Don Martin

1976

Back in the late 1970's I read The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg. As a math and science nerd, I had hoped that this novel might have something interesting to say about mathematics, but it did not. After that experience, I was not in a hurry to read other fiction by Silverberg.

1959, cover art by Wallace Wood

After 40 years, I decided I should try reading some other Silverberg story, so today I read his short story "Mugwump Four" which is available via the Internet Archive (in the August 1959 issue of Galaxy magazine).

One of the great things about downloading old Sci Fi magazines from the Internet Archive is discovering little surprises in those old magazines. In this case, I was surprised to see that Don Martin had drawn the interior artwork for "Mugwump Four".

Growing up in the 1960s, I knew Don Martin for his cartoon illustrations in Mad magazine. Here is one that I remember from my youth:

One of the "signature" features of Don Martin cartoon characters are the flat feet.

click image to enlarge

"Mugwump Four" is a silly time travel story, so silly that the goofy illustrations by Martin do not seem too far out of place.

communications malfunction

The story is "about" short bald mutant humans who, in 1959, are conspiring in secret and trying to take over Earth. A hapless "normal" human (named 'Al') discovers the mutant conspiracy and is sent into the future by the mutants.

In the image to the left, two of the mutants try to figure out how it was possible for Al's phone to tap into the secret communications network that is used by the conspirators.

flat feet in the future

Poor Al ends up in the far future where, in addition to time travel, there is a technology that allows people to jump between parallel universes. In one universe the mutants have taken control of Earth while in the other parallel universe the "normals" long ago defeated the mutants.

bubble Al

As shown to the left, when Al arrives in the future, he is put inside a bubble so that his disease causing germs from the past will not infect anyone.

According to the ISFDB, Martin illustrated just a few speculative fiction stories from 1957 to 1961. In order to see the earliest available Don Martin Sci Fi drawings, I took a look at "Lulu" from the June 1957 Galaxy (download from the Internet Archive).

"Lulu" is another goofy story that seems well suited to Don Martin illustrations. "Lulu" is an artificial life spaceship that is sent out from Earth to explore new planets. Lulu's three human crew members are really only along for the ride, since Lulu can do all of the exploration work without human assistance.

1957: Lulu and her three boys. Click image to enlarge.

After visiting an exoplanet where there are apparently some rather sexually enthusiastic aliens (that sadly, could not be described or illustrated in 1957) were discovered, Lulu decides that she is in love with her three male crew members.

fingers of the future

Lulu sets course for deep space, knowing that she would be scrapped because of her emotional malfunction if she returned to Earth. Lulu's three "boys" will have nothing to do with the amorous Lulu. They "go on strike", doing even less than they usually do. Lulu is pissed off by their sulking and she plans to maroon them on an exoplanet. However, she discovers that her programming includes a safety feature that prevents her from moving through outer space without any humans on board.

The boys encounter an alien artificial lifeform.

The three "boys" soon discover that they are on a planet that was once inhabited by a human-like alien species. That extinct species left behind an artificial lifeform, a kind of robotic tank that moves around on wheels. When the alien robot attacks her "boys", Lulu defends them, but then Lulu and the alien device "fall in love".

Lulu's "face".

In the end, one of the "boys" writes a romantic poem for Lulu and she realizes that she made an error when she turned away from her "boys". She gets rid of the alien artificial lifeform and takes her three "boys" back into space.

from "Citizen Jell"

Don Martin was always crossing over into the realm of the bizarre and the disturbing. The sentient spaceship "Lulu" is able to sprout appendages and a face, when needed. Martin's depiction of Lulu's "face" is weird enough to give me nightmares.

Another Surprise
The August 1959 Galaxy also contains a short story called "Citizen Jell" by Michael Shaara, which contains a nice statement of an alien "Prime Directive".

In the Ekcolir Reality. Original artwork by Don Martin (1957).

For my stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I imagine ancient aliens who are constrained by their Rules of Intervention.

The tryp'At Overseers not only act so as to prevent Interventionist agents from providing Earthlings with dangerous technologies that might harm we primitive humans, they also try to prevent us from developing technologies of our own that we could misuse.

In the Ekcolir Reality. Image credits.

In the Ekcolir Reality, Earthlings were given access to hierion technology when the Fru'wu arrived on Earth. Ariel Davidson wrote stories about hierions in advance of the arrival of the Fru'wu.

Apparently the tryp'At existed in the Ekcolir Reality, but their role was quite different from the role that they have adopted here in the Final Reality. In the Ekcolir Reality, the tryp'At helped Earthlings develop and apply some hierion-based technologies.

Next: to Mars for Grendel Time

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The Palace

cover art by Philippe Druille

I recently blogged about the original version of The Star King as published in Galaxy magazine. The Palace of Love by Jack Vance was also published in Galaxy with interior artwork by Dwight Morrow. The three issues of Galaxy that held the story are available online.

Part I
I don't recommend reading the version of The Palace of Love that was published in Galaxy. It appears to have been shortened by the editor. Near the beginning of the Galaxy version of The Palace of Love there is brief mention of the planet Sarkoy, but Vance's account of Gersen's visit to that world is missing. In my copy of the DAW edition of The Palace of Love, there are 26 additional pages about Sarkoy at the start of the story that did not appear in Galaxy. With a few clicks you can buy a copy of the complete story.

bar fight with the white-eyed man spills into the
alley behind the Celestial Harmony Cafe

Much of The Palace of Love takes place on Earth after Kirth Gersen learns that Demon Prince Viole Falushe was born in Europe.

Having stolen 10,000,000,000 SVU in The Killing Machine, Gersen uses some of his vast wealth to buy Cosmopolis magazine. He uses his credentials as a writer for Cosmopolis to carry out his search for Falushe. In one of many humorous scenes, without revealing that he now owns the company, Gersen visits the headquarters of Cosmopolis magazine in London in order to get his Cosmopolis identification card.

Gersen bar hopping with Navarth and Drusilla.

Gersen's investigation of Falushe's past leads him to the "mad poet" Navarth and his ward, Drusilla Wayles. Navarth knows how to contact Falushe and he arranges for a meeting at the Celestial Harmony Cafe.

After an evening of bar hopping, Gersen is at least half drunk by the time they cross paths with Falushe, first glimpsed as a man standing along the bar. Gersen won't allow Drusilla to go to Falushe and he gets into a fight with Falushe's body guard, the "white-eyed man".

Part II

Navarth's party

I feel sorry for the readers Galaxy who had to wait two months for the next part of the story. Navarth arranges for a party that will attract Falushe and allow Gersen another chance to confront the Demon Prince.

The guests at the party must all wear disguises. There are naked serving girls at the party, who Vance described as "young girls". I've always imagined them as prepubescent, but the illustration by Morrow depicts them as full figured.

fun on Sogdian

At Navarth's extravagant party Gersen has another confrontation with Falushe which is interrupted by the arrival of a squad of police. After the party, Falushe kidnaps Drusilla. Gersen and Navarth receive an invitation to visit Falushe's Palace of Love on a far planet.

travel to the Palace of Love

When Gersen and Navarth arrive on planet Sogdian, they are given a wild ride into town by a surly driver (see the image to the right). They are then flown through space to the secret world where the Palace of Love is hidden away. First they spend a few days in "City 10", waiting for the arrival of all of the guests who will visit the Palace of Love.

source

At each step of the journey, Vance is having great fun depicting annoyances large and small for the travelers, particularly Navarth who would have preferred to remain at home on Earth.

After their ordeals, Gersen and Navarth are pleasantly surprised when Drusilla arrives. Now assembled, the guests set off for the Palace of Love.

Part III
Gersen suspects that one of the male guests is actually Falushe, but neither Gersen or Navarth knows for sure. Arriving at the Palace of Love, the guests scatter to different parts of the park-like environs and Drusilla again disappears. Gersen searches for and eventually finds Falushe's hidden headquarters.

Gersen penetrates the hidden headquarters of Viole Falushe, but he is knocked unconscious and ejected.

source

After sneaking into the headquarters of Falushe, Gersen is not made welcome. Still playing the role of a writer for Cosmopolis, Gersen escapes with his life after learning that Falushe is conducting experiments on a group of people who he holds as prisoners, including several clone sisters of Drusilla. Drusilla is a clone of Falushe's childhood love, Jheral Tinzy. Now, having rejected Falushe's advances, Drusilla is to give birth to a new generation of Jheral clones.

In the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Stephen Fabian

Falushe is obsessed with his goal of winning the love of "Jheral", even though she is long dead. Since this is only the third of 5 Demon Prince novels, it need come as no surprise that Gersen defeats and kills Falushe and liberates the prisoners who Falushe held in the Palace of Love.

I like to imagine that there was a greater purpose behind the Palace of Love and Falushe's secret experiments. According to Zeta, in the Ekcolir Reality there were additional stories published that provided details about human breeding experiments on Sogdian using the clones of Jheral Tinzy.

Next: looking back at The Gods Themselves

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