Sex in the Comics

'Sex in the Comics' by Maurice Horn
Chelsea House 1985

 

‘Sex in the Comics’ was published in 1985 by Chelsea House. The hardbound edition is a well-made, quality book, primarily illustrated in black and white and graytone text, with two sections of color illustrations. 

The contents might have been considered provocative and hard-core in 1985; however, by 2014 standards, this is probably an 'R' rated compendium (or perhaps a softcore 'X'). Needless to say, modern teenagers would find its contents quaint, if not mildly amusing.

Maurice Horn published a number of books throughout the 70s and 80s on various aspects of comics and graphic art, including The World Encyclopedia of Comics, Women in the Comics, Contemporary Graphic Artists, and 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics.

‘Sex in the Comics’ is an overview of this topic in both history and geography. The initial chapters look at sex in 19^th and early 20^th century newspaper strips, such as ‘Bringing Up Father’. Other chapters examine comics in the pre- and post- WWI period, as well as the advent of soap opera strips, like ‘On Stage’, which I remember reading in the pages of the the Sunday New York Daily News as a kid in the late 60s and early 70s.

For fans of sf and fantasy, the two corresponding chapters: 'Spaced Out Sex' and 'Sex and Fantasy', will be of greater interest. While inevitably dated, these chapters give a good summary of these genres as they stood in the mid-80s. 

Works by European artists, many of whom are very familiar to readers of Heavy Metal, Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella, are prominently covered in these chapters.

Other chapters cover sex in underground comix, superheroes and sex, and ‘satirical sex’, (whatever that is).

The book’s two color plate sections, one inserted mid-way in the book, and the other as part of the appendix, offer very good reproductions of selected pages and panels from both well-known and more obscure works.

The appendix, ‘A Comic View of Sex Around the World’, features a large section of excerpts from comics from the USA, Europe, South America, and Asia. Again, while dated, there is some interesting material showcased.

Fans of comics will want to pick up a copy of this book; used copies in hardback and trade paperback editions are available for reasonable prices online.

Book Review: The Cool World

Book Review: 'The Cool World' by Warren Miller

5 / 5 Stars 

Warren Miller (1921 - 1966) wrote a number of novels that were published in the late 50s and early 60s. `The Cool World' was issued in hardback by Little, Brown and Co. in 1959; the same year, this Fawcett Premier paperback (160 pp) was released.

`Cool' comes from an era before concepts like `black English', `Ebonics', `rap', `gang-banging', and `hip-hop' existed. But all were present in primordial form, awaiting the rise of the Civil Rights movement, Black Power, and the advent of the culture of the black, urban underclass as a sociocultural phenomenon.

The entire narrative is told in the first-person, and in Ebonics:

"The reason summer time such a gas an a fake is because it come on like it gonna last for ever but you know it aint."

Despite being white and Jewish, author Miller expertly captures the argot of the Harlem streets in the late 50s, as if he, too, lived in the stifling, garbage-strewn tenements that housed his characters. This places `Cool' on par with the depictions of black life in the cities in the 50s and 60s authored by Chester Himes, Iceberg Slim, and Donald Goines. And it also seems as if `Cool' was the direct inspiration for Frank Bonham's classic 1965 young adult novel `Durango Street'.

The plot unfolds over the summer months, as Richard `Duke' Custis, member of the Royal Crocadiles gang, prepares for a decisive rumble with the neighborhood rivals, the Wolves. The situation is critical: the Wolves have been encroaching on Crocadiles' turf, and delivering brutal beatdowns on lone Crocs.

To make matters worse, the Crocadiles' leader, Blood, is losing his edge. It's up to Duke to take control and turn the disheartened Crocs into a fighting force. Because if the Crocs can't protect their turf, Harlem will no longer be safe for Duke, or any of his friends and fellow gang members....

The book consists of short ( 3- 8 pages in length) chapters, written in a declarative and unadorned prose, with a nod to the grand tradition of realistic American fiction pioneered by Stephen Crane, James T. Farrell, Hubert Selby, and Richard Price.

Interwoven with the main plot of preparing for the decisive rumble, are sub-plots dealing with the damaged characters drawn off the streets and into Duke's orbit. These address conflicts with family who simply don't realize the necessity of being in a gang; and the (politically incorrect !) exploitation of young black men as rent boys and male prostitutes, by white homosexuals.

`The Cool World' belongs in the library of anyone who enjoys a well-written novel about the American underclass, right there on the shelves alongside `Durango Street', `Last Exit to Brooklyn', `Hell Up In Harlem', and `The Wanderers'.

May is Ghetto Action Month !

                                

That's right, folks !

I've become quite jaded from reading  so many sf novels and short story collections - particularly when so many of them are awful - that it's time for a much-needed change of pace !

During the month of May, I'll be reviewing classic Ghetto Action novels.

Pimps, teen hoods, gang-bangers, junkies, hustlers, and 'headbreakers' (cops).

None of that S. E. Hinton 'The Outsiders' shit, either. This is straight-up Ghetto Action. The kind that makes civilized people uncomfortable.

Get ready for shootings, stabbings, weed, junk, bitch-slapping, fear, and violence. 

And 7-Up and saran wrap (you'll find out what for.......and you'll be saying, what ?!  when you do !).

Stand by for Ghetto Action Month here at the PorPor Blog !

The Bus by Paul Kirchner

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: Earth Magic

Book Review: 'Earth Magic' by Alexei and Cory Panshin

1 / 5 Stars

'Earth Magic' (275 pp.) was published by Ace Books in October, 1978. The cover artwork is by Boris Vallejo.

The novel takes place in a standard-issue medieval fantasy kingdom, where the teenaged Haldane is the only son of the King of the Tribe of the Gets, and the Ruler of the Land of Nestor: Black Morca. Black Morca is not the brightest of individuals – indeed, every Get is quite stupid– but his strength and brute cunning have allowed him to enlarge the boundaries of his kingdom.

As ‘Earth’ opens, Black Morca has made an alliance with Lothar of Chastain, who arrives at Morca’s castle with his daughter, Princess Marthe, who is engaged to Haldane. The alliance is one of convenience for Black Morca, as it will enable him to focus his efforts on the conquest of adjoining lands. Neither Haldane nor Marthe are particularly enthused over their nuptials, but Haldane sees it as one small way to become closer to his indifferent, preoccupied father.

However, even as the wedding celebration takes place, discord flares. Alliances are undone, and Haldane must flee for his life from the castle of Black Morca, accompanied by the court wizard, Oliver. Overnight, Haldane goes from being the heir to the kingdom, to a hunted outcast sneaking furtively through the woodlands. 

Haldane’s sole hope for survival is to escape the boundaries of Nestor and travel to his grandfather’s kingdom of Angrim. But Haldane discovers that he must deal with another, supernatural party as he struggles to avoid capture: the Earth Goddess Libera has marked him for purposes of her own……

Like his previous novel, ‘Rite of Passage’, ‘Earth Magic’ is another novel by author Panshin (here assisted by his wife, Cory) that focuses on an adolescent’s journey to adulthood. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but ‘Earth’ is one of the worst fantasy novels I’ve ever read.

The prose style of ‘Earth Magic’ is stridently wooden and stilted, veering within the same page between a faux-‘Old Legende’ phrasing devoid of contractions and colloquialisms; to figurative phrases reminiscent of the more cumbersome types of New Wave sf writing. 

For example, when Ivor is knocked out, he simply isn’t knocked out; no, rather: Ivor went wandering in night realms.

Still other segments of the narrative clumsily mix clichéd, empty phrasing and awkward syntax:

He had let himself forget that narrow practice was his failing and practiced narrowly. He had lost himself in study, lost himself in thought and question, paused for a moment in dream while he wondered where his youth had flown and wither he was bound. To what end had he been born ? And while he was occupied so in reverie, he had lost his balance.

Oliver had tricked Oliver and received a blow from Oliver that had set Oliver down. Where was order ? His world was broken. His mind ran on its own heels in subtle circles.

The novel’s writing reaches a nadir in the last chapter, where a climactic confrontation between Haldane and his enemies is made tedious and numbing by the determined use of portentous, self-consciously ‘heroic’ prose. 

My opinion: ‘Earth Magic’ is a novel to avoid.