My friend Melinda found these three pix while moving. She gave them to me. I give them to you.
from "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
a posed studio shot, some time after "Charlie X" made 3-D chess popular:
from "Spock's Brain":
Saturday, May 09, 2009
On Real Photo Paper
from "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
a posed studio shot, some time after "Charlie X" made 3-D chess popular:
from "Spock's Brain":
Friday, May 08, 2009
When You're First in Color Television, There's Got to Be a Reason.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Blog%20Trek/TrekRCATVAd.jpg
If memory serves, this ad appeared in a 1967 issue of Newsweek. The original has another full-page ad on the back, with no date showing.
Notice that the "middle" scene, the one on a "planet" set, is from "Man Trap," the first aired episode.
See you next time, and howdy boy to Frederick! Visit his Star Trek Scrapbook blog! The link is to the right in the Links list.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
And the Winners Are ...
As you can see, the Number One winner was my pal Larry Nemecek, future author of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, among other nifty tomes.
But I came in Number Two (I tried harder?). Notice the artistic underlining.
And for prizes, I got a STTMP poster, and this cool-beans belt buckle, only slightly the worse for nearly thirty years' worth of wear ...
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/Blog%20Trek/STTMPQuizBuckleFront.jpg
Next week, let's Trek into the 1980s!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Take the STTMP Quiz!
Remember when there were TWO Oklahoma City "general" newspapers? In December 1979 the Oklahoma Journal (the paper that's NOT still in business) ran a STAR TREK quiz, to help drum up publicity for STAR TREK: The Motion Picture.
Oh boy! Trivia! Trekkies (yes, Trekkies) unite!
Oh boy! Trivia! Trekkies (yes, Trekkies) unite!
My answers ran to three typewritten pages.
Tomorrow, the winners!
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Newsweek and George Takei
In 1972, Newsweek magazine figured out that the fans were keeping Star Trek alive.
In 1978, George Takei came to the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Music Hall along with a few episodes and a blooper reel or two. I helped him set up his autograph card table.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Welome to STAR TREK Month!
This May 2009 I'll be sharing scraps from multiple scrapbooks of growing up with Star Trek.
I was a few weeks away from my 10th birthday when Star Trek premiered on NBC in September, 1966.
This entry is an article from Popular Science's December, 1967 issue.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Fiction About UFOs and Other Mysteries
If you read a lot of Dean Koontz, you may have noticed that sometimes he will put a preface or an endnote to his books saying that such-and-such piece of technology, used in his story, actually exists or is under development. In other words, the story is made up, but the mind-control or the super-zap-gun or what-have-you are reality-based.
Mr Koontz doesn't say that he is using fiction to shed light on true secrets, as that Con Man Dan Brown does, but that idea of "exposing" something by calling it fiction has been around for a long time. Citizen Kane, anyone?
Similarly, there have been more than a few fictionalized layouts of various writers' take on UFOs or little green guys or cattle mutilations, etc.
Sometimes the story is so cosmic it's silly, as in Walter Ernsting's The Day the Gods Died. Of course, being based on Erich von Daniken's ideas, silly is the name of the game.
Other times, as in Deborah Deutschman's Signals, or John Dalton's The Cattle Mutilators, it's a researcher who delves too deep into Things No Man Is Meant to Know.
Or, as in Richard Steinberg's Nobody's Safe, an innocent schmoe takes one step too far and ends up in a puddle of secrets (kind of like Dean Koontz sometimes after all). Of course, in Nobody's Safe, the "innocent" main character is actually a master thief. But he steals something and witnesses something that eventually lands him in a place where these little guys eat lots of strawberry ice cream. You dig?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Picoverse, by Robert Metzger -- A Review
If you want to read an interesting story about alternate universes, spacetime, and physics/relativity paired with human failures and hopes, this is a good read.
This 2002 novel chronicles attempts to crunch spacetime using a supercomputer named a Sonomak, in a project at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
When something goes a little wrong -- Dr Frankenstein, I presume? -- and a miniaturized creation -- a Picoverse -- is created, then things get interesting.
In Picoverse (the story) we have the creation and visiting of different alternate worlds, created by the misfiring of plasma injectors into magnetic fields (or something). Each universe is created as an exact duplicate of ours, up until the moment of divergence.
These worlds' scale (physical and temporal) are smaller in relation to ours, so, as in Theodore Sturgeon's classic tale "Microcosmic God," whole generations might pass in a picoverse in the course of a conversation on our plane.
But it's the tales of the characters, and their passages into various worlds, and interactions with their alternate selves and with other people, that make Picoverse so much fun and moving and insightful.
Metzger shows insights into many facets of the human character, including some we don't like to acknowledge -- pettiness, jealousy, selfishness, outright self-righteous justification. But the people in Picoverse also try to help themselves and others. They have loves and selfless motives and self-sacrifice.
Sometimes these polarities of human behavior are even shown in the same character, at different times.
Picoverse is a fun book, not an easy read if you're not up on physics (as I am not), but loaded with ideas and observations and people who make you want to know what will happen next to them.
Monday, April 13, 2009
His Lordship, Clark Kent!
Here we have the oldest comic I own, Action 106, cover-dated March 1947. Its cover story is "His Lordship, Clark Kent."
The cover illo (by Wayne Boring?) is a bit of a cheat. Because Superman himself doesn't become a British lord, only good ol' CK.
Check out the humorous splash page for the story. Clark and Lois stand in a drawing room with Superman sneaking in through a secret panel. Above the fireplace is a painting of the happy/tragic faces of Greek drama, along with Clark's and Superman's faces. The Superman face is winking at us.
The first page depicts a Brit appearing at the Daily Planet, and the second page sinks the hook: Clark Kent is the long-lost Bertram, hereditary Baron of Edgestream.
Dazzled by the prospects of such a story for his paper, Perry demands that Clark cross the Big Pond and report on the outcome.
On the top of the next page, as Clark boards a cross-Atlantic plane, the narrative takes on a strange resonance for me: "Clark cannot be sure he is not a long-lost British noble - for he knows only that he was an orphan reared by a kindly couple who found him."
In other words, in 1947, Superman did not know that he came from Krypton!
In a deathbed meeting with the dying Baron Edgestream, Clark finds he has been drawn into a family quarrel with wide implications. The old man knows that Clark isn't the heir, but he has selected the Planet reporter in place of the next in line, a scoundrel named Julian Fyffe.
Soon Clark investigates the family archives and discovers a long-hidden photo of the real Bertram as a babe, revealing a star-shaped birthmark on the boy's shoulder.
That scoundrel Julian, having failed in several previous attempts on the life of "His Lordship, Clark Kent," goes for broke, dynamiting the mine and burying Clark, Lois, and several miners, including Eddie Pike, the miner who's been the most active agitator for mine safety.
Who, we discover, has a certain star-shaped birthmark on his shoulder.
Yep, the baddies confess, and the real Bertie becomes Lord of the Manor, while Superman builds new, safe housing for the workers.
Well, it's a typical 1940s Suprman tale, with a lot of silliness yet with some real social issues -- does rank make one man more important than another?
I think not. What do you think?
Monday, April 06, 2009
Lew Luthor or Lex?
Allen Ross was kind enough to point out what appears to be mis-typing in the previous post's title.
Didn't ANYBODY remember that for a few months DC changed Lex's name to "Lew" when editorial was going to make Lex Luthor a star of the Smallville High basketball team? The name change was to remind readers of Lou Alcinder.
Hmm. I guess nobody remembers.
Ok, I was wrong! And thanks to Allen for the raised eyebrows and nudge to the ribs!
Didn't ANYBODY remember that for a few months DC changed Lex's name to "Lew" when editorial was going to make Lex Luthor a star of the Smallville High basketball team? The name change was to remind readers of Lou Alcinder.
Hmm. I guess nobody remembers.
Ok, I was wrong! And thanks to Allen for the raised eyebrows and nudge to the ribs!
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Lew Luthor Invented the Wii -- in 1961!
Howdy Friends and Campers. Herewith presented for your bemusement is a tale from Superboy #86, cover-dated January, 1961.
The cover (by the Swanderful Curt of course) looks pretty promising, but the tale inside is pretty insipid.
Lex Luthor decoys Superboy to a deserted asteroid.
Using the Wii that he's invented(powered by the helmet he's wearing, NOT by a handheld controller), Luthor manipulated various things in the environment to make things *pretty dicey* for Superboy.
When Krypto arrives to help his master, there's enough Kryptonite for all!
The day is saved by Lightning Lad from the Legion of Super-Heroes, who happened to be viewing the past at the right time to zip back to the 20th Century and save the Boy and His Dog.
Pretty Winathian-ex-Machina, if you ask me.
But check out the story's art by Superboy regular George Papp.
You'd have to call Luthor's gadget very Wii-ish, no?
Lex was saying "whee" until his plot was foiled, huh!?!
The cover (by the Swanderful Curt of course) looks pretty promising, but the tale inside is pretty insipid.
Lex Luthor decoys Superboy to a deserted asteroid.
Using the Wii that he's invented(powered by the helmet he's wearing, NOT by a handheld controller), Luthor manipulated various things in the environment to make things *pretty dicey* for Superboy.
Pretty Winathian-ex-Machina, if you ask me.
But check out the story's art by Superboy regular George Papp.
You'd have to call Luthor's gadget very Wii-ish, no?
Lex was saying "whee" until his plot was foiled, huh!?!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Composite Superman!
Pity poor Joe Meach. He's just one of those people who seem to go around with a cloud hanging over their heads. He can't even get it right when he tries to be a high diver off a Metropolis building. He jumped before noticing that his water tank was leaking. If Superman hadn't been flying by, Joe would have been sidewalk pizza.
Joe's story is told in World's Finest #142, cover-dated June, 1964. In this story written by SF great Edmond Hamilton and drawn by the incomparable Curt Swan, we learn of "poor pitiful me" Mr Meach.
Maybe Meach's name was inspired by the words "leech" or "mooch," because that's exactly how ol' Joe features in this story.
(Is it just me, or does the interior splash page art remind you of Adolf Hitler at the Nuremburg Rally, being saluted by his minions?)
As featured on the cover and the story's splash page, suddenly our World's Finest heroes are confronted by somebody who is virtually a one-man Legion (of Super-Heroes). The Composite Superman demands that Superman and Batman take him on as partner, or he'll reveal their Secret Identities.
As the CS zips around "saving" things, through narration we learn of his origin as Joe Meach. After being rescued by Superman, he gets a job through Superman's influence, as the custodian of the Superman Museum. But does Joe get down to his work, thankful to be alive and to have a job? No, he grumbles about how "the Man" is keeping him down.
In his introductory tour of the Museum, Joe notices some statues of the 30th Century's Legion of Super-Heroes, and Superman is glad to oblige by satisfying Meach's curiosity. The statues were made by successfully duplicating every particle of the Legion members' bodies, only smaller.
So it should come as no surprise that, when lightning zaps into the Museum and strikes the statues next to Joe, then the previously-unknown DUPLICATED POWERS of the Legionaires flow into Joe's body on a current of electricity. After all, quantitavely, there's no different between a live body and a dead one. Each has the same amount of particles.
OK. Let's assume that YOU have received the accumulated powers of the entire Legion of Super-Heroes. What do you do? Do you become a hero and help, save, and redeem?
Not if you're Joe Meach. Like a lot of folks that you or I know, who blame their misfortunes on others, he simply wastes his great opportunity on showing up the true heroes, our World's Finest team. Motivated by resentment and a sense of entitlement, Meach works to squash the careers of "our two favorites heroes."
He uses all the powers of the Legion to stymie Superman and Batman at every turn. Eventually he demands that Superman, Batman, and Robin give up their roles as costumed heroes so that the Composite Superman can have all the world's adulation.
But our heroes decide not to take that dictate lying down. They sneak away and discover a strange castle constructed by their foe, a castle made of mixed metals (kind of like his abilities). Inside is a disturbing wish-fulfilment statue of the Composite Superman grappling with the whole world. Uggh, creepy, huh?
Batman and Superman are discovered by their enemy, who quickly cobbles together a deathtrap which is only thwarted by Batman's quick thinking. But as they escape, the Composite Superman is nowhere to be found.
Why? because Meach's powers, and memories, have worn off.
And that's how the story ends, with the uneasy realization on our part that Superman, Batman, and Robin did not defeat their opponent. No, he simply forgot about them!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Check Out Some Old Time Radio!
Have you heard any of the original Superman radio shows from the 1940s? You can enter a world of imagination where Bud Collyer simply has to drop his voice an octave to go from Clark Kent to Superman.It was on the Superman radio show that Jimmy Olsen got his name; where Superman first met Batman; and where Kryptonite was first introduced to the Man of Steel.
Anyway, if you want a chance to listen to some of those thrilling days of yesteryear, hop on over to visit my friend Jon at the Old Time Radio Catalog, http://www.otrcat.com:80/
You can find suspense tales, westerns, soap operas, and -- oh yeah -- superheroics! You can order shows on CD in either CDA or MP3 format.
Jon features great specials and daily free downloads. Plus, he also is nice enough to read this blog!
Friday, March 20, 2009
I'm Better Now, and I Would Like a Big Mac Please
Howdy, and believe me you do NOT want to have the excuse I am going to provide for going over a week without saying HELLO.
Can you say "stomach flu"? I thought you could. Better say it than HAVE it. By Wednesday I thought I was getting better, but it's a nuisance when the only way to not "have to go" is to not eat. Yup, the ol' express train to the colonary exit had slipped its brakes again.
Thanks to the passing of time, a nice doctor, and a little something we call Diphenoxylate-Atropine, the floodgates are holding.
So to celebrate a return towards dietary health(!), let's remember when every good ol' Big Mac came in its own non-styrofoam carrying case. In fact the thing was recyclable and caused less environmental damage than making it out of cardboard.
But, there were some people worried that CFCs (which Big Mac boxes were not made of) were ozone-harming when produced. So, basically to honor a media scare story and the public's beliefs that Big Mac clamshells were made of the evil styrofoam, they did away with the tough little waterproof critters.
Ah, but sometimes the foresightful few (geeks) can rescue the perishing. That's what I did, and now, you can see it too!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tieing One On for Watchmen!
Well, we saw Watchmen Saturday afternoon.
I think the film does a great job of giving you an experience similar to what you get from the comic.
As an old guy, I was pleased to recognize the characters Mick Jagger, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, Pat Buchanan, and others. I did miss "Dick Cavett," and I also didn't notice Janis Joplin singing "Me and Bobby McGee" in the background -- but both were listed in the credits.
Ozzy's endgame scheme in the movie makes at least as much sense as the comic's version -- although we DID get a SQUID, if you noticed.
Anyway, this was just a chance to share my latest piece of suggested merchandising: The Smiley WatchTie.
What do you think?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Attack of the Robot
From 1996, it's Attack of the Robot, written by Joe Edkin and illoed by Erik Doescher and Tim Harkins.
You see, this robot attacks. And Superman, Green (Kyle Rayner) Lantern, Captain Marvel, and Wonder Woman fight it. They help people who are almost hurt by the robot's attack.
And they catch the bad 
guy, Lex Luthor, who was behind the attack of the robot.
guy, Lex Luthor, who was behind the attack of the robot.
"You may have stopped me this time," he said, "but someday I'll get my revenge."
Note Supes's long, flowing locks post-Return but pre-Haircut.
Also herewith presented are images of the tattoos included in the center staple. For your consideration I have flipped the images so they're readable.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Holy Grail Mystery Solved
The author is Frank C Tribbe.The copy I bought through Amazon was sgned and dedicated by Tribbe to a pastor who'd previously interviewed him. Also inside were two letters from the author to the pastor.
This quotation from one of the letters pretty much sums up the book's stance:
"Several of the Turin Shroud scientific researchers are now convinced, as I am, that the Face on the Turin Shroud is the true source of the Holy Grail stories. For the first millenium the Shroud was folded in a casket with only the Face showing, surrounded by a cloth-of-gold with lattice pattern -- early French greile, or grill, then grail. Legends, pilgom stories and bits of history, plus writers' and troubadours' imagination did the rest."
Well -- isn't that an interesting theory! There's probably no reason why it could not be true.
However --
This little book is subtitled, "A Fully Illustrated Research Odyssey." Illustrated it is. Research? How can I tell?
This book has a bibliography. It has photo credits for the many photos. The author is obviously well educated and insightful. But how can it be a "research odyssey" when there is NOT A SINGLE FREAKIN' footnote or reference given for anything? A bibliography IS NOT ENOUGH.
So, if you want to read more about this interesting little idea, this is the book for you. I had a hard time deciding whether to shelve it with my "Arthur" books or my "Shroud" books -- although the Shroud won out.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Silver Bridge, by Gray Barker
This book was originally published in 1970 by Barker's own Saucerian Press, and is here reissued by Metadisc books -- it looks like from the same plates, misspellings and all.
This is a fascinating mythic account of the Mothman furor of the late 1960s in the area around Mount pleasant, West Virginia.
It's not just "documentary style." No, Barker imputes an ultra-terrestrial impart to Indrid Cold and his fellow alternate-dimensional companions. He features a character, The Narrator, whom I suspect to be an aspect of Barker's own personality.
photobucket link: http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo152/MarkAAlfred/SB.jpg
"A keen observer of the human condition," as they say, Barker drily describes the educated and uneducated, the sophisticated and the less-than-adequate, as they are confronted with Twilight-Zone-type things: human shapes with wings that can pace a 85-mph car; little guys in black suits with droning voices and hypnotic eyes; a high-tech flying saucer that lands in the middle of the road on antique-airplane-looking rubber tires; and other such weird things.
It's a fascinating book, and more of a "meditation containing fact" than a strictly investigatory report. It's aeons more worth your time than the silly Mothman's Photographer II.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Bootleg Toy Bonanza
For Valentine's Day, Joyce and I drove down to (what's left of) the Outlet Mall in Gainesville, TX. All the important (to us) stuff was still there: Burke's, 75% Off Books, the kitchenware store, a few clothing & shoe outlets, plus ... a toy liquidator store!
When I first saw this "MAVEL TEAM UP," my first thought was, "Superman and Spider-Man in the same package? Impossible." My second thought was, "They spelled MARVEL wrong." My third thought was, "BOOTLEG!"
Sure enough, here we have another lead-painted (*probably*) Bootleg Bonanza!
As you can see, they got the costumes about right, and these little guys are pretty well done. Superman, having the same cape as Batman (only red), has a scalloped edge to his cape instead of a straight-across edge, but that's about my only quibble.
Man, you have to admire the brazenness of this MAVEL TEAM UP.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Counting Down the Watchmen Time!
Here are the latest offerings in the do-it-yourself Watchmen toys contest.
Pretty silly, I know, but with Valentine's Day only a couple of days away, I'm too juiced-up with love to think clearly.
Talk to you next week!
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