 Stars

‘Set of Wheels’ (281 pp) was published by Berkley Books in February, 1983. The cover illustration is by Alan Daniels.

Robert Thurston (1936 - 2021) began his authorial career as an attendee of the 1968 Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop, with his first story ('Stop Me Before I Tell More') seeing publication in the anthology 'Orbit 9' (1971). Thurston's short stories saw print in magazines and anthologies all during the New Wave era. Along with his own short and long fiction, Thurston wrote novels for the wargame-derived 'Battletech' franchise, and the TV show-derived 'Battlestar Galactica' franchise.

'Wheels' is an expansion of a short story, titled simply 'Wheels', that Thurston published in 1971 in an anthology devoted to pieces produced at the Clarion science fiction writers' workshop. A review of 'Wheels', and other Thurston tales, is available at the MPorcius Fiction Blog.

‘Set of Wheels’ is not a very good book. In fact, it was a struggle to finish..........

The novel is set in the early 21st century, after some poorly defined economic and / or social collapse has transformed the nation into a loose collection of city-states. Outside the cities the landscape is slowly being depopulated, the highways are abandoned, and drifters, outcasts, criminals, the destitute, and religious fanatics control the dwindling numbers of small towns, road stops, and villages.

Within the cities, car ownership is heavily regulated (drivers must obtain a ‘safdry’ license). Vehicles are prohibited from travelling at high speeds, drivers are subject to random police checkpoints, and even minor moving violations can result in the permanent loss of a license.

Teenager Lee Kestner is bored, sullen, and rebellious. Not only is living with his alcoholic father depressing, but Lee has been turned down for a learner’s permit 17 times. Desperate to get his own set of wheels, and to experience the freedom of independent travel, Lee hands $500 over to his onetime friend Lincoln Rockwell X. In return, Lee gets a barely-running, beat-up, antique, 1967 Ford Mustang.

Despite the questionable mechanical status of his newly acquired car, Lee promptly takes off for the unregulated countryside outside the city limits. There he joins up with a loose coalition of outlaw drivers, gets his Mustang fixed up, and enters into a tumultuous romance with a girl named Cora.

Before long, Lee finds himself heading out across the under-populated landscape of the USA, unsure of his destination, but convinced that somewhere out on the open road, he will find purpose for a life otherwise marked by aimlessness and spiritual anomie.

‘Wheels’ is not much of an sf novel. Indeed, the sf elements are very muted, and serve as a sort of vague backdrop to the central goal of the narrative, which is to allow author Thurston to write lengthy, tedious passages of dialogue in which his characters expound on their existential despair.

Thurston’s efforts to impart a wistful, melancholy atmosphere to the activities of his modern-day nomads seems contrived and unconvincing. Let’s face it, whether made in 1967, 1975, 1982, 1996, or even today, the Ford Mustang always has been a piece of shit car, relying on its ‘cool’ appearance, and industry myth-making, to screen the fact that it has always been shoddily designed, shoddily manufactured, and overly prone to mechanical breakdowns.

(Although, to be fair, the same thing can be said about practically every vehicle made by Ford….)

To make things worse, Thurston adopts the affectation of eschewing quotation marks to set off dialogue. Readers will need to supply the patience to decipher these sorts of exchanges:

Get us out of here.
Her smile vanishes. Logical, perhaps, it’s been a ghost-smile.
Not a chance, honey.
But you and me, we-
I know what we done, but that’s just ice in the Amazon, far as I’m concerned. 

If you’re hoping for something that resembles George Miller’s ‘Mad Max’ and ‘The Road Warrior’, or John Jake’s ‘On Wheels’, then you’re very much out of luck. The few episodes of action that take place in ‘Set of Wheels’ seem forced and tangential. 

My recommendation ? ‘Set of Wheels’ is best avoided, unless you are adamant about reading any and all sf novels with a 'car' theme.

'Shipwreck' by Caza
from Heavy Metal magazine, June 1980

June, 1980, and on the radio, in heavy rotation, a song that soon will become a soul / R & B classic: 'Stomp', by The Brothers Johnson.

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine features a great little strip titled 'Shipwreck', by Caza. 

Slash Maraud by Moench and Gulacy

'Slash Maraud' by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy

DC comics, 1987 - 1988

DC published 'Slash Maraud' as a six-issue miniseries from November, 1987 to April, 1988.

Doug Moench threw everything he could find from 80s pop and sf culture into this one. Escape from New York, The Road Warrior, Buckaroo Banzai, the TV show American Gladiators, all make up the bizarre, but entertaining stew, that is 'Slash'.

Slash Maradovich, 'famed Detroit Polack', and a mix of 'Mad' Max Rockatansky and Snake Plisskin, is a soldier of fortune in a near-future Earth that has been taken over by a race of technologically superior aliens called the Shapers. 

The Shapers look like 'Ernie' from Sesame Street, but that's simply a physical form they assume while in proximity to Terrans; in reality, the Shapers are - well - shapeless, able to assume any form they desire.

Earth's surface is slowly being terraformed to a design that suits the Shapers, with the Earth's population continuously being converted into a sort of protoplasmic 'goop' to serve this purpose. Apathy, anarchy, and end-of-the-world hedonism rule most of the few major metropolitan areas, where the human population is reduced to serving the perverted, often homicidal desires of the Shaper overlords.

As a rebel without a cause, Slash is just too cool to get wrapped up in anything but his own survival. But when an old flame entreats him to assist a band of rebels and their ally, a Shaper defector, Slash reluctantly agrees to help out. 

This means traversing a USA, and later Europe, riddled with monsters created by the Shaper manipulation of the planet's ecosystem.

Complicating things are the various gangs peopling the wastelands; a tribe of butch lesbians, whose leader is modeled on Grace Jones (!); psychopathic hot-rodders and bikers; the Nulloids, a collection of deformed, homicidal mutants; neo-Nazis; and The Family, an inbred clan of backwoods types who take inspiration from 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.

Paul Gulacy's artwork is excellent, despite the rather crude color separations used in 80s comics. And Moench's plotting carefully teeters on the edge of satire, even as it barrels along with little in the way of filler.

Visually, Gulacy's artwork represents the 80s aesthetic so faithfully that 'Slash Maraud' can be placed in a time capsule as a quintessential representation of the decade's fashion and graphic style.

You name it, every excess of 80s fashion is on display here: 

Zebra-stripe bodysuits........ sleeveless leather vests.......... Blade Runner trenchcoats.....  mousse-supported spiked and New Wave hairdos......... Frederick's of Hollywood bindage and fetish gear.........Punk stylings.....

With the passage of time I have come to regard 'Slash Maraud' as a must-have classic of 80s comic art, a story that certainly is more entertaining than much of the superhero material churned out in that era by the major publishers. 

If you have a liking for satirical humor mixed with well-done action sequences, then you'll probably want to check the online comic book stores, or online auctions, for a set of all 6 issues (which still are quite affordable).

Book Review: Stress Pattern

Book Review: 'Stress Pattern' by Neal Barrett, Jr.

2 / 5 Stars

‘Stress Pattern’ (160 pp) is DAW Book No. 128, published in November, 1974, with a cover illustration by Josh Kirby.

Andrew Gavin is an economics professor who, following a major malfunction of his spaceship, finds himself stranded on an unknown planet.

He is saved from death from thirst and hunger by the chance passing of a humanoid alien named 'Phrecti', who, although indifferent to Gavin, nonetheless directs him to sources of food and water.

Tagging along with the noncommittal Phrecti introduces Gavin to a unique method of travel: inside the digestive tract of an enormous earthworm, as it tunnels its way under the planet’s surface.

Gavin soon encounters other tribes of humanoids, some more welcoming than others, and arrives at some semblance of normalcy in terms of his castaway status.

However, Gavin discovers that life on his planetary refuge simply gets stranger and more inexplicable with each passing day. His humanoid neighbors are utterly devoid of imagination or drive, content to embrace the status quo of their primitive existence.

Unable to succumb to universal apathy, Gavin sets off on a journey, the destination of which is unknown even to him. But travel he must, for until he can gain an explanation of some purpose or meaning to life on his adopted home, he will never rest easily.

‘Stress Pattern’ was Neal Barrett Jr.’s fifth novel. It’s not a bad novel, but neither is it a classic of 70s sf.

The intense, violent action that characterizes his later novels, such as ‘Through Darkest America’, are entirely absent here, as Barrett focuses on quirky humor in the style of those many Analog novels and short stories of the 60s and 70s in which the narrative focused on the solving of some sort of planetary puzzle or conundrum.

‘Pattern’ does avoid the New Wave affectations that preoccupied many writers who began writing sf in the 70s, staying firmly grounded in a declarative, straightforward narrative.

There is a strong element of satire to the adventures encountered by protagonist Gavin, as he struggles to come to terms with the bizarre aspects of the aliens among whom he must make his home.

‘Pattern’ belongs to the sub-genre of sf in which an Earthman struggles to arrive at a critical revelation about the strange, alien world on which he finds himself. As with most such novels, there is a Big Revelation that comes in the final chapter. I won’t disclose any spoilers, but I was disappointed with the somewhat contrived nature of the revelation provided in ‘Stress Pattern’ .

In summary, readers may want to pass on 'Stress Pattern' in favor of Barrett's later novels, such as the 'Aldair' series, or the 'Darkest America' series.