Wolfpack issue 5

Wolfpack
Marvel Comics
Issue 5, December 1988

Marvel published some really bad comics in the late 80s and early 90s, but few (if any) were so inane as 'Wolfpack'. 

First marketed as a Marvel Graphic Novel (No. 31) in August 1987, Marvel's editorial staff gave writer Larry Hama and artist Ron Wilson the go-ahead to turn the concept into a limited-run series of 12 issues (August 1988 - July 1989).

The Wolfpack are five New York City teens (muscle man Slag, martial arts expert Rafael, gymnast Sharon, stealth operative 'Slippery Sam', and disABLED wheelchair-kid 'Wheels') who dedicate themselves to fighting an evil organization known as The Nine. Minions of The Nine are responsible for the crime and poverty in the South Bronx neighborhood where the Wolfpack lives.

Writer Hama (who later turned the chore over to Joe Figueroa) had a talent for (unintentionally) showcasing his cheesy interpretation of Ghetto culture. The Wolfpack seem to be modeled on the extras appearing in Michael Jackson's 1987 video 'Bad', and their interpretation of city life on the mean streets of the Bronx has so many cringe-worthy moments that it becomes a self-parody. Like this Kid Addicted to Crack:

Artist Ron Wilson (who is black) contributed to the storylines as the series went on, but even making allowances for his having to adhere to the Comics Code and Marvel's editorial policies, he maintains the cheesiness. It doesn't help matters that his artwork for 'Wolfpack' is very mediocre, looking as if first draft sketches were hurriedly passed on to the inkers with no additional refinement. 

Issue 5 (titled 'Save the Children', written by Wilson and Figueroa, with art by Wilson, December 1988), which I've posted below, is the quintessential Wolfpack comic. There's no need for further exegesis on my part; simply read it, and revel in the badness......

Book Review: Earth Cult

Book Review: 'Earth Cult' by Trevor Hoyle

3 / 5 Stars

'Earth Cult' (189 pp) was published in the UK by Panther in 1979; the cover art is by Peter Elson. In the U.S., the novel was retitled 'This Sentient Earth' and published, also in 1979, by Zebra Books.

This was one of a number of sf titles written by U.K. author Trevor Smith (b. 1940), who used the pseudonym Trevor Hoyle.

The terrain and mountains are the main characters, so to speak, in 'Earth Cult', as the novel is set in Colorado in the late 70s. The Mount of the Holy Cross features prominently, as do the nearby towns and villages (Minturn, Red Cliff, Dotsero, Eagle, etc.) of Eagle County. 

It's September, and Frank Kersh, a writer for the magazine Science Now, has arrived in the (real-life) town of Gypsum on an assignment to interview the director of the 'Deep Hole' : the Rocky Mountain Astrophysical Neutrino Research Station. The Research Station supervises a project to detect neutrinos by monitoring the collision of these particles with the chlorine atoms residing in perchloroethylene solution stored in enormous tanks a mile under the Mount.

Kersh completes his interview with Station Director Professor Friedmann and is ready to head for Chicago the following morning, when Kersh begins to realize that things are a little........off............in Gypsum. For one thing, a cult, calling itself the Telluric Faith, has established itself in the town, and its head, the mysterious Mr. Cabel, tells of a coming Apocalypse that will see the Earth sundered and all living things extinguished.

Then there is the unprecedentedly severe weather that has struck Gypsum and the other towns in proximity to the Mount of the Holy Cross. And in the town of Radium, mothers are giving birth to 'zombie' babies that are outwardly healthy, but simply lie in their cribs and stare vacuously into space......

Intrigued by these developments, Frank Kersh finds himself teaming up with local journalists Cal and Helen Renfield to conduct an investigation....because these developments weren't present prior to the installation of the Research Station. Is there something going on in the depths of the Mount of the Holy Cross that the researchers don't want the world to know about.........?

Like the other sf novel by Hoyle that I have read, The Last Gasp, 'Earth Cult' stays away from New Wave affectations and relies on a straightforward prose style, short chapters, and a steady stream of revelations to keep the reader engaged. Without disclosing spoilers, the final chapters undergo a shift from a 'scientific mystery' theme to a much more 'Cosmic' theme. While I thought this shift showed quite a bit of inventiveness, there also was a bit of contrivance in terms of plot development, hence my three-star review.

I finished 'Earth Cult' thinking it was perhaps most effective as a travelogue, and tribute, to the Rocky Mountains and the Colorado of the 1970s. 

It reflects very much the era of John Denver's Rocky Mountain High and the attendant pop culture fascination with the mountains and a Return to Nature, as exemplified in films like The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Adventures of the Wilderness Family, Jeremiah Johnson, and Continental Divide. 

John Denver, in quintessential 70s 'outdoors' clothing, posing against some mountain scenery 

Grab that Gerry down vest, your suede Trail Boots, and your rugby shirt (as demonstrated below in the Moss Brown and Co. catalog from 1978), and get ready to ascend the mountains !

The Dark Age of Comic Books (TV Tropes)

The Dark Age of Comic Books
from 'TV Tropes'

A very readable and entertaining essay about how the release of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen in 1986 ignited a trend towards darker, more violent stories in comic books from multiple U.S. publishers. 

(I can't find an author for the TV Tropes essay, nor a date of publication.)

An argument could be made that in the U.K., 2000 AD comics already had staked out its turf on the 'Dark Age', and that the U.S. comics industry simply was catching up. But maybe that's for another essay, at another time..................

Chopper: Song of the Surfer

Chopper: Song of the Surfer
by John Wagner (story) and Colin McNeil (art)
Fleetway / 2000 AD, 1990

'Chopper: Song of the Surfer' (96 pp) was published by Fleetway / 2000 AD in August, 1990. It's a large trade paperback, sized 9 x 11 1/2 inches.

Marlon 'Chopper' Shakespeare first appeared in 2000 AD comics in Prog #206 (April 1981) as a juvenile delinquent who specialized in scrawling graffiti on the most inaccessible places in Mega City One. Inevitably, Chopper wound up being jailed by Judge Dredd, but the latter retained a soft spot for the rebellious 'artist'. Since then, Chopper has appeared sporadically in various 2000 AD comics, most often as a 'skysurfer' who rides an anti-grav board and defies Authority Figures.

'Song of the Surfer' opens with our hero living in the Australian outback, receiving tutelage in the Songlines, and the Aborigine way of life, from a cantankerous elderly man named Smokie. When Chopper gets word that the Supersurf 11 contest is to be held in Los Angeles (aka Mega City Two), he decides it's time to come out of exile and re-establish himself as the greatest skysurfer of all. 

Welcomed in L.A. by friends and fellow competitors, Chopper prepares for the contest by invoking Aboriginal mysticism...and carefully surveying the course. But one thing the Supersurf 11 competitors haven't counted on is the greed of the event's sponsor, the amoral businessman Stig.

To drive viewership and bulk up ad revenue, Stig wants to turn Supersurf 11 into the equivalent of Death Race 2000. Snipers and gun turrets helmed by expert marksmen are to be stationed throughout the course, with orders to fire freely on the hapless skysurfers as they zoom past.

And at the end of the race, looms the Tunnel of Death: a narrow pipeline of metal........lined with spikes.......

Despite the suicidal nature of Supersurf 11, the competitors' outsized egos (and fear of being labeled cowards) won't let them back down. 

Chopper dons his racing outfit - designed to mimic a Judge's uniform - and joins the other 40 racers at the start line. 

Who will survive Supersurf 11.........and what will be left of them.........?!

'Chopper', like many 2000 AD comics, is leavened with lots of sarcastic humor and it makes for a fun read; some panels had me laughing out loud. Writer Wagner misses no opportunity to satirize consumer culture and what we in the U.S. call 'Sports Media'. At the same time, 'Chopper' has sufficient pathos and gore to keep it from becoming a purely comedic excursion.

Colin MacNeil's artwork isn't the book's strong suit; it's very 'Nineties' in style, and relies over-much on airbrushing and a color palette that isn't up to the task. At times, it's difficult to clearly make out what's happening in some panels.

Summing up, while I can't say that 'Chopper' is a must-have graphic novel from 2000 AD from the late 80s / early 90s, copies in good condition have reasonable asking prices, so if you see it lying around on a used bookstore shelf, it's worth picking up.

Book Review: Ta

Book Review: 'Ta' by John Robert Russell

4 / 5 Stars

John Robert Russell (1927 - 2007) published three sci-fi novels in the 1970s: 'Cabu' (1974), 'SAR' (1974), and 'Ta' (1975).

'Ta' (207 pp) was published by Pocket Books in April 1975 and features a cover illustration by Mike Gross.

On the planet Ta, things aren't going well for the aristocrats in the Northern cities. The supply of sap from the Takusa plant has been curtailed, with severe consequences for the economy, since the sap - a remarkable natural plastic - is processed for myriad uses, including building materials, textiles, and fuel.

Mako, the leader of the aristocrats, has decided on a drastic measure: dispatch a force of swordsmen to the Southern Marshes of Ta, where live the barbarians who harvest Takusa sap. Mako believes that some casual beheadings and mutilations of the barbarians will force them into increasing their exports of sap to the cities of the North. 

The only problem is that the aristocrats, although fond of boasting of past glories as fighters and heroes, lack anyone with sufficient bravery and martial spirit to lead the swordsmen.

Tanee, the seductive Priestess and ally of the aristocrats, offers a solution: using her ability to project her consciousness across the gulf of interstellar space, she will find a warrior and transfer his mind and soul into the body of a Ta swordsman named Kengee.

Kenneth O'Hara is just another New Yorker trying to make a comfortable living in the Big Apple. Although a veteran of the Vietnam War, O'Hara spent his service as far from the fighting as possible, in the rear echelon. He has subsequently earned a living as a thief, con man, and gigolo.

One day a bewildered O'Hara finds himself waking up in a cave on the planet Ta, in the body of the warrior Kengee. Tanee tells him he is forever stranded on Ta, so he might as well go about making himself useful if he is to continue living........and this means leading the expedition of swordsmen against the Southern Marshes.

Kenneth O'Hara soon discovers that Ta is the strangest place imaginable.......and strangest of all are the Takusa plants, who seem to be the botanical embodiment of Playboy Bunnies........?! 

Can O'Hara / Kengee please his aristocratic masters.....stay in the good graces of the Takusa plants.....and avoid death at the hands of the Caste of the Assassins ? Even for a gifted deal-maker and con man, it's a tall order.........

'Ta' is a comedic sf novel, akin to those many comedic sf novels written by Ron Goulart and Robert Sheckley during the 1970s. I've never been a big fan of comedic sf, but Russell's novel is markedly superior to those of Goulart and Sheckley. It's humor is uniquely sarcastic, genuinely funny, showcases Un-Woke attitudes of the 1970s, and often had me laughing out loud. The plot is fast-moving and never short of twists and turns.

The only reason I didn't give 'Ta' five stars is that the final chapters rely too much on last-second escapes and fortuitous coincidences, giving the narrative a contrived note. But if you are interested in a fun read, then 'Ta' has my recommendation.

RIP Juan Gimenez

R.I.P. Juan Gimenez
November 16 1943 - April 3 2020

Humanoids has issued a press release stating that the Argentinian artist Juan Gimenez has died at age 76 from coronavirus. He was hospitalized in Argentina on March 22 and never recovered.

Gimenez was one of the most skilled artists to be featured in Heavy Metal magazine during the 1980s. 'Timescooter' (October 1985), 'Primabel' (Fall 1986), and 'Garbage' (Spring, 1987) all were memorable, and counterbalanced the magazine's discouraging turn towards printing English translations of inane 'Atom Style' comics from the likes of Daniel Torres and Joost Swarte, or the crudely scrawled black-and-white comics of Peter Kuper.

He later gained fame for his illustrations for the comic book series The Metabarons and for his own sci-fi series, The Fourth Power. 

Below is 'A Matter of Time', from the October 1984 issue of Heavy Metal magazine.

Thorgal: The Lost Drakkar

'The Lost Drakkar'
from Thorgal: Child of the Stars
Ink Publishing / The Donning Company, 1986

In the mid-80s, the Norfolk, Virginia-based publisher The Donning Company released a set of English translations of selected Thorgal albums de bande dessines. 

At 9 x 11 1/2 inches, the Donning Company English translations adhered to the same dimensions of the original albums, and used glossy paper, making them superior to the Cinebook translations of the Thorgal series currently in print.

'Thorgal: Child of the Stars', first published in France in 1984 as L'enfant des étoiles, contained a trio of Thorgal origin stories; the lead story, 'The Lost Drakkar', is scanned here. The exceptional artistry of Grzegorz Rosiniski is very much evident in the scenes of the storm-lashed sea, and the stricken expressions of the hapless Viking sailors.......

Book Review: Drowning Towers

Book Review: 'Drowning Towers' by George Turner

1 / 5 Stars

George Turner (1916 - 1997) was an Australian author who published a number of scf-fi novels during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Many of these novels featured eco-catastrophe themes. 'Drowning' is the first Turner novel I've ever read.

I'm going to state up front: this book isn't very good. It was a chore to finish. 

First published in the UK in 1987, titled The Sea and Summer, this U.S. paperback version (387 pp.) was issued by AvoNova in December 1996. 

'Drowning' starts off on an awkward note by having an overly complicated narrative structure. It opens with a prologue set some 1,000 years in the future, a prologue intended to frame the main narrative (which is set in the mid-21st century). The prologue deals with the efforts of an actor named Andra to comprehend the lives of the residents of a since-submerged 'Towers' district of the city formerly known as Melbourne. Andra has ambitions to write, and perform in, a play based on the experiences of one particular Towers family.

Andra consults with an archeologist named Lenna, who in turn provides him with the draft of a novel she has written, a novel based on her retrieval of artifacts from said Towers. Andra and Lenna have philosophical discussions about the Fate of the Earth and the Role of Man in damaging the environment. Howevermuch author Turner intended these passages to adumbrate the major themes and concepts of the main narrative, they come across as overwritten and superfluous.

The narrative then moves to the primary plot, which relates the adventures of a group of Melbourne residents in AD 2041 (these are the people whose 'real life' records Lenna has used to compose her draft novel, which Andra is in turn using to write his play.......got it ?). We are introduced to the Conway family: Dad (his first name is never disclosed); Mum Alison; older son Teddy; and younger son Francis.

Global Warming has brought with it a rise in the sea levels and economic and ecological disaster. Australian society has been divided into two classes, the Haves (referred to as the 'Sweet') and the Have-Nots (the 'Swill'). The Sweet enjoy lives much like those of the middle class in the late 20th century, while the Swill are housed in 70-storey buildings - the Towers of the book's title - that make Chicago's infamous Cabrini-Green public housing projects look like paradise. The precarious socioeconomic structure of this dystopian Melbourne is governed by a secretive cabal of Sweet bureaucrats.

While the Conways have the good fortune to live as Sweet, fate is unkind, and soon they are forced to leave their comfortable existence among the Sweet and relocate to the Fringe, a slum district adjoining the Towers. There, they are forced into a partnership with one Billy Kovacs, the conniving, ruthless 'Boss' of Tower Twenty-three.

While the description of the downfall of the Conway family and their adjustment to their Reduced Circumstances has an engaging, Dickensian quality to it, the narrative then drops into stasis, and the novel transitions into a labored recounting of the maturation of Teddy and Francis and their efforts to reintegrate themselves into Sweet society. Additional characters and introduced, and their emotional and psychological interactions with the Conways are related using awkward descriptive prose and wooden dialogue. 

Layered onto these interactions are additional dialogue passages through which author Turner delivers lectures on the willful ignorance and arrogance of 20th century Man, and his role in bringing about the collapse of the ecosystem and thus, the cruel existence of the Swill. 

In the novel's closing chapters, the narrative finally resurfaces with the introduction of a Conspiracy against the Swill and the need for hard decisions on the part of Teddy, Francis, and their contacts among the bureaucracy of the Sweet. However, these closing chapters are just as overwritten as the preceding content, and I found the novel's denouement underwhelming.

The verdict ? In my opinion, the 'Drowning Towers' tries, but ultimately fails, in its intention to be an engaging eco-catastrophe novel. The plodding quality of its character-driven narrative requires too much patience on the part of the reader. The truth is, other writers have done this sub-genre of sf better, such as Trevor Hoyle with his 1983 novel 'The Last Gasp'.

Closing universities was a good idea

Why closing colleges and universities probably was a good idea
'Miss Manners' column, Washington Post, December 18, 2019