By Alfonso Font (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-494-1
As the end of March turgidly approaches and I confront the prospect of having my European citizenship stripped from me I’m feeling a mite confused, upset and just a bit passive aggressive (surprisingly that’s a term the Germans don’t have a word for…). Thus, I’m reliving a few of the best comics our Continental comrades have crafted and shared with the ungrateful Anglo-Saxon world…
Barcelona-born creator Alfonso Font Carrera was born on August 28th 1946. He studied Fine Arts and worked as an illustrator before slipping into comics in the 1960s with western tales in Hazañas del Oeste and Sioux for Ediciones Toray.
He quickly graduated to horror stories and historical crime dramas about infamous criminals for the Selecciones Illustradas Agency and, in 1970, began contributing material to British publisher Fleetway on strips such as Black Max in Thunder and Lion. Soon he gravitated to America with work for mature magazine publishers Warren and Skywald.
With writer Carlos EchevarrÃa, he created ‘Géminis’ (AKA Phil Jackson) before moving to Paris in 1975 to work for major comics magazine Pif Gadget, devising ‘Sandberg, Père et Fils’ with Patrick Cothias and ‘Les Dossiers Mystère’ (written by Solet, and sharing art chores with Carlos Giménez and Adolfo Usero) as well as the Roger Lécureux-scripted ‘Les Robinsons de la Terre’.
From 1976-1982 he also freelanced for Scoop, Tousse Bourin and Super-As. Incensed by publishers reprinting his work without permission or payment, he became active in Creators Rights issues and worked with Giménez, Victor Mora and Usero as the “Workshop Premia†seeking to create a union for comics professionals.
In the mid-1980s, Font returned to Spain, contributing to new, home-grown publications like Cimoc, À Tope, and Circus whilst creating (with Mora) ‘Sylvestre’ and ‘Tequila Bang’.
For the Spanish iteration of 1984 he created signature sci fi gadabouts Clarke & Kubrick – who subsequently appeared in Cimoc and Rambla – and began a series of self-scripted, mordantly cynical, sardonic science fiction tales under the umbrella title ‘Cuentos de un futuro imperfecto’ which we see here as Tales of an Imperfect Future…
Seemingly never sleeping, Font went on to create parody-laced aviation hero ‘Frederico Mendelssohn Bartholdy’, ‘El Prisionero de las Estrellas’, and classical adventure serial ‘Jann Polynésia’ – which evolved into the iconic ‘John Rohner’ for Cimoc – and ‘Carmen Bond’ for À Tope.
In 1987 he started a fruitful association with French publications Pilote and Charlie Mensuel with his series ‘Taxi’ and, after a brace of independent albums for Planeta publishers, revived John Rohner at Norma publishers.
Always occupied, he went on to create ‘Privado’ and medieval warrior ‘Bri D’Alban’ for Cimoc, whilst collaborating on cop series ‘Negras tormentas’ (‘Black Storms’) with writer Juan Antonio De Blas. Font even began occasionally illustrating Italy’s venerable western superstar Tex for Bonelli. In 1996, he returned to American pages with his erotic series ‘Dra, Dare’ for Penthouse Comix.
A major force in European graphic storytelling, Font has won numerous awards including The Grand Prize at Comic Barcelona and a Haxtur prize.
His artwork is loose, fluid, intricate and utterly electrifying: and Dark Horse’s translation of original European collection of Tales of an Imperfect Future into this stunning oversized (287x224mm) monochrome hardback edition is a sheer delight for fans of grittily fantastic fiction.
Any Brit who grew up reading the short complete sagas exemplified and perfected in 2000AD‘s Tharg’s Future Shocks, Pulp Sci-Fi or Tales from Beyond Science will be right at home – unless casual (human and robot) nudity is a problem…
Written and illustrated by Font throughout, the anthological nature of the tales is linked by the simple bridging device of a grotesque alien directly telling us that humanity is simultaneously a threat and embarrassment to the universe. No argument here, mate…
However, rather than go to the time and expense of eliminating us, the Great Powers are offering us one last chance to change our ways and, by way of inducement, have provided some stories taken from our most probable futures to illustrate just why we’re so much of a problem…
The hard science hagiography commences with ‘Tanatos-1 Comes Home’ as the smug hierarchal rulers of Earth gloat over the news that the AI super-weapon they created to destroy the alien fleets of Kloron has spectacularly succeeded.
As boffin Commander Grenh describes to the xenophobic top Bankers, Clerics and Military leaders how his programming compels the indestructible Tanatos-1 to unceasingly and implacably seek out all life in the universe and eradicate it, veteran General Alto Kervis asks himself why it has turned around and now nears Earth…
‘Rain’ introduces hard-working, long suffering blue-collar spacers Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, stuck on a sodden world, going slowly mad…
When the incessant deluge apparently causes a malfunction, hated computer Hal 2001 insists they go outside to fix the problem, but Stanley is convinced the useless metal martinet is trying to kill its human masters…
Barbed satirical humour gives way to barbarian fantasy in ‘Day of Glory’ as valiant John Smith battles devils and monsters to save his princess and his people. Tragically, the wonder warrior is in for disappointment and shock once he impossibly defeats the sinister Overlord of Klaarn…
Cracks appear in the foundations of the Military-Industrial complex when a vile capitalist proves to the government why the war they’re fighting must never end in ‘Stocks’, whilst
‘The Hunt’ prophetically takes the Hunger Games trope and ongoing war between “One-Percenters†and the rest of us to its logical conclusion…
Originally crafted in the mid-1980s, it follows two super-rich brats who stalk each other with lethal weapons through the dystopian wastelands inhabited by the poor. Of course, even when they’re killing each other for sport on a reality show, the oligarchs still find a way to bloodily exploit the despised discarded millions…
‘“Like a Plague‒ then offers an excoriating morality tale about our suicidal ecological irresponsibility before Stanley and Arthur return in ‘Cyberratic’.
Having finally escaped the rain-drenched hellhole and creepily disturbing electronic taskmaster, our unlikely heroes hit the Welcome Satellite for some R&R but stumble into a major mechanical malfunction on the totally-automated resort.
Luckily a small droid keeps pulling their fat out of the robotic fire, but you’d think such passionate machine-haters would stop for a moment to ask why and how their little saviour escaped the malfunction plague…
‘The Final Enemy’ affords a bleak glimpse at the thinking behind the soldiers who will fight in the final atomic Armageddon, whilst black humour informs a tale of Earth explorers who land on paradise and destroy it forever with ‘The Kiss’…
Similar silliness informs the trash-inundated post-apocalyptic world of ‘The Cleaner’ when humanity’s last survivors activate a miraculous device to get rid of the cause and effects of the pollution which destroyed the world…
Although meant as a comedic interlude, the next vignette sadly comes across as dated and just a touch homophobic by today’s elevated standards, detailing the shock and peril a solitary explorer endures when he discovers his government-mandated and supplied robotic sexual companion is not a “Betty†but an over-zealous ‘Valentino’…
Far more safe and salutary territory finds ‘Earth Control at Your Service, Sir’ addressing a version of the The Cold Equations quandary as two astronauts bringing an end to global famine realise that they won’t reach Earth if both men keep breathing the rapidly diminishing oxygen supply.
As they struggle to make an impossible decision, they have no inkling that the authorities on a starving world have their own ideas…
‘The Siege’ bloodily traces the rampage of a merciless murderous maniac as a fractured city endures police martial law and the ceaseless hunt for society’s greatest menace before the tormented tomorrows tumble to a close with a bleak sad tale of a doomed and dying spacer’s escape into fantasy and one last passionate rendezvous with beloved ‘Green Eyes’…
Scary, topically pointed, suspenseful and superbly intoxicating, Tales of an Imperfect Future offers a potent panoply of graphic pleasures for every lover of comics adventure and science fiction wonders from a master of art long overdue for fame in the English-speaking world.
Tales of an Imperfect Future © 2014 SAF Comics, www.safcomics.com. All rights reserved.