Moebius' Airtight Garage issue 2

The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius
by Moebius
Issue 2, August 1993
Epic Comics

issue 1 is here

Ranxerox (April - May 1984)

Ranxerox
by Liberatore
from the April and May 1984 issues of Heavy Metal magazine

This standalone Ranxerox story (not to be confused with the inaugural 'Ranxerox' story that debuted in Heavy Metal in September, 1983), which was serialized over the April and May 1984 issues of Heavy Metal, is one of the best strips ever to appear in the magazine. 

Ultraviolent, packed with satiric humor, and featuring a gang of homicidal, feral children who shoot squirtguns filled with acid (!), the plot shows a warped originality that is completely absent from modern-day comics.

Liberatore's artwork, which used Pantone markers to apply the colors, renders the seedy world of near-future Rome with the kind of prescient fidelity that is at once spot-on, but also a little disturbing......as if Liberatore had somehow traveled into the future and actually seen what the future Rome would (will ?!) look like in all its trashed, grafitti -strewn glory.............?!

Posted below in its entirety is 'Ranxerox.'

Ruby Don't Take Your Love to Town

Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town'
Live, March 2, 1972

'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town' was written by Mel Tillis. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition recorded and released the song as a single in 1969. It was a major hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

I remember hearing the song on the radio back in those days, when I was a kid. The ongoing Vietnam war gave the song an edge that makes it one of the more effective antiwar songs of the era.

As a Pop Culture Footnote, Leonard Nimoy recorded his own version (!) It's not as bad as you would think...............!

Book Review: Big Planet

Book Review: 'Big Planet' by Jack Vance

4 / 5 Stars

This paperback edition of ‘Big Planet’ (217 pp) was published by Ace Books in May 1978; the cover art is by Vincent Di Fate.

The premise is simple: a team of Federation diplomats and human rights observers are en route to Big Planet, an earth-like world settled centuries earlier. The ruler of Big Planet, a sadistic tyrant known as the Bajarnum, would prefer that the team never arrives at their destination, and  in due course, the spaceship carrying the team crash-lands in a remote province of Big Planet.

The crash survivors are led by Claude Glystra, the leader of the diplomatic team; Glystra is a resourceful man, deliberate and thoughtful in his actions. But his decision to travel 40,000 miles across the planet in order to take shelter at the Terran Enclave strikes his fellow survivors as fraught with risk. However, knowledge that the Bajarnum will seek to investigate the crash site, and imprison any survivors, moves the diplomats to ally with Glystra and undertake the journey.

Because Big Planet is devoid of metal deposits, any travel must rely on low-tech wind- or water-power, making for a long and wearying journey. And although the survivors have modern blasters in their possession, the power packs for these weapons are running low, meaning that conflicts with the bandits and marauders infesting the route must be avoided.

But failing weaponry is the least of Glystra's problems, for it emerges that at least one member of his party likely is an agent for the Bajarnum. Can Glystra identify the traitor before they deliver everyone into imprisonment or even death ?

One thing’s for sure: as the team of survivors sets out on their transit of Big Planet, all manner of perils and adventures await……..  

‘Big’ was first published in ‘Startling Stories’ in 1952, and then as a hardback novel in 1957. Despite being 65 years old, it reads as a ‘modern’ novel, something that very few sf novels of the 50s can be said to do. In many ways I found Big Planet to be the forerunner of Majipoor, the super-size Earth-like world that Robert Silverberg first introduced in his novel Lord Valentine’s Castle (1980).

Perhaps because this was originally a digest novel, Vance’s prose style is less ornate and more economical, making ‘Big’ very readable. The plot moves at a quick clip, and there are some twists and turns that make for a satisfying denouement.

Whether you’re a Vance enthusiast or someone you just likes a good adventure tale, ‘Big Planet’ is well worth picking up.

'Armies' trade paperback

Armies
trade paperback edition
by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Picaret (writers)
and Jean-Claude Gal (art)
Humanoids, July 2017

When Humanoids published the oversized hardbound edition of 'Armies' in 2013, I snapped it up. It was an outstanding book, although comparatively more expensive than most graphic novels. The hardbound edition has been out of print for some time, and copies in good condition have asking prices of $99 and up.

So it's a relief that Humanoids has just released a trade paperback version. At 7.5 x 0.5 x 10.2 inches, it's smaller than the hardbound version (9.4 x 0.7 x 12.6 inches) but it's also very reasonably priced at $19.95 (the cover price; your usual online vendors offer considerably lower prices, but make allowance for shipping and handling).

All of the contents of the hardbound edition - that is, both 'Conquering Armies' and 'Arn', as well as the Introduction by Dionnet, and the Postface by Pat Mills of 2000 AD lineage - are reproduced here. 

As with the hardbound version, the panels in 'Armies' are now rendered in color, by Dan Brown and Digikore Studios.

Looking through the pages of this trade paperback version, I again am struck by the outstanding artistry of Jean-Claude Gal. His work on 'Armies' and 'Arn' certainly qualifies as one of the highest achievements not just for albums de bande desinnee (i.e., Franco-Belgian comics), but for comics worldwide.

And Dionnet's writing complements the artwork.Spare and unobtrusive, the captions and speech balloons communicate the storyline with necessary economy. 

Summing up, you owe it to yourself to grab a copy of 'Armies'. This is a volume that belongs on the shelf of every fan of graphic art and comics.

(detail of above)