1984 Issue 3 (Science Fiction)

By Bill DuBey, Richard Corben, et. al.

Publisher: Warren Publishing September, 1978

Softcover, 92 pages

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On to issue three of the adult fantasy magazine 1984. This was published by Warren Publishing in the late 1970s to mid- 1980s, where it ended at issue 29 due to the publisher’s bankruptcy. I comment on the last post about how most stories were written by Bill DuBey and as such many of the stories have the same feel to them. Especially when dealing with sexual issues. As it turns out, that is because DuBey had a bad habit of rewriting other people’s dialogue and rearranging artwork without consulting the artist first. 

In the first issue, the story by Wallace Wood was cut down, rearranged and totally rewritten to make a very different story. As a result, Wallace Wood refused to ever work with the company again. The Mutant World continuing series in 1984 by Jan Strnad and Richard Corben often struggled with DuBey who would add what Strnad called, ”a spew of juvenile obscenities." This arrogance would ultimately cost the Publisher everything. As we will see next issue.

Despite what I said, this is a great issue of stories, with an amazing cover by Patrick Woddroffe.  DuBey could write fast and quick, and produce quality material - which is perhaps why he was so dismissive of other people’s abilities. Eventually the only writers who stuck around were hungry and just needed a paycheck. One thing which I do miss, that exists in the more popular magazines, are the lack of advertisements. Where is the weird old stuff? The lockets containing dirt from Dracula’s Castle. The creepy masks and ancient paperbacks? Ah well.

First story, drawn by Jose Ortiz, must have recycled from an old issue of Creepy or Eerie, because I swear I’ve read it before. It’s a weird sci-fi tale about a pair of old telepaths secretly run the world’s military apparatus. Next we have the first in a recurring character, Idi Amin - yes, that one - it’s another truly odd tale, set in the near-future where a character called Dogmeat Jones, part of the America’s Dirty Tricks Squad, causes the African dictator to have a sex change. In retaliation, he unleashes several genetic diseases which wipes out most life and leaves the rest as hate-filled mutants. This is another story which I swear the art was drawn for a different story and DuBey slapped new text onto. Third is, “In the Beginning” where scientists send a group of scientists back in time to observe the very first appearance of microscopic life on Earth, only to be terribly surprised.

Fourth, we have the next installment of Mutant World, which continues to be the highlight of the magazine - partially because it’s a color insert, partially because of Richard Corben’s art. The story itself is simple, but enjoyable. Fifth is, “Bring Me the Head of Omar Barsidian” illustrated by Jim James and Rudy Nebres, one of the more sexual tales in this issue. In it, the titular Omar is chased for escaping from the planet Orgasty, where he as one of the beautiful people he isn’t allowed to quit society. Sixth is a silent feature, illustrated by the mononym Nebot, called “The Strange Adventure of Doctor Jerkyll”. This obvious reference postulates what would happen if the scientist’s potion had turned him female.

Seventh is “Scourge of All Disneyspace”, another bizarre story where men have been mutated so they have no genitals, and a group of renegade women from the insemination factories run across a real penis for the first time. Eighth is ‘COMMFU” - Complete Monumental Military Fuck Up, where a psycho, trained by the government, accidentally initializes a killing spree in Flordia, rather than his intended target. Last is “The Harvest”, a story which caused controversy at the time. In a future world, where there are limited resources, white people hunt blacks for food. The ending splash page was particularly messed up. It depicts a man pulling a fetus from a dead woman and proclaiming to his son, “Your mama was asking for some veal”. Or words to that effect.

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1984 Issue 2 (Science Fiction)

 

By Bill DuBey, Richard Corben, et.al.

Publisher: Warren Publication (August 1978)

Softcover, 82 pages

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Here we are, second issue of the magazine dubbed 1984, which ran with the tagline “Explosive Illustrated Adult Fantasy”. Which was Warren Publishing’s attempt to cash in on the success of Heavy Metal magazine - just like The Goblin was Warren’s attempt to grab some of the superhero boom from the 1980s. . And to some extent, it was a success. While it only lasted 29 issues, the reason for its cancelation was Warren Publishing’s bankruptcy.

In my opinion, the material here doesn’t come close to that in Heavy Metal or even Epic Illustrated magazine. For one Heavy Metal published a lot of material from many authors in many styles, often European material which had a proven track record of success. To cut costs, most of the material here was written by Bill DuBay. A talented man, make no mistake, but still one who has a specific style, so many of the stories have a similar cadence. Along with this, the magazine reuses many of the same artists from Creepy, Eerie, and Vamperella. So you are most likely going to see the same art styles from issue to issue, unlike Heavy Metal whose style varied wildly from story to story and issue to issue. Finally, what put 1984 behind was its adherence to black and white illustrations - the made the exception with Richard Corben’s recurring Mutant World stories, but that’s it. All other illustrated magazines went full color. There were a few stories that were exceptions, but that’s all they were - exceptions, not the rule.

I’m convinced that at least the first two stories (and possibly the seventh one as well, “Messiah”) were made from leftover art for a completely different tale, that DuBay repurposed. Often the art in “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and “Scourge” were showing something completely unrelated to the text near them. He always made sure they connected up at the end, but my suspicions are strong on this. The frist details the sexual war between two different groups of mutated men, as they fight over the last of the women. One side had massively oversized genetailia (not shown) and the other causes the women to explode when they have sex. “Scourge” discusses the scourge of women in the universe. As it turns out, humans are the only race with two sexes. All the rest are made up of uni-sex races whio instantly want to capture and conquer as many human women as possible, which leads to glagatic war and the destruction of all civilizations in the Milky Way.

Third is “The Kit” when euthanasia becomes legal, suicide kits are all the rage -until their used for murder. This one goes on too long, when it’s obvious where the story is headed. “The Janitor” contains no text, but shows the sexual exploits of a janitor at a catholic boarding school with a sci-fi twist. The highlight of this issue was Richard Corben’s “Mutant World”, just as it was in Issue 1 out protagonist Dimento now has to deal with the concept of religion and sin in his post-apocalyptic world.  It finished up with “Maneaters” about a space ship captain who survived a doomed expedition through cannibalism and is vilified by all polite society in many worlds for it.  Finally we have “The Microbe Patrol” which is like Fantastic Voyage meets The Happy Hooker. You can figure that one out on your own.

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1984 Issue 1 (Science Fiction)

 

Written by Bill DuBey, Richard Corben, Wallace Wood, Nicola Cuti, et. al.

Publisher: Warren Publication (June 1978)

Magazine, 96 pages

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This is the premiere issue of Warren Publication's attempt at a science fiction illustrated magazine, even though it is billed as “Tomorrow's World of Illustrated Adult Fantasy”, the stories (in this issue at least) are billed are all science fiction. 1984 is, of course, a reference to the classic dystopian novel of the same name, written in 1948. It was designed to compete with Heavy Metal so much of the material has more sex and violence than one would normally expect- even from a Warren publication. The magazine changed its name to 1994 with issue 11, supposedly due to a request from Orwell’s estate. It continued on until issue 29 when the whole of Warren Publications went into bankruptcy.

This wasn’t like the previous title from Warren I covered, The Goblin - in which most of the premiere issue seemed to be made up of leftover crap from the pages of Creepy - the premiere of 1984 began with a strong collection of stories by proven masters. Under the helm of Bill DuBay - The Rook. It clocks in at 82 pages, with 10 features and a cover by Richard Corben, well worth the buck fifty asking price. The editorial claims they “wanted to bring back the space adventures of their youth. The Shadow. Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon.” Well they didn’t quite succeed in this first issue, but made a decent effort.

First we have “Last of the Really Great, All-American Joy Juice” written by Bill DuBay and drawn by Jose Ortiz: A tongue in cheek story in the aftermath of a massive war on Earth where nearly every male has been sterilized. Thus a space adventure begins to recover the last of the sperm banks on the planet. A little too silly, but as long as they aren’t all that way, I can take it. Second is “The Saga of Honeydew Melons” by Nicola Cuit and drawn by Esteban Maroto. A weird story about a talent scout having difficulty keeping live entertainment on a planet of miners. He turns to a mechanical solution with disastrous results. Fun story. Third is “Once Upon Clarissa” by Bill Dubay and drawn by Alex Nino. A truly weird love story about a girl being kept alive through the magic of future technology. Its only flaw is that most of the text is written in cursive, and has faded due to the age of my copy - making reading it less enjoyable than it should have been.

Fourth is “Quick Cut” written and drawn by the master Wallace Wood. It’s set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has divided into two distinct species and the sexual interplay and violence between the two groups. Rather more brutal than I expected, but I enjoyed it. “The Saga of Xatz and Xotz” no author or illustrator given, is a one-page filler about a couple of aliens landing on a devastated earth. Fifth is “Bugs” by Bill DuBay (surprise, surprise) about an exploratory earth vessel encountering what they think are the ships of an alien race. Sixth is the first installment of a recurring story called Mutant World, written and drawn by Richard Corben. Easily the highlight of the issue, this is the only color story which centers on a rather dim protagonist, Dimento, as he tries to make his way through a mutated Earth.

The last three are: “Faster Than Light” by Jim Stenstrum and illustrated by Luis Bermejo, a comic story about the first faster-than-light cruise ship and the attempt to hijack it. Definitely not hard science fiction. “Angel” by Bill Dubrey and illustrated by Rudy Nebres, this seemed to be an attempt at another recurring character, revolving around a young lady raised by a militant monk society after a nuclear war. It ends with see more Angel next issue, but I don’t think we do. The final tale is “Momma Can You Hear Me” by Nicola Cuti and illustrated by Alex Nino - one of the better stories- about a man who was sold into slavery as a child and mutilated so nearly half of him is cybernetic implants, he comes back to his home planet in search of his missing mother. I would rate this last one as maybe third best. Always go out on a high note. All in all, a decent first issue. 

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1941: The Illustrated Story (Action)

 

by Rich Veitch and Stephen Bissette (Authors and Illustrators); Steven Spielberg (Introduction)

Publisher : Heavy Metal / Pocket Books, New York; First Printing edition (January 1, 1979)

Softcover, 96 pages

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“Rigid criteria were used in selecting the cast and crew for a project of this bulk. And I am proud to say that not one person who worked on this picture has a high school diploma. The cast was selected on the basis of good looks, bad taste, and low moral character... having made Jaws and Close Encounters people asked me, “when are you going to make an intimate personal film that shows who the real Steven Spielburg is?” Well, 1941 is my most intimate film - the statement I’ve always wanted to make.”

-         Steven Spielberg from his introduction.

This is an illustrated book based on the script for a failed film. 1941 came out in 1979, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tishiro Mifune, Warren Oates, Robert Stack, Treat Williams, Tim Matheson, and so on. A substantial cast. It was touted everywhere. Huge publicity for the film was splashed across TV and print. Belushi and Matheson was straight off of Animal House, while Spielberg just landed two major hits with Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It could not fail. Until it did. A bomb. A major bomb. It was gone within a week from theaters, and nearly dropped out of the American zeitgeist, except as a trivia question.

Somewhere in that can’t fail category, Heavy Metal Magazine, still in a nascent form, bought the rights to make a graphic novel of the film. At the time, a novelization of a film was commonplace, but a graphic novel was completely new. There was a spat of time in the 1970s when they would do a picture book of a film made from the film stills, but that was rare. This was a great new idea. If only they had picked a different film to start with.

The book is essentially like the film. Two horndogs try to get laid. Meanwhile hysteria grips California in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. An assorted group of defenders attempt to make the coast defensible against an imagined Japanese invasion - which eventually turns out to be true. Comedy ensues. What sets this book apart is that the graphic novel is actually way better than the film. The combined efforts of Stephen Bissette and Rick Veitch elevated a raunchy comedy into a work of art. Stylistically it reminds me of old Heavy Metal, with insane backgrounds, reused old animations, and sometimes photos of the actual actors in their parts. Granted this was produced as the film was being made, so it looks different from the finished product, which is just as well. The film is a dud. This is a work of art.

If you are interested, avoid going to Amazon, where the price gougers are out in force. I looked at a few prices ranging from $155 to $650. The link above is to the Heavy Metal website, where copies are being sold for $3 apiece. I suppose these gougers justified their prices by claiming it's a rare item. That’s because no one wanted to buy a copy, due to its terrible source material. But apparently it’s not so rare. Most of the copies are still filling up a warehouse owned by Heavy Metal Magazine. Funny, I expected them to be buried in a landfill next to all those copies of E.T. for the Atari 2600.

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Number of the Beast (Superhero)

 

by Scott Beatty  (Author), Chris Sprouse (Illustrator)

Publisher : WildStorm (October 7, 2008)

Softcover, 192 pages

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This review was a long time coming, as I completely forgot that I had this series at all. Only during by semi-annual cleanse of my collection did I stumbled across Number of the Beast at the bottom of a box of otherwise forgettable comics. It's a rare purchase for me, not because it deals with mainstream superheroes, but because I purchased a bundle of the comics, 8 issues bound in a bag, rather than the graphic novel. I almost never do that and it must’ve been during a splurge at one of the half-off deals the rapidly sinking comic markets around here were having. As such I picked it up for five bucks, tossed it on a pile, and probably forgot about it three minutes later. Thus like finding an extra twenty in your pocket you forgot about, this series was a joyful find.

For those who remember Wildstorm, they were originally an independent spin-off universe from Image comics. Titles included Stormwatch, The Authority, WildCats, and were all set in the same universe - there was also a number of independent creator-owned comics, but were talking about the main universe here. The big draw was that things changed in this Universe. The Authority took over the USA at one point. Superheroes had a major effect on what was happening in the world. Then sales flagged and the entire line was brought up by D.C. Comics. Then similar to when D.C. bought up the Charleston line, they really had no idea what to do with this new universe. Answer, blow it up and integrate the parts they wanted into the main D.C. universe.

There were three series leading to the end. The final one being this Number of the Beast. Many readers have complained that for an Armageddon story in a semi-popular universe, the majority of the action doesn’t involve any of the main players. True, Stormwatch, The Authority, and so on don’t appear until the fifth issue, but I still enjoyed this series for what it did right. First of all, the end is caused by villains and presumed dead heroes and events from previous in the WildStorm universe. We see the return of the High, the Eilidon, various alien races, and a containment system used to house most of the first wave of posthumans after WWII.

The basic plot is that the remains of the High are dumped into this containment system, which he proves to be be too powerful to be controlled by. He breaks out, along with the remainder of these heroes from the 1940s - who haven’t aged since then. This starts a chain-reaction which results in the United States launching a barrage of weaponized clones of the High to wipe out the remains of any post-human teams. As a result much fighting breaks out, and the entire world is scourged of nearly all life. Hey, you knew it would be an apocalypse tale.

If the main players of this universe are relegated to bit parts, I rather enjoyed this story. The only snag I found was the ridiculous reason why all those heroes from the 1940s were essentially trapped in a Matrix-like suspended animation. But the violence was decent, the art engaging, and I liked seeing references to past WildStorm stories I’ve read in the past. Is it the next Kingdom Come? Not at all, but I found it a fun, light read, that took itself seriously. Certainly worth a look for the right price.

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Ubu Roi (Humor)

 

by Alfred Jarry  (Author), Beverly Keith (Translator), G. Legman (Translator)

Publisher : Dover Publications; Illustrated edition (January 13, 2003)

Softcover, 80 pages

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This is  a play which, upon its first performance, caused much outcry, riotous behavior, and walk-outs. Not surprisingly, it ended up closing after that initial night. But the playwright was respected enough, and amused his peers enough, so the infamous play was kept around and referenced from time to time. It is simply dumb luck this occurred. Ubu Roi simply came out at the right time and right place. Had it been produced by any other person at any other time, it would be forgotten, rather than a faded footnote.

The absurdist content and scatological references, which caused all the trouble, are extremely tame by today’s standards. I’m sure there are plenty of people who, upon reading this play, wonder what the fuss was about. Remember however that this play came out in 1896, long before the surrealists, dadists, theater of the absurd, or even theater of the cruel were conceived. And in a very real sense Ubu Roi with its ridiculously evil characters, yet effective parody of the world, anticipates all of these movements.

Scene from Ubu Roi

This version translates the title as King Turd. However, the word "Ubu" is really simply a babble word evolved from the French pronunciation of the name "Hebert”. The language of the play is a unique mix of slang code-words, puns and near-gutter vocabulary, set to strange speech patternsAs the play begins, Ubu's wife convinces him to lead a revolution, and kills the King of Poland and most of the royal family. The King's son, Bougrelas, and the Queen escape, but the latter later dies. Ubu, now King, begins heavily taxing the people and killing the nobles for their wealth. Ubu's henchman is thrown into prison; who then escapes to Russia, where he has the Tsar declare war on Ubu.

As Ubu heads out to confront the invading Russians, his wife tries to steal the money and treasures in the palace. She is driven out by a popular revolt of Poles. She runs away to her husband, Ubu, who has, in the meantime, been defeated by the Russians, been abandoned by his followers, and been attacked by a bear. Ubu's wife pretends to be the angel Gabriel, in order to try to scare Ubu into forgiving her for her attempt to steal from him. They fight, and she is rescued by the entrance of Bougrelas, who is after Ubu. He knocks down the attackers with the body of the dead bear, after which he and his wife flee to France.

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Alfred Jarry

Eight Cylinders (Horror)

 

By Jason Parent

Publisher : Crystal Lake Publishing (November 13, 2020)

Softcover, 82 pages

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“Instinct made him turn away from the tentacle just as it exploded in an inferno of fire and pudding. With a series of clinks, shrapnel stabbed into his hood and splintered his windshield. A tire once belonging to an ATV, now in pieces, bounced off his hood. He skidded to a halt, ducking as flames leapt through the open window.

“As the air cooled and the smoke cleared, a bodiless tentacle flapped on the road. Slowly, it began to shrivel, withering in a matter of moments much as a corpse would over a decade. After a minute, it stopped moving altogether.”

Author Jason Parent

Eight Cylinders is a novella about a criminal on the outskirts of Las Vegas who, after taking directions from a Magic 8 ball while on the run from enemy gangsters, find himself in a space of desert which seems to not dwell on the planet Earth - but may an adjacent space to it. There he meets a ragtag group of rebels and outcasts, who are stuck in this gateway to Hell. They start to become prey for unseen monsters.

Eight Cylinders is a Mad Max blowout straight from Hell. The action piles on and on, until it reaches a boiling point where an all-or-nothing gambit is their only shot to beat the Devil. A thrill ride from start to finish. It effectively uses Hemminway’s Iceberg Principle to hint at what lurks in the dark, but doesn’t spoon feed every detail to the reader. Leaving the most hideous parts to the reader’s imagination.

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Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (Drama)

 

by Stephen Crane

Publisher : Independently published (March 19, 2020)

Softcover, 108 pages

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“The vast crowd had an air throughout of having just quitted labor. Men with calloused hands and attired in garments that showed the wear of an endless trudge for a living, smoked their pipes contentedly and spent five, ten, or perhaps fifteen cents for beer. There was a mere sprinkling of kid-gloved men who smoked cigars purchased elsewhere. The great body of the crowd was composed of people who showed that all day they strove with their hands. Quiet Germans, with maybe their wives and two or three children, sat listening to the music, with the expressions of happy cows. An occasional party of sailors from a war-ship, their faces pictures of sturdy health, spent the earlier hours of the evening at the small round tables. Very infrequent tipsy men, swollen with the value of their opinions, engaged their companions in earnest and confidential conversation. In the balcony, and here and there below, shone the impassive faces of women. The nationalities of the Bowery beamed upon the stage from all directions.”

This was originally a self-published novella by Stephen Crane from 1893. It flopped, but after his novel, The Red Badge of Courage, hit it big, Maggie was republished - (after significant changes were made) 1896 and became the semi-classic it is today. That is, a great story which no one has ever heard of. An amazing amount of material is covered in such a short span of work. In fact, the life of an entire girl from the Bowery.

Author Stephen Crane

For those who don't know the Bowery was a neighborhood in the south of Manhattan, well known for slums, vice, crippling poverty, violence, and crime- at least at the time of this writing. The protagonist grows up in a chaotic situation, surrounded by her violent and dangerously alcoholic family. Her parents routinely become drunk, beat on their children, and destroy their apartment. Attempting to escape this insanity, Maggie latches onto a local bartender, who she perceives as the knight in shining armor, while it is as plain as day to the reader he is nothing more than a dumb thug with a high opinion of himself.

While Crane’s characters speak in the vernacular of their society, similar to Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Walker’s The Color Purple, the book discusses underlying themes that pester every level of mankind. Substance abuse and hypocrisy being chief among them - most of the characters here are the dregs of society, thus they are constantly looking for someone else to look down upon, and if a victim doesn’t present himself then they manufacture one. But this novella also takes a large swipe at the naturalistic principle, a topic of much discussion at the time of first publication.

Naturalism is when “a character is set into a world where there is no escape from one's biological heredity. Additionally, the circumstances in which a person finds oneself will dominate one's behavior, depriving the individual of personal responsibility.” In this case, Maggie, both sheltered from any other life and abused by current situations, cannot get away from the lousy hand dealt her and must suffer accordingly.

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Author Stephen Crane 1897

The Children's Crusade (Historical Fiction)

by Marcel Schwob  (Author), Kit Schluter (Translator), Jorge Luis Borges (Foreword)

Publisher : Wakefield Press (March 27, 2018)

Softcover, 56 pages

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“Hear now the disposition of these children. They were dressed in white, and wore woven crosses on their clothes. They appeared to have no idea where they were, and did not seem distressed. They trained their eyes constantly on the distance. I noticed one among them that was blind, and that a little girl held him by the hand. Many have red hair and green eyes. Those ones are Franks who belong to the emperor of Rome.”

If you are unaware of the facts or legends behind the historic Children’s Crusade from around the 13 century, then you will probably not enjoy nor understand what is happening in this collection of short stories. An assumption is made by the author, that reader is educated on the subject, or has a basic working knowledge. Failing that, the very short stories - almost flash fiction- will be half gibberish or half obscure in context. That isn’t to say that stories by Marcel Schwob aren’t beautifully written and translated for they are. I simply found that refreshing my knowledge on this event added to my enjoyment of the book.

Author Marcel Schwob

The traditional story is probably cobbled together from factual and legendary events. It begins with either a French or German boy having visions telling him to go to Jerusalem and peacefully convert Muslims in the Holy Land to Christianity. This started a popular movement of children heading to the Holy Land. Many children were tricked by merchants and sailed over to what they thought were the holy lands but, in reality, were slave markets. There seems to have been two such movements. One in Germany where around 7,000 people followed a fifteen year old shepherd. The second was in France where another shepherd, around 12 this time, collected a following of some 30,000 people to follow him. Both movements, as we know, ended in disaster.

This beautifully prose is written from the points of view of eight different characters commenting on various points in the Crusade’s journey. They are beautiful, majestically written, with prose that falls off the page and seeps into your soul. I’m kicking myself for not reading more of Schwob’s work earlier. Highly recommended to one of all, both for historical context and artistic endeavor.

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Circus Parade (Autobiography)

 

by Jim Tully

Publisher : Devault Graves Books (August 12, 2019)

Softcover, 239 pages

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“He was one of those people in the subterranean valley who somehow managed to grow and give something to a world that had no thought of him. Under the make up of a clown his somber expression left him. He pushed his magnificent yellow body around the ring in a tawdry fool’s-parade. He did not walk, he shambled. Over his yellow face was the white paint of the clown. He was, in the language of the circus, a whiteface.”

Originally published in 1927, this is an autobiographical romp of the nearly forgotten writer Jim Tully who growing tired of being a hobo, joined a traveling circus, meeting many interesting characters here. Tully is considered the co-father, along with Dashiell Hammet, of hard boiled literature. He writes with a blunt, brutal style, occasionally mixing in similes to offset the amoral attitude of the author and his companions.

The author quickly rips away any glamour to the occupation which myth or romanticism might have draped circus life with. In fact those who did join with romantic ideas in their heads, were used for quick labor, then robbed and red-lighted - thrown from a moving train car in-between cities. Only the hardnosed, hard hitting crooks who hated everyone ever lasted in the circus. It was a profession for the born loser, the malcontent, the innate drifter, and the simple-headed. Not the young boy with stars in his eyes.

  

Author Jim Tully

Like his previous books, Shanty Irish and Beggars for Life, the book is presented as a series of vignettes, focusing one circus character or aspect about life in the big top. As it is not presented chronologically, it seems that Tully spent much longer in the circus, rather than actually six months. We are given glimpses of interesting characters like the Moss Haired Girl, who died to hair to look like mossy tree bark and pretended to be feral; Lila the Strong Woman, who read too many romance novels and ended up having her heart broken; and John Quincey Adams the black clown who worked in whiteface who, after finding his true calling, comes to a terrible end.

Tully was criticized for the obvious embellishments he made during some of the stories here. Several circus men pointed out his lack of usage of slang idioms common in circus life. The author did write it later in life, and there probably weren’t too many reference books he could consult on the topic, so I believe that accounts for any factual errors. But overall it is a telling and often brutal look behind the tarp of circus life. A world which literally is part of a bygone era - now that Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus has folded its big top for the last time.

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The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (History)

 

by Daniel James Brown

Publisher : Penguin Books (January 1, 2014)

Softcover, 404 pages

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“By and large, every rower in the eight-oared shell does the same thing - pull an oar through the water as smoothly as possible, as hard and as frequently as the coxswain. But there are subtle differences in what is expected of individual rowers depending on which seat they occupy. Because the rest of the boat goes necessarily where the bow goes, any deflection or irregularity in the stroke of the oarsman in the bow seat has the greatest potential to disrupt the course, speed, and stability of the boat. So while the bow oarsman must be strong, like all the others, it’s most important that he or she be technically proficient: capable of pulling a perfect oar, stroke after stroke without fail.”

This novel is about the University of Washington crew team which represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and by a hair's breadth, won the gold medal. Two stories are included. One illustrates how all of the Washington team came from depressed families and struggled to make their way through college during the height of the Great Depression.

Author Daniel James Brown

The second backstory deals with Hitler decreeing construction of the spectacular German venues at which the Games would take place. Along the way, the book also claims that the Nazis successfully covered up their treatment of the Jews so as to win widespread acclaim for the 1936 Olympic Games, deceiving the United States Olympic Committee among others.

All comes together with a description of the final race. During the 1930s, rowing was a popular sport with millions following the action on the radio. The winning Americans became national heroes for a brief time, then sank into obscurity like most amateur athletes. After their win, they would come together every few years to row again. The book gives an amazing amount of detail on the history of sport crew, its rise in popularity in the University set, and a structural analysis on the construction of their crew shells. A great resource for those interested.

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