Moving Fortress by Barreiro and Alcatena

Moving Fortress
by Ricardo Barreiro (story) and Enrique Alcatena (art)
adapted by Chuck Dixon and Tim Truman
4Winds Publishing Group, 1988

'Moving Fortress' first was published in 1987 as a serial (La Fortress Movil) in the magazine Skorpio (which circulated in South American and Italy from 1974 to 1996). A sequel, titled El Mundo Subterranea, came later in 1987. 'Bundled' versions of the two comics are available in Spanish editions.

[For an in-depth article, in Spanish, on these comics, readers are directed here.]

In the U.S., veteran comics artist Tim Truman and writer Chuck Dixon formed 4Winds Publishing Group to obtain the rights to issue English translations of comics published in South America and Europe. English translations of 'Moving Fortress' and 'Subterra' (El Mundo Subterranea) were published by 4Winds in 1988 as black-and-white trade paperbacks.

'Moving Fortress' (58 pp) features as its hero the adventurer Bask de Avregaut, who, in the opening pages, is flying in a dirigible over the wasteland. de Avregaut has the misfortune to fly over an extraordinary vehicle: the Moving Fortress, an entire city on wheels. 

Shot down by the Fortress's cannoneers, Bask is forced to work as a slave in the engine room, where the eldritch energies used to power the vehicle take their toll on the labor force.

But as luck would have it, a battle with Yathroian airships gives Bask a chance to escape certain death in the engine room. Thanks to his coolness under fire, Bask is instated as a member of the Fortress's crew..........and comes to learn the purpose behind the creation of the Fortress and the single-minded obsession driving its cruel leader, Emir Basileo.............

'Moving Fortress' is one of those comics in which everything comes together so well that it stands as one of the best graphic novels of the 1980s. 

Ricardo Barreiro's script has its twists and turns, but never becomes so complicated that it can't be effectively communicated within its 55 pages.

But it's Alcatena's art that really makes 'Moving Fortress' a unique comic. The artwork calls to mind the lithography-based illustration of the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly the artistry of Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke, along with a pinch of Art Deco. The designs of the uniforms and clothing of the characters, the dirigibles, the cities, the ruined statues in the desert, and the weapons and mounts of the combatants all are imaginative and unlike nothing seen in most standard-issue 'sword and sorcery' comics.

You can get copies of the 4Winds version of 'Moving Fortress' for under $15 from your usual online vendors. Fans of graphic art and fantasy comics definitely will want to have one in their personal library.

Book Review: Lord of Dark Places

Celebrating Black History Month 2020

Book Review: 'Lord of Dark Places' by Hal Bennett

2 / 5 Stars

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we observe Black History Month by reading and reviewing a book - fiction or nonfiction - that illuminates the Black Experience. For Black History Month 2020, we are featuring the novel 'Lord of Dark Places', which first was published in 1970. This Bantam Books edition (310 pp) was released in June 1971. The artist who provided the striking cover illustration is uncredited.

George Harold Bennett (1936 - 2004) was a black author who published several mainstream novels as Hal Bennett, as well as the 'Justin Perry' men's adventure fiction series (using the pseudonym John D. Revere) in the 1960s and 1970s. His short story 'Also Known As Cassius', published in the August, 1971 issue of Playboy magazine, gave him membership in the small cohort of authors who supplied material to the so-called 'slick' magazines at the top of the writers' market.

'Lord' is the story of Joe Market, from his days as a child in rural Virginia in the late 1940s, to his adulthood in the ghetto of Newark, New Jersey during the late 1960s. Joe is the embodiment of the black superstud: athletic, good-looking, and Always Ready. Even as a child, Joe's physical gifts lead him to being exploited by his father Titus, who displays an unclad Joe to gullible audiences of poor southern blacks as part of a 'Church of the Naked Disciple' religious road show. A calculating Titus allows anyone - anyone who is willing to pay, that is- some personal time alone with Joe.

Needless to say, these experiences take their psychological toll, and Joe matures into a man consumed with self-interest, and indifferent to the welfare of others. Men and women of all races and ages find Joe so irresistible that they are willing to overlook his faults. But Joe's circle of friends and acquaintances, including Tony, the white cop; Pee Wee, the taxicab driver and marijuana purveyor; China, the prostitute; the Down Low Lamont; and long-suffering wife Odessa and her hectoring mother Lavinia, can only forgive and overlook his transgressions for so long, before a reckoning must be made...........

'Lord of Dark Places' is an awkward blend of softcore pornography, melodrama, and political discourse. Too often the narrative will address injustice and oppression within one segment, before veering into a recounting of some sort of eye-rolling Grotesquerie designed to be both satirical, and an outrage to Bourgeoisie Sensibilities.This continual shifting in tone and theme gives the novel a disjointed quality, and lessens its impact as an observation of one black man's efforts to negotiate the social turmoil of the 60s.

Summing up, 'Lord of Dark Places' is, unfortunately, not an overlooked gem of Black American Fiction from the early 70s. Given that copies of the hardbound and mass market paperback versions have steep asking prices, I would say that only ardent collectors of Bennett's works will want to have this in their personal library.

Book Review: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII'
edited by Karl Edward Wagner

3 / 5 Stars

'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII' (239 pp) was published in November 1984 and features cover artwork by Segrelles. It's DAW Book No. 503.

All of the stories in this collection were previously published in 1982 - 1983 in various magazines and anthologies.

In his Introduction, editor Wagner does a bit of pontificating, announcing to his satisfaction that the 'horror fad' is receding, and 

......people are no longer standing in line to see films like Rototiller Dentist or assaulting the paperback racks to buy novels about giant maggots gobbling up Los Angeles or possessed teenagers turning other teenagers inside out. Readers have been affronted by enough garbage served up as horror; now they demand something better.

And what is, indeed, 'better' ? Why, the entries in 'The Year's Best Horror Stories', edited by Karl Edward Wagner, of course !

(Devotees of Paperbacks from Hell and splatterpunk novels undoubtedly will grasp my sarcasm).

So here are my capsule reviews of the gems awaiting you in this DAW anthology:

Uncle Otto's Truck, by Stephen King: in the 80s, having an entry by King in your anthology was marketing magic. This story is about an abandoned truck that menaces the first-person narrator's Uncle Otto. It's a successful enough horror tale from King, one that takes advantage of being set in his familiar territory of rural Maine.  

3:47 am, by David Langford: psychological horror tale of a man beset with increasingly disturbing nightmares. 

Mistral, by Jon Wynne-Tyson: on the French Riviera, a middle-aged man enjoys the company of a beautiful mistress whose attitude is a bit........feral.

Out of Africa, by David Drake: big-game hunting in Africa, for an unusual animal. A competent tale, if not all that imaginative.

The Wall Painting, by Roger Johnson: an English ghost story in the M. R. James tradition.

Keepsake, by Vincent McHardy: children in an elementary school use witchcraft against their teacher. The premise is interesting, but the story is so over-plotted that it misfires. 

Echoes, by Lawrence C. Connolly: a short-short story about a grieving family. One of the better entries in the anthology.

After-Images, by Malcolm Edwards: World War Three strikes an English town and the results are unexpected. Effectively mixing horror and sci-fi along with a unique depiction of growing dread, this is not only one of the better entries in this anthology, but one of the best horror stories of the 1980s.

The Ventriloquist's Daughter, by Juleen Brantingham: a woman confronts her father and her past. Unremarkable.

Come to the Party, by Frances Garfield: Garfield was Manly Wade Wellman's wife. This haunted-house tale adheres to a pulp writing style and would have been at home in Weird Tales.

The Chair, by Dennis Etchison: ahhh, yes, the inevitable Etchison 'quiet horror' entry. So superior to those novels about 'giant maggots' ! 

Here, Etchison gives us a high school reunion that goes awry. 

Etchison wasn't shy about vying with Ramsey Campbell for the use of purplish metaphors: 

A rusty tricycle like a twisted spider littered a shadowy yard. 

Like too many Etchison stories, the over-effort to depict mood, atmosphere, and setting fails to offset weak plotting.

Names, by Jane Yolen: Yolen was an established writer of children's books, and this apparently was her first attempt at something for the adult market. 'Names' is about Rachel, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor; Rachel is psychologically distressed. The premise is contrived, and the story unimpressive. 

The Attic, by Billy Wolfenbarger: editor Wagner was really scraping the barrel by including this entry, which is a chapter from some poet's unpublished novel, rather than a short story per se. 'The Attic' is a prose poem about a man's reveries, triggered when he rummages around his attic. Yeah, it's that lame................

Just Waiting, by Ramsey Campbell: the opening pages of this story about a man who returns to a forest, and the scene of childhood trauma, were written in an unusually clear and unadorned manner........ and my hopes rose that here, finally, Campbell might deliver something worthwhile ! Sadly, however, the story's final pages are so overloaded with descriptions of phantasmagorical happenings that the plot simply collapses under their weight. 

One for the Horrors, by David J. Schow: less a horror story than a treatment of classic movies, old movie theatres, and nostalgia. 

Elle Est Trois, (La Mort), by Tanith Lee: in 18th century Paris, three Starving Artists are confronted by Death ('La Mort') in its feminine incarnations. This being a Tanith Lee story from the early 80s, I anticipated a thin plot burdened with ornate prose, and that's what I got. But the denouement holds up well enough.

Spring-Fingered Jack, by Susan Casper: short-short story about a particularly disturbing video game.

The Flash! Kid, by Scott Bradfield: Rudy stumbles across an Alien Artifact concealed in a termite nest; there are Big Consequences. This story is a humorous sci-fi tale (it was originally published in Interzone) with no horror content. Its presence in this anthology suggests that editor Wagner wasn't trying as hard as he could have to collect worthy material for this volume.

The Man with Legs, by Al Sarrantonio: Willie, and big sis Nellie, decide to take the bus on a cold Winter's day to a house where their father - assumed to be dead - may in fact be alive and well. Or so it seems............. 

This story is not only another of the best entries in the anthology, but a gem of 80s horror, period. I actually devoted an entire post to a comic based on 'Legs'.

The verdict ? I finished 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series XII' thinking that editor Wagner could have done a better job of seeking out genuine horror short stories, written with genuine skill, rather than settling for too many duds as part of his effort to promote material of the 'highest quality'.

That said, the inclusion of the stories by Connolly, Edwards, and Sarrantonio is enough to give this particular incarnation of 'The Year's Best Horror Stories' a three-star rating, and it is these stories that make this volume worth searching out. 

Visions of the Future

Visions of the Future
Edited by Janet Sacks
Introduction by A. E. Van Vogt
Chartwell Books, Inc. 1976

Science Fiction Monthly was published in the UK from 1974 - 1976 by paperback publisher New English Library. The Monthly was a large-size magazine that featured high-quality reproductions of sci-fi art, inserted without staples and intended to be removed, unfolded, and hung as posters. 

Visions of the Future (128 pp), edited by Janet Sacks, compiles art from the Monthly. At 13.5 x 10 inches in dimension, the book is expansive enough to adequately showcase its contents.

While some of the most prominent sci-fi artists in the UK and the USA were featured in the pages of Science Fiction Monthly, and will be familiar to anyone who was a fan of sci-fi in the 70s, others are rather obscure. 

The showcased art spans the gamut from figurative pieces indicative of the New Wave aesthetic, to the more realistic art exemplified by Chris Foss. One area where Visions of the Future falls short is that while it provides the titles for the featured pieces, it doesn't give any information about the original art (acrylic, oil, airbrush, etc.).

Jim Burns, Beyond Bedlam

Visions of the Future can be seen as the UK counterpart to Ian Summers's 1978 book about American sci-fi art,Tomorrow and Beyond. Between them, the two books provide a good overview of 70s commercial art for the sci-fi market. Copies of Visions in good condition can be had for reasonable prices, so if you are nostalgic for the art that served as covers for books and magazines of the era, this is worth picking up. 

 Lucinda Colwell, Panic O'Clock

The cover art (above) for the 1974 novel Panic O'Clock by UK author Christopher Hodder-Williams is the most striking piece in Visions of the Future. According to this post at the Bear Alley blog, Lucinda Cowell (b. 1947) is an American-born artist and graphic designer who first set up a print shop in London in 1972, afterwards enjoying considerable success in the fields of commercial art and advertising well into the 1990s.

Chris Foss, Away and Beyond

Robert Foster (as C. Foster), Sexmax

Bob Layzell, Invasion

 David Pelham, The Drought

Bruce Pennington, The Pastel City

Shamballa: Anderson Psi Division

Shamballa
Anderson Psi Division
by Alan Grant (writer) and Arthur Ranson (art)
2000 AD, 1991

'Shamballa' (2000 AD Books, 96 pp., 1991) compiles the episodes first serialized in the pages of 2000 AD comics from October to December 1990 (progs 700-711).  

The story features Judge Anderson, a telepath and Judge Dredd's colleague. As 'Shamballa' opens, there has been an epidemic of supernatural phenomena (some of them with lethal consequences) around the world.

 Anderson, being a telepath, is particularly receptive to these phenomena; concerned that they herald an approaching apocalypse, she consults with Doc Rickard at the Department of Fortean Events. This results in a team of Mega-City One's psi personnel embarking on a trip to East-Meg, there to join their Russian counterparts and embark on a collaborative investigation into the source of the phenomena.

I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the danger to the world is real, and before things can be set right, some sacrifices will have to be made.........

'Shamballa' features a good plot by veteran writer Alan Grant, who avoids overloading the story with sub-plots and sub-sub-plots, something that by the early 90s, too many comic book writers were wont to do, in the hopes of emulating Alan Moore.

But where 'Shamballa' excels is in the intricate artwork by Arthur Ranson, one of the most talented artists in British comicdom. Ranson's work for 2000 AD for various Judge Anderson episodes, Button Man, and Mazeworld represents some of the best illustration ever to appear in that publication.

At 11.5 x 9 inches, this trade paperback maintains the sizing of the original 2000 AD issues, and presents Ranson' artwork without the 'miniaturization' that afflicts British comics when they are republished by American publishers and forced into the dimensions of American graphic novels. By maintaining the original dimensions, with this graphic novel it's much easier to admire the details of Ranson's penciling as well as the careful coloring (which, apparently, also was done by him ?). 

My only complaint about this trade paperback compilation is that it doesn't include the covers, or interior title pages, from the original issues of 2000 AD. 

Summing up, copies of 'Shamballa' in good condition can be obtained for affordable prices from your usual online vendors. If you are a fan of 2000 AD, its artists, or British comics in general, then getting a copy is well worth your while.

Conrad Vs Kaplan: Battle of the Network Stars 1976

Conrad Vs Kaplan
'Battle of the Network Stars' 
November 1976

If you're a Baby Boomer, you likely remember the series 'Battle of the Network Stars', which aired periodically from 1976 to 1988. The three major networks - CBS, NBC, and ABC - supplied actors and actresses who engaged in a daylong, multi-sports competition, with each team accruing points based on their performance in each event. At the very end of the competition, the two leading teams would determine the victor through a tug-of-war.

For the inaugural episode (November 1976) Robert Conrad - then starring in the series Baa Baa Black Sheep - was the captain for the NBC team, while Gabe Kaplan (Welcome Back Kotter) was the captain for ABC.

During the relay race, Conrad collided with team mate Joanna Pettet (Captains and the Kings) and dropped the baton; Pettet picked it up and gamely took off running, but the blunder had set back the NBC team by a significant margin. Ben Murphy (Gemini Man) grabbed the baton from Pettet well outside the passing zone, and sprinted to place NBC 1st, with ABC 2nd and CBS 3rd. 

There was immediate controversy, and Howard Katz, the 'Director of Competition', gave NBC a two-second penalty and moved them to 2nd place behind ABC. Conrad was furious (despite the show's intent that it be a good-natured, noncompetitive Family Fun event) and after much arguing, which included as referee 1976 Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner (as he was then known), engineered a 100 yard dash 'race off' between himself and Kaplan to determine the winner.

The race saw Conrad grab the early lead, but then Kaplan blew by him and won comfortably, giving ABC an uncontested victory.

Pure 70s goodness (and despite his antics, Conrad came back to compete in the 1977 iteration).

Book Review: Studd

Book Review: 'Studd' by Anthony Cullen

2 / 5 Stars

When I first saw mention of this book at this blog I laughed out loud, and promptly went to order a copy from an online vendor.

The title and cover art (masterfully done by Fred Pfeiffer) speak to a time and place in pop culture that is so far removed from the modern era and its condemnations of Toxic Masculinity that it might as well as have been birthed on another planet.

Unfortunately, the contents of 'Studd' (239 pp., Avon Books, September 1972) don't live up to the promise of the cover.

[Anthony Cullen, according to one bibliographic reference, was born in 1920 and wrote a number of fiction and nonfiction works on Africa, safaris, and wildlife.]

The premise of 'Studd' is simple enough by the standards of Men's Adventure Fiction of the early 70s: our hero, who operates a big game hunting venture in an un-named African country, decides to take a break from the Bush, and travels to England for rest and relaxation. While there, Studd encounters Hardiman, an acquaintance from the past (the first names of the major male characters in the book never are disclosed). Hardiman convinces Studd to work as a Secret Agent.

Studd's target is an international financier named Royal, who, it seems, is getting a little too close to the Chinese for the comfort of the British government. Studd is to find a way to ingratiate himself into Royal's entourage, after which he is to discover all he can about Royal's designs and ambitions.

Studd must tread cautiously in this assignment. For Royal has a nasty habit of killing transgressors by torturing them to death.........and he's already disposed of someone close to Studd........

Why does 'Studd' disappoint ? Well, for one thing, it's not a Men's Adventure Novel, or a Spy Thriller. Superficially, it may seem as though the book belongs to these genres. In actuality, 'Studd' is a tedious, badly overwritten novel that apparently was intended to showcase author Cullen's brilliant literary qualities.

Very little in the way of plot happens within the pages of 'Studd'. Instead, the reader is treated to lengthy passages in which author Cullen attempts to write breezy, witty prose. Unfortunately, not only can Cullen not write breezy, witty, prose, he burdens this prose with all manner of obscure Thesaurus- derived words, old-school British idioms and slang, and even neologisms: for example, on page 126 the reader is confronted with the awkward adverb 'Rhododendronically'.

Wading through this stilted prose becomes taxing after the completion of only a few pages, so it took me literally months to finally finish 'Studd'. The book's ending offered some degree of closure, but not much more.

The same year that 'Studd' was published saw a spy novel that was indeed genuinely witty and well-written to boot: 'The Eiger Sanction', by Trevanian (the pseudonym of American author Rodney William Whitaker). 'Eiger' did everything that 'Studd' hoped to do, but does it immeasurably better.............

Summing up, I recommend getting a copy of 'Studd' for its packaging more than its contents. I'd like to think that circulating a photo of the cover among middle school students (clandestinely, of course) likely would do wonders for righting the state of Western Civilization................ 

Pulp Horror: All Reviews Special Edition

Pulp Horror: All Reviews Special Edition
Edited by Justin Marriott
January 2020

Well, here we go with another 'reviews' special from UK author Justin Marriott, compiled from the pages of his bookzine of the same name (which is up to issue No. 8, as of 2019).

[My review of Marriott's Men of Violence bookzine is posted here. An interview with Marriott, which provides all manner of insights into his KDP Print / POD catalog - all available at amazon - of bookzines devoted to vintage paperbacks and other media, is available here.]

In his Introduction, Marriott states that the 130 reviews in this Special cover the time interval from 1918 - 1998 and use a maximum five-star rating system. The media covered include paperback books; comics; and magazines. Most of the reviewed materials are accompanied by a black-and-white scan / photograph of the cover. 

Needless to say, if you are a fan of paperback horror, especially horror from the 60s to early 90s, then you are going to be familiar with some of the books and magazines presented in the pages of this Review Special. However, even ardent collectors of Paperbacks from Hell and / or readers of Too Much Horror Fiction are going to find some overlooked gems here. This is due in large part to the inclusion of titles published in the UK by the hallowed paperback firms of the New English Library, Corgi, and Pan.

There are some real wildcards present in this All Reviews Special: reviews of selected back issues of comic books and comic magazines from the 70s and 80s (like Bizarre Adventures, Nightmare, Psycho, Vampirella, and Twisted Tales) lend just the right note of eccentricity by standing alongside reviews of such gems as Norman Bogner's Snowman, Edward Jarvis's Pestilence, and Robert Holdstock / Robert Faulcon's 'Nighthunter' series.

Sadly, even as I read through the pages of 'Pulp Horror: All Reviews Special Edition' I did so with the knowledge that 90% of the profiled titles are out of print, and have steep prices (on amazon, a copy in 'good' condition of Angus Hall's 1971 Beagle Books novelization of the movie Scars of Dracula will cost you $29). 

Still, having a copy of 'Pulp Horror: All Reviews Special Edition' at hand is a good thing, for when you are perusing the shelves of a used bookstore, or maybe poking through some paperbacks piled onto a table in an Antiques Mall, or noticing a box of paperbacks shoved into the back corner, behind a broken lawnmower, in someone's garage. You never know when and where a treasure described within its pages, might come into your life..............

Kustom Kulture: Von Dutch, Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth, Robert Williams & Others

Kustom Kulture
Von Dutch, Big Daddy Roth, Robert Williams & Others
Laguna Arts Museum / Last Gasp
1993

This 11 x 11", 96- page trade paperback is the catalog to the eponymous art show held in 1993 at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California, on the Pacific Coast Highway.

'Kustom Kulture' is primarily a tribute to three men who epitomized the hot rod detailing and modification culture that flourished in the 50s, 60s, and even the early 70s in Southern California.

Ken Howard (September 7, 1929–September 19, 1992), better known as 'Von Dutch', was the founder of the custom culture; trained as a sign painter, he began detailing hot rods in the 1950s. Howard soon became not only a well-known craftsman, but a mentor to a new generation of artists interested in applying the techniques and styles pioneered by 'Von Dutch'.

Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth (March 4, 1932 – April 4, 2001) was a native Californian who, starting in 1959, began crafting custom hot rods that came to typify the Kustom Kulture. When in 1963 Tom Wolfe published an article in Esquire magazine titled 'There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm)…', Roth ascended to nationwide renown. 

Roth's signature cartoon character, 'Rat Fink', became an icon to Baby Boomers and the most visible representation of the Kustom Kulture ethos.

Robert Williams (b. 1943) moved to Los Angeles in 1963 at the age of 20 and two years later took a job with Roth, designing advertisements and merchandise for the latter's growing commercial enterprises. Williams began his own painting career during the 60s, and became one of the founding artists of the underground comix movement later in the decade.

'Kustom Kulture' features a number of biographical and critical essays on each of the three men. Its large format and high-quality reproductions do justice to the represented artwork, whether it be photographs of customized cars, paintings, cartoons, plastic scale-model boxes, or advertisements.

Somewhat inevitably for an art show catalog, some of the contributors take things too seriously and produce essays that are more at home in Academic journals, but on the whole, the accompanying text does what it needs to do and informs the reader of the place of Kustom Kulture in American art, Southern California history, and the history of the American automobile.

'Kustom Kulture' will be appreciated by those with a fondness for so-called 'lowbrow' art; comics; hot rods; 60s Pop Culture; and the legends and myths of South California in the postwar era, a golden age that never will come again. Prices for copies in good condition are quite reasonable so if you are interested in these topics, 'Kustom Kulture' is worth getting.

Group portrait of underground comix artists, Santa Monica, 1985. Left to right: S. Clay Wilson; Stanley Mouse; Victor Moscoso; Robert Crumb; Rick Griffin; Robert Williams; Kim Deitch; and Spain Rodriguez.

Ancient city by Arthur Ranson

Ancient City
by Arthur Ranson
from Shamballa
2000 AD, 1991