The Marriage of Irina Valienko

The Marriage of Irina Valienko

by Sicomoro

from Heavy Metal magazine, July 1996

First of all, I want to alert readers to fred's HM fan blog. It provides frequent reviews of recently issued Heavy Metal magazines, and as of early February, was profiling issue No. 311. 

The reviews thoroughly cover each issue, giving sufficient detail to understand what each comic or feature is about, but not disclosing spoilers. Given that contemporary issues of Heavy Metal now cost $14 (yeep !) consulting fred's blog prior to purchase is recommended.

Anyways, turning back to 1996, it's true that while focusing intently on T & A, the Kevin Eastman incarnation of Heavy Metal occasionally did have some content that harkened back to the early days of the magazine.

'The Marriage of Irina Valienk', by the Italian artist Eugenio Sicomoro (b. 1952), which appeared in the July 1996 issue, has a bleak quality that, combined with excellent art, calls to mind vintage Heavy Metal comics such as Chantal Montellier's 1996. For a myriad of reasons, when they decided to get grim and nihilistic in their material, those European artists could do it very well, indeed. 

And the denunciation of the Soviet-era Communist / Socialist system is effective in an understated manner that, in my opinion, contemporary comic book writers and artists intent on delivering political criticism could benefit from emulating. (One artist who certainly does so is 'Lazy Square', aka Alex S.).

Pimp, Holloway House, 1967

Celebrating Black History Month 2022

Advertisement in the April 1968 issue of Adam Film Quarterly for the Iceberg Slim paperback novel 'Pimp', published by Holloway House in 1967. 

Copies of this 1967 edition of 'Pimp' have starting bids of $450 on eBay.

Jim Osborne: The Black Prince of the Underground

Jim Osborne
The Black Prince of the Underground

Fantagraphics, 2018

'Jim Osborne: The Black Prince of the Underground' (131 pp) was published by Fantagraphics in 2018. The editor, Patrick Rosenkranz, is a well-known historian of the comix enterprise and well-qualified to write this book, particularly as (save for his ex-wife Margaret) most of Osborne's family and friends now are deceased.

Jim Osborne was born in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1943 and grew up in Texas. After a stint in the U.S. Army from 1963 – 1966, he moved to San Francisco in 1968, where he embraced the counterculture and began to submit comics to the local underground newspapers. He soon became a well-known figure in the city’s burgeoning comix scene. 

By the late 70s Osborne began to lose interest in contributing to comix, and his problems with substance abuse were only made worse by the death of his brother Dan from a drug overdose in 1991. Osborne did only a few art pieces during the 1990s, and died in 2001 due to chronic alcoholism.

‘Jim Osborne: The Black Prince of the Underground’ compiles all of Osborne’s comix and graphic art (these all were done in black-and-white). It also includes a biographical sketch of Osborne, with anecdotes and reminiscences from family and friends and other comix artists. And it’s physically smaller than the usual dimensions of the comics-related books published by Fantagraphics (such as multi-volume set of books dealing with 'Spain' Rodriguez), but it had the same high production values one would expect from Fantagraphics.

It should be emphasized that Osborne was second to none – including S. Clay Wilson – when it came to using comix as a vehicle to depict all manner of explicit, disturbing horrors and depravities, so I’m not sure who, exactly, will be interested in picking up the book. I had to search very carefully for excerpts from the book that I could scan to use in this review. 

Perverts, murderers, demons, and drug addicts all populate the comix and art of Jim Osborne, where their iniquities often are accompanied by notes of black humor.

Aside from the dwindling cohort of people that remember Osborne’s comics from the 60s and 70s, I’m guessing that the Gorehounds who devour modern-day, full- color comics from Avatar like Crossed and Uber, likely will find delight in Osborne’s gruesome portrayals of libertines, cannibals, serial killers, demons, and other degenerates.

One thing that really comes across well in the pages of ‘Jim Osborne’ is the intricate nature of his artwork, which originally was printed on newsprint-grade paper by obsolete presses manned by comix publishers in condemned warehouses in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, 'Jim Osborne' is now out of print, and finding a copy for sale for a price anywhere close to its cover price of $25 is difficult, if not impossible. I don't know if Fantagraphics decided on a limited print run for the book because they thought it was a niche item, or because they were nervous about obscenity charges, but until they decide to launch another printing, or issue an eBook, 'Jim Osborne' is among the rarest of the rare. If you see a copy for an affordable price, grab it !

I Believe by Chilliwack

I Believe

by Chilliwack

January 1982

As January 1982 segues into February, the single 'I Believe' from the Canadian group Chilliwack is at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song, a track off the 1981 album Wanna Be A Star, would eventually peak at No. 63 the first week of February. It peaked at Number 13 on the Canadian singles chart.

Chilliwack was an underrated band, better known in their native Canada than in the U.S. 'I Believe' is a rock ballad that displays the band's musicianship and the vocal capabilities of lead singer Bill Henderson (there was no such thing as Auto-Tune back in '82...............)

Book Review: The Sword of Morning Star

Book Review: 'The Sword of Morning Star' by Richard Meade

5 / 5 Stars

In the aftermath of the publication of 'Conan the Adventurer' by Lancer Books in 1966, the market for sword-and-sorcery paperbacks burgeoned, and soon all manner of titles were competing for space on the racks. 

Wishing to take advantage of this sales phenomenon, Signet Books released two novels by Richard Meade: 'The Sword of Morning Star' and 'Exile's Quest', these constituting the so-called 'Gray Lands' series. 

'Richard Meade' was one of several pseudonyms used by the North Carolina-born writer Ben Haas (1926 - 1977). According to a post at Lynn Munroe Books, during the 60s and 70s Haas was a prolific author of paperbacks in a variety of genres, including westerns, where he wrote 20 of the 23 novels in the 'Fargo' series. 

Haas's posthumous autobiography, titled 'A Hack's Notebook', is available at amazon.

'The Sword of Morning Star' (144 pp., January, 1969) features cover art by Jeff Jones.

The novel is set in the mythical medieval Kingdom of Boorn, where Helmut, the illegitimate twelve year-old son of the recently deceased King Sigrieth, becomes a pawn in a scheme by the odious Lord Regent Albrecht to usurp the throne. A series of treacheries instigated by Albrecht sees our hero bereft of his right hand, and left to fend for himself in the vast swamplands.

Fortunately for Helmut he is rescued by the wizard Sandivar, a staunch supporter of the late Sigrieth and a firm opponent of Albrecht. While Helmut yearns for revenge on the Lord Regent, he realizes there are limitations to mounting an insurgency when one is a twelve year-old boy. Accordingly, Sandivar proposes to use thaumaturgical means to advance Helmut to manhood, after which Helmut will possess sufficient physical and mental prowess to campaign against Albrecht.

As the 'Sword' unfolds, we follow Helmut, now transformed into a Conan-style berserker, and Sandivar as they confront Albrecht, his confederate the sorceress Kierena, and their formidable allies: legions of wolves, werewolves, and barbarians.............

I debated internally as to whether 'The Sword of Morning Star' was deserving of a four- or five- star rating, and eventually settled on a five-star rating. 

When taken for what it is, and what is what designed to be: a concise sword and sorcery novel intended to leverage the marketing climate of the late 1960s, 'Sword' does everything right. 

In the span of only 144 pages there is just enough space to introduce characters, a plot, and then a narrative that ties these together in as efficient a manner as possible. This is no minor thing to do, and author Meade / Hass does it well, particularly in the final chapters of the novel, featuring an exciting depiction of a climactic battle scene that may, or may not, go the way the reader is hoping. 

Had Meade been given the page count of contemporary fantasy novels, such as Scott Lynch's 2007 tome The Lies of Locke Lamora (736 pages), he undoubtedly could have provided a more expansive version of 'Sword' and all accompanying benefits such a lengthier format can provide. As it stands, however, Meade's work is one of the better sword and sorcery novels of the late 60s, and worth picking up.

[ For a different, but still approving, take on 'The Sword of Morning Star', readers are directed to this review at the M. Porcius blog. ]

Idi Amin article 1979

'The Sex Crimes of Idi Amin'
High Society magazine, November 1979

A brilliantly disturbing - or disturbingly brilliant - illustration for an article titled 'The Sex Crimes of Idi Amin' from the November, 1979 issue of High Society, a porno magazine that was sleazier than Penthouse, but still several rungs above Screw.

The artist is, unfortunately, uncredited. The article, by Robin Keats, is rewardingly lurid (one of Amin's mistresses was a dancer with something called the 'Revolutionary Suicide Mechanized Unit'). 

(the 'Barbara Streisand Nude' pictures are nothing more than grainy stills from the 1970 film The Owl and the Pussycat.......believe me when I say you're better off not seeing them...........)

That's how they did it, back at the end of the seventies......

Book Review: Dangerous Visions and New Worlds

Book Review: 'Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985'

edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre

3 / 5 Stars

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985 (224 pp.) was published by PM Press in November, 2021. Both hardcover and trade paperback editions are available from PM, a firm devoted to publishing Marxist agitprop (?!)

Andrew Nette is the author of the 'Pulp Curry' blog. He and Iain McIntyre previously have teamed up for other PM Press books about mass-market paperbacks and literature: Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980 (2017) and Sticking It to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950 to 1980 (2019).

As with the other volumes in the series, Dangerous Visions is a nicely produced, quality trade paperback with high-resolution scans and photographs of over a hundred paperback books. These accompany twenty essays on ‘progressive’ science fiction published during the interval from 1950 to 1985.

The essays cover a variety of topics, including the works of the black, female writer Octavia Butler; the pornographic sci-fi and fantasy novels issued by the 1960s smut publisher Essex House; nuclear war as viewed by sci-fi writers during the 1960s and 1970s; psychological themes in the works of Philip K. Dick; and the antihero narrative expressed in Roger Zelazny’s 1969 novel ‘Damnation Alley’.

While co-authors Nette and McIntyre contribute the majority of the essays, there are contributions from members of Academia, fiction writers, and critics of pop literature and pop culture.

Needless to say, with the participation of affiliates of Academia, identity and grievance politics and sententious remarks (decrying all manner of -isms) color almost every paragraph of some of the contributions to Dangerous Visions.

One also must gird for a steady diet of pretentious gobbledygook; for example, I witnessed the phrases ‘phallocentric weapons culture’, ‘intersectional feminist text’, ‘protoplasmic porridge’, ‘intertextual resonances’, and ‘puritanical rectitude’. After reading these phrases, I felt as if I had automatically qualified for an M.A. in Modern and Contemporary Literature, without having to accrue $125,000 in student loan debt.

And within the pages of Dangerous Visions I encountered, for the first time in my life, the verbs ‘reterritorialize’ and 'minoritize', gems of jargon so precious and rare that I am forever holding them in reserve for such time as I submit a manuscript to the PMLA……

It’s also apparent that many of the essays in ‘Dangerous Visions’ strain mightily to imbue the profiled novels with a sociopolitical profundity that such novels may not really deserve. For example, in an essay on Ira Levin’s 1972 novel ‘The Stepford Wives', the essay's author declares:

….it is actually a very sophisticated story, containing perceptive observations about the backlash against second-wave feminism, patriarchal control of women’s bodies, and the way in which intelligent women can be gaslit and psychological destroyed by the men around them.

And here I thought ‘Stepford’ was an entertaining satire of suburbia and its fixation with consumerism……….!

These criticisms aside, there are some informative and well-written essays in Dangerous Visions, such as Erica L. Satifka’s piece on Philip K. Dick, Mike Stax’s piece on Mick Farren,  Molly Grattan's piece on apocalyptic novels for the Young Adult readership, and Michael Gonzalez’s piece on Octavia Butler.

Who will want to get a copy of Dangerous Visions ? Well, I expect Joachim Boaz and his followers at the 'Science Fiction and Suspect Ruminations' blog will find it engaging (Boaz actually was approached by Nette to contribute the book, but was too pressed with other commitments to take him up on the offer).

I am more ambivalent about recommending it to Justin Marriott's 'Paperback Fanatics' and allied persons. I can't see the text pieces in Dangerous Visions holding much appeal for people outside Academia. 

However, the scans and photos of the paperbacks are certainly going to aid said Fanatics in adding to their collections (with the ever-mindful caveat that many of these paperbacks now have exorbitant asking prices), so in that regard, I am comfortable with giving Dangerous Visions a 3 out of 5 Star score.   

Paperbacks that never were by Todd Alcott

Vintage Paperbacks That Never Were

by Todd Alcott

This is clever......over at his Etsy page, the artist Todd Alcott is selling Giclee prints of facsimiles of vintage paperbacks that are based on popular rock songs.

Many of these titles are laugh-out loud funny in the way they meld the song with the presentation. Alcott has a real genius for modelling his facsimiles with an impressive degree of fidelity to all the smudges, and discolorations, and tears, and creases that are familiar to any Paperback Fanatic. Well worth investigating !

R.I.P. Ron Goulart, 1933- 2022

R.I.P. Ron Goulart

January 13, 1933 - January 14, 2022

Ron Goulart passed away at age 89 on January 14th.

He was one of those writers who 'wrote for a living', and thus was a regular presence on the sci-fi shelves of bookstores from the 1960s through the 1990s (and even, on a less frequent basis, the 2000s). Not only was he a prolific writer of original fiction, but he also was a major contributor to franchises like 'The Avenger', 'Battlestar Galactica', 'Vampirella', 'The Phantom', and 'Tekwar', among others. Goulart also represented via his novelizations of sci-fi films ('The Isle of Dr. Moreau', 'Capricorn One').

I never found those few Goulart original novels that I tried to read to be that rewarding. They were humor pieces, reliant on a kind of Borscht Belt, New York City, Jewish sensibility that came across as too corny to be effective.

To me, where Goulart was most successful was in his nonfiction works, as these were infused with an affection and respect for the material that was somewhat rare for analysis of pop culture during the early 70s. 

'Cheap Thrills', his 1972 history of the pulp magazines, remains one of the better books on the subject.

Goulart's 1986 book 'The Great Comic Book Artists' broke new ground in terms of showcasing comic books and their artists. This was a time when so doing was something of a rarity; the advent of 'Geek Culture', where thousands of people attend presentations by comic book artists at conventions, was only just starting to gather momentum.

In my opinion, one of Goulart's greatest contributions to the sci-fi scene of the era covered by this blog (i.e., 1968 - 1988) was to pave the way for the overwhelming success of the comic sci-fi works of authors like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. If you like the works of those authors, then you may want to search out Goulart's titles......... 

Book Review: The Swords of Corum

Book Review: 'The Swords of Corum' by Michael Moorcock

4 / 5 Stars

This 1987 omnibus edition published by Grafton (509 pp.) contains the three novels / novelettes The Knight of the Swords (1971), The Queen of the Swords (1971), and The King of the Swords (1972). The striking cover illustration is by Mark Salwowski. 

[ These three volumes in the ‘Corum’ franchise are followed by the trilogy of The Bull and the Spear (1973), The Oak and the Ram (1973), and The Sword and the Stallion (1974). All six Corum novels fall within the larger framework of Moorcock’s ‘Eternal Champion’ saga. ]

In The Knight of the Swords we are introduced to Corum, an Elric-like figure who is a member of the dwindling race of lotus-eaters, equivalent to the Elves of mythology, known as the Vadhagh. Having sequestered themselves from the world for centuries in order to navel-gaze, the Vadhagh are ill-prepared to respond when targeted for extinction by a race of barbarians known as the Mabden.

Corum alone survives the confrontation with the Mabden, and vows to avenge himself upon them, and their leader, the brutish psychopath Glandyth-a-Krae. However, Corum’s path to revenge must first evade the machinations of Arioch, the eponymous Knight of Swords……

Arioch, Lord of Chaos, sworn opponent of the Lords of Law, and the master of the Mabden.

In The Queen of the Swords Corum finds himself destined to confront Xiombarg, an entity even more powerful than Arioch. However, aid comes to Corum in the form of the inestimable Jerry Cornelius, disguised here as ‘Jhary-a-Conel’. Corum and Jhary must brave all manner of dangers as they seek aid against the onslaught of the armies of the Mabden…….and their sorcerous allies.

In The King of the Swords the action moves to the realm of Chaos and the mightiest of its potentates, the ‘King’ of the title: Mabelode. But all is not lost for Corum, for two manifestations of the Eternal Champion shall fight alongside him: Elric of Melnibone, and Erekose. Can the three warriors turn the tide against the forces of Chaos and restore hope to the multiverse ?

Although it’s over 500 pages long, the Swords trilogy is a quick and engaging read, and a reminder that Moorcock in his prime certainly had the talent necessary to write a large number of novels and short stories every year, while at the same time conducting editorial duties for periodicals (such as New Worlds).

With Swords, Moorcock demonstrates the ability to world-build without the need for pages and pages of exposition, and to populate his novels with interesting characters without having to indulge in protracted explorations of their psychological and emotional states. 

Dialogue is kept succinct, and the narrative constantly propelled by one plot development after another; sometimes these are accompanied by episodes of violence that approach splatterpunk. To incorporate such grue was something of a provocation in fantasy tales written during the early 70s. 

The only reason I couldn’t give Swords a five-star rating was that the third novel in the trilogy shows signs of fatigue in terms of plotting, although it does redeem itself to a large degree with the piling-on of ‘cosmic’ revelations in its closing chapters. 

Summing up, Swords shows it’s possible to write a memorable fantasy / sword-and-sorcery trilogy without exceeding 200 pages per novel. Well worth having in your collection !