The Banana Splits Movie: review

The Banana Splits Movie: Review

3 / 5 Stars

I decided to rent The Banana Splits Movie from amazon for $2.99. It's barely 90 minutes in length, so if you don't intend to purchase the DVD, then renting is recommended.

It's scheduled to air on the Syfy Channel on October 12, if you are unwilling to rent.

The film was shot in Capetown, South Africa, which gives it a strange sort of familiar-but-foreign visual sense.

The plot isn't overly complicated: little Harley Williams loves The Banana Splits, and is thrilled when his Mom and prick Stepdad Mitch announce that his gift will be attending a taping of the show.

But even as Harley shrieks with delight along with the others in the studio audience, backstage, unfolding developments will jeopardize the lives of everyone in the building. 

Because the Splits are not happy..........and when the Splits are not happy, they like to kill people...........

The Banana Splits Movie does some things right. The seedy, rundown studio lot where the show is taped, and the visibly decayed costumes of the Splits, create a suitably creepy 'retro' vibe that tells the audience that the show is a misbegotten leftover from the early 70s.

The script provides plenty of opportunities for satire, as well as a cast of odious characters whose deaths at the hands of the manic Splits will evoke cheers and laughter.

These deaths, by the way, are quite gory - this is not a movie for kids.

Inevitably, given its low budget, the movie starts to drag by its midpoint (all of the action takes place within the same studio in the same day) and I watched it more out of a sense of duty (and to see just how many more people the Splits would gruesomely dispatch) than fervid enjoyment.

Summing up, if you're a Baby Boomer who would appreciate a mocking, postmodern sendup of a long-ago kids' TV show then The Banana Splits Movie may be worth watching. But if you're under 30, then much of the irony and facetiousness likely will come across as underwhelming.

Book Review: The Misfits

Book Review: 'The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders' by Colin Wilson

3 / 5 Stars

'The Misfits' first was published in hardback in 1988 in the UK by Grafton; this trade paperback version (271 pp), also from Grafton, was published in 1989.

Colin Wilson was always happy to use titillation to sell his books. Who can forget the immortal title: The Sex Diary of Gerard Sorme (1963) ? Or Sex and the Intelligent Teenager (1966) ? 

'The Misfits' is a nonfiction work that takes Wilson's philosophical concept of The Outsider and applies it to various historical figures, in turn using these historical figures to make observations about attitudes throughout Europe towards sex, during the interval from the 1700s to the 1970s.

But strangely, Wilson opens his book with two chapters devoted to a drag queen (?!) named Carl Harjdu (Karoly Hajdu) who regularly intruded into some intellectual circles in London in the 60s and 70s as 'Charlotte Blair'. Despite his better judgment, Wilson allowed himself to be co-opted into becoming a supporter of Hajdu / Blair. By the time 'The Misfits' was published the two had become estranged over Wilson's growing dismissal of Blair's 'science' of 'human ethology'. These opening chapters in 'The Misfits' therefore provide Wilson's rationale for rejecting Blair's eccentric notions.

Once the two initial chapters are done, Wilson begins his recounting - in successive chapters in chronological order - of the lives and times of representative Sexual Outsiders, beginning with the Marquis de Sade, followed by Lord Byron, Nikolai Gogol, Algernon Charles Swinburne, 'Walter' (the author of My Secret Life), Havelock Ellis, a somewhat obscure composer named Percy Grainger, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. Other luminaries from the worlds of literature (such as Pushkin, James Joyce, and D. H. Lawrence) are referenced.

To keep the reader's attention from wandering during these recountings, these chapters are liberally sprinkled with excerpts from all manner of pornographic works.

It quickly will become clear to the reader that the individuals profiled in 'The Misfits' aptly deserved this labeling; they all were quite nasty to their female companions, and were quick to take offense at any questioning of their innate genius. Wilson shows that these Outsiders had their own peculiar quirks and deviancies (James Joyce, for example, was erotically charged by the sight of the yellow and brown stains in his wife's underwear). 

Where 'The Misfits' fails to cohere is in Wilson's purpose in surveying the Sexual Outsider: yes, these writers, artists, poets, composers, and philosophers all were screwed up in some way or another; but what is the point of analyzing their actions ? 

Nowhere in the pages of 'The Misfits' does Wilson invoke his own philosophy of New Existentialism, nor does he ever make reference to 'Faculty X' as he does in his 1975 book The Occult: A History (1971). 

Presumably, the Misfits profiled in the book represent men who failed to recognize their innate ability to use Faculty X to free themselves from their sexual problems and self-destructive behaviors, and thus missed the opportunity to attain more fulfilling lives (and romantic relationships). But Wilson never comes out and explicitly states this, giving 'The Misfits' a rather purposeless character (aside from titillation, of course).

Summing up, 'The Misfits' contains enough Juicy Bits to reward those 99% of purchasers who picked it up in those long-ago days of the late 80s, when the internet and its vast reserves of pornography did not exist, in the hopes of gaining some measure of Stimulation. But those 1% of readers who are hoping for additional insights into Wilson's New Existentialism will find this book to be disappointing. 

The Trip poster

The Trip
film poster, 1967
from the Melts in Your Mind blog

Wisdom for the Ages

Wisdom for the Ages
from Harry Fairfax
from The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
Issue 7, November 1990, Dark Horse Comics

According to Bryan Talbot's website, a brand-new, 220-page black and white graphic novel, titled The Legend of Luther Arkwright, is scheduled for publication in 2022.

Book Review: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Book review: 'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said' by Philip K. Dick

2 / 5 Stars

'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said' first was published in 1974; this UK Granada / Panther paperback (204 pp) was published in 1976. The cover artist is Richard Clifton-Dey.

I'm going to start this review by cheerfully stating that I consider Philip K. Dick to be one of the most over-rated sf writers of the 20th century. 'Flow' does nothing to alter that judgment.

The novel is set in a dystopian USA in October, 1988. Protagonist Jason Taverner is a popular crooner whose records sell in the millions; the host of the highly-rated weekly variety program The Jason Taverner Show; the lover of the beautiful redhead Heather Hart; and a wealthy man. For Jason Taverner, life is very good indeed.

Until he wakes up in a bedroom in a seedy hotel in Los Angeles's Skid Row. With a wad of cash in his wallet........ but none of the identification cards that are necessary to function as a legitimate member of society.

Bewildered, Taverner makes phone calls to colleagues and acquaintances.......only to discover that they've never heard of him. 

Adrift in what seems to be a living nightmare, Taverner finds himself forming a precarious alliance with the fixers and document forgers who operate outside the law. But as Taverner learns more about the disturbing world in which he has found himself, a disquieting possibility arises.

Which 'reality' is 'real' ? Which reality is likely a hallucination: the reality of the Jason Taverner of fame and fortune, or reality of the Jason Taverner who is wandering Skid Row, dodging police checkpoints ?

Jason Taverner needs to find out. But can he evade General Felix Buckman of the L.A. Police Force long enough to discover the truth ?

I'm sure that someone, somewhere, at some time has rhapsodized about how 'Flow' forces the reader to confront his or her understanding of the Nature of Reality. Or something like that. 

But the 'reality' of 'Flow' is that, while the narrative is reasonably engaging, and succeeds in inducing the reader to persevere in order to learn what, exactly, has happened to Jason Taverner, the Big Explanation that serves as the denouement is too contrived, and too full of holes in its logic, to be anything other than a disappointment. 

Indeed, at times 'Flow' reads as if its main objective was to satirize the Hollywood nightclub culture of the early 70s. Jason Taverner is in fact a caricature of Dean Martin; Heather Hart, for example, is an amalgam of Joey Heatherton, Angie Dickinson, and Jill St. John. The cultural milieu within which these two operate is peopled with facsimiles of the VIPs and Beautiful People who partied with Dino, Sinatra, Hugh Hefner, and the other icons of the Playboy era whose glamour was fast fading with the advent of the 1970s. 

Underneath their boozy innuendo, wealth, and privilege, Dick signals to us, these individuals are so vacuous and self-absorbed that their lives are less 'real' than those of the outcasts struggling to survive on the mean streets of L.A.

Summing up, I can't recommend 'Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said' as a stellar example of 70s sci-fi. This one can be passed by.

Captain Marvel the Complete Collection

Captain Marvel: The Complete Collection
by Jim Starlin
Marvel Comics, 2016

I remember reading Jim Starlin's issues of Captain Marvel in 1973 and 1974. Although Starlin's run on the title was in actuality rather short, his skills in writing and art made Captain Marvel stand out from the other books in the Marvel lineup.

Much of my admiration for Starlin's work revolved around the high quality of his art. It wasn't unusual for other Marvel artists of that era, like Dean Colan, to meet their page count by taking shortcuts, but Starlin lavished care and attention on all of his efforts. This single page must have taken him several days to draw:

So it was nice to see Marvel package all of Starlin's Captain Marvel-related work in this 352-page 'Complete Collection' trade paperback. Along with comics from 1973 and 1974, it also contains the 1982 Marvel Graphic Novel The Death of Captain Marvel.

It's interesting to read these stories from the 70s and see the advent of Thanos from Iron Man No. 55 (February 1973):

As well, Starlin's introduction of the 'cosmic' aspects of Captain Marvel still has that aura that testifies to the influence of the underground comix scene:

I'm not sure how comic book fans under the age of 40 will react to this material; in some ways, the plots certainly are more approachable than much of what is featured in the current Marvel lineup. But readers familiarized with the Thanos storyline through the recent Avengers movies may find the Captain Marvel of the 70s too...........'trippy'....... to be all that endearing.

I'm guessing that Captain Marvel: The Complete Collection will appeal more to comic book fans over 50 than any other age group.

Unfortunately, if you want a 'new' quality copy of Captain Marvel: The Complete Collection you'll need to be prepared to pay at least $36 (plus shipping) at amazon. 

Some speculators at amazon are offering the book for an obscene $461. My advice ? If you're a fan of Starlin and Captain Marvel, you might want to pick this up sooner, rather than later................

Book Review: New Writings in SF2

Book Review: 'New Writings in SF 2' 
Edited by John Carnell

3 / 5 Stars

'New Writings in SF2' first was published by Dobson Books in the UK in 1964; this Bantam Books paperback edition (150 pp) was published in October 1966. Most of the stories in this anthology were published in 1964, and were written exclusively for this volume.

The eccentric cover, which would seem to be more apropos for a book on entomology, is designed to signal that this is New Wave SF. So how well does 'SF2' reflect the New Wave ethos ? 

Reasonably well, in my opinion. My capsule reviews of the contents are as follows:

Foreward, by John Carnell: Carnell takes pains here to remark that he is an editor of 'Speculative Fiction', signalling to the world that the genre of science fiction has achieved sufficient maturity to be regarded as Literature. 

Hell-Planet, by John Rankine (pseudonym of Douglas R. Mason): when a damaged Fah' een spacecraft is forced to enter Earth's orbit, the enlightened, Thoroughly Woke aliens aboard are appalled at the content of the radio and television transmissions emanating from the planet. 

This novelette is one of the better examples of an early 60s effort to imbue SF with some type of Message. In this case, there is a note of redemption at the story's conclusion.

The Night-Flame, by Colin Kapp: in a near-future UK, the international arms race comes very close to home. A downbeat, well-crafted tale from Kapp, who in my opinion was one of Britain's best SF authors throughout the 60s and 70s.

The Creators, by Joseph Green: a multiracial coalition investigates mysterious artifacts on a deserted planet. The ending is unconvincing.

Rogue Leonardo, by G. L. Lack: when robots can create legal forgeries of masterpieces by Da Vinci, what, then, is Art ? A slight tale that editor Carnell probably included because it uses SF to say Something Profound about the Human Condition.

Maiden Voyage, by John Rankine (pseudonym of Douglas R. Mason): yet another novelette from Mason, who seems to have been held in high regard by editor Carnell..........perhaps because Mason always met deadlines. Whatever. 

This story features Rankine's recurring character 'Dag' Fletcher, who is more than a little skeptical that the new spaceship Nova is all that the Space Project's bureaucrats seem to think it to be. When the eponymous voyage goes wrong, Fletcher has to mount a rescue mission on a hazardous planet. This is another of the better stories in the collection.

Odd Boy Out, by Dennis Etchison: published in 1961 in Escapade magazine ('Pleasure for Every Man !'), this was one of Etchison's first short stories to see print. It deals with a trio of young people who are obliged to do unpleasant things in order to survive. 

While the story's concept is interesting, as usual, Etchison's tangential prose style makes it a labored read. However, the ending avoids the ambiguity typical of this author's later works, so I regard 'Odd Boy Out' as a success.

The Eternal Machines, by William Spencer: on the junkyard planet of Chaos, the caretaker, a poetic introvert named Rosco, preserves Humanism in age when it has long since been forgotten.

A Round Billiard Table, by Steve Hall: a scientist has perfected a method for conferring invisibility on objects..........and  it's totally useless. Or is it ? This is the type of story that Isaac Asimov routinely published in the SF magazines of the 50s and early 60s, stories mixing an element of hard science with wry humor. With the advent of the New Wave movement, this type of story rapidly went out of style.

Summing up, ''New Writings in SF2' serves its purpose as a snapshot of how the genre stood at the beginnings of the New Wave movement. it has enough entries of quality to make it worth picking up if you should see it on the shelves of a used bookstore.

The Tower King episodes 10 - 14

The Tower King
episodes 10-14
Alan Hebden (writer)
Jose Ortiz (artist)
Eagle (UK) 1982

episodes 1 - 3 are here.
episodes 4 - 6 are here.
episodes 7 - 9 are here.

episodes 15 - 18 are here.

episodes 19 - 24 are here.

This set of episodes features post-apocalyptic Picts.....and Chieftan tanks ?!

Book Review: Zarasthor's Bane

Book Review: 'Zarsthor's Bane' by Andre Norton

2 / 5 Stars

'Zarsthor's Bane' (204 pp) was published by Ace Books in November 1978; this third printing was issued in July 1983. The cover art is by John Pound.

'Bane' is a 'Witchworld' novel. The heroine, a young woman named Brixia, is an outcast from a noble family, roaming the wastes of High Halleck as an outcast in the aftermath of the ruinous wars that have collapsed human society. She is accompanied by a cat named Uta.

Brixia meets up with a boy named Dwed, who is a squire to a warrior named Marbon. Marbon has suffered a serious head injury, and, in his few moments of coherence, is prone to spouting poetry about a long-ago Bane that brought ruin to a vast tract of Witchworld.

Despite her misgivings, Brixia decides to accompany Dew and Marbon in their quest into the depths of the wasteland. This entails confrontations with the remnants of Evil Powers still at loose in the High Halleck. Will the foursome - squire, warrior, cat, and wanderer - be able to overcome the malevolent forces gathering around them ? Or will the Bane triumph and leave the foursome prisoners in the Hell of the Bane's making ?

I picked up 'Zarasthor's Bane' expecting a 'typical' Witchworld novel; that is, one tailored for a Young Adult readership; bloodless; long on phantasmagorical sequences; overly reliant on stilted dialogue; a denouement that involves a young woman's realization that, despite the seeming humbleness of her existence, she is in fact the holder of awesome psychic abilities upon which the resolution of an age-old conflict depends. 

'Bane' is certainly these things, but it also seems tired and meandering, much more so than other volumes in the Witchworld series. This may reflect the fact that at the time she wrote it, Andre Norton (i.e., Alice Mary Norton) was in declining health.

Whatever the faults are inherent in the book's prose, this illustrated edition benefits from the line artwork of Evan Ten-Broeck Steadman. These plentiful illustrations strike a skillful balance of abstract and decorative styles appropriate for presentation within the pages of a mass-market paperback book (never an easy assignment). Indeed, Steadman's art kept me turning the pages even when the narrative became too plodding to hold my interest.

The verdict ? Unless you are a fervent Witchworld fan, 'Zarasthor's Bane' will not be a rewarding read. In my opinion, the earlier novels in the series are better investments.

Race of Scorpions

Race of Scorpions
by Leo Duranona
Dark Horse comics 1990

Leo Duranona is an Argentinian artist who did work for comics from Warren, Marvel, and Dark Horse.

In 1990 he published this 48-page, full-color, owner-created comic: 'Race of Scorpions', with Dark Horse.

'Race of Scorpions' is set on a far-future Earth in the aftermath of an eco-catastrophe that has left the entire planet a desert.

A young boy named Dito, a girl named Alma, and a mysterious man known only as The Stranger find their paths intersecting when a treasure - in the form of an underground lake - is discovered. 

The trio embark on a series of adventures that pits them against Sand Pirates, an evil Emperor, and an army marching on the gates of the Golden City.

'Race of Scorpions' features some very nice artwork, in the European bande dessinee / Heavy Metal style, from Duranona. Unfortunately, the printing process and lower grade of paper used by Dark Horse back in those days gives the artwork a lower-res quality.

Duranona's script isn't exactly the easiest to follow. Some conversations clearly lost something in the translation, and the narrative suffers from too few framing passages. However, the story does come together in the end, and does about as much as any story can do within the format of a 48 page, one-shot book.

All in all, it's a nice little sci-fi comic, and if you are a fan of the European and South American artists showcased in the pages of Heavy Metal in the 70s and 80s, then it's worth picking up. Copies in good condition can be had for under $6 including shipping and handling. 

(Duranona did several follow-up volumes in this series that also can be acquired for reasonable prices.) 

UPDATE: below are some (hopefully spoiler-free) panels from Book Two of 'Race of Scorpions'.