Angel's Inferno by William Hjortsberg

 

(pb; 2018: sequel to Falling Angel)

From the back cover

“Private investigator Harry Angel is in a jam. Handcuffed in his apartment along with the cops and a corpse, he stands accused of violently murdering three people. The good news is he knows who did it. But in order to exonerate himself, Harry must first make his escape—and figure out his own identity.

“With the authorities hot on his heels, Harry travels from New York and Boston to Paris and the Vatican in search of an elusive stage magician. Eventually piecing together his mysterious past, he descends into the dark world of the occult. And very soon he will have vengeance upon the devil himself.”

 

Review

Angel’s Inferno picks up in the same scene where its prequel, Falling Angel, ends—if you’ve read Falling Angel, or seen its resulting 1987 film Angel Heart, you know what that scene looks like. After Angel escapes from police custody, accused of murders he may or may not have committed, he goes down another dark, increasingly ambitious rabbit hole littered with more death, voodoo, music, regret, and famous, real-life personalities (Ada “Bricktop” Smith, William S. Burroughs, Kenny Clarke, others).This time out, though, Angel’s head isn’t the only one on the main chopping block.

Angel’s is an excellent, more-intense-than-its-source-novel read, one with—like its prequel—full of effectively foreshadowed, character-based twists and not-quite-revelations. Great book, one of my favorite reads this year.

Knight Owl by Christopher Denise

 

(hb; 2022: children’s picture book)

From the inside flap

“Since the day he hatched, Owl dreamed of becoming a real knight. He may not be the biggest or the strongest, but his sharp nocturnal instincts can help protect the castle, especially since many knights have recently gone missing. While holding guard during Knight Night Watch, Owl is faced with the ultimate trial—a frightening intruder. It’s a daunting duel by any measure. . .”

 

Review

Knight is a delightful children’s picture book, with excellent illustrations and a fun twist at the end—while it would’ve been especially nice for Denise to visually foreshadow that twist (something he could’ve easily done)*, Knight (still) works, making for a good read. Worth checking out.

(*I understand and respect that most readers, especially children, won’t care about foreshadowing in a children’s picture book. That said, for some of us who write, edit, etc. text, it’s something worth noting.)

From Dusk Till Dawn by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Kurtzman

 

(pb; 1995: screenplay)

From the back cover

“You’d better hope you don’t cross paths with the infamous Gecko brothers—Richie and Seth. They’re fond of banks—robbing them, that is. They’re tough. In From Dusk Till Dawn, we follow them as they tear a path through the heartland of America on their way to the border. It is there, near El Paso, that they will meet up with their Mexican partners-in-crime to divvy up the loot they’ve acquired.

“Along the way, though, an innocent family will enter their lives—an ex-Baptist preacher, his teenage son, and sexy daughter. We watch as Richie and Seth enlist the family’s help in getting them safely across the border in the family’s Winnebago. When they arrive at their dreamed-about world south of the border, they are met with a terrifying twist.”

 

Review

Tarantino and Kurtzman’s down-and-dirty exploitation screenplay hits all its marks while creating a multi-subgenre stew that incorporates Blaxploitation, Mexploitation, vampires, 1970s road movies, sexploitation, and a lot of other -ploitations. Its well-sketched, sometimes -fleshed characters spout snappy dialogue, as rapid-fire as their wild what-the-hell situations and resulting, improvised re/actions. This is a landmark screenplay (and later, film) that truly felt down and dirty, nostalgic, yet distinctly 1990s direct-to-video sleazy and unique in its elements. Great read and great film, one worth reading, it you like sleazy genre works and swift, twisty action and characters.

#

The resulting film was released stateside on January 19, 1996. Robert Rodriguez directed it, with a lot of notable—most of them great—players.

"Morbius the Living Vampire" Omnibus by various artists and writers (Part 1 of 2)

 

(oversized hb; 2019; graphic novel)

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of the review is here.

Morbius is a fun, distinctive (he’s a living vampire!), and overall good read, although the artwork, between its various illustrators, varies in quality (mostly it’s good though). Its main characters (despite the era-familiar/sexist damsel-in-distress female players) are mostly consistent and generally interesting—bearing in mind that, depending on the title, situations and the writers, Morbius veers sometimes from bloodthirsty maniacal to sympathetic anti-hero. Worth reading and owning, this.

These are the first twenty issues of the forty-one original issue run. 

 

Review, issue by issue

The Amazing Spider-Man: “A Monster Called. . . Morbius!” (#101): While hiding out in Dr. Curtis Connors’s (aka the Lizard) summer house (so Peter Parker/Spider-Man can undo an unsuccessful experiment), Spider-Man is thrust into combat with Morbius the Living Vampire for the first time, a situation that compounds into something worse when another unexpected guest shows up.

 

The Amazing Spider-Man: “Vampire at Large!” (#102): Spider-Man, caught between the Lizard (a transformed Dr. Curtis Connors) and Morbius, tries to fend them off, secure a serum for his additional four spider-arms, and transform Connors back into his human self, while subduing (but not seriously harming) Morbius.

 

Marvel Team-Up featuring Spider-Man and the Human Torch: “The Power to Purge” (#3): Martine (Dr. Michael Morbius’s distressed fiancée) contacts the Fantastic Four, seeking help in locating her transformed, missing fiancé. One of the four, Johnny Blaze (aka the Human Torch), with help from a combative Spider-Man, locates Morbius and tries to subdue the desperate, blood-deprived vampire—who’s also created another bloodsucker (Jefferson, a political radical, brother of the more even-tempered Jacob).

As one might expect, Blaze and Spider-Man’s efforts are thwarted by unforeseen complications.

 

Marvel Team-Up featuring Spider-Man and the X-Men (#4): Morbius kidnaps Hans Jorgensen, his former scientific partner, and kills some people. Spider-Man, suffering from the effects of the Morbius-based cure for his extra four arms (The Amazing Spider-Man #101-102), tries to stop Morbius, but runs afoul of the X-Men while doing so. Especially cram-packed with characters and action, this issue.

 

Vampire Tales: “Morbius” (#1): This black-and-white illustrated magazine chapter-story shows a guilt-tormented Morbius—recently escaped from the X-men—in Los Angeles, looking for his erstwhile love (Martine). After making accidental friends with a “Children of Satan” cultist “or just a carnie” (Carolyn), she takes him to Madame Laera, a no-frills spiritualist, who also tries to help him locate Martine. While with Madame Laera, they’re attacked by a kill-happy demon (Nilrac).

Especially fun Morbius micro-tale chapter, more bloodthirsty and fearsome than its color-cousin/younger audience mainstream run.

 

Giant-Size Superheroes: “Man-Wolf at Midnight” (#1): In another effort to procure a cure for his vampirism, Michael Morbius—less maniacal than usual—takes control of the Man-Wolf (John Jameson’s lycanthropic self) with the Moon-Stone, recovered from the East River in New York.

Morbius’s plan also includes Dr. Harold Ward, a hematologist working on an experimental cure for leukemia, and only Spider-Man can save Ward and possibly, Jameson/Man Wolf. This simple clever, self-contained story is fun, above average in its written and visual execution.

 

Fear: “Morbius the Living Vampire” (#20): The titular bloodsucker is strangely calmed by two men religious faith and science (Rabbi Krause, Reverend Daemond) is again experimented upon to see if Michael Morbius can be cured of his need for blood. Unfortunately, the situation goes awry (as it often does), and Morbius, cognizant of his humane aspects, is forced to stalk a new victim.

 

Fear: “Project: Second Genesis” (#21): After Morbius’s reluctant attack on Tara (a child who is more than she appears to be), the “man-bat” and the girl are drawn to the Caretakers, ancient, science-smart beings who compel Morbius to confront the traitorous, satanic Daemond, his mysterious female companion and a supernatural “jungle cat” (Balkatar). Another cliffhanger finish, with at least one shocking (for Morbius) twist.

This issue, like the previous Fear issue, casts Morbius in a consistent, well-meaning anti-hero light. This shift (also hinted at Marvel Tearm-Up #3 and 4 as well as Vampire Tales #1) is  a promising character- and series-expansive take on Morbius, a sea-change for the character.

 

Fear: “—This Vampire Must Die!” (#22): Morbius’s slashing fisticuffs with Balkatar, the intelligent and English-speaking jungle cat, are interrupted by a summoning by Balkatar’s also-biped/feline king (Gerark). Gerark has a terrible but seemingly necessary mission for Morbius, one that means life or death for Gerark’s subjects inside the mysterious land-prison of “within”—a place Gerark and his people are unable to escape.

 

Fear: “Alone Against Arcticus” (#23): In a land bordering the “within”, Morbius meets the denizens of Arcturus, a mix of cyborgs, a mutated super-race, and occasional humans—all of whom were subjugated by Gerark the wild-cat king and his ilk long ago, and all of whom seek to free themselves.

 

Fear: “Return to Terror!” (#24): Lord I (eye-faced, telepathic “potentate of Arcturus”) and Morbius return to our terrestrial realm where, surreptitiously espied by the Caretakers, the living vampire tangles with a bewildered Blade the Vampire Slayer.

 

Vampire Tales: “The Blood Sacrifice of Amanda Saint” (#2): In the more adult-oriented Vampire Tales chapter-tale, Morbius confronts another satanic cult, that of Demon-Fire, led by high priestess Poison Lark and her monstrous lieutenant (Katabolik), so that Morbius might save the virginal Amanda Saint from their “Triad of Solomon” sacrifice that would leave Saint dead. Cliffhanger finish to this fun, fast-moving (if stock-Morbius) microtale.

 

Vampire Tales: “Demon-Fire” (#3): Morbius interrupts Poison Lark (Amanda Saint’s murderous sister Catherine) and Katabolik’s mausoleum sacrifice of Amanda Saint to the spider demon Arachne, while “sweet, silly Justin”—Amanda’s love interest—reveals hidden depths. Also mentioned by Poison Lark: “the arcane text of Lemegeton”.

 

Vampire Tales: “Lighthouse of the Possessed” (#4): Amanda Saint and Morbius, having dismembered the San Francisco-based cult of Demon-Fire, head to Lovecraftian eerie Malevolence, Maine, to find Amanda’s mother and father, the former of whom (like Catherine/Poison Lark) joined Demon-Fire’s cult.

Shortly after their arrival in Malevolence, Morbius and Amanda are attacked by its citizens, most of whom are possessed by a skeletal-clawed hell fiend (Bloodtide), summoned by Amanda’s mother. At least one Scooby-Doo-esque end-twist makes this Vampire Tale especially fun.

 

Vampire Tales: “Blood Tide” (#5): Morbius and Amanda Saint continue to fend off attacks by the Bloodtide-possessed citizens of Malevolence, Maine—this time with help from locals Brock Killbride (a naïve political optimist) and the more cynical Arlene Randolph, while Monte Harris, a shady political consultant for Mayor Duke Mannery, skulks around the eerie town. Then Bloodtide shows up! Mayhem ensues.

Multi-POV storytelling issue highlights this issue, cutting between the story’s core characters.

 

Vampire Tales: “Where is Gallows Bend” (#7): In Gallows Bend, Nevada, Amanda Saint and Morbius, continue looking for Saint’s long-disappeared father. More minions of the Demonfire cult—notably Death-Flame—torture Morbius and Amanda with hallucinatory horrors in the Old West-style town. Appropriately melodramatic, crazy story with jarring POV shifts, something that highlights the rest of the Demonfire storyline.

 

Vampire Tales: “High Midnight” (#8): Howie Rivers (owner of the Old West town Gallows Bend, Nevada), his caretaker (Sagebrush Robbins), Morbius and Amanda Saint face off against Apocalypse and his hench-creatures (griffins, Reaper, Phineas T. Coroner, others) in the mostly satisfying conclusion to Morbius’s Demonfire story arc.

Like the previous six Vampire Tales entries, the characters and atmosphere are laid on thick, the writing’s locquacious  and for “mature audiences”, and there’s multiple POVs throughout (this time these POVs effectively gel).

Amanda Saint, self-aware heroine, gets short-shrifted in the Demonfire arc, often little more than a damsel in distress (especially by today’s standards) despite her intelligence and willingness to fight villainy.

 

Fear: “And What of a Vampire’s Blood. . .?” (#25): Picking up from Fear #24, separate from the Vampire Tales storyline: Caught between the 10,000-year-old Caretakers and the demon-priest Daemond, whose long war threatens all, Morbius and the psychically powerful girl-child Tara confront Daemond anew—a conflict Daemond seems likely to win.

 

Fear: “A Stillborn Genesis!” (#26): Character-based twists abound as the war between Daemond and the Caretakers comes to a head. Fun, wild wrap-up to the Caretakers/Daemond storyline.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Size Werewolf” (#4) – “A Meeting of Blood”: Michael Morbius (“the living vampire”) is reunited with his amnesiac fiancée, Martine, who may lead him to more than love, when a wolf-mode Jack Russell crosses their path and attacks them, possibly undoing Morbius and Martine’s shot at a sweet new life.

The Face-Changers by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1998: fourth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield, legendary half-Indian shadow guide who spirits hunted people away from certain death, has never had a client like Dr. Richard Dahlman. A famous plastic surgeon who has dedicated his life to healing, the good doctor hasn’t a clue why stalkers are out for his blood. But he knows Jane Whitefield’s name—and that she iss his only hope. Once again Jane performs her magic, leading Dahlman in a nightmare flight across America, only a heartbeat ahead of pursuers whose leader is a dead ringer for Jane: a raven-haired beauty who was stolen her name, reputation, and techniques—not to save lives, but to destroy them.”

 

Review

Caveat: (possible) not-quite-spoiler series notes in this review.

A year after the events of Shadow Woman (1997), Jane Whitefield, retired from her guide business, is drawn back into intrigue and danger when her husband, Carey McKinnon, asks her to help his surgical/experimental-researcher mentor (Dr. Richard Dahlman) disappear after he’s framed for the murder of his co-researcher. Complicating Jane’s task is a woman who’s operating as Jane’s doppelgãnger, with a money-flush, murder-leaning organization backing the faux-Jane. Also in the violent mix: Alvin Jardine, a low-life, Jane-loathing bounty hunter, who might make an appearance (or a few) in future Jane Whitefield entries.

As with earlier books in the series, there’s an element/mention of Seneca/Native American mythology (in this case the titular “face-changers”, Creator-Punishment beings), a measured-pace, snappy writing, character-driven set-up with plenty of action, twists, fresh takes on familiar situations, and a satisfying resolution that rings true, as well as mentions from previous Whitefield novels (in this case, Vanishing Act, 1995, specifically: John Felker, duplicitous and sociopathic former client of Jane’s; Lewis Feng, a documents forger Jane worked with, later killed by Felker, as was another former Jane client, Harry in Santa Barbara).

Worth owning, this. Followed by Blood Money.