Books

[Susan Butcher]

Any of you collect 60s science fiction paperbacks? I found "Starwolf #2: The Closed Worlds" by Edmond Hamilton a couple of days ago. It's a standard space adventure up to page 104, when it becomes luridly psychedelic. God, I love stuff like this!

[okeedoe]

Here,they were publishing a numerous SF comics back then.I remember the Avengers and the Steel Claw were my favorites in the late 60's.I used to fantasize being invisible like Louis Crandell. I didn't like Spider-Man ,Batman or Superman much.

Are you familiar with an Italian black humoured comic book ''Alan Ford''.I used to love that comic book when I was a young boy.I don't know about the rest of Europe and Australia but it was very popular and quickly became a cult in former Yugoslavia.I think you would like it too for its sardonic humour and satirical aspect on social issues.

[Susan Butcher]

Yes, I remember seeing the Steel Claw, though I didn't read it very closely. The art, beautifully dark, was by Jesus Blasco, who drew a lot of stuff for English comics in the sixties. I hadn't heard of Alan Ford. Did you get reprints of Dan Dare out your way? A really amazing-looking space strip, though the characters were a bit uninteresting.

Superheroes are crap. They'd had their day by the seventies, but this Marvel/DC media cartel just keep on pushing them. (I have to admit I loved Thor when Jack Kirby drew him, but that was a romance comic, really, even if it was filled with megalomaniacs, giant machines, and concrete aliens!)

[Ensign]

Jack Kerouac - On The Road

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

[okeedoe]

Yes,an intensive dark drawings amplify mysterious atmosphere of the strip.I'm glad you remember the Steel Claw.

Yes,I remember Dan Dare comics.Our local issues featured Den Deri, Pilot budućnosti(Dan Daree, the pilot of future).It was a long time ago and now I remember only an ''amazing-looking'' strip and the strange looking eyebrows of hero.I don't remember the rest of characters anymore.

Superheroes strips are crap as you say.I found those inconvincing when I was a kid because in general they lack of basic reality that is nedeed to assume the impossible possible.Too naive.

I had tons of comic books back in the 70's.Now I've got left only a few 1980's hardcovered reprints of old 1930's and 40's issues of Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and Brick Bradford.

[Susan Butcher]

I like some of those old strips like Plastic Man or Dr Strange simply because they are wildly preposterous. I think the big mistake was trying to make superheroes "realistic" and "adult". Now they're just pretentious and repulsive. Anyway, American underground comics and English funnies are my real favourites.

[okeedoe]

I like some of those old strips like Plastic Man or Dr Strange simply because they are wildly preposterous. I think the big mistake was trying to make superheroes "realistic" and "adult". Now they're just pretentious and repulsive.

Touché!Can't disagree with that.I can't argue with you about comic books.

[Susan Butcher]

Why is Duckburg full of dogs? Because Carl Barks!

[Vague]

i love henry miller.
he's my true love.


right now i'm reading 'the stranger' by Camus.
and after i'll go on with Kerouac ( i def love beatgeneration).

also kafka and dostoevskij are there.

[plasticfantastic]

Jack Kerouac - On The Road

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

Well said. My favorite book by my favorite author (Although I do love The Dharma Bums). Kerouac was a genius.

[babson]

I just started reading an old hand me down hardback called "The Paris Underground".. Wouldn't you know, it took me right back to the song "Wooden Ships". The author describes the German soldiers as devoid of human emotion. The line from the song goes, "All we can do is echo your anguished cry, and watch as all your human feelings die".
I can't help but wonder if this book didn't inspire some of the lyrics Wooden Ships.

Also, "Dunkirk" is talked about, from the point of view of the 3 thousand British who didn't get evacuated. Richie Haven's opening song at Woodstock.

[babson]

I finished "The Peoples History of American Empire" by Howard Zinn.

On my 3rd cup of coffee - so here goes.

This is a condensed summary in comic book format of "The People's History of the United States". So it was an easy read. It starts around the late 1800s, and gives an account of what really happened, versus the press and propaganda that was told to the American people.

It covered VietNam, but skipped the Hippie Culture entirely, except for a CIA bust where an undercover CIA agent disguised as a Hippie to bust a politically incorrect person. It also showed the Veterans marching and throwing their medals back at the White House.

The facts presented are pretty gruesome, It shows that not only are we right about the ruling classes and war profiteers, but that it was/is worst than we thought.

It runs right up to Afghan/Iraq.

He is more of a civil disobedience advocate than carrying around peace signs, listening to socially relevant music and getting high.

He does end the book on a hopeful note. Yeah it's bad but we have accomplished a lot since 1880.

Best $9.50 I ever spent, but....

I feel that the arts (Woodstock, music, Hippies, etc.) evolve the human condition more than civil disobedience, carrying signs and marching in the streets. I have a nagging doubt about this though, that maybe I'm wrong. I mean the signs and march are long gone, but the music is still around. Maybe it's like Joplin's song, "A combination of the two".

and - just a thought from someone's post somewhere's else. The Yippies, were formed by Abbie Hoffman after Woodstock. So there were no Yippies around in 1968. Yippies were created based on Abbie's complaint that all the Hippies wanted to do was get stoned..

BTW - We used to all read the Freak Brothers comics.

"All the beatniks are out to make it rich
Must be the season of the witch" - Donovan

[Susan Butcher]

You're not really a freak if you've never heard of the Freak Brothers. These comics could be found anywhere you could buy extra-wide rolling papers. "A boring Seventies strip about three hippies looking for drugs." - Henry Root.

[babson]

I can imagine what Henry Root says about Cheech and Chong

[Susan Butcher]

Something like "Don't bother watching this unless you find the word quaalude automatically hilarious." That was Len Maltin, about somebody else. I forget who. C&C's records were the rudest thing I'd ever heard when I was 17. I only saw "Up In Smoke' last year, and it was mildly funny.