Star Trek / X Men

Star Trek / X Men
Marvel Comics, December 1996

Crossovers were a big thing for the comics of the 1990s, but I confess I was unaware of this one until I read about it in the pages of American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s.

The book was intended as a launch vehicle for a line of 'Paramount' comics from Marvel that relied heavily on the Star Trek franchise (the line was discontinued in 1998).

Star Trek / X Men was written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by four different artists, five inkers, another five 'ink assists' personnel, four colorists, and one letterer. 

Even with all this talent, the reality is that almost half of this comic's 64 pages are taken up with advertisements and pinups.

I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the 'Star Trek' backstory is provided by the 1966 episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. The X-Men backstory has something to do with one of those oberblown, overwritten storylines involving the Shi'ar Empire. For this storyline, there a rift in spacetime that allows two different universes to intrude on one another, and - of course - the rift brings with it a Threat to All Existence.

However weighty the major premise, Lobdell's script doesn't try to take itself too seriously (fortunately). There are plenty of little in-jokes and allusions that will be readily acknowledged by fans of the TV show. The artwork is of good quality, although it's very 'Nineties' in its derivation from the illustrative styles of the stalwarts of that decade such as Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee.

Summing up, Star Trek / X Men does what it was intended to do, which is to garner fanboy enthusiasm for the planned Paramount Comics imprint. But looking through the second half of the book and seeing all the planned titles (Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Unlimited, Star Trek: Early Voyages, and the one-shot Star Trek: Mirror Mirror, is to realize that shortly before it went bankrupt, Marvel Comics had no inkling of how oversaturated the comic book market was, and how profoundly that market had been altered since the heady days of the early 90s.

Book Review: The Furies

Book Review: 'The Furies' by Keith Roberts

5 / 5 Stars

'The Furies' was serialized in the UK digest Science Fantasy in 1965, then published in novel form in the UK in 1966 by Hart-Davis. This US edition (192 pp) was released by Berkley Books in January 1966; the striking cover art, among the best on any sci-fi paperback of the 1960s, is by Paul Lehr.

The novel is set in the UK in the late 60s. First-person narrator Bill Sampson earns a comfortable living as a comic book artist. Accompanied by his Great Dane 'Sek', Sampson is a familiar figure in his small Wiltshire town of Brockledean.

As the novel opens it's a fine day in late June, and Sampson is having a beer at the Basketmaker's Arms, the local pub. There a fellow patron shows him a provocative newspaper story about an unusual incident in Dorset: a farmer had a near-fatal encounter with a wasp a yard in length, with a foot-long stinger.

It soon transpires that this is no solitary event; reports of the giant wasps begin to trickle in from other parts of the UK, all with the same ominous implication: the wasps - or, as they come to be called, the Furies - attack humans and larger animals on sight.

As Bill Sampson is about to discover, his world has been invaded.......by entities unlike any Mankind ever has faced before........

'The Furies' is worthy of five stars. Although it's the first novel Keith Roberts ever published it's also his best, and one of the best sf novels of the 1960s.

Perhaps because it was his first novel, Roberts writes with a clear, declarative style that is much like a documentary in its approach to narrating the trials and tribulations of Bill Sampson and his fellow survivors of the insect invasion. The more oblique prose style that Roberts would come to employ in his later novels such as Pavane, The Chalk Giants, The Grain Kings, and Kiteworld is absent in the pages of The Furies; the plot unfolds at a quick pace, while effectively communicating the atmosphere of a UK in the aftermath of an apocalypse unlike those usually rendered in the genre. 

Another aspect of The Furies that makes it such an effective novel is its refusal to offer succor in the form of the cliches of the genre that were still in place during the mid-60s. 

Without disclosing any spoilers, I will say that The Furies resolutely avoids contrivance: there is no entomological genius who discovers a hitherto unknown vulnerability that, overnight, is exploited to bring about the defeat of the wasps. There is no miraculous intervention in the form of a microbe that is sprayed across the countryside to kill the invaders. There is no salvation in the form of a visit from omnipotent aliens who kindly implement the safe and effective extermination of a planet-wide bug infestation. In The Furies, there are only the hapless survivors, and their struggle to live for another day.

Summing up, The Furies retains its status as a sci-fi classic more than 50 years since its publication. While copies of the paperback in good condition can be quite pricey, if you see this on the store shelves, it's very much worth picking up. 

The Book of Alien

The Book of Alien
by Paul Scanlon and Michael Gross
Heavy Metal Books 
May 1, 1979

Forty years ago, 20th Century Fox was kicking off a major marketing campaign for the movie Alien, which was going to premiere on May 25, 1979. 

By today's standards the campaign was rather modest, but remember, Fox was just beginning to learn the lessons of the success of Star Wars two years previously.

As well, Alien was rated R, which meant that Fox couldn't tap the children's market with its lucrative franchises for toys, thermoses, lunch boxes, bedsheets, clothing, dishware, etc. Kenner did release an 18" Alien toy, but it prompted an outcry from angry parents. 

Ahhhh, those were the days.............

Which brings me to 'The Book of Alien'. I purchased the original book back in '79, but lost it over the ensuing years. During that time the book went out of print and used copies in good condition became quite exorbitant.

And so, for this post, I'm relying on a copy that was published in the UK by Star Books. These copies can be purchased for a modest price at your usual online vendors. 

In May, 2012 Titan Books reissued the book, and these copies also are quite affordable.

'The Book of Alien' (112 pp) contains a wealth of behind-the-scenes photographs and artwork, with remarks about the process of making the film from Ridley Scott, Dan O'Bannon, Ron Cobb, Roger Christian, and H. R. Giger, among others.

There are sure to be at least some tidbits and anecdotes within the pages of 'The Book of Alien' that are new to you, and illustrate some of the complexities and challenges that had to be overcome back in the days when computer-generated special effects really didn't exist. Indeed, it's a testament to the skill of the producers that forty years later, the film retains its effectiveness as a sci-fi horror feature.

'The Book of Alien' will be worth its while to Baby Boomers and sci-fi fans who remember the excitement associated with the film back in those long-ago days...........but even if you weren't around back then, it's a good way to see how far things have come since 1979. But the craftsmanship used in the making of Alien has its lessons even for film-makers of today, in my humble opinion.

Tying in with the film's 40th anniversary, Titan will be releasing a deluxe hardcover volume titled 'The Making of Alien' that goes above and beyond 'The Book of Alien'. 'The Making of Alien' is scheduled for a July 23 release, and is priced (tentatively) at $37.

Gimme an Inch Girl

Gimme an Inch Girl
by Ian Matthews
May 1979

'Gimme an Inch Girl', from the 1978 album Stealin' Home, was the followup single to Matthew's top 40 hit 'Shake It'.

Originally written and recorded by Robert Palmer in 1975 as 'Give Me An Inch' on Palmer's album Pressure Drop, Matthews's version of the song peaked at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late April, 1979. 

A Commenter at YouTube remarked that the song sounds like something from the 'Alan Parsons Project', and I have to agree. Featuring lots of moody reverb, and a well-crafted guitar solo, this song is a polar opposite from the bouncy pop of 'Shake It'.

Book Review: Swords Against Darkness

Book Review: 'Swords Against Darkness' edited by Andrew J. Offutt

4 / 5 Stars

'Swords Against Darkness' (288 pp) was published by Zebra Books in February, 1977. It was the first of what would eventually be five 'Swords Against Darkness' volumes. The dramatic cover art is by Frank Frazetta.

Andrew J. Offutt (1934 - 2014) was of course a one-man publishing factory in the 70s; his main occupation was in churning out as many as 10 sleaze paperbacks per year, a practice he curtailed only in the mid-80s, when the genre began to die out. But he did give considerable effort to editing and writing sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks throughout the 70s, particularly for lower-budget publisher Zebra Books.

'Swords Against Darkness' was an anthology of tales emphasizing the sword-and-sorcery genre. Most of the contributors were fairly new to fiction writing, which means that readers should be prepared for a dose of sometimes Purple prose...........

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Nekht Semerkeht, by Robert E. Howard and Andrew J. Offutt: even by 1977, 'unpublished', or half-completed, manuscripts by Robert E. Howard still were being 'discovered' by literary agent Glenn Lord. Offutt himself completed this story fragment, which is about a Spanish conquistador who finds a lost city in the American Southwest; a lost city ruled by a powerful sorcerer..........

The Tale of Hauk, by Poul Anderson: Norse lore and myth combine in this story set in medieval Norway. Anderson was the most accomplished of the writers in this anthology, and 'Hauk' is the standout contribution.

The Smile of Oisia, by Geo W. Proctor: Proctor's hero 'Nalcon' joins forces with a red-haired witch to retrieve a fabled mask of power. This is an early story from Proctor and its prose can be a struggle to get through, although it does have a satisfying denouement. 

Pride of the Fleet, by Bruce Jones: melding humor with sci-fi, author Jones takes aim at the concept of 'cosplay' (although in 1977 the term really didn't exist). 

Straggler from Atlantis, by Manly Wade Wellman: Kardios, swordsman and adventurer from the sunken city of Atlantis, comes to the aid of a race of giants endangered by a unique type of monster. Another of the better stories in the anthology.

The Ring of Set, by Richard Tierney: this story takes place in Rome during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Simon the wizard pursues an artifact with the power to plunge all of mankind into chaos and despair. 

Laragut's Bane, by Raul Garcia Capella: a fisherman battles a curse that threatens his daughter. A subdued, well-written tale that seems more in keeping with the fantasy stories Ursula K. LeGuin wrote in the the 70s, than a Conan-style sword and sorcery adventure.

Dragon's Teeth, by David Drake: one of the earliest short stories from author Drake, and one of the earliest of his stories to feature his character Vettius, the Roman legionary. In 'Dragon's Teeth', Vettius confronts a Sarmatian sorcerer. The prose can be stilted at times, but the story is an effective melding of sword and sorcery with a background in 'real' history.

The Sustenance of Hoak, by Ramsey J. Campbell: the first of four stories that Campbell wrote in the late 70s featuring his 'Ryre' the swordsman character. In this tale, Ryre visits a remote jungle village that harbors a sinister secret; the horror content is creepy enough to make 'Hoak' another standout entry in the anthology.

Summing up, 'Swords Against Darkness' ably represents the sword and sorcery genre as it stood in the late 70s and is deserving of a Four-Star Rating. The horror motifs that underpin many of the entries are effectively presented and that gives this anthology a tenser, more disturbing atmosphere than that of Linn Carter's contemporary 'Flashing Swords !' anthologies.

American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s: 1990 - 1999

American Comic Book Chronicles
The 1990s: 1990 - 1999
by Jason Sacks and Keith Dallas
TooMorrows Publishing, September 2018

My review of the volume for 1965-1969 is here.

My review for the volume for the 1970s is here.

My review for the volume for the 1980s is here.

In the early 1990s, I remember going into Steve Geppi's Comic World in the Woodlawn neighborhood of West Baltimore on a monthly basis. While Comic World was by no means a small store, it was literally overflowing with inventory: racks stuffed full of comic books; piles of comic books stacked up on display tables; cardboard shipping boxes, stuffed with yet more comic books, lying on the floor. At the sales counter, there would be copies of the latest issue of Wizard vying for space with stacks of boxes of superhero trading cards.

It was flabbergasting to see just how much Comic Book Product was contained within that one store.

I would come away with the two or three titles that I was interested in, and a single, powerful thought: who the fuck is buying all this crap ???!!!!!!!!

Who was buying five copies of the polybagged issues of X Force #1 so they could get the complete set of the five trading cards sequestered in each issue ? 

Who was buying the special 'Memorial' issue of Superman #75 ('the death of Superman') for $2.50 in order to get not just the comic book, but the exclusive memorial poster, the exclusive mourning armband, the official Daily Planet obituary, and the exclusive Skybox 'Death of Superman' Commemorative trading card ? 

Who was buying all 23 Annuals associated with DC comic's 1993 'Bloodlines' crossover ? 

Who was buying the comics created by Clive Barker for Marvel's 'Razorline' imprint that same year ?

And even after the Crash, who on earth was buying all the issues in the 'Clone Saga' ?!

Well, in the pages of 'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s' (287 pp, TooMorrows Publishing, September 2018) you will learn how the comic book market underwent an unprecedented expansion in the early 1990s, an expansion fueled in part by speculators who thought that obtaining an issue of Spectacular Spider-Man with a hologrammed cover would, within just a few years of being published, bring them a major return on their investment. 

As authors Jason Sacks and Keith Dallas point out, there were indicators and warnings in the first half of 1993 that the giddy boom in comic book sales that marked the early years of the decade (for example, in the Summer of 1990, Marvel printed 2.35 million copies of Spider-Man #1, a record for the industry) was going to come crashing down. 

And crash it did. As the Summer of 1993 turned into Fall, the collapse of the trading card market quickly was followed by the collapse of the comic book market. By December, 1993, retailers were struggling to pay their bills, while sitting on thousands of dollars worth of inventory that they would never be able to sell. As Sacks and Dallas point out, in 1994, 40% of the nation's 9,000 comic book retailers went out of business.

While smaller publishers like Eclipse couldn't survive the crash, Marvel comics did, even though in 1995 it angered retailers by forcing them to acquire all Marvel titles through one distributor, Hero's World. But Marvel could only stave off disaster for so long; in December 1996, it filed for bankruptcy.

Throughout the pages of 'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s' Sacks and Dallas ably document the travails and triumphs of the comic book industry. Their history of the era is made all the more readable by the inclusion of all sorts of insider anecdotes; for example, publisher Fantagraphics survived the Crash via strong sales of its porno comics line, Eros Comics. But by 1998, internet porn had so supplanted the market for porno comics that Fantagraphics found itself in economic straits.....

As with the other volumes in this series, as you go through the pages of 'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s' you're going to find yourself noting all sorts of titles that you had never been aware of, and wondering, now, if they are worth investigating. 

The book does have some weaknesses (in my opinion). Rather too much attention is paid to the Indie Comics movement and its lead artists / writers (do we really need to know about Too Much Coffee Man or Stuck Rubber Baby ?). Yet, even as coverage is given to the more obscure Indie publishers, Caliber Comics, one of the major Indie publishers of the decade, gets very little mention.

On the whole, however, 'American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s' does a good job as an overview of the most tumultuous decade in American comic book history. While it's an expensive book, you can find used (and even new) copies for under $30 at your usual online retailers. 

I recommend buying it sooner rather than later, as once the current inventory is gone, the speculators will be advertising their copies on amazon for several hundred dollars each..........

Warlords

Warlords
by Steve Skeates (story) and David Wenzel (art)
DC Comics, Graphic Novel No. 2, 1983

Strange as it may seem, this DC Comics graphic novel was based on an eponymous 1980 Atari video game.

Trying to visualize an 8-bit video game for the purposes of a tie-in graphic novel called for quite a bit of imagination, but writer Steve Skeates was up to the task.

While Skeates's plot stays true to the game's theme of four warlords competing for control, he uses as a lead character a troll named Dwayne:

Dwayne is not your usual fantasy hero; he's more than a little shady and conniving. Skills which come in handy when trying to play each of the four Warlords off against each other.

I won't disclose much more about the plot, save to say that it relies as much on humor and satire as it does on sword and sorcery action. It's surprisingly readable for a 64-page graphic novel based on a video game.

'Warlords' benefits quite a bit from David Wenzel's great art. It's hand-painted, or course, and holds up very well when compared with the computer-generating coloring used in today's comics. Wenzel is particularly skilled in drawing facial expressions:

Summing up, 'Warlords' is one of the better entries in the graphic novel boom of the early 80s. With used copies in good condition available for under $10, it just might be worth searching out if you are a fan of the comics of that time period. 

Grizzly Adams Gentle Man of the Wilderness

Grizzly Adams
Gentle Man of the Wilderness
promotional photo, 1970s

Book Review: Blowfly

Book Review: 'Blowfly' by David Loman

3 / 5 Stars

‘Blowfly’ (184 pp) was published in 1984 by Star Books (UK). The artist who provided the cover art, among the most striking produced in the era of the 'Paperbacks from Hell', is, unfortunately, uncredited.

As the novel opens, it’s summer, and a heat wave lies upon the pastoral village of Widecombe in Devon, England. Farmer Roy Lambert has noticed that the heat has triggered an increase in the population of a decidedly unpleasant type of blowfly. Unlike the ‘normal’ flies he is accustomed to, these newcomers are larger, and much more aggressive in laying their eggs on the bodies of dead or dying animals.

For young entomologist Ian Wilde, now working for the Ministry of Agriculture and touring the farms of the Devon area, the blowflies call to mind the species he had encountered while working in the tropics for the World Health Organization. Wilde is puzzled that such flies should be found in the English countryside. But his puzzlement soon turns to alarm as reports come in of the blowflies swarming people. Although the flies are unable to bite, Wilde is stunned to learn that the flies deposit their eggs onto their reluctant hosts, leading to infestation of the skin with writhing maggots…………

With frightening rapidity the bucolic landscape of Widecombe turns into a danger zone as the parasitic flies grow in number and boldness. Emergency measures are undertaken to coat the village with insecticides. But as Ian Wilde is to discover, the flies are by no means content to seek their victims only in the Devon area………

I finished ‘Blowfly’ thinking that it’s a competent, if not particularly imaginative, ‘bugs on the loose’ horror novel. Its premise is a bit more believable than those of the novels by Richard Lewis (The Black Horde aka Devil’s Coach-Horse, Spiders) with similar themes. 

Like those novels, the plot of 'Blowfly', which takes its time developing, is given spurts of momentum via the use of vignettes of grue and gore, in this case through circumstances in which hapless victims find themselves under attack by swarms of the repulsive flies. 

Author Loman doesn’t pass up the opportunity to revel in descriptions of swellings and boils being sliced upon to discharge squirming, hungry maggots, so the novel certainly satisfies in that regard.

The verdict ? ‘Blowfly’ is one of the better novels in its sub-genre; if that appeals to you, then getting a copy could be worth your while.

Junior: Mama Used to Say

Junior
'Mama Used to Say'
May 1982

'Junior' was the stage name of the English R & B singer Norman Washington Giscombe (b. 1957). 'Mama Used to Say' was a single off his 1982 debut album, Ji. 

The accompanying video was very low-budget and required Junior to dance and gesture against a static backdrop, but his dancing skills were as much up to the task as anyone could've hope for.

Released in the UK, the single went to No. 7 on the charts, and when released in the US, it went to No. 30 in the Billboard Hot 100 on April 24 1982.

Ooh
Yeah, girl

Said a small boy once asked, When will I grow up
When will I see what grownups do see
In his fight to come of age, he would have to know the age
To be recognized is when I'm not unmasked

And mama used to say, Take your time, young man
Mama used to say, Don't you rush to get old
Mama used to say, Take it in your stride
Mama used to say, Live your life

As the years went rushin' by he would cut down on his age
He would tell his girl of how it used to be
How his mommy passed away, but these lines she would say
And at the time he couldn't understand

Mama used to say, Take your time, young man
Mama used to say, Don't you rush to get old
Mama used to say, Take it in your stride
Mama used to say, Live your life

You're young,…