Midnight Thud

'Midnight Thud'

from Penitentiary III (1987)

Penitentiary III, released in 1987, featured one of the more unusual characters in the series.

 

'Midnight Thud' was a ferocious dwarf, used by prison boss 'Mr. Serengeti' (Anthony Geary, of 'Luke and Laura' / General Hospital renown) to attack any inmate who crossed Serengeti's ambitions. 

photo courtesy of Brady Carlson

  

At night, Thud would crawl through the ventilation ducts, and, snarling and growling, drop into a cell and gnaw off a particularly vulnerable portion of the victim's anatomy.......

 

Thud goes into action at the 14:00 mark in this YouTube posting of Penitentiary III.  

 

At the 20:00 mark, our hero Too Sweet (Leon Isaac Kennedy), has his own reckoning with Midnight Thud...... 

 

Midnight Thud was played by wrestler the 'Haiti Kid' (aka Raymond Kessler) of World Wrestling Federation fame.

'80s wrestling' Instagram

 

Does it get any better than that, for 80s pop culture ?!

Book Review: The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock

Book Review: 'The Jewel in the Skull' by Michael Moorcock

 

5 / 5 Stars

'The Jewel in the Skull' first was published in the US in 1967 by Lancer Books. Moorcock was unhappy with Lancer's editing of his novel, and thus, the 'preferred' edition of 'Jewel' is that issued by DAW Books in January, 1977 (176 pp., DAW Books No. 225, cover art by Richard Clifton-Dey).

 

This is the first volume in the so-called 'History of the Runestaff' series, with the additional volumes 'The Mad God's Amulet' (1968), 'The Sword of the Dawn' (1968), and 'The Runestaff' (1969).

Probably the best way to acquire all four Runestaff novels is with the 2013 Gollancz trade paperback omnibus, 'Hawkmoon: The History of the Runestaff.'

 

'Jewel' is set thousands of years in the future, after the Europe we know has collapsed and been replaced by myriad kingdoms and principalities, all consumed with petty wars and disagreements. Ominously, the Dark Empire of Granbretan (i.e., the UK), aided by illegitimate sciences and magicks, is encroaching into the Continent. One by one, the countries of Europe are being subdued by the ruthless Empire. 

 

The province of Kamarg, in southern France, remains aloof from the conflicts elsewhere by virtue of the formidable Count Brass, its ruler. To deter invaders, Brass has raised a line of defensive towers equipped with arcane weapons, and his infantry, although small in number, are well-trained, fierce fighters. Kamarg the strongest state in the Continent.
 

As 'Jewel' opens, Brass is warned about the designs of Granbretan by his advisor, the sage Bowgentle. Brass is unperturbed by this warning, leading Bowgentle to remark of the Granbretans: 

"Their cruelty is without precedent. They are insane. Their souls are sick with a love for all that is evil and a hatred for all that is noble." 

 

Speaking on the Dark Empire's recent conquest of the European province of Koln, Bowgentle has this to say:

 

"In Koln their sport was to crucify every girlchild in the city, make eunuchs of the boys, and have all the adults who would save their lives perform lewd displays in the streets. That is no natural cruelty, Count, and was by no means their worst. Their entertainment is to debase all humanity." 

 

(strong stuff for a fantasy novel first published in 1967 !) 

 

The prince of Koln, one Dorian Hawkmoon, led the futile defense of that state and has been captured by the malevolent Baron Meliadus. Hoping to subdue Kamarg without mounting an invasion, Meliadus offers Hawkmoon his life, provided Hawkmoon infiltrates Count Brass's court and kidnaps the Count's daughter, Yisselda. Dispirited by his defeat, Hawkmoon agrees. But the bargain includes a sinister rider: Hawkmoon has a black jewel embedded in his forehead, a jewel that allows the Baron and the Dark Empire the ability to see everything that Hawkmoon sees. Should Hawkmoon try any treachery, then the jewel will begin to eat away at his brain. 

 

Will Hawkmoon carry out the Baron's plan, and subvert the last free nation in Europe ? If Hawkmoon tries to rebel, will the jewel end his life ? Questions dark and dramatic, all to be answered before the closing sentence of the 'Jewel in the Skull'....... 

This is a very entertaining fantasy / science fantasy novel, with themes and characters that prefigure Moorcock's most well-known franchise, the 'Elric of Melnibone' franchise. 

 

Despite being published almost 60 years ago, 'Jewel' has a very 'modern' sensibility, and a prose style that is considerably more sophisticated than that being deployed in sword & sorcery titles of the same era. It's also a demonstration of Moorcock's ability to create convincing characters and world-building within a 176-page limit, a favorable accomplishment when compared with 21st-century novels (where lengths of more than 500 pages are routine for the genre). 

 

if you're a fan of sword-and-sorcery, and harder-edged fantasy novels, then 'The Jewel in the Skull' is well worth reading. 

Book Review: 'Long Train Running: Our Story of the Doobie Brothers' by Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons with Chris Epting

Book Review: 'Long Train Running: Our Story of the Doobie Brothers' by Tom Johnston and Pat Simmons with Chris Epting

5 / 5 Stars
 

'Long Train Running' (352 pp.) was published by St. Martin's Press in 2022.

 

[ As I write this in early August 2026, the Doobies still are together, and touring the nation in the Fall of 2026. This core lineup includes Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald, and Jeff McFee, but of course, you never know who just might show up for a number or two]  

 

If you're a Baby Boomer then you know about the Doobie Brothers, whose songs were ubiquitous on FM and AM radio from 1972 to 1982. 

 

[ For those under age 60, the term 'doobie' was sixties-era slang for a marijuana joint. I don't think I've heard anyone use the word 'doobie,' since I was in high school in the late 1970s.......]

 

The band was formed by San Jose residents Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Dave Shogren, and John Hartman in 1970, who consciously modeled their approach to composing on the San Francisco band Moby Grape.

 

Over the years the Doobie's lineup has undergone considerable changes (the band's Wikipedia listing of members scrolls for several pages), but Simmons always has served as the foundational member and leader of the band.

 

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before the days of the internet, the band was somewhat 'faceless' in the sense that if you didn't subscribe to Rolling Stone, Creem, or Crawdaddy, you had no real sources for up-to-date information on the status of bands, their members, and their activities. So 'Long Train' fills in a lot of gaps in my own (rather limited) knowledge about the Doobies.

 

'Long Train' is constructed around reminiscences from Johnston and Simmons, starting chronologically from their childhood days, and ending up in early 2021. Interspersed with the comments from Johnston and Simmons are contributions from other members and associates, such as producer Ted Templeman, bassist Tiran Porter, road manager and publicist Dan Fong, and vocalist and keyboard player McDonald, among others.

 

As a co-writer, Epting does a good job of keeping the narrative flowing, while allowing Johnston and Simmons to provide the sort of in-depth, first-person recollections of days and times gone by that fans of the band, and seventies music, will be interested in. Johnston and Simmons provide plentiful insights into the songwriting and recording processes that will be enlightening to Doobies fans.

 

At times Johnston and Simmons temper their observations about what likely were the more strained incidents in the band's history, but that is to be expected.......One thing the book delivers is those 'you are there' accounts of how things were in the 70s and 80s, when wine, women, drugs, and excess were commonplace amusements for rock stars. I mean, guitarist Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, in a hotel room at the Sheraton Universal in L.A. with Jaye P. Morgan, famed for her breast exposure on The Gong Show ?! Jaye now is 94 years old, but she knew how to have a good time, back in the day......

 

The book contains two lengthy sections of black-and-white and color photographs which are effective in chronicling the personnel, shows, and social interactions of the Doobies. 

 

Needless to say, as you go through the pages of 'Long Train' you'll want to have your phone or tablet at hand to look up and listen to the myriad tracks and LPs that are described in the book. 

 

For fans not just of the Doobies, but of the Seventies and Eighties rock scenes, then 'Long Train' will be an engaging read. Five of Five Stars ! 

Repost: 'Baby Come On' 

from the Sex O'Clock USA soundtrack

Fifty years ago, in 1976, this track, from the LP of the documentary film Sex O'Clock USA, entered the airwaves. 

 

No finer groove can be had, even after the passage of five decades..........

Aliens The Original Years Volume 3

Aliens: The Original Years Volume 3 (1992-1994)

Epic Collection, Marvel, 2025

So, Marvel comics, which now owns the rights to the Aliens franchise, has begun reprinting the old Dark Horse comics from the late 1980s and 1990s under Marvel's 'Epic Collection' imprint. Three Volumes, all trade paperbacks, now are out, with Volume 4 scheduled for a Fall, 2026 release.

I never was much of a fan of the Dark Horse Aliens comics from the late 1980s, so I haven't paid much attention to Volume 1 or Volume 2. But with the comics compiled in Volume 3, you have some good stuff, stuff I bought when it first came out in the early 1990s, so I sprang for Volume 3 as an alternative to digging through the boxes in my basement.

[I purchased this book from MyComicShop, an online vendor whose prices might not be the very lowest, but they don't ship plainly used copies masquerading as 'new,' and their shipping boxes and packaging always are top-quality.] 

The outstanding entry in Volume 3 undoubtedly is 'Aliens: Labyrinth,' from 1993 - 1994. Written by Jim Woodring and featuring amazing art by newcomer Kilian Plunkett, this four-issue story combined grue with intelligent plotting and dark humor to deliver what I consider the best of the Dark Horse Aliens comics. 

What's great about this Volume 3 is that includes the shorter prologue, 'Aliens: Backsplash,' that appeared in the monthly anthology 'Dark Horse Comics.' 'Backsplash' was a true mix of Aliens with splatterpunk !

Another of the better 1990s installments of the franchise, 'Aliens: Sacrifice,' is here included. Relying more on an atmosphere of creeping dread than gunslinging action, it remains one of the more memorable graphic novels of Dark Horse's early days.

The remaining contents of Volume 3 are a mixed bag. 'Aliens: Rogue,' from 1993, has a reasonably convincing storyline, but the artwork, by Will Simpson, had a sketchy quality that didn't come across all that well, particularly when it received one of the less appealing coloration schemes seen in an early-1990s era comic book. As coloring goes, it's as bad as what you'd see in a Vertigo comic from that year.

Also underwhelming is the comic book adaptation of the third film in the franchise, Alien 3. The color scheme tries to reproduce the dark palette of the film, but the state of comic book coloration wasn't up to the task, back in '93. And the artwork by Christopher Taylor, who for some reason preferred to render human heads as Cuboidal Objects. 

 

A real oddity here in Volume 3, are all 12 issues of something called 'Aliens: Space Marines.' Not to be confused with the series 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' (which is going to be reprinted in Volume 4), 'Space Marines' apparently is a minicomic that was packaged with early 1990s Kenner-brand Aliens toys (or, err, 'action figures'). I'd never heard of 'Space Marines.' The series suffers from being reproduced at its original size; keep your reading glasses handy for these comics.....

Rounding out the collection are the series 'Horror Show,' and the one-shot 'Earth Angel.' 

 

Who will want 'Aliens: The Original Years Volume 3' ? Well, with the four hardcover 'Aliens: The Original Years' omnibuses (omnibi ?) long out of print, and having steep asking prices, these Epic Collection trade paperbacks are a more affordable way to access these comics from 30+ years ago. Just be accepting of the fact that there are some lesser entries in these compilations, that's all.............

New SF art book from Adam Rowe

 

Over at the website 'Transfer Orbit,' a post about a forthcoming new book of sf art, by Adam Rowe. 

Rowe's 2023 book 'Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s' was well received. In this forthcoming volume, Rowe will be "....jump[ing] around between centuries and mediums." Publication date, as yet unknown.

Book Review: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me

Book Review: 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories My Mother Never Told Me'

 3 / 5 Stars

Well, here we go with another vintage Alfred Hitchcock anthology, published by Dell in 1965. The cover artist is uncredited, but may be Fred Banbery. All of the stories compiled in this anthology first saw print from 1927 to 1962.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

The Child Who Believed, by Grace Amundson: Armitage, a down-at-heels magician, performs at a children's party. He imparts occult knowledge to a little girl named Constance. There is irony in the closing paragraphs.

Just a Dreamer, by Robert Arthur: Arthur, who would edit a large number of Hitchcock anthologies, pens this tale of a mild-mannered husband named Wilfred Weem. Wilfred has the unusual ability to bring into reality, the inanimate objects he sees in dreams. His wife, a grasping woman, seeks to leverage this ability. An interesting premise for a story, but Arthur avoids doing much with it, other than invoking a mild, darkly comic sensibility.

 

The Wall-to-Wall Grave, by Andrew Benedict: Morton, a mild-mannered, but meticulous, man decides to take revenge on the Sports Bro who ruined his daughter. One of the grimmer, and better, tales in the anthology.

 

Witch's Money, by John Collier: not a horror, suspense, or crime story, but a fable about a little village in the Pyrenees Mountains, and the consequences of unfettered greed.   

 

The Secret of the Bottle, by Gerald Kersh: Ambrose Bierce decides to investigate a strange mansion located in the mountains of the Yucatan. This, despite warnings from the locals that the place is to be avoided. A good story from Kersh. Like Shirley Jackson's tale (below) it relies on growing unease to generate suspense, but does so in a more impactful manner.

 

A Short Trip Home, by F. Scott Fitzgerald: a mild ghost story involving college students, home for Christmas vacation to Minneapolis-St. Paul. First published in 1927, it was aged even by the standards of 1965 when it was republished in this Hitchcock anthology.

 

An Invitation to the Hunt, by George Hitchcock: Fred Perkins, an otherwise unremarkable resident of the Marine Gardens subdivision, receives an invitation to participate in a hunt hosted by the imposing country club a few blocks away. I suspect most readers will guess where this story goes, quite early on. 

 

The Summer People, by Shirley Jackson: Janet and Robert Allison decide that, rather than returning to their New York city apartment come Labor Day, they will stay on for a few more months at their rural cottage. The local people do not seem enthused to hear this. This story's plot device is the same as that of Kersh's tale (above), but lacks its edgier quality. 

 

Adjustments, by George Mandel: Caroline's husband Peter is on a tenure track at the local university. This is a good thing, but then again, Peter does have those moments where he gets a little........excitable. This story's labored pacing and wordiness keep it from being impactful. Have a dictionary handy for 'marcescent,' 'elusion,' 'captious,' and 'oscitant.'

 

The Children of Noah, by Richard Matheson: At 3 a.m. Mr. Ketchum speeds through Zachry, Maine, population 67, and is startled to be pulled over by the local police. They place the indignant Mr. Ketchum in jail, and are vague about when he’ll be released. But they do take care to provide him with a wonderful breakfast in the morning.....

 

The Idol of the Flies, by Jane Rice: Pruitt is a little boy and a Bad Seed, a true Demon Child. He delights in abusing the four elderly people in his household: Miss Bittner, the tutor; Harry, the handyman; Bertha, the cook; and Aunt Mona, the home's owner. Disturbingly, Pruitt may have an alliance with something old, and evil...... This story has an offbeat premise, but is hampered by its use of pulp-style prose, and a dilatory narrative.

 

Hostage, by Don Sanford: Pat Cochrane, aka Pasquale Cocciani, is not a mobster, but in fact, a Legitimate Businessman who, in past years, associated with people from the more colorful walks of life. These past associations turn out to be a double-edged sword. A clever tale, and one of the best in the anthology.

 

Smart Sucker, by Richard Wormser: Henry Croft, a salesman of office products, is in the less pleasant part of the city when a rainstorm obliges him to seek shelter in a nearby dive bar. The lowlife patrons of the bar are pleased to see Henry, as they have something in mind that requires the use of a 'sucker'.......

 

This story first was published in 1957 in Manhunt magazine,whose publisher, Flying Eagle Publications / HSD, also published Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Manhunt was intended as a showcase for hardboiled crime fiction, and 'Smart Sucker' certainly has a noir sensibility. Unfortunately its denouement relies too heavily on contrivance and coincidence.

 

Summing up, 'Stories My Mother Never Told Me' is one of the less impressive Hitchcock anthologies. It's the entries from Benedict, Kersh, Hitchcock, Matheson, and Sanford that push my Rating to Three Stars. If you're a fan of the Hitchcock anthologies this volume may be worth picking up, but all others likely can pass without penalty.

High Times June 1986

High Times

June 1986 

June, 1986. The top single in the land is the rather treacly ballad 'On My Own,' by Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald. But there are some good songs elsewhere in the top 10;  the Nu Shooz had an 80s dance classic with 'I Can't Wait,' and the UK band Level 42 had a memorable hit with their reggae rocker 'Something About You.'

 

The June issue of High Times magazine is on the stands. Back in those days I didn't really read the magazine, for at $4 an issue, it was pricey for my grad student budget........

 

High Times in the 80s was something of a grab-bag of dope cultivation techniques and fringe / counterculture messaging. Sadly, the comics (such as 'Dope Rider' and 'The Furry Freak Brothers') and T & A that had characterized the magazine in the 1970s had been discontinued. There was an effort by the magazine's management to broaden appeal to the mainstream audience, and while this may have been sensible from a circulation standpoint, the loss of the magazine's classic counterculture sensibility was a demerit.

 

One thing was for sure in 1986: almost everywhere in the USA, cultivating marijuana in your yard, as well as possession, was a violation of the law. If caught, you could pay a steep price. The doper humor of Cheech and Chong tended to marginalize this aspect of pot use, but it was a very real consequence. A friend of mine who lived in Baton Rouge was busted for growing 7 or so plants in his back yard. The police came to his house, read him his rights, and took him to jail. He wasn't given a prison sentence, but he was obliged to pay a steep fine. In High Times in 1986, you could find defense attorneys who specialized in drug-associated cases.........

Back in the 80 there was a company that sold grow-it-yourself mushroom kits. I can't remember if I ever bought one such kit. I'm guessing that those who did buy the kit, and anticipated having a larder of 'magic' mushrooms, wound up disappointed ?
 

High Times provided its readers with a 'price watch' service listing the availability and cost of illicit drugs all across the nation. Back in '86, of course, the idea of walking into a 'dispensary' to score pot legally was a fantasy.

 

This issue has some good pop culture reportage. First, there's 'Punk Genesis on the Bowery,' an excerpt from Steven Hager's June, 1986 book about New York City in the early days of the punk / New Wave movement, 'Art After Midnight.'

 

 

 

Copies of the original printing of 'Art After Midnight' are priced quite dearly, but you can get the Kindle edition for a very affordable price.

Another excerpt, 'Acid Dreams,' taken from the book of the same name authored by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, deals with the convergence of LSD and the counterculture in the 1960s.

'Acid Dreams' is available as a reasonably priced trade paperback. I remember reading it some years ago and finding it moderately engaging.

Keeping a pulse on the popular culture, High Times provides its 'Top 40 Flashes.' Back then, some of these entries (like the Red Hot Chili Peppers) were still known primarily to hipsters, rather than the mainstream.

The 'Reader's Photo Contest' depicted candid shots of cannabis users enjoying themselves....

The cover story, about a trip to South America to partake in a 'scared' ceremony involving ayahuasca, features the sort of first-person storytelling that Carlos Castaneda pioneered with his 'Don Juan Matus' fables. Were the transcendent visions 'real,' or just an illusion ? Did it matter in the end ?

One place where smoking pot was permissible was in Holland, with both leaves and hashish available in the various stores and coffee houses in cities like Rotterdam. Technically, in 1986 in Holland pot possession was illegal, but as long as users stayed didn't make a public show of getting high the authorities looked the other way. 

 

High Times has an article, titled 'Young Holland,' written by Dutch residents Chais Donker and Miriam X, about the permissive culture of their country. According to Donker and Miriam, kids start having sex as young as 12 and 13, contraceptives and abortion are legal, and the "The kids who have problems are the ones whose parents are from countries like Turkey and Morocco and Yugoslavia. These kids see their peers having sex and they want to too, but their parents say no, causing them to have a lot of internal conflicts."

High Times of course was dedicated to instruction and advice on cannabis cultivation, so this June issue is filled with advertisements and features on these subjects. Ed Rosenthal was the magazine's in-house expert, and he offered quite a library of manuals and guides.

 

And then there was the fringe element: in 1986, in the pages of High Times, you could order a book that discussed UFO conspiracies, authored by Dr. Donald P. Coverdell, ThD (I don't know what the ThD stands for). This book is available at eBay, for those interested in learning more.  

And so we end our journey back in time, as things were 40 years ago, in the era before the internet, when pop and fringe cultures were necessarily accessed through print media. And you had to go Clandestine, if you wanted your baggie of pot...........

Book Review: 'I, Weapon' by Charles W. Runyon

Book Review: 'I, Weapon' by Charles W. Runyon

2 / 5 Stars

 

Charles W. Runyon (1928-2015) wrote a sizeable number of short stories and novels in the mystery, private eye, and sf genres during the 60s and 70s. Some of these saw publication under the house name 'Ellery Queen'. An interview with Runyon and a bibliography of his works, featuring scans of the paperbacks and hardcover editions, is available here.

According to his entry in the online Science Fiction Encyclopedia, Runyon wrote 16 stories for the sf digest market during the 50s though the 70s. His sf novels other than 'I, Weapon' include 'Ames Holbrook, Deity' (1972), and 'Pigworld' (1971). 

 

'I, Weapon' (252 pp.) first was issued in hardcover in 1974. The mass-market paperback edition I read was published by Popular Library in December, 1977, with cover art by Carlos Ochagavia.

 

The novel is set in the far future, in the wake of an interstellar war between the Terran empire and an alien race known as the Vim. The Vim had conquered the solar system and ravaged Earth before abruptly retiring back into their own system, and five hundred years later, as the events in 'Weapon' begin, there are signs that the Vim are renewing their offensive.

 

The empire is populated by various mutant races, all derived from Homo sapiens. Preeminent among the races are the Jelks, who represent the managerial class. Su-shann, a Jelk woman, has consulted with the empire's foremost computer brain about measures to deter the Vim. According to the computer, there is one option, and one option only: breed a superman and dispatch this superman to infiltrate Vim space, find the Vim master computer, and disable it.

 

To carry out the computer's instructions Su-shann is obliged to form an uneasy alliance with Yakov Ras, a fellow bureaucrat. The two of them joust for control of the breeding program, with Su-shann - the grandmother of the 'saviour,' so to speak - adamant about her choice of the notorious space pirate Ben Abo as the father of the child. For his part, Yakov Ras colludes to have some of the more exotic mutant races of Earth serve as the other pair of grandparents.

 

After much travail, the superman is born and rapidly matures. Going by the name of Raki, the eponymous 'weapon' sets out on his solo mission to defeat the Vim. But as his journey into Vim space progresses, Raki discovers that there are dangers greater than the Vim lurking in the depths of space......

 

I found 'I, Weapon' to be inferior to Runyon's other sci-fi novel, 'Pig World.' Part of this is due to the prose style Runyon uses for 'Weapon,' a wordy, compressed style that recalls pulp sci-fi in terms of relating major plot points, often within a paragraph or two, with a frenetic pacing. For all this, Raki doesn't set out on his mission to save the empire until page 207. This means the novel's first 206 pages are complicated expositions on all of the scheming and skullduggery between Su-shann and Yakov Ras.

 

Runyon salts the narrative with episodes of inter-species sexual congress, these episodes reading as combinations of sci-fi with the Penthouse Forum. Depending on your attitude about the Forum, these episodes can be rather cringey.........

 

The novel's final chapters offer some degree of reward, as the revelations come fast, but at the same time, Raki's superhuman powers mean he's never really in much peril, and there are too many contrivances popping up at just the right time to ease his path. This is particularly true when the plot takes on a 'cosmic' aspect and Raki can deploy not only telepathy, but teleportation (at distances of up to five miles, no less).

 

In closing, 'I, Weapon' has some value as a fast-paced example of a 1970s space opera. If that genre appeals to you, then you might the novel entertaining. 

Some older paperbacks

July 2026 

I recently went on eBay and picked up a selection of older (1960s, 1970s) paperbacks, mainly in the suspense / crime genres. I have mild expectations that a few of these titles will be entertaining reads..........