Car Warriors issue 1

Car Warriors
issue 1
Epic Comics / Marvel, April, 1991

'Car Warriors' was a four-issue miniseries published from April - September 1991 by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint. The series was based on 'Car Wars', an RPG first released in 1980 by Steve Jackson Games. The game probably drew heavily, in turn, from the 1975 low-budget, cult classic movie Death Race 2000.

The game was subsequently expanded for use with Jackson's GURPS system in the late 1980s, and in 1991 a card game based on 'Car Wars' was released; this may have been the impetus for the publication of the comic book series. 

While I'm always skeptical of the quality of comic books based on tie-ins to licensed properties, I was quite pleased with 'Car Warriors'. It's filled with quirky little touches of originality and flair. 

For example, the setting is not your usual Mad Max - inspired desert landscape, but rather, the US Heartland, albeit reduced to an economic and ecological wasteland, beset with anarchy and the threat of mass starvation. How many action comics have sequences set in Council Bluffs, Iowa ? Or Green Bay, Wisconsin ? 

The actual 'Death Race' locale is Michigan's Upper Peninsula, not the place one would ordinarily think of for such an event. The course goes from Fort DeLorean, on the shore of Lake Superior, south to Lansing. The betting is high, and some of the racers are among the nation's best. But the homicidal motorcycle gangs and cannibal tribes of the Upper Peninsula's wastelands are well-armed, well-informed, and looking for fresh meat among the contestants......

The hero is an alienated young Mexican man named 'Chevy' Vasquez, aka 'The Meaner Beaner' and 'The Mad Mex'. Once, long ago, when he was a child, Chevy Vasquez had a run-in with one of the Upper Peninsula tribes.....an encounter that left him with nightmares, night sweats, and a growing desire for bloody revenge.

While it offers a good dollop of explicit violence with each issue, 'Car Warriors' also provides plenty of sarcastic humor, which gives these comics extra appeal (to me, anyways).

It also helps that penciller Steve Dillon's artwork is well done, and well complemented by the inks of Phil Winslade and the colors of Steve Buccellato, giving the 'Car Warriors' comic books the appropriately gritty, 'entropic' sensibility this type of tale requires.

So, posted below is the entire contents of the first issue of 'Car Warriors'. Look for the remaining three issues to be posted in the coming months here at the PorPor Books Blog.

 

Winter World by Dixon and Zaffino

Winter World by Chuck Dixon (writer) and Jorge Zaffino (artist)

'Winter World' was a three-issue, black and white comic published by the indie company Eclipse Comics from September 1987 - March 1988. [Dixon had plans with Marvel comics to publish a three issue sequel, 'WinterSea', but the project never came to fruition.]

This 2014 IDW hardbound volume compiles all the issues of 'Winter World' and 'Wintersea', along with some extra material in the form of cover artwork and pinups by artist Jorge Zaffino (1960 - 2002).

'Winter World' is set in the near-future; the Ice Age has returned and most of the planet is shrouded in snow and ice.

Scully, the lead character, is a trader; sort of a New Ice Age version of Han Solo. Scully wanders the wastes in his oversize snowcat tracked vehicle. His companion is an oversize, highly intelligent badger named Rahrah. Rahrah is an unusual sidekick, and a cool character.

Life in this environment is akin to that of the 'Mad Max' movies, where self-interest is the key to survival, and double-crosses, atrocities, and ongoing acts of inhumanity are par for the course. 

As 'World' opens, Scully saves a wisecracking redheaded girl named Wynn from an unrewarding life at the hands of a particularly smelly and treacherous tribe of ice-dwellers.

However, Scully suffers from bad luck, and soon he and Wynn are in the hands of a group of slavers who have no compunctions about working their captives to death. It's up to Scully and Rahrah to save the day......with lots of explosions, and severed fingers, along the way.

'WinterSea' finds our two heroes heading south, in search of a mythical land where volcanic activity renders the land free of snow and ice, and where strange things called plants are able to thrive. 

Of course, double-dealers and fate conspire against the hapless Scully, and he winds up a member of the living larder (!) of a tribe of ice pirates. Only heroic action from a reluctant Scully can save Wynn and the mythical land of Earthfire.

Dixon's script is well-done, mingling sarcastic humor with plenty of action, odious villains, a believable post-apocalyptic world, and moral ambiguity - Scully isn't the traditional hero type, but a hustler who is more than willing to put his own agenda first and foremost. 

The artwork in 'Winter World' is, in my opinion, 'serviceable'; it was Zaffino's first major art assignment for a US publication. In his Introduction to the third issue of Winter World, reprinted here in the compilation, Dixon reminisces about seeing some of the sketches from the Argentinian artist Jorge Zaffino, and concluding that he absolutely had to work with such a talented artist. 

While Zaffino' indeed shows some skill in his pen-and-ink draftsmanship, there are too many panels where over-inking and poor rendering make the content difficult to make out. And more than a few panels of the 'WinterSea' comics show such a sketchy, half-finished character, that it's clear that the comic book was not ready for release at the time Marvel made the decision not to produce it. 

The verdict ? 'Winter World' and 'WinterSea' are entertaining examples of 80s sci-fi comics. Along with getting the hardback compilation, I recommend looking for the brand-new 'Winter World' series, by Dixon and artist Jackson Guice, being published as a full - color comic book by IDW during the Summer of 2014.

Book Review: Twilight of the City

Book Review: 'Twilight of the City' by Charles Platt

1 / 5 Stars

‘Twilight of the City’ was first published in 1977; this Berkley Books paperback (215 pp) was released in September, 1978. The cover art is unattributed.

‘Twilight’ is another of the most boring sf novel’s I’ve ever attempted to read. I got as far as page 83, at which point I abandoned it.

The premise is standard-issue sf: it’s the near future, i.e., 1997. The US is in the grip of a downward spiral of economic and social collapse. While the ever-dwindling numbers of the wealthy classes live in modern homes in gated communities in the exurbs, the middle classes are engaged in food riots in the city streets. For their part, the poor live in ghettos that have expanded into enormous wastelands marked by lawlessness and anarchy.

The narrative revolves around the actions of three young people. Bobby Black is the superstar singer and showman of the emerging genre of ‘Suicide Rock’. 

Bobby’s songwriting partner is the taciturn, calculating Michael. 

And then there is Lisa, who came to the City with a head full of dreams, and stars in her eyes, only to find that dreams die fast on the hard and unforgiving streets of the ghetto.

Michael invites Lisa to live with him, and introduces her to Bobby Black. Soon a skeptical Lisa joins the inner circle of artists, researchers, and oddballs who circulate around the Suicide Rock scene and engage in tedious conversations about their existential angst. 

[At some point later on in the book, these characters apparently engage in some sort of uprising against the corrupt order of the state, but I didn’t read that far enough to know exactly what happens.]

Why is ‘Twilight’ so bad ? Well, for one thing, Charles Platt (b. 1945), a prolific writer of sf novels and short fiction starting in the late 60s and continuing into the 90s, forgets how to tell a story, in favor of trying mightily to craft a ‘literary’ novel that seeks to transcend the boundaries of simple genre fiction. 

Such efforts are not in and of themselves deserving of criticism, but looking back, the cruel truth is that many such efforts made during the New Wave era of sf were mediocre, at best.

It’s a sure tip-off an author is attempting and failing at this sort of thing when some chapters of the novel, as is the case in ‘Twilight’, lead off with epigraphs of ‘Suicide Rock’ song lyrics. 

Here’s a sample:

You say I’m all you care about
To me you cling
The real world you could do without
I’m everything
You scheme and dream of an escape
From iron walls of life you hate
Well darling there’s one way to be together
Alone in love, for you and me, forever

(chorus)

Our suicide
Will be forgiven
After we’ve died
And gone to heaven !

The trite quality of the lyrics is reflected in the conversations that occupy much of the narrative. In these conversations, Bobby, Lisa, and Michael express pathos and uncertainty over the meaning of life, the collapse of the social order, the conflict between the haves and the have-nots, and What Is Art ?

These conversations simply don't work; the prose is stilted, wooden, pretentious, inane....pick your favorite adjective, they all apply.

With ‘Twilight’, author Platt was earnestly trying to craft a novel that said something Profound about the Human Condition, using a downbeat, Ballard-esque sf setting. While I have to acknowledge that he was trying to do something out of the ordinary,the reality is that ‘Twilight’ is boring. Believe me, you’re better off avoiding this novel.

Heavy Metal August 1978

'Heavy Metal' magazine August 1978

August, 1978, and it's impossible to escape the Rolling Stones song 'Miss You', which is in heavy rotation on the FM radio stations. The song's video is underwhelming, and Mick doesn't bother to lip-synch, actually singing the vocals, but that's how it was in those days before MTV........

Stoners across the nation rejoice with the arrival of the latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine, sporting a front cover by Clyde Caldwell, and a back cover by Michael Gueranger. Among the best of the material in the August issue is 'Planet of Terror' by Caza, which I've posted below.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Peter Jones

A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Peter Jones
from Solar Wind, Paper Tiger, UK 1980

This outstanding painting has been used as cover artwork for multiple editions of the novel in both the UK and the US

Book Review: Icequake

Book Review: 'Icequake' by Crawford Kilian

3 / 5 Stars

‘Icequake’ (243 pp) was published in February, 1980 by Bantam Books; the cover artist is uncredited, but may be John Berkey, or perhaps Lou Feck.

‘Icequake’ is another of those sf novels of the 70s (see my review of ‘The Sixth Winter’ here) that dealt with the phenomenon of Global Cooling and the New Ice Age. Indeed, in the pages of ‘Icequake’, you’ll find a passage in which the Greenhouse Effect / Global Warming is disparaged by the scientists of the New Shackleton Station !

The novel takes place in the ‘future’, i.e., early 1985. It’s not a nice 1985, either; the Earth has somehow lost its magnetic field, and the ozone layer, along with a chunk of the upper atmosphere, has been stripped by unprecedented solar activity; crops are dying from excessive UV radiation, and transmissions in the electromagnetic spectrum are drowned out by static.

At New Shackleton Station, a large research outpost located on the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica, the multinational crew of scientists and staff are preparing to shut down the station and evacuate before the arrival of the Antarctic Winter. However, an alarming message comes in from the U.S. base at McMurdo Station: Mount Erebus is erupting, and violently so. The eruption is quickly followed by a massive earthquake, or ‘icequake’, that splits the Ross Shelf into massive ice plates separated by networks of vast crevasses.

The crew at New Shackleton discover that their evacuation plans are cancelled; the icequake and the volcano have made air travel to Antarctica from New Zealand impossible. The New Shackleton crew are faced with the unenviable task of spending the entire winter – when the continent is at its most dangerous – huddled in the underground tunnels and revetments of their installation.

But new complications arise: the icequake has made real an unprecedented geophysical phenomenon. The entire Ross Ice Shelf has become detached from the mainland and is moving, at a speed of several kilometers per day, into the Ross Sea and the Southern Ocean. As the ice of the Ross Sea collides with that of the oncoming Shelf, more earthquakes are triggered. The Station crew must confront the likelihood that the ice underlying their installation may fracture and drop them into the ocean.

Antarctic Winter starts to take hold, and the sun begins to vanish for what will be four months of perpetual darkness. Blizzards that last for days descend on the Station, and temperatures drop to – 40 C. It’s up to the crew to devise an escape plan……..but time is running out………

Incorporating features of Antarctic adventure, disaster tale, and eco-catastrophe novel, ‘Icequake’ could have been an ambitious, but ultimately unsuccessful combination of sub-genres; however, author Crawford Kilian does a good job with handling both his narrative and a large cast of characters, and the book wound up being an entertaining read.

There is too much exposition at times on the climatology, geology, and geophysics of the Antarctic, and some of the mini-disasters that strike the hapless Station and its personnel seem more like padding than episodes intrinsic to the main narrative. However, the novel maintains a sense of realism in terms of its locale and the actions of the survivors. 

If you are a fan of disaster / New Ice Age sf, then you’ll want a copy of ‘Icequake’.

Reunion from Epic Illustrated, February 1984

Reunion
by Archie Goodwin (story) and Phil Hale (art)
from Epic Illustrated issue 22, February 1984

This graytone strip suffers quite a bit from the poor reproduction of the original art - which may have had something to do with the fact that Epic Illustrated was using a cheaper, lower-grade paper stock (akin to that used by the Warren magazines, for example) for much of its non-advertising -related content. 

As well, it's been 30 years since this issue was printed and some fading of the artwork is to be expected. In any event, however, it remains a interesting little sf tale and one worth reading.

The Bus

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: Cyberstealth

Book Review: 'Cyberstealth' by S. N. Lewitt

1 / 5 Stars

‘Cyberstealth’ (232 pp.) was published by Ace Books in August, 1989; the cover artwork is by Luis Royo. 

A sequel, ‘Dancing Vac’, also was published by Ace in February 1990.

It’s the future, and war is raging between the worlds of the Collegium and the worlds of the Cardia coalition. Both entities have ringed their major planetary system with sophisticated early warning satellites and patrol ships, making direct assault too costly to attempt. Therefore, much of the war involves small, but vicious, conflicts: the destruction of unescorted merchant ships, terror raids on unsuspecting cities, hit-and-run sorties on enemy bases, and other acts of attrition.

Cargo – real name Raphael – is a hot-shot fighter pilot. His co-pilot Ghoster is a member of the alien race of the Akhaid. Together, Cargo and Ghoster have been so successful that, as the novel opens, they have been among the lucky few selected to train, and fly, the ultimate space fighter plane, the ‘cyberstealth’ aircraft of the book’s title: the Batwing.

Crucial to the operation of the Batwing is its cybernetic interface with the pilot; once jacked into ‘the Maze’, or cyberspace, the plane is capable of responding instantly to conscious or even subconscious commands from its pilot.

As Cargo and Ghoster start their Batwing training on the windy and desolate planet of Vanity, some unsettling events come to cast a shadow over the squadron: one of their number may be a spy for Cardia. And an unknown stealth craft has been observed in orbit above the planet.

As Cargo and Ghoster set out on their first mission as a Batwing team, unknown to either of them, the stakes have grown higher in the conflict between the Collegium and Cardia…..and at the center lies a conspiracy that involves Cargo’s own mentor……..

‘Cyberstealth’ is one of the most boring sf novel’s I’ve ever read. I got to page 136 before giving up in exasperation. 

The story’s premise is seemingly entertaining, if not unduly original, and given its 1989 publication date, author Shariann Lewitt certainly had ample time to absorb the cyberpunk ethos and apply it to her novel.

But ‘Cyberstealth’ suffers badly from over-writing. Too many empty sentences, too many strained metaphors, too many interior monologues that go on way too long and suck all the life out of the story. 

For a novel designed around a military theme, the necessary action sequences are few and far between. For example, much of the book’s first half is preoccupied with documenting the emotional and spiritual backgrounds of the characters, their personality clashes, their inner doubts and fears, etc., etc.

So much of the narrative is wasted on this tangential material that, when I reached page 136, I discovered that Cargo had flown his Batwing exactly…..twice….! 

‘Cyberstealth’ reads as if the author had decided to not just emulate the dense prose style of a novel like ‘Neuromancer’, but made the fatal decision to try and top it. The result simply doesn’t work. 

The verdict ? There are plenty of first-gen cyberpunk novels that are more worthy reads than Cyberstealth.