Philippe Druillet graphic novel lineup

Philippe Druillet graphic novel lineup

Titan Comics, 2015 - 2023

As of 2023 there are nine volumes in this series (the volumes missing in my collection, above, are 'Lone Sloane: Chaos, Vol. 1,' and 'Lone Sloane: Babel').

 

These all are classics of 70s and 80s sci-fi graphic art, with a decidedly 'French' sensibility. You can find each volume selling brand-new for about $20 - $35 each. They are well worth getting at that price, because with the passage of time these things see their asking prices start to rise. More information is available at the Titan Comics website.

Book Review: Among the Dead

Book Review: 'Among the Dead' by Edward Bryant

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

'Among the Dead' (210 pp.) was issued in 1974 by Collier Books. The cover art is by Grey Morrow, and it's not very good. In fact, it's among the worst cover art I've ever seen for a sci-fi paperback.

 

Edward Bryant (1945 - 2017) was a leading writer during the New Wave era. His short stories readily were labeled as 'speculative fiction,' and most of the 17 tales presented in 'Among the Dead' adhere to this label. These stories saw print in such anthologies as 'Clarion,' 'Quark,' 'New Dimensions,' and 'Orbit,' all prominent New Wave outlets.

 

Reading this anthology reminds me that for every imaginative and powerful story the New Wave era produced, there were a bunch of other stories that were failures.

 

In 'Among the Dead,' the failures are plentiful. I mean, one story bears the title 'No. 2 Plain Tank Auxiliary Fill Structural Limit 17,605 lbs. Fuel PWA Spec. 522 Revised,' which is sheer New Wave self-indulgence, and the sort of stuff editors like Damon Knight and Robert Silverberg thought was just so, so precious, back in the early seventies. 

I won't bother to synopsize 'The Hanged Man', 'Jody After the War,' 'Sending the Very Best,' 'Love Song of Herself,' 'Their Thousandth Season,' 'Pinup,' and 'Dune's Edge,'because there's really not much there to synopsize. Just figurative prose, with no plot. 

For example, in 'Dune's Edge,', a group of people find themselves stranded at a beach where they are compelled to climb to the top of a nearby sand dune. The narrator has some bad dreams. That's the plot. Just your average ordinary Existential Crisis. 

 

'Teleidoscope' is about Markham, his struggles with impotence, his abuse during childhood at the hands of his mother, and his relationship with a woman named Cara. There are allusions to black holes and collapsing stars. This story is so New-Wavey that it's an unwitting parody of a New Wave story...............

 

'The Poet in the Hologram in the Middle of Prime Time' is reasonably coherent, plot-wise. It's about a new form of 3D television being marketed by the UniComp corporation, a form of TV that lets the viewer interact with the characters on-screen. A poet named Ransom, who supports himself by writing scripts for UniComp, sees this advance as a threat to Art, and contemplates taking drastic action to subvert the process. The story tries to say something Profound about the nature of Art in the futuristic society.

 

And the aforementioned 'No. 2 Plain Tank Auxiliary Fill Structural Limit 17,605 lbs,' is all about a political activist on a mission. 

 

Also dealing with politics, with a helping of The Parallax View - style 70s paranoia, is 'Tactics,' which unfortunately has too vague an ending to be effective.

 

The thing about Bryant is, when he wanted to, he could write very good stories. And there are some of these in the pages of 'Among the Dead.' Stories that are well-constructed and well-plotted.

 

Among the best of these is 'The Human Side of the Village Monster,' which, despite its cumbersome title, is a very good tale about a near-future New York City ruined by overpopulation and Eco-Catastrophe. It seems to have a predictable denouement, but veers off into an unexpected, but unpleasant, direction. I've placed this story in my list of top horror stories of the 1960s to the early 1990s. 

 

The title story also is well-done. It takes a familiar theme: the Last People on Earth, and their struggle for survival, and imbues these with a dark humor that calls to mind Harlan Ellison at his transgressive best.

 

Also worthy is 'Shark,' in which the first-person narrator's girlfriend has her brain transplanted into that very animal. It's a sort of warped version of the 1973 movie The Day of the Dolphin.

'Adrift on the Freeway' deals with entropy and middle-aged angst, and while the ending is a little too ambiguous for me, it does capture existential anomie as well as any New Wave era piece did. 

 

An oddity in this collection is 'File on the Plague,' which first appeared in the April, 1971 issue of the National Lampoon. As one might expect, it's a humorous piece.........sheep are involved. I'll just post scans of the story, and let you decide whether it has merit........

 

 

 

'The Soft Blue Bunny Rabbit Story' focuses on a college student caught up in campus unrest; the situation is made worse - or perhaps better - by his use of hallucinogens.

 

Summing up, there are enough good stories in 'Among the Dead' to justify giving the anthology a Three Star Rating. 

 

For an overview of Bryant and his works by someone who tends to be a bit more sympathetic to New Wave writing than I am, I direct readers to Joachim Boaz and the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog.

Weeds by Stephen King

'Weeds' by Stephen King

from Cavalier, May 1976

Here's a fun little Fourth-of-July story from Stephen King: 'Weeds,' first published in Cavalier magazine in the May, 1976 issue. A meteor falls onto a field near Jordy Verrill's house in rural Maine, and when Jordy messes with the remains of the meteor, he unleashes something unpleasant.

 

 

King later would re-use the story, retitled as 'The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,' as a segment in the 1982 movie Creepshow. King himself played the hapless Jordy.

You can access the story, and the May '76 issue of Cavalier, at the Internet Archive. Happy Fourth of July, everyone ! 

The Merchants of Venus graphic novel

The Merchants of Venus

by Frederik Pohl

DC Comics Science Fiction Graphic Novel No. 4 

January, 1986

 

'The Merchants of Venus' was issued in 1986 as one of the entries in DC Comics' 'Science Fiction Graphic Novel' catalog. The writers are Victoria Petersen and Neal McPheeters, with art by McPheeters.

 

'Merchants' first was published as a novelette in August, 1972 in Worlds of If. 

 

 

Protagonist Audee Walthers lives on, or rather, in Venus, in the Spindle, an immense underground cavern excavated by the since-vanished race of aliens known as the Heechee. Walthers makes a modest living by transporting tourists around Venus in his aircar. 

 

There's not much to see on the surface of Venus, but Walthers specializes in bringing his clients to see the engineering works left by the Heechee, including the underground tunnels where, sometimes, scavengers have come across valuable and precious artifacts.

Needing money, and lots of it, Walthers is intrigued when a wealthy Terran couple, Boyce Cochenour, and his stunning mistress Dorotha Keefer, arrive at the Spindle looking for adventure and excitement. Walthers convinces them that he can take them to places on-planet where there might yet be undiscovered Heechee warrens, and in those warrens, treasure.

Stuffing Walthers' aircar with gear and provisions, the trio set off. For Cochenour and Keefer, Venus turns out to be quite dangerous and unpleasant, but the lure of wealth overrides their concerns. For his part, Walther has his own - rather selfish - motives for wanting to find a cache of Heechee technology.

As the plot progresses it turns out Walthers isn't the only one with secrets and ulterior motives. Can he and his charges put aside their tensions long enough to find that one site where some digging might yield an undiscovered Heechee stash ?

I admit I had low expectations when I picked up 'Merchants,' mainly because I find Pohl to be an underwhelming author, and the bright, primary color scheme of the book gave it a cartoony aspect. But it turns out that 'Merchants' has a decent, very readable hard-sf story, one where you're kept guessing until the very last page.

 

Summing up, you don't have to be a Pohl fan to appreciate this book. With copies going for $10 for a Very Good grading, I was fortunate to pick this up for $5. If you can find it for a reasonable price, you may want to get one yourself............

Book Review: Storm Season

Book Review: 'Storm Season' edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey

3 / 5 Stars

 

'Storm Season' (305 pp.) was published by Ace Books in October, 1982, and features cover art by Walter Vellez.

 

This is the fourth volume in the initial, six-volume launch of the 'Thieves' World' shared world anthologies. Probably the best way to access 'Storm Season,' along with volumes five ('The Face of Chaos') and six ('Wings of Omen') is via the hardcover omnibus 'Cross-Currents,' published in 1984 by Nelson Doubleday.

 

My review of the first volume in the franchise, 'Thieves' World,' is here. My review of the second volume, 'Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn,' is here.

 

It helps to have read some of the earlier entries in the series before tackling 'Storm Season,' as the lead and supporting characters are recurring, and the plots in 'Storm' follow events described in the earlier stories. All of these taking place, of course, in and around the reeking alleys, taverns, and brothels of Sanctuary, the city of Thieves. 

 

In a determined effort to move away from Ye Olde Style of fantasy literature, the stories in Thieves' World are gritty and transgressive in tone, borrowing more from noir fiction than heroic or epic fantasy. Depravities and violence abound in Sanctuary, and noble quests, and noble people, are in short supply...........

 

The better entries in 'Storm' include 'Exercise in Pain,' by editor Asprin. In this tale, Jubal the mercenary is forced to acknowledge that a violent lifestyle can have its consequences. Asprin asks a question that is surprisingly absent in many action-centered fantasy stories: what happens to those who are grievously wounded in combat ? In fantasy tales, there are no emergency rooms nor physical therapy centers - !

'Steel,' by Lynn Abbey, features a well-constructed plot and an appealing lead character in Walegrin, a fighter hoping to advance his career, and exit the squalor of Sanctuary, via the blacksmithing of some wonder-weapons.

 

Diana Paxson, an author who I would have thought a little too refined, a little too couth, for the Thieves' World concept, contributes 'A Fugitive Art,' about a painter who finds himself caught up in political intrigue. In Sanctuary, unfortunately, political intrigue can mean an early death......another well-plotted tale that benefits from clear and readable prose.

 

Unfortunately for 'Storm Season,' the other tales are mediocre, suffering from too-thin plots that are padded with over-writing.

 

C. J. Cherryh's 'Downwind' features a soldier of fortune named Mradhon Vis, who is so down on his luck that he is obliged to take lodgings at the lowliest of inns in Sanctuary: Mama Becho's. In order to stay solvent, Vis has to make some deals with unsavory characters. Cherryh's plot is poorly constructed and I found myself struggling to figure things out much too often.

 

Janet Morris's 'Wizard Weather' is overwritten and awkward. Prepare for words like:

 

'horripilation' 

 

'omina' (plural of 'omen' ?!) 

'entelechy' (something to do with the material manifestation of an ethereal being)

 

And phrases such as:

 

'contractural protective wardings' 

 

'mountainous skirts' 

 

'ersatz-daylight' 

 

and 

 

'...a soapy, scum-covered sky gone noncommittal.'

 

The plot is convoluted, and has something to do with a disagreement between gods, and the machinations of a witch named Cime, who is going around killing wizards. Her brother Tempus, the head of the Imperial Guard, has troubles of his own, but nonetheless is obliged to investigate Cime's transgressions.

 

'Godson,' by Andrew J. Offutt, features recurring character Shadowspawn the Thief. This time, Shadowspawn makes a fateful decision to involve himself in a factional dispute between rival gods of Sanctuary. While it's an interesting premise, 'Godson' has stilted prose. Plus, some of Shadowspawn's interactions with nubile, very young women have a tinge of creepiness that (presumably) migrated in from Offutt's alternate career as a writer of 'erotic' fiction....... 

 

Summing up, the three good stories by Asprin, Abbey, and Paxon balance out the mediocre entries from Cherryh, Morris, and Offutt, and thus I give 'Storm Season' a Three Star Rating. It's a readable installment in the Thieves' World franchise, no more, no less. 

Heat Wave by Guy Colwell

'Heat Wave' by Guy Colwell

Oil on canvas, 1976. Reproduced here from the May, 1980 issue of Heavy Metal magazine; also used as the cover for the comic Inner City Romance No. 4, 1977 (Last Gasp Eco-Funnies). 

Playboy June 1975

Playboy

June 1975

June, 1975, and the latest issue of Playboy is on the stands, featuring the stunning Marilyn Lange, Playmate of the Year, on the cover.

 

On Top 40 radio, 'Love Will Keep Us Together,' by the Captain and Tennille, sits at Number one. It's in good company with other 70s hits, such as 'Wildfire,' by Michael Murphy, and 'Love Won't Let Me Wait,' the ultimate Love Man groove song, courtesy of Major Harris.

 

Looking through the pages of the June Playboy, we have an advertisement for Coppertone suntan lotion, because in '75 everyone tanned.....skin cancer ?! What's that ?!
 

Also in '75, the most forward fashion involved wearing bib denim overalls from a Wisconsin company called OshKosh B'Gosh........

Bruce Williamson has a lengthy pictorial about 'Sex in Cinema: French Style.' Ooh, La-La ! Modern-day readers will be amused to know that seeing such films meant finding an 'adult' theater that showed XXX films. These theaters were scarce outside major cities. Thus, sadly, for many Playboy readers access to the naughty French cinema could only be glimpsed through these articles in Playboy (videocassettes were still some 5+ years into the future).
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great short story in this June issue: 'Never Beat A Full House,' by William Kuhns. I actually have Kuhns's 1973 novel, 'The Reunion,' in one of my boxes of paperbacks. I should dig out 'The Reunion' and read it !

Anyways, 'Full House' features an amazing illustration by Martin Hoffman.The story is about a hustler named Derek, who, while tooling along a highway in Kentucky in a new, white Lincoln Continental, encounters an unlikely pair: a pouting, supersexy 18 year-old named Nat, and her chaperone, a harassed-looking man named Lowell Perry. 

 

Derek soon is scheming about ditching Lowell and enjoying the favors of Nat. Although, Lowell won't shut up about how Nat is not to be trusted, she's a very bad girl.....

Another short story in this issue is of a genre more familiar to Playboy readers: the misadventures of a middle-aged man, traumatized and adrift after a recent divorce. In Peter Lars Sandberg's 'Blue Dog on Angusport Hill,' our hero, Jack Burton Doyle, 43, hears a CB radio transmission that leaves him alarmed. But when he contacts the local police, they seem quite indifferent......

Playboy's 'On the Scene' profile of up-and-comers focuses on a director named Steven Spielberg, whose film Jaws is expected to do well in the Summer of '75 box office. Then there's an illustrator / cartoonist named Ralph Steadman, who is in tight with rising cultural legend Hunter S. Thompson. 

 

As for our Playmate of the Year, young Marilyn, a Hawaii resident, is a very worthy selection. She insists she's a 'one man woman,' but then, her boyfriend is named 'Kip'............I sense a possible opening......?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's what we had in Playboy, fifty years ago..........

Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown

Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown

Marvel Comics, 1989

'Havok and Wolverine' was a four-issue miniseries issued by Marvel, under its Epic Comics imprint, from March to October, 1989.

 

The series was written by the husband-and-wife team of Walter and Louise Simonson, and illustrated by Jon J. Muth, with assistance from Ken Williams. Bill Oakley provided lettering.

 

The series opens with a confusing prologue, involving something to do with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in April, 1986. The action then transitions to Mexico, where our X-Men Havok and Wolverine are enjoying some cervezas and sunshine.

 

 

That is, until a bar-room brawl ensues and out heroes have to deal out some pain to some disrespectful Mexicans.......

 

Barely have they gotten out of trouble when our heroes are accosted by Russian agents, who knock out both men and kidnap Havok. Wolverine sets out to find where his friend has gone.

 

At this point, the storyline becomes a prolonged chase sequence, as a brainwashed Havok is duped into following the guidance of a hot chick named Scarlett, who promises to take him to Europe, there to find Wolverine.

It turns out that the kidnapping has been engineered by some malevolent Russians, who want to get their hands on Havok for nefarious purposes. Scarlett is in fact their agent, code-name 'Quark.' Somehow Wolverine dies one or two more times before the three of them - Scarlett, Havok, and Wolverine - meet up in India, at the site of a disastrous reactor accident. I won't disclose any spoilers, but the X-Men have their work cut out for them.

'Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown' is a mediocre comic. It is very much a late Eighties production, when Marvel's Epic line was intended to give comic book creators 'artistic freedom' to do the kind of stories they wanted to do. But the Simonsons badly overwrite this series, shoveling in too many story beats, and leaving the reader to negotiate all sorts of abrupt, contrived transitions in plot and setting.

The artwork by Jon J. Muth may have been very 'artistic,' but it's so murky and abstract that I found myself scrutinizing too many panels trying to figure out what, exactly, was being rendered. For example, this panel below apparently shows Wolverine piloting a helicopter........

 

As for the eponymous villain, he is designed to look like 'Punch' from the venerable Punch and Judy puppet franchise (?!). Why Marvel editor Archie Goodwin signed off on this is puzzling, because its frivolous nature undermines the book's gravitas (whatever gravitas it was trying to achieve).

When all is said and done, 'Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown' is a misfire, from the age of comics when editors gave writers full leeway to release all sorts of material even if that material was underwhelming. 

 

As related by Marvel historian Sean Howe, in fact it was Louise Simonson who was among the first writers to be deposed from their position of primacy at Marvel. Early in 1991, editor Bob Harras resolved a growing conflict between Simonson and emerging superstar artist Rob Liefeld, over who was to be the creative lead on the series 'New Mutants,' in favor of Liefeld (Leifeld had grown tired of subordinating his artwork to accommodate Simonson's inane story lines and text-heavy compositions). With Liefeld in charge, 'New Mutants' was relaunched as 'X Force,' and quickly became one of Marvel's best-selling comics.

Only diehard X-Men fanboys are going to find 'Havok and Wolverine: Meltdown' to be rewarding. This is particularly true of the graphic novel compilation of the series, titled 'Wolverine: Meltdown,' released in 2003. Copies of this trade paperback are selling for $30 on up (one vendor wants $94 for a 'New' graded copy !) at amazon, so hopefully this overview lets you know what you're getting.............