Exterminator 17

Exterminator 17 
by Jean Pierre Dionnet and Enki Bilal

'Exterminator 17' first was serialized in the French magazine Metal Hurlant in 1976 - 1977. An English translation, in black and white, was serialized in Heavy Metal, starting with the October, 1978 issue and continuing through the March, 1979 issue.

This 1986 Catalan Communications trade paperback compiles all of those English-language episodes, in a color format (done by Dave Brown). Humanoids published a hardcover edition in 2002. Dionnet went on to release a three-volume sequel, titled La Trilogy D’Ellis ('The Ellis Trilogy'), with illustrations by Igor Baranko, that was  published in France from 2003 - 2008. An English-language compilation of Exterminator 17 and the entire Ellis Trilogy was issued by Titan Comics in 2018.

When I picked up and read my very first issue of Heavy Metal in November, 1978, it was my first introduction to European styles of comic book artwork, and I found 'Exterminator 17' to be one of the most offbeat such comics I’d ever seen.

This mainly was due to Bilal's artwork, which was extremely detailed and meticulous, but at the same time, distinctive in its sensibility. The festoonings and graticules and linework gave each image a cluttered, 'organic' quality, while the incorporation of stains, blotches, chips, gouges and smears on the bulkheads of the spaceships, and the clothing of the characters, added a visual element of decay and entropy - things simply not encountered in American comic book art. 

Bilal's rendering of human faces and features was also novel and imaginative....an outstanding example is the unscrupulous plastic surgeon surgeon aboard the 'genetic probe ship' : 

The plot of 'Exterminator 17' also has its own offbeat sensibility that meshes well with the artwork (although in its later stages, the narrative undergoes some confusing jumps and shifts that suggest that somewhere along the way, some pages were dropped from final production).

The eponymous Exterminator is a member of an army of combat androids; these armies were created as proxies for settling disputes between rival political blocs. As the comic book opens, the army to which Exterminator 17 belongs has been deployed to the planetoid Novack for a battle with another android army.

Barely have the rival armies engaged, however, when the dispute is settled by distant negotiations. A built-in 'kill switch' instantly renders all the combatants 'deactivated'.

But as it turns out, the creator of the androids is himself near death. And before he succumbs, his conscience leads him to take an unprecedented step towards freeing the androids.....and the vehicle of this freedom will be Exterminator 17.

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that Exterminator 17 embarks on a journey to the stranger realms of the galaxy, and not everyone he meets is trustworthy.....

Summing up, if you're a fan of Metal Hurlant and Heavy Metal, and / or European sf comics, then getting a copy of the 'Exterminator 17' graphic novel is a worthy investment. I recommend the 2018 Titan Comics volume, as it includes the Ellis Trilogy.

Book Review: Commander-1

Book Review: 'Commander-1' by Peter George

2 / 5 Stars

Peter George (1924 – 1966) was a British author who served in the RAF during WW2. In 1958 he published a novel about a paranoid American Air Force commander who launches a nuclear attack on Russia, titled 'Two Hours to Doom'; in the US, it was retitled 'Red Alert'.

In 1962, the American authors Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler published another nuclear disaster novel, titled 'Fail Safe', that also dealt with an command and control error that leads to a nuclear war. George sued them for plagiarism, and the case was settled out of court.

For his part, George co-wrote the screenplay for the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was based on 'Red Alert'.

In 1965 George published another novel, 'Commander-1'. This Dell paperback was released in June, 1966. (That same year, Peter George shot himself at the age of 42.)

As ‘Commander-1’ opens, it is Christmas Eve, December 24, 1965. In the Pentagon War Room, Brigadier General Barry Kingston assumes command of the night shift, expecting a quiet and uneventful period of duty. However, NORAD detects the launchings of missiles overseas, and there is a troubling absence of communication from the main US early-warning facility (referred to as ‘Clear’).

As an apprehensive Kingston exchanges phone calls with NORAD, additional launches of Russian ICBMs are observed. The US goes to DEFCON 2 status. Contact is lost with New York City and Scot's Hill, North Carolina, where the President is spending the holidays. The War Room command has no choice but to go to DEFCON 1, and orders an attack on Russia with the entire US arsenal. World War Three commences.

The novel then shifts locale to an un-named US nuclear submarine stationed underneath the polar ice pack. Its Commander, James Geraghty, has been ordered to conduct an experiment in which civilians are housed in an isolation chamber aboard the sub, simulating the closed quarters associated with space travel. To Geraghty’s increasing disquiet, after December 25, he is unable to raise radio links with his home port, the Navy, or with any US military installation.

Once Geraghty does make contact with his superiors, he learns that there has been a nuclear war, and that most of the world is in ruins. He and his submarine now constitute one of the last military resources of the US.

The remainder of ‘Commander-1’ deals with Geraghty’s decision to find a top-secret US base designed to be the final redoubt in the event of WW3. But even as Geraghty embarks on his new mission, his already precarious mental state begins to change….and not for the better.

‘Commander-1’ is primarily a dark satire of the military mind, related in a detached, matter-of-fact prose style, the primary goal of which is to document the growing egomania of Geraghty, the submarine commander. It fails to offer much in terms of vivid descriptions of post-apocalyptic landscapes and devastation; indeed, most of the action unfolds aboard the submarine, or on remote islands in the Pacific.

I won’t disclose any spoilers, but the ending of ‘Commander-1’ is in keeping with author Peter George’s belief in the futility of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race (topics that apparently contributed to the depression that led him to commit suicide). It’s a grimmer novel that Red Alert, and in a sense, more polemical. 

I doubt it will appeal to readers who are interested in the more traditional post-apocalyptic tale, about the struggle for survival in irradiated wastelands populated by mutants and cannibalistic barbarians. 'Commander-1' is best regarded as a product of the height of the Cold War, which (for anyone under 40) has since become a sort of vaguely recalled aspect of 20th century American history......

A Matter of Time

A Matter of Time
by Juan Gimenez
from Heavy Metal magazine, October 1984

Book Review: Billenium

Book Review: 'Billenium' by J. G. Ballard

4 / 5 Stars

‘Billenium’ (159 pp) was published in 1962 by Berkley; the cover art is by Richard Powers.

The stories compiled in this anthology all saw print previously during the interval from 1956 – 1962 in various UK and USA science fiction magazines.

All of the stories in this collection, however engaging (or not), are clearly miles ahead of anything else being published in the genre during the early 60s. Those other writers who received praise at that time for their ‘literary’ qualities, such as James Blish with his ‘Cities in Flight’ novels, are mediocre by comparison. Ballard’s writings, while always understated and subtle – in the British sf tradition – display a use of language, setting, plot, and atmosphere that seem relevant and timely even today, more than 50 years later.

As well, the theme of entropy – although it was never disclosed as such – permeates many of these stories, giving them an imaginative flavor that other sf writers wouldn’t come to adopt until the end of the decade.

A brief summary of the contents:

Billenium: still one of the best Overpopulation stories ever written.

The Insane Ones: in the future, psychiatry is outlawed.

Studio Five, The Stars: a ‘Vermilion Sands’ story set in that entropy-laden resort. A dull tale about the editor of a magazine that publishes poetry written by computer; there is trouble when the computer breaks.

The Gentle Assassin: still one of the best time-travel stories ever written.

Build-Up: in a city that spans the entire planet, a young man searches for empty space to cure his anomie.

Now Zero: the narrator relates his efforts to find the perfect way to seize power from an unsuspecting populace. A ‘trick’ ending.

Mobile (aka Venus Smiles): a piece of abstract sculpture displays unusual properties.

Chronopolis: offbeat story about a dystopian future in which the regimentation introduced by the discovery of clocks and time-keeping has been overthrown, replaced by decay and aimlessness.

Prima Belladonna: another Vermilion Sands story, this one also rather dull: a mysterious woman upsets the social order among the Sands residents.

The Garden of Time: another offbeat, inventive story; this one about a couple who confront impending disaster with grace and style. One of the best sf stories Ballard wrote.


The verdict ? While the 'Vermilion Sands' stories are the weaker entries, the good quality of the other stories make this collection well worth searching for.

Car Warriors issue 4

Car Warriors
issue 4
Epic Comics / Marvel, September, 1991

The Delorean Run is underway......and our contestants are neck-and-neck on the road to Lansing !

But violence and mayhem accompany the race, as the mutants of the wastelands try their best to snuff out any trespassers.......

Even the Wysockis, my favorites among the racers, will find the going gets difficult.....

And then, there's the stench of corporate treachery waiting at the finish line.....!

Here it is, the final episode of 'Car Warriors', featuring one of the more gruesome illustrations of gunshot-mediated disembowelment I've ever seen in a 'mainstream' comic book.....!

Book Review: Computerworld

Book Review: 'Computerworld' by A. E. Van Vogt

0 / 5 Stars

“Computerworld’ (203) is DAW Book No. 554, published in November, 1983; the cover artwork is by Michael Whelan. DAW also released the book with the alternate title ‘Computer Eye.’

This is one of the worst sf books I’ve ever read. I certainly wasn’t expecting a remarkable novel from Van Vogt….. but even by his considerably relaxed standards, this novel is truly dire.

I didn’t get past page 30 with ‘Computerworld’, and I have come to mourn the time I wasted by reading those first 30 pages. 

[For a review based on the reading of the entire book, readers are referred to the M. Porcius Fiction Blog.]

Apparently, in the early 80s, Van Vogt decided to learn all he could about computer technologies and operating systems, and decided to write a novel using the computer as the narrator….. a second-person narrator, at that. 

Van Vogt calculated that working an entire vocabulary of computing terms and jargon into his prose would give his novel a degree of authenticity that, presumably, would startle and astonish those legions of sf readers who refused to acknowledge his unique genius........

Thus, the entire novel is thus one long exercise in deciphering a stilted prose style designed to mimic the computational processes of a very advanced computer. It’s like reading really, really bad fanfic ....with the inflection of a metallic monotone....about a super - computer in control of the USA.

Here are some selected excerpts:

I replied in the male voice I used when speaking to men. “Each human being" – those were my words- "now numbering in America one hundred and seventy-eight million, four hundred and thirty-three thousand, nine hundred and eleven individuals – as of a cut –off moment when you finished asking your question, has a distinctive bio-magnetic configuration, each different from all others in thousands of ways. As you know, my previous recognition of a human man, woman, or child depended on my comparing his physiognomy with earlier models of him in my memory banks, and of comparing his voice in a similar fashion. I still do this, but it is an automatic process not really necessary any more to recognition. That now requires only the golden profile.”

***

The Pren-Boddy vehicle is proceeding along the Main Street of Mardley, heading south. I drive the S. A. V. E. (#) to the nearest intersection, and the other three available S. A. V. E.s to the three next intersections. In each instance, I wait on the side street. My plan is to fire at, or ram, the rebel machine from successive side streets.

***

His voice pauses. Because even as he is speaking, David’s attention is distracted toward a large dog that, at that moment, comes to the foot of the stage steps. The animal, a brown (shade 8) mixed breed, puts its fore paws on the lower of the two steps.

At once, David’s body begins to shimmer. Swiftly, it takes on a dog shape. The transformation is so rapid that by the time Glay tate grabs at the changing-shape-thing, what he grabs is 9/10ths brown, fuzzy-haired dog-duplicate.

But he grabs hard. And he holds the David-animal body firmly. As he continues grasping it, the dog changes back into boy. Into David Norton. In my line of vision, 38 people have stood up in a manner known as jumping to their feet. And there is a sound. What I, by comparison, would call a collective moan. The sound comes from all over the tent. I count 241 moans, most of them from people I cannot see.

***

Even the most ardent of those wretched souls who continue to insist that Van Vogt was an unfairly maligned genius of sf, are going to have difficulty endorsing this book……