Moebius' Airtight Garage issue 2

The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius
by Moebius
Issue 2, August 1993
Epic Comics

issue 1 is here

Ranxerox (April - May 1984)

Ranxerox
by Liberatore
from the April and May 1984 issues of Heavy Metal magazine

This standalone Ranxerox story (not to be confused with the inaugural 'Ranxerox' story that debuted in Heavy Metal in September, 1983), which was serialized over the April and May 1984 issues of Heavy Metal, is one of the best strips ever to appear in the magazine. 

Ultraviolent, packed with satiric humor, and featuring a gang of homicidal, feral children who shoot squirtguns filled with acid (!), the plot shows a warped originality that is completely absent from modern-day comics.

Liberatore's artwork, which used Pantone markers to apply the colors, renders the seedy world of near-future Rome with the kind of prescient fidelity that is at once spot-on, but also a little disturbing......as if Liberatore had somehow traveled into the future and actually seen what the future Rome would (will ?!) look like in all its trashed, grafitti -strewn glory.............?!

Posted below in its entirety is 'Ranxerox.'

Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town

Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town'
Live, March 2, 1972

'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town' was written by Mel Tillis. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition recorded and released the song as a single in 1969. It was a major hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

I remember hearing the song on the radio back in those days, when I was a kid. The ongoing Vietnam war gave the song an edge that makes it one of the more effective antiwar songs of the era.

As a Pop Culture Footnote, Leonard Nimoy recorded his own version (!) It's not as bad as you would think...............!

Book Review: Big Planet

Book Review: 'Big Planet' by Jack Vance

4 / 5 Stars

This paperback edition of ‘Big Planet’ (217 pp) was published by Ace Books in May 1978; the cover art is by Vincent Di Fate.

The premise is simple: a team of Federation diplomats and human rights observers are en route to Big Planet, an earth-like world settled centuries earlier. The ruler of Big Planet, a sadistic tyrant known as the Bajarnum, would prefer that the team never arrives at their destination, and  in due course, the spaceship carrying the team crash-lands in a remote province of Big Planet.

The crash survivors are led by Claude Glystra, the leader of the diplomatic team; Glystra is a resourceful man, deliberate and thoughtful in his actions. But his decision to travel 40,000 miles across the planet in order to take shelter at the Terran Enclave strikes his fellow survivors as fraught with risk. However, knowledge that the Bajarnum will seek to investigate the crash site, and imprison any survivors, moves the diplomats to ally with Glystra and undertake the journey.

Because Big Planet is devoid of metal deposits, any travel must rely on low-tech wind- or water-power, making for a long and wearying journey. And although the survivors have modern blasters in their possession, the power packs for these weapons are running low, meaning that conflicts with the bandits and marauders infesting the route must be avoided.

But failing weaponry is the least of Glystra's problems, for it emerges that at least one member of his party likely is an agent for the Bajarnum. Can Glystra identify the traitor before they deliver everyone into imprisonment or even death ?

One thing’s for sure: as the team of survivors sets out on their transit of Big Planet, all manner of perils and adventures await……..  

‘Big’ was first published in ‘Startling Stories’ in 1952, and then as a hardback novel in 1957. Despite being 65 years old, it reads as a ‘modern’ novel, something that very few sf novels of the 50s can be said to do. In many ways I found Big Planet to be the forerunner of Majipoor, the super-size Earth-like world that Robert Silverberg first introduced in his novel Lord Valentine’s Castle (1980).

Perhaps because this was originally a digest novel, Vance’s prose style is less ornate and more economical, making ‘Big’ very readable. The plot moves at a quick clip, and there are some twists and turns that make for a satisfying denouement.

Whether you’re a Vance enthusiast or someone you just likes a good adventure tale, ‘Big Planet’ is well worth picking up.

'Armies' trade paperback

Armies
trade paperback edition
by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Picaret (writers)
and Jean-Claude Gal (art)
Humanoids, July 2017

When Humanoids published the oversized hardbound edition of 'Armies' in 2013, I snapped it up. It was an outstanding book, although comparatively more expensive than most graphic novels. The hardbound edition has been out of print for some time, and copies in good condition have asking prices of $99 and up.

So it's a relief that Humanoids has just released a trade paperback version. At 7.5 x 0.5 x 10.2 inches, it's smaller than the hardbound version (9.4 x 0.7 x 12.6 inches) but it's also very reasonably priced at $19.95 (the cover price; your usual online vendors offer considerably lower prices, but make allowance for shipping and handling).

All of the contents of the hardbound edition - that is, both 'Conquering Armies' and 'Arn', as well as the Introduction by Dionnet, and the Postface by Pat Mills of 2000 AD lineage - are reproduced here. 

As with the hardbound version, the panels in 'Armies' are now rendered in color, by Dan Brown and Digikore Studios.

Looking through the pages of this trade paperback version, I again am struck by the outstanding artistry of Jean-Claude Gal. His work on 'Armies' and 'Arn' certainly qualifies as one of the highest achievements not just for albums de bande desinnee (i.e., Franco-Belgian comics), but for comics worldwide.

And Dionnet's writing complements the artwork.Spare and unobtrusive, the captions and speech balloons communicate the storyline with necessary economy. 

Summing up, you owe it to yourself to grab a copy of 'Armies'. This is a volume that belongs on the shelf of every fan of graphic art and comics.

(detail of above)

American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s: 1965 - 1969

American Comic Book Chronicles:
The 1960s: 1965 - 1969
by John Wells
TooMorrows Publishing, March 2014

'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s: 1965 - 1969' (287 pp) is one of a series of books released by TooMorrows Publishing that chronicle the history of American comic books. Other volumes in the series cover the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s.

Like the volume covering the 70s (reviewed here) and the 80s (reviewed here) this is a well-produced book. It adheres to the standardized format for the series, one marked by copious color illustrations and tiny, dense font.

Unlike the volumes for the 70s and 80s, Toomorrows elected to have its treatment of the 60s split into two separate books, with each book covering a five-year interval. 

While this strategy would seem to be worthwhile - it certainly allows for greater coverage of the topic - in the case of the 1965 - 1969 volume, it means that the page count has to be met...........and often, this is done by excessively detailed coverage of many marginal features of the 60s comics book scene.

While author John Wells does provide coverage of the rise of Marvel and the status of DC, equal space is apportioned to 'kiddie' titles and titles from minor publishers.

However talented Carl Barks and other artists were, their content for the Disney comics books of the 60s doesn't deserve the exposition Wells devotes to it in this volume. The same goes for other juvenilia, such as the Archie comics and the myriad imitations (Swing with Scooter, Binky's Buddies, Teen Titans).

I mean...really.......does space need to be given to the 'Herbie' comic issued by American Comics Group ? 

A half-century before DC unleashed a fat heroine in its 'Faith' comic books, 'Herbie' depicted the adventures of the introverted, overweight Jewish boy Herbie Popnecker.....who fights crime in the guise of 'The Fat Fury' ?!

In fairness to Wells, the text devoted to the heavyweight publishers Marvel and DC is well-written and informative. The role the 'Batman' TV show played in accelerating the growth of the superhero genre is ably outlined.

The advances in artistic design and presentation that were triggered by legends such as Kirby, Adams, Buscema, Steranko, and other artists also are recognized.

Wells does a good job in tracing the often precarious economics of publishing comics books in the 60s. The situation then was quite different, of course, from what it is today, a half-century later. It's worth remembering that in the 60s, kiddie comics like Dennis the Menace, Archie, and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories regularly outsold all but a handful of superhero titles. 

It's also true that many 60s comics were devoted to franchise properties, a trend that still is maintained today.....

The closing chapters of 'The 1960s: 1965 - 1969' cover the rise of Marvel and its superhero line. There is information here that is enlightening; for example, 1969 was a turning point for Marvel in large part because its contract with distributor with Independent News was over, and the company could take advantage of Curtis Circulation, a distributor co-owned by Marvel's corporate parent, Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation.

Freed from having to rely on Independent News's constraints on the number of titles Marvel could release, in 1969 Marvel dramatically increased its lineup, with many stars receiving their own dedicated books after having to share billing in titles like Tales to Astonish and Journey into Mystery.

Also of interest in the book's final chapter is a recounting of the influence of Jim Steranko. Although his output was comparatively small and issued over the course of just three years (i.e., 1966 - 1969), Steranko's work on 'Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD' in Strange Tales and later, Captain America, revolutionized comic book art. 

However, as Wells relates, Stan Lee's ill-advised editorial meddling eventually soured Steranko on working full-time in comic books, a development that can only lead one to wonder What Might Have Been....... had Lee been less inclined to interfere.

It's those sorts of insights that lead me to recommend 'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1960s: 1965 - 1969'. Although in comparison to the 70s and 80s volumes it's a struggle to read cover-to-cover, it serves well as a reference book, and - despite the labored analysis of the kiddie publications - there are a good share of rewarding nuggets that can be found and perused with a bit of selective searching.

Book Review: Phase IV

Book Review: 'Phase IV' by Barry Malzberg

2 / 5 Stars

This paperback novelization of the 1974 feature film 'Phase IV' was published in the UK by Pan books in 1973. It's based on the screenplay by Mayo Simon. 

The plot is relatively simple: after construction of a subdivision in the Arizona desert is halted due to an invasion of the site by an unusual species of ant, a team of two scientists - Ernest Hubbs and James Lesko - are installed in a futuristic laboratory near the subdivision, with the goal of studying the ants, and ultimately, eliminating them.

What Hubbs and Lesko do not know is that these ants have been 'melded' with an alien sentience from outer space; thus, the ants are endowed with special abilities - as Hubbs and Lesko will find out, to their dismay...........

What little I remember from seeing the film on cable TV during the early 80s is that it was a very low-budget affair, with the bulk of the film consisting largely of closeups of tense conversations between Hubbs and Lesko, along with grainy closeups of ants doing Ant Things (likely footage taken from documentaries). 

Those brief segments taking place in the grounds outside the laboratory also are filmed in closeup, presumably to avoid letting the viewer know how bare-bones the sets were. All of this means that Malzberg really didn't have much to work with in terms of creating a narrative of sufficient length for even a short (127 pp) novelization. 

Malzberg tries to impart some substance to his novelization by using both a first-person narrative, in the form of diary entries by Lesko, interspersed with a third-person narrative; but the diary entries tend to be rambling monologues, and their use as padding is very apparent.

The ending of the novelization shares the same ambiguity as the film, with Malzberg relying on some New Wave - style prose effects. Whether this is effective or not is up to the reader to decide, but I was underwhelmed.

Summing up, with his novelization of 'Phase IV', Malzberg does about all any author could do to try render the plot of a low budget film into something of lasting quality. But there are those times when the best intentions simply can't be realized, and that's the case with 'Phase IV'. This book is solely for the die-hard fans of the film; all others can pass it by.