Potrzebie
Monday, March 08, 2010
Symbiosis
Here's another story I wrote and packaged for Heavy Metal 27 years ago. "Symbiosis" ran in the December 1983 issue. Shawn McManus did the breakdowns and pencil art. After Jim McDermott did the inks, McManus created the color wash. Looking at this for the first time in many years, I can't remember the reason for the two-color effect, but in retrospect, full-color would have worked better. The panel with the tape cassette now looks like a conspicuous anachronism.
Edith Cassady's clothing is based on something Harvey Kurtzman once told me about how he got excited when he saw an Alex Raymond panel of Dale in Flash Gordon with the underside of her breasts exposed. The character name is an obvious reference to Neal and Carolyn Cassady. Maybe I had seen the film adaptation of Carolyn Cassady's Heart Beat around that time. Brief dialog fragments keep this from being pure pantomime like "Zenobia," our HM tale previously posted here (originally published seven months prior to "Symbiosis"). For "Zenobia," scroll down. Both stories have slightly similar headless creatures, but that was unintentional, as is the resemblance to Al Capp's Shmoo.
The concept of human interference with symbiotic alien creatures was inspired by Robert Silverberg's mystical masterpiece, Downward to the Earth (1970), which in turn was a science fictional revamping of Heart of Darkness. Reading Downward to the Earth together with Silverberg's Son of Man (1971) and Dying Inside (1972) will leave you staggering.
Cover: Achilleos
Edith Cassady's clothing is based on something Harvey Kurtzman once told me about how he got excited when he saw an Alex Raymond panel of Dale in Flash Gordon with the underside of her breasts exposed. The character name is an obvious reference to Neal and Carolyn Cassady. Maybe I had seen the film adaptation of Carolyn Cassady's Heart Beat around that time. Brief dialog fragments keep this from being pure pantomime like "Zenobia," our HM tale previously posted here (originally published seven months prior to "Symbiosis"). For "Zenobia," scroll down. Both stories have slightly similar headless creatures, but that was unintentional, as is the resemblance to Al Capp's Shmoo.
The concept of human interference with symbiotic alien creatures was inspired by Robert Silverberg's mystical masterpiece, Downward to the Earth (1970), which in turn was a science fictional revamping of Heart of Darkness. Reading Downward to the Earth together with Silverberg's Son of Man (1971) and Dying Inside (1972) will leave you staggering.
© 2010 Bhob Stewart, Jim McDermott, Shawn McManus
Labels: heavy metal, jim mcdermott, neal cassady, robert silverberg, shawn mcmanus, symbiosis, zenobia
¶ 6:10 PM 1 comments
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Zenobia
"Zenobia" is one of the stories I packaged in the early 1980s for Heavy Metal. It was published in the June 1983 issue which had a front cover illustration by Barclay Shaw. The story was scripted by me, drawn by Shawn McManus and painted by John Coffey.
I felt that acceptance of the science-fantasy situation with a "sense of wonder" could be facilitated in a smooth manner with pantomime panels rather than the intrusion of balloons. I seem to recall that the vehicle was originally intended to be a creature with organic wheels.
Zenobia was the name of the girl I sat behind in study hall when I was in junior high school. While I was reading science fiction magazines, I would occasionally whisper something over her shoulder, and without turning around, she would respond with soft laughter. I had her in mind when I titled the story. So there was that sf/female memory link, plus the name has a sort of exotic reverb. It has been used as a name for exotic characters in fiction by Robert E. Howard, Robert A. Heinlein, Edith Wharton, P.G. Wodehouse, William Golding and others. There was a real Queen Zenobia in the Third Century, as depicted in the painting at top by Herbert Schmalz. She was said to be more beautiful than Cleopatra.
Queen Zenobia's Last Look Upon Palmyra by Herbert Schmalz
"Zenobia" is one of the stories I packaged in the early 1980s for Heavy Metal. It was published in the June 1983 issue which had a front cover illustration by Barclay Shaw. The story was scripted by me, drawn by Shawn McManus and painted by John Coffey.
I felt that acceptance of the science-fantasy situation with a "sense of wonder" could be facilitated in a smooth manner with pantomime panels rather than the intrusion of balloons. I seem to recall that the vehicle was originally intended to be a creature with organic wheels.
Zenobia was the name of the girl I sat behind in study hall when I was in junior high school. While I was reading science fiction magazines, I would occasionally whisper something over her shoulder, and without turning around, she would respond with soft laughter. I had her in mind when I titled the story. So there was that sf/female memory link, plus the name has a sort of exotic reverb. It has been used as a name for exotic characters in fiction by Robert E. Howard, Robert A. Heinlein, Edith Wharton, P.G. Wodehouse, William Golding and others. There was a real Queen Zenobia in the Third Century, as depicted in the painting at top by Herbert Schmalz. She was said to be more beautiful than Cleopatra.
© 2010 Bhob Stewart, John Coffey, Shawn McManus
Labels: barclay shaw, coffey, heavy metal, mcmanus, memoir, symbiosis, zenobia
¶ 1:29 PM 0 comments
