Ray's X-Blog

Download the PDF file of RX XR #147 through this direct link:  https://efanzines.com/RXXR/RXXR-147.pdf Access a list of back issues here:  https://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm

It was no longer worth the money.  The original Blogspot URL works just as well.  Activity at this blog was been crickets and tumbleweeds.  Every year the renewal price has been going up while hits have been dropping.  I haven't received any comments in a long time.  My ezine Ray X X-Rayer does receive a LOC or two so I know a few people are out there with that outlet.  I've grown tired with the duplicative effort of publishing the same material on my blog and in my zine.  I'm considering using this blog only to announce the latest issue of RX XR with a link to efanzines.com . If you want to read my stuff as a zine go to  http://www.efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm  .

By coincidence the two movies I watched the other evening each featured the title character trapped in ice. The Thing From Another World (1951.) A remote arctic research station detects the crash of an unusual object. Upon investigation they discover an alien being encased in ice. Somehow the men are able to carve out a coffin-sized ice block to bring the creature back to their base. Uh-oh. Quibble time. How did they dig underneath the alien Popsicle to create the block, especially with a bad storm on the way limiting their time? How did they raise the block to fly it back home? Did someone crawl under, carving away without the ice falling and crushing him? At the base the frozen ET is stored in a cold room. OK, the monster has to get free or watching an ice-encased alien just sitting there gets boring really quick. How a delayed reaction by a damaged heating device on the alien, melting him free? No, they have to use the "I didn't know th...

Archetypal Clickbait Comic Cover No, Superman didn't die unlike the more recent event. By the time I read this comic in the 1960s I was getting tired of Kal-El. He was too powerful.  For example he's on a date with Lois Lane one night and the moon starts falling towards the earth. So Superman just flies up and fixes the problem. Even as Superboy Kal-El was one step below God. Challenged to perform impossible tasks Superboy stands on his head. People say, "So what?" He tells them to check with the local observatory. Astronomers are shocked that the earth has moved out of its orbit. With his impossible task completed Superboy just puts the world back into proper orbit. Of course with the moon's gravitational pull still in effect one would think his moving trick wouldn't be that easy. No earthquakes or tidal waves. It got the the point that I wished Superman would die. That's why I started reading Spider-Man. He didn...

George Apple and his family get away from the rat race by moving to a small town in Iowa. Everything is normal until one day George sees a UFO and reports it to the local newspaper. Soon he and his family became the target of ridicule. But George is determined to prove he's not another flying saucer nut. He digs deep and discovers the strange object is part of a secret government project. He learns the time and location of the next test of the futuristic vehicle. George invites along a skeptic who soon learns what George saw was no hallucination. George turns to the skeptic and says: "You're a down-to-earth man..." (Insert gagging sound.) Thus wrapped up the episode "The Witness" from the "Apple's Way" TV series (1974-1975.) Another example of how a mainstream series would introduce the flying saucer topic but then cop out with an earthly explanation. Fiction: OK. Science fiction: Nyet! (Note: George A...

The President wants to run the country his way. He rages against anyone who challenges his plans while thinking a cabal is out to destroy him. Meet US President Mark Hollenbach, the antagonist of Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel, a novel first published in 1965. All the problems with the aberration now holding power in the White House has created renewed interest in this novel. Besides some parallels to real life it raises issues related to the current situation, i.e., how to handled the problems. In the novel the secret committee behind Project CACTUS -- Command and Control, The Ultimate System -- is trying to reduce a nuclear launch by mistake or miscalculation "with particular attention to insulation of human aberrations." The President has final authority to launch a nuke strike with the limitation of two National Command Authorities agreeing with his decision. But even that means nothing when he can overrule the other two men. C...

Cosmic coitus is just cheeky. The Turner Classic Movies cable TV channel sometimes shows classick movies. The other night TCM presented Lifeforce and Queen of Blood.  Oh boy, space vampires handled in a hamfisted way. Tobe Hooper's Lifeforce is just as amusing the second time around.  It's based upon Colin Wilson's book The Space Vampires.  Astronauts encounter a strange mothership heading towards the earth and after making contact a beautiful female space vampire ends up on the loose on Earth. Actress Mathilda May [1] portrays the lovely almost-always-nude vampire in question.  How nude is she?  Well it's obvious that Space Girl (as she's called in the credits) doesn't shave, a trend that came later after this 1985 disasterpiece. Space Girl ends up unleashing a plague upon London, turning humans into zombie energy vampires.  The movie ties in these energy vampires with the legendary bloodsuckers: the aliens have visited before to harvest ...

Lake Monster or floating log? After a twenty minute walk from where I live I can stand on the shore of Lake Champlain and view the Vermont Green Mountains in the distance.  Despite the reports of Champy/Champ since Samuel de Champlain explored the lake back in 1609 I've never witnessed a large serpent rising to the surface.* My argument against Champy has been the lack of any carcass or skeleton.  If plesiosaur fossils can be found then why not the legendary Lake Champlain critter? So I'm surfing the cable TV channels, looking for something good to watch (my remote's channel button is wearing out) when I stumble upon an episode of Ancient Aliens Declassified on the alleged "History" Channel. There's discussion of Champy and other such creatures from around the world.  So how can they be so elusive, leaving not a trace behind?  Simple.  Underwater  wormholes.  The serpents are extraterrestrial, popping in from temporary interdimensional port...

What's the dial for?

Stan Lee on the left, sphincter opening on the right. By Ray X When Stan Lee died last year TV "personality" Bill Mahar looked down his nose and passed judgement on adult comic book and superhero movie patrons with a overly critically blog post.  He was unimpressed with Lee's accomplishments including co-creating many of Marvel Comics superheroes. Recently Mahar was at it again on his program Real Time  with a segment cleverly titled "Goodbye, Mr. Strips."  He claimed he never said anything bad about Stan Lee.  His sneering snobbery was directed at the followers of Lee's works.  He barnbrushed all such individuals as immature, that they should grow up and read real literature like Toni Morrison. It's ironical that liberal Mahar speaks out against prejudice and discrimination but stereotypes all individuals who enjoy supehero fiction as immature losers.  Bill, do you mean not one comic book reader has read Toni Morrison? Mahar sums up his...

Matt Dillon: man or mutant? By Ray X "What's wrong with these kids nowadays?  All they want to watch on TV are crazy superheroes and monsters.  When I was growing up we had good quality TV shows, westerns, that were based on reality." Indeed, disgruntled baby boomer.  TV westerns were realistic. Take the most popular western series, Gunsmoke.  Unrealistic?  Never. On second thought... Gunsmoke followed the adventures of our hero US Marshall Matt Dillon and his friends in Dodge City, Kansas.  Ever hear the phrase ""Get out of Dodge?"  Look no further than this show. Standard scene: a bad guy has the drop on a good guy, his finger firmly placed on the trigger.  But a quick move by the good guy, striking the bad guy's wrist, and the gun flew away, no shot fired. One would expect striking a gun holder's hand would result in a pulled trigger.  Ergo good guy drilled.  But in Gunsmoke World a shootist just automatically rel...