'Father Shandor, Demon Stalker'
'City of the Tombs'
from Warrior (UK) No. 4, Summer, 1982

The fourth installment of the 'Father Shandor' strip in Warrior saw the artist duties switch from John Bolton to David Jackson. Jackson's intricate pen-and-ink work is as noteworthy as that of Bolton.

 

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

Book Review: Omnivore

Book Review: 'Omnivore' by Piers Anthony

1 / 5 Stars

Since he published his first short story in 1963, and his first novel (‘Cthon’) in 1967, Piers Anthony (the pen name of English sf author Piers Anthony Jacob) has published nearly 150 books.

Obviously, some of this massive output is going to be mediocre, even awful, while some will be highly readable and engaging.

Unfortunately, ‘Omnivore’ falls into the ‘mediocre’ category.

Omnivore was first published in 1968; this Avon paperback (221 pp) was released in October, 1978, with a fine cover illustration by Ron Walotsky.

Succeeding volumes in the ‘Of Man and Manta’ trilogy include ‘Orn’ (1970), and ‘Ox’ (1976).

The plot of Omnivore is simple and straightforward: a federal agent named Subble, possessed of superhuman physical and mental attributes, is dispatched to interview / investigate three people who have recently returned from exploring the planet Nacre. 

These three individuals are Veg, a burly, extroverted vegetarian; Cal, a sickly scientific genius who can barely walk unassisted in normal-grav worlds; and Aquilon, a stunning blonde whose beauty masks an inner psychological turmoil.

With each interview, Subble learns more about what the trio experienced on the world of Nacre, where it seems that all of the larger, sentient animals – herbivore, omnivore, and carnivore – are descended from fungi.

It turns out that the trio have smuggled juvenile Nacrean carnivores – creatures referred to as ‘mantas’ – back to Earth. Having underestimated the intelligence and physical fortitude of the mantas, the trio have unwittingly exposed their home planet to an alien life form that could change the destiny of all life on Earth….and it’s up to Subble to figure out how to avert disaster……

By the standards of late 60s sf, Omnivore is no worse, and no better, in terms of plotting than other works of the time. But the prose is poorly executed.

The author is intent on making his novel ‘deep’ and loaded with profound insights into the nature of life, evolution, and destiny – in short, Anthony intended that Omnivore, while superficially an sf novel (a genre often assumed in the late 60s to be juvenile and amateurish in nature), transcends the boundaries of simple genre fiction, to stand as a work of literature.

The truth is, Anthony couldn’t pull it off; at the time he wrote Omnivore, his skills as a writer weren’t sufficiently developed to produce the novel he intended. 

As a result, the reader must prepare for lengthy conversations taking place among the protagonists, conversations filled with empty phrases and stilted dialogue. 

He or she also must prepare for sections of text in which the narrative gets placed on hold, while the author expounds on such topics as the role of fungi in Earth’s ecology; nemativorous fungi (?!); fungi and hallucinogens (there is a bizarre LSD ‘trip’ sequence in the novel); and industrial food animal production (?!).

As I waded through ‘Omnivore’ trying to digest these pedantic episodes, the overall momentum of the narrative gradually wilted away, until by the time the denouement shuffled into view, I simply wanted to end it all..... and get my review written up.

Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to tackling ‘Orn’ and ‘Ox’.

But, mindful that Anthony could produce some worthy sf –and here the ‘Battle Circle’ trilogy comes readily to mind – maybe I’ll forge ahead.

Maybe.

Heavy Metal March 1983

'Heavy Metal' magazine, March 1983

March, 1983...... the single 'The Safety Dance', by Canadian group Men Without Hats, is released in the US, after having some degree of chart success in Canada at the end of 1982. The accompanying video , shot in the English village of West Kington, soon is in heavy rotation on MTV.

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands, with a wraparound cover by Carol Donner. The advertising gets a bit quirky, with a full-page ad from Gold Eagle Books, the publisher of 'mack Bolan' and other adventure novels. Undoubtedly, Gold Eagle was hoping to tap into the young white male market served by Heavy Metal.

The Dossier section leads off with Rok Critic Lou Stathis turning his attention to...comic books !? Fear not, Stathis's commentary is as pretentious and self-serving as for his Rock reviews. Indeed, the entire Dossier section for this issue is devoted to comics.

 Also chipping in their two cents' worth are comics creators and luminaries Walt Simonson, Byron Preiss, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Kurtzman.

One of the best features of this month's issue is a lengthy interview with underground comix legend S. Clay Wilson, responsible for such beloved characters as the Checkered Demon, Ruby the Dyke, and Star-Eyed Stella. Sadly, Wilson remains disabled and in poor health from a brain injury suffered in November, 2008.

From the interview: "The Angels were fighting in one room, while (Janis) Joplin was singing to the hippies in the other. It was like one of my drawings come to life."

Brilliant !

Among the better comic strips appearing in the March issue is the violent, satirical 'Lamar: Killer of Fools' by P. Setbon and P. Poirier.

 

Book Review: Future City

Book Review: 'Future City' edited by Roger Elwood

4 / 5 Stars

‘Future City’ was originally published in 1973; in the US, a paperback edition was published in June, 1974, by Pocket Books, with a cover illustration by Michael Gross. The UK paperback edition (236 pp) was released in 1976 by Sphere Books, with a luminous cover illustration by Angus McKie.

Roger Elwood gained some degree of notoriety as a dedicated assembler and editor of large numbers of shoddy anthologies in the 70s, clearing a path for the late Martin Greenberg to launch his own career as Mega-Editor of more than 1200 anthologies.

But ‘Future City’ is reasonably good, particularly as an example of the Eco-catastrophe and Population Bomb themes prevalent in early 70s sf.

Clifford Simak and Frederik Pohl provide the Foreward and Afterward essays, respectively.

There are a few poems included in ‘Future City’: ‘In Praise of New York’ by Thomas Disch, ‘As A Drop’ by D. M. Price, and ‘Abendlandes’ by Virginia Kidd. None of them are particularly noteworthy.

My capsule summaries of the short-story contents:

‘The Sightseer’ by Ben Bova: short-short story of modern suburbanites visiting a domed New York City for illicit thrills. Bova expanded this story into his 1976 novel ‘City of Darkness’, which in turn was the spiritual precursor to the entire ‘Escape From New York’ genre of sf.

‘Meanwhile, We Eliminate’ by Andrew J. Offutt: Offutt uses capital letters in his surname in association with this tale, a sure sign that he was not employing Speculative Fiction Pretentiousness. A good story about Future City traffic run amok.

‘Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam’ by Laurence M. Janifer: an office tower’s HVAC system develops problems.

‘Culture Lock’ by Barry M. Malzburg: A rare, coherently plotted entry from Malzburg, who usually was besotted with the figurative prose of the New Wave movement. A very effective story of a Future City in which homosexual behavior – and participation in gay orgies (!) – is mandatory. Disturbing at the time of its publication, and still disturbing today.

‘The World As Will and Wallpaper’ by R. A. Lafferty: contrived entry, featuring prose designed to mimic that of the Speculative Fiction movement’s major inspiration, Thomas Pynchon. A young man searches Future City for clues to the Meaning of Life.

‘Violation’ by William F. Nolan: moving violations on Future City’s streets.

‘City Lights, City Nights’ by K. M. O’Donnell: underwhelming tale of an arrogant young director whose low-budget film production recruits city residents.

‘The Undercity’ by Dean R. Koontz: clever tale of Wiseguys operating in Future City.

‘Apartment Hunting’ by Harvey and Audrey Bilker: nicely written tale in which a couple make a harried application for living space in the overpopulated Future City.

‘The Weariest River’ by Thomas N. Scortia: immortality loses its appeal when you live in a dystopian Future City. Not the most accessible story, but one with a gritty, proto-Cyberpunk sensibility to it.

‘Death of A City’ by Frank Herbert: two city planners have a metaphysical debate. The worst entry in the anthology.

‘Assassins of Air’ by George Zebrowski: Horatio Alger meets a polluted metropolis.

‘Getting Across’ by Robert Silverberg: reasonably entertaining novelette about a man confronting the breakdown of his section of the global mega-city. As always with Silverberg’s fiction of this period, essentially a story about Relationships, rather than a hardcore sf tale per se.

‘In Dark Places’ by Joe L. Hensley: gritty, grim tale of racial warfare in a decrepit Future City. Another of the best stories in the anthology, also exhibiting an offbeat, proto-Cyberpunk sensibility.

‘Revolution’ by Robin Schaeffer: confused allegory of robots and their human charges.

‘Chicago’ by Thomas F. Monteleone: the future metropolis is completely automated; a robot questions why.

‘The Most Primitive’ by Ray Russell: short-short tale, cleverly assembled.

‘Hindsight: 480 Seconds’ by Harlan Ellison: obligatory entry from Ellison. The last days of future city, with added pathos. Pedestrian.

‘5,000,000 AD’ by Miriam Allen deFord: mordant tale of man’s last days.

In summary, 'Future City' is one of the better Elwood anthologies, and a good snapshot of where the genre stood in in 1973 in terms of depicting future dystopias. Worth searching out.

'The Egg' (el huevo) by Marco
from Metal Hurlant No. 18 (Spanish language edition)

the awakening of the jungle

surprise....

 curiosity....

 interest....

 expectation......

horror ! it's man !

Essential Warlock
Marvel Essentials, 2012

'Essential Warlock' (576 pp.), published by Marvel in August, 2012, is a black and white compilation of the character's comic book appearances throughout the 1970s.

Warlock first appeared as a character called ‘Him’ in Fantastic Four, issues 66 – 67 (1967), and then two years later in The Mighty Thor, issues 165 – 166.

In April, 1972, Warlock appeared as a lead character in his own right, in the first issue of Marvel Premiere, Stan Lee's designated book for launching new characters.

Illustrated by Gil Kane, with scripting by Roy Thomas, Warlock was a conventional superhero whose adventures took place on 'Counter-Earth', a planet which orbited the Sun exactly opposite the Earth proper.

Counter-Earth was devoid of superheroes, save for Warlock, a plot device which gave the series’ writers some degree of scripting freedom not available in other Marvel titles.

The character drew enough reader response to result in the appearance of a dedicated series, The Power of Warlock, eight issues of which ran from August 1972 to October 1973. As well, some issues of The Incredible Hulk, from June through August 1974, took place on Counter-Earth, and involved the Warlock character.

Most of the plots for the character depicted him as an overwrought, tormented, Messianic figure who traveled in the company of bell-bottom jean-wearing teenagers who were fleeing the hypocrisy and negative karma of adult society. This was 1972, after all, and the ‘Generation Gap’ was well in place as a pop culture phenomenon.

I remember in 1972 / 1973 picking up some of these early issues of Marvel Premiere / Power of Warlock and finding them interesting, but not earth-shattering.

The last issue of Power of Warlock showed our hero departing Counter-Earth, consoling his distraught followers with a segment of Christ-like oratory. 

In February, 1975, the character was rebooted in Strange Tales No. 178, written and illustrated by Marvel’s signal new talent, Jim Starlin, who had been doing the scripts and art work on Captain Marvel.

Reader response again catalyzed a decision to produce a separate title, and Warlock No. 9 debuted in October 1975 (somewhat confusingly, it continuing the numbering system of the discontinued Power of Warlock) and ran for seven issues.

Starlin made Warlock into a ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ space traveler, beset with self-doubt and emotional angst, an approach which (perhaps deliberately) often verged on parody. 

The ‘cosmic’ scope of these adventures involved characters from Starlin’s work on Captain Marvel, including Thanos.

Starlin’s contributions to Warlock, however short-lived, remain among the best graphic work ever done in comic books. 

Starlin adopted some of the artistic stylings used in the better – quality underground comic books, such as intricate op-art background patterns, complicated shadings, and minutely detailed cross-hatchings. All of these devices were used in the underground books to make the most of the visual possibilities inherent in being printed in graytone / black and white, as opposed to relying on color.

Starlin also regularly split pages into multiple vertical panels, each crammed with detail, pieces of art that must have taken days to complete. He frequently used black and white shadowing to lend extra drama to panels, an approach widely employed by artists for the Warren magazines and underground comix, but comparatively rare and under-utilized in contemporary Marvel and DC products. 

[In a rather sly aside to the influence of the underground comix, Starlin inserts a sidekick for Warlock: a randy, scheming troll named 'Pip', who could well be The Checkered Demon's younger brother.]

Printed in this Marvel 'Essentials' volume in black and white, the detail of Starlin’s penciling is no longer obscured by the low-budget color printing processes used in comic books in the 70s. The episodes in which Starlin pays homage to the artwork of Steve Ditko, in particular, really shine.

The volume closes with some of the guest appearances of Warlock, Thanos, and Captain Marvel in titles such as Marvel Team – Up and Marvel Two-In One Annual, from the mid- to late- 70s.

The verdict ?

Even though his Warlock contributions occupy only the second half of this particular volume, fans of Jim Starlin’s work in the 70s, as well as those who appreciate great graphic art, will want to get their copy of Essential Warlock.