Remembrance of the City of God

I love it when one of these posts provokes some of you folks to take action, like commenting, but in this case — sharing a relevant scan.

This page shows the quote of Emerson's that inspired the story:

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!"

John Campbell, the editor at the time, of Astounding Science-Fiction responded to Asimov, "I should think they would go mad."

Thanks OtherEric!

Kolliker — Astounding Science-Fiction— interior pulp illustration

Nightfall

What magnificent feats of engineering humans are capable of for the quest of understanding our universe . . .

Mt Palomar — 1949

Whereas in Isaac Asimov's Nightfall, on the planet Lagash, residing in a solar system of 6 suns that cause perpetual daylight, such engineering ushered in a period of madness among society when an eclipse every 2 thousand some years allowed night's darkness to expose the universe beyond their atmosphere.

Hubert Rogers — Astounding Science-Fiction — September 1941

The story is oft reprinted as well as adapted to a novel with Robert Silverberg, and is worth seeking out if you haven't read it

Few and Far

Back when I was collecting comics, I usually purchased based on pictorial quality, and not for the story writing. Comic book stories have usually seemed to me to be silly, simplistic or just downright stupid. Now don't get me wrong, that's part of the charm of being all-in-color-for-a-dime. But as comics evolved to become seemingly more 'mature' and certainly more expensive, I had greater expectations for the story quality. 

EC comics in the '50s are consistently lauded as having had great art and great writing. Yeah, the art was pretty great, and the writing by Kurtzman and the Bradbury adaptations and a few others was way cool. But a lot of the stuff was predictable and silly, even though way above other comics of the time.

In the '80s, beyond the superhero genre, comics took on adult appeal more and more. Art was racier and  of pretty good quality, but many of the stories were either retreads and/or just plain lame. I had great expectations from series like Alien Worlds and others. Here, Al Williamson's art was as good or better than his EC work and very reminiscent of those days, and the writing tries to be — but ends up being a tired old retread (writer to go unnamed here). You can see why some of us buy comics just for the art. REALLY good writing examples in this medium are just few and far between.

Sometime soon, I hope to post some samples of what I think is some really good comic book writing, superhero, no less. Stay 'tooned.

Above, Joe Chiodo —lovely cover of Alien Worlds #1, December 1982

 Above and below, Al Williamson, from that same issue, very strong art

Special Denizen

The Disney universe is an odd duck, so to speak. Much of it is loved, globally, and much of it is criticized for its white bread values. Under various bosses, its film library has wandered all over the map, and considering its immense success, it's hard to critique it in general. Known as the 'Disney version', classic fairy tales have been sanitized and sentimentalized, and has 'corrupted' generations of little minds to a princess mentality. Not a horrible thing, but disturbing if it becomes obsessive.

These days, efforts are made to correct some of the idealism, such as in "Brave" (though the little heroine is still a princess and somewhat ideal).  Where are the average but extraordinary little girls?

Ah, Lilo and Stitch, one of my favorite latter-day Disney creations, presents Lilo with her 'ordinary' modern day frustrations of family issues, compounded by the 'extraordinary' problems of a little extraterrestrial — Stitch — a characterization that I find very entertaining. Lilo is a very enjoyable characterization as well, but I think that Stitch, with his manic-depressive personality, is a special denizen of the Disney universe.

 The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

The Disney Studio — "Stitch"

Inside Front Covers

The late Joe Kubert had probably the record for the longest career in comic books, from the early days in the '40s to just recently. His art style was highly distinctive all that time, though it did evolve consistently. The quality of his style took a leap upward in the early '50s, seemingly quite suddenly. But the first item below seems to be a 'missing link' in his evolution. It has hints of years to come, while still showing youthful experimentation. Even his signature is experimental, rarely used elsewhere like that.

This was an inside front cover for Avon Periodicals, a publisher with a propensity for assigning the best artists to create pen and ink illustrations to 'draw' readers inside the comic, assuming the cover also did its job. As the samples further below showcase, many of those inside covers were by Everett Raymond Kinstler, an illustrator in the making, and Wally Wood with Joe Orlando—two of the most compelling comic book artists of the 1950s.

All of these gentlemen were helping to keep the Golden Age of comic books alive as long as possible, until smothered by the oppressive Comics Code Authority.

 Joe Kubert — Attack on Planet Mars — 1951

 Everett Raymond Kinstler — The Phantom Witch Doctor — 1952

Wally Wood/Joe Orlando — Space Detective — 1951

With Trembling Pseudopods

Among many talented cartoonists over the years, Will Elder was one of the top, even though he specialized in satire, and much of it with his compatriot Harvey Kurtzman.

Originally published in Trump magazine in 1957, this illustration satirizes good girl pulp illustration from a decade before. Elder brings his usual 'chicken fat' (extra little sight gags) to the drawing and shows that he could have given Virgil Finlay a run for his money if he had seriously worked for the pulps.

Will Elder — Trump magazine — 1957

Rescue the Beautiful Princess Lur-Na

Another greatly fun sub or side genre of science fiction is the comic book adventurous lug cut in the mold of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, always rescuing a true love from Bird Men, Bat Men, Butterfly Men, Mole Men, Rock Men, TattleTale Men, Leave the Cap Off Toothpaste Men, and (shudderrr) Sales Men.

To be one of these guys, he's gotta have a jetpack, a ray gun, a cool helmet, and a code of conduct that would satisfy any girl's father. He also has to be bold enough to say stupid things and nobody minds cuz he's so darn rugged and cute and humble.

The girl has to of the beauteous persuasion, some form of royalty, past present or future, and capable of having the vapors, so as to sideline the guy in the darndest situations where he has to pick her up and carry like a sack of meat, without violating any of the conduct codes that her father has approved of in a private meeting — the father being a gentleman and only giving a tiny glimpse into the room where he keeps his weapons collection from 42 worlds of assassins guilds.

Murphy Anderson was a great inker of the silver Age of Comics, teaming perfectly with several topflight pencilers, but he was mighty good inking his own pencils as well, also having had a great stint with Buck Rogers hisself. And Anderson, well, he fulfilled most all those requirements outlined above in one swell drawing.

©1971 Murphy Anderson

The Galaxy Raiders

In all the dimensions of sci-fi, there's maybe nothing as much fun as the good old fashioned pulpy space opera of the '40s and '50s. The lurid colors of the ragged covers drawing you in to a universe where babes hit the space ways in their swimsuits and beach towel clasped around their neck (Douglas Adams had it right about not hitchhiking around the cosmos without your towel in hand). The smell of the pulp and the purple of the prose is enough to transport your molecules into the far reaches of the imagination.

Oh, the future was never as good as it was back then.

Robert Gibson Jones — Amazing Adventures — February 1950

A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says],

is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."

—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Wonder Barr

George Barr is a wonder, his work traversing the universe. This royal study is prescient of Avatar, perhaps another race on Pandora.

© 1971 George Barr

Accountability

Beware of disreputable Mind-Travel Agents that have dismal accountability, liable to leave you stranded in some corner of the universe with no return ticket. Such has happened, such as below, travelers that received a confirmation for pick-up that just indicated "tomorrow, midnight" — but didn't leave a clue as to a date or coordinates. These unfortunate fellows traversed the Kingston III planetoid multiple times hoping to intersect their transport home.

No they never returned, and their fate is still unlearned.

Frank Frazetta — Tomorrow Midnight

Voyage to the Moon

More theatrical hijinx.

Babil & Bijou — ca 1900

As performed in The Celebrated Ballet at Covent Garden

How Bibil and Bijou, accompanied by Auricomos,

the Spirit of the Earth, and the Spirit of the Air,

start in an Aerial Ship on a voyage to the Moon.

—Scene 14, Mid-Air

Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge?

This was a painting used for the cover of a Heavy Metal extra edition. You can see how cropping the tail could make a difference in how one might interpret the meaning of the painting.

Pamela Lee — 1983

Pamela Lee — Bride of Heavy Metal — March 1985

The Gift

Ray Bradbury was one of those few science fiction writers embraced by a mainstream audience as well as the SF/Sci-Fi geeks. His work spanned from pulps and comics to elite hardback books and glossy magazines, from The Saturday Evening Post to Playboy and Esquire.

He was a gift and was embraced by all.

"An Interpretation of Ray Bradbury's Christmas Story — The Gift

Painted Especially for Esquire by Ren Wicks" — December 1952

Roaming the Eons

This is a favorite photo of our dearly departed Ray Bradbury, sitting in the original time machine from the classic film, around 1960.

I'd like to think that he is somewhere roaming the eons.

photo © 2001 Ray Bradbury

Rarified Atmosphere

Whenever I'm feeling tired and overwhelmed, all I have to do is spend a few minutes with images that catapult me into the rarified atmosphere of fantasy, and I am energized like the ion thrusters of a space cruiser exiting an asteroid field.

The isolated panel below is one of my all time favorites from the golden age of 'science fiction', or more aptly 'space opera' or just plain 'fantasy adventure'. Totally unsophisticated, it is supremely iconic of the genre, from Flash Gordon to Buck Rogers and beyond. Drawn by a young Murphy Anderson, Star Pirate must have influenced Ron Goulart and Gil Kane with their StarHawks, and I'd even venture that the young Frank Frazetta probably admired this work as well.

Imagine, if you will, the pulpy smell of old comics, and let your mind unfocus from your worries as it wanders the astro lanes from distant worlds — but always keep your blaster close at hand.

Murphy Anderson — Planet Comics #50 _ 1947

Our Children's Children

Kelly Freas' art lured me into many a sci-fi book.

Frank Kelly Freas — Our Children's Children — 1983

Below, without all that pesky type to get in the way of the art and the menace in the background, a concept Freas was prone to do.

Frank Kelly Freas — 1983

Stories to Stagger the Imagination

Here is an interesting duo of images to compare, but I'm at a loss to describe how or why they came to be this way. The top image is an inked and nearly finished comic cover by Gil Kane. It functions well as a cover ready for production—coloring, adding the issue #, price and DC logo. But it never went 'beyond' that stage (a pun that is stillborn) . . . but the bottom image is the same cover, rendered completely by Neal Adams, and made its way to the comic spinners where I bought it 42 years ago.

Okay, so why wasn't Kane's cover used, though you can see the title changed, and actually Neal Adam's cover is better because the angle of the comet earth is more acute, aiming right for our intrepid moon men, and the angle of the scene puts them in more imminent danger. Was Kane's rejected? But why not have him redraw it? A whole bunch of other meaningless questions come to mind, but all I know is—any answers might stagger the imagination and would come from . . . BEYOND the UNKNOWN!

Gil Kane — From Beyond

Neal Adams — From Beyond the Unknown #3 — 1970

Electric Air Boat

It was a hundred and nine years ago today, but eleven months before the Wright Brothers first powered flight, that this cool neat-o electric air boat was making its way through the imagination of armchair adventurers everywhere.

Thoughts of flying were in the air, so to speak, with all kinds of attempts, and the time was ripe for it to happen—I just wish Orville had been reading this mag and called out to Wilbur, "Hey Will, maybe we should try it THIS way . . ."

Frank Reade Weekly Magazine — January 2, 1903

Potential Zero

A pair of star-crossed lovers à la Finlay . . .

Virgil Finlay — Science Stories — December 1953

A Father's Obsession

Here is a double page from an Argosy magazine of 1952 illustrating The Rocket Man, a short story excised from Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man, published the previous year. Ostensibly this story inspired a song by the Spotniks that in turn inspired Bernie Taupin and Elton John to create their song Rocket Man.

A father's obsession—when you're there, you want to be here, when you're here you want to be out there.

James Bingham — Argosy magazine — February 1952