Dragonslayer Part One

Dragonslayer
Marvel Super Special No. 20, 1981
Part One

Written by Dennis O'Neil, drawn by veteran comics artist Marie Severin, with inking by John Tartaglione, this is one of the better film-to-comic adaptions done by Marvel in the early 80s.

The film was notable in that it took a darker, even cynical tone in its approach to an otherwise standard-issue medieval fantasy theme. And although the denouement has a rather whacky note to it, it does avoid the 'brave hero slays dragon' cliche.

'Dragonslayer' was the first in what would be a steady string of fantasy films that lasted throughout the 80s. Just a year later Conan the Barbarian, The Dark Crystal, and The Sword and the Sorcerer all would hit theatres. And then there would be Ladyhawke and Willow.

I'm posting 'Dragonslayer' is two consecutive posts............Part One is below, Part Two will follow.

Stephen E. Fabian's Women and Wonders

Stephen E. Fabian's Women and Wonders
Charles F. Miller, 1995

The companion volume to Stephen E. Fabian's 'Ladies and Legends', 'Stephen E. Fabian's Women and Wonders' offers 134 pages of reproductions of black-and-white and graytone illustrations done by Stephen E. Fabian. Most of the reproduced illustrations were done in the 70s and 80s for sci-fi and fantasy books issued by small press publishers.

As with 'Ladies and Legends', 'Women and Wonders' is a sturdy, 8 1/2 x 11 inch trade paperback printed on quality glossy paper stock. If you are a fan of Fabian's art, then obtaining a used copy for an affordable price is certainly feasible. And even if you are not a fan of Fabian's art, seeing the illustrations compiled in this volume likely will send you inquiring about those Old School sci-fi and fantasy titles for which they are provided.........

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

Lord of the Worms, by Brian Lumley

Timothy, by Keith Roberts

Hunters of Gor, by John Norman

 The Moon-Bog, by H. P. Lovecraft

De Marigny's Clock, by Brian Lumley

Island of Faces, by Darrell Schweitzer

Search, by F. M. Busby

A Tribute to William Hope Hodgson

The Hag, by Darrell Schweitzer

Bookjackers

Bookjackers

What with so many people in Lockdown and ordering a lot of books online these days, I thought that as a Public Service I'd remind readers to Beware the Bookjacker (also known as a 'dropshipper' ).

These are people who actually do not have any books in their inventory. When you place an order for a book with them, they go and order it from another seller at amazon, or Abebooks (which is owned by amazon), or alibris, or Powells, etc., etc. and arrange to have it shipped to your address.

Bookjackers hope to make money on these transactions by buying the book themselves at a lower price than the price at which they hope to sell it to you. 

For example, they list a book for sale on amazon for $50 (including shipping), which is the lowest, or one of the lowest, prices. When you place an order with them, they look to find the book from a seller for an even lower price (for example, $30, including shipping), purchase it, then arrange to have that book mailed to you. Their net profit is $20. 

Needless to say, this business model comes with problems. After the Bookjacker receives your order (one of many orders they may get per day) they may not be able to find the book for any price under $50, so they may delay fulfilling the order while they scan the web hoping for a cheap copy to come onto the market. Or they may simply ignore fulfilling the order, and when you complain several weeks later that the book never arrived (despite having a US Postal Service Tracking Number) they belatedly provide a refund in order to stay on the good side of amazon, or Abebooks, or alibris, etc.

As well, they may state in their description that the book is in Very Good condition, but the copy they purchase for $30 only may be in Acceptable condition........but they'll ship it to you anyways, hoping that when you get a torn, beat-up copy, you won't angrily return the book and ask for a refund.

How can you tell if a seller on amazon or Abebooks is a Bookjacker ? Well, they often use 'generic' product descriptions, like the one I've posted at the head of this article. They also tend to have low (i.e., under 93%) seller ratings, tens or hundreds (as opposed to thousands) of ratings, and have been in business only for months, as opposed to years. 

An informative article on Bookjackers is available here......and another article is here......the first article provides a list of suspected Bookjackers, so it's worth checking out !

Book Review: Light A Last Candle

Book Review: 'Light A Last Candle' by Vincent King

2 / 5 Stars

'Light A Last Candle' (217 pp) was published by Ballantine Books in July 1969. The cover art is by Robert Foster.

UK author King (1935 - 2000) wrote four sci-fi novels during the interval from 1969 - 1976. For a review of his 1971 novel 'Candy Man', readers are directed here.

'Light A Last Candle' is set in a future North America under the heel of an Alien occupation. The first-person protagonist, known only as Ice Lover, is one of the few remaining Free Men on the planet; that is, he is not a 'Mod', a genetically engineered mutant designed to serve the needs of the Aliens. 

As 'Light' opens, Ice Lover is living a lonely existence amidst the snowdrifts and forests of the Great North (i.e., Canada). A battle with an Alien survey team leads him to seek refuge among the farms and villages of the Alien-controlled sector of what used to be the U.S. There he learns of a resistance movement led by a mysterious figure named Craghead. 

After some deliberation, Ice Lover sets out to find the secret installation where Craghead, so it is said, is preparing a force to overthrow the Aliens. And although Craghead's force is composed entirely of Mods, Ice Lover is confident he can conceal his status as a Free Man long enough to deal a blow to Alien rule. But as Ice Lover is about to find out, who and what constitutes an 'Alien' is not always as clear as it seems........

'Light A Last Candle' starts out on a promising note, with crisp actions sequences and a plot that seems straightforward: the liberation of a captive Earth from its alien despots. However, although author King's use of a decidedly colloquial prose style for Ice Lover can get awkward (it's an Englishman's interpretation of American slang, circa 1969) it's King's constant use of ellipses and hyphens that gives the narrative a very abrupt and choppy diction:

"I came down east of that.....maybe I saw some smoke...." The Mod didn't trust me. He wasn't sure - suspicious again. You couldn't blame him. "Sorry about the 'bacco - it's been frozen a long time...." I waited, lit my fag again. Then I tried once more. "But what about those guys....those Riders ? Bandits are they ? Or mad.....? Or what....? Hey ....! Could they be Free Men  ? Are there any of them left ?"

The Mod was very still. Then he spat in the fire.

"They must be mad," I said. "I mean, taking on the Aliens.....life ain't that bad - is it ? I mean.....we're living....."

This devotion to ellipses and hyphens is present all throughout the entirety of 'Light A last Candle', making the book a labored read.

Another rationale for my two-star Score is the book's closing chapters, where the author piles on plot twists and revelations with such frequency, and disregard for their consistency with the main plot, that 'Light A Last Candle' can't help but finish on an unconvincing note. 

The verdict ? I can't recommend 'Light A Last Candle' to anyone save devoted late 60s sci-fi fans.

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......