The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi

'The Arctic Marauder' by Jacques Tardi

 

'The Arctic Marauder', released by Fantagraphics in 2011, is the English translation of Jacques Tardi's graphic novel Le Démon Des Glaces ('The Ice Demon' is a loose English translation), first published in France in 1974.

According to Brian J. Robb's overview of the genre, Steampunk: An Illustrated History, "Marauder' is one of the first, and most important, of the proto-Steampunk graphic novels.

'Marauder' is set in 1889, and the story begins with the hero, a young medical student named Jerome Plumier, aboard the steamer L'Anjou en route from Murmansk to Le Havre. The ship sails amongst a group of icebergs; it is unusual for icebergs to be so far from the Arctic.

There is astonishment on board the L' Anjou when one of the bergs is seen to have a ship perched atop its needle-like summit. Plumier joins a lifeboat expedition to the berg and joins the crew is scaling to the top of the ice, where the stranded ship, the Iceland Loafer, presents an additional surprise: the entire crew is frozen stiff at their stations....

Barely have Plumier and his companions taken in this strange and troubling sight, when disaster strikes......and Jerome Plumier finds himself involved in a dangerous adventure to discover the truth behind the mystery of the Iceland Loafer.

'The Arctic Marauder' certainly has Steampunk credentials; I won't reveal any spoilers, but the plot delves deeply into Jules Verne - style territory. The plot remains engaging, and while the revelations coming fast and furious in the latter chapters, they are not overly contrived.

Tardi's distinctive pen-and-ink draftsmanship on scratchboard is the real attraction of 'Marauder'. While his human characters are drawn in a cartoony style not unusual among European artists during the 70s, his depiction of architecture, Victorian-era machinery, and the icy landscapes of the Arctic are unusual and display an eccentric craftsmanship quite unlike anyone else in the contemporary comic art scene.

 

Practically every panel uses intricate arrays of horizontal and vertical shadings, rather than ink wash or watercolor, to lend depth and contrast to the illustrations. I find it hard to believe that Tardi hand-drew all of these striations by meticulously scoring his scratchboard with a needle or scalpel.........

 

...........but I can't figure out any other way, especially in the era before PC-aided drawing, that he could have made them.

There is more shading and cross-hatching in a single page of 'Marauder', than there is in an entire month's worth of comics published by DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and Dynamite..... Tardi's work, when compared to the artwork in contemporary comic books, might as well be from the 19th century, so different is it in style and execution. 

It's for the artwork, and not so much its archival value, that I recommend getting a copy of 'Marauder'.

Book Review: Hiding in Hip Hop

Book Review: 'Hiding in Hip Hop' by Terrance Dean
celebrating Black History Month 2014

4 / 5 Stars

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we like to celebrate Black History Month by reading a book - fiction or non-fiction - that illuminates the Black Experience.

For Black History Month 2014, our selection is 'Hiding in Hip Hop', an autobiography by Terrance Dean. The book (305 pp.) was published in 2008 by Atria Books, a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster.

I felt a sharp pain and my body flinched.

In ‘Hiding’, Dean relates his experiences as a ‘down low’ man – the term preferred by bisexual black men who exhibit masculine behavior and dislike being labeled as 'gay'.

Dean attributes his attraction to men as the result of being molested, at the age of 13, by a neighbor in his 20s named ‘Ramone’. As he grew older, Dean dated and had sexual experiences with women, but remained attracted to men. As a college student, his first gay liaison was with a neighbor named ‘Kelvin’…..

I had never experienced such an excruciating pain in my life…..

The bulk of ‘Hiding’ deals with Dean’s experiences as a down low man in the television, feature film, and music industries in LA and New York City during the 1990s. According to Dean, in the black community, the prevailing opinion is that gays are un-natural, and homosexuality is considered a perversion. 

As a consequence, down low men were, and are, scrupulously careful about how, when, where, and with whom they confide their sexual secrets. In 'Hiding', Dean describes his introduction to the underground world of the ‘down low brothers’, where carefully screened parties allow ‘beautiful’ black men to congregate and hook up without fear of being discovered.

I stared at the ceiling praying that it would be over soon.

Much of the entertaining portions of ‘Hiding’ derive from Dean’s accounts of hookups and one-night stands with actors and rappers whose external appearance is studiously straight. It’s hard not to start laughing aloud when Dean relates an encounter with a 'thug' rapper who, even in the throes of passion, nonetheless insists that he’s a ‘real’ man and ‘not gay’ !

Interestingly, Dean states that down low men are not on very good terms with gay black men. According to Dean, too many black gays are intent on 'outing' down low brothers, framing them as hypocrites who cover up their homosexuality even while publicly disparaging or denigrating gays. 

For their part, down low men view gays as overly effeminate, and too fond of becoming emotionally unhinged. 'Twinks', in particular, are strongly disliked by down low men.

Dean is careful not to disclose the names of the down low brothers mentioned in his book, providing just enough of a hint to get the reader speculating, but never confirming, the identity of the guilty party. 

However, I suspect readers with a detailed knowledge of hip hop in the 1990s will be able to figure out 'who’s who' for some of the pseudonyms liberally sprinkled through ‘Hiding’. If you google ‘Hiding in Hip Hop + identities’ or 'Hiding in Hip Hop + guesses', you’ll get some links to websites where people make educated guesses…....and you’ll laugh even harder.

I looked around and saw other guys kissing and fondling one another….Most of them looked like L.A. thugs.
 
‘Hiding’ is not a perfect book; the narrative often jumps back and forth in time, making any effort to apply a chronology difficult. As well, Dean expends considerable page space on lengthy, angst-filled expositions about how hard life is being on the down low, living a lie, forced to hide the truth, etc., etc. These complaints have a superficial quality as it becomes clear that for Dean, being down low allows him to have cake and eat it, too.

All in all, ‘Hiding’ is an interesting, often entertaining read, and well worth picking up.

The Black Widow from Bizarre Adventures 1981

The Black Widow in 'I Got the Yo Yo, You Got the String'
by Ralph Macchio and Paul Gulacy
from Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 25, March, 1981

The March 1981, 25th issue of the Marvel / Curtis black and white comic magazine Bizarre Adventures (previously titled Marvel Preview) featured an all –female cast of 'Lethal Ladies', which included The Black Widow, 'Lady Daemon', and 'The Daughters of the Dragon'.

The Black Widow adventure, titled ‘I Got the Yo, You Got the String’, was written by Ralph Macchio. The plot, which has something to do with a double-double cross, is incoherent, but the comic features some really good artwork by Paul Gulacy, who models the Widow on Victoria Principal, who at that time in 1981 was a superstar due to her recurring role on the drama Dallas.

Gulacy also models some of the supporting characters in 'Yo Yo' on other famous actors…..and if you look carefully, he  pays homage to the op-art effects that Jim Steranko used in his 'Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD' comics from the mid-60s. 

It's all part of Gulacy's approach to illustration that makes it worth showcasing more than 30 years after it first appeared.

Moby Dick by Voss

'Moby Dick' by Al Voss
from the January, 1982 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Book Review: Rune

Book Review: 'Rune' by Christopher Fowler

4 / 5 Stars

‘Rune’ was first published in 1990; this Ballantine paperback edition (339 pp., cover artist unknown) was released in July, 1992.

Author Christopher Fowler is prolific, publishing novels and short story collections in the crime and horror / fantasy genres. Two of the supporting characters in ‘Rune’, the elderly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, went on to become lead characters in the ‘Peculiar Crimes Unit’ series of novels, the tenth of which was released in 2012.

‘Rune’ is set in London in the early 90s. It’s Spring, and the city is shrouded in chilly temperatures and continuous rain. As the novel opens an aged executive, possessed by a deep and abiding terror, is running through the city streets. After a series of mishaps with traffic and passersby, he comes to a gruesome end.

The deceased man’s son, Harry Buckingham, is an advertising executive and very much the self-assured Modern British Man. Stunned by the sudden nature of his father’s passing, Harry questions those who witnessed his father’s strange behavior during his last moments. 

It emerges that Harry’s father is one of a number of businessmen who recently have killed themselves under violent, inexplicable circumstances. There is a common link to these suicides: the victims had in their possession scraps of paper marked with an unknown script.

Aided by a punk rock girl named Grace, Harry Buckingham embarks on an investigation of the strange script. It turns out that the script is comprised of runes: a prehistoric form of writing used in pagan religious rituals. To his alarm, Harry learns that with the proper visual cues, exposure to the runes can trigger super-realistic hallucinations in susceptible viewers.

Someone is marrying runes with modern videotape and broadcasting technologies……. and for a nefarious purpose. Will Harry and Grace act in time to discover the agents behind a scheme to brainwash British society into a new state of consumer compliance ? Or will they, too, fall victim to the terrifying power of the runes ?

‘Rune’ is an entertaining combination of the corporate thriller, horror, and cyberpunk genres, leavened with a healthy dose of satiric humor. Author Fowler does a good job of giving his narrative a sense of time, place, and culture for the London of the early 90s. The subplots support, rather than leach momentum from, the main narrative, and the novel features an interesting (but manageable) cast of characters.

‘Rune’ is recommended for those who appreciate a worthy effort at introducing occult horror into a modern sensibility.