Part Two: 'Dusk'
by Don McGregor (script) and Paul Gulacy (art)
from Eerie No. 104 (September 1979)
Saturday, January 9, 2016
The Trespasser Part Two: Dusk
The Trespasser
Part Two: 'Dusk'
by Don McGregor (script) and Paul Gulacy (art)
from Eerie No. 104 (September 1979)
Part Two: 'Dusk'
by Don McGregor (script) and Paul Gulacy (art)
from Eerie No. 104 (September 1979)
Thursday, January 7, 2016
The Trespasser Part One
The Trespasser
Part One
by Don McGregor (script) and Paul Gulacy (art)
from Eerie No. 103 (August 1979)
Part One
by Don McGregor (script) and Paul Gulacy (art)
from Eerie No. 103 (August 1979)
Among the better features in the pages of Eerie in the late 70s - early 80s were the collaborations between artist Paul Gulacy and writers such as Doug Moench and Don McGregor.
I've already posted the outstanding three-part serial 'Blood and Black Satin' by Gulacy and Moench that appeared in 1980, but the three-part serial 'The Trespasser', which appeared a year earlier, also is worthy of a posting.
Although the issues of Eerie from which I'm making these scans are 35 years old, dog-eared, and wrinkled and warped, with my scans set to 300 dpi / 1 MB each, hopefully the high quality of Gulacy's art is apparent despite the compromised paper quality.
[I suspect contemporary readers may not recognize the actor that Gulacy uses as a model for the hero.....so for the benefit of those modern-day readers, that actor is James Coburn.]
Below is Part One of 'The Trespasser'.....Parts Two and Three will be posted in successive order here at the PorPor Books Blog.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Book Review: False Dawn
Book Review: 'False Dawn' by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
‘False Dawn’ first was published as a short story in several anthologies in the early 70s. A fix-up novel was issued in hardback in 1978 by Doubleday; this Warner Books paperback (237 pp) was published in April, 1979.
The novel is set ca. 2010 in the Sierra Nevada mountains of a post-apocalyptic California (the exact nature of the apocalypse is not detailed, but seems to have been a combination of eco-catastrophe, overwhelming pollution, and plagues). Civilization has collapsed, and small pockets of survivors scrounge for their rations amidst its ruins.
The widespread release of genetically engineered viruses has created a growing subpopulation of deformed, crazed mutants, who are forced to live in isolated communities. Others infected by the viruses retain their human characteristics, although they display some unusual traits, such as the ability to re-grow amputated limbs.
As ‘False Dawn’ opens, the heroine, a young woman named Thea, is surveying the scene of yet another atrocity committed by the Pirates, the most vicious band of wasteland raiders. Amid the corpses of the victims she finds a man named Evan, left for dead by the Pirates. Thea and Evan form a wary partnership and embark across the mountains for Gold Lake campground, where, it is rumored, a safe and secure haven for the dispossessed is located.
The remainder of ‘Dawn’ is essentially an adventure story recounting the shared journey of the two characters, who encounter a variety of perils – mostly at the hands of their fellow humans, but also from the elements and the mutated wildlife.
For a novel published in the late 70s, ‘Dawn’ was quite graphic in its depiction of violence and brutality, particularly for a novel authored by a woman; at that time, only male writers like Norman Spinrad (‘The Men in the Jungle’) and Piers Anthony (the ‘Battle Circle’ trilogy) had written sf novels with as high a quotient of explicit mayhem.
What makes ‘Dawn’ effective is the author’s failure to offer contrived notes of hope; the landscape through which Thea and Evan move is one in which any last vestiges of kindness and morality are fast becoming expunged by the relentless onslaught of both raiders, and ecological decay.
‘Dawn’ is a cornerstone novel in the post-apocalyptic sub-genre of sf. If you like your post-apocalyptia to have a ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Fallout 3’ flavor, then it’s sure to appeal to you.
(For another review of ‘False Dawn’, readers are directed to the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog.)
4 / 5 Stars
The novel is set ca. 2010 in the Sierra Nevada mountains of a post-apocalyptic California (the exact nature of the apocalypse is not detailed, but seems to have been a combination of eco-catastrophe, overwhelming pollution, and plagues). Civilization has collapsed, and small pockets of survivors scrounge for their rations amidst its ruins.
The widespread release of genetically engineered viruses has created a growing subpopulation of deformed, crazed mutants, who are forced to live in isolated communities. Others infected by the viruses retain their human characteristics, although they display some unusual traits, such as the ability to re-grow amputated limbs.
As ‘False Dawn’ opens, the heroine, a young woman named Thea, is surveying the scene of yet another atrocity committed by the Pirates, the most vicious band of wasteland raiders. Amid the corpses of the victims she finds a man named Evan, left for dead by the Pirates. Thea and Evan form a wary partnership and embark across the mountains for Gold Lake campground, where, it is rumored, a safe and secure haven for the dispossessed is located.
The remainder of ‘Dawn’ is essentially an adventure story recounting the shared journey of the two characters, who encounter a variety of perils – mostly at the hands of their fellow humans, but also from the elements and the mutated wildlife.
For a novel published in the late 70s, ‘Dawn’ was quite graphic in its depiction of violence and brutality, particularly for a novel authored by a woman; at that time, only male writers like Norman Spinrad (‘The Men in the Jungle’) and Piers Anthony (the ‘Battle Circle’ trilogy) had written sf novels with as high a quotient of explicit mayhem.
What makes ‘Dawn’ effective is the author’s failure to offer contrived notes of hope; the landscape through which Thea and Evan move is one in which any last vestiges of kindness and morality are fast becoming expunged by the relentless onslaught of both raiders, and ecological decay.
‘Dawn’ is a cornerstone novel in the post-apocalyptic sub-genre of sf. If you like your post-apocalyptia to have a ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Fallout 3’ flavor, then it’s sure to appeal to you.
(For another review of ‘False Dawn’, readers are directed to the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog.)
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Eschatus
Eschatus
Future Prophecies from Nostradamus' Ancient Writings
by Bruce Pennington
I remember seeing this book periodically being advertised in various magazines during the late 70s and early 80s, and reasoned that it was the ideal Stoner Book.
I'm surprised that nostalgia hadn't motivated me to pick the book up since those long-ago days, but I recently did, indeed, get a copy; these can be had from the usual used book vendors online for reasonable prices.
'Eschatus' (78 pp) was published in the US in 1977 by Fireside / Simon and Schuster. At 12" x 12" it's a large, well-made book with good quality reproductions, most of which are too large for me to scan in their entirety.
'Eschatus' is indeed a Stoner-friendly art book, one that perfectly captures the strange obsession with prophecy and the apocalypse that was a big part of 70s pop culture (remember Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth books ? Or the Omen movies ? )
Nostradamus (1503 - 1566) was the Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, a French multidisciplinary scholar who, over the period from 1555 - 1558, published three books of poetry called The Prophecies. The poems were four-line works, called quatrains, that supposedly predicted forthcoming world events, particularly disasters.
Future Prophecies from Nostradamus' Ancient Writings
by Bruce Pennington
I'm surprised that nostalgia hadn't motivated me to pick the book up since those long-ago days, but I recently did, indeed, get a copy; these can be had from the usual used book vendors online for reasonable prices.
'Eschatus' (78 pp) was published in the US in 1977 by Fireside / Simon and Schuster. At 12" x 12" it's a large, well-made book with good quality reproductions, most of which are too large for me to scan in their entirety.
'Eschatus' is indeed a Stoner-friendly art book, one that perfectly captures the strange obsession with prophecy and the apocalypse that was a big part of 70s pop culture (remember Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth books ? Or the Omen movies ? )
Nostradamus (1503 - 1566) was the Latinized name of Michel de Nostredame, a French multidisciplinary scholar who, over the period from 1555 - 1558, published three books of poetry called The Prophecies. The poems were four-line works, called quatrains, that supposedly predicted forthcoming world events, particularly disasters.
Nostradmus's poems were (even by the relaxed literary standards of the time) often obtuse, often incoherent, and often so open to interpretation as to be of questionable worth as prophecies:
Nonetheless, The Prophecies sold very well upon release, and over the centuries have become one of the cornerstone documents of Western explorations of the supernatural and the occult.
Which brings us to 'Eschatus', which Pennington considers a 'visual interpretation of many of the prophecies of Nostradamus.' Pennington is envisioning events that will take place several centuries from now (i.e., the late 20th century) and thus many of the illustrations in the book have a science-fiction theme.
Most of the quatrains that Pennington has selected to illustrate are those that - for him, at least - prophecy disasters of apocalyptic scale, giving rise to landscapes of ruination, destruction, and mass deaths.
Pennington interprets some quatrains as predicting the rise of a militaristic New World Order akin to those of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
Nostradamus's poetry lends itself well to interpretations of a symbolic, rather than realistic, nature:
Pennington's work is clearly inspired to some extent by the paintings of Salvadore Dali:
The final quarter of the book is made up of several pages of lists of phrases appearing in Nostradmus' poems, phrases which Pennington used to guide his compositions.
Summing up, 'Eschatus' is worth picking up if you are a fan of Pennington's art, fantastic art in general, or.....if you are a stoner and looking for some art that goes well with being stoned - !
Most of the quatrains that Pennington has selected to illustrate are those that - for him, at least - prophecy disasters of apocalyptic scale, giving rise to landscapes of ruination, destruction, and mass deaths.
Pennington interprets some quatrains as predicting the rise of a militaristic New World Order akin to those of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.
Nostradamus's poetry lends itself well to interpretations of a symbolic, rather than realistic, nature:
Pennington's work is clearly inspired to some extent by the paintings of Salvadore Dali:
The final quarter of the book is made up of several pages of lists of phrases appearing in Nostradmus' poems, phrases which Pennington used to guide his compositions.
Summing up, 'Eschatus' is worth picking up if you are a fan of Pennington's art, fantastic art in general, or.....if you are a stoner and looking for some art that goes well with being stoned - !
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Book Review: The Lerios Mecca
Book Review: 'The Lerios Mecca' by Gene Lancour
5 / 5 Stars
'The Lerios Mecca' (180 pp) was published in hardback by Doubleday / Science Fiction Book Club in 1973; the cover artwork is by Gary Friedman.
'Lerios' is the first book in the so-called 'Dirshan the Godkiller' series; the other volumes are The War Machines of Kalinth (1977), Sword for the Empire (1978), and The Man-Easters of Cascalon (1979).
[As of 2023, all of the 'Dirshan' volumes now are available in Print-On-Demand trade paperback editions.]
'Gene Lancour' was the pseudonym used by the U.S. writer Gene Fisher (b. 1947), who published a number of sf and general fiction books in the 70s and 80s. More recently, he has published a new fantasy tetralogy, titled 'Tales of the Waste'.
Lancour lists Robert E. Howard as one of his literary inspirations, and the Dirshan series is a Conan pastiche. But while Dirshan is as physically imposing as Conan, he is also something more than a simple Conan clone. For one thing, Dirshan is a bit brighter than Howard's character, and not so invulnerable; he rarely emerges from combat unscathed. As a consequence, Dirshan prefers to utilize strategy, rather than wild sword-swinging, when confronting his adversaries.
The Dirshan series takes place in a Howardian Bronze-Age world, where the Kingdom of Alithar struggles to maintain its status as a world power in the face of uprisings from both rebellious tribes, and foreign polities.
As 'Lerios' opens, Dirshan regains consciousness after being knocked out during a brutal battle with the Tuqua, a tribe of desert raiders. Only one other man has survived, but he is dying, and he holds Dirshan to a deathbed vow: the Tuqua raiding party was led by a man belonging to the Order, the religious sect that dominates Alithar's government. Dirshan swears to find and kill the Order member, whose leadership of the Tuqua represents an act of treachery.
After forming in an alliance with an Order spymaster, Dirshan embarks on a lengthy quest to cross the vast El-Arwim desert, a wasteland populated by bandits and wracked by dust storms.
If Dirshan is successful in making the crossing of the desert, things will hardly get easier, for ahead lurk pirates, and the nomads of the grasslands, who give no quarter. But Dirshan will not face these dangers alone; his allies Princess Karinth, and the sage Teos, will join him on his quest.
And then there is the mysterious castle of Harras, secreted within a mountain redoubt. Harras, where the knowledge of the ancients is carefully guarded from misuse. There, Dirshan will be offered a gift that few other men are offered........but nothing comes without its price......
'The Lerios Mecca' is a well-written and engaging sword-and-sorcery novel, superior to those churned out by other Conan pastiche writers like Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. The fantasy elements, while present, are comparatively subdued, leaving the narrative focused on the interplay between Dirshan and his allies, and their skillful tactics when confronting numerically superior enemies.
This is a sword-and-sorcery tale that is worth searching out.
Friday, December 25, 2015
Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive
Star Trek / Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive
Scott and David Tipton (writers) and Rachael Stott (art)
IDW / Boom! Studios, August 2015
This graphic novel compiles the five-issue crossover series first published from December, 2014 to April, 2015.
So......what happens when the current comic book franchise holders for Star Trek (IDW) and Planet of the Apes (Boom! Studios) decide to collaborate on a crossover of two of the most storied licensed properties in sci-fi ?
The result is actually pretty good - !
I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the Enterprise is sent on a covert mission to investigate a secret Klingon science project........a project that involves the use of a high-tech interdimensional portal to access a parallel universe.
In due course, the Enterprise passes through the portal, and makes an unwelcome discovery: the Earth located in the parallel universe has been infiltrated by the Klingons. And, to make matters even stranger, evolution on this parallel Earth has taken a strange and unexpected turn....
As the narrative unfolds, the Away Team meets all of the characters of the 'Apes' movie, and makes some fateful decisions about whether the Prime Directive holds true in a universe where not only does the Federation not exist, but neither do the Organians....and the Klingons have free rein for their plans for conquest and expansion.
'The Primate Directive' is well-written by Scott and David Tipton, who adhere closely to the spirit of the original franchises, and refrain from introducing improbable story elements that would undermine the integrity of the plot.
Rachael Stott's artwork is also of good quality, taking care to reproduce the visual styles of the two franchises in an understated, but plausible, manner.
Since both Star Trek and Planet of the Apes are Teen-rated properties, neither IDW nor Boom! are able to introduce the overt violence and 'adult' themes commonplace in contemporary comics into this crossover, but this is no handicap, as I found the story to be fast-moving and engaging.
Summing up, 'The Primate Directive' is a successful melding of the two franchises, one that approaches its source material with the the attitude of having fun, as opposed to reworking the material to fit a self-conscious, 'modern' sensibility. If you're a fan of either (or both) properties, then you'll want to seek this out.
Scott and David Tipton (writers) and Rachael Stott (art)
IDW / Boom! Studios, August 2015
This graphic novel compiles the five-issue crossover series first published from December, 2014 to April, 2015.
So......what happens when the current comic book franchise holders for Star Trek (IDW) and Planet of the Apes (Boom! Studios) decide to collaborate on a crossover of two of the most storied licensed properties in sci-fi ?
The result is actually pretty good - !
I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the Enterprise is sent on a covert mission to investigate a secret Klingon science project........a project that involves the use of a high-tech interdimensional portal to access a parallel universe.
In due course, the Enterprise passes through the portal, and makes an unwelcome discovery: the Earth located in the parallel universe has been infiltrated by the Klingons. And, to make matters even stranger, evolution on this parallel Earth has taken a strange and unexpected turn....
As the narrative unfolds, the Away Team meets all of the characters of the 'Apes' movie, and makes some fateful decisions about whether the Prime Directive holds true in a universe where not only does the Federation not exist, but neither do the Organians....and the Klingons have free rein for their plans for conquest and expansion.
Rachael Stott's artwork is also of good quality, taking care to reproduce the visual styles of the two franchises in an understated, but plausible, manner.
Since both Star Trek and Planet of the Apes are Teen-rated properties, neither IDW nor Boom! are able to introduce the overt violence and 'adult' themes commonplace in contemporary comics into this crossover, but this is no handicap, as I found the story to be fast-moving and engaging.
The conclusion of 'The Primate Directive' is one that avoids contrivance and at the same time stays true to the events depicted in the television series and the movie.
The essays that Dana Gould wrote for each issue also are included in this volume. Gould, who was a kid when both the movie and TV shows aired in the late 60s, fuses the right amounts of nostalgia and revelations about both franchises (did you know there is a major link between Planet of the Apes and the recent film Argo ?!) in his essays, which are very entertaining.
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