Book Review: 'Alfred Hitchcock: A Hearse of a Different Color'

Book Review: 'Alfred Hitchcock's A Hearse of a Different Color'

4 / 5 Stars

'Alfred Hitchcock's: A Hearse of a Different Color' first was published by Dell in November, 1972. A new edition (207 pp.; pictured above) was released in August, 1980.

All of the 14 entries in 'Hearse' first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine during the interval from 1960 to 1970. As such, they are devoid of supernatural trappings (it's rather difficult to determine from the title alone, which of these Dell Hitchcock anthologies were devoted more to the horror genre).

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Dream of a Murder, by C.B. Gilford: Harvey Fenster is a rotter.......who might just get away with murder.

The Missing Miles, by Arthur Porges: even the 'perfect' alibi can have a flaw.

Adventure of the Haunted Library, by August Derleth: a 'Solar Pons' story from Derleth. I can't say I've ever found these Pons stories to be very good pastiches of Sherlock Holmes, and 'Library' won't change my opinion: the 'ratiocination' used to explain the haunting of the library is more than a little contrived. 

In fairness, the MPorcius blog has a more complimentary attitude towards the Pons franchise; a review can be accessed here.

An Estimate of Rita, by Ed Lacy: Rita is a Swell Dame, married to the son of a very wealthy man. Nothing good ever comes of this, of course.

The Full Treatment, by Rog Phillips: never go over the speed limit near the sleepy, inbred hamlet of Bethel ! A great treatment of the 'Small Town from Hell' theme, and one of the best stories in the anthology.

Another Day, Another Murder, by Lawrence Treat: two cops investigate what seems to be an open-and-shut case. A very well-crafted story, with an ending that took me by surprise. Another of the better entries in the anthology.

The Living Doll, by Richard O. Lewis: it could be the most clever heist anyone ever has pulled off.........

The Flat Male, by Frank Sisk: undertaker Thaddeus Conway has an eccentric client.  A neat little tale, with Roald Dahl-ish humor.

Chaviski's Christmas, by Edwin P. Hicks: the eponymous Chavinski can't stay away from the station house on Christmas. And maybe that's a good thing.

The Case of the Helpless Man, by Douglas Farr: Uncle Rudolph, paralyzed from a stroke, must endure indignities.

Fat Jow and the Sung Tusk, by Robert Alan Blair: Chinatown resident Fat Jow investigates the theft of a priceless artifact. There are political ramifications. This story suffers from a failing, common to those stories of its era, in that the 'Oriental' characters speak a unique sort of stilted English............

Echo of a Savage, by Robert Edmond Alter: a variation on the theme introduced in the 1913 chestnut 'Fishhead', by Irvin S. Cobb. This time, the eccentric swamp man is named Jube.

The Nonconformist, by William R. Coons: the first-person narrator assures us that Robert Cressy is going to die.

The Sapphire that Disappeared, by James Holding: in Buenos Aires, the husband and wife detective team of Landis and Landis investigate a theft.

Summing up, 'A Hearse of a Different Color' represents another good showcase of stories from the era when detective and crime fiction magazines enjoyed considerable popularity with the literate members of the American public. There are enough good stories in this volume to justify a solid four-star rating. With their emphasis on well-crafted plotting and composition rather than mood and atmosphere, they retain value some 60 years after they first saw print.

The Art of Luis Garcia

The Art of Luis Garcia
by David Roach
Dynamite, 2021

'The Art of Luis Garcia' (240 pp.) was published by Dynamite in 2021. It's a well-made hardbound book, printed on slick paper, measuring 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches.

'Luis Garcia' is another in a lineup of books, all dealing with comic / graphic art, authored by the UK's David Roach: The Art of Jose Gonzalez, The Art of Vampirella: The Warren Years, Masters of British Comic Art, and Masters of Spanish Comic Book Art. Some of these are out of print and becoming rare (and pricey).

Luis Garcia was born in Puertollano, Spain in 1946 and from an early age displayed considerable talent in art. When only 13 he began to work as an apprentice for the Spanish comics publishing outfit Creacciones Editoriales Bruguera, after which he joined the staff of the Selleciones Illustradas (S.I.) agency and contributed artwork to romance comics in the UK.

In the early 70s Garcia, growing tired of illustrating romance comics, began supplying work for the French comic magazine Pilote. Some of those pieces later were reprinted in English in the Warren magazines in the U.S. 

Garcia's comics quickly became some of the most memorable imagery to appear in Vampirella and Creepy in the early 1970s, and 'The Art of Luis Garcia' provides a hefty selection of Garcia's work for Warren. Seeing this work on high-resolution, slick paper displays his skill as a draftsman.

Along with recounting Garcia's adventures in comics, author Roach provides some interesting anecdotes and insights, from Garcia himself, about the artistic milieu in Spain and Europe in the era of the 1960s and 1970s. Fort example, it was Garcia's girlfriend, Carol (Juana) De Haro, who served as the model for Vampirella:

In 1982 Garcia's comic series 'Nova 2' was printed in Heavy Metal magazine, and became another standout in his comics career. Unlike his previous works for the UK comics, Pilote, and Warren, 'Nova 2 reflected Garcia's increasing interest in exploring 'deep' themes of existential and psychological crises.

Also during the 1970s and 1980s, Garcia provided illustrations for historical and political graphic novels appearing in European, and Spanish magazines (revistas). In the 1980s, he changed roles to become the editor / publisher of Rambla, a comic magazine that sought to exploit the new, more liberal attitudes governing content in the Spanish media following the death of Franco. While his editorial duties took up most of his time, Garcia was able to contribute art to Rambla, which emphasized 'erotica' (or what those inclined to pudibundity might call 'softcore porn'). 

The book has some interesting observations from Garcia about the rewards and travails of editing a suite of magazines in the era before the advent of digital / computer layout and composition software.

Following the unfortunate dissolution of Rambla in 1985, Garcia took stock of his career as an artist, and decided to dedicate himself to studio art. He met with considerable success as a portrait painter, and those works (along with nudes and still lifes) are showcased in the closing chapters of 'The Art of Luis Garcia'.

One area where 'The Art of Luis Garcia' suffers is in the presence of a few too many typographical errors, a problem I've seen in other books authored by Roach and published by Dynamite. It's hard to see how these escaped the page proofing process.........?!

Summing up, if you're a fan of the Spanish artists who contributed to American and European comics during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a fan of graphic art, then 'The Art of Luis Garcia' is worth acquiring.

Two articles on Baby Boomer Favorites

Two articles on Baby Boomer Favorites

Two articles about subjects that should appeal to Baby Boomers:

'Solving stories with boy detectives', posted by Colin Fleming to The Smart Set online journal , is an affectionate look at the 'Three Investigators' series of Young Adult novels. 

Fleming offers some revelations; for example, I for one didn't know that Mary Virginia Carey began writing entries in the series in 1971. I knew that Robert Arthur wrote some of the 43 entries in the series, but Carey was a major factor in imbuing the books with a more supernatural atmosphere. Fleming notes that the Three Investigators books are quite sophisticated for literature aimed at a 'tweener' audience, and superior to much of the 'MFA-machined fiction drivel' now being printed.

And, over at 'Attack of the Fifty Year-Old Comic Books, Alan Stewart goes back in time 50 years to the inaugural first two issues of Jack Kirby's comic book 'The Demon'. Lots of scans of panels and pages, with accompanying commentary, that remind me how effective Kirby was as an illustrator.

Book Review: Solomon Kane novelization

Book Review: 'Solomon Kane' by Ramsey Campbell

5 / 5 Stars

'Solomon Kane' (290 pp.) was published by Titan Books in February 2010 as a tie-in with the film of the same name (the film was released in Europe and the UK in 2009, but due to legal reasons, it didn't appear in the U.S. until 2012).

I don't usually review books published after the early 1990s, but I occasionally make exceptions. In this case, it's because I've previously covered the Solomon Kane franchise, particularly the comics that appeared in the pages of Marvel publications during the 1970s and 1980s.

The novel is based on the screenplay, by Michael J. Bassett, who also directed the film.

Campbell does a reasonably good job of giving the novelization a ‘literary’ coating that expands on the screenplay and, unsurprisingly for a novelization by Campbell, gives greater emphasis to the horror aspects of the story.

The Kane in the screenplay, which is set in England in 1600, is different from that of the original Robert E. Howard stories. Rather than a dour Puritan who wanders the earth quoting scripture and dispatching evildoers, the Kane of the movie is a man convinced that his past transgressions have damned him to Hell, but nonetheless is hoping to gain Salvation by renouncing violence and trusting in the forgiveness of the Lord. 

As the novelization begins Kane reluctantly has agreed to depart a monastery, where he has been immersed in penitence, to make his way to Axmouth, his family's hereditary estate. Kane has not been in Axmouth since his childhood, when a moment of violence led to his banishment.

But in the screenplay's setting, even a simple journey home to Axmouth will be hazardous for Kane. The initial chapters of the novelization, which are the best, introduce him into a bleak and wintry landscape where bands of cutthroats and marauders are terrorizing the populace, and Kane's pacifistic attitude does little to spare him from undergoing all manner of cruelties. 

Can Kane adhere to his vow to renounce violence in the face of the atrocities committed by the minions of the sorcerer Malachai ? For if Malachai's provocations cause Kane to break his vow, then Kane's soul will belong to Satan......... 

I finished the novelization thinking it worthy of a 5 star rating. I did not expect to do so, since historically I have not been a big Ramsey Campbell fan. But Campbell avoids the ornate, highly stylized prose that characterized his output during the 1970s and 1980s in favor of a blessedly more restrained locution, one which makes the novel quite readable.

He also introduces some scenes that apparently were cut from the final script, and these give added depth to the storyline. Campbell's descriptive passages of the English landscape ably complement the 'desaturated' coloration of the film, a visual style that has become something of the status quo for contemporary fantasy feature films (Snow White and the Huntsman) and television (The Witcher).

Summing up, if you're a fan of the Solomon Kane character, sword-and-sorcery literature, or the works of Ramsey Campbell, then the novelization of the film is worth acquiring. I also recommend viewing the film (if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, it's free to watch - although you do have to sit through commercials).

The Time Machinate

The Time Machinate
by Nicola Cuti
from the December, 1982 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

An offbeat, steampunk-flavored little black-and-white one-pager from Nicola Cuti.

Book Review: Forsake the Sky

Book Review: 'Forsake the Sky' by Tim Powers

3 / 5 Stars

'Forsake the Sky' (217 pp.) was published by Tor Books in April, 1986, and features cover art by Boris Vallejo. It's a revised edition of the book 'The Skies Discrowned', author Powers's first novel, which was issued by Laser Books in 1976.

I picked up 'Forsake' after plowing through over 1,000 pages of fantasy novels ('Shardik', 'Well of Shiuan', and 'Fires of Azeroth'), and was intent on reading a novel that was short, devoid of orotund prose, and featured a simple, straightforward plot with an emphasis on action over characterization and atmosphere. In this regard, 'Forsake' delivered.

The novel is set in the far future, when the Galactic Dominion is in rapid decline and as a result, communication between member planets is atrophying. As technology becomes less accessible, the planet of Octavio has regressed to a 19th century level of civilization. Firearms are in short supply, edged weapons have come into prominence, and horsepower has supplanted the gasoline engine. What little interplanetary commerce still taking place within the Dominion is conducted by the Transport corporation, which seeks to co-opt - or coerce - planetary rulers into its service.

The protagonist of 'Forsake' is a young man named Frank Rovzar, whose father is the painter in the court of Duke Topo. When a palace coup engineered by the amoral Prince Costa interrupts a portrait painting session of the Duke, Frank and his father father resist the plotters, only to have the father murdered, and Frank arrested. Sentenced to a life of labor in the mines of the planet Orestes, at the spaceport, Frank makes a desperate try for freedom and succeeds. 

Frank's only option for a hiding-place from Costa, and his Transport allies, is the metropolis of Munson and its considerable Undercity, a warren of tunnels, passageways, and buildings where the alliance of the Subterranean Companions serves as the clandestine ruler.

Taken in by an Undercity aristocrat, Frank must prove his worth in a landscape of literal and figurative darkness. Schemes and intrigues abound in the torchlit corridors of the Undercity, and Frank's skill at swordplay regularly will be called upon to deter the conspirators operating against the Companions.

But as Frank and the Companions are to discover, the Transport corporation has no intention of letting the Undercity and its criminal enterprises operate with impunity. As punitive forays against the Undercity mount, Frank and is companions will have to decide if they want to risk death in a fight for freedom against the tyranny of Costa and Transport.............

'Forsake the Sky' is a traditional sci-fi adventure, with a Ruritanian flavoring derived from affectionate portrayals of swordfights, the enjoyment of fine liqueurs, pipe-smoking, gourmet meals, and conversations held in well-appointed drawing-rooms. One can see themes in this novel that author Powers later was to incorporate into such works as 'The Drawing of the Dark'. 

If you are a fan of action / adventure sci-fi, or the novels of Tim Powers, then you will find 'Forsake the Sky' a quick and easy read.

Out of Work

'Out of Work'
by Gary U.S. Bonds

It's the week of September 11, 1982, and after peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August, 'Out of Work', the single from Gary 'U.S.' Bonds, is at number 61 and on its way down the charts. 

The song, which was a track on Bonds's 1982 album On the Line, was written by Bruce Springsteen.

For me, living in upstate New York at that time and in my final year of college, the song had a real resonance (the Comments at the YouTube page for 'Out of Work' are illuminating). 

The great Recession of 1981 - 1982 was going on, and the national unemployment rate stood at nearly 11 %. While some areas of the country were prospering from 'Reaganomics', upstate New York and the wider Rust Belt were in pretty bad shape. Factories were closing and the blue collar jobs, that had allowed anyone with a high school diploma and a decent work ethic to earn a good living, fast were evaporating.

It was plain that finding a good job in my hometown was increasingly difficult. Many of the people in my age cohort were leaving New York state for the Sun Belt and better prospects. And indeed, I was to do just that in 1984.............and I haven't lived north of the Mason Dixon line since..........

Eight a.m., I'm up and my
Feet beatin' on the sidewalk
Down at the unemployment agency
All I get's talk
I check the want ads but there
Just ain't nobody hiring
What's a man supposed to do
When he's down and

Out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work
I'm unemployed, I'm out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work

I go to pick my girl up
Her name is Linda Brown
Her dad invites me in
He tells me to sit down
The small talk that we're making
Is going pretty smooth
But then he drops a bomb
"Son, what d'ya do?"

I'm out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work
I'm unemployed, I'm out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, Mr. President
I know you got your plans
You're doing all you can now
To aid the little man
We got to do our best to
Whip that inflation down
Maybe you got a job for me
Just driving you around

These tough times, they're enough
To make a man lose his mind
(I'm out of work)
Up there you got a job but down here below

I'm out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work
I'm unemployed, I'm out of work
I need a job, I'm out of work

Ooh, I'm out of work
I'm out of work
I'm out of work
I'm out of work
I'm out of work
I'm out of work
I'm out of work

Paydirt from Creepy issue 124

'Paydirt'
by Roger McKenzie (story) and Carmine Infantino and Alfredo Alcala (art)
from Creepy issue 124, January 1981

When Carmine Infantino was summarily fired early in 1976 as the Publisher of DC comics, according to Reed Tucker's 2017 book Slugfest, more than a few people were happy to see him go: " 'Carmine was a prick', says inker Joe Rubenstein".

Infantino became a freelancer, providing art to a number of publishers, including Marvel and Warren.

In 1981 he teamed up with Alfredo Alcala for this fine treatment of a Weird Western theme.

Book Review: Shardik

Book Review: 'Shardik' by Richard Adams

2 / 5 Stars

‘Shardik’ first was published in the UK in hardback in 1974. This Avon Books paperback was released in the US in February, 1976.

By the time ‘Shardik’ hit the paperback racks, author Adams had gained fame and fortune from the success of his 1972 novel ‘Watership Down’, and it was because I found ‘Watership Down’ entertaining that back in February 1976, I purchased a copy of ‘Shardik’ despite its alarming length (620 pages). I remember getting about 75 pages into the novel before I gave it up due to profound boredom…….

In the spirit of completism, 46 years later I again took up ‘Shardik’, this time prepared for a less-than frenetic read. I was aided by the knowledge that it’s August in Central Virginia, and the crushing heat and humidity make it uncomfortable to do anything outdoors. So, listening to my central A/C blowing cool air through the HVAC vents, I settled into my armchair and opened up ‘Shardik’.

The novel is set in a Bronze Age world governed by the Beklan Empire. In the northern fringes of the Empire sits the Telthearna river, and in the middle of the river sits the island of Ortelga. 

The island and its populace are impoverished, relying for spiritual nourishment on the utterances of secretive priestesses, who in their redoubt of Quiso worship a vaguely Old Testament-style God in the hopes that the Deity will bestow, at a time of His choosing, wealth, power, and prestige to His people, the Ortelgans.  

The protagonist of ‘Shardik’ is a young hunter named Kelderek, who, if not very bright, is skilled at his craft. As the novel opens, Kelderek faces almost certain death at the hands of a leopard when a miraculous intervention, in the form of a bear some 13 feet tall, saves his life. The sight of the monstrous ursine moves Kelderek to revelation: the bear can only be the reincarnation of the Shardik of Ortelgan mythology. Shardik, God’s messenger, and a portent that the Lord’s power again will descend on his people. 

The Baron of Ortelga initially is skeptical of Kelderek’s announcement of the return of Shardik, and demands a consultation with the priestesses of Quiso. This in turn triggers momentous events that will see Kelderek rise to the heights of power in the Beklan empire. But of course, as Kelderek is to discover, some gods can be fickle, and when he finds himself fallen into degradation and despair, can Kelderek still retain his belief in Shardik as the holy messenger of God, and a comfort to those of the Elect ? 

So: this time, I finished 'Shardik'. It was not a compelling read, and took me quite some time to accomplish. The novel’s deliberate, meandering pacing reflects the narrative’s primary focus on chronicling Kelderek’s personal journey from naïve backwoods boy, to an adult man with a stark and disturbing knowledge of the world’s cruelties. This journey is accompanied by much exposition describing the psychological, emotional, and theological dilemmas confronting Kelderek. 

Plot developments (such as battles) that, in other ‘epic’ fantasy novels would receive considerable attention, are given a brief, almost perfunctory treatment in ‘Shardik’.

The last 80 pages of the novel are quite plodding, as they deal with the advent of a kind of pantheistic humanism to replace the more brutish elements of Shardik-worship among the bear’s followers. There is also a recapitulation of the mythology of the civilizing effect contact with Arab / Muslim cultures had on the ‘barbarian’ polities of medieval Europe. 

In some ways, I found Shardik to be the most interesting character in the novel. He doesn't do much but eat, sleep, shit, and occasionally run amok, but his simple nature was a welcome change from the novel's relentless emphasis on Kelderek's internal turmoils. Curiously, author Adams never reveals whether Shardik is a 'living fossil' bear who has survived from the Pleistocene era, or a 'regular' bear converted by mutation into a giant. 

I finished ‘Shardik’ with no desire to read the quasi-sequel, ‘Maia’, which was published in 1984 and clocks in at a daunting 1,223 pages. Those with the patience necessary to digest such tomes are welcome to ‘Shardik’.............. 

Book Review: Well of Shiuan

Book Review: 'Well of Shiuan' by C. J. Cherryh

2 / 5 Stars

‘Well of Shiuan’ (253 pp.) was published by DAW Books as book number 284 in April, 1978. The cover art is by Michael Whelan. This is the second volume in the so-called ‘Morgaine’ trilogy from C. J. Cherryh. The first volume in the trilogy is ‘Gate of Ivrel’ (1976), and the third, ‘Fires of Azeroth’ (1979). These three volumes are available in the DAW omnibus ‘The Morgaine Saga’ (2001).

Cherryh produced a fourth and final book in the series, ‘Exile’s Gate’, in 1988. 

 

My review of 'Gate of Ivrel is here.

 

My review of 'Fires of Azeroth' is here.

As ‘Well of Shiuan’ opens, our hero Morgaine, and her dutiful servant and man-at-arms Vanye, have traveled through a star gate from the world of Andur-Kursh, the setting of ‘Gate of Ivrel’, to the world of Shiuan. There, Morgaine aims to make her way north, to the star gate located near the eponymous Well, in the hopes of destroying the gate and thus preventing the villainous Roh from manipulating said gate for his own purposes.

Entropy was a very fashionable theme in sci-fi published during the New Wave era, and in ‘Well’, author Cherryh suffuses her setting with plenty of entropy. 

There is much exposition on the entropic state of life in Shiuan. The land is beset with rising sea levels, earthquakes, and torrential rains, and its bedraggled populations of serfs, and degenerate aristocrats, are beset with apprehension. Sodden and surly in their soaked and crumbling villages and castles, they pin their hopes on a Deliverer – who just may be Morgaine - to open the gate at the Well, and allow the people to escape to a world better than Shiuan.

The problem with 'Shiuan' is that Cherryh's prose never rises to the level of that of Michael John Harrison, a master at invoking the atmosphere of entropy, as he does (for example) in this passage from his 1983 'Viriconium' novel 'The Floating Gods' :

…….Strange old towers rose from a wooded slope clasped in a curved arm of the derelict pleasure canal. About their feet clustered the peeling villas of a vanished middle class, all plaster mouldings, split steps, tottering porticos and drains smelling of cats. Ashlyme trudged up the hill. A bell clanged high up in a house; a face moved at a window. The wind whirled dust and dead leaves around him. 

 

Moreso than the other two volumes in the trilogy, ‘Well’ suffers from indolent pacing. Much of the narrative is preoccupied with documenting melodramatic exchanges between Vanye and Morgaine, and between Vanye and various residents of Shiuan. A plot device employed in all the Morgaine novels, in which the dimwitted Vanye is captured by his enemies and must use cunning and guile (related in lengthy passages of stilted dialogue) to escape and rejoin Morgaine, lends little momentum to the narrative.

Things become a bit more action-centered in the closing chapters of ‘Well’, when the interminable journeying over waterlogged terrain, through mean and miserable landscapes, comes to an end. But the fact that this is the middle volume of a trilogy means that the denouement necessarily can’t get very adventurous. 

The verdict ? ‘Well of Shiuan’ is the weakest of the three volumes of the Morgaine trilogy. It’s best approached with a large measure of patience, and the awareness that it is designed to propel, in an unambitious fashion, the narrative into the third, and final, arc of the storyline.