Showcase Presents: Doc Savage

Showcase Presents: Doc Savage
DC Comics, 2011

Doc Savage has been bouncing around the comic book scene since the 1940s, in the hands of publishers such as Gold Key / Western, Marvel, Millenium, Dark Horse, and DC. 

[Starting in December, 2013, Dynamite Entertainment - the comics company perhaps best known for its Deja Thoris, Red Sonja, and Vampirella ultra-cheesecake comics - was the latest owner of the comic book rights to the franchise, and has released color comics with writing by Chris Roberson and artwork by Bilquis Evely.]

Probably the best of all of these Doc Savage comic book incarnations are the eight issues Marvel released in 1975 - 1977 in black and white, magazine-size format, under its Curtis Circulation imprint.

These first of these issues of `Doc Savage' debuted in the Summer of 1975 as part of a tie-in with the movie. The movie of course bombed awfully, permanently scarring many Savage fans even unto the present day. Nonetheless, Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin kept the magazine going for seven more issues, into 1977.

Demonstrating the sometimes esoteric nature of licensing legalities, in 2011 DC - who owned the comic book rights to the franchise - compiled all the Curtis issues into this Showcase volume. 

Needless to say the words `Curtis' or `Marvel' are not mentioned anywhere at all in this book, not even within the ISBN credits. Indeed, unless buyers know the history of the Doc Savage comics, they would be correct in presuming that all the material in this volume originated with DC....

What you do get in this Showcase volume are 450 pages containing all eight of the Curtis issues, including the cover art and pinups. [The other, non-comic art features that appeared in the magazines are not included, however].

Note that these comics were all originally printed in black and white, and they reproduce very well here (even though the book uses the cheaper grade of `phone book' quality paper).

Although the Curtis comics were technically magazines, and therefore exempt from adhering to the Comics Code, writer Doug Moench wasn't too adventurous with the series. His plots mimic those of the Lester Dent novels, featuring evil villains equipped with superweapons; damsels in distress; journeys to lost cities; jungles filled with giant insects and dinosaurs; etc. The Fabulous Five are active participants in all of the action, rather than being relegated to sidekicks making occasional appearances (Monk even starred in his own brief solo series !).

It's the artwork, by John Buscema, Tony DeZuniga, Val Mayerik, and later Ernie Chan, that makes this volume well worth getting, as it remains among the best the franchise has seen, and among the best Marvel issued in the 70s in its magazine format.

If you are a fan of 70s comic books, Doc Savage, or just well-illustrated comics, period, then getting a copy of this 'Showcase Presents' volume is necessary. Copies in 'very fine' condition can be had for $20 or less, but I expect that the longer the volume stays out of print, the higher the prices will go, so it may be best to act quickly...... 

Bats by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, and Duffy Vohland

Bats
by Doug Moench (script) and Paul Gulacy and Duffy Vohland (art)
from Vampire Tales (Marvel / Curtis), issue 7, October 1974

Entirely wordless, these kinds of comics look like they're easy to pull off, when in fact they are heavily reliant on the skill of the artist......and this comic does a great deal with its seven pages, thanks primarily to some great illustration by Paul Gulacy and Duffy Vohland.

Also of interest in this issue, a review of four Pinnacle / Zebra paperbacks from long, long ago....I have never heard of any of these. 

But then again, if they were representative of the typical Zebra horror novel, I'm probably not missing much.....

Anyways, here is 'Bats'.....

Book Review: The Last Gasp

Book Review: 'The Last Gasp' by Trevor Hoyle

3 / 5 Stars

‘The Last Gasp’ first was published in 1983; the Crown / Doubleday hardback (top) features a striking cover by Michael Booth.

The Zebra Books mass market paperback edition (above) was published in March, 1985 (the cover artist is unknown). Zebra Books was at that time a major publisher of the ‘Men’s Adventure’ novel genre (think ‘The Survivalist’, ‘The Warlord’, ‘Depth Force’, etc.) and so the publisher marketed this book to that audience, rather than to an sf readership........such are the vagaries of international publishing and marketing.

Trevor Hoyle (b. 1940) was the pseudonym of the UK writer Trevor Smith, who published a number of standalone, and series (‘Blakes 7’, ‘The Q Trilogy’), sf novels in the 1970s and 1980s. He since has moved away from sf to focus on publishing novels that examine the darker side of the social order, and working-class life, in northern England.

‘Gasp’ opens in 1990 in Antarctica, at Halley Bay Station, where a young marine biologist named Gavin Chase is attending to some instruments. Chase is astonished to see a snow sled approach the station; on the sled lies a man, incoherent and near death from exposure. Chase brings the man into the station, where he is attended to by the medical team. When the man revives, Chase cannot converse with him, as the man speaks only Russian; however, before the man is evacuated, he scribbles a chemical reaction equation (describing the dissolution of carbon dioxide in seawater) onto a page of a notebook. Chase is mystified by the meaning of this act….what, exactly, have the Russians been researching at their outpost in the Antarctic ?

In the equatorial waters of the Pacific, marine biologist Theo Detrick finishes his latest measurements of phytoplankton populations in the warm salt water offshore of Canton Island in the Phoenix Island atoll. He finds the results disturbing, too disturbing to ignore: the population of the phytoplankton has steadily been decreasing. This portends disaster, for the phytoplankton are responsible for supplying most of the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere………

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the research ship Melville is deploying a trawling net to sample the tiny flora and fauna lying just two meters under the surface of the water. Cheryl Detrick – Theo Detrick’s daughter – is astonished when the sampling net is submerged beneath an enormous field of red algae – a sign that the ocean ecosystem is being subjected to degradation…….

In Washington, DC, General George Nelson Wolfe and Lieutenant Lloyd Madden are heading a 'black ops' clandestine program, one conducted in partnership with the JEG chemical corporation. The program’s goal: develop potent new formulations for mass delivery of herbicides, including the highly toxic compound TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo para-dioxin). The purpose: to wage environmental warfare against the Soviets……..

As the later years of the 20th century unfold, all of these events will coalesce and bring about the greatest Eco-disaster in the history of the earth: the decline of oxygen in the atmosphere, and the gradual asphyxiation of every higher organism on the planet. Unless Gavin Chase and a small group of visionary scientists can alert the world to the coming catastrophe, all of Mankind inevitably will be taking its last gasp of breathable air………

With ‘Gasp’, author Hoyle is clearly trying to write the type of straightforward, didactic type of science fiction novel that Michael Crichton routinely produced in the 70s and 80s. This is not a bad thing; however, at 590 pp in length, ‘Gasp’ ultimately suffers from being too long and too unfocused. 

The myriad sub-plots and sub-sub-plots involve all manner of tropes taken from the thriller genre, including crazed, homicidal end-of-the-world Cultists; megalomaniacal military officers, who are happy to destroy the earth’s ecology if it means eliminating the Commies; greedy CEOs who are comfortable with carelessly peddling toxic chemicals for profit; super-computers at government installations whose data analysis points unerringly to the Coming of Doom; and a dwindling band of heroic and selfless scientists, who face a seemingly futile battle to alert the Powers That Be that time is running out.

What with the continual insertion of these sub-plots, the main narrative winds up becoming so diluted that most of the novel simply lurches along from one episode to another. 

In the final 100 pages author Hoyle finally seems realize that it’s time to restore some immediacy to the main plot, and does so with some entertaining – if contrived – mutant- and monster- action that would be right at home in the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas video games. But after the meandering tenor of the novel’s first 490 pages, it’s a case of too little, too late to really enable ‘The Last Gasp’ to be a classic entry in the Eco-disaster sf genre.

What you’re left with is a book that requires considerable patience to negotiate…..but if you are a dedicated fan of the Eco-disaster genre, then this one may be worth tackling.

The Bus

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

The Hacker Files issue 2

The Hacker Files
by Lewis Shiner (story) and Tom Sutton (art)
issue 2
DC Comics, September 1992

In episode two of 'Soft War', we learn a bit more about why Jack Marshall so dislikes corporate types, and those from Digitronix, in particular. We also meet the members of the hacker collective that support's Marshall's efforts.....and the crisis taking place in the Pentagon's network takes a turn for the worse......

In the absence of any letters yet, Lewis Shiner devotes the letters column to an informative, 'I Was There' rundown of the history of cyberpunk....definitely worth reading !

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday
by Alan Weiss (script and art)
from Amazing High Adventure (Marvel Comics)
Issue 2, September 1985

Amazing High Adventure was an anthology comic book that Marvel published intermittently for 5 issues, from August 1984 - December 1986.

The book was edited by Carl Potts, one of the more talented artist / writers on the Marvel editorial staff at the time, and Potts selected material that was, by and large, of good quality and presented as well as anything could, in an era when Marvel and other major comic book publishers has switched to cheaper, plastic printing plates.

Amazing High Adventure was a conscious effort on Marvel's part to create an anthology that mimicked the classic 'men's adventure' magazines of the 50s and 60s. Rather than stories centered on superheroes, AHA focused on 'realistic' stories set in actual historical periods.

The second issue, released in September 1985, featured a nicely illustrated tale by writer/artist Alan Wiess titled 'Palm Sunday'. I've posted it below.