Deathlok four issue series 1990

Deathlok

1990, Marvel Comics

I've been a fan of the Deathlok character since he first appeared in the Spring of 1974 in issue 25 of Marvel's 'Astonishing Tales.'

Deathlok was offbeat, not your usual Marvel hero. His storyline took place in a dystopian, future USA of 1990, one independent of the 'Marvel universe.' Deathlok was as much an antihero as a hero; he had no qualms about killing people, either with firearms, or via throwing a knife into their midsection:

This was transgressive stuff in '74, when the Comics Code Authority still was in power and depictions of death in comic books had to meet the CCA's standards.

 

The Deathlok franchise lasted for 12 issues of 'Astonishing Tales' before being discontinued. He popped up here and there over the next two decades, in books like 'Captain 'America' and 'Marvel Team-up.'

In the summer of 1990, with the Great Comics Boom going on, Marvel decided to reboot the character as a four-issue miniseries in 'prestige' format, meaning square-bound books, printed on a higher quality of paper that was less marred by the flexographic printing presses then in use at World Color.

 

The four issues are compiled in the graphic novel 'Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins.' 

As scripted by writers Dwayne McDuffie and Gregory Wright in issue one, the new Deathlok started out as the computer scientist Michael Collins, who worked for Cybertek Systems, a subsidiary of the malevolent Roxxon corporation. After a series of misadventures, Collins had his brain encased in the body of a cyborg designed for military operations.

 

Wresting control of the cyborg from Cybertek and its amoral CEO, Harlan Rykker, Collins at first is devastated to realize he is consigned to life in a cyborg body. Later, he decides to use his considerable powers to fight injustice and perhaps find a way to reacquire human form.

The remaining three issues in the series see Deathlok combating various adversaries in the employ of Cybertek, while working to reestablish his relationship with his wife and son, who have been told that Collins is in a coma and receiving care from the company.

While Luther Manning, the human inside the 1974 incarnation of Deathlok, was caucasian, Michael Collins was black, as were the 1990 writers McDuffie, and penciller Denys Cowan. With the launch of the Deathlok yearly series in 1991, McDuffie would work racial issues and concerns into his plots.

 

Reflecting an intention to convert the four-issue miniseries into the launcing point for a formal series, and using tie-ins with other characters for marketing purposes, this incarnation of Deathlok took place in the Marvel universe. Thus we see guest appearances by Nick Fury, and Z-list X-Man 'Sunfire.'
 

I was, and am, always happy to see the Deathlok character appearing in the Marvel publication schedule. However, the 1990 reincarnation, while it featured some great artwork by Butch Guice, was not as good as the original Deathlok. The Michael Collins character abhorred killing, and thus one of the edgier aspects of the franchise was neutered. Placing the new Deathlok in the present-day Marvel Universe may have been sensible from a promotion and marketing standpoint, but it removed the existential, almost nihilistic quality that made the original series memorable. 

 

If you're a Deathlok fan, the 1990 edition is worth reading, but be aware it lacks the imaginative quality of its first incarnation.

Comix: A History of Comic Books in America

Comix: A History of Comic Books in America

by Les Daniels 

Outerbridge and Dienstfrey, 1971

Les Daniels (1943 - 2011) was a U.S. writer who played an important role as a chronicler of pop culture, especially during the early 1970s, when he and authors such as Tony Goodstone (with his 1970 book 'The Pulps') were able to persuade publishers to issue books on the topic.

Daniels's 'Comix,' and in 1975, 'Living in Fear,' were touchstone treatments of prominent, fan-favorite topics, and possessed intrinsic appeal to those Baby Boomers who were edging into middle age and willing to buy books that evoked nostalgia.

Daniels parlayed his success with these nonfiction books into a productive career writing horror fiction, and, in the early 1990s, coffee-table quality hardcover books on both Marvel and DC comics.

I have vague memories of seeing 'Comix' back in the early 70s but I don't believe I sat down and read it. So recently I picked up a copy, noticing that in its presentation, the book (which is hardbound) has the quality of an 'underground' publication, obviously a conscious decision by Daniels and his collaborator, the graphic artist John Peck.

In its 198 pages, 'Comix' furnishes a chronological overview of the comic book, from its start in the late 1930s, up to the early 1970s.

It suffers from having a self-consciously 'scholarly' attitude towards the material, and the prose can be stilted. In time Daniels would adopt a more colloquial style of prose but for this book he likely was hoping to establish some credibility with the literati.

Illustrations (all in black and white) are sprinkled throughout the text, and each chapter ends with some black and white and graytone reprints of comic book stories, from publishers such as Disney, Marvel, D.C., Warren, and E.C., rendered in landscape format. There is a selection of color comics provided in the middle of the book.

 

The book's final chapter is devoted to underground comics, making clear Daniels's attitude that the undergrounds, which were flourishing the year the book was published, represented a new paradigm for the comic book, and for the role of comics not just in the counterculture, but the larger sociopolitical landscape of 20th century America. 

 

I'm guessing that the chapter on the undergrounds also allowed a sly Daniels the chance to be transgressive and naughty in terms of exposing unsuspecting kids (like I was in '71) to nudity and drug use, this being camouflaged - to the eyes of clueless librarians and parents - in a book about 'funnies' and 'kid stuff.'

Who should get a copy of 'Comix' ? Truth be told, while its treatment of the material was innovative at its time of publication, the ensuing 53 years inevitably have seen quite a few historical and critical overviews of comic books that are more informative, and serve as better references, than 'Comix.' 

Where Daniels's book retains value is in its immediacy as a snapshot of the comic book enterprise in a time and place where the medium had a level of excitement that would only grow during the rest of the decade. For Baby Boomers such as myself, if even for sentimental reasons, it's worthwhile to revisit that era in the pages of 'Comix.'

 

For another review of the book, readers are directed here.

Book Review: A Man of Double Deed

Book Review: 'A Man of Double Deed' by Leonard Daventry

2 / 5 Stars

'A Man of Double Deed' first was published in the UK in 1965. This Berkley Books edition (159 pp.) was issued in the US in December 1967, and features cover art by Richard Powers.

There are two additional novels in the so-called 'Keyman' saga; 'Reflections in a Mirage' (1969) and 'A Ticking Is in Your Head' (1969).

The novel is set in the year 2090. Following a vaguely described Atomic Disaster, the world has been remade into the sort of high-tech, futuristic landscape presented in the Magnus: Robot Fighter comic books of the sixties. Amid towering skyscrapers, the population enjoys lifespans of one hundred years, these years free of want or privation. The cities are clean and spacious, provided with pedwalks and all manner of computer-controlled interior design comforts. Robots both are plentiful and servile, and travel can be accomplished either by personal aircars or spacecraft.

As pleasant as this future world is, a worrisome phenomenon has emerged: young people are running amok, randomly committing acts of violence, including murder. The best efforts of the scientific class cannot discover a cause for this phenomenon, and the political establishment is contemplating the unthinkable; namely, the construction of a planet-based prison, called the War Section, where all evildoers are permanently to be exiled.

The protagonist of 'Double Deed' is one Claus Coman, a man gifted with telepathy. Coman is one of the so-called 'Keymen,' an alliance of telepaths who serve the world government in a clandestine role. As the novel opens, the leaders among the Keymen are convinced that the formation of the War Section is the only recourse for saving humanity. Claus Coman is to be a central operative in a scheme to convince the most influential member of the government to advocate for the War Section. Unfortunately for Coman, there are those opposed to the creation of the War Section, and they have no scruples about using deadly force to thwart any actions on his part.........

'A Man of Double Deed' is an ambitious novel that ultimately falls short in its aspirations. Author Daventry, a Britisher who in the 1960s and 1970s published several sci-fi novels, is very earnest in making the novel cerebral in nature. While this is a laudable goal, in reality, the narrative is overwritten and often tedious; nothing of moment happens until page 107, after which the novel takes on the character of a 60s spy thriller where the story beats come thick and fast. 

Much exposition is given to documenting the psychological and emotional stresses of Coman's existence as a telepath. It doesn't help matters that Coman is in a 'throuple' (the word didn't exist in 1965) with two fetching young women named Jonl and Sein. This allows the author to expound on the rewarding humanism of such an 'unconventional' social contract. This approbatory messaging can't help but drag down the thin plotting.

While 'Double Deed' deserves some kudos for trying to rise above the banal nature of much of 1960s science fiction, it fails to offer an engaging storyline, and thus I award it only a Two-Star Rating. I also don't feel a strong compunction to access the other two novels in the series.

For a more expansive review of this novel, I direct readers to the Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations blog.

National Lampoon November 1975

National Lampoon

November, 1975

November, 1975, and atop the Billboard Hot 100 are two disco songs, not at all unusual for that year, as the disco craze swept America. The Four Seasons benefit from the Nostalgia Craze and appear in the top 5 with their single 'Who Loves You,' while Elton John, a chart juggernaut during this decade, has a former number one with 'Island Girl.'

The November issue of the National Lampoon is devoted to 'Work,' and even the seemingly benevolent bakery of Sarah Lee doesn't escape satire, being depicted as a grim place where elderly women are forced into cruel labors.

The lengthiest piece in this issue is a satire of the Kelly staffing services, which, back in the 20th century, advertised itself as the go-to place for the temporary hire of young women to do routine office work. The advertisements for Kelly emphasized that the 'Kelly girl' was quite attractive and presentable; the perfect marketing tool to aim at the older men who might be interested in hiring a temp.

Leave it to the Lampoon to take aim at the Kelly girl with a portfolio of depictions of undressed, nubile young women groveling for the benefit of the male office staff. The explicit nudity in this portfolio was quite tasteless and exploitative, even by the standards of a 'humor' magazine published in 1975.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The November issue featured a bunch of comics that are printed on the 'slick' paper portion of the magazine, and include a two-pager that mocks the 'truckin' man' phenomenon. This comic is attributed to Lampoon staffer Joe Schenkman; he emulates the style of underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson, to good effect.

Shary Flenniken steps away from 'Trots and Bonnnie' to do a comic about a toilet factory (!?).

 

 

The 'Trail of Tears' comic offends those Native Americans who preferentially sought work in the field of constructing skyscrapers.

 

 

 

 

'Foto Funnies' get reworked into 'Cancer Ward,' with Lampoon contributor Chris Miller playing the role of a hapless man who gets bad news. 

A satire of a public service advertisement to 'hire the handicapped,' is cruel and offensive.

The comics printed in the back pages of the magazine, on newsgrade paper, include the particularly unpleasant 'Eating Out,' as well as the more gentle 'Mule's Diner.'

 

Let's close with an advertisement from this November issue, reminding us that 49 years ago, Pink Floyd had released their album Wish You Were Here.

And that's what you got for your dollar, back in November of '75........

Book Review: The Yngling

Book Review: 'The Yngling' by John Dalmas

2 / 5 Stars

'The Yngling' first appeared as a novelette in the October and November 1969 issues of Analog. Author Dalmas expanded the novelette into a 224-page novel, published by Pyramid Books in August, 1971. The cover art is by Jeff Jones.

'John Dalmas' was the pen name of the U.S. writer John Robert Jones, 1926 - 2017. 'The Yngling' was his first novel; during the next 40 years, he went on to published a large body of novels, mainly in the genres of space opera and military sci-fi. 

'The Yngling' is set in a post-apocalyptic Europe, some one thousand years into the future. Civilization has reverted to a medieval level, recapitulating the era of duchies, principalities, earldoms, and kingdoms. A quasi-clandestine network of telepaths (or 'psis'), known as the Inner Circle, provide counsel to the lords and serve as communications hubs.

While the nation-states of Western Europe are busy quarreling with one another, the psis have gained knowledge of an alarming development in Asia Minor. A tyrant known as Kazi the Undying has used a mixture of charisma and brutality to bring nomadic horsemen and Turkic soldiery under his rule. Kazi's army of thirty thousand well-trained and ruthless fighters is heading West, bring fear and destruction in its wake.  

Fortunately for the peoples of Western Europe, a hero, or 'Yngling' in Scandinavian society, has arisen. A physical specimen of a man named Nils Hammarson. Despite his youth, Nils has a stoic quality that, teamed with a quick intelligence, allows him to defeat all comers.

As Kazi's army draws closer to the territory of Ukraine, responsibility for leading the combined armies of Western Europe against Kazi falls on the immense shoulders of Nils Hammarson. Outnumbered, and unused to working cooperatively, the Europeans are at a distinct disadvantage. But Nils has a genius for tactics, and Kazi is going to learn that it is costly to tangle with the barbaric men from the North.....

'The Yngling' is a mediocre novel, even by the standards of sci-fi and fantasy writing of the late 1960s. This mediocrity is due mostly to the narrative, which is crammed with ad hoc plot developments. These have a perfunctory, tossed-off quality that is worsened by the fact that Nils is a superman, able to defeat anyone in armed combat; gifted with psi abilities that give him forewarning of enemy intentions; and able to heal grievous wounds simply by going into a lengthy trance state (?!). There's little suspense or tension in the narrative, when Nils can win every encounter.

The novel somewhat redeems itself in its final third, when the armies of Nils and Kazi clash in the steppes and marshes of Ukraine; these segments are well-rendered accounts of medieval warfare and the value of using good strategy to counter numerical superiority. 

'Yngling' ends in such a way as to hint at a sequel. However, Dalmas did not publish this until 1984, and 'The Homecoming.'  In 1992 Baen Books issued 'The Yngling' and 'Homecoming' as a two-volume omnibus, titled 'The Orc Wars'.

Further books in the series include 'The Yngling and the Circle of Power' (1994), and 'The Yngling in Yamato.' 

The fact that the series features four novels suggests that some must find the Yngling saga entertaining. What can I say ? I'll end with the observation that in a 2016 review posted at his blog, M. Porcius found 'The Yngling' to be just as underwhelming (if not more so) than I did. Let our critiques aid you, in any decision you make to sit down with something from the Yngling saga........