The Brad Johannsen Archive

 The Brad Johannsen Archive

“I knew Brad during his most artistically productive period. He lived in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn with the family of his artistic promoter, Howard Bloom. Brad arrived in New York around 1968, at about 19 years old, an already highly developed and gifted artist. I know nothing of his artistic training or background, although I know he was raised in Connecticut. He was tall with a large, blond afro. I knew psychedelic drugs fired his prolific imagination. I sense that he used the geometrically reconfigured reality of his drug experiences to create the unusual environments found in his work. If you look carefully at the faces he painted, It’s obvious he could have easily been a successful portrait artist. But that possibility apparently didn’t interest him. Brad was active mainly during the seventies, as far as I know. He died in his sixties around 2015.”

-Camille, review posted to amazon.com

 

 

My very first post here at this blog, about the artist Brad Johannsen, was in January 2015, when I provided an overview of the book 'Occupied Spaces.' Since that time I've made additional postings about Johannsen and his artwork.

As best as I can tell there is no online archive of Johannsen's works, or accounts of his life and times, so I have decided to post a 'Brad Johannsen Archive' and maintain it indefinitely. Hopefully, folks who Google Johannsen will arrive here at some point in their link-clicking, and get some information that otherwise is difficult to find.

So here's a list of links to posts (some my own, others, from various websites) about Johannsen:

1. 'Occupied Spaces' overview

 

2. 'One Fine Morning' LP cover art

 

3. 'Thoughts of Movin' On' LP cover art

 

4. Paintings by Brad Johannsen, Mark Suall collection 

 

5. Johannsen's LP cover art for the Michael Quatro band

 

6. Fonts in Use article on a paperback with Johannsen artwork

7. Fonts in Use article about Johannsen's artwork for 'Thoughts of Movin' On'

 

8. Fonts in Use article about Johannsen's artwork for 'One Fine Morning' 

 

9. Johannsen cover art for a Karl Edward Wagner audio drama CD

 

10. Johannsen promotional art for radio station WDVE

 

11. Johannsen 'October Vibes' (Far Out Company) 

 

12. Johannsen illustrations for the 1972 book 'High Tide'  

Why Men Don't Read Fiction

Today Show, November 12, 2024

An interesting segment of a recent broadcast of a Today show, where Jenna Bush Hager sits down with a group of men to ask why they don't read fiction. The segment ends on a note of advocacy, but the books handed out seemed (to me, at least) underwhelming and banal. Then again, likely it was too much to hope for that Hager would hand out some lowbrow, vintage paperbacks.......

Book Review: For Texas and Zed

Book Review: 'For Texas and Zed' by Zach Hughes

3 / 5 Stars

'For Texas and Zed' (189 pp.) was published by Popular Library in May, 1976. The artist who provided the cover illustration is not credited.

Zach Hughes was the pseudonym of the U.S. writer Hugh Zachary (1926 - 2016) who had success from the late 1960s to the 1980s in publishing short stories and novels in the genres of sci-fi and horror. My review of his 1980 novel 'Killbird' is here.

'Texas and Zed' is set in the year 2589. The thousands of inhabited planets in the galaxy are divided between the Empire and the Cassiopeian Alliance. These polities are engaged in a centuries-old Cold War, a war continuously on the precipice of turning into a galaxywide conflict of unprecedented destruction.

The planet Texas, which orbits the star Zed, is the lone independent planet, siding neither with the Empire, nor the Alliance. The inhabitants (referred to as 'Texicans') of Texas carefully shield their world from detection by the Empire, for Texas is one of the most bountiful and pleasant worlds in the known galaxy. So much so, that if the Emperor learned of its whereabouts he would seek to capture it, and add it to his collection.

As the novel opens, a Texas official, Murchison Burns, and his son Lex Burns, are negotiating with Empire bureaucrats for a trade deal involving the exchange of Texas beef for Empire metals. Being only 17 and headstrong, Lex enjoys the favors of the fetching Empire representative Lady Gwyn Ingles. Lex makes the fateful act of abducting the Lady Gwyn, intending to make her his bride, when the Burns delegation leaves Empire space to return home.

The Empire will not tolerate such a transgression and as punishment, Lex is obliged to spend two years in service aboard an Empire battle cruiser. What he learns on that duty leads him to an audacious plan: defy the Empire, and make Texas a military and economic power.

Defying the Empire is seeming folly, for it has a million ships, and tens of millions of men to man them. But even as a confrontation with the Empire looms, Lex believes that Texas can win. The Emperor, for all his military resources, is about to learn a truism: you don't mess with Texas. 

'Texas and Zed' basically is a homage to the space operas of the pulp era. It has a stripped-down prose style and breathless pacing; space battles involving thousands of ships are related in the span of a page or two. Major plot points are disposed of in a few paragraphs. Lex Burns is so indomitable and self-confident a hero that there never really is any tension or suspense generated in the narrative. The frenetic action sequences are periodically interrupted by more retrospective passages, but these seem perfunctory.

Author Hughes imbues the novel with his personal philosophy, which centers on rugged individualism and a conservative political stance. This stance is of course intrinsic to Texas (at least, outside Houston and Austin) and is both quaint and novel when contrasted with the Woke ideology that predominates in today's sci-fi publications.

Readers looking for a short and sweet space opera will likely enjoy 'For Texas and Zed,' but those interested in a more deliberate treatment of this sub-genre probably will want to look elsewhere.

The Last Temptation graphic novel

'The Last Temptation' graphic novel
Marvel / Dynamite, 1994 / 2014

'The Last Temptation' graphic novel was issued by Dynamite in 2014, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the printing of the original comic book trilogy by Marvel. It's a nice hardbound volume, printed on good quality slick paper with crisp, high-res reproductions.

The series is recolored, which in my opinion is an improvement over the original color scheme and demonstrates how much color printing technology has advanced since 1994.

original (top) and recolored (bottom) pages

Also in the graphic novel are some specially commissioned new illustrations by artist Michael Zulli, an essay and some correspondence by writer Neil Gaiman, his complete script for the series, and a representative collection of some of Zulli's original pencils.

In his essay, Gaiman describes how the project came about. He initially was recruited by Alice to provide input for a concept album, which was released in July 1994 as 'The Last Temptation'. Gaiman isn't sure who first proposed doing a comic series in conjunction with the album, but Alice was agreeable, and thus the release of issue 1 in May of that year.

Without disclosing spoilers, 'Temptation' is set in suburbia, and features as its protagonist a boy named Steven. One evening in October Steven and his friends come across a mysterious alley, and within the alley, a Showman (Cooper) who offers them seats to see a show in a nearby theatre. Only Steven is brave enough to take the Showman up on his offer. This in turn leads the Showman to haunt Steven with disturbing illusions and nightmares designed to coerce him into succumbing to........the Last Temptation.

As Gaiman makes clear in his essay about the project, he was not seeking to emulate the ornate style of his writing for the Vertigo title Sandman. Rather, 'Temptation' was intended from the start to be a straightforward narrative, one designed for an audience from Young Adults on up to Adults, and is devoid of explicit horror or violence. 

But what makes 'The Last Temptation' work is not Gaiman's script, but the art of Michael Zulli. A lot of comic book art from the early 1990s was highly stylized and slapdash, but Zulli's pencils for this trilogy show attention to detail, and deliberation in their composition. Zulli's portrayal of Alice makes the character menacing without venturing into caricature or parody:

The verdict ? Well, the accusations being made against Gaiman by five woman may color your willingness to patronize, or not patronize, one of his comic properties. That's your own decision to make.

 

Focusing on the comic in and of itself, those with a fondness for the mythology of Alice Cooper, a fondness for the better comic books of the early 1990s, and for Ray Bradbury-ish horror / supernatural stories likely will want a copy of this hardcover, 30th anniversary edition of 'The Last Temptation'. Used copies in good condition can be had for reasonable prices from your usual online retailers. 

Book Review: Black Butterflies

Book Review: 'Black Butterflies' by John Shirley

5 / 5 Stars

 

'Black Butterflies' (350 pp.) first was published in hardcover in May, 1998, by Mark Ziesing. This mass-market paperback edition was published by Leisure Books in March, 2001. The cover artist is uncredited.

While John Shirley is a founding figure in the genre of cyberpunk, he also forayed into the genres of horror and splatterpunk, with his 1982 novel 'Cellars' an early entry in the splat world. He continued to produce horror fiction, such as the novel 'Wetbones,' during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a reasonable-enough decision in light of the boom times of the Paperbacks from Hell era. 

 

Most of the stories collected in 'Butterflies' first saw publication in various 1990s Paperbacks from Hell short story anthologies, such as 'Borderlands,' 'Hotter Blood: More Tales of Erotic Horror,' and 'Forbidden Acts,' while other tales are seeing print for the first time. 

'Butterflies' is divided into two sections, 'This World,' and 'That World.' The idea is that the stories that are more grounded in the real world are presented in the former section, while more outre works are presented in the latter section.

 

Anyone sitting down with this book should realize that Shirley isn't holding back with these stories; they are undiluted splat, the literary equivalent of Shirley picking his nose and proudly displaying the bloody booger thus extracted, for the all world to see. The overwhelming majority of the characters in these stories are the most rancid collection of human beings I've ever encountered. If you are a Humanist, you will want to stay far, far away from Shirley's 'Black Butterflies.'

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Barbara (from 'Dark Love,' 1995): two gangstas find their carjacking victim has a mind of her own.

 

War and Peace (from 'Fear Itself,' 1995): misadventures of crooked cops.

 

You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did ? (from 'Forbidden Acts,' 1995): two thugz stage an orgy in a wealthy man's house; things do not end well.

 

Answering Machine (1998): a transcript of an answering machine message. The message is not particularly salutary.

 

The Rubber Smile (from 'Predators,' 1993): a homage to gorehounds, 42nd Street grindhouses, and slasher films. What more do you want ?!

 

The Footlite (1998): the characters at the eponymous dive bar demonstrate that love among the degenerate has its peculiarities. The ending is disgusting, even by splat standards............

 

Cram (from 'Wetbones,' 1997): only Shirley could meld a Mass Casualty Event with sex. Yuck !

 

What Would You Do for Love ? (1998): high school English teacher Darry is something of a square, trapped in a sinking marriage. When he meets a wild n' crazy, punk-rocker, dyed-blonde chick named Marla, things get exciting. A little too exciting, perhaps..........this is one of the less transgressive tales in 'Black Butterflies,' relying more on humor, than graphic sex and violence.

 

Delia and the Dinner Party (from 'Borderlands,' 1990): a little girl's imaginary friend shows her the true nature of the adults in her life, and the revelation isn't pretty.

 

Pearldoll (from 'Hotter Blood: More Tales of Erotic Horror,' 1991): the opening paragraph of this story had me simultaneously wincing and laughing out loud, no easy thing to do. 'Pearldoll' is about a hooker who reconnects with an old boyfriend, who 'everybody said' was dead. The denouement would've had Charles L. Grant reaching for a barf bag........... 

 

Woodgrains (from 'Obsessions,' 1991): satirical tale of an Art Fart who, seeking to revive his creative energy, opts to get some tattoos. Very unusual tattoos, as it turns out.......

 

The Exquisitely Bleeding Heads of Doktur Palmer Vreedeez (1998): dark satire about 1990s celebrities who find themselves in desperate straits.

 

Flaming Telepaths (from 'Shock Rock,' 1992): at the Black Glass rock club, a concert gets interrupted by events that are..........positively Biblical.

 

How Deep the Taste of Love (from 'Hottest Blood: The Ultimate in Erotic Horror,' 1993): newly single Sid Drexel is looking for love at Tuffys, 'The Hottest Little Singles Bar in the Bay Area.' He meets Sindra, a woman with a strange, even disturbing, allure. In due course, Sid accompanies her home for some erotic action.

Within the first three pages of this story I knew a real gross-out was in the offing, and, a little later, it indeed arrived. I will say that the theme of 'How Deep' has been done better, most notably by Bob Shaw with his 1980 story 'Love Me Tender,' which de-emphasized the gross-out in favor of tighter plotting and prose.

 

Aftertaste (from 'Bones of the Children,' 1996): there's a new brand of crack, called 'silver top,' out on the streets of West Oakland. Silver top is very potent. So potent, in fact, that anyone who ODs on it comes back to life as a flesh-eating zombie..........!

 

Shirley is in fine form with this novelette:

 

Dwayne smelled base, someone smoking somewhere. Turned and saw Joleen in the front seat of a beat-up van, her head bobbing over some guy's lap.The guy firing a blast in a broken-off stem, the glow pulsing, lighting up a little blue skull tattoo on the guy's cheek, and showing his face. He was a big, dirty, yellow-haired white guy, a biker type, with an over-grown beard and matted hair; a biker who'd had to sell his bike for crack.

 

Black Hole Sun, Won't You Come ? (1998): a fable about Primut, who intends to be the Last Man on Earth, via killing everyone else. This is the weakest entry in the anthology.

 

The verdict ? With the exception of 'Doktur Palmer Vreedeez' and 'Black Hole Sun,' the stories in this anthology are solid forays into transgressive fiction: no Quiet Horror in these pages ! 'Black Butterflies' gets a Five Star rating.

Tales of an Imperfect Future

'Tales of an Imperfect Future'

by Alfonso Font

Dark Horse Books, November 2014

 

'Tales of an Imperfect Future' (88 pp.) was published as a hardbound graphic novel by Dark Horse books in 2014.

 

Spanish artist Alfonso Font (b. 1946) is a prolific illustrator of comics in a variety of genres, for publishers throughout Europe and the USA. A number of his works have been translated into English; my review of his 1982 graphic novel 'Prisoner of the Stars' is available here.  

 

My review of the UK comic 'Black Max,' which Font illustrated, is here.

 

'Tales of an Imperfect Future' is an English-language compilation of a series of science fiction comics, titled Cuentos de un futuro imperfecto, that Font did in 1980-1981 for the Spanish comic magazine (revista) 1984. 

 

Over the years, these comics have been collected in Spanish editions:

 

The Dark Horse edition has the rather attenuated resolution of the artwork, presumably because it was scanned from archived printed pages of the comics, rather than the original artwork. That said, the panels look decent enough, and you can see where Font incorporated some Zip-A-Tone.

 

Font's artwork has a looser and less ornate style, more in line with that of Jordi Bernet, than the other Spanish artists of the 1980s, such as Esteban Maroto, Jose Gonzalez, and Julio Ribera.

The plots for the six- and eight-page stories printed in 'Tales' reflect a mordant sensibility, with surprise endings popping up in the last panel or two of each story. The characters appearing in Font's work are often hapless victims of circumstance, or mankind's talent for self-destruction.

If you're looking for science fiction comics with a Heavy Metal magazine flavor, then 'Tales of an Imperfect Future' is a good investment.

Book Review: Harvest Home

Book Review: 'Harvest Home' by Thomas Tryon

2 / 5 Stars

Harvest Home' came out in hardback in 1973, with a paperback edition (415 pp.) issued by Fawcett Crest in June, 1974. Both editions feature cover art by Paul Bacon.

I remember reading this book way back in the early 70s, as a ‘Book of the Month’ club hardbound edition with the untrimmed page edges and cheaper binding (‘special book club edition’ indicated in small italic font on the inside flap of the dust jacket). In a fit of nostalgia, 50 years later I decided to take a second look at the novel.

Thomas Tryon was one of a triumvirate of authors, such as Ira Levin (‘Rosemary’s Baby’) and William Peter Blatty (‘The Exorcist’), who were on the leading edge of the horror fiction movement back in the late 60s – early 70s. Tryon’s previous novel ‘The Other’ (1971) was made into a feature film in 1972, so he was riding considerable momentum when ‘Home’ was issued in 1973.

‘Home’ takes place in 1972 in the bucolic New England town of Cornwall Coombe. Ned Constantine, the first-person narrator, his wife Beth, and daughter Kate, have just moved to the village from New York City. Cornwall Coombe has plenty of Yankee charm, a hint of mystery, and a large cast of eccentric characters: there is a kindly Widder Woman with a ‘Foxfire’ homeliness about her; an older married couple in the house next door, who are full of facts and observations about life in the village; a scraggly but lovable peddler; Tamar, the Town Hussy; and her odd little daughter, who is gifted with prophetic and disturbing visions.

Ned discovers that much of the social and economic life of the village revolves around adherence to pastoral rituals and beliefs that are seemingly drawn from medieval England, rather than 20^th century America. While at first these beliefs seem quaint and harmless to Ned and his family, he gradually realizes that there is a dark and dangerous undertone to Cornwall Coombe’s customs. There is an encounter with what seems to be a ‘ghost’ and an eerie tableaux in the deep woods. Soon Ned is forced to a fateful decision: does he step over the line into being a participant, or does he reject the Old Ways and in so doing becomes the interloper who must be eliminated ?

The main drawback to ‘Harvest Home’ is its leisurely pacing; so leisurely, in fact, that I suspect anyone under the age of 40, raised on the more graphic horror that has defined the Paperbacks from Hell era, will find it boring. The Portents of Doom that Tryon sprinkles through the early pages of the book are too thin a gruel to nourish modern readers more used to violence and action within the first 50 pages of their novels. When the horror tones of the story do finally kick in, they are relatively weak and rely more on subtlety and atmosphere than overt gore.

In some ways I suspect the languid tenor of ‘Home’ led to Tryon’s somewhat premature eclipse in the world of horror fiction. The same year that ‘Home’ appeared on store shelves, Stephen King would publish ‘Carrie’, and then in 1975, his own Haunted Village novel, ‘Salems Lot,’ which is superior to Tryon’s works.  In the wake of the King juggernaut, the horror tales of Tryon, Blatty, and Levin came across as rather mannered and sedate.

Readers willing to indulge in a slow-paced, character-driven novel set in the early 1970s will want to give ‘Home’ a try. But anyone expecting an intense dose of horror will need to look elsewhere.