The DC Spirit - First Wave Part Two!

Following the mini-series The First Wave, The Spirit is awarded a second DC series which begins with a new number one. The first issue features an alternative cover by Mark Shultz who also writes the first three issues. Ladronn is the primary cover artist and does a magnificent job for most all of the series. The interior artist is Moritat who gives us a gritty but potent and atmospheric Central City, just right for crime. The Octopus is in this one but reimagined as the mysterious leader of eight crime families. The tone is more serious as The Spirit must fight for his life and the lives of his allies. In this one Ebony White is reimagined as a woman, a tough and sassy young lady who gives as good as she gets. The Spirit is also assisted by a what I dub the "Central City Irregulars", a gang of street kids who feed him info. Commissioner Dolan is presented as somewhat more corrupt police man but one finds his way in a dangerous environment. Ellen is present and empowered as well. 

David Hine takes over as the writer and remains steadfast alongside the artists for most of the run. We get some hard-hitting stories about drugs and their deadly effects. 

In the first nine issues of this run each issue also included an black and white short story back-up by a wide range of talents including writers Denny O'Neil, Harlan Ellison, Michael Uslan, Marv Wolfman, David Lapham, Brian Azzarello, Jan Strnad, Walter Simonson, and Paul Dini. The artists were Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, Justiniano, Phil Winslade, Mike Kaluta, Eduardo Risso, Rich Corben, Jordi Bernet, and Mike Ploog. 

Hine and Moritat continue with their ongoing saga of The Spirit's battle against The Octopus gangs. The mystery of the Octopus is never solved though, and I guess we'll just have to live with that. 

Matthew Sturges and Victor Ibanez step in for one issue which offers up a light-hearted romp all about the tragic death of a cartoonist and original art. 

John Paul Leon steps in on the art for the penultimate issue. 

The final issue features a trio of short stories in black and white by writers Howard Chaykin, Paul Levitz, and Will Pfeifer. The artists are Brian Bolland, P. Craig Russell and Jose Luis-Garcia Lopez. The comic looks magnificent. 

I'm not aware that any of these issues were ever offered up in trades, but they should be. The black and white stories would make for a true-blue all-star offering of some great Spirit stories. And that wraps up The Spirit's stay at DC in new stories with a single exception produced in conjunction with IDW. But more on that later. 

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Repent Prankster!

The Prankster was a one-shot back-up hero who has a lot of charm, mostly because of the delicious artwork of Jim Aparo. As you can see above this wacky yarn deals with a colorful hero who is a freedom fighter in the dystopic city of Ultropolis which is ruled by a ruthless dictator named Bane. 

The Prankster was created by "Sergius O'Shaugnessy" (Denny O'Neil) and Jim Aparo for what turned out to be the final issue of Charlton's Thunderbolt, issue #60. No more T-Bolt, and alas no more Prankster would ever be created for the Derby Publisher. We would never know about "The Vengeance of the Wratt!". 

The Prankster though clearly seems to have been inspired by Harlan Ellison's classic short story "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" which was first published in Galaxy in 1965.

It was adapted to comics in 1975 in the third issue of Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction. The story was adapted by Roy Thomas and drawn in his own highly exotic style by Alex Nino. I love Nino generally, but I find his storytelling lacking here, much too difficult to follow. I'll take Jim Aparo's more straightforward approach anytime. But that's not all. 

"'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman!" is maybe my favorite Harlan Ellison story. As a parable of the modern day this dystopic tale captures the soul-destroying incessant race to nowhere which typifies most of modern life it reminds us, one and all that apple carts are made mostly to be upturned. It's the best way for any of us, all of us to find ourselves and others in a reality which seems increasingly bent on its own self-immolation. I savor the jellybeans the Harlequin sends down in a rain of delirious nonsensical pointlessness save for the utter necessity of pointlessness itself. Jim Steranko caught some aspect of that always instant in time when he attempted to capture the sheer madness of the story and convert it images which made you feel the same sort of thing.

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Starlost - The Novels!

Phoenix Without Ashes was Harlan Ellison's original title for the debut story of The Starlost. It was changed to "Voyage of Discovery" which is not as poetic certainly. And that seems to be Ellison's most potent complaint against this show which was birthed from his ideas, that it loses its way by consistently playing down to its audience. More recent years have proven Ellison right, that TV fans and sci-fi fans in particular might well be receptive to shows that challenge them a might, that require more of them than an hour of their time. 

The novelized version of the script was expanded by Edward Bryant, a capable science fiction writer in his own right and well capable of taking the story of an outcast Amish man who doesn't fit into his society and eventually finds that his whole world is not what anyone thought it was. The is a story about seeking the truth and the novel spends more time inside Devon's head making him a somewhat more complex and consequently more fascinating character. We get to share his doubts, something the TV show almost never does. 

And we get to see aspects of human existence which were weirdly forbidden on television in those days. Not only does Devon love Rachel, but it's evident they have a physical relationship. On the TV show his love is more ethereal, more of the twin-souls variety and in the book it's that and more. One memorable scene when Devon finally leaves his Cypress Corners habitat is that his physical needs, to eat and urinate are considered, giving the sense of a greater span of time. 

The novel shows us what the show might've been in another time and place and it does enhance our understanding of what we're seeing when we watch the show itself. 

But that's not all. 

Ben Bova was as science adviser for the ill-fated sci-fi show The Starlost. This was a series regarded as an epic fail in the genre because those in command refused to pay attention to the experts they hired and like so many TV projects worked purely from the motive of profit and not art. No begrudges the making of profit, but when that profit comes by low-balling all the costs of production as opposed to doing the best job possible then it's understandable that the work might be held in low regard. And that's the case with Bova and this show, so he worked out his angst by creating a delightful satire about the whole affair entitled The Starcrossed.

The story is set in the early twenty-first century future as seen from 1975 and it's a different world in many ways, but in detail. The obsession with fads has quickened and the world is a dirty polluted territory but made bearable by artificial images and scents. In this America is a conniving TV producer who is about to go under and in a desperate gamble contacts "Ron Gabriel", the Harlan Ellison wannabe and in this story a notorious science fiction writer and quixotic personality to create a new sci-fi show. Gabriel is down on his luck too, though always able to find a date with a lithesome beauty, and so goes for it and fashions in a whirl if energy a yarn translating Romeo and Juliet into outer space.

The narrative of The Starcrossed is told from multiple perspectives but our core tale is of a scientist and engineer who has invented a new 3-D technique which is the real selling point of this new show. His naive introduction to the manipulation and dishonesty of Hollywood shapes much of the attitude the story is attempting to communicate. There back-biting executives and a lovely girl who has secrets within secrets. Few are what they seem in this tale and that's the way the world is supposed to be. When the production heads to Canada to cut costs the shenanigans have only begun and a show which was supposed to be great is now intended to fail for the good of the company.

There are good laughs to had in this one, and I even laughed out loud a few times, a real accomplishment for text in my experience. Bova doesn't really let anyone off the hook, and neither does he rob anyone of a fundamental humanity. Even the loathsome figures are motivated in a such a way as to make us understand. Satires are always about the here and now despite the fact they almost always are set in faraway times and places. So it is with The Starcrossed.

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The Starlost - The Television Series!

I've heard about The Starlost for most of my life, but I'd never seen an episode of this notorious science fiction series. My knowledge was most likely a result of reading and reading about Harlan Ellison, the sci-fi writer who concocted the story this series is based on and who wrote the script for the debut episdoe. The Starlost is considered by some to be the worst science fiction series ever and I can vouch that it's not that.

But the guy who first thought it all up was not happy and was so unhappy in fact that he had his named removed and this standby identity of "Cordwainer Bird" punched in to fill the void. Ellison tells the tale of how he was much abused (Ellison is always much abused in his stories) by the folks who wanted to produce this show and how they made promises they either couldn't or had no intention of keeping. I'll take a look at the novel he made with Ed Bryant some time later which presumably puts forth his rendition of this story. But first here's the show.

We meet Devon, an iconoclastic member of an Amish sect which finds its world oddly circumspect. With a limited territory and a limited sky and a limited population the village uses authoritarian techniques to keep the balance. Devon does not fit in, he wants to marry Rachel the girl he loves despite the fact she is promised to another, his friend in fact, a blacksmith named Garth. Devon's confrontations withe powers result in his isolation but he never relents and eventually discovers that all is not what it seems. This Amish clan is floating in space and they don't even know it.

The first episode shows how Devon begins to find the truth and how when he tries to share that truth with his people he is yet again condemned. The three friends end up outside the society and together begin to learn the real truth of their existence. Some of that truth is that they live on a great Ark, a spaceship which was borrowed from the Bruce Dern film Silent Running.

I didn't find The Starlost to be all that bad, a tendency to be dull but certainly possessing special effects typical of the era. Most of the dullness is in the oddball flat way the acting is done. All the actors seem to do it, to demonstrate general lethargy punctuated by moments of furious activity, so I think it must have been intended.  Perhaps they confused ponderous silence with presumed wisdom, but whatever the case it hurts the viewing. As the series tumbles along it does tweak with its look and premise a bit, and toward the end seems to treat our trio of stalwarts as folks more comfortable with technology. That's natural of course, but it felt more like a reboot than an evolution. I've seen worse.

More on The Starlost tomorrow. 

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Dangerous Visions!

I've finally done it. I've finally read all of the 1967 anthology Dangerous Visions edited by the rambunctious Harlan Ellison. For science fiction fans of a certain age this is who's who in the field. It's a crossroads of sorts with plenty of classic names from science fiction's "Golden Age" such as Asimov, Del Rey, Sturgeon, and Pohl. And fresher faces who went on to become a new generation of renowned talents such as Spinrad, Zelazny and Delany. And lots of talents who fall in between such as Farmer, Knight and Dick. The collection garnered two Hugos and two Nebulas for the stories within. Not a bad showing at all for novice editor Harlan Ellison.  

As much as I enjoy Ellison's fiction, I think I prefer his nonfiction better. And this collection offers up some dazzling little essays introducing the various talents. His snark is full on display as he praises and pinches the writers within. Those who are his friends get especially sharp barbs. Each story is also accompanied by an afterword from the author. They range from a single sentence to much larger reflections. 

Here is the table of contents: 

"Foreword 1 - The Second Revolution" by Isaac Asimov'

"Foreword 2 - Harlan and I" by Asimov

"Thirty-Two Soothsayers" (Introduction) by Harlan Ellison

"Evensong" by Lester Del Rey

"Flies" by Robert Silverberg

"The Day After the Martians Came" by Frederick Pohl

"Riders of the Purple Wage" by Phillip Jose Farmer (Hugo for bet novella)

"The Malley System" by Miriam Allen de Ford

"A Toy for Juliette" by Robert Bloch

"The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World" by Harlan Ellison

"The Night that All Time Broke Out" Brian W. Aldiss
"The Man Who Went to the Moon -- Twice" by Howard Rodman

"Faith of Our Fathers" by Philip K. Dick

"The Jigsaw Man" by Larry Niven

"Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Lieber (Hugo and Nebula for best Novelette)

"Lord Randy, My Son" Joe L. Hensley

"Eutopia" by Poul Anderson

"Incident in Moderan" and "The Escaping" by David R. Bunch

"The Doll-House" by Hugh Jones Parry

"Sex and/or Mr. Morrison" by Carol Emshwiller

"Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" Damon Knight

"If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Ted Sturgeon

"What Happened to Auguste Clarot?" by Larry Eisenberg

"Ersatz" by Henry Slesar

"Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird" by Sony Dorman

'The Happy Breed" by John Sladek

"Encounter with a Hick" by Jonathan Brand

"From the Government Printing Office" by Kris Neville

"Land of the Great Horses" by R. A. Lafferty

"The Recognition" by J. G. Ballard

"Judas" by John Brunner
"Test to Destruction" by Keith Laumer

"Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad

"Auto-da-Fe" by Roger Zelazny

"Aye, and Gormorrah" by Samuel R. Delany (Nebula for best short story)

I haven't the inclination to review every story. But some that stood out were "Eutopia" by Anderson, "The Happy Breed" by Sladek, "Test to Destruction" by Laumer, "The Night that All Time Broke Out" by Aldiss, and "Evensong" by Del Rey. I found all the stories enjoyable in their own way, but I will have to say I'll need to read "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Farmer again to fully grok it. The stories were selected because in most cases they pushed boundaries at a time when boundaries desperately need to be pushed. (Actually, they probably need to be tested all the time.) I wasn't shocked especially by any story, but I'm reading these tales in 2025, over half a century from when they were concocted and first published. That the stories feel fresh at all is a triumph for the collection, but perhaps a sad commentary on society. 

As tall peak as Dangerous Visons was, it's sequel Again, Dangerous Visions is even more daunting. I've already dived into it and expect a report when I get get through with it. That's going to take a spell. 

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