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Boris Vallejo gets erotic with naked barbarian princesses. So what's new there? Your Uncle Geoff dips into his review bag for July to find a sprinkling of books, DVDs, and a bevy of underdressed female barbarians. 1. Titans:
The Heroic Visions Of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Text
by Nigel Suckling. Just proving to my erstwhile publisher that I don’t always rely on distributed review books these days, I saw this particular book when visiting a nearby town and decided it really ought to belong in my collection. Just cos a book was released last year doesn’t mean it deserves to be ignored. This particular book encases the super-hero trading card art of Vallejo and Bell at a size where it's a lot easier to appreciate the detail that goes into such pictures. It also provides an opportunity to see both artists doing work that doesn’t always have their faces or bodies etched into the canvas. Saying that, it’s still pretty obvious on a few which ones Julie Bell used herself as the template. Much has been said that when these two particular artists paint super-heroes, they’re essentially naked studies with spray-painted clothes. Although a picture of Daredevil here probably goes along with that conception, others although wearing skin-tight costumes do look like they’re dressed. There was a certain amount of accenting or promotion of certain characters to ensure sales with the X-Men, Spidey and the Hulk and mostly Marvel characters. One has to wonder what would happen if DC Comics or a trading card company using said trademarks would get for their money? I’m not entirely sure of Nigel Suckling’s prose. He admits in the book’s introduction that he isn’t that familiar with super-hero mythos and then makes several cock-ups that the editorial staff should have at least got someone who knows the subject to check. The best examples being Thor’s alter-ego being Dr. Ronald Blake instead of Dr. Donald Blake and Storm having gray instead of brown skin. Hopefully, future editions will resolve these mistakes. If you like Vallejo and Bell’s art, then this
is already on your bookshelf. If you like super-heroes, then I suspect
you’ve already handed over money to own this volume. 2. The
Fountains Of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke A re-issue of the 1979 novel in that new-fangled paperback size that appears to be the blight of most bookshop shelves. The reason to read it? Well, there’s been a lot of talk in the press recently about the technology developments to create a geostationary cable bridge from the equator to a satellite by the end of this century using a carbon fibre variant. The only author to have done a story based on the subject is Arthur Clarke and I was curious to see what he had distilled from the originators of the original idea which goes back to a Russian scientist, Y.N. Artsutanov, in 1960. This book draws on Clarke’s ability to explain and use science convincingly in the course of a story without having to turn it into character soap along the way. This might seem a failing with some writers but Clarke’s own intense interest can carry the story along without it. Oddly enough, the framing device of referring to an ancient civilization for the first few opening chapters tends to bog down the story far too much when there is no obvious connection to this space project. Further, contact with an alien probe doesn’t further the story much either and makes for a poor punchline in the epilogue. Having said all of that, what does this novel have to offer? It has a rescue mission in the last dozen chapters that will keep you reading to see how it’s resolved. I also expect Clarke expects any cable bridge creators will pay heed to his novel and ensure there are enough safety protections and protocols so such rescues can be done quickly and better than illustrated here. If you’re interested in alternative methods of
reaching Earth orbit, then this book will definitely appeal to you.
There’s so little being written today about the possibilities of
current science, it’s nice to see one theory being taken very seriously. 3. The Art Of Chesley
Bonestell’ check out website: www.papertiger.co.uk Strictly speaking, if Chesley Bonestell was alive today he would not want to be reviewed here. This is because he never regarded himself as an SF artist. He started off as an architect designer first and an interpreter of space and the planets second. It was with the latter that he probably had the most influence. From this book, there is a strong awareness that many of American landmarks owe much to his design work from San Francisco’s Golden Bridge to several museums in New York. His space pictures were an inspiration to generations. Bonestell’s interpretation of space kick-started NASA by supplying the initial dreams to so many of its staff in the 50s-70s with the desire to see the sights in the universe as he painted them. His paintings were based on what was known at the time and many certainly wrong when new evidence was presented. Having said that, they show a lot about how previous generations saw the universe. When you look at the paintings in this book you’d find it difficult not to believe they weren’t based on photographs, especially with his early terrestrial detailed design work. This book is an much a biography as a display of Bonestell’s work. There are also various disclosures of how some of the paintings were done which should also please learning artists. It’s the kind of book you’re going to love to have on your shelf to dig out when there’s a rainy day and want to spend the afternoon lost in the depth of Bonestell’s pictures. Only a couple pictures creep across the centre binding. Consideration was given to several extended landscapes by keeping them within the page at the cost of their size. This is also one of the most expensive books I’ve had from Paper Tiger. It is money worth spent but for those on a tighter budget, one can only hope there will be a paperback release. This book has had some advance promotion already by one media
magazine not waiting for the release date and relying on the booklet.
I’ve got the real thing in my hand and if you like space art, this
should be on your shelf already. (Pub: Paper Tiger. 104 unnumbered pages softback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-85585-909-2). check out website: www.papertiger.co.uk Not quite sure what to make of a book of erotic art which has a title caption ‘New And Enlarged Edition’. The original was printed in 1988 and I think I plucked for some other artbook at the time. In that respect, I can’t compare it to the original. Certainly reference is given that a few pictures that were missing from the original were returned for this print after being considered a little too ‘hot’ for the previous edition. There are also some prints from the early 90s. Amongst all of these there are the recognised classic poster pictures of the man with the tattoo coming out of his arm and the lady with a little demon sponge. I’m never quite sure how to take Vallejo. Sometimes I like his art a lot and others I find narcissistic with the number of times he uses himself or his wives in his paintings. This collection doesn’t appear to have either and if anything, demonstrates his artistic skill better for it. This book doesn’t hide the fact that it’s full of naked women and a few token men. Then again, a number of mythological beings and demons aren’t exactly wearing clothes either. It’s far more erotic than pornographic though. Each picture has a page to itself with a leading caption on the adjacent page. One editing cock-up has a Vallejo history where there should be a caption that appears on the last page. Whether this is a fault of its editor or the foreign printers is debatable. Assuming you people all rush out to buy this book, it’ll be interesting to see if this is corrected in a later edition - making this one all the more reason to have COs of the mistake. If you love Vallejo’s art you’ll be buying this
edition. If you have the original check it out in case there are
new pictures you haven’t seen before. 5. The
Art Of Richard Powers by Jane Frank. check out websites: www.papertiger.co.uk Richard Powers, through publisher Ian Ballantine’s inspired desire to be different, is responsible for many of the surrealistic covers appearing in the SF genre. Looking at the rather complete checklist in the book indicates most of them appeared Stateside and I only ever saw a small sprinkling of them on second hand anthologies. On a small size paperback, I tended to see them as a little disturbing than jaw-dropping before checking the back to see if there were any authors I particularly wanted to read. On a larger scale in this book, it is at least possible to see them as Powers originally conceived them. I have to confess to not being the greatest admirer of surrealistic art. It’s too much like the Emperor’s new clothes. If I can’t understand it my way, why do I have to have someone to explain what I’m supposed to be seeing or feeling? At least with this book, we also have the late Richard Powers’ own comments about what he meant to achieve with his art as well as some insight into his own character. Calling him irascible is probably describing him rather too simply. Very self-opinionated and appears to hold a life-time grudge on a variety of subjects. He took his own art very seriously with little regard for anyone else’s. If nothing else, I felt this presented an insight into an artist who wouldn’t have floored you with platitudes. Probably the best way to describe Powers’ work
is alienisque, even if it doesn’t match how we would see other planets
or aliens as depicted by more ‘realistic’ artists. I’m not entirely
sure if this book will be everyone’s cup of tea and if you’re not
sure about surrealism, would recommend checking it out before buying. 6. Ground
Zero by Fred Gambino. check out website: www.papertiger.co.uk When you’re sent books to review it’s very easy to become blasé and say you like then all. I review without prejudice. I might not particularly like one book as much as another but I tend to start reading without being unduly influenced by the previous book. Of the books this month, outside of the Bonestell book, if I saw this book in a shop it would be going home with me. Gambino is one of the newer artists who has switched from acrylics to preparing his book covers on a computer. The results here also include screens showing parts of the pictures under construction plus loads of personal comments about the treatments. He doesn’t see computer graphics as a replacement for traditional painting, just an adaptation to the times. He also shows how to create dimension in an enviable way with exotic spacecraft, robots and alien landscapes. As these paintings are primary bookcovers, I think
many of you are going to be surprised by how many SF books you own
have Gambino covers, figuring they were air-brush not computer generated.
This really is a tour de force of his work with none being caught
in the centre crease. They are colourful, sometimes moody but always
eye-catching and jaw-dropping. Miss at your peril. (Pub: Big Engine. 209 pages medium-size paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 1-903468-00-0) check out website: www.bigengine.co.uk Big Engine is a new SF publisher on the scene wanting to make its mark. Judging by its release bumf, the majority of books released this year appear to be reprints. From a publishing perspective, providing the books can garner sales then this isn’t a bad way to start. We’re in the process of doing something similar ourselves. OK, so why am I having reservations. It’s a reprint of a book published 17 years ago and things, including civil service protocol have moved on a lot since Langford ever worked in the system. I was reading and thinking, he could have gone more extreme than he did. The plot centres on a nuclear core being accidentally taken home in a disused cabinet and the problems of trying to get it back on base when the security tightens. As such, this story should be reading as a Whitehall farce but meanders a little too far from the plot on several occasions. It isn’t exactly helped by the ending being too murky and lacks any strong twists that could have made this plot stronger. Yes, the story is readable but it tends to come over as past its sale-by-date. All it requires now is a change in the monarchy and the book will be consigned to the remainder bin. Even having a Terry Pratchett introduction won’t save that fate. Whether publisher Big Engine survives or not will depend a lot on whether this and the other books its releasing this year will get seen or not. With its slightly bigger than normal paperback format, I can see some of the High Street stores getting antsy simply COs it won’t fit on their shelves. Still, as you Internet denizens know, there are other ways to get these books. 8. Ultraviolet
(double DVD disks - 6 episodes with various ‘extras’) check out website: www.contendergroup.com and www.kult-tv.co.uk It was only a few months ago I was discussing the merits of DVD with my erstwhile publisher. You can’t escape the promotional reviews in the media mags and neither of us were that anxious to buy a DVD player. I’m still not really. I mean, until you can record programmes on them at an affordable price, the video recorder is still the best overall gadget to hook into your television. So how can I watch what it obviously a DVD version of a video tape collection I reviewed last year? It was a question of circumstances. I needed to copy photographs of my Dad for the family onto CD-R and with so many computer mags switching to DVD format for freebies, it made a lot of sense to combine to two together. All well and good but if you were in my shoes, you’d like to see whether or not the computer DVD can watch films or not and having only one seemed kinda sad, hence me getting one of my favourite shows, Ultraviolet. I’m not happy about watching anything for long with my face so close to a computer screen either but why gripe? As a short run 6 episode TV series on DVD, logic dictates that it’s unlikely to be around forever and likely to be a collectable investment in case I ever need to sell it. I was also curious to see what the ‘extras’ were as well. There’s little point going over the episode contents other than to say it’s one of the finest UK vampire, excuse me, Code 5, series ever. For all the intimate details, you can read my original review. For the record, there doesn’t appear to be anything added to any of the episodes that you missed the first time around. The only advantage DVD has is that you can freeze frame and look at things in a little more depth. The best example of this is looking at the files Francis accesses from Jacob’s computer in the 6th episode and discover that they’ve basically got non-descript names. Personally, I don’t think any film or TV series deserves to be put under such close scrutiny although in the future it wouldn’t surprise me if directors will be spending a bit more time on the fine details. If it pleases you to look at the fine detail then you’re already using a DVD. Things I learnt. The first DVD attempted to download its own software. I let it do this but nothing much seemed to happen. Erased that and relied on the computer’s own DVD software. The choice of watching each episode allows chapter selection, standard play and in the later episodes, summaries of past events. Being the novice, I played with them all. Finding particular events, I found it a lot easier to ignore the chapters and move the cursor on the standard play. It would be a nice thought in future software development that there was a digital number selector to locate particular aspects of any film or episode. More so where you can’t bring the cursor to the end credits. OK, so what about the extras? Well, you get a rotating 9 photo screen saver. Hardly something you’d want to look at for any length of time. A 16 photograph stills gallery which unless you know what you’re doing can’t be accessed to be used as wallpaper. Even if you do, the majority of them are on the screen at odd angles. The Biographies only cover the four key cast members and director Joe Ahearne. The most interesting point from them that I didn’t know was Philip Quarst being an Australian. To be fair though, it does cover all their major credits. I would have liked to see more of the cast covered though and in a lot more detail. Things that are noted could quite as easily been discovered on Internet sites. The two website links can also be found by any descent search engine. Probably of more importance is having the two trailers. One is the Channel 4 trailer and the other, Kult-TV’s own, no doubt used to promote sales in the shops. A curio for all Ultraviolet fans. If the company is reading this and want to consider ‘extras’ for the future, they might consider a selection of sound clips or theme music that can be downloaded to computers and a selection of wallpapers. As to the DVD, if you’ve got it on video then I’d question your sanity in duplicating for duplicating’s sake. My sanity has never been in question. If you like Ultraviolet, then buy it in one form or another. Sales often talk louder than words and might encourage management to consider commissioning a second series. (C) SFcrowsnest & GF Willmetts July 2001
Browse for the latest books and videos for Lord of the Rings FREE
SF MAGAZINE |
OTHER CONTENT - July 2001
Lord
of the Rings movie gets a Middle Earth premiere
Would
you pay to see the end of this damn movie?
Whose
side are you on? The sidewise awards come to town Manga
fantasies and fantasy manga
Boris
Vallejo gets erotic with naked barbarian princesses. So what's new
there?
Emma Morgan. 01/07/2001 Charles. 01/07/2001 |
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