I've Seen the Saucers

... So says the 1974 Elton John song.

But long before that, I was fascinated by the idea.  As seen by my juvenile saucer blueprints, or first attempts at fiction.

But I had fun faking saucers, too!  This one isn't a mothership over our street in Bartlesville, it's (natch) a red Frisbee.  Still, I did a good job of snapping the photo after tossing the thing!

Here's an even closer encounter!  Fellow sixties kids will recognize this landed saucer as the primary hull of the U.S.S. Enterprise model from AMT, with some added "landing gear."  At the right is a very hard-to-see Matchbox vehicle I wanted to pass off as an alien landing craft.

Here's someone else's photo of the same toy.

Well, what do you think?  Weren't my kiddie pix -- umm, childlike?  At least you gotta give me points for fun!  See you Monday.

  

Leading to Utter Rune

Here is an article from the January 1969 issue of Science Digest.

As you can tell from the first image, I liberated this article from the Sooner High library.  I can only hope that I did it with permission!

As you might imagine, the idea of runes was interesting thanks to ole Tolkien, darn him!  See you Thursday.

  

A Good Survey, a Few Slips, but Inaccurately Titled

Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious, by Barna William Donovan

 As the subtitle promises, it’s a survey of “dark places” in American thought. Donovan not only narrates the production and reception of fairly recent films (the 1960s onward), he tries to illumine thought processes, worldviews, and audiences for the kinds of beliefs narrated in films like JFK, Hangar 18, or the Rambo series.  That is, the idea that great forces are working together to preserve their own power by deliberately misrepresenting reality.  An elite, this concept says, is running things for their own benefit.

HOWEVER—and this is where the book’s title is misleading—only MOST of this book’s content is about movies.  About 30%, in my estimation, is a survey of the milieus, mindsets, and history of belief in conspiracy in modern culture.  To my estimation, this is way too much verbiage to background any conspiracy theory covered in the films.

            Most goofs in the book were small.  The computer of 2001: A Space Odyssey is HAL 9000, not HALL.  It’s Darth Sidious, not “Siduous,” in Star Wars. In Star Trek VI, Gorkon is murdered on the Klingon ship, not on the Enterprise.  In his discussion of the Watchmen comics miniseries, Donovan never once mentions artist Dave Gibbons.

            A bigger mistake comes as Donovan summarizes (both comic and film) From Hell.  He wrongly says that Stephen Knight’s Ripper theory, the basis for From Hell, holds that Jack the Ripper was Prince Eddy.  No, no, a thousand fallen women no!  The Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution proposal is that coachman John Netley and Sir William Gull were the murderers.  They were trying to hush up the “crime” of Eddy impregnating and then secretly marrying a verboten Catholic girl.

            Overall, this is a competent survey, but too wordy.  As were many pulp writers, was Donovan paid by the word?

 See you Monday, fellow anti-conspiracists!

          

Ya Just Can't Trust AI

... even in the comics!  and here's proof:

In Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #69, cover-dated June 1963, we've got a story in which Jimmy and Superman return to Kandor, re-assuming their Nightwing and Flamebird identities, created just a few months ago in Superman #158 (cover-dated January 1963).  Both dynamite, action-filled tales are chockful of Kryptonian and Kandorian lore, and both written by the great Edmond Hamilton.  You can easily tell by the beauty, economy of line, and just plain RIGHTNESS, that the pencils are by the inimitable Curt Swan!

This page is just kind of thrown into the story in passing:

Believe me, when we have the example of Krypton's Machine-King to learn from, why would you let a computer drive your car?

See you Thursday!

  

Have You Been Silenced?

After checking out these book covers, you might not want to report that light in the sky you saw last night!

The late Jim Keith was big on warning people that some creepy stuff was really going on ... and you don't need to invoke aliens to explain a lot of the weird stuff.

It's been a while since I read this one, but I don't think that the (possible) existence of intelligent life on other planets is threatening to Christian faith.  I do agree with those who point out that a possible evil supernatural entity might pose as a space guy as part of an attempt to deceive pore old gullible humans.

Beckley's pretty sensationalistic, but it's really hard to go wrong IMO when the topic is those MIB.

See you Monday!

  

Give Me Freedom!

This interview is from Comics Interview #77, from 1989.

I have this miniseries, but it's been more than a decade since I last read it.  Shame on me!

But, tell me:  Have we become more or less free from surveillance in the 35 years since this was published?  See you Thursday, fellow self-imprisoned!

    

Curt Swan Knows His Super-Faces!

This one-page feature appeared in the February 1966 issue of Action, issue #333.

I mean, wow!  A couple of these images I recognize from other places.  Specifically, the laughing Superman seen just to the right of the DC mailing address.

It also appeared on this Super Cheese!  Read the story of this box here.

How many expressions can YOU identify?  See you Monday!

  

I Still Like the Silver Age Reality

This article is from the October 1990 Issue of Amazing Heroes, number 184.

Do you agree with Sanderson that DC's Silver Age menagerie of Superman accretions did not transfer to other DC titles because of editorial insularity?  And that Marvel's success in building "one" reality was because good ole Stan Lee sort-of oversaw their whole line of superheroic scribblings?

Or, did Barry Allen marry Iris West only because Marvel's Reed and Sue Richards broke the matrimonal comic-book ice?

I do not agree with the people who hail "Superman Red and Blue" as a wonderful story.  It's simplistic, and has all the faults which Sanderson points out.  Several Silver Age Imaginary Stories are much better IMO, such as Superman #175's "Clark Kent's Brother" -- covered in depth in a 2007 post.

I must confess to your disappointment and mine, me buckos, that I DO NOT own the issue of Amazing Heroes which contains a f further installment of Sanderson's article.  Boo-hoo!

OK my friends, since we don't have the luxury to switch realities by picking up a different comic book, let's work together to make THIS one better by vowing to practice a little tolerance and compassion.  That's ALWAYS a super virtue!

  

These Directions Aren't Hard Either

A week ago, on July 4th, I preached a little about mutual aid and assistance for all participants in this grand ole country of ours.

Now I've got a different set of instructions for ya.

This is from 1972, handed out by our wily American Lit teacher Ruth White.

Can you follow directions?  DID you?

See you Monday.

  

Some Super Reflections

These brief thoughts upon the Man of Steel were prompted by his 50th birthday.

These comments were published in Amazing Heroes #136, cover-dated February 29, 1988.

See you Thursday, fellow Super-fans!