Monday, August 8, 2016

Battle for the Planet of the Apes Part II

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Part II of VII
by Doug Moench (script) and Alfredo Alcala (art)
Planet of the Apes (Marvel / Curtis) No. 24, September 1976


In this second installment of the series, Alfredo Alcala takes over the art chores from Sonny Trinidad and Vincente Alcazar. Not to fear; Alcala's art is amazing, and he takes special care in rendering the partially-melted faces of the radioactive wasteland's mutants !


Part One is here

Part Two is here.

Part Three is here.

Part Four is here.

Part Five is here.

Part Six is here.




















Friday, August 5, 2016

Book Review: Protectorate

Book Review: 'Protectorate' by Mick Farren


4 / 5 Stars

‘Protectorate’ (250 pp) was published by Ace Books in January 1985; the cover art is by Dan La Mountain. 

[A sequel, titled ‘Their Master’s War’, was published by Del Rey Books in 1987.]

‘Protectorate’ takes place several hundred years in the future, after Earth has been subjugated – with shocking swiftness – by a race of insectoid aliens known as the Wasps. A global plague, possibly introduced by the Wasps, has depopulated 80 % of the planet; the survivors live in one of the three massive cities left on Earth.

Resistance to the Wasps is futile. Not only do they wield technology considerably more advanced than that of Earth, but the Wasps also have the ability to sense hostility being directed their way by any human in close proximity – leading the Wasps to retaliate by causing the suspect’s skull to spontaneously implode...... !

In the largest of the three cities, a middle-aged man - known simply as the Protector - is the highest-ranking individual on Earth, for he is the planet’s sole interlocutor with the Wasps. The Protector’s every waking moment is preoccupied with placating the Wasps, and thus allowing mankind to continue to exist. To ensure that the city’s population is content with this status quo, the Protector is perfectly willing to allow his paramilitary police force, the so-called ‘Killers’, to brutally quash dissent.

As the novel opens, Jeen Vayim, a poet and storyteller, is down on his luck. His latest gig – appearing at the home of an aristocrat living in one of the opulent mansions of the Upper City – has not gone well. Vayim is obliged to return to the gritty warrens of the Lower City, and a stool at Denhagels Tavern, there to nurse a beer and ponder his dwindling finances.

Someone else is at the Tavern this night…..a charismatic young man surrounded by a cohort of beautiful, fawning women. The young man’s name is Gwyann, and his background is a mystery.

Jeen Vayim is ready to dismiss Gwyann as yet another cult leader hoping to find acolytes among the disadvantaged population of the Lower City. But as Vayim soon discovers, Gwyann is no ordinary back-alley prophet. For he has powers that allow him to defy the Wasps…..powers that are making the Protector, and his Killers, increasingly uneasy……..

‘Protectorate’ is one of the better non-cyberpunk sf novels of the 1980s. Author Mick Farren avoids the type of narrative that typified the ‘alien encounter’ sf of that era, as epitomized by the works of C. J. Cherryh, in which the struggle for human and alien to understand and comprehend each other eventually leads to mutual respect and comity. In ‘Protectorate’ the Wasps remain cryptic and unknowable, heightening the possibility that the actions of their truculent human subjects will trigger a devastating retaliation.

Farren also avoids making ‘Protectorate’ a simplistic novel about heroic earthlings rising up against their alien oppressors; righteousness is absent from the tiers of the city, as the warring factions commit all manner of atrocities in order to gain control of the city and influence with the Wasps.

The verdict ? If you like an offbeat novel about Earth under alien occupation, a novel with regular episodes of violence and mordant humor, then ‘Protectorate’ is worth getting.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Martelaine

Martelaine
by John Workman
from Heavy Metal magazine, August 1981


This is an offbeat little strip from an early 80s issue of Heavy Metal.

At first glance, 'Martelaine' seems like a satire of a 70s-era Romance comic, or maybe a satire of a cheesy T & A comic. But beneath the humor there is an underlying note of unease that comes to fruition in the final two panels of this black and white comic from John Workman (who was the art director for the magazine from 1977 - 1984). 

The overtone of creepiness is aided and abetted by Workman's economical, but carefully crafted, penciling of his heroine's facial expressions. 



Friday, July 29, 2016

The Champion

The Champion
by Doug Moench (story) and Dan Day
Special Studio, 1990




‘The Champion’ was completed in 1982 (Gene Day, who contributed to 'The Champion' and was the brother of Dan and David Day, all Canadian comics artists, died of a heart attack that same year). It wasn’t until three years later that it was published, in issue No. 33 of Marvel’s Epic Illustrated (December 1985). At the insistence of Epic Illustrated editor Archie Goodwin, the comic was shortened from 22 to 16 pages.

In 1990 Dan Day was able to have the entire story published in comic book format by Canadian publisher Special Studio.


Doug Moench's plot is overwrought and pretentious - in one panel, the external narration states that 'Molecules are disturbed' (?!) - but it's Day's artwork that really makes 'The Champion' one of the best comics of the 80s. 

Day's intricate pen- and- ink draftsmanship features some amazing shading and stippling effects, all this in the era before Photoshop:

Dan Day went on to pencil the Eclipse Comics series Aztec Ace, as well as the Cases of Sherlock Holmes series of comics for Canadian publishers Renegade / Northstar. Both series are well worth reading in order to further further acquainted with Day's artwork.

Posted below is 'The Champion' in its entirety.