Art by Jose Ladronn

Art by Jose Ladronn
from Cable (Marvel comics) 1997 - 1998

The Mexican-born artist Jose Ladronn (b. 1967) began illustrating Marvel's Cable comic in 1997 (with issue 48), up to 1999 (issue 70), after which he turned to providing covers for both Marvel and DC. Ladronn also did interiors for the series Final Incal and currently is at work on illustrating Jodorowsky's Sons of El Topo.

Ladronn's run on Cable is exceptional, and constitute some of the best artwork to appear in any comics of the 1990s. Those issues are compiled into the graphic novels Cable: The Hellfire Hunt, 2017, and Cable: The Nemesis Contract, 2018. 

Writer Joe Casey said of Ladronn: '..........his art was clearly in the great tradition of some obvious masters. Namely, Jack 'King' Kirby and Jean 'Moebius' Giraud. A heady mix of influences, no doubt.' 

See if you agree, looking at these excerpts...........

Portrait of an Icon

Portrait of an Icon

He had just returned from the War….one of those Green Beret rangers.

A trained killer, people would say later.

Before the War, he had hunted down and broken wild horses in these mountains.

Some said the reason he was so good at these things, and the reason he lived alone in this forest, was that he had some Indian blood in him.

Others said that he simply didn’t like people.

All I knew, was his name………..

BILLY JACK.

(my brother- the same one who coined the term 'PorPor' - did this portrait; oil on plywood)

Book Review: Serpent Catch

Book Review: 'Serpent Catch' by Dave Wolverton

3 / 5 Stars

'Serpent Catch' (419 pp) was published by Bantam Spectra in May, 1991. The cover art is by Paul Youll and the interior art by Derek Hegstead.

A sequel, titled 'Path of the Hero', was published in 1993. 

Author Wolverton (b. 1957) has published a large number of sf and fantasy novels (many under the pseudonym David Farland), including some for the Star Wars franchise. 

'Serpent' is set two thousand years into the future. The Federation has turned the moon Anee into a kind of gigantic Jurassic Park, with animals, plants, and humans from different geological eras assigned to separate continents. The complex ecology of Anee is supervised, and corrected as needed, by a network of scientists.

However, for centuries Anee has been left to its own designs, due to an interstellar war that has prevented the Federation from contact with its outposts. There are signs that this prolonged neglect has caused things to go awry; one potentially disastrous manifestation being the die-off of the bioengineered sea-serpents that prevent dinosaurs from the continent of Hotland from swimming across the ocean and colonizing the continent of the Rough.

As 'Serpent Catch' opens, in the seaside village of Smilodon Bay, the innkeeper Scandal proposes a remedy to the loss of the sea-serpents: an Expedition to transport a makeshift aquarium overland to the territory of Denai, home of the spawning grounds of the serpents. There the expedition will capture juvenile serpents from the river system, bring them back to Smilodon Bay, and release the serpents into the ocean to replenish the dwindling stocks.

Tull, a young half-human, half-Neanderthal man, is intrigued by Scandal's proposal, all the more so given that the Neanderthal shaman has judged the Expedition to be critical to the survival of the Rough and its people. Tull resolves to join Scandal's expedition, despite his apprehension over the fact that the route will take the small team of humans, Neanderthals, and genetically engineered humanoids through the lands of the Craal.......where lurk the sadistic Slave Lords and their brutish armies...........

In juxtaposing humans and prehistoric animals, 'Serpent Catch' emulates the themes and concepts of Harry Harrison's 'West of Eden' trilogy, along with the emphasis on action and conflict with which Harrison imbued the 'Eden' novels. However, Wolverton's approach to storytelling is not as crisp as Harrison's. In essence a seemingly straightforward Quest novel, 'Serpent Catch' tries to do too many things at once, and as a result unfolds at a sluggish pace.

For example, the Expedition that serves as the centerpiece of 'Serpent' takes its time getting underway (the party doesn't actually leave town until page 99). Once the Expedition does get underway, there is an overabundance of exposition on Neanderthal psychology, sociology, and mysticism, that tends to drain momentum from the narrative. To give another example, a confrontation with a tribe of homicidal Sasquatches rambles over the course of 18 pages, as the author expounds on the temporary paralysis induced in Neanderthals by acute fear and 'bad' vibes (kwea, in the book's Neanderthal lexicography). 

As well, 'Serpent' suffers from over-plotting. While I recognize that there wouldn't be much dramatic tension should the quest go as smoothly as planned, author Wolverton can't help throwing so many challenges and obstacles into the path of the Expedition that the narrative too often becomes contrived and unconvincing. Removing many of these plot developments, and reducing the book's length by a good hundred pages, would have made 'Serpent Catch' more engaging.

The verdict ? If you like 'Caveman' sci-fi, fortified with some Jurassic Park, then 'Serpent Catch' may be a rewarding read. Just be prepared for an 'anything goes' approach to storytelling.

Spider-Man and Deathlok: Marvel Team-Up No. 46

Spider-Man and Deathlok
Marvel Team-Up No. 46
June 1976

To say that the 70s and 80s issues of Marvel Team-Up were eccentric is an understatement. it wasn't unusual for Spider-Man to find himself alongside the cast of Saturday Night Live; Killraven; Red Sonja; King Kull; Howard the Duck; and....The Son of Satan (?!)

This issue from July 1976 sends Spider-Man into the alternate 1990 of Deathlok, and features mutants, cannibals, and 'irradiated freaks'. They don't make 'em like this anymore......

Book Review: Dilation Effect

Book Review: 'Dilation Effect' by Douglas R. Mason

0 / 5 Stars

‘Dilation Effect’ (185 pp) was published by Ballantine Books in March, 1971. The striking cover illustration is by Wilson McLean.

The U. K. writer Douglas Rankine Mason (1918 – 2013) churned out a sizable number of sci-fi novels and short stories from 1964 to 2003, many of these under the pseudonym ‘John Rankine’.

In my experience, much of Mason’s work is mediocre, and ‘Dilation Effect’ certainly holds true to this assessment.

The plot has something to do with a two-person deep-space mission involving the ship Centaur ; its pilot, the blonde, square-jawed Bob Dogood; and its first officer, the nubile, red-haired Ava Mallan. 

(Mason's use of the surname 'Dogood' is a clever strategy designed to let the reader know that this novel contains elements of facetiousness.)

In the opening chapter, Dogood and Mallam find themselves pursued by an alien armada, and strive to reach the network of Star Gates that will let them navigate to Earth........and warn of the looming invasion.

The narrative then abruptly shifts locales to Earth, and the adventures of a man named 'Bob Duguid', a scientist associated with the Cybernat corporation. When Duguid (confusingly, Mason uses the spelling Dogood when Duguid is thinking to himself……..that’s how obtuse Mason’s prose can become) chances to meet a young woman named Averil Marlowe, he begins having flashbacks to what seems to be an alternate life as 'Bob Dogood' aboard the Centaur.

The remainder of the novel switches between the two manifestations of Dogood / Duguid, with the bulk of the narrative devoted to intrigue and danger involving Duguid and Marlowe and their enemies within the ‘Conform’ police force.

When writing ‘Dilation Effect’, Mason must have known he was using remarkably stilted prose and wooden dialogue; why he chose to do this is a mystery. Perhaps Mason was trying to demonstrate his willingness to adopt what he imagined to be the ‘New Wave’ style. Or maybe he was trying to emulate comic sf authors like Robert Sheckley or Ron Goulart.

In any event, the reader must overcome these kinds of grammatical obstacles:

“Could be you need lenses. I had a whole lot of trouble before I get [sic] fixed up. See the medico. Get a little service for all the taxes. He reckons there’s too much albedo in the décor at Cybernat. He has a feud on with the headshrinkers who dreamed up the specification. Or maybe you’ve been doing too much target practice….”

*** 

In spite of wide physical differences along the pyknicleptosomatic* continuum, with his first friend at the thin end and a spherical, balding type at the extreme pole, there was a family likeness about them which was hard to define.

*** 

Lamech said, chokily, “Do as he says. This time, he has gone too far. Nothing can save him now, or the girl.”

*** 

They were seated side-by-side on the dual-control bench, clipped to the structure of their roaming egg, stiffly hieratic in their de-humanizing gear; Akhenaton** and consort, holding hands, on a quest for the Aton its own self, cartouche shot through with variegated rays.

[ * pyknicleptosomatic refers to a theory of classifying ethnicity / race and psychological temperament by means of body shape; it was invented by a German psychiatrist named Ernst Kretschmer in the late 1920s. Perhaps the best-known proponent of this school of thought was the American psychologist William H. Sheldon, who invented the terms ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph in the 1940s as part of his theory of 'somatotyping'. ]

[ **Akhenaton was an ancient (1353–36 BC) Egyptian king who founded a cult of Sun-worshippers. ]

The verdict ? ‘Dilation Effect’ is not an undiscovered gem of New Wave sf. It's just another of the many poorly written books that Mason cranked out over the course of his career. Stay away from this one...............

Mornin' by Al Jarreau

'Mornin' by All Jarreau
May 1983

It's the first week of May, 1983, and 'Mornin', a single off of Al Jarreua's sixth studio album (Jarreau) is at number 22 on the Billboard Top 40 pop chart (Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' remains at Number One). It would eventually top out at number 21 that same month.

The video for 'Mornin' features Jarreau, a cast of cartoon characters, and a candy-colored visual scheme that meshes well with the 'trippy' concept.

Al Jarreau (1940 - 2017) was able to appeal to audiences across the pop, jazz, and soul spectrum........all this, in an era when there was no such thing as Autotune............... 

Stephen E. Fabian's Ladies and Legends

'Stephen E. Fabian's Ladies and Legends'
by Stephen E. Fabian
Underwood-Miller, 1993

U.S. artist Stephen E. Fabian (b. 1930) was a prolific illustrator of small-press sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books, as well as a cover artist for mainstream publishers, from the late 60s throughout the 2000s. He particularly was adept in black-and-white and graytone illustrations.

Unlike other genre artists of the same era, whose works would be assembled into dedicated art books from companies like Dragon's Dream / Paper Tiger, Ballantine Books, or Pomegranate, compilations of Fabian's work tended to be issued in limited-run hardbound books, and as limited edition Portfolios. 

Fantasy by Fabian, 1979, Gerry de la Ree / Saddle River, N.J.

That means that presently, accessing Fabian's work can only be done through two hardcover books released by Underwood-Miller in the 1990s: Stephen E. Fabian's Ladies and Legends (1993) and Stephen E. Fabian's Women and Wonders (1995).

Below are a selection of the illustrations compiled in Ladies and Legends. I'll be posting selections from Women and Wonders in the future if there is interest.

And who knows...........maybe Titan Books, or Dark Horse Books, or Dynamite will arrange to issue a nice compilation of Fabian's art as a oversize hardbound book........?!

Book Review: In the Field of Fire

Book Review: 'In the Field of Fire' edited by Jeanne Van Buren Dann and Jack Dann

4 / 5 Stars

The paperback edition of 'In the Field of Fire' (415 pp.) was published by Tor Books in November 1987. The cover art is uncredited.

[ It's not easiest of 80s sci-fi anthologies to find, otherwise I would have included it in my special 'Vietnam Month' retrospective of July 2019. ]

This book is very 80s.

You'll likely want to be listening to Paul Hardcastle's 1985 single '19' while reading it.

In 1987, the year 'In the Field of Fire' was published, the pop culture fascination with the Vietnam War was going strong, as audiences went to see the movie Full Metal Jacket. The next year, the TV drama China Beach would air. 

The overarching theme to the stories collected in 'In the Field of Fire', Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Vietnam veterans, was a very high-profile topic in many media outlets, as exemplified in the since-notorious 1988 CBS documentary CBS Reports:The Wall Within. 

In the popular culture of the mid-80s, the PTSD theme was so synonymous with the Vietnam war that in the 1987 comic book Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, when Bruce Wayne first sets out to be a vigilante, he disguises himself as a Vietnam War veteran:

Many entries 'In the Field of Fire' also adopt the phantasmagorical portrait of the war as outlined in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. Still other entries adopt the ideology of the war as an orgy of All-American racism and bloodlust, as evinced in the My Lai massacre and the 'Hill 192 Incident'.

Rather than provide capsule summaries of all 22 stories in the anthology, I'll instead provide a broad overview:

The best story in 'Field' is Brian Aldiss's 'My Country 'Tis Not Only of Thee', which re-envisions the Vietnam War as a civil war in the UK early in the 21st century (!) The UK is divided into northern and southern halves by the Cotswold Wall, with the U.S. providing military assistance to the South. Aldiss clearly intended his story to be an allegorical denunciation of Thatcherism, but the sheer coolness of the concept of a postmodern War of the Roses undermines his effort at polemic. I finished 'My Country' thinking that 2000 AD comics could do something fabulous with the concept.

Other noteworthy entries include Kate Wilhelm's 'The Village', which depicts the My Lai massacre in a different light, and Gardner Dozois's 'A Dream at Noonday', in which a seeming hallucination morphs into a stark reality.

Multiple authors seek to fuse the supernatural into war stories. The best of these attempts are Lucius Shepard's two contributions, 'Delta Sly Honey' and 'Shades', Craig Kee Strete's 'The Game of Cat and Eagle', and Bruce McAllister's 'Dream Baby'.

Vietnam as an especially bad 'trip' is explored in Robert Frazier's 'Across Those Endless Skies'.

More representative of traditional science fiction themes are Ben Bova's 'Brothers', and Richard Paul Russo's 'In the Season of the Rains'.

PTSD among returned vets is dealt with by Charles L. Grant's underwhelming 'The Sheeted Dead', as well as Harlan Ellison's 'Basilisk', Lewis Shiner's 'The War at Home', Dave Smeds's 'Goats', and Susan Casper's 'Covenant with A Dragon'. 

Stories focused on the homefront experience tend to be unimpressive; these include 'Letters from Home' by Karen Joy Fowler, 'Deathtracks' by Dennis Etchison, and 'The Memorial' by Kim Stanley Robinson. 'Credibility', by John Kessel, is markedly superior to these, and an effective treatment of the 'Stolen Valor' theme.

Barry M. Malzberg's 'The Queen of Lower Saigon' is an incoherent example of authorial self-indulgence, and the worst entry in the anthology.

The last entry in the anthology is by Joe Haldeman, with the poem 'DX'. It's a decent enough poem, I suppose, but it's something of a disappointment; I was expecting something more substantive from Haldeman, the only contributor to 'In the Field of Fire' who was a combat soldier in the Vietnam War. It may have been that all his other writing projects at the time prevented Haldeman from submitting something more expansive.

Summing up, in 1987, 'In the Field of Fire' was a 'right time, right moment' examination of the embodiment of the Vietnam War in the pop cultural consciousness of the U.S. Somewhat inevitably, the passage of time has considerably lessened the resonance this anthology had when it first appeared. Sci-fi fans with an interest in the genre as it stood in the mid-80s definitely will want to get a copy, but I doubt younger, contemporary sf readers will find it very engrossing. 

The Stylistics: Let's Put It All Together by Johnson and O'Connell

The Stylistics
Let's Put It all Together
cover artwork by Doug Johnson and Jim O'Connell
1974

Doug Johnson is a Toronto-born artist who did album cover art (and other commercial art commissions) during the 70s and 80s. Johnson was adept in composing pieces not just for soul and R & B albums, but for other genres as well, such as the Heavy Metal band Judas Priest.

Johnson's advertisement for 'Cosmic Candy' and 'Space Dust' joins ''Pop Rocks' as an exemplar of the 70s merging of drug culture with candy:

[The expressions on the faces of the two kids are priceless ! ]

Johnson's artwork has a distinctive style that remains eye-catching even after the passage of nearly 50 years.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a Wiki entry, or any other in-depth biographical treatment, for Johnson, save for a paywalled artwork sales website. If there are non-paywalled sites offering information on his portfolio and career, let me know and I will link to them. 

Book Review: Mojave Wells

Book Review: 'Mojave Wells' by L. Dean James

3 / 5 Stars

'Mojave Wells' (280 pp) was published by Avon Books in June 1994. The cover art is by Dorian Vallejo.

As the novel opens, archaeology graduate student John Caldwell agrees to accompany his mentor, Professor Hanover, on a field trip to the 'Devil's Playground' area of the Mojave desert. The Professor believes unusual scorings in the terrain are indications of possible extraterrestrial activity in the distant past. 

Caldwell digs into the sand and unearths a strange artifact: a small, rectangular box, made of an exotic black material. Even as he examines the box, Caldwell finds himself passing out..... for over four hours ! When he revives, John angrily denounces the Professor for exposing him to a potentially lethal dose of radiation.

But as it turns out, the exposure to the mysterious black box has not given John Caldwell a lethal dose of radiation. Rather, it has engineered a change in his physical being: transmuting Caldwell into an alien, a member of the race known as the Ral. 

As Caldwell struggles to understand his transformation, the residents of the small desert town known as Mojave Wells are going to find themselves caught up in a conspiracy to identify and eliminate what may be the beachhead for an alien invasion of the planet Earth. For the Ral are a race of conquerors, armed with technologically advanced weaponry and an brutal indifference to the fate of those they conquer. 

Unless John Caldwell can find allies among the disbelieving residents of Mojave Wells, he will be the unwilling gateway for a Ral invasion........

The first half of 'Mojave Wells' is the best part of the book. It reads very much like an episode of The X Files, and it's not hard to believe that author Jones was inspired to some degree by that TV show (which began airing in 1993). The plot revolves around a small team of everyday citizens who find themselves the target of a government operation, and must rely on their wits and shared expertise to avoid becoming casualties of a clandestine war. The narrative offers quick pacing, interesting characters, and a steady stream of disquieting revelations and double-crosses.

It's in the final third of the book that 'Mojave Wells' unwisely jettisons the X Files homage and starts to devolve into an overly belabored treatment of alien sociology and psychology (there is much exposition on the marriage customs of the Ral, as well as excursions into the otherworldly realm of Ral 'dreaming', in which individuals can share the same phantasmagorical experience). This shift in the book's emphasis saps momentum from the narrative, and leads to a denouement that drags on too long: Star Gates are opened, then closed, then opened again, as one crisis after another is introduced and dutifully resolved. 

The verdict ? I can't recommend 'Mojave Wells' as a book to search out. But if you are a fan of X Files - style narratives and you happen see 'Mojave' on the shelf, you may want to pick it up.