Book Review: The War Hound and the World's Pain

Book Review: 'The War Hound and the World's Pain' by Michael Moorcock

 2 / 5 Stars

'The War Hound and the World's Pain' first was published in 1981 in the U.S. as a Timescape book (239 pp.) from Pocket Books, with cover art by Rowena Morrill. 

In August, 1983, the New English Library published a larger-size paperback version (198 pp.) for the U.K. market, with cover art by Chris Achilleos.

'War Hound' is the first volume in the so-called von Bek series, which concludes with 'The City in the Autumn Stars' (1986).

'War Hound' is set in Europe in the year 1631, in the midst of the Thirty Year's War. The protagonist, Captain Ulrich von Bek, is a soldier of fortune, serving various polities and religions depending who offers the most reliable pay. von Bek has no illusions about the sanctity of these religious wars, preferring to observe the mayhem with an attitude of calculated indifference. 

After participating in the notorious siege of the German city Magdeburg, von Bek finds his studied callousness disturbed by the atrocities visited upon the city's hapless people. He  decides to remove himself from the sphere of the War, and wanders into the deeper forests of Germany. There he comes across an unusually tranquil setting, a setting dominated by a resplendent castle.......with no living beings inside it. 

In due course an alluring woman named Sabrina arrives, attended by undead servants, and it becomes clear to von Bek that the castle and its environs are steeped in the supernatural. von Bek learns from Sabrina that the lord of the castle is none other than Lucifer himself. And Lucifer has a task for him..........a task that von Bek cannot refuse, on pain on being condemned forever to Hell.

Hoping to save his soul from Hell, and win the lady Sabrina, von Bek sets off across the known worlds and the world between the worlds. His journey will take him to the haunts of the Wild Hunt, encounters with a fanatical persecutor of heretics, and confrontations with demons and devils. For even though von Bek serves the aims of Lucifer, some of the creatures of Hell have their own reasons for wanting to see his quest fail...........

I found 'War Hound' to be a disappointment. 

Much of narrative (indeed, the first 50+ pages) is devoted to lengthy passages of dialogue in which the characters engage in philosophical discussions. The action sequences that are commonplace in Moorcock's older fantasy novels are effective, but reduced in number, in the pages of 'War Hound'. The only character with any sort of personality is one Philander Groot, who is an incarnation of Jerry Cornelius. 

It's not disclosing spoilers to say that Moorcock's aim with 'War Hound' is to compose a fantasy novel with a Message, the Message being that humanism is the only viable alternative to the dashed hopes that are integral to any religious belief. But the novel's approach to imparting this stance is overly labored, and, in the closing chapters, not very convincing. 

Each reader will of course have to draw his or her own conclusions as to whether they agree with Moorcock, but for me, the justification for replacing religion with humanism, as expounded in 'The War Hound and the World's Pain', seemed glib and facile. I finished the book content with providing a two-star Rating, and with no overwhelming desire to pursue the sequel. 

Defeat Comics: National Lampoon August 1971

Defeat Comics

from National Lampoon, August 1971

The My Lai Massacre, which took place on March 16, 1968, and resulted in the deaths of some 504 South Vietnamese civilians, was very much in the news in 1971, when in March of that year a court-martial found Second Lieutenant William Laws Calley Jr. guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison.

Calley subsequently was freed in 1974, but the counterculture - of which National Lampoon was a part - used the My Lai massacre to heighten its condemnation of the Vietnam War.

The August, 1971 issue of the Lampoon went all-out with mordant, militant humor over the Vietnam War, with Frank Kelly Freas commissioned to provide a cover portrait of William Calley, as merged with 'Alfred E. Neumann' from Mad magazine.

Inside, writer Michael O'Donoghue provided 'Defeat Comics', a vicious satire of the war comics from Marvel, DC, and Charlton then circulating on newsstands. O'Donoghue teamed up with George Trow and artist 'Crag W. Granite', a pseudonym for the established comics artist Frank Springer. Heightening the comic's subversive sensibility was the fact that Springer did artwork for Marvel comics, including Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

With its depictions of all-American boys morphed into G.I.s who are war profiteers, junkies, stoners, and antiwar activists, 'Defeat Comics' encapsulated the counterculture's attitude towards the war.......... and was laugh-out-loud funny in the bargain. 

Although the faux advertisement for 'Lt. Calley's Kill the Children Foundation', and 'Madame Ky's Puzzle Page', are ghoulishly over-the-top.......

Interview with Artist Jean Michel Nicollet

Interview with Artist Jean Michel Nicollet

VICE France, November 2019

Among the most memorable pieces to appear in Metal Hurlant and Heavy Metal during the late 1970s and early 1980s were those from the French artist Jean Michel Nicollet (b. 1944). 

Sadly, a book compiling Nicollet's artwork for French paperback publishers such as Neo, his work for magazines, and studio art pieces, remains to be published.

In November of 2019 the French version of the VICE website published an interview with Nicollet, conducted by Félix Macherez. The interview was done in French, but the Google Translate English version is quite comprehensible. It offers some interesting insights into the founding days of Metal Hurlant and the scope and scale of Nicollet's work for paperback publishers (for example, he made over 400 drawings, and 200 covers, for NEO). Well worth reading !

Book Review: Dark Stars

Book Review: 'Dark Stars' by Thomas F. Monteleone

3 / 5 Stars

'Dark Stars and Other Illuminations' (181 pp.) was published by Doubleday / Science Fiction Book Club in April, 1981. As best as I can tell, no mass-market paperback edition ever was published.

Thomas F. Monteleone (b. 1946) began publishing sci-fi in 1975 when his novel 'Seeds of Change' was an entry in Harlequin Book's Laser Books imprint. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he produced novels and short stories in a variety of genres. In the 1990s he was the editor for the successful 'Borderlands' horror and dark fantasy anthologies. He remained active through the 2010s in specialty press and eBook publications.

'Dark Stars' collects shorts stories, novellas, and plays, all first seeing print in the 1970s and early 1980s in anthologies such as 'Chrysalis' (Zebra Books), 'Shadows', and 'New Voices'.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Roger Zelazny provides the Introduction, and each piece in turn has a preface from Monteleone in which he gives insights into his progress as a writer, and the inspiration for the story.

The Star-Filled Sea Is Smooth Tonight (1977): a space pilot, traumatized by the removal of his Virtual Reality implants, searches for healing. Monteleone recycled this story, retitled 'Prodigal Son', as his contribution to the 1991 vampire anthology 'Under the Fang'.

The Curandeiro (1977): in Brazil, strange things are going on in the village where a 'faith healer' has set up shop. An imaginative story and one of the better ones in the anthology.

Present Perfect (1974) a humorous tale about the cruel reality of the Slush Pile.

Just in the Niche of Time (1978): Frank Vecchio is being squeezed by the Mob. He finds succor in a most unusual way. Another humorous tale.

Mister Magister (1978): in his preface to this story Monteleone states that it was an effort to emulate the tenor of the television show The Twilight Zone, as the piece was to be published in an anthology celebrating Rod Serling's production. Like too many episodes of the show, 'Magister' has a preachy, overwrought quality that doesn't appeal to me.

Mister Magister: A Play on One Act (1978): this is a stage / teleplay Monteleone wrote based on the abovementioned story.

Camera Obscura (1977): when an explosion deprives renowned photographer Fred Lieberman of his sight, he receives sophisticated implants that restore his vision.......but show him things he never before has seen. This story tries in a very earnest manner to say something profound about Art, Loss, and the Human Condition. 

Where All the Songs Are Sad (1978): vacationing with relatives in Sicily, Vincent Manzara learns about a troubling segment of the clan's history. A 'quiet' horror story that has sufficient punch in its closing pages to be successful.

The Dancer in the Darkness (1979): Paul, a slacker enjoying doing nothing of import while living in Cordoba, Spain, meets an alluring young woman named Lisa who is infatuated with flamenco dancing.

Like 'Where Are All the Songs Are Sad', this story is well-written and offers local color. But the melding of flamenco dancing and the supernatural is simply too mild a combination to make this tale a memorable treatment of the dark fantasy genre.

Taking the Night Train (1981): Ralphie Loggins is the club-footed barker for a strip bar on 42nd Street in New York City in the good, great days of the Sleazoid Express era. Riding the subway late at night, Ralphie sees something unusual......and decides to investigate......

This story starts off on a promising note, hinting at what might be a Clive Barker-ish journey into urban horror. But then, disappointingly, it goes off into retold Myth territory, in the same manner as Harlan Ellison did with his story 'On the Slab' (also which came out in 1981). 

For me, the best part of 'Taking the Night Train' is the preface, in which Monteleone relates his horror at the state of 42nd Street and Times Square when he visited the city in the early 1980s:

What I discovered was a shock to the precious memories of wide-eyed youth. The place was filthy with trash, human and otherwise. All the first-run movie theaters were still there, but they were being crowded by sleazy little shops, hawking everything from crappy New York souvenirs to the full range of dope paraphernalia......there were also packs of derelicts, greasy-looking teenagers, and other variations of bad dudes......Massage parlors, 'adult' bookstores, peep shows, and topless bars had proliferated over the place like flies. It was the old Sodom and Gomorrah shtick........

One wishes Monteleone had arranged to have Bill Landis and Josh Alan Friedman ('Tales of Times Square') along as tour guides ! 

Summing up, 'Dark Stars' reflect the state of science fiction during the New Wave era, and horror fiction, during the Quiet Horror era. Editors favored submissions that centered on mood, characterization, atmosphere, and setting. Plotting was subordinate, and depictions of explicit violence and horror discouraged. These pieces by Monteleone met those criteria. 

Although arguably there are more calories in a single page of a Joe Lansdale or William Gibson story than in any of the entire stories in 'Dark Stars', if you are someone who embraces the writing style of the New Wave and Quiet Horror eras, then you will find 'Dark Stars' worth searching out.

The Judge Dredd Collection

The Judge Dredd Collection

IPC Magazines, Ltd., 1985

My local comic book store occasionally has some really off-the-wall items scattered around its shelves along with the inevitable X-Men and Superman and Dog Boy stuff.

So it was that recently, I picked up a trade paperback collection of Judge Dredd newspaper strips - ! 

In August 1981, the 2000 AD character had achieved sufficient recognition for the magazine's editors to arrange for a weekly Judge Dredd strip to run in the UK tabloid newspaper the Daily Star.

The Star was (and is) not an exemplar of 'journalism', but rather, an exemplar of Fleet Street. It ran (and continues to run) pictures of scantily-clad models, along with gossip and all manner of provocative articles (the kind that elicit libel lawsuits). So it was a natural home for Judge Dredd, and indeed, writer John Wagner did his best to make the strip reflect the irreverent, acidic tenor of the 2000 AD magazine, with no watering down of content. The strip was very successful, and ran until 1998.

There are five 'Judge Dredd Collection' trade paperbacks from IPC, which compile the comic strips originally appearing in the Star.

In 2014, Rebellion reissued the strips, packaged in two chunky, 350-page hardcovers, as Judge Dredd: The Daily Dredds, Volumes One and Two. 

I've posted scans of some selected strips from 'The Judge Dredd Collection'. 

One thing that is readily apparent to any U.S. reader is that the liberal editorial standards of the Star allow for the type of content that never would have been approved by the syndicates that provide comic strips to American newspapers. 

The facetiousness, and violent actions, of the Dredd dailies in the Star are much too coarse and transgressive for the delicate sensibilities of American readers.

It's also clear that Wagner understood the limitations of writing weekly strips, with a limit of 10 panels. His stories are cogent and effective and filled with a uniquely British sense of humor. 

And Ron Smith was a gifted artist who understood the need to keep his drawings legible, while at the same time, rendering faces and expressions with a brilliance akin to that of the golden age of newspaper strip artists such as Alex Raymond (Rip Kirby), Leonard Starr (Mary Perkins, On Stage), Dale Messick (Brenda Starr) and Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates).

If you can find affordable copies of the Judge Dredd Collection, get 'em. They are a lot of fun !

Book Review: Elric of Melnibone

Book Review: 'Elric of Melnibone' by Michael Moorcock

5 / 5 Stars

It's been 50 (!) years since the first publication of 'Elric of Melnibone', so I recently sat down with a copy of the DAW Books paperback edition (160 pp.), which was published in October, 1976, and features a cover illustration by Michael Whelan. 

I last read this novel some 30 or more years ago, so I was overdue to revisit it, particularly as this month, Simon and Schuster is publishing a brand-new Elric novel, 'The Citadel of Forgotten Myths', in hardcover.

The Elric character first appeared in a set of stories published during the early 1960s in the UK magazine Science Fantasy. These later were compiled into various paperback editions for publishers in the UK and the US. The stories that constitute 'Elric of Melnibone' were gathered into a 1972 paperback from Lancer Books, titled 'The Dreaming City'. Moorcock didn't approve of the title, nor the editorial changes, made to 'The Dreaming City', and thus the 1976 DAW version represents that which Moorcock approves. 

Trying to keep track of the various printed incarnations of the Elric canon is.........a formidable task. It's best, probably, either to collect the five-volume paperback series published in 1976 - 1977 by DAW Books (although these copies increasingly are rare and thus, expensive) or to acquire the various omnibus editions, such as the Science Fiction Book Club / Doubleday hardbacks, which are titled 'The Elric Saga' Parts I and II. More recently, Saga / Gallery Press issued the Elric novels in deluxe hardback editions, featuring color illustrations.

Anyways, on to 'Elric of Melnibone'. After reading some pretty lengthy fantasy novels (such as 'Shardik') over the past few months, I was quite pleased with the shorter length of Moorcock's novel. I appreciated the concise nature of the prose, the succinct approach to world-building, and the regular insertion of various action sequences into the plot. 

What is most noticeable upon a re-reading of 'Elric' are the sharp, nasty little episodes of cruelty and violence that are inserted into the narrative, such as the actions of the Court Torturer, Doctor Jest:

.....the scalpel he held was thin, too, almost invisible save when it flashed in the light from the fire which erupted from a pit on the far side of the cavern.

Dr. Jest returned to his charges and, reaching out with his free hand, expertly seized the genitals of one of the male prisoners. The scalpel flashed. There was a groan. Dr. Jest tossed something into the fire. Elric sat in the chair prepared for him. He was bored rather than disgusted by the rituals attendant upon the gathering of information and the discordant screams, the clash of the chains, the thin whisperings of Dr. Jest, all served to ruin the feeling of well-being he had retained even as he reached the chamber.

These quasi-splatterpunk episodes, along with the moral ambiguities of Elric's dealings with the various gods and devils of his worlds, emphasize how 'transgressive' these stories were for the time period in which they appeared. Indeed, in the early 1960s the Conan novels were known only to a relatively circumscribed group of readers, and fantasy fiction was limited to children's adventures, such as T. H. White's 'The Once and Future King', and of course, Tolkien. Those with a particularly driving interest in fantasy during the 1950s and 1960s might have been familiar with the novels of Fletcher Pratt, or C. S. Lewis's 'Narnia' novels. 

All of these authors and their works were at the time designated as suitable for children and young adults. And of course, none of the these authors fostered the melding of the numinous with the depraved in the manner that Moorcock did with his Elric pieces.

I finished 'Elric of Melnibone' thinking, not for the first time, that Moorcock delivered an engaging story in the span of just 160 pages, while so many contemporary fantasy novels can't do half as much, in the span of novels of 500 or more pages. 

In closing, if you haven't yet read 'Elric of Melnibone' and the other volumes in the series, now is a good time to start. 

Exterminator 17: The Ellis Trilogy

Exterminator 17: The Ellis Trilogy

by Enki Bilal, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and Igor Baranko

Titan Books, 2018

'Exterminator 17' (240 pp.) was published in hardcover by Titan Comics in 2018. It's a compilation (integrale) of both old and new comics / bandes dessinées featuring the eponymous android.

'Exterminator 17', written by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and illustrated by Enki Bilal, debuted in Metal Hurlant issue 11 (November 1976). In 1978 and 1979, an English translation was serialized in Heavy Metal, and became one of the best comics to appear in the early issues of that magazine. 

Originally printed in black and white, 'Exterminator 17' was colored when compiled into a graphic novel by Catalan Communications in 1986, as was the hardcover graphic novel issued by Titan Comics in 2002.

In 2003 Dionnet decided to revisit the franchise, this time with Igor Baranko as the artist. Three albums des bandes dessinees were ultimately released in this 'Ellis' trilogy: L'Alliance ('The Alliance') in 2003; Retour à Ellis ('Back to Ellis') in 2004; and Des Larmes de Sang ('Tears of Blood') in 2008. 

English translations of the Ellis trilogy, as well as the original Exterminator 17 story, titled simply 'Rebirth', all are included in this 2018 Titan Books edition. The book also features interviews with Dionnet and Barank, alternate covers, and promotional art pieces.

[ Somewhat confusingly, all the English language graphic novels share the main title Exterminator 17, so you have to use the date of publication (and the page count) to figure out just what the contents of a given printing actually consist of.......... ]

The color scheme for the four stories is unattributed, but relies heavily on earth tones. As for the art, Barank does as good a job as anyone could in terms of trying to mimic the style of Bilal's artwork for the original installment of the franchise.

In his interview, Barank reveals that illustrating the Ellis trilogy was not easy, mainly because Dionnet was somewhat capricious in his dedication to the project, thus leaving Baranko without instructions for long stretches of time. Unfortunately, this means that the Ellis trilogy has a disconnected, haphazard quality. 

Indeed, Exterminator 17 spends most of his time off-screen in the first episode of the 'Ellis' trilogy. Most of the narrative is devoted to fleshing out the planet of Ellis, which is a kind of multinational European world. Dionnet apparently was intent on suffusing the trilogy with a 'Sicilian' sensibility and thus, the main adversary for Exterminator 17 is a nobleman named Don Alessandro, who rules with a mixture of ruthlessness and guile.

The succeeding issues of the trilogy place the Exterminator more firmly into the plot. But, while the Ellis episodes deliver some well-composed fight scenes and some striking visual imagery on Baranko's part, as a whole, the trilogy is a disappointment. I won't disclose spoilers, but particularly in the closing pages, Dionnet demonstrates he was tired of the 'Ellis' enterprise, and opts for a glib and unconvincing conclusion that reinforces the ad hoc quality of his scripting efforts throughout the whole trilogy.

Summing up, only the most diehard fans of the Exterminator 17 franchise are going to find 'The Ellis Trilogy' to be rewarding. My advice is, stick with the 1976 installment, as it stands on its own as an imaginative piece of 1970s sci-fi.  

At Hobart

At Hobart
November, 2022

Hobart, New York, is a strange little place. It's a 'middle-of-nowhere' sort of place. 

It's a hamlet in Delaware County, about a half-hour drive east from Oneonta. To get to Hobart, you take a scenic drive on two-lane blacktop roads that wind through the Catskill mountains and landscapes showcasing valleys, rolling fields, and farmhouses. And a power line maintenance depot (below). 

Hobart's Main Street, which isn't very long, has - depending on the source - anywhere from five to eight used book stores, all operating out of repurposed residential and commercial buildings (the site of Liberty Rock Books, pictured above, is a former car dealership / garage).

I went there on a rainy, stormy Saturday after Thanksgiving. I found some nice old paperbacks (below) in Liberty Rock Books. 

I didn't have sufficient time to check out the other stores on the main street, but I think I will return to Hobart in the future. 

Other than the bookstores there's not much else in Hobart, besides a little antiques place and a Mirabito gas station. If you want a restaurant meal, or overnight lodging, you'll likely have to head north up Route 10 to Stamford. So a visit to Hobart is best approached as an all-day affair dedicated solely to looking at books............

Book Review: Blue World

Book Review: 'Blue World' by Robert R. McCammon

 4 / 5 Stars

'Blue World' (435 pp.) was published by Pocket Books in April, 1990, and features cover art by James Warren. The book is long out of print, and good-condition copies are highly priced. I was able to get a beat-up copy for $8.

Robert R. McCammon (b. 1952) is arguably the most commercially successful of the splatterpunks, with many of his novels, starting with 'Baal' in 1978, published by such well-known paperback publishers as Avon and Pocket Books. Others of his novels have been published in hardback by firms such as Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. Since 2002, McCammon has focused on historical thrillers featuring his character Matthew Corbett.

'Blue World' is an anthology of 12 short stories written by McCammon during the interval from 1981 to 1990, some of these seeing print first in other anthologies, or Twilight Zone magazine. Also included in 'Blue World' is an eponymous novel.

[A reprint of 'Blue World', featuring three additional stories, was issued by Subterranean Press in 2015.]

My capsule summaries of the contents of 'Blue World':

Yellowjacket Summer: Jerome Bixby's It's A Good Life, with nasty vespids. 

Makeup: petty thief Calvin Doss heists a makeup case formerly owned by the horror film actor Orlon Kronsteen. There are consequences. A fun story, with a fun ending.

Doom City: Brad wakes up from a bad dream, only to find reality is even worse.

Nightcrawlers: just when it's dark and stormy, Bad Company arrives at a diner in the Alabama countryside. 

Yellachile's Cage: prison, and a Magic Negro. McCammon shows he can do the theme as well as, if not better, than Stephen King.

I Scream Man ! : a Twilight Zone - style tale set in what seems to be an idyllic suburban neighborhood.

He'll Come Knocking at Your Door: life in Dan Burgess's suburban Alabama neighborhood is really nice.....maybe too nice. A nice treatment of the 'deal with the Devil' theme.

Chico: in a sweltering tenement apartment, the odious Marcus Salomon copes with the unfairness of life. The story's subdued splatterpunk flavoring works well with its offbeat premise. One of the best entries in the anthology.

Night Calls the Green Falcon: an elderly man who portrayed a costumed hero in prewar serials decides to reprise his role in the seedy landscape of modern Los Angeles. This story fulfills its goal of being an affectionate homage to the heroes of the Pulp Era (one character is named Lester Dent). 

Pin: a psycho, and his monologue. Not that exciting.

The Red House: in a joyless Factory Town, the arrival of an eccentric family brings with it an appreciation for Diversity, and the awareness that Being Different can be a Good Thing. 

The virtue messaging in this story is very earnest (the eccentric family obviously are stand-ins for Black People). 

Something Passed By: the End of the World comes to a small Nebraska town. Imaginative, and another of the better entries in the anthology.

Blue World: Father John Lancaster, a priest at the Cathedral of Saint Francis, befriends Debbie Stoner, a beautiful but witless young woman who works in the porno industry in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Things get quite complicated when Father John's emotions turn from the brotherly to the romantic, emotions reciprocated by Debbie. Father John finds himself distressed by the tension between his priestly avocation, and his infatuation with an adult film star. 

Making things worse, a serial killer is leaving corpses strewn in the Tenderloin........and he has a particular interest in Debbie Stoner........ 

'Blue World' is an effort by McCammon to write a novel devoid of supernatural trappings, focusing on Humanistic Issues and Psychological Suspense. 

The novel starts promisingly, with a man reading a Slash Maraud comic book inside of a XXX Live Show Theatre. But the remaining narrative never fulfills the early promise. It tends to lumber along, handicapped by its low-gear prose (on wet pavement, neon lights stream like the rivers of Hell; leg muscles scream; grins are big-toothed; when people sweat, they sweat cold sweat; voices take on a hint of acid, etc., etc.) and a sense of indecision as to whether it's meant to be a suspense novel with Melodrama, or a Melodrama novel with suspense.........  

The verdict on the anthology 'Blue World' ? There are enough good stories to justify a four-star rating. I will note that over at Too Much Horror Fiction, Will Errickson was much less impressed with the book than I was. Let's just say that McCammon fans will want to have a copy in their collection.

'Stranger' by Shakatak

'Stranger' by Shakatak

Looking through the old singles charts for the UK always is interesting. 

For the last half of November, 1982, at position No. 53 we find the single 'Stranger', from the band Shakatak.

According to their Wikipedia entry, Shakatak was a jazz-fusion band, formed in 1980 by Nigel Wright and Kev Roberts. 'Stranger' was a track on the band's second album, Invitations. 

'Stranger' is a very listenable song, a well-composed jazz / disco fusion number with silky smooth guitar and piano motifs. 

Shakatak continues to record and release, issuing the studio album In the Blue Zone in 2019, and the live album Live in Lockdown in 2021.