Mickey Rat 'In Old Chinatown'

Mickey Rat: 'In Old Chinatown'

by Robert Armstrong

from Mickey Rat No. 3

Last Gasp, 1980

Our favorite rat goes seeking adventure in an Ethnic Enclave.......

Valerian: Heroes of the Equinox

Valerian: Heroes of the Equinox

by Pierre Christin (writer) and Jean-Claude Mézières (art) 

Dargaud, 1984

'Valerian: Heroes of the Equinox' first was serialized, as Les Héros de l’équinoxe, in 1978 in the French magazine Pilote. In 1984 it was one of a number of Valerian album de bande dessinee titles selected for republication as a graphic novel, in English, for the U.S. market.

The plot has something to do with a competition being held on the planet Simlane, where the entire population is senescent and its renewal dependent on having an offworld male provide a kind of space-age sperm donation (?!) to the Supreme Mother, the planet's female Goddess.

Representing the Galaxity federation, Valerian finds himself competing alongside Ortzog of Bourgnouf, Blumflum of Malalum, and Irmgaal of Krahan. 

Imgraal and Ortzog are over-muscled blockheads clearly meant to satirize American superheroes (particularly Marvel superheroes), while Blumflum probably is meant to satirize Dr. Strange.

The competition involves ascending the mountain atop the island of Filene, where a temple to the Supreme Mother awaits at the summit. During their ascent the contestants must negotiate hostile terrain, and hostile wildlife. 

Valerian, physically smaller and far less imposing than the other Heroes, relies on Gallic pluck and perseverance, in contrast to the bombastic styles of the other contestants. Along the way, Christin and Mezieres sneak in a homage to Moebius:

'Heroes of the Equinox' is a decent enough example of a late 70s entrant in the Valerian canon. Mezieres' art is imaginative, aided by a coloring scheme as good as, if not better, than anything being used in US comics at the time (with the exception of Richard Corben).

Given that Pilote was aimed at what is nowadays termed the Young Adult audience, it's a bit odd that Pierre Christin's plot would emphasize political satire (the Heroes each represent a different political ideology, all of which are completely unsuitable for Simlane, but the Heroes are too arrogant to realize this) which, presumably, would have been over the heads of the juvenile readership. But then, by the time 'Heroes of the Equinox' was published in Pilote every reader had to know that Christin was prone to using the comic to make political statements.

Summing up, if you are a fan of the bande dessinee of the Pilote and Metal Hurlant era, and you have some familiarity with the subtleties of the French approach to political satire, then 'Heroes of the Equinox' likely will have its appeal. 

While copies of these early 1980s graphic novels from Dargaud can be hard to find (I was lucky to grab a copy in decent condition for just 10 bucks), 'Heroes of the Equinox' is one of several episodes compiled in Cinebook's Valerian: The Complete Collection: Volume 3, published in 2017. You can find copies of Volume 3 on sale from your usual online retailers for under $25.

Burning Bridges by the Mike Curb Congregation

'Burning Bridges' by the Mike Curb Congregation

1971

While a student at California State University, Northridge, in the early 1960s, Mike Curb (b. 1944) wrote a jingle that was used by the Honda motorcycle corporation for a highly successful advertising campaign. 

Sensing opportunity, Curb dropped out of the college and embarked on a rewarding career as a scorer and composer for film and TV productions. 

In the late 60s, Curb formed The Mike Curb Congregation, a vocal group styled after the popular mixed-gender group 'Ray Conniff and the Singers'. 

In 1970 the Congregation performed the song 'Burning Bridges', composed by Lalo Shifrin and used as the theme for the opening and closing credits of the Clint Eastwood film Kelly's Heroes. 

A year later, the song was released as a single by the Congregation, and peaked at No. 34 in the Billboard top 40 in March, 1971.

According to a YouTube commentator, the video clip posted here likely is taken from a 1971 episode of the Mike Douglas Show, with Curb playing piano in the foreground.

The wardrobe for the Congregation shows a fascinating mix of 'Groovy' hippy style, melded with a sci-fi sensibility...........as if the Congregation were visitors from the future, as the future might be envisioned in 1971. 

When combined with the wholesome appearances of the young people in the Congregation, it makes for a trippy 70s experience like no other........!   

Book Review: Morningstar

Book Review: 'Morningstar' by David Gemmell

3 / 5 Stars

'Morningstar' (290 pp) first was published in the UK in 1992; this Del Rey paperback was released in October, 1993, and features cover artwork by Mike Posen.

[This is a standalone novel, with no continuity with any of Gemmell's fantasy series.]

The book is framed as a flashback by an elderly Bard, Owen Odell, who is reminiscing about his younger days as the friend and confidante of the legendary freedom fighter......... the swashbuckling outlaw who took from the rich and gave to the poor........... the Morningstar: Jarek Mace !

As the novel opens, Odell - the outcast son of a wealthy and influential royal family of the Angostin clans - is struggling to earn his keep as a singer and a magician in the increasingly lawless northern city of Ziraccu.

Odell has heard rumors circulating about the Angostin King of Ikenas, a ruthless tyrant named Edmund. Edmund seeks to subjugate not just Ziraccu, but the entire region surrounding it. Odell decides to flee the city for the wilder, less developed Highlands; there, he encounters Jarek Mace and his loose coalition of thieves and bandits, who earn their living preying on the travelers who take the forest roads.

Although Mace is a criminal, who cares only for himself, he has sufficient charisma to induce Owen Odell to join the band of cut-throats and malcontents who look to Mace as their leader. 

As the tyranny of King Edmund settles over the land, Mace finds himself pressured to be more than a bandit chieftan.......to be, in fact, the leader of the Resistance. 

But as Mace, Odell, and the hastily rebranded 'freedom fighters' are to discover, Edmund and his lieutenants have no qualms about using the foulest of dark sorceries to crush any rebellion........ 

As with Gemmell's other fantasy novels, 'Morningstar' is a fast-moving and engaging read. And, as with those other novels, its major themes revolve around injecting notes of realism into the template of the Heroic Fantasy narrative. 

We witness Owen Odell's transformation from a naive, idealistic young man into an adult who recognizes that the legends of every hero hide some Uncomfortable Truths, truths that wind up being carefully edited from the retelling. 

Notes of Humanism also are injected - somewhat obviously - into the story; for example, we come to know that beneath his seeming insouciance and casual disregard, Jarek Mace is struggling with his sense of duty to free his fellow man and woman from the cruelties callously imposed by the Privileged Classes.

The major weakness of 'Morningstar' comes in the later chapters, in which author Gemmell introduces some plot contrivances ( including Time Travel ?! ) that, in my opinion, are too facile to be effective.

Summing up, 'Morningstar' is a solid 3-star adventure fantasy novel, particularly if you're looking for an alternative to the brick-sized novels that make up the majority of the books currently on the store shelves; just be prepared for an underwhelming ending.

Blast Bartleby by John Workman

Blast Bartleby
by John Workman

from Heavy Metal magazine, May 1979

also from Wild Things, 1986

Another one-pager that adroitly sums up the Heavy Metal aesthetic.......... 

The End of Summer from 'Salem's Lot

The End of Summer

Chapter One, Ben (I)
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

October 17, 1975

By the time he had passed Portland going north on the turnpike, Ben Mears had begun to feel a not unpleasurable tingle of excitement in his belly. It was September 5, 1975, and summer was enjoying her final grand fling. The trees were bursting with green, the sky was a high, soft blue, and just over the Falmouth town line he saw two boys walking a road parallel to the expressway with fishing rods settled on their shoulders like carbines.

Book Review: Shining Steel

Book Review: 'Shining Steel' by Lawrence Watt-Evans

5 / 5 stars

‘Shining Steel’ (216 pp.) was published by Avon Books in June, 1986. The striking cover illustration is by Carl Lundgren. It is one of several novels by Watt-Evens loosely organized into the so-called ‘Shining Steel’ series.

Since 1980, Watt-Evans (b. 1954) has been a prolific author of original sci-fi and fantasy novels, as well as novels for franchise properties such as ‘Aliens’ and ‘Star Trek’. 

‘Shining’ is set on the planet of Godsworld, colonized centuries ago by a starship carrying Christian Fundamentalists anxious to escape the turmoil afflicting Earth. 

The descendants of these colonists have turned the planet into a patchwork of sects, all constantly warring with each other over obscure questions of doctrine. Since technology on Godsworld has regressed to that of the of 19th century, battles are conducted with edged weapons, and those few firearms for which there is sufficient ammunition are deployed with deliberation and care.

The novel’s protagonist is John Mercy-of-Christ, a model of Christian rectitude and the military commander of the True Word and Flesh sect. In the opening chapters, John leads an attack on a village known to support heretics. John expects a quick victory, followed by the requisite execution of those enemy survivors who refuse to convert to the True Word sect, and the rape and enslavement of their women, actions considered justifiable by the martial codes governing the sectarian conflicts on Godsworld.

However, John and his troops encounter the unthinkable: the villagers are equipped with advanced weapons, weapons that can change the balance of power on Godsworld. John learns that the weapons were obtained from a new faction on Godsworld: The People of Heaven.

The Heaveners, as they are called, not only have advanced weapons, but an astonishing variety of material goods never before seen by anyone on Godsworld. It seems the Heaveners have formed an alliance with an offworld entity, the Bechtel-Rand corporation. Indeed, after centuries of isolation, a resurgent Federation is contacting long-lost colony worlds and auctioning development rights to those worlds to corporate entities. Godsworld has, in essence, been turned into the modern-day equivalent of a trading post.

John struggles to cope with the changed reality of life on Godsworld, life now dictated by corporate administrators who are indifferent, even amused, by the theological conflicts of its inhabitants. But although John is not an educated man, he is willing to alter his doctrinal rigidity when circumstances dictate it prudent to do so. And John realizes that there may be a way to turn the tables on the planet’s new corporate masters……….  

In 1980s sci-fi, it wasn’t unusual to have Christian Fundamentalists as villains; for example, they control the near-future Earth in John Shirley’s ‘Eclipse’ (1985), and visit cruel punishments on hapless villagers in Lester Neil Smith's 'The Crystal Empire' (1986). The first half of ‘Shining Steel’ has considerable fun in depicting John Mercy-of-Christ as a hapless scripture-quoting rube, whose devotion to dogma has left him ill-prepared to deal with a technologically advanced society indifferent to religion.

However, the second half of the novel diverts from a mocking treatment of Christian Fundamentalism and instead takes a more subtle and nuanced path: is the secular Corporation, with its single-minded focus on profit and economic exploitation, any better a substitute for religious zealotry ? 

‘Shining Steel’ s allegorical nods to the real-world exploitation of Third World countries and cultures, by those of the mercenary First World, gives the novel a depth that is adeptly conveyed by Watt-Evans’s clear and crisp prose style.

I finished ‘Shining Steel’ comfortably convinced that this novel deserves a five-star rating. Readers looking for a treatment of the conflict between Religion and Science that is more imaginative than most will find much to like here.

August 2021 Graphic Novels

 August 2021 Graphic Novels

On a trip to a comic book store in upstate New York last week, I came across a trio of vintage graphic novels that were nicely priced.

'The Jewel in the Skull' was issued by Savoy Books in 1979 in partnership with Big O Publishing. This was one of a number of graphic novels released in the 1970s, illustrated in black & white by James Cawthorn, depicting Michael Moorcock's characters. 

Savoy Books was a rather unique, rather eccentric UK publishing house. 

'Blueberry 5: The End of the Trail' was one of a number of graphic novels issued by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, offering English translations of Moebius's 'Lieutenant Blueberry' bande dessinees. 

'The End of the Trail' (1990) compiled the 1983 and 1986 episodes La dernière carte ('The Last Card') and Le bout de la piste ('The End of the Trail'). 

These Epic translations of 'Blueberry' have steep / exorbitant asking prices, so I was happy to get this copy for $15.

'Alien Legion: Slaughterworld' (Marvel / Epic Comics, 1991) is a compilation of issues 1 (April 1984) and 7 - 11 (April 1985 - December 1985) of the comic published by Epic.

All in all, some worthwhile reading material to close out the Summer of 2021.

The War Machine - Rogue Trooper

The War Machine - 'Rogue Trooper'

by William Simpson and Dave Gibbons

Heavy Metal: War Machine, 1993

In 1993 Heavy Metal magazine published one of a regular series of special issues, this one devoted to 'War Machine' themes.

The star feature in this special issue was a full-length comic, titled 'The War Machine - Rogue Trooper', designed to showcase the 2000 AD character to a U.S. audience.

The Rogue Trooper character first appeared in 2000 AD prog No. 228 (September 5, 1981) and underwent a reboot in 1989, which took place over the course of ten or so issues, on into 1990.

2000 AD Prog 650 (October 28, 1989)

It's the 1989 - 1990 reboot from 2000 AD that is reprinted in this 'War Machine' special of Heavy Metal (although curiously, the magazine doesn't explicitly state this, simply referring to a copyright with Fleetway dated 1991). 

William Simpson's artwork relies on a figurative, at times very murky, style that was much in demand in the early 90s. Simpson remains active as an artist for 2000 AD, having illustrated 2021's 'Desperadlands' story. According to a recent interview with 2000 AD, Simpson remains dedicated to:

'Pencils, paper, artboard, ink, acrylic, watercolour, gouache and sometimes oil paints, and then after I’ve scanned and pieced together my pages, maybe a little bit of photoshop highlighting, and that’s the art !'

Dave Gibbons's script for The War Machine - 'Rogue Trooper', designed as it is to reboot the character, is necessarily limited in its scope and I'm sure most readers will see where the plot is headed well in advance. There is some predictable 'war is hell' signaling, which I don't think will be all that novel to the reader, either.

Summing up, hopefully the scans I've provided should give you an idea of what The War Machine - 'Rogue Trooper' is all about, and whether it's something you would find interesting. 

For my part, I think it will be of interest to fans of 1990s comic book art, 2000 AD, and the Rogue Trooper character, in particular, but I can't see anyone else being sufficiently captivated by this graphic novel to designate it as a 'must have'.

Voltar by Alcala

 Voltar by Alfredo Alcala

In 1963, the Filipino artist Alfredo Alcala (1925 - 2000) began publishing 'Voltar', a sword-and-sorcery tale, as a komik (as comic books are referred to in the Philippines). 

Warren publishing acquired the rights to reprint Voltar, in English, as an eight-part series in The Rook magazine. The first of the 8 installments appeared in The Rook issue 2 (cover date February 1979).

Alcala's art for Voltar is amazing, but I've hesitated scanning and posting the first installment because my copies of The Rook are 42 years old, and the bindings are fragile. 

Luckily, the complete content of the first installment of 'Voltar' has been scanned and is available at the 'Straight Outta Surrey' website. It's well worth checking out.