SO....what's a PorPor Book ?
'PorPor' is a derogatory term my brother used, to refer to the SF and Fantasy paperbacks and comic books I eagerly read from the late 60s to the late 80s.
This blog is devoted to those paperbacks and comics you can find on the shelves of second-hand bookstores...from the New Wave era and 'Dangerous Visions', to the advent of the cyberpunks and 'Neuromancer'.
'Hung Up' story and art by Bruce Jones from Nightmare No. 8, August 1972 and The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones No. 4, Eclipse Comics, February 1986 'Hung Up' was one of the more memorable comics to appear in Nightmare. Featuring some fine Zip-A-Tone effects, 'Hung Up' deals with what seems to be the perfect murder. It also has a gruesome, blow-by-blow description of 'murder by pipe wrench' ! According to The Bronze Age of Blogs, Jones used fellow artist Jeff Jones as a model for the protagonist 'Jeff', fellow artist Bernie Wrightson as 'Bernie', and editor Louise Simonson as 'Louise Summers'. I've posted 300 dpi scans of the original 1972 comic from Nightmare, as well as a colorized version that appeared in 1986 in the Eclipse Comics anthology series The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones. In my opinion, the colorized version is better than the original black and white. The color printing process used by Eclipse was no better or worse than what was common in the mid-80s, but the higher grade of paper also makes a difference. But see for yourself..........
‘Thrill’ (240 pp) was published by Dell books in April 1977; the cover artist is uncredited.
The novel is set in Manhattan, ca. 1977. Katherine Fielding and Sandra Jurgenson are both in their late twenties, roommates, and co-workers at a magazine publisher. Katherine, who has the looks of a fashion model and an aristocratic background, is high-strung and prone to neuroses, while Sandra, who hails from the Midwest, is a down-to- earth ‘girl next door’.
As Katherine and Sandra try to cope with the aftermath of the night at Teds, the dynamic between them begins to change. No longer is Sandra the naïve New York City newcomer who serves as a dowdy complement to the striking Katherine. Now it is Sandra who makes the decisions and gives the orders to an increasingly fragile Katherine. And for Sandra, living on the edge is starting to take on a special allure…………
I found reading ‘Thrill’ to be a mixed reward. It certainly is effective in leveraging the social and workplace mores of the 70s, when harassment and sexist behavior by supervisors was part and parcel of the workplace and married men were quite comfortable with hitting on the female help. Indeed, early on, the narrative leads the reader to believe that ‘Thrill’ is a novel about women exacting revenge on Male Chauvinist Pigs; a sort of Feminist reversal of Looking for Mr. Goodbar. But unfortunately, the novel moves aside from that direction and becomes a psychodrama that focuses on excavating buried emotional traumas.
Summing up, ‘Thrill’ is a quick read and offers an accurate, even nostalgic, portrait of New York City in the late 70s (complete with an elegant luncheon in the top floor of the World Trade Center). At times it succeeds as a psychological thriller. But when all is said and done it suffers from being too conventional, and represents a missed opportunity to do something offbeat and imaginative in the genre.