Heavy Metal magazine September 1985

'Heavy Metal' magazine September 1985

September, 1985, and in heavy rotation on the radio and on MTV is the Norwegian band A-Ha, and their hit single 'Take on Me'.........

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is out, with a striking cover illustration by Greg Hildebrandt.

Inside, the 'Dossier' section is its usual eclectic self.....and in many ways, tries too hard to be all things to all (80s) Hipsters.

The lead article is about an Austrian artist named Stefan Eins, who runs 'Fashion Moda', a South Bronx art gallery dedicated to showcasing 'street' art. Some of this art is generated by urban hipsters, while some of it - including graffiti and break dancing - is generated by local Ghetto Youth. 

Author Catherine Hazard breathlessly informs us that some of these Youth "....are familiar with guns and knives, and more than one teenager has been permanently damaged by angel dust...." 

Ah, when white Art-Farts meet black street culture......back in '85, the term 'culture vulture' didn't really exist yet, but it certainly needed to be invented.....

In other sections of the Dossier, Ed Naha reviews the horror movie Fright Night, which I never saw. I have no idea if it was good or bad. 

The Pop Culture page focuses on Garbage Pail Kids trading cards; I don't really remember collecting those.

Rok Critic Lou Stathis turns.......inevitably......to Jazz, in a two-page column titled 'Raving and Drooling Bebop Apocalypse'. 

I say inevitably, because sooner or later, the most pretentious of Rock Critics turn to Jazz and begin fawning and swooning over the genre. Sometimes this happens because there are too few obscure rock bands available for reviewing purposes; sometimes, it seems to happen as the result of some sort of intrinsic genetic trait. But here, Stathis is particularly ecstatic over the offerings of the Blue Note label, and thus cloaks himself in the status accorded those most Hip among the Hipsters...........

The remaining pages of the Dossier cover yet another hipster icon, Leonard Cohen. There is an Obituary on Theodore Sturgeon, and the Video Voyeur column looks at six low-low-budget films that I have never seen....... Feel free to Comment if you have seen Splatter University, Empty Suitcases, and Warrior of the Lost World, among others......?!

As far as the comic content and graphic works of the September issue go, among the best is a lengthy tale by Juan Giminez, titled Top Secret. Although much of his work for Heavy Metal magazine was printed in color, with this comic, Jimenez showcases his draftsmanship skills in black and white...........I have posted it below.

Book Review: Empire's Horizon

Book Review: 'Empire's Horizon' by John Brizzolara

2 / 5 Stars

‘Empire’s Horizon’ (320 pp) is DAW Book No. 791, and was published in September, 1989. The cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.

The novel is set on the planet Darkath, the most remote colony world in the Federation. As planets go, Darkath is barely a step up from Arrakis (‘Empire’s Horizon’ shows the influence of ‘Dune’). The unstable planetary geology means that there are minor earthquakes every few hours; daytime temperatures reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit; the arid climate means that stunted bushes are the only greenery; sand gets into everything; a glass of clean water is exorbitantly expensive; and the close proximity of Darkath's sun, Alaikhaj, means that exposing unprotected skin to its rays brings painful, blistering sunburns.

As ‘Empire’s Horizon’ opens, Martin Cain, a reporter, arrives aboard the once-yearly transport ship to the capital of Darkath, a rundown, squalid collection of encampments clustered around the planet’s sole spaceport. Cain has come to Darkath in the hopes of shaking off a deep depression by immersing himself in exotic, even threatening, surroundings.

He soon discovers that the relationship between the Darkani (the natives of Darkath – a desert-adapted subspecies of Homo sapiens ) – and the Colonial Administration is quite strained. A coalition of the main ethnic groups on Darkath, led by the charismatic priestess Hara, is planning an armed rebellion against the Federation authorities. The Military Governor of Darkath, a distressed, middle-aged officer named Manuel Jimenez, can ill afford to battle an uprising, as Darkath’s remoteness means that any Federation reinforcements will be a year in arriving.

Against his will, Martin Cain finds himself caught up in the coming conflict between the natives and the Federation administration. But other factors are at play in the heat-blasted deserts and titanic rock formations outside the boundaries of the city……rumors of a temple constructed from a kilometer-tall needle of rock, within which is a mystical artifact of great power; rumors about the hulks of long-abandoned spaceships buried under the sand, ships that may have been those carrying the first settlers to Darkath centuries ago; and rumors about the presence of what may be a fleet of spaceships of unknown origin, stationed off the dark side of Darkath’s moon.

For Martin Cain, uncovering the truth behind these rumors will not be easy…..but if a brutal war of liberation is to be avoided, he will have no other choice……

I had mixed feelings upon finishing ‘Empire’s Horizon’. It belongs to the sub-category of sf in which an open-minded Terran finds himself immersed in a strange and exotic alien culture, and through various circumstances, becomes the unwilling but vital mediator of conflict between Terran and Alien. This type of plot is not unusual, having been heavily mined by C. J. Cherryh, among others.

The problem with ‘Empire’s Horizon’ is that the first half of the book is quite static, as the narrative is preoccupied with world-building, including introducing the large cast of characters, and setting into motion myriad plots and sub-plots. For example, I found the lengthy sections of the narrative that are devoted to examining the existential angst that has driven Martin Cain to Darkath to be quite boring.

The requisite passages of world-building also take a toll, as the reader is introduced into the North-African-influenced culture of the Darkani; this is accomplished through laborious expositions on the ethnic rivalries, social mores, and (vaguely Islamic) religious beliefs of the native population.

The second half of the novel is more interesting, as the rebellion gets underway and the various plot threads begin to coalesce. But here the novel continues to suffer from a lack of focus; an overwrought sub-plot, involving the advent of a ‘Cosmic Awareness’ linked to Darkani religious beliefs, distracts from the main narrative, which is at heart an adventure story modeled on the 19th century colonial conflicts between Europeans and North Africans.

The verdict ? Despite being written in 1989, ‘Empire’s Horizon’ has very much the deliberate, overwritten character of those sf novels of the 1970s and early 1980s devoted to dramatizing the sociology, psychological, and political aspects of an alien culture (think, for example, of M. A. Foster’s ‘ler’ novels). If that sub-genre of sf appeals to you, then you may find ‘Empire’s Horizon’ worthwhile. Otherwise, however, this novel can be passed by.

Derelict by Paul Neary

Derelict
by Paul Neary (art) and John Thraxis (story)
from Eerie #41 (August 1972)

Paul Neary is perhaps best known for illustrating the 'Hunter' series that appeared in Eerie in the mid-70s, but he was producing some fine sci-pieces for Warren magazines well before then, as this story from 1972 shows. 

His use of Zip-A-Tone is especially noteworthy.....this is in the days before Photoshop, when you had to buy a sheet of the stuff and cut it out with an X-ACTO knife and paste it on top of your drawings....!

'Derelict' is so filled with Zip-A-Tone (practically every panel uses at least one pattern....some use three or four !) that I think it must have taken Neary weeks of careful cutting and pasting to finish its 7 pages........?!

Book Review: Lowland Rider

Book Review: 'Lowland Rider' by Chet Williamson

2 / 5 Stars

‘Lowland Rider’ (342 pp) was published in August, 1988 by Tor Books. The cover artist is uncredited.

The novel is set in the mid-80s, and features as its protagonist a young man named Jesse Gordon. Gordon earns a living in New York City as an advertising copy writer; he and his his wife Donna have an infant daughter named Jennifer. As ‘Lowland’ opens, Gordon’s comfortable life is turned upside-down by an act of extreme violence, leaving him emotionally and psychologically devastated.

Permanently afflicted by post-traumatic stress syndrome, Gordon makes a life-changing decision to live out the rest of his days Underground – in the NYC subway system. Keeping his small stash of belongings in a coin-operated locker, Gordon joins the army of the malcontent, the insane, the criminal, and the alienated who perpetually ride the trains, sleeping in their seats and staying ever-watchful of offending the patrolling Transit Police.

Gordon soon adapts to his new life as an outcast, scavenging for food from dumpsters and wastebins, taking makeshift showers at public restrooms, and becoming ‘invisible’ to the notice of the everyday commuters.

Gordon discovers that there is someone else living in the network of tunnels and cul-de-sacs and abandoned utility rooms.....a man named Enoch, a man strangely garbed in glowing white clothes, a man who haunts the labyrinth of abandoned corridors and utility rooms of the New York City subway system. To Gordon, Enoch is a figure of evil; he has seen Enoch hunched and whispering over the dying victims of subway car muggings. Enoch, it appears, is the instigator of the ever-present mayhem committed on the subway cars.

His meetings with Enoch disturb Gordon, but at the same time, they impel him to break free of his consuming self-pity, and take action against the drug dealers who covertly rule the subway system. Together with Rags, an experienced ‘mole man’ of the subways, Gordon embarks on a careful campaign to foil Bob Montcalm.....a crooked cop, and the leader of the drug ring.

This action is not without its risks, however, for while Gordon’s decision to become a vigilante may give his life new meaning, it comes with its own risks. For Bob Montcalm, and the corrupt cops and lowlife dealers in his employ, have no scruples about wasting yet another vagrant…….

While the cover of ‘Lowland Rider’ gives the impression that this is a horror novel, in reality, it primarily is a crime novel, one with some vague supernatural overtones. 

Most of the first half of the novel is preoccupied with documenting Jesse Gordon’s psychological turmoil and existential angst, in often overwrought prose; this, not surprisingly, makes the book a boring read. At its mid-point the novel does start to generate some momentum, as Gordon begins his campaign against the drug gang; these are ruthless adversaries, and there is some suspense as the clashes unfold.

Unfortunately, when in the latter chapters author Williamson turns at last to the mystery of Enoch and the novel’s tacked-on horror element, the plot becomes quite contrived, and the Final Revelation about Enoch’s existence is poorly composed..... and quite unconvincing.

Summing up, ‘Lowland Rider’ is modestly successful as a sort of 80s 'vigilante' genre novel; as a horror novel, it’s a failure. 

I can’t recommend this one to anyone other than die-hard Williamson fans.

The Reading by Frank Brunner

The Reading
by Frank Brunner
from Alien Worlds (PC Comics) No. 9, January 1985

Some outstanding artwork from artist Frank Brunner in this Tarot-themed tale......

Book Review: Star Trek 12

Book Review: 'Star Trek 12' by James Blish and J. A. Lawrence

2 / 5 Stars

‘Star Trek 12’ (177 pp) was published by Bantam Books in November 1977; the cover artist is uncredited.

In the book’s Forward, Judith Lawrence, James Blish’s wife, notes that Blish died (of lung cancer) on July 30, 1975. At that time Star Trek 12 was almost complete; Bantam Books agreed to let Lawrence write two of the remaining entries in the book, ‘And the Children Shall Lead’, and ‘Shore Leave’.

Along with those two stories, the other stories in Star Trek 12 include ‘Patterns of Force’, ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’, and ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’.

Back in the mid-70s when I was in junior high school, I treasured collecting each and every volume of the Blish Star Trek novelizations…....but by the time ‘12’ was published, the whole exercise had begun to pall. The limitations inherent in writing stories based on teleplays for a TV series that first had aired in 1967 was becoming fast apparent, as was the realization that James Blish simply wasn’t a very good writer.

This is manifest in the stories in ‘12’ that Blish wrote. Because they are of a longer length than those featured in previous volumes (Bantam, having realized that books for Trekkies were a financial gold mine, was determined to milk as many additional volumes as they could from the original scripts), Blish was obligated to add filler passages….these are written in a stilted, awkward manner, and usually represent internal monologues on Captain Kirk’s part. Even making allowance for the fact that Blish was in poor health at the time, his handling of these stories is unimpressive.

If you are at all familiar with the five episodes represented here, you’ll quickly find that whatever drama or suspense is inherent in the original teleplays is quickly drained away by Blish’s lumbering prose style.

To her credit, Lawrence (b. 1940), who originally was a cover artist for sf books prior to becoming a writer, does a better job with her two contributions.

Summing up, any effort by any Baby Boomer to find much enjoyment in reading Star Trek 12 is probably going to lead to disappointment, however eager the Boomers may be to find nostalgia via immersion in the Good Old Days of the franchise. The talky, static nature of the teleplays -which, to be fair, was really all that could be done with a sf show filmed in the mid-60s -  simply doesn't make for engaging prose stories.

The Medusa Chain

The Medusa Chain
by Ernie Colon
DC Graphic Novel No. 3, 1984

'The Medusa Chain' (48 pp) was written and illustrated by veteran American comic artist Ernie Colon (b. 1931), and published by DC Comics as 'Graphic Novel' No. 3 in 1984.

As the novel opens main character Chon ('John') Adams, experienced pilot, is being sentenced - for the crime of conspiracy and murder - to serve six years aboard the deep space cargo transport assembly (or 'chain'), the Medusa.

The Medusa is crewed by the scum of the galaxy, including a healthy leavening of homicidal mutants who don't take kindly to the presence of Adams aboard their ship.

The Medusa's captain, Commander Kilg-9, is herself a mutant, but is too preoccupied with the covert nature of her ship's mission to spend much time disciplining the crew.

Chon Adams is no weakling, however. He's quite able to take care of himself....even when confronted with multiple opponents......

As the voyage of the Medusa progresses, Chon Adams makes a disturbing discovery ......the ship's true mission is not a simple cargo run, but something far more sinister and risky. And it doesn't help that Top Drill Sergeant Basenga and his goons want to see Adams subjected to a special kind of mutilation.......

As conditions aboard the Medusa turn from vile to suicidal, it's up to Chon Adams to come up with the sort of desperate plan that got him convicted of conspiracy and murder in the first place....but this time, the fate of the Federation itself is at stake.....

Colon's artwork for 'The Medusa Chain' is not his strongest; it has a rushed, sketchy quality.........saved to some extent by vigorous, often gory, action sequences.

But Colon's plot is what makes 'Medusa' stand out. 

Chon Adams is not your usual hero; rather, he's more of an antihero in the mold of Cody Starbuck. I won't disclose any spoilers, but I will say that Adams is happy to shift his moral stance when circumstances require that he do so. And while he is willing and able to employ violence to achieve his aims, at the same time, he adheres to his own peculiar, but steadfast, code of ethics.

"The Medusa Chain' is one of the better of the first series of DC Graphic Novels. Copies can be had for reasonable prices (i.e., under $8.00) from your usual online vendors; it's worth picking up.

Book Review: Pluribus

Book Review: 'Pluribus' by Michael Kurland

4 / 5 Stars

‘Pluribus’ (272 pp) first was published in hardback by Doubleday in 1975. This paperback version was released in January 1980 by Ace Books; the cover illustration is by Boris Vallejo.

The novel is set in California in 2080, seventy years after a bio-engineered virus known as ECHO ‘escaped’ from the lab and, in a massive plague known simply as the ‘Death’, killed 90% of the globe’s population.

While a few scattered Enclaves try to maintain a knowledge of science and technology, the majority of the US population live in small towns and villages where technology is at a 19th century level, and Christian fundamentalism is the major social and political force.

Throughout these remnants of the US, there is a disturbing swell of suspicion and resentment against the Enclaves and their inhabitants, as the fundamentalist preachers argue that the Enclaves, and Science, were responsible for the release of the Death. Conflict seems inevitable.

As ‘Pluribus’ opens, the Palisades Enclave receives some disturbing news from the colony on Mars, where technology remains intact. The ECHO virus is due to mutate, and the new strain is likely to wipe out everyone left alive.

A desperate plan is set into motion: Mars colony will send a ship carrying a seed stock of a new vaccine strain of ECHO to the space station still orbiting the Earth. There, the Martian pilot will transfer to a docked space shuttle and fly it down to the Chicago Spaceport, to deliver the seed stock into the waiting hands of a team of scientists. Then it will be up to the Enclaves across the US, to grow and distribute the vaccine before the advent of a mutant strain of ECHO dooms what remains of mankind.

As part of the efforts to prepare the Enclaves to grow the vaccine, an elderly man named Mordecai Lehrer is recruited for a vital, but secret, mission. Under the guise of being a travelling magician, he and his team of young helpers will travel from California, through the Midwest, to Chicago Spaceport, handing out instructions to Enclave representatives along the way.

Lehrer’s mission is not without danger. If the fundamentalists discover what he is doing, at the very least they surely will imprison him and his helpers…… at the worst, they are likely to execute him. But if the human race is to survive, Lehrer must succeed……..

‘Pluribus’ bases its plot on the recognizable trope of the solo (often Jewish) protagonist who, under his outward stance of deference and self-deprecation, uses his wits and guile to outmaneuver the Orthodoxy that is ruining society through its own stupidity.

What sets ‘Pluribus’ apart from other post-apocalyptic novels of its time - for example, David Brin’s ‘The Postman’ - is its underlying tone of cynicism, rather than the carefully layered note of optimistic humanism that is present in some works of the genre. In ‘Pluribus’, the efforts of the dwindling remnants of sanity and civilization are fighting what may be a losing battle against the tide of ignorance and superstition.

The verdict ? If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic sf, then it’s worth your while to obtain a copy of ‘Pluribus’.

Dominic Fortune: The Power Broker Resolution

Dominic Fortune
'The Power Broker Resolution'
from Marvel Preview Presents: Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 20, Winter 1980

Dominic Fortune was a character created by Howard Chaykin for the color comic book Marvel Preview in 1975. A second installment appeared in the short-lived comic Marvel Super Action a year later. Both stories were reprinted in graytone in issue 20 of Marvel Preview Presents: Bizarre Adventures (1980).

The character thereafter appeared on a sporadic basis in Marvel's color and black and white comics throughout the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, often with little involvement from Chaykin. A digital comic was produced in 2009. The trade paperback Dominic Fortune: It Can Happen Here and Now (2010) collects much of this newer material.

As Chaykin remarks in his Forward to the reprinting in Marvel Preview Presents, Dominic Fortune was an attempt at placing an adventure hero in a sort of Dieselpunk / Art Deco / 30s Nostalgia -type setting. 

As always, Chaykin's artwork for this comic - even allowing for the fact that the original was in color, and this is graytone -  is very good.