ACG Collected Works: Adventures Into The Unknown, Vol. 3

by Paul Di Filippo (Foreword)

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Paul Di Filippo is the author of hundreds of short stories, some of which have been collected in these widely-praised collections: The Steampunk Trilogy, Ribofunk, Fractal Paisleys, Lost Pages, Little Doors, Strange Trades, Babylon Sisters, and his multiple-award-nominated novella, A Year in the Linear City. Another earlier collection, Destroy All Brains, was published by Pirate Writings, but is quite rare because of the extremely short print run (if you see one, buy it!).

The popularity of Di Filippo’s short stories sometimes distracts from the impact of his mindbending, utterly unclassifiable novels: Ciphers, Joe’s Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, and Spondulix. Paul’s offbeat sensibility, soulful characterizations, exquisite-yet-compact prose, and laugh-out-loud dialogue give his work a charmingly unique voice that is both compelling and addictive. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards.

Despite his dilatory ways, Paul affirms that the sequel to A Year in the Linear City, to be titled A Princess of the Linear Jungle, will get written in 2008. He has two books forthcoming from PS Publications: the collection entitled Harsh Oases and the novel titled Roadside Bodhisattva. His 2008 novel Cosmocopia is graced by Jim Woodring illustrations.

Paul lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Annabelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like most children of my generation, my English vocabulary was largely shaped by comics. Or comic books, if you're going to be fancy about it. And labeled of late, just to give it that literary punch, graphic novels. Parents today are pressured to adhere to some curated list or other of recommended reading for kids. Thankfully, my mom bought comics and books the way she picked groceries: if it looked worth a try, into the cart it goes. And that's how I ended up with a precious, eclectic hoard of comics from the seventies and early eighties: The House of Mystery, The House of Secrets, Ghosts, The Witching Hour, Weird War, Jonah Hex, The Illustrated Classics, Disney Comics, Harvey Comics, Batman, Superman, Marvel Superheroes, and the ubiquitous Archie comics. I of course gravitated to the weird and bizarre pulp reads which supplied me endless hours logged in space travel, time travel, haunted houses, mythical worlds, and multiple, magical dimensions, rubbing elbows with sinister magi and femme fatale witches, scorned ghosts, diabolical aliens, and almost always, a regular, if sexist Joe, preferably one with an understanding sweetheart/fiancee to save the day for mankind. Dating June 1950 to January 1951, this hardbound compilation of Adventures Into the Unknown are the predecessors of the pulp reads of my time, but the formula is the same. With the same hits and misses that peppered my stash. Sadly, the only change lies with me. Gone is the easy, eager suspension of disbelief, replaced now with derision, mockery, and at best, amusement.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Pre-Code Horror comics, but a lot of them tend to blend together after a while, which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are solid, well crafted Horror comics. The closer you get to 1954 the more things get ramped up in terms of gore and violence, so we are still in the early days here. This book features stories steeped in vampires, deals with the devil, werewolves, voodoo, ghosts, and of course, zombies. Zombies were creeping into comics in a major way as the '50s wore on, and this was nearly two decades before George Romero would burn them into the minds of the masses with his movies.

#11's Realm Of The Mist Gods is one of those cautionary tales about the greed of man. The Spirit Of Frankenstein ongoing feature resumed with Issue 12. It was previously featured in #5 and 8-10. It is a lame concept and has worn thin by this point in time, and it doesn't appear again in this book. We'll have to see if it resurfaces whenever I read Volume 4.

#13's Menace From Mars is a typical Cold War metaphor. Communism and Russia was the greatest threat facing the United States at this time, and space aliens became the go to plot device in these exercises in fear and paranoia. This was a great escapist read that helped get me in the mood for Hallowe'en. You can certainly do much worse than these comics.

In terms of restoration, this book has raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then. The scan quality seems to vary from one issue to the next.