written and illustrated by Chris Warner
Dark Horse comics, January 1988
Part Two
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Black Cross Part Two
Black Cross
written and illustrated by Chris Warner
Dark Horse comics, January 1988
Part Two
written and illustrated by Chris Warner
Dark Horse comics, January 1988
Part Two
Monday, March 12, 2018
Black Cross Part One
Black Cross
written and illustrated by Chris Warner
Dark Horse comics, January 1988
Part One
'Black Cross' debuted in the July, 1986 issue of Dark Horse Presents (DHP), the newly formed comic company's monthly 'sampler' title that provided serialized material from franchised (Aliens) and creator-owned (Concrete, Mr Monster, The Masque) properties.
Succeeding installments in the series dribbled out over the course of ensuing issues, as Warner juggled efforts on the strip with his duties on other Dark Horse properties. In January 1988 Dark Horse took all the DHP material and packaged it into one black-and-white comic, titled 'Black Cross'.
Over the ensuing thirty -odd years, Mark Warner indicated that the title was (at one point in the late 80s) in development as a possible feature film. He also hinted at publishing a mini-series titled 'Black Cross: My War', but this never came to fruition. In 1997, Warner published a one-shot color comic, titled 'Black Cross: Dirty Work', that built off of yet more serialized material, but since then, the franchise has been defunct.
'Black Cross' is set in a near-future USA where the breakdown of the social and political orders has left the country divided into 'zones'; some of these are controlled by the authoritarian provisional government, and others are 'black' zones: free-for-all landscapes where anything goes, and life expectancy is severely curtailed.
As the series opens, veteran NCO Sgt Conrad (his first name is not disclosed) is assigned to join a team of commandos on an excursion into a black zone. Troubled by the atrocities he has witnessed - and likely participated in - during combat in Honduras, Conrad finds himself forced to make difficult choices when the actions of the commando team cross the line between military operations and killing for the sake of killing.........
'Black Cross' features some very good black-and-white artwork. The plot is communicated through Warner's (admittedly) overly wordy speech balloons, these being necessary to keep the storyline coherent for a serialized presentation. The comic offers some genuine 80s nostalgia due to its being suffused with the kind of macho sensibility that permeated Arnold Schwarzenegger films like Commando and Predator.
I'm posting the complete comic in two consecutive parts. Part one is below.
written and illustrated by Chris Warner
Dark Horse comics, January 1988
Part One
'Black Cross' debuted in the July, 1986 issue of Dark Horse Presents (DHP), the newly formed comic company's monthly 'sampler' title that provided serialized material from franchised (Aliens) and creator-owned (Concrete, Mr Monster, The Masque) properties.
Succeeding installments in the series dribbled out over the course of ensuing issues, as Warner juggled efforts on the strip with his duties on other Dark Horse properties. In January 1988 Dark Horse took all the DHP material and packaged it into one black-and-white comic, titled 'Black Cross'.
Over the ensuing thirty -odd years, Mark Warner indicated that the title was (at one point in the late 80s) in development as a possible feature film. He also hinted at publishing a mini-series titled 'Black Cross: My War', but this never came to fruition. In 1997, Warner published a one-shot color comic, titled 'Black Cross: Dirty Work', that built off of yet more serialized material, but since then, the franchise has been defunct.
'Black Cross' is set in a near-future USA where the breakdown of the social and political orders has left the country divided into 'zones'; some of these are controlled by the authoritarian provisional government, and others are 'black' zones: free-for-all landscapes where anything goes, and life expectancy is severely curtailed.
As the series opens, veteran NCO Sgt Conrad (his first name is not disclosed) is assigned to join a team of commandos on an excursion into a black zone. Troubled by the atrocities he has witnessed - and likely participated in - during combat in Honduras, Conrad finds himself forced to make difficult choices when the actions of the commando team cross the line between military operations and killing for the sake of killing.........
'Black Cross' features some very good black-and-white artwork. The plot is communicated through Warner's (admittedly) overly wordy speech balloons, these being necessary to keep the storyline coherent for a serialized presentation. The comic offers some genuine 80s nostalgia due to its being suffused with the kind of macho sensibility that permeated Arnold Schwarzenegger films like Commando and Predator.
I'm posting the complete comic in two consecutive parts. Part one is below.
Friday, March 9, 2018
Book Review: Hero and the Terror
3 / 5 Stars
‘Hero and the Terror’ (251 pp) first was published in 1982;
this New English Library paperback was issued in 1988 as a tie-in with the
Chuck Norris film released that year.
The novel (which differs quite a bit from the movie) is set
in Los Angeles in the early 80s. The eponymous Hero is Herrero Fiddleman (!?),
son of a Jewish father and Puerto Rican mother. Hero, who is in his mid
thirties, has movie-star looks, drives a black 1967 Porsche convertible, owns a
dachshund named Stretch, has a model named Kay for a girlfriend, and lives
aboard a houseboat anchored at a marina near Venice Beach. Hero is revered by
Los Angelenos for being the city’s top cop: tough, brave, and ready to put
himself on the line to maintain law and order.
Hero is contemplating retiring from police work and moving
with Kay to the countryside, but one loose end continues to occupy his mind:
the apprehension of the brutal serial killer known as The Terror. After killing
22 young women in the Venice area throughout the 70s, in 1979 The Terror
suddenly ceased his atrocities. Is The Terror truly gone………..or just biding his time before re-emerging to continue his atrocities ?
As the novel opens, another young woman is murdered, and
the modus operandi is the same as that associated with the victims of The Terror’s
previous depredations. It’s up to Hero to resume his investigation of the
killer……….but this time, the urgency for capturing the murderer is even
greater. For The Terror has laid his eyes on Kay……….and found her eminently
desirable…….
‘Hero and the Terror’ contains a bit less porn and
splatterpunk content than Blodgett’s earlier novel Captain Blood, presumably
because it’s shorter in length. That said, what splatterpunk content is present in ‘Hero’
doesn’t shirk; for example, a brief segment describing a do-it-yourself
hemorrhoidectomy will stay with me for a long, long time………..
The opening chapters of the book are the best, as Hero confronts a particularly loathsome and repulsive villain who is something of a brother to Baron Harkonnen from the novel Dune.
Unfortunately, the narrative starts to stall in its middle chapters, as author Blodgett uses seemingly unending flashback sequences and subplots to get the novel to its necessary word count prior to evolving to the grand finale involving the confrontation between Hero and The Terror. Said confrontation is overlong, and at times contrived, which is why I can't award the book more than three stars.
Unfortunately, the narrative starts to stall in its middle chapters, as author Blodgett uses seemingly unending flashback sequences and subplots to get the novel to its necessary word count prior to evolving to the grand finale involving the confrontation between Hero and The Terror. Said confrontation is overlong, and at times contrived, which is why I can't award the book more than three stars.
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Paloma Blanca by Georgie Dann
Georgie Dann
'Paloma Blanca'
1975
In 1975 a Dutch singer named George Baker released a single titled 'Paloma Blanca' (White Dove). The song became a worldwide hit, was covered by a large number of artists, and in the USA eventually reached # 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart early in 1976.
I well remember hearing the song in heavy rotation on AM radio back in those days.
Georgie Dann (b. 1940) was born in France, but became a singing star in Spain during the 1970s. In 1975 he recorded his own version of the song. A segment of him lip-synching the song was aired for a Spanish TV station's 'New Years Eve 1975' extravaganza.
The video clip of Georgie Dann doing 'Paloma Blanca' is pure, unadulterated 70s gold. Featuring a team of male dancers who adopt 'flying dove' poses, and some fine-looking chicks singing backing vocals, it's something that you will want to bookmark for viewing on those days when you feel like you need a dose of something peppy and upbeat..............
'Paloma Blanca'
1975
In 1975 a Dutch singer named George Baker released a single titled 'Paloma Blanca' (White Dove). The song became a worldwide hit, was covered by a large number of artists, and in the USA eventually reached # 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart early in 1976.
I well remember hearing the song in heavy rotation on AM radio back in those days.
Georgie Dann (b. 1940) was born in France, but became a singing star in Spain during the 1970s. In 1975 he recorded his own version of the song. A segment of him lip-synching the song was aired for a Spanish TV station's 'New Years Eve 1975' extravaganza.
The video clip of Georgie Dann doing 'Paloma Blanca' is pure, unadulterated 70s gold. Featuring a team of male dancers who adopt 'flying dove' poses, and some fine-looking chicks singing backing vocals, it's something that you will want to bookmark for viewing on those days when you feel like you need a dose of something peppy and upbeat..............
Monday, March 5, 2018
Al Goldstein and Myron Fass
Al Goldstein and Myron Fass
photograph by Jeff Goodman
Two titans of Schlock Publishing pose for a friendly photo.
For ten months in 1968, Al Goldstein (1936 - 2013) worked in the offices of Countrywide Publications, owned by Myron Fass (1926 - 2006). Countrywide was of course the home of Eerie Publications, which is memorable for publishing the schlock black-and-white comic magazines Horror Tales, Witche's Tales, Tales of Voodoo,Terror Tales, and Weird Worlds. Countrywide also churned out Official UFO magazine, a staple of every magazine stand in the 1970s and early 1980s.
photograph by Jeff Goodman
Al Goldstein (left) and Myron Fass (right)
Two titans of Schlock Publishing pose for a friendly photo.
Fass fired Goldstein when the latter asked for a raise in November of '68. By then, of course, Goldstein had published the first issues of Screw magazine, and was on his way to becoming - sporadically at least - a wealthy man.
Despite the firing, both men remained on cordial terms and Goldstein was visiting with Fass when the above photograph was taken, sometime in the 1970s.
Friday, March 2, 2018
Book Review: Captain Blood
Book Review: 'Captain Blood' by Michael Blodgett
 |
| mass market paperback edition, Bantam Books, 1986 |
There's no better way to kick off 'California Crazies' month here at the PorPor Books Blog than to review what likely is the most deranged such novel in the genre: Michael Blodgett's Captain Blood.
This book has a complicated publishing history. Blodgett finished his manuscript in 1977, but its pornographic and splatterpunk content deterred many publishers from accepting the manuscript. Not until 1979 did Blodgett find a small press publisher, Stone Hill Publishing Co., willing to release a hardcover edition.
 |
| hardbound edition, Stone Hill Publishing, 1979 |
In March, 1986 Bantam Books released this mass market paperback version (358 pp). Blodgett made minor changes to this mass market edition (such as substituting a song that the lead character overhears from Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’, to Madonna's song ‘Like A Virgin’).
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| trade paperback edition, Harmony Books, 1982 |
In 1981, the New English Library published the book in the UK.
 |
| mass market paperback edition, New English Library, 1981 (U.K.) |
Being long out of print, and acquiring something of a cult reputation, copies of all versions of the book have steep prices. I was fortunate to acquire the Bantam edition from the bookstore in the LSU student union in 1986, and while at one time I almost tossed it into the book donations pile, for some reason I not only retained it, but went and got the hardback and trade paperback versions as well...............?!
Michael Blodgett (1939 - 2007) was an interesting individual. Born in Minneapolis, in the 60s he moved to California to pursue an acting career, which led to a breakout role as the gigolo Lance Rocke in the 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Blodgett regularly appeared in supporting roles in TV throughout the 70s, during which time he also took up writing novels and screenplays. Along with Captain Blood, his other two novels are Hero and the Terror (1982) and The White Raven (1986).
In the 80s, his screenplays formed the basis for the films Rent A Cop (1987) and Turner and Hooch (1989).
Blodgett died at age 68 of an apparent heart attack.
'Captain Blood' is set in Southern California in the mid-80s. The titular hero (or antihero, if you prefer) is a clean-cut young man who manages an apartment complex. Named by his brilliant, eccentric physician father for the lead character from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood’s outward normality conceals the fact that he is mentally ill. Profoundly mentally ill. Paranoid schizophrenia, mania, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcoholism, psychopathic tendencies....... you name it, Captain Blood suffers from it.
The opening chapters of the novel are plodding, as Captain decides to take one of his tenants, a middle-aged Jewish lady, out to his favorite fern bars where they commingle with the oddball Southern California personalities haunting said fern bars. There is a lot of dialogue, as well as inner monologue segments designed to apprise the reader of Captain Blood's erratic personality.
In the 80s, his screenplays formed the basis for the films Rent A Cop (1987) and Turner and Hooch (1989).
Blodgett died at age 68 of an apparent heart attack.
'Captain Blood' is set in Southern California in the mid-80s. The titular hero (or antihero, if you prefer) is a clean-cut young man who manages an apartment complex. Named by his brilliant, eccentric physician father for the lead character from the novel by Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood’s outward normality conceals the fact that he is mentally ill. Profoundly mentally ill. Paranoid schizophrenia, mania, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcoholism, psychopathic tendencies....... you name it, Captain Blood suffers from it.
The opening chapters of the novel are plodding, as Captain decides to take one of his tenants, a middle-aged Jewish lady, out to his favorite fern bars where they commingle with the oddball Southern California personalities haunting said fern bars. There is a lot of dialogue, as well as inner monologue segments designed to apprise the reader of Captain Blood's erratic personality.
Blodgett does insert a flashback sequence that touches on racial violence, and gives the narrative enough of a push to keep the reader moderately engaged.
At its midpoint, ‘Captain Blood’ transitions locales to a beachfront condo and introduces Captain’s lubricious sister Iris, and (in keeping with the idea that you can't have too many crazies in Southern California) Iris's psychotic lesbian lover Datchel. The pornographic and splatterpunk content kick into much higher gear.
At its midpoint, ‘Captain Blood’ transitions locales to a beachfront condo and introduces Captain’s lubricious sister Iris, and (in keeping with the idea that you can't have too many crazies in Southern California) Iris's psychotic lesbian lover Datchel. The pornographic and splatterpunk content kick into much higher gear.
The plot then transitions into its ‘revenge’ component, as Captain is informed of a rebellious teen-aged girl who is in the grip of drug addiction, and prostituted by group of down and dirty Inland residents.
The final third of the novel is the best, as Captain’s increasingly unhinged pursuit of the drug pushers brings out his lust for vigilante violence. The closing chapters offer genuine suspense, and a denouement that avoids contrivance.
The verdict ? For a first novel, ‘Captain Blood’ has its faults, but it does succeed in conveying a clear, and in many ways weirdly affectionate, portrayal of early-80s Southern California and its more crazed inhabitants.
The verdict ? For a first novel, ‘Captain Blood’ has its faults, but it does succeed in conveying a clear, and in many ways weirdly affectionate, portrayal of early-80s Southern California and its more crazed inhabitants.
Blodgett regularly suspends his narrative to offer quasi-cinematic sequences that describe the often smogbound, but sometimes idyllic, landscape of the Southern California, as if to say that for all its craziness, there is no better place to be on a clear and sunny spring morning.
'Captain Blood' also stands as a definitive work of proto-splatterpunk, in many ways eclipsing many – if not all - of the novels referenced as touchstones of the genre in Paul M. Sammons’s 1991 anthology Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror.
If 'extreme' craziness literature appeals to you, then picking up a copy of ‘Captain Blood’ can be worthwhile.
'Captain Blood' also stands as a definitive work of proto-splatterpunk, in many ways eclipsing many – if not all - of the novels referenced as touchstones of the genre in Paul M. Sammons’s 1991 anthology Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror.
If 'extreme' craziness literature appeals to you, then picking up a copy of ‘Captain Blood’ can be worthwhile.
Thursday, March 1, 2018
March is 80s California Crazies Month
After a long, and at times unseasonably cold Winter 2018, I thought it would be nice to take in some vintage literature about California......and its crazier inhabitants. The state has always been known for craziness, and during the late 70s and early 80s a number of memorable novels were released that dealt with this side of California.
Crazed vigilantes, teenage deviants, serial killers, porn merchants, snuff film auteurs, sex cult aficionados..........and, of course, smog. Lots of smog !
They're all here in the pages of the five novels being reviewed this month !
Hollywood In Kodachrome: People Of LA 1979-1982
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