Nightwings graphic novel

Nightwings
by Robert Silverberg, Cary Bates, and Gene Colan
DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel
1985

This 48-page DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel was published in 1985 and features cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz, interior art by Gene Colan, painted colors by Neal McPheeters, and lettering by Gaspar Saladino.

Silverberg's novella 'Nightwings' was published in 1969 and won the Hugo Award that same year. The adaptation for this graphic novel was done by Cary Bates.

Without disclosing any spoilers, I'll say that the graphic novel stays true to the novella, which in turn was Silverberg's effort to create a story that upended the traditional sci-fi narrative in which a heroic, square-jawed Terran rescues the distressed damsel from odious aliens. 

'Nightwings' takes place in a far-future Earth where civilization is in the grip of Entropy (very New Wave-ish) and deals with three misfits who join together to travel to 'Roum' (i.e., Rome). These outcasts are the Watcher, an elderly man who scans deep space for signs of danger; Gormon, a gengineered lizard-man who takes a dismissive view of society; and Avluela, a lithe young woman who can - at night-time - sprout wings from her back and take flight. Conveniently for this graphic novel, she does this in the nude.............

At the time he pencilled 'Nightwings', Gene Colan was moving away from the more traditional illustrative style of mainstream comics, and providing artwork that was looser and more abstract...............a style that incidentally was also easier, and quicker, to complete.

I can't say I find Colan's work for this graphic novel to be all that impressive. Indeed, that the artwork comes across reasonably well is due to the skill of painter McPheeters.

Summing up, Silverberg's novella is one of those rare New Wave-era pieces that has aged well, benefiting from an ending that had an unexpected, even 'shocking' tenor back in 1969. I can't say that this graphic novel adaptation represents a memorable treatment of the story, but if you are a fan of Silverberg's work and see it on the shelf of a used bookstore, you may want to pick it up. 

The Magic Goes Away graphic novel

The Magic Goes Away

Paul Kupperberg (story) and Jan Duursema (art)

DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel, 1986

'The Magic Goes Away' is DC Graphic Novel No. 6, published in 1986. It's based on a novella that Larry Niven published in 1976 in Odyssey magazine. Niven later reworked the novella and related stories for publication in a series of paperbacks issued by Ace Books (with black and white illustrations by Esteban Maroto), and small press publishers, all the way through 2012.

Not being a huge Larry Niven fan I never read the novella, but I was willing to read this graphic novel adaptation.

The plot revolves around a far-future Earth where magic has replaced science and the world is ruled by magicians, witches, and sorcerers. Unfortunately, mana - depicted as a natural resource - is dwindling, and with it the power of the mages. As the story opens a team of mages is bemoaning the shortage of mana and pondering ways to acquire more.

In their discourse, they are joined by a Conan the Barbarian lookalike named Orolandes, a survivor of the recent collapse of an entire civilization, and a man who therefore truly understands the dire implications of the magic 'going away'.

Orolandes and the mages decide that drastic action is needed, and set out for the summit of Mount Valhalla where, it is rumored, the ancient god of the Norsemen still retains a significant supply of mana..........a supply that will be used to replenish the mana on the Earth by bringing down the Moon...........

'The Magic Goes Away' is pretty awful. Given that the online reviews I've seen of Niven's novella are less than complimentary, I can believe that writer Kupperberg had his work cut out for him. But his script for the graphic novel is incoherent, so much so that at times I thought the page order had been screwed up by the DC editorial staff.

Most of the narrative is preoccupied with depicting conversations between the assorted mages and shamans and witches. It's a shame the writing is so miserable, because the artwork by Duursema, which even includes some 80s- style cheesecake, is well done.

The reviews of Niven's novella state that he wrote it to serve as an allegory for the shortage of fossil fuels that confronted the U.S. in the 1970s. Be that as it may, 'The Magic Goes Away' fails to impress either as an allegory or as a fantasy adventure in its own right. I can't recommend this graphic novel adaptation to anyone other than hardcore Niven fans.

Book Review: Daddy Cool

Book Review: 'Daddy Cool' by Donald Goines
Graphic Novel adaptation by Don Glut (script) and Alfredo Alcala (art)

 

celebrating Black History Month 2016

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we like to celebrate Black History Month by reading a book - fiction or non-fiction - that illuminates the Black Experience.

For Black History Month 2016, we're looking at the graphic novel of Donald Goines's 1974 novel Daddy Cool.

I first learned of this unique little book when a post about it appeared at the Museum of Uncut Funk website.

(The Museum of Uncut Funk is definitely a site to visit and bookmark, especially if you are a fan of black popular culture of the 70s).

The Daddy Cool graphic novel was published in 1984 by Holloway House, a small press company devoted to publishing the works of Goines and other black authors.

The graphic novel is a black-and-white, mass-market-sized paperback. There obviously are problems with adapting the artwork to this format. Those pages with just one or two panels will have a low-res, Ben-Day-dot appearance, while others with several panels are much more legible. 

Overall, however, the high quality of Alfredo Alcala's artwork impresses.

'Daddy Cool' opens in Flint, Michigan......it's the early 70s, and the water is safe to drink. But Flint is still a gritty, low-down industrial town, and Larry Jackson - aka Daddy Cool, ace hitman - is there to take care of some business. 

Daddy Cool prefers to work with knives, which he throws from close range. Daddy Cool is careful and methodical when he's on the job, knowing that the slightest mistake can earn him the electric chair. 

Off the job, however, Daddy Cool is prone to losing his temper. He don't take shit from anyone, least of all his beautiful, but headstrong daughter Janet; his wife Shirley; and her sons, Jimmy and Buddy. 

After a particularly heated confrontation with her father, Janet decides to run away from home and live with her boyfriend Ronald. But Ronald, as it turns out, is not the man she thought he was when she was dating him. For Ronald is a cruel and self-centered pimp.....and Janet is to be his ticket to easy street.

Daddy Cool decides that the best course for Janet is to receive Tough Love, in the form of a harsh education in the reality of the streets. But as the days go by, and Janet sinks ever deeper into degradation at the hands of her boyfriend, Daddy Cool will have to take action....violent action.....before Janet's humiliation is avenged.......

This graphic adaptation of Daddy Cool is by no means a comic book aimed at a juvenile readership; to the contrary, it depicts R-rated, Straight Up, Unapologetic Ghetto Action, which is precisely what Donald Goines hoped to achieve with his novels. If you are a fan of black writers like Goines, Chester Himes, Iceberg Slim, and Nathan C. Heard, then you'll want to pick up this graphic novel version of Daddy Cool.

Void Indigo

Void Indigo
by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik
Marvel Graphic Novel No. 11, 1984

During the 1970s, Steve Gerber was (along with Steve Englehart and Don McGregor) one of the most high-profile (some would say pretentious) writers at Marvel comics. After a dispute over revenue from Gerber’s creation ‘Howard the Duck’, Gerber left Marvel in 1978, with some degree of acrimony.

Marvel launched its series of Graphic Novels in 1982, with the premise that these novels would be open to publishing independently-produced, creator-owned publications, printed in an oversize format on quality paper with color separations that were considerably superior to those of the comic books of the time. Gerber set aside his past grievances with Marvel, and submitted a concept for a fantasy-themed story that had no similarities to any of his previous characters for the company. 

The result was Marvel Graphic Novel No. 11, ‘Void Indigo’, by Gerber and artist Val Mayerik, released in 1984.

‘Void’ starts in an ancient, sword-and-sorcery landscape, where four evil wizards find their kingdoms endangered by the onslaught of a savage barbarian tribe. In desperation, the wizards arrange for mass human sacrifices to restore their youth and power; however, this fails, and a fateful decision is made to kidnap and sacrifice Ath Agaar,the leader of the barbarians, and his consort.

I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that the wizards’ machinations disrupt the order of the cosmos. Across vast gulfs of time and space, their battle with a vengeful Ath Agaar will resume….in modern America.

‘Void’ features what were, at the time, rather graphic scenes of torture, mutilation, and violence – stuff that was unremarkable for its inclusion in ‘adult comics’ like Heavy Metal, but rather extreme for a graphic novel from a major comic book publisher. Nonetheless, the end of ‘Void’ was left open so that Gerber could continue the story in comic book format.

Epic Comics did indeed release two of a planned six issues of ‘Void Indigo’ in 1984 and 1985, but these first two issues were criticized by distributors and comic book critics, who decried the comic books’ violence. The remaining four issues never saw print.

 
‘Void Indigo’, the graphic novel, suffers to some extent from its open-ended conclusion. As well, some of its content might be considered misogynistic and overly violent.

My opinion ? It’s an interesting experiment in the graphic novel / comic medium, but as a creative work, it was stillborn in the sense that much of the content that already had appeared in Heavy Metal magazine was of superior quality and just as transgressive (if not more so…..I’m thinking of Arthur Suydam’s strip ‘Lulea’….), but much more stylish in its ‘transgressiveness’.

 
‘Void’ demonstrated that Marvel, when all was said and done, simply wasn’t willing to promote the edgier side of graphic art in the way that the European comic establishment did.

Iron Man: Crash

Iron Man: Crash
by Mike Saenz and Bill Bates
Marvel Comics Graphic Novel, 1988

'Iron Man: Crash' (72 pp) was published as a Marvel Graphic Novel in 1988. Along with the 65 pp graphic novel, there is a 7 page afterward featuring an essay from author Saenz, and descriptions of the computing procedures and software used to create the comic. 

Mike Saenz introduced the first computer-drawn comic book, the black and white Shatter, in February 1985 for First Comics. Shatter was composed using a MacIntosh PC. With the advent of the Mac II in 1987, Saenz was interested in using it to compose a more elaborate work, particularly in terms of deploying a full range of color, and arranged with Marvel editor Archie Goodwin to create 'Iron Man: Crash'.

'Crash' is set late in the 20th century. Tony Stark is 74 years old, but maintains a youthful physiology and appearance thanks to a regimen of anti-aging drugs. Stark Industries remains one of the world's top technology companies, and a major player in the international arms trade. 

Tony Stark intends to market his latest 'Iron Man' style technology - a sophisticated armor suite called the SAV - for use in industrial applications. Among the potential licensees is a Japanese conglomerate called ESON; Stark's decision to sell the SAV technology to ESON is not well received by Nick Fury, still the driving force at SHIELD, and a man wary of giving the Japanese an advantage in the highly competitive global technology market.

Stark's liberal stance is tested when, on a business trip to Japan to negotiate with ESON executives, he is attacked by unknown assailants.

Rather than taking Nick Fury's advice and flee Japan, Tony Stark decides that he will investigate the attack on his own - as Iron Man. And his newest suit of armor is more than a fighting machine......it possesses an array of devices that allow Stark access to the unique realm of Cyberspace......... 

'Iron Man: Crash' is one of the projects that sounded good in the planning, but failed in the execution. 

Even by the standards of the time, the artwork not very impressive. Most of the content of the novel was composed using the Mac II's graphics software (QuickDraw) and is necessarily low-res. 

A few panels feature more high-res imagery composed using Adobe Illustrator, as well as some CAD images of the Heli-carrier and vertibirds composed using Pro 3D. Regardless of the method used to draw the images, they all have a static, awkward quality that translates rather poorly into the inherently dynamic format of the comic book. 

A major drawback to 'Crash' is Saenz's writing. Many panels in the first part of the book are crammed with strings of pretentious 'tech' gobbledygook that's a chore to wade through.

The essay on 'The Making of Crash' that Saenz provides in the book's afterward also suffers from being less about informing the reader of the creative process and more about Saenz positioning himself as a sort of Tech Guru to the ignorant masses.

Given that Saenz' other major PC project during the mid-80s was the game MacPlaymate, which let the user place a Hand Icon onto certain regions of the anatomy of a rasterized drawing of a reclining nude woman (I'm not making this up - see screenshot below), this attitude seems more than a little pompous........

(For another review of 'Crash', see this link.)

The verdict ? 'Iron Man: Crash' is best regarded as an artifact from the pop culture of the late 80s, rather than a groundbreaking addition to the comic book / graphic novel canon. 

The PC-generated graphic novel 'Batman: Digital Justice', which was authored by Pepe Moreno, and came out in 1990, is better example of what artists were capable of doing at the dawn of the digital comics era.

Star Slammers

Star Slammers
by Walter Simonson
Marvel graphic Novel No. 6, 1983

Walter Simonson began working on his own sci-fi comic as a college student in the early 70s, producing a self-assembled, black-and-white version of 'Star Slammers' in 1974. Nine years later, Simonson arranged with Marvel to publish a color version of the book, as Marvel Graphic Novel No. 6.

Succeeding issues of the series appeared in the mid-to-late 1990s under Malibu Comics and Dark Horse. 

In 2014, indie publisher IDW released all of the Star Slammers comics as 'remastered' issues, and in 2015, plans to publish a trade paperback compiling all of this material.

So.....how is the inaugural graphic novel, looking on it more than 30 years after it first appeared ?

As the novel opens, three Star Slammers - Jalaia, Ethon, and Sphere - are finishing up an assignment on warring planet; it transpires that the Slammers are the toughest, most effective mercenaries in the galaxy.

The inhabitants of the planet Orion see themselves as 'hunters', destined to hunt other humans for sport, part of a grand design by Providence to remove the more savage and violent races from known space.

Senator Krellik of Orion is an ardent Hunter, and a psychopath, to boot. A long-ago hunting expedition on Homeworld, the remote home planet of the Slammers, has left him with a desire for vengeance - a fixation calling for the deaths of not just a few Slammers, but their entire race. 

As Ethon, Jalaia, and Sphere travel back to Homeworld, they discover that they have been betrayed.....and that Homeworld is the target of a massive attack by the Orion fleet. The only hope for the Slammers is to learn how to leverage their innate telepathic abilities to form the 'Silvermind', a type of instantaneous gestalt consciousness among all the Slammers.

Can Ethon, Jalaia, and Sphere make it back to Homeworld to warn its inhabitants of the approaching Orion fleet ? And even if they can, will the Slammers be able to summon the Silvermind in time to unite their forces against overwhelming odds ?

Reading 'Star Slammers' brought a mixed reaction. Simonson's artwork for the book certainly has the distinctive style that he brought to his work on franchise properties for DC and Marvel. Many of the pages of 'Slammers' reflect his ability to simultaneously render myriad action sequences within a network of large and small panels, giving these action sequences a unique sort of visual energy.

Where 'Slammers' is a bit less impressive is in its writing. Although the Marvel Graphic Novel format was a maximum of only 64 pages, Simonson tries to fit too many sub-plots and flashback sequences into his storyline, and, when combined with the lack of any sort of external narration, it gives the overall narrative an awkward, disjointed quality. I found I had to read 'Slammers' twice in order to fully understand what, exactly, was going on.

Summing up, if you're a die-hard Simonson fan, then getting a copy of this graphic novel - copies of which are reasonably priced - is worthwhile. However, fans of sf comics in general are probably not going to find 'Star Slammers' to be a must-have.

Sandkings graphic novel

Sandkings
The graphic novel
Adapted by Doug Moench (writer) and Pat Broderick (art)
DC Comics, 1987

George R. R. Martin is of course well-known to contemporary readers of sf and fantasy literature. 'Way back in the late 70s he was a rising star in sf, primarily due to his short stories. 

The August, 1979 issue of Omni magazine featured his story 'Sandkings'.

[A television adaptation of the story was later aired in 1995 on the Showtime anthology series The Outer Limits.]

In 1987, DC Comics published the graphic novel adaptation (48 pp), part of its series of sf-based graphic novels.

The main character in 'Sandkings' is a young, wealthy, man-about-town named Simon Kress. Kress is a sadist, who enjoys acquiring carnivorous aliens as pets ('....I feed my shambler a litter of kittens').

In search of a pet that is even more exotic and dangerous than the ones currently in his inventory, Kress acquires Sandkings, small ant-like creatures with considerable intelligence.

Kress sets up a large terrarium in his living room and soon begins to play 'God' to the Sandkings.

Kress invites his social circle to visit his home, to observe the Sandkings; this enhances his reputation among the city's smart set.

Kress embarks on an extensive series of 'bug wars', pitting his Sandkings against a variety of animals, all for increasing monetary stakes.

As the weeks roll past, Kress becomes increasingly obsessed with his unusual pets, an obsession that eventually edges into mania.

But his unhinged state has its consequences....and the Sandkings escape their cage. Kress is forced to confront the unpleasant possibility that his erstwhile pets are no longer his to command.....

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that for Simon Kress, things are going to get worse before they get better.....

The original 1981 paperback anthology that contained 'Sandkings' now fetches exorbitant prices, so this graphic novel may be a more affordable way of taking in the story. I can't say that Pat Broderick's artwork is well-suited to the story; its style is to representative of the type of artwork that appeared in 80s superhero titles. But overall, the graphic novel is a faithful adaptation of the story, which in its time was a worthy treatment of the alien / monster theme. if you're a fan of Martin's work, or a fan of 80s sf, then it's worth searching out.