THE NATURE OF THE CATASTROPHE

First edition, first printing. Original paper-covered boards with silver titles to the spine, in the Mal Dean illustrated dustwrapper. Illustrated with a 15 page black and white comic strip. A near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the foot of the spine with a very slight bump. The contents, with faint offsetting to the endpapers and a small mark to the top edge of the closed text-block, are otherwise clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed, nicked and creased dustwrapper that has a short closed tear to the bottom edge of the rear panel. Not price clipped. The original price of £2.00 on the front flap has been crossed out and repriced in black ink.

A collection of short works about Michael Moorcock's recurring character Jerry Cornelius, a glamorous adventurer, time-traveller and secret agent in the image of a 1960s rock star. Jerry featured in four of Moorcock's absurdist fantasy novels as well as a host of short stories and novellas. The first Jerry Cornelius novel, 'The Final Program' (first published in 1968), was adapted into a film of the same name in 1973, directed by Robert Fuest and starring Jon Finch and Jenny Runacre. Moorcock encouraged other writers and artists to create works using the Jerry character in an attempt to create a collaborative science fiction and fantasy universe, notably resulting in the inclusion of Jerry in the acclaimed French cartoonist Moebius's epic comic strip 'The Airtight Garage'. This volume collects five of Moorcock's own stories along with nine short stories and one comic strip by other authors, many of which were first published in New Worlds magazine.