Heavy Metal November 1983

'Heavy Metal' magazine November 1983

November, 1983, and on MTV, in heavy rotation, is 'Say Say Say' by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.

The November issue of Heavy Metal magazine is out, with a front cover by Dave Dorman, and a back cover by De Es Schwertberger.

The contents of this month's issue are unremarkable. There are more installments of 'Odyssey', 'The Fourth Song', 'Tex Arcana', and 'Ranxerox'. 

There is an interview with Will Eisner, who also provides a brief strip of 'The Spirit'. I consider Eisner's 'Spirit' to be one of the most over-rated comics of the 20th century, and the appearance of the character in this issue of HM does nothing to persuade me otherwise.

Crepax provides a new 'Valentina' comic, but his whole '60s fashion meets fetish' approach was outdated and unoriginal even back in 1983. 

Reading this issue, the one thing that stands out is the absence of the artists that made the magazine great in its first several years of life. 

No Suydam, no Caza, no Nicollet........no Jeronaton, no Macedo, no Schuiten Brothers, no Druillet......

A halfway decent singleton comic is 'As In A Dream' by Miltos Scouras, which I've posted below.

Book Review: The Dying Earth

Book Review: 'The Dying Earth' by Jack Vance

4 / 5 Stars

This paperback edition of ‘The Dying Earth’ (which was originally published in 1950) was released by Lancer Books in 1962, and features cover artwork by Ed Emshwiller.
 
This is the first volume in what is now known as the ‘Dying Earth’ tetralogy, the other volumes being ‘The Eyes of the Overworld’ (1966), ‘Cugel’s Saga’ (1983), and ‘Rhialto the Marvellous’ (1984).

‘The Dying Earth’ is comprised of eight loosely connected stories, all set in the fantasy landscape of a far-future Earth, in which the Sun is a sullen red ball, bereft of energy. Millennia have passed since the 20th century, and much of Man’s achievements long have been buried by the passage of time. There are still sizeable cities scattered around the globe, but the lands between are  either wasteland or wilderness, inhabited by various monsters and bands of troglodytes. Whatever technology still exists is that scrabbled from the remnants of long-dead empires.

The cities are by no means entirely safe, for wizards are plentiful ,and operate outside the boundaries of what little law remains. Throughout the ‘Dying Earth’ novels, much of the action revolves around the efforts of various protagonists to free themselves from some obligation or debt made to a cunning, often pitiless wizard.

Most of the stories in ‘Dying’ range in mood and theme. The first three tales, ‘Turjan of Miir’, and continuing with ‘Mazirian the Magician’, and ‘T’Sais’, center on action and adventure, as their protagonists seek to overcome the machinations of evil magicians.

‘Liane the Wayfarer’ is an effective horror story. ‘Ulan Dhor’ and ‘Guyal of Sfere’ tend more towards a fantasy / sci-fi tenor, as these characters venture into the ruins of former civilizations possessed of wondrous technologies.

For stories first written in 1950, the entries in ‘The Dying Earth’ have a very modern prose styling, and are markedly superior to the sf of their time, which was still centered on a pulp approach to characterization and plotting. This being Vance, of course, readers will need to have Google handy to look up obscure adjectives and adverbs. However, the writing adeptly mixes descriptive passages with a concise, fast-moving sense of plotting and pace, something lacking to a large extent in modern fantasy literature. 

Copies of ‘The Dying Earth’ in good condition can be expensive; I recommend obtaining the omnibus edition, ‘Tales of the Dying Earth’ (2000), available from Orb Books; this trade paperback is affordable.

Metropolitan Opera by Caza

'Metropolitan Opera' by Caza
from the November, 1980 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Another imaginative examination of urban frustration, from the pen of Caza....

Inner Visions: The Art of Ron Walotsky

Inner Visions: The Art of Ron Walotsky

'Inner Visions: The Art of Ron Walotsky' (112 pp.) was published by UK's Paper Tiger 2000.

Ron Waltosky was a prolific illustrator of sf and fantasy paperbacks throughout the 70s and 80s. This volume provides a good overview of his works during that interval.

During the 70s, when Avon Books (USA) published many of Piers Anthony's works,  Walotsky was the cover artist, and those readers seeing the illustrations for 'Kirlian Quest' amd other works will get a shot of Instant Nostalgia.

Needless to say, Walotsky's colorful, imaginative artwork often was featured on the covers of books by other authors.

Walotsky also provided artwork for the horror genre, as in this cover for Stephen King's 'Carrie':

In addition to covers for paperbacks, Walotsky also handled commissions for posters and studio art pieces:

'Spaceman', poster for the Third Eye Company, 1971

The 1990s saw him providing cover art for sf magazines:

One of the more impressive cover paintings Walotsky did was for this 1988 sf novel:

 

 Cover painting for 'Destiny's End' by Tim Sullivan, Avon Books, 1988

As well as one of the more memorable covers ('Tightrope') for Heavy Metal magazine (the October, 1978 issue).

 

'Inner Visions', like all the Paper Tiger art books, is printed on quality paper stock and the printing of the reproductions is very good. Fans of sf and fantasy artwork will want to have a copy.

Blood on Black Satin episode two

'Blood on Black Satin' episode two
by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy
Episode Two (from Eerie #110, April 1980)

Book Review: The Machine in Shaft Ten

Book Review: 'The Machine in Shaft Ten' by M. John Harrison

 

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Machine in Shaft Ten’ (174 pp) was published in the UK by Panther Books, and features cover artwork by Chris Foss. The stories it compiles were first published in the late 60s and early 70s in New Worlds and other sf magazines.

‘Machine’ is an eclectic collection that represents some of the worst, and some of the best, New Wave sf. 

Of the twelve stories in ‘Machine’, four - The Bait Principle, The Orgasm Band, Visions of Monad, and The Bringer with the Window – are all ‘experimental’ fictions in which a series of loosely-connected vignettes are presented to the reader, charging him or her with fashioning their own narrative from the presented material. This sort of short story was prevalent in the New Wave era, and has aged badly.

The remaining stories in ‘Machine’ are, however, among the best Harrison has written and display the imagination and creativity that the New Wave movement brought to sf.

All of these, to one degree or another, are preoccupied with entropy, and while it’s true that the New Wave movement as a whole certainly was preoccupied with entropy, Harrison was one of the few authors who didn’t simply try to emulate J. G. Ballard, but instead injected his own interpretation of the idea into his fiction.

The stories in ‘Machine’ present entropy in striking visual terms: it’s always November; there are fields of corroded metal spars, abandoned buildings with walls encrusted with mold, fogs and mists concealing great heaps of disintegrating machinery, alienated characters seeking shelter in bombed-out ruins created by a war since forgotten, etc. 

Poking through these entropic visions are sharp, nasty acts of violence and cruelty.

The lead story, ‘The Machine in Shaft Ten’, deals with the discovery of a possible alien artifact churning away deep within the earth’s core. This discovery spawns a new religious cult with ambivalent implications for the fate of humankind.

‘The Lamia and Lord Chromis’ is a Viriconium story, and today, more than 40 years later, still one of the most offbeat and imaginative fantasy stories ever written. The plot is not particularly original, but the atmosphere and themes, which borrow somewhat from Jack Vance, brought a new sensibility to the genre.

‘Running Down’, about a man afflicted with entropy, was also very creative for its time, and while overly long, and tending to belabor rock climbing (Harrison’s favorite past-time), it too remains relevant as an example of sf that extends the genre.

‘Events Witnessed from a City’ is another Viriconium tale, and while it adopts the episodic nature of the ‘experimental’ pieces, it's more coherent, and delivers a uniquely downbeat ending.

In ‘London Melancholy’, a race of winged humans cautiously explore a London destroyed by a war with a race of unusual aliens. Fusing entropy with the sf trope of alien invaders, it’s one of the better New Wave stories ever written.

‘Ring of Pain’ also is set in the fog-wreathed ruins of an English city, but here, it’s a personal sort of violence visited on the survivors who crawl through the dripping ruins.

‘The Causeway’ takes place on an unnamed planet where the narrator endeavors to discover the origins and purpose of a mysterious, enormous bridge that stretches for what may be hundreds of miles across the sea. Downbeat, melancholy, and with a twist ending.

‘Coming from Behind’ is another alien invasion tale. A deserter named Prefontaine makes his way through a bleak landscape of abandoned buildings and deserted roadways, hiding from his pursuers. He discovers that his moral obligations may outweigh his interests in self-preservation. 

In summary, ‘Machine’ is well worth getting, even though almost half its contents are New Wave affectations that haven’t endured well. The remaining ‘traditional’ stories more than make up for the less-impressive entries.

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright

'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright' 

by Bryan Talbot

Dark Horse comics, 1997

The Dark Horse Comics series, March 1990 - February 1991

 Graphic novel, Dark Horse, July 1997

'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright' has a complicated history.

Throughout the 1970s, British artist Bryan Talbot contributed material to various underground comix being published in the UK, among them Brainstorm Comix.

In 1976, as Talbot recounts in his history of the Arkwright canon, in an issue of Mixed Bunch Comix (a Brainstorm imprint) he drew a seven-page strip titled 'The Papist Affair'. This represented the first appearance of the Luther Arkwright character.

'The Papist Affair' was a humor strip, and in my opinion, it was mainly intended as an opportunity for Talbot  to draw the 'Leather Nun' archetype so fondly rendered in American underground comix.

Additional episodes of what was to become 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright' ran in various short-lived, UK under- and above- ground comics in the late 70s - early 80s. 

Several trade paperback compilations of the Arkwright comics were released in the UK in the 80s, but it was not until 1987 that American indie comic publisher Valkyrie released the complete Arkwright comics as a 9-issue series.

The Valkyrie series was given an underwhelming reception in the US, an outcome that may have had something to do with the formatting of the comics; in a reaction to what he saw as the sterile, contrived nature of American comics, Talbot had drawn his Arkwright content without speech balloons, sound effects, whoosh marks, etc. 

Despite the disappointing reception of the Valkyrie imprint, Dark Horse Comics publisher Mike Richardson acquired the license to the series and decided to republish it, this time with changes to the formatting that Richardson felt would make the comic more palatable to the US readership, such as including speech balloons. 

Talbot agreed to provide all-new covers for the Dark Horse series, and each issue was to contain, in addition to the comic proper, ancillary features such as essays on the Luther Arkwright phenomenon, and previews of upcoming episodes.

Dark Horse published issue #1 in March, 1990, finishing up with issue #9 in February, 1991. In July 1997 the company released all 9 comics in a trade paperback compilation.

So.....what is 'Luther Arkwright' all about ?

The plot is heavily reliant on Michael Moorcock's 'multiverse' concept, in which what may be an infinite number of parallel worlds exist, simultaneously , alongside one another in the space-time continuum. This idea is not overly novel on Moorcock's part - in the 1950s, H. Beam Piper was among the first to make the concept an integral part of sf, and in the early 60s Keith Laumer based his 'Imperium' novels on the parallel worlds concept - but Moorcock's interpretation exerted much influence on British writers in the 60s and 70s.

The 'Arkwright' adventures take place on a number of parallel worlds, or 'paras'. These are at various stages of political and technological development. A shadowy force, composed of beings of  malevolent intent known as the 'Disruptors', seek to influence events on multiple paras. The ultimate goal of the Disruptors is unclear, but they are prepared to kill and maim in order to achieve it.

The most technologically advanced para, known as 'ZeroZero', watches events on the other paras with alarm, as the influence of the Disruptors grows.

In an effort to counter the influence of the Disruptors, ZeroZero decides to infiltrate the paras with its own agent for change: an agent named Luther Arkwright. Arkwright possesses esp and other paranormal abilities, which will serve him in good stead in his shadowy war against the Disruptors.

On one particular para, it's 1984, and in a London ruled by the descendent of Oliver Cromwell, the contest between the Disruptors and ZeroZero approaches critical mass. A rebellion by the remnants of the monarchy is about to emerge, even as the forces of Germany and Russia look on in anticipation of stepping in to subdue the exhausted victors and take Albion for their own.

All that stands between the Disruptors, and their takeover of the multiverse, is Luther Arkwright......

'Arkwright' is not the most accessible comic; as a product of the 70s, it's initial three issues are more of a display of the author's desire to showcase the experimental, avant-garde ethos of the underground comix movement than a coherent narrative. The storyline jumps about in time and space, and fails to provide the necessary exposition that might give the reader any orientation as to what is taking place.

Things improve from issue 4 on, as the central plot begins to take shape and a storyline emerges out of the confusion.

What gives 'Arkwright' its status as one of the great sf comics of the 20th century is not so much its plot - which could be classified as proto-steampunk -  as its artwork. Because the series unfolded over a protracted interval of time, Talbot had the opportunity to apply his meticulous, deliberate draftsmanship in every issue.

The result is an impressive display of black and white and graytone artwork. From page to page, panel to panel, Talbot displays his skills in chiaroscuro, pen-and-ink, ink wash, and other techniques: 

For example, the intricate Pre-Raphaelite motifs of the wallpaper behind Rose Wylde, in the panel below, showcase Talbot's attention to detail:

In the page below, the careful placement of the individual reaction shots of the characters, superimposed on the cataclysmic event taking place in the central illustration, with its penumbra rendered in staggered layers of shading, is also very well done:

This type of draftsmanship, the dedication to cross-hatching and shading, simply doesn't exist anymore in contemporary mainstream publisher comic books. And today's 'indie' comics, that have since supplanted the underground comics of the 60s and 70s, are marked by mediocre, amateurish artwork.

Summing up: if you're a fan of old school comics and graphic art, then you'll want to pick up 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright'.

But...... I suspect that anyone under 30 will find 'Arkwright' underwhelming, even over-rated. Compared to modern comics, the experimental nature of much of the Arkwright content will be a turn-off.....such as trying to read a page containing a block of stream-of-consciousness text set in 5-point font:

In 1999, Dark Horse Comics published a sequel to 'Arkwright', titled 'Heart of Empire'. 'Heart' ran to nine lengthy issues, from April 1999 - December 1999.

Printed on quality paper, with computer-generated coloring provided by Angus McKie, 'Heart' was much more user-friendly in its attitudes towards the modern comic book concept.

I recommend reading 'Luther Arkwright' prior to taking on 'Empire', as many aspects of the latter's narrative won't really make sense in the absence of familiarity with the preceding volume.

Complete sets of the Dark Horse series for 'Arkwright' and 'Empire' are available at the usual online outlets for reasonable prices, as are the two graphic novels that compile each of the series.

Talbot's online shop offers a variety of merchandise, including a CD that contains the complete 'Arkwright',  'Empire', plus a host of ancillary material, such as a commentary by Talbot, draft sketches, and essays. Talbot's shop also offers pages of original artwork, tee-shirts, and copies of his other graphic novels, such as the 'Grandville' books, 'The Tale of One Bad Rat', and 'Alice in Sunderland'.