Wednesday 31 August 2011

From My Bookshelf: Damnation Alley

So you see, in simpler times you could sell more copies of your film novelization if you could point out that you were also the publisher of the novelization of Star Wars...well you could if you were Sphere Books circa 1977. Roger Zelazny is, of course, one of my favourite authors and probably the one I am most likely to be busted for ripping off the style of (I throw myself on the mercy of the court and ask for several offences to be taken into consideration). From left to right we have Jackie Earle Haley who did a nice line in post apocalyptic kids (cf Planet of the Apes TV show) and Jan Michael Vincent drawn by somebody who probably wished they were drawing Charles Bronson, by the look of it. The Paul Winfield likeness is OK but George Peppard (complete with bad moustache) and Dominique Sanda could be practically anybody.

Damnation Alley was also the 'inspiration' for the Judge Dredd Cursed Earth sequence which contributed to my childhood lack of understanding of the laws of copyright. And the movie was the first time I came across the idea that the lights in Vegas would never go out (due to the automation of Hoover Dam - though I'm not sure this was properly explained).

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