Review by Win Wiacek
Alfonso Font Carrera, to give him his full name, is a giant of Spanish comics who has also lodged a considerable body of work with British and French publishers, most comprehensively on Black Max in the UK.
In 1980 he began a series of self-scripted, mordantly cynical, sardonic science fiction tales under the umbrella title Tales of an Imperfect Future, gathered in this stunning oversized monochrome hardback.
Font’s parables are linked by the simple bridging device of a grotesque alien directly telling us humanity is simultaneously a threat and embarrassment to the universe. However, the Great Powers offer one last chance to change our ways and, by way of inducement, provide stories taken from our most probable futures illustrating why we’re such a problem.
‘Tanatos-1 Comes Home’ starts with the smug hierarchal rulers of Earth gloating over news that the super-weapon created to destroy the alien fleets of Kloron has spectacularly succeeded. 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. Spot the flaw!
‘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 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. Cracks appear in the Military-Industrial complex when a vile capitalist proves to the government why war must never end in ‘Stocks’, whilst ‘The Hunt’ prophetically takes the Hunger Games trope to its logical conclusion. Two super-rich brats stalk each other with lethal weapons through the dystopian wastelands inhabited by the poor.
‘Like a Plague’ offers an excoriating morality tale about our suicidal ecological irresponsibility before Stanley and Arthur return in ‘Cyberratic’. Having finally escaped the rain-drenched hellhole our unlikely heroes stumble into a major mechanical malfunction at a totally-automated resort.
‘The Final Enemy’ bleakly glimpses at 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 rid the cause and effects of the pollution that destroyed the world.
Although meant as a comedic interlude, the next vignette is dated and a touch homophobic, detailing the shock and peril a solitary explorer endures when he discovers his government 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’ in which two astronauts ending global famine realise they won’t reach Earth if both keep breathing the rapidly diminishing oxygen.
‘The Siege’ bloodily traces the rampage of a merciless 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. There’s 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 lovers of adventure and science fiction wonders from a master long overdue for fame in the English-speaking world.
