'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: The Halcyon Drift

Book Review: 'The Halcyon Drift' by Brian Stableford
(the Hooded Swan series, vol. 1)

3 / 5 Stars

Brian Stableford published the DAW  six-volume series referred to as the 'Grainger / Hooded Swan' novels from 1972 to 1975. 'The Halcyon Drift' (1972) is the first book in the series, followed by 'Rhapsody in Black' (1973), 'Promised Land' (1974), 'The Paradise Game' (1974), 'The Fenris Device' (1974), and 'Swan Song' (1975).

'Drift' is DAW Book No. 32 and features a cover illustration by Jack Gaughan.

The story opens with Grainger (he goes by only one name), the first-person protagonist and narrator, stranded on a planet in the fringes of the Halcyon Drift, an immense dark nebula. He has landed in a controlled crash that has killed his engineer. After two years of waiting and hoping, another vessel hears his distress beacon and comes to retrieve him. Grainger is eventually dropped off, penniless, on Earth. He owes his rescuers a considerable sum of money. And to make matters worse, he has apparently picked up an alien ghost or spiritual symbiont in his head, which carries on a running conversation with its human host. [Stableford provides some ambiguity about the nature of the 'alien'; it may in fact be a manifestation of schizophrenia on the part of Grainger].

When the family of his deceased engineer offers Grainger a job piloting a starship, things seem to be looking up. But it turns out this is no ordinary starship; the Hooded Swan has been designed to feature the latest advances in spaceflight technology, including a neural network interface which brings its pilot the ultimate sensory alliance with the ship's systems. Learning to fly the Swan won't be easy. 

But where his employers want Grainger to take their remarkable spacecraft is even more challenging. For floating in the depths of the Halcyon Drift is a starship called the Lost Star, and a treasure of great value is rumored to lie within its hold. The problem is, many other ships have been sent to find the Star...and none of them have come back.....

'Drift' is a low-key, literate space opera with an emphasis on the personality of Grainger, who Stableford portrays as a prickly, cynical middle-aged spacer rather than as a fresh-faced hero. The author uses quasi-New Wave prose to describe the space flight sections of the narrative, but he doesn't overindulge in language that is too oblique or overly poetic.The plot moves along at a good clip and the book's short length (175 pp) means it's a quick read, devoid of the labored detail common to many contemporary space opera novels.

Readers looking for an early 70s space adventure with sufficient New Wave flavor to make it an offbeat take on the genre will want to try 'Drift' and the other Hooded Swan books.

'Heavy Metal' magazine December 1980

‘Heavy Metal’, December 1980, features a cover illustration by Chris Achilleos titled ‘Elle’, and a back cover illustration by Alex Nino titled ‘Finally’.

There are major editorial changes announced with this issue. After only a year as Editor, Ted White is leaving, to be replaced (at least temporarily) by publisher Leonard Mogel. While White’s departure is glossed over as a decision he made to pursue a novel-writing career, it’s clear that the readership has been less than pleased with White’s introduction of columns for comics, SF, film, and ‘rok’ criticism. In a response to a reader’s letter, Mogel announces that "We found, through surveys and the like, that Heavy Metal readers prefer strip work to columns…Heavy Metal is an illustrated magazine, and prose seemed to be getting away from that concept.” 

For all the staff changes, this issue of HM is disappointing. There is a new series by Richard Corben, ‘Bloodstar’, but the dire Lupoff and Stiles strip ‘Professor Thintwhistle’ continues to appear. ‘Mary Quite Contrary’ by Ted White and Terry Lindall, is a cheesy smut piece trying to be arty. A ‘Valentina’ comic by Crepax uses blue ink on a gray background and is visually unreadable. Even the Schuiten Brothers, normally great contributors, strike out with ‘The Cutter of the Fog’, a disorganized tale that doesn’t do much other than provide some mediocre girlie art.

There are one or two worthy pieces and ‘Man’s Best Friend’, a black and white comic by Dick Matena, is one of them. I’ve posted it below.

Arthur Suydam's 'Mudwogs'

from 'Echo of Futurepast' issue 1

 

'Echo of Futurepast' was an anthology title first released in 1984 as one of the books in the Continuity Comics lineup. Continuity was an independent publisher founded by comic book legend Neal Adams. 

Unfortunately, like a lot of indie comics released in the 80s and early 90s, Continuity had continuous problems with production and financing and the 'Futurepast' series reached nine issues before being cancelled.

Among the stories appearing in issue one was a two-part, 15-page 'Mudwogs' tale by Arthur Suydam. The Mudwog character had first appeared (as best as I can tell) in the May 1981 issue of 'Heavy Metal' magazine, in the story titled ' A Mudwog Tale: the Toll Bridge'.

The eight page Mudwog story in issue one of 'Futurepast' (somewhat confusingly) appeared as three- and four- page segments in the June and November 1981 issues of Heavy Metal. For the Futurepast appearance, Suydam made changes to the content and layout of the original comics.

Suydam's Mudwog's strips are the weirdest, most warped, yet most original take on the 'funny animals' theme. There has never been anything quite like them.

I'll be posting the second part (7 pages) of the Futurepast issue 1 Mudwogs strip shortly.

Book Review: 'Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s' edited by Greg Sadowski

5 / 5 Stars

If there is one book that's a sure-fire gift for horror and pop culture enthusiasts for Christmas 2010, then it's 'Four Color Fear'. This is a thick chunk of a book (Fantagraphics Books, September 2010, 320 pp.) with great production values and it's available from amazon.com for $19.79 (not including shipping).

As editor Sadowski makes clear in his introduction, EC's books made up only around 7 % of the horror comics produced during the early 50s. Many titles of equal, or even superior, quality have tended to be overlooked amidst all the fawning devoted to the EC library. Thus, 'Four Color Fear' is a timely overview of strips from other publishers such as Comic Media, Avon, Fawcett, and Harvey (I had no idea Harvey, who published 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' and other 'kiddie' comics when I was a child in the 60s, had churned out lots of grisly horror books in the 50s).

The book contains 36 stories culled from the best efforts of the abovementioned publishers, as well as a back-of-the-book Notes section with interesting details on the writers, artists, and publishers of each story. The center section of the book contains a cover gallery printed on high-quality, slick paper.

These stories are reprinted on good-quality paper stock, and the color reproductions are very well done. I can't scan full pages without breaking the book's spine, but here are some excerpts of some pages to give an idea of the book's contents.

Here's a striking panel by Jack Cole of 'Plastic Man' fame:

The strip titled ' The Maze Master' by Lou Cameron prefigures Steve Ditko's work a decade later for 'Dr Strange':

'Corpses Coast to Coast', by the Iger Studio, has a novel take on the zombie theme:

 Some well-known comics artists are featured, including of course Basil Wolverton:

In the era well before computerized color, when comics were printed on less than stellar quality paper and considered a product for juveniles, the artwork in many of these stories is quite novel and inventive. 'Nightmare', by Harry Lazarus, demonstrates that printing comics with black borders was something done well before Marvel and DC started doing it frequently back in the 1980s:

And here's an attention-grabbing opening page from 'Amnesia' by Warren Kremer:

In summary, comic book fans will definitely want to have this book on their shelves. It's a great value for the money and editor Sadowski hints that another volume, devoted entirely to the horror comics produced by Atlas (forerunner of Marvel Comics) may be in the wings.

Book Review: Killing Ground

Book Review: 'Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War' by Bruce Powe

4 / 5 Stars

My sisters live in Buffalo, and whenever I go to visit them and we drive around the city, it’s not at all unusual to see many cars with Ontario license plates in the parking lots of the shopping centers and malls and stadiums. The cross-border visits of the Canadians, who make day or weekend trips into the city to shop and sight-see, helps keep Buffalo from sliding into even greater economic decline.

The Canadians can be distinguished from the locals by their habit of pronouncing some words in a slightly different way; ‘about’, for example, becomes ‘aboot’. The visitors from Ontario are almost always relatively affluent, polite, and well-behaved.

And they hate the French-Canadians.

Most Americans are only vaguely aware that during the late 60s and throughout the 70s there was a very real possibility that the Francophone province of Quebec would secede from Canada and form an independent nation. The vacillating Canadian government adopted a policy of appeasement, in the hope that by catering as much as possible to the political desires of the Quebec political bloc, the province could be coaxed into staying.

The moment of truth came in 1980, when Quebec held a referendum on sovereignty (i.e., independence). The referendum was defeated by 60 % of the voters, a resounding margin that sent the independence bloc into a decline from which it has never really recovered. 

By that time, however, the majority of English-speaking Canadians had come to despise the decades-long policies of pandering to the French contingent, and their resentment smolders to this day.

‘Killing Ground: The Canadian Civil War’ was published in 1968; this paperback edition (349 pp., cover artist unknown) was released in 1977. I was fortunate to pick up a copy online for around $10. Nowadays, with both the paperback and hardback editions long out of print, copies in even mediocre condition have exorbitant asking prices.

The novel is set in the future, i.e., in the early 70s, when the main character, Lt. Colonel Alex Hlynka, returns to Canada after serving on a UN Peacekeeping mission in South Africa. He is bemused to find Montreal in the grip of terror bombings carried out by militant separatists of ‘The Quebec Legion’ or PDQ. As the Canadian government dithers over how to respond to the attacks, the Army – with all of its best units on duty overseas – ponders how it will summon up the manpower to police the province of Quebec, should the need arise.

In short order, the separatist party declares independence for Quebec; riots and mob violence break out in Montreal, and government institutions are under siege. Forces of paramilitary units – ‘whiteshirts’ – take control of the government and initiate a campaign to expel English-speaking residents from Quebec. 

With the crisis mounting, Alex Hlynka is given command of a Royal Canadian Regiment and ordered into action to liberate Dorval Airport in Montreal, where thousands of desperate refugees await transport out of the province. It soon becomes clear that violence between the French Canadians and the Anglo Canadians is inevitable….and Alex Hlynka won’t be in the mood to hold back….

‘Killing Ground’ starts out slowly; the narrative doesn’t pick up speed until after the first 100 pages, but from then on until the book’s last page, the pace moves along at a good clip. Author Powe is skilled at writing blood-drenched battle scenes, and while he does tend to invest a bit too much text on extended descriptions of military matters or internal monologues on the part of Alex Hlynka, these are minor digressions and rarely sap momentum from the plot. 

The author consciously avoids providing a happy ending, preferring to end things on an ambiguous note with a plot device sure to make all Canadians uneasy.

‘Killing Ground’ is a good 70s action novel and an interesting examination of the psyche of our neighbors in the Great White North. Keep a map of eastern Canada handy – it helps to know where the various locales are – and be prepared to look up some obscure idioms and cultural references (e.g., ‘Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry’ ?).

'Blind Citadel' by Giraud

(from 'Heavy Metal' magazine, November 1980)

 

'Heirs of Earth' by Richard Corben (from 'Slow Death' No. 3, 1971)

 

Book Review: 'Steam Bird' by Hilbert Schenck

 2 / 5 Stars

Hilbert Schenck states in his Introduction to 'Steam Bird' that when he received his degree in mechanical engineering in the 1950s, his first job was on the R & D team at Pratt and Whitney, working on the design of the engines for a nuclear reactor-powered aircraft.

The US Air Force had been contemplating building such a plane since the late 1940s. The idea called for a 'small' nuclear reactor to be installed in the fuselage; hot water turned to steam via flowing into and out of the reactor would be piped to engines located in the wings, where a heat exchanger mediated the  transfer of the heat to the air, which in turn was forced through turbojets to provide thrust and propel the aircraft.

Articles on the history of the program are available here and here. Some interesting technologies were developed in the course of the R & D, including what was arguably the world's first 'mech', designed to perform maintenance on the highly radioactive components of the aircraft. A modified B-36 bomber carrying a functioning nuclear reactor actually saw significant flight time. However, the 'nuclear energy for propulsion of aircraft' (NEPA) program was shut down in March 1961 with the proposed plane still only a model on the drawing board.

In 'Steam Bird' (Tor Books, 1988, 213 pp., cover art by Vincent di Fate), Schenck posits an alternate USA where the NEPA program never got canceled and actually produced three huge atomic-powered bombers in the mid-60s. Since once the engine is activated, the bulk of the plane becomes radioactive and essentially a one-time-use piece of equipment, the aircraft are consigned to sit in hangers in an Air Force base in Moosefoot, Maine, Cold War relics too expensive to junk and too dangerous to fly.

Then, in the late 80s, a seeming move by the USSR to place long-range ballistic missiles in Nicaragua gives the Air Force an excuse to send at least one of the antique bombers, the Samuel Langley, into the air as a show of force to the Soviet government. Before President Shamus O'Connell can quite grasp what has happened, the Langley lumbers down its ten-mile runway and takes to the air. But even if the plane succeeds in frightening the Russians into withdrawing from Nicaragua, a major problem awaits: where is the plane to land ? 

The slightest slip-up, and the landing site becomes a radioactive wasteland....

'Bird' is a superficial effort at SF; the real purpose of the book is allow Schenck to write a novel about a family of eccentrics similar to that of the best-selling 1985 book 'The Beans of Egypt, Maine' by Carolyn Chute, or any one of the novels of John Irving. 

Schenck's book features a Maine family called the Muths, and most of the narrative revolves around their humorous interactions with each other, their uncle Congressman Hazelton, and President O'Connell and his aide, 'Happy Jack' Hanrahan. There are times when 'Bird' had me laughing out loud, but if you approach this book thinking it will be like a Tom Clancy novel, you're going to be disappointed.

Also included in the book is a novelette titled 'Hurricane Claude'. Claude is a monster storm bearing down on New England and threatening to cause all kind of mayhem. Techoceanics, a consortium of eccentric, visionary scientists and engineers, has a plan to dissipate the hurricane. It involves sending an aluminum speedboat into the Eye of the storm, while a prop-driven airplane circles above the Eye trailing a long line of metal cable. The idea is that by serving as anode and cathode, the ship and plane will create a column of ionized air in the center of the Eye, which will cause the Eye to collapse, and then the body of the hurricane proper.

It's a daring, even deadly, plan, but the payoff will be huge...if Techoceanics can make it happen....

'Claude' is an engaging story, in many ways a better story than 'Steam Bird', and perhaps the major reason to pick up this book up from the second-hand shelves.

'Heavy Metal' magazine November 1980

The November 1980 issue of ‘Heavy Metal’ featured a cover ('Warmth') by Hajime Sorayama and a back cover ('Number 13 at Hialeah') by Chris Achiellos.

This issue contained the usual dross (‘Changes’ by Howarth and ‘Professor Thintwhistle’ by Stiles and Lupoff),  lengthier pretentious rock criticism by Lou Stathis, but also some very good pieces by Giraud (‘Blind Citadel’), Poirier (‘The Prophet and the Dictator’), and Caza (‘Metropolitan Opera’). 

The outstanding strip for this issue was ‘Awaken’, by the British artist Martin Springett, a strip that features some of the most intricate artwork to ever appear in the early years of Heavy Metal. These were the days before user-friendly drawing and graphics software was available for PCs, so painstakingly drawing the motifs, stippling, and designs intagliated in profusion on every image in every panel must have been a herculean labor on the part of the artist.

Springett continues to be active in fantasy art and also in music; more details on his work are available at his website.