#301364 - Elmtown Chronicles IV 1988
Submitted by admin on Fri, 08/19/2022 - 01:00
Elmtown Chronicles, Volume IV
B - 12
by Nom D. Guerre
illustrated by Leon Kurtz
Brand X Publishing
Burbank, California
1988
optimized
and
optimized, pictures-only ebook
When published in 1988, 1100 copies were produced. It's taken us years to stumble upon this volume.
The story involves two fighters in a big basement in Elmtown. They fight for money, but they also have a history that piques antagonism, and the author discloses their affinities in the opening Epilogue and Recapitulation. He also enumerates dollar amounts paid to the wrestlers for fighting nude, falls and intimate assaults.
The two combatants — Lee and Delgato — have ethnic backgrounds that the author uses to distinguish between them. This writing technique provides numerous synonyms used in lieu of last names, to vary vocabulary. Some of this language may seem pejorative to some.
The writing describes sequences of holds, grabs, flips, punches, hair pulls, scissors and straddles. The author reveals each fighter's frame of mind, strategy, thoughts and reactions. For example —
Within the five minute time limit between falls, Delgato was able to recover enough to continue. She was still sore. Both physically and emotionally. Her anger forced her to recover, and she charged her protagonist as soon as the bell clanged.
Lee thought she could absorb the onslaught but was not prepared for the head that smashed into her belly. She was driven backward into the ropes. By the time she had rebounded off the ropes the Spanish spitfire had rotated half way around and from that position, wrapped her arm around Lee’s neck and flung her over her back to land.
“Oophh,” wheezed the Korean as her back absorbed most of the landing, but not all. Her head shared in the stunning impact. And similar to her predecessor, the result was her body, too, went limp.
Delgato immediately dropped down to sit on Lee’s face. She then fell forward, making sure she held her opponent’s head firmly between her legs, and attacked the Major’s mound of Venus with her fingers.
“Oh no you don’t.” Punishment tried to shout. Her voice was muffled by the muff that had been shoved in her face by the Latiness. “Take that you beaner,” grunted the Korean as she whammed the left side of the Spanish girl’s face with her upswinging knee.
“Ahg,” croaked the Banana as the force of the blow knocked her sideways off her foe. Dazed, she crumpled onto her back, ending up (actually down) stretched out flat on the mat, limp as cooked spaghetti. Cooking was also on Lee’s mind too, but she was preparing to cook Delgato’s goose, as it were.
“Got you now, you scum-bag,” said the Korean as she got t her knees, then leaped upon the prostrate Mexican. Only she wasn’t there. With almost instantaneous recovery in clarity of mind and reactions, as only youth can give, Chiquita was able to roll out of the way from the descending woman in time.
Both girls rolled away from each other and regained their feet. In blind rage, Rose Lee charged and immediately found herself hoisted into the air with both of Delgato’s arms wrapped firmly around her back.
Firmly wasn’t exactly the right word, crushing embrace was more apt. With a final squeeze of the bear hug forcing the last whiff of air from the lungs, Chiquita flung the hapless Oriental to the mat.“This will finish you.” This time the Latina took no chances. She rolled her foe over, then from behind, Delgato wrapped her legs around her left thigh.
Then she wedged Lee’s neck against her armpit and with the same arm seized one of her wrists. With her free right hand she attacked one of the Oriental’s orbs with cruel retribution. By now, Punishment had regained her senses, but she was toe groggy to prevent her being tied up with an unbreakable hold.
With her remaining free hand the Major grabbed at the arm controlling the hand that was mangling her breast. It didn’t seem to do any good. This was because the more she yanked at Chiquita’s arm the more the clamped hand would pull the bruised breast from its attached chest. If Lee didn’t submit to the crushing fingers then Delgato had the option of knocking her out by choking off any chance of air getting past her constricted throat. The end came fast.
“I submit,” croaked the Major.
“I can’t hear you!” yelled the Banana.
“I said I give up, you bitch!”
“Now I can hear you,” laughed the spitfire. She gave one last hurtful squeeze of the breast for bad measure. She thrust her vanquished foe away from her with a contemptuous shove. Then she got up and walked over to her corner to sit down and listen to the congratulations from her cornerperson.
Lee’s cornerwoman had to help her regain her feet, and she almost had to drag her to her corner. It seems the armpit around the throat had contributed in no small measure to the win. The Korean was seething. She was much more angry at herself than with her opponent. The easy first fall had imbued her with overconfidence and she had paid dearly.
“That evens things up,” thought Punishment. “Damn, that was stupid!” She was agitated. “I’m going to hurt her this time.” The problem was Chiquita felt the same way.
The author does an excellent job of describing physical differences between wrestling and boxing. He shows respect for his wrestlers. He and his characters reference Moby Dick, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Sagan, but it's not a text book.
Twenty-eight soft-pencil illustrations by Leon Kurtz illuminate the prose. His skill delivers pin-up-model quality characters in painful combat. Subtle shading develops feminine contours on firm bodies with flowing hair. Tableaux show grabbing, pinching, kneeing, scissoring, punching, pulling, flipping and face-sitting.
To accomplish alignment of prose and imagery, the text was re-set for the ebook iteration. Few changes were made to the breezy prose. 10000 words.
The text is punctuated by picture numbers. In the optimized ebook, images are placed near where their numbers appear in the text. Optimization consists of a single enlargement of the main action of each picture.
The ebook contains all content of the original, including front and back covers and one page of advertising. Picture numbers were excised in the ebook.
Brightness, contrast, and levels were adjusted and shadows reduced to show details. Images transposed to ebook format with clear lines and appropriate gradients.
All new scans of the first printing. Nudity.
A second ebook shows only the optimized pictures on more than 50 pages.
NOTE
Although some parts of pictures are obscured on this page, the ebook shows everything that's in the original.
also available –
Two optimized ebooks, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.