Ray's X-Blog

The two miners -- known to be sober and truthful -- asked the sheriff if they could shoot at a flying saucer that had been trespassing on their camp. Over at his site -- The Flying Saucers That Time Forgot -- Curt Collins covers this event with the post "Flying Saucer Ambush: Brush Creek, CA, 1953."  (Link: http://bit.ly/2hMLIWv ) Curt shares news clippings about the miners and their unusual situation. For me all the details with any UFO/flying saucer story have to fit.  When even one key detail is dubious then the whole story is suspect. Of course newspaper reporters can make mistakes.  For example the articles don't match up regarding the miners's activity.  They are described as either mining gold or titanium.  Or maybe they kept changing their story a bit with each interview. The gist of the story is that on two occasions -- both on the 20th of each month at 6:30 PM -- a saucer would appear, landing on a sandbar with its tripod legs.  A dim...

Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren has provoked an outcry over her US flag Halloween costume.  Some of her conservative audience are angry that she has desecrated the great symbol of America in such a way, especially cutting up the flag to create a cape. I hope Captain America gives her a good spanking.

Source: https://www.mycomicshop.com

My war with technology continues. My 7 inch Dell tablet was tough but it finally wore out.  Dell no longer makes stand-alone tablets so I had to purchase another brand.  I had tried Amazon Fire with its semi-Android operating system and hated it.  It didn't play and work well with Android.  Also Amazon switched the default search engine to Bing.  Compared to Google Bing sucks. I had a Samsung tablet some time ago and it was OK.  So I purchased one which fit my budget (under $100) knowing that its internal memory was really limited.  But the Samsung included a micro SD card slot, a feature I like because I could move files and apps over to external storage, freeing up the needed internal space as I had done with other tablets. But my new tablet wouldn't allow any such transfers.  I returned to Best Buy and a Geek Squad tech spent over half-an-hour trying to make it work.  He told me the version of Android -- 4.4 -- on my tablet had been...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #137.   http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm   ) Claud, The Cyborg, is completely wrapped in a synthetic skin that covers his mouth.  He communicates through a speaker through his chest.  So why has this big ape bad guy gagged Claud's mouth?

(From Ray X X-Rayer #137.   http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm ) A distraught woman called into the late night radio program.  She was upset, feeling sorry for the people who wer e abducted and taken to Mars to work on a secret project. For me the story causing her distraught was obvious: Alternative 3. Back in 1977 Anglia Television in the UK produced a factual series called Science Report.  But for the April 1st broadcast the company decided to become fanciful, creating a mockumentary called Alternative 3.  Distinguished newscaster Tim Brinton went along with the gag, serving as presenter-narrator for the program.  Everyone else involved in the production were actors pretending to be reporters and interviewees.  Brinton's participation led to some viewers assuming the story was real, not fiction.   The program, Science Report: Alternative 3 , [1] has been compared to the War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938.  Each broadcast h...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #137.   http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm   ) I tried getting by without an ISP here at my new apartment.  Going around and using various public WiFi spots got old quick. There was a great coffeehouse, the perfect WiFi spot, quiet, good coffee – but it closed.  All that's left are fake cafes.  These establishments are run like bars, loud music blaring, caffeine instead of alcohol. Raucous rock and misogynistic rap driven into your head. One evening I went to a fake cafe and the music was blasting inside.  I went outside on the rear patio to get away from the distracting noise.  Across the street some bagpipers started up with their alfresco practice.  Then someone in the parking lot cranked up his car stereo.  Such a cacophony isn't conducive to creative thinking. For a quieter time I would sit outside a fake cafe after it had closed, using the WiFi on the street. At least there was a bench where I could ...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #137.) You got troubles?  Imagine what it must be like for the cyborgs depicted in the Space Man comic book series (Dell, 1962). The US government has joined the Galactic Guard, pitching in to defend peaceful worlds from evil aliens.  Some brave American men have volunteered to become cybernetic organisms that can handle living in outer space. High tech mechanisms have been added to each volunteer through surgery.  Cyborg conversion means no more need to breath oxygen or depend upon food for energy.  Human lungs have been replaced with an oxygen and carbon dioxide converter.  A cyborg is enwrapped in a special skintight protective covering that blocks his mouth and ears.  He can only communicate through a speaker embedded in his chest.  And as for hearing -- no go.  He has to lip read what a normal person is saying.  (Microphones couldn't be installed?  Lousy cyborgizing.) Not discussed is what happened ...

He was hooked in a Flash. A boyhood memory still vivid in the mind of Guy H. Lillian III. He remembers the particular comic book issue that changed his life. Guy: "My folks, little brother and I were visiting my grandparents in Rosamond, a bedroom town in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base. My grandmother had a basket of old magazines through which, one fateful day, I went leafing through and I chanced upon an issue of THE FLASH. The Mirror-Master was on it, beaming a light down on the Scarlet Speedster which reduced him in height. Hooked, gaffed, flopping in the floor of the boat ..." This was back in the days when a comic book cost a dime. Then there was a tremendous price increase to 12 cents but that didn't stop young Guy from following the adventures of the Scarlet Speedster. For your 12 cents not only did you have stories told in four colors but also a letter department where readers via envelopes and stamps submitted their comments. An editor wo...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #135.) Impetus: Cerebus The Aardvark. When he was around twelve years old Doug Arthur's three-years-older brother brought home a number of independent/underground comic books.  Cerebus The Aardvark left such an impression on him that today he produces his own independent comics. He and his brother Rick were really into comic books, frequenting the FantaCo comic book shop in Albany, NY.  Each brother grew from a fan into a creator, a writer/artist in the comic book medium.  (In Doug's case he developed an enthusiastic writing style apparently inspired by comic book dialogue that relied heavily on exclamation points.)  Doug: "[Rick and I] started reading comics regularly in the late 70's around the time of Star Wars.  It was a good time to be a kid!" The FantaCo shop offered more than the usual DC and Marvel superhero comics.  As a neophyte comic book fan Doug was exposed to independent titles like Eflquest and The Spirit r...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #135.) I mentioned to a "friend" how I hated living in Plattsburgh, NY. This is a person who is not rich but not poor either.  He can afford to take two weeks off to go to Florida, a nice break from the long six months of winter around here. On some weekends he travels to Montreal for a change of scenery. So it was so easy for him to say to me:  "If you don't like it just move!". Yes, the answer is so simple, so doable. I've been living with a fixed limited income for years.  I don't have the financial resources to just get up and relocate to a better place. Recently I moved to a new apartment just a few blocks away from my old place.  A short move that still has set me back financially. After living in the same apartment for over two decades and being treated like crap by my landlord I decided I had enough.  My previous apartment was in a building with a flat roof that leaked different five times into my apartment ove...

Illustration: Dom Monet https://www.facebook.com/dominick.monette.3 By Ray X If civilization collapses – no internet, no electricity – James Dawson will keep on zining. He would return to his old DIY production devices: manual typewriters, mimeograph machines. All non-electric, human powered.  He could rebuild the zine scene. Even without civilization collapsing James prefers old tech. James: “Older technology is sturdier and more reliable, simpler and more intuitive to understand, less confusing, less glitchy and frustrating, and once you find supplies, cheaper than modern electronic technology.  In fact I prefer mechanical technology over older electro-mechanical because I don't have a head for the latter conceptually and I'm not patient or skilled enough to tinker with it if it breaks down.” In his early zining days he used a mimeograph machine to publish. Mimeographic printing involves making impressions on a stencil via typing and drawing to create a ...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #134.) (Click on each image to enlarge.) Join in the adventures with your favorite shutterbug heroes in Camera Comics! Art Fenton! Kid Click! Linda Lens! Aperture Ghost! Of course their stories are the usual low grade crime comic stuff but redeeming social value has been added with articles on famous photographers and how-to tips for the amateur photog.

(From Ray X X-Rayer #131.) Ultra Q – Episode 27: The Disappearance of Flight 206

(From Ray X X-Rayer #133.   http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm ) By Ray X Flying saucers and spirit duplicators. Those were the days. In the early 1960s Rick Hilberg was an inquisitive teen who wrote about what was popularly called at that time flying saucers. “I was born and raised in Cleveland,” said Rick in a recent email interview.  “[I] developed an interest in UFOs quite by accident.” One day in his grade school class someone mentioned “flying saucers.”  Rick’s teacher saw an opportunity for a learning experience.  The teacher asked some students to delve into the subject, choosing either the pro or con side. At first Rick was skeptical about unidentified flying objects. Rick: “I chose the anti-UFO side, and in my research in trying to make my case began to develop a more open mind, and after a bit became convinced that something strange was indeed going on in our skies.” Like other young ufologists Rick got the word out through a...

(Apologies to B.B. King.) (From Ray X X-Rayer #131.  http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm ) Godzilla, is that you? For someone unfamiliar with the Ultraman TV episode The Mysterious Dinosaur Base (1966) it's disconcerting to see Godzilla in a modified form with a large cartilaginous frill flaring out the back of his neck.  Actually it's two old Godzilla costumes thrown together to create a "new" monster named Jirass. With a tight shooting schedule the producers were able to borrow a couple of Godzilla suits for recycling, assembling a new giant monster of the week. Ultraman is set in the future.  As in every episode the hero shows up at the last minute to battle a colossal menace, using his power to grow to the right fighting size, going eyeball to eyeball with his opponent.   Ultraman is really a regular human, Shin Hayata, who works for the Science Patrol.  SP agents are nattily dressed in orange suits with a white bib and necktie, all topped o...

(From Ray X X-Rayer #132.  http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm ) By Ray X 14 nominations.  14 losses.  Someone with a weak ego would have given up after those results. Category: Best Fan Artist.  Award: a rocket-shaped trophy named after scientifiction pioneer Hugo Gernsback.  Nominee: artist/cartoonist Steve Stiles. Despite the repeated losses Steve kept plugging on with his fanzine art.  For him his cartoons were for fun, not a way to win an award.  “There were times,” Steve explained in an email interview,  “when I wondered why I was being overlooked, or how a particular artist got nominated when I was sooooo much better —I’m an egotist (you have to be if you want to survive in any of the arts), but that wasn’t a source of any major discontentment; life’s too short.” Steve’s artistic life was inspired by the EC Comics line published in the 1950s, in particular a Mad Magazine satire by Wally Wood called “Flesh Garden” that spo...