Jul 03
David A Comments: Blonde in a bikini? Check! Sex god in thong armour? Check! Aliens? Check! Castle? Check! Erupting volcano? Check! But oh, wait, what’s that say on the front? Fully illustrated??
Published 1979
Click here for a gallery of the (NSFW) interior artwork (including a naked sea lion/woman hybrid with a baby!)
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:08 am
Also works well as a coaster, evidently.
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:36 am
For this type of hot lunatic book… I’m surprised Max didn’t go with a better name, something straight out of a 70’s … specialist film. Something like… Max Johnson…
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:43 am
In case you were wondering:
“The book’s premise is that men have been banished to the ocean, where they live in a giant bubble. Procreation is achieved by cloning. Whilst women live on the earth and are born of a giant woman “The Whale” by means of Immaculate Conception. Also on the earth are the Orphachins; a hoard of flesh eating male youths.â€
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:45 am
Sure, we’re concerned about that woman, but pity the lettuce that meets those slugs.
July 3rd, 2013 at 11:41 am
Looks like he’s wearing a see-through catsuit. Niiiiice.
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:35 pm
Whoa.
Yipes.
My goodness.
Etc…
If I had been caught with this book on my person in 1979 it would have guaranteed my receiving an EPIC beating.
Gay thong fishman superpowers activate
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:40 pm
Because, it might just be me, but I get the distinct impression he is thinking, ” A girl! Eww, gross! Who left this here?”
The actual story summation doesn’t do much to dispel that notion eitjer.
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Yes, judging from the first interior illustration I’d say Dr. Mankini there is much more… interested… in boats.
July 3rd, 2013 at 12:56 pm
“The book is a killer.”
Can’t say I’m surprised.
July 3rd, 2013 at 1:41 pm
FULLY TITILLATED.
July 3rd, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Doesn’t it feel as though Ellison is spitting each word of his “praise blurb” out through gritted teeth, begrudgingly, painfully, and that he wants to add one more “not” at the very end?
July 3rd, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Dr. Mankini seems to have impressive cheek-flaps on his helmet. Perhaps they should be located elsewhere? Maybe they’re sideburns, though the same question might apply.
July 3rd, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Poor Dr. Mankini, he looks terribly disappointed he found a woman….
I am calling B.S. on the “genius” title for Max Handley, sorry Mr Ellison, wrong, wrong, wrong!
July 3rd, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Note to Ghoul-like creature with hand on prostrate damsel’s knee: DON’T LOOK UP!
July 3rd, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Interior #3 – Punishment for what happens in interior #1?
July 3rd, 2013 at 4:26 pm
MANKINI used JISTRING!
The attack was effective!
TRöLLYP has fainted.
July 3rd, 2013 at 8:04 pm
Harlan Ellison phoned in the blurb and it apparently got scrambled on the way to the printer. Let me fix that for you:
“Max Handley is a deranged killer … This comic book missed .. Is not a genius literary event!” — Harlan Ellison, lunatic.
July 3rd, 2013 at 9:35 pm
Just love that stylish helmet, and the fishy-gloves, then you look at the interior illustrations and…
Oh good grief, WHAT IS HE DOING TO THAT BOAT?
Followed by:
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT BLOBBY….THING? (Run, baby, run!)
Rendering your eyes too painful to actually read the book, if you still wanted to.
July 3rd, 2013 at 10:46 pm
@Dead Stuff – truth. Clearly the cover is viral marketing for Pokémon X and Y
July 3rd, 2013 at 11:47 pm
Personally I like the cross-eyed, totally freaked out looking lion. You can hear him just saying, “Ohmagawdohmahawd! Have you seen what they’re doin’ in the other illustrations? What kind of book is this? THIS IS NOT NARNIA!”
July 4th, 2013 at 12:13 am
Did Rowena do the interior illos as well? Those pointy hats have “Josh Kirby in serious mode” written all over them…
July 4th, 2013 at 5:03 am
‘Meanwhile” could be a Pet Shop Boys album. How apt.
The Ellison blurb resembles his enthusiasm for ‘With the Bentfin Boomer Boys in Little Old New Alabama’. Or seventies ‘Doctor Who’. He doesn’t do apathy or quite liking things, does he?
July 8th, 2013 at 10:40 am
Everything about this cover seems designed to make your eyes wander inevitably towards his frighteningly small metal g-string. How, one wonders, can he do anything at all without the hot dog slipping out of the bun and/or being slowly macerated? How much of the story involves him suddenly grunting in discomfort/irritation/embarassment and then pausing to address things? And does his economy use talcum powder and abrasion salve as currency?
August 6th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
Her breasts almost seem to have TINGS on them. Inquiring minds would like to know if she has sun-tan lotion on, or are they naturally that shiny?
August 6th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
That be the shiny luster of an all-natural Body & Hines® sea salt scrub, sirs and ma’ams! [surreptitiously inserts Amazon affiliate link]
July 24th, 2015 at 3:10 pm
I thought the author’s name was Max Handplay when I first saw it. Oh well.
January 1st, 2016 at 1:19 pm
Even Borat thinks this mankini is over the top.
November 6th, 2020 at 5:15 am
Such a brilliant talent that this is his only sci-fi book.
Such a new talent he’d written 2 novels before this and recorded an album for Richard Branson’s Virgin label.
That and Radio 4 seem to be his entire oeuvre.
Also, looking at the interior illos, Dr. Mankini might not have a butt crack, which when coupled with his too-small metal mankini is liable to make him bad-tempered, and possibly only able to be intimate with boats.
(The Random link is a great distraction right now.)