Operation Omega by Denis Sire

Operation Omega
by Denis Sire 
from the October, 1977 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

The French artist Denis Sire (b. 1953) began publishing his work in Metal Hurlant in 1976. 

When its American counterpart Heavy Metal launched in early 1977, Sire's strips were translated into English and regularly featured, primarily through the loosely connected episodes of the 'Diabolical Planet / Great Trap' (Menace Diabolique) series, starring the hero Maurice Leblanc (translated into 'Morris White' for American printing).

Sire's comics in the late 70s issues of Heavy Metal, with their striking use of black and white linework, stippling, and shading, and an Art Nouveau / Retro stylistic sensibility, were instantly recognizable. And, needless to say, Sire's incorporation of pinup imagery into his reimagining of the 'Flash Gordon' sf adventure tale also appealed greatly to the magazine's stoner readership and signaled that here was something very new in American comics.

[In the early 80s his color comics series, Willy's Wood, also became a regular Heavy Metal feature, but I found it disappointing, being an obsessive depiction of Betty Page - inspired, softcore porn.]

Here's the standalone story 'Operation Omega', scanned from the original magazine pages at 200 dpi.

Conelrad

Conelrad

What with Fallout 4 now on store shelves, and the rockin' tune 'Atom Bomb Baby' part of its soundtrack.....

.....the timing seems right to post about a unique website called Conelrad.

Conelrad, which I've been following off and on for several years now, is devoted to documenting postwar American pop culture and its references to atomic war / WWIII. There are pages devoted to Cold War era civil defense media, including feature films, public service announcements, radio and television broadcasts, newspaper articles about hypothetical bomb drops on U.S. cities, and (of course), warnings about Commies and the Red Menace. 

I remember some of this stuff from when I was a kid in grade school in the 60s, learning how to duck under my desk to shield myself from an atomic blast.....

One can spend hours poring over its extensive inventory of artifacts from this time period, which cover just about every nuance of the Cold War and its love / hate relationship with The Bomb and atomic energy.

One drawback to the site is its design, which - for whatever reason - is not at all user friendly. It has a strange Left-Justified, one-third page format which may have been current in 1997....... combined with its small font, this formatting gives the site a cramped appearance and makes it difficult to navigate.

When all is said and done, however, Conelrad is a site worth visiting.

Book Review: Frostflower and Thorn

Book Review: 'Frostflower and Thorn' by Phyllis Ann Karr

2 / 5 Stars

‘Frostflower and Thorn’ (276 pp.) was published by Berkley Books in November, 1980. The cover artist is Enrich.

‘Frostflower’ was Phyllis Ann Karr’s first novel; a sequel, ‘Frostflower and Windbourne’, was published in 1982.

Nowadays female authors and female heroines are commonplace in the fantasy genre, and in fact make up the majority of the DAW Books catalog; but at the time it was published, ‘Frostflower’ was comparatively rare in these regards.

The book certainly has an interesting premise: what happens when a female swordswoman / barbarian – think Red Sonja – gets pregnant ?

And insists upon having an abortion - !?

As ‘Frostflower’ opens, that is the case indeed for its titular heroine, Thorn. Following a dalliance with a merchant, Thorn is Knocked Up....... a physical state she views with disgust, as it prevents her from earning her trade as a hireling swordswoman among the compounds and settlements of the Tanglelands (in the standard-issue medieval fantasy world of the novel, all combat is handled by guilds of swordswomen according to strict rules of engagement – males are restricted to non-combat pursuits).

As Thorn ponders her next move, the softspoken sorceress Frostflower offers to help: using her magic, within the afternoon she will accelerate the growth of the fetus until it is at the stage of a full-term, nine-month fetus, ready for delivery - ! What does Frostflower want in return ? Merely to keep the infant and raise it as her own.

Despite her reservations at being subjected to a bizarre magical ritual, Thorn agrees, and in the space of an afternoon, she does indeed give birth to an infant boy. Naming her adopted son ‘Starwind’, Frostflower requests Thorn’s assistance in escorting mother and child to far-off Windslope Retreat, Frostflower’s home. Thorn grudgingly agrees.

Unfortunately, en route to Windslope, the pair stumble upon a secret fertility ceremony being performed by Maldron, the highest-ranking Farmer-Priest of the Tanglelands. Violence ensues, and Frostflower and Thorn succeed in escaping Maldron’s clutches……but they now find themselves declared outlaws, hunted across the Tanglelands by order of the Farmer-Priests.

In a land where the most brutal and cruel of punishments are routinely meted out to violators of the Farmer-Priests’ creed, the two women must use every ruse and wile at their command if they are to escape Maldron’s net and reach the safety of Windslope……

I found ‘Frostflower and Thorn’ to be something of a slog to get through. While the premise is certainly offbeat and novel from a sword-and-sorcery standpoint, the book suffers from being heavily overwritten.

Author Karr regularly devotes much of the narrative to lengthy segments of exposition, making the book’s too-few action scenes too plodding and drawn-out be very effective.

In terms of characterization, while Thorn makes a reasonably good female version of Conan the Barbarian, the Frostflower character is so passive and indecisive – even while enduring all manner of graphic abuse from the plot’s major villain – that I gradually became tired of reading those sections of the narrative devoted to her misadventures.

Summing up, ‘Frostflower and Thorn’ is one of those first novels that could have benefited quite a bit from a more invested editorial hand. As it stands, only readers with quite a bit of patience will find it rewarding.

All's Well

All's Well
A 'Gideon Plexus' Adventure
by Zoran
from the February, 1985 issue of Epic Illustrated

The Croatian-born artist Zoran Vanjaka is a skilled illustrator, but unfortunately most of his work for European comics has not been translated into English.

Showcase Presents: The Warlord

Showcase Presents: 'The Warlord'
by Mike Grell

After looking on in envy all during the early 70s as Marvel enjoyed strong sales from its 'Conan' franchise and its numerous spinoffs, DC Comics' management decided to make a trial run into the sword-and-sorcery genre by printing Mike Grell's 'Warlord' comic in the November, 1975 issue of 1st Issue Special. 

Reader response to the comic was favorable, and DC went ahead and made 'The Warlord' its own title, allowing Grell - a talented veteran of the comic book industry - to provide both art and story, which back in those days was a rare step on the part of the management at the large comic book companies. 

The first issue of 'The Warlord' was issued in early 1976, and the comic quickly became one of DC's strongest sellers, ultimately lasting for an impressive (for a non-superhero title) 133 issues through September 1989.

This 'Essentials' volume reprints - in black and white - the content from 1st Issue Special and 'The Warlord' issues 1 - 28 (January - February 1976 to December 1979).

The premise of the story incorporates a number of familiar sf and fantasy themes: US Air Force pilot Travis Morgan loses control of his SR-71 'Blackbird' spy plane over the North Pole, and passes into a Hollow Earth world (called Skartaris) marked by eternal sunlight, a tropical ecosystem populated by barbarian tribes and dinosaurs, and, of course, nubile women wearing scanty furs from the Vampirella and Red Sonja schools of heroine fashion.

After only a few weeks in Skartaris, Morgan abandons his military-regulation haircut, grows a beard, dons a loincloth, learns how to wield a sword, and takes to his new home with enthusiasm..... and dry humor.

The majority of the issues released during The Warlord's first three years were single-episode in nature, as opposed to relying on longer, multi-issue story arcs. When combined with the fact that The Warlord was a Code book, this meant that the plots tended to be oriented towards a straightforward adventure narrative, one reliant on depictions of overt action and drama. 

However bounded he was by editorial policies in terms of his scripts, Grell was a skilled artist when it came to rendering scenes of dynamic, sword-and-shield combat.

The latter issues in this compilation indicate that, with the title's financial success, Grell was given greater leeway in terms of content; as well, the advent of frequent barbarian / sword and sorcery stories in 'adult' comics like Heavy Metal and the Warren magazines, in the late 70s, seems to have further loosened the editorial restrictions imposed on The Warlord. 

While remaining distinctive in its own right, Grell's artwork began to take on a more ornate, 'artistic' visual style, one similar to that used by South American, European, and Philippino artists like Alex Nino, Esteban Maroto, and Gonzalo Mayo for their fantasy comics in Eerie and Creepy.

Summing up, if you are a fan of 70s sword-and-sorcery comics, then Showcase Presents: The Warlord is worth getting. However conventional his plots may have been during the book's first three years, Grell's artwork always was of high standards and, in my opinion, superior to some of the artwork appearing in the modern-day sword-and-sorcery comics.

Crabs by Kubert

'Crabs' by Adam Kubert
from the January, 1985 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Blackmark: The Mind Demons

Blackmark: The Mind Demons
by Gil Kane
Marvel Preview No. 17, Winter 1979

An argument can be made that in 1971, Gil Kane published the very first 'graphic novel' with Blackmark, a Bantam Books paperback. The book combined text, pictures, and speech balloons into a hybrid creation, one that was novel, but also one that retailers found difficult to categorize. For this and other reasons, Kane's sequel, 'The Mind Demons', although ready for print after Blackmark was released, remained unpublished until 1979, when Marvel published it in Marvel Preview.

[A trade paperback containing both Blackmark, The Mind Demons, and assorted bonus material was released by Fantagraphics in 2002]

It's helpful, but not absolutely necessary, to have read Blackmark before taking on The Mind Demons. As the latter opens, our hero, the eponymous young Master of New Earth, is using his martial skills to persuade petty warlords and princelings to join his forces residing at the Silvertower castle.

But Blackmark's efforts to forge a united New Earth Army are given added urgency by an ominous report from the castle of Lord Shannux: a horde of flying demons has routed the defenders and massacred most of the castle's inhabitants.

The source of the demons ? Psi-Keep, the remote redoubt of the Mutant Lords....a cabal of evil wizards determined to stamp out mankind from the face of New Earth. 

Can ancient science be resurrected in time to aid Blackmark in his quest against the demons and their masters ? Will he survive the treacherous passage through the frozen wastes of the northlands and confront the mutant lords in Psi-Keep ? Or will Blackmark fail...and with that failure bring down the last age of Man......... !?

'The Mind Demons' probably will seem rather tame to modern readers, but its storyline is reasonably engaging and devoid of the inflated sense of self-importance that characterizes a lot of graphic novels / comic books nowadays.

Its artwork is worth a look, mainly because Gil Kane - who labored off and on with Blackmark, in between taking the freelance assignments for Marvel that paid his bills - had to confront, and overcome, limitations in printing technology and book layout. Blackmark was a 6 x 9 inch mass-market paperback book, after all, and not the 8 1/2 x 11 inch format of the Marvel Graphic Novels of the 1980s. And Kane was printing his book in black and white, Zip-A-Tone, and graytone, not color. 

With Blackmark and The Mind Demons he was creating something entirely new, and there was no template to follow. Yet despite those limitations, he was able to impart some visual style and dynamism to the pages of his 'graphic novel', which comes out quite well in the 10 x 8 inch magazine dimensions of Marvel Preview.

Summing up, anyone with an interest in the graphic novel, comic book art, and illustration art will want to pick up the 2002 compilation volume of Blackmark and The Mind Demons from Fantagraphics. Although out of print, used copies in good condition can be had for reasonable prices.

Book Review: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series III

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series III' 
edited by Richard Davis

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III’ (173 pp) was published in July 1975. It is DAW Book No. 155. The cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.

Some of the stories in this volume were commissioned, while the rest previously were printed in the interval 1968 – 1974.

This is one of the better volumes in this series, perhaps because editor Davis didn’t share the affinity for ‘quiet’ horror shared by later editors Gerald W. Page and Karl Edward Wagner. Davis was more interested in unusual, offbeat treatments of horror themes.

My capsule reviews of the contents:

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, by Harlan Ellison: vintage Ellison. An examination of the dehumanizing effect of city life.

The Man in the Underpass, by Ramsey Campbell: this tale features Campbell’s oblique and labored approach to crafting a narrative; however, his purple prose is under restraint, a state of affairs that – unfortunately - evaporated as his writing career progressed……in this story, a provocative bit of graffiti makes Liverpool schoolgirls uneasy.

S. F., by T. E. D. Klein: in the year 2039, people wear metal caps. The why, and wherefore, is not associated with fashion ………

Uncle Vlad, by Clive Sinclair: this story was originally published in ‘Transatlantic Review’, a highbrow journal of fiction and criticism. The story lumbers along – one sentence reads: Our family is jealous of its dark arboreal rebus. But it has a vampire-themed, creepy undertone that emerges despite its onslaught of florid prose.

Judas Story, by Brian M. Stableford: overwrought tale of a rock star whose success comes with a price.

The House of Cthulhu, by Brian Lumley: competent Mythos tale by Lumley.

Satanesque, by Alan Weiss: this tale starts out as seemingly yet another tired allegory on the theme of a backward community’s hate and fear of The Other. But then the plot takes an offbeat, and unexpected, turn. One of the best entries in this anthology.

Burger Creature, by Steven Chapman: in a greasy-spoon burger joint, a strange new Life Form arises. More about satirical humor than horror.

Wake Up Dead, by Tim Stout: mad scientist tale with a hint of dieselpunk flavor.

Forget-Me-Not, by Bernard Taylor: a young American girl living in London espies the deserted house that once belonged to a serial killer.

Halloween Story, by Gregory Fitz Gerald: surreal tale of a young woman who experiences an unusual Halloween. Too contrived to be effective.

Big Wide, Wonderful World, by Charles E. Fritch: four chums decide on an impromptu experiment, with unpleasant results. Barely three pages long, this is a memorable tale, and an example of how to write a great short-short story.

The Taste of Your Love, by Eddy C. Bertin: a serial killer seeks his next victim among the swinging Mediterranean party scene of the early 70s. Another shorter-length story that delivers a great ending, and another of this anthology’s better entries.

Summing up, copies of ‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series III’ are long out of print and fetch higher prices than most paperbacks in the used bookstore shelves, but if you can find one for an affordable price, it’s well worth picking up.