Claud, The Lonely Cyborg

(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 to the sex organs.  Most likely they were no longer needed like the lungs.

The cyborgs play important roles in the Galactic Guard.  They go into battle against alien enemies.  And they also wait on tables.

That's right.  When the normals sit down for a meal cyborgs are waiters, hauling trays back and forth.  Did the man who volunteered to be cyborgized know he was going to do menial chores like serving meals? Cyborgs probably do the dishes and clean the toilets.  Now that's patriotism.  Or is it second class status?  Apparently the cyborgs don't have the balls to complain about such servitude.

In Space Man #7 a normal, Mary, is in training to serve in the Galactic Guard.  In one panel she talks about her life with some cyborgs, the caption explaining she is providing a bright spot in the lives of the lonely cyborgs. It must be lonesome when you usually hang around most of the time with other cyborgs until a normal asks you to do something.

At least each cyborg keeps his first name instead of being numbered.  The most valuable player is Claud  -- actually he's called Claud, The Cyborg -- who is always ready to assist the normals.  Usually the conversation with him is basically "What is it, Claud?" or "What's up, Claud?"  Just a servant who never receives any thanks.  He doesn't complain even after losing his normal human body forever.

One wonders if his soul has been replaced with a high tech mechanism.

"A Great Man In A Twit Suit"

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 would creatively title the letters page.  For the Flash it was Flash-Grams.

At that time National Periodicals/DC Comics retained the scripts and art by its creative crew after publication.  To encourage more readers to write in original scripts and art were given out as prizes to the "best" LOC writer.  Guy had a problem with how the prizes -- especially the superb artwork -- were being awarded for the dumb letters.

Guy: "...I grew annoyed at the way [Editor] Julie Schwartz was giving away artwork and scripts to the worst punsters among his Flash-Grams correspondents, and wrote him a letter complaining about it. He printed it. The rest is history ... or MY-story, as you prefer."

He became a letterhack, his frequent LOCs making him known to Schwartz and the younger DC staffers.

Guy: "Comics provided a vital world view for me, principally through my letterhacking to Schwartz. The stress of high school -- pretty much a universal experience -- was far easier to bear knowing that I had a place, a community, where I was known and my opinion valued beyond school's borders."

His letter writing would lead to his dream job.

Flash forward: Guy is living in New York City, employed as an editorial assistant at DC, getting by on $100 a week.  He was living in a safe high rise with medical students and nurses but in a rough section of town.  He didn't find East Harlem to be that bad but there was still "drama" as it calls it.  Knife fights outside his window. A suicide stretched out on the ground after a 14 story fall.   

Guy: "I have no idea how I survived on my crummy salary during my year at DC. My extra money from little writing assignments helped, but somehow I brought my girlfriend up from New Orleans twice while I was there, went to several Broadway plays, and stayed alive. As for my neighborhood, I just didn't go out much at night. It was grimy but OK during the day." 

He enjoyed his time at DC.

Guy: "My best assignment for DC Comics was writing dialog for some artwork Joe Orlando had on his shelves. I loved doing that and several of the stories were printed. Doing interviews and suchlike for AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS [magazine] was extra 'work' for which we received extra pay."

But his life ended up taking a different path after he left NYC for New Orleans.  He thought he wanted to get a Ph.D in English Literature at Tulane University but one semester convinced him it wasn't worth it.  There was his girlfriend at the time he thought was the One but that didn't work out.  He regretted leaving DC Comics more than any other job decision.

Guy would end up getting a law degree, working as a public defender in New Orleans. During that time someone described him as a great man in a twit suit.

What's a twit suit?

Guy: "Your guess is as good as mine, but I need to keep the quote. I THINK it's funny. We'll see what your readership believes!"

Guy's love of writing hasn't faded over the years: he keeps expressing himself through his fanzines like Spartacus and Challenger. 

GUY: "I'm trying to write fiction again -- at age 68 (almost) it may be a foolishness but what the hey, better than counting my teeth. I've done a draft of a 'down-home' novella I need to expand and a couple of horror stories. I was going to publish one in CHALLENGER no. 41, but my wife [Rose-Marie] insists that I should try to sell it. She's the boss. I'd love to write about my career as a lawyer, public defender work. People who have fouled up in life are fascinating, especially if they're trying to overcome their mistakes." 

He has many great fan memories including being at a SF convention with Julie Schwartz and Julie's long time friend, Ray Bradbury.

Guy: "Life has brought me into contact with some of the most fascinating people, many of them in science fiction and comics. I've interviewed Alfred Bester. I've known Julie Schwartz and Carmine Infantino. Poul Anderson and his wife Karen drove me to my first SF club meeting. Harlan Ellison asked me to try writing. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro adopted me as her fannish son. And there have been hundreds more. Through SF fandom I met Rose-Marie and saved my life. I've worked on program books for four worldcons, a NASFiC and two DeepSouthCons. I've formed friendships -- and enmities! -- that have lasted a lifetime."

And his legal career? 

Guy: "Being a public defender was a great privilege. I learned more about the darkness in human nature talking to charming, destructive and tragic [Charles Manson ex-follower] Leslie van Houten than a thousand classrooms could have taught me. Through some of those classrooms, though, like [poet and novelist] Fred Chappell's in North Carolina, I learned to express myself without fear. But who's to say that didn't begin with my first letter of comment to Julie Schwartz at Flash-Grams?" 

CIY: Comic It Yourself

(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 reprints.

One day Doug's father brought home a book that piqued Doug's interest in nonsuperhero comics even more, a work by Les Daniels called Comix: A History of Comic Books in America.  It was an eye-opener for him.

Doug: "It covered not only the superheroes I loved but stuff I never knew existed like EC comics, crime comics, and more importantly underground comix, all of them illustrated with full story reprints!  I was enraptured by what I was seeing on the page and it loosened the grip of superheroes in my mind."

He says the book revealed comics were capable of telling stories besides the superhero genre: the EC brand of horror with a twist, Charles Biro's criminal biographies, or the surrealism of Robert Crumb and Spain Rodriguez.

Doug: "I began to experiment with these other types of books which FantaCo carried along with the Marvel and DC books."

Doug and his brother Rick took different paths as comic book fans.  Rick concentrated on breaking into the mainstream comic book field, doing some work for Marvel and DC.  As for independent publishers he sold one story to Mirage Studios featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Rick: "For Marvel, I worked indirectly as a background artist for inker Bill Anderson, a true artist and unsung hero toiling in the background of comics. I would be on call when he was busy and needed a little time shaved off a deadline."

It was menial work -- ruling rapidiograph lines, fixing perspective and occasionally a filling in blacks -- but it was a way of breaking in.  His work with Bill was a great learning experience.

Rick did have some success.

Rick: "For DC, I produced an art recreation that ended up on the first Dark Knight hardcover (thanks, Brian). I redrew and inked a panel from the first Batman story to match the original art style of Bob Kane. That came out great. Never got any more momentum with the big two and this was mid 80s to early 90s when I was in my prime."

He watched as the mainstream comic book industry changed.

Rick: "As the pendulum swung in the industry, the time when you could show a portfolio, develop a relationship with working artists or editors, and get a small job which might lead to something else had passed at the big companies. I found most professionals on the editorial side to be friendly, hard working 'super geeks' who loved comics. Over time attitudes have changed and [that] made the big companies much less approachable for work."

Another factor was Rick's personal work style.

Rick: "I was slow and had a very methodical, jack-of-all-trades approach. My genuine interest was in telling stories which grew to be less a priority with the big companies as time went on. My varied skill set fit much more handily with the independents."

Later he would find the opportunity to create and publish his own way.

While Rick was trying to establish himself in the mainstream his brother Doug concentrated on building an independent company in the spirit of DIY: Do It Yourself.  Over the years his project evolved into the Dougside Syndicate, a business entity that includes his books and more.

Doug: "I have no experience with the major publishers at all. I have been strictly independent from the start. I realized early enough that my style and skills were not suited for mainstream comics, and my interests were elsewhere."

Over the years other creators have taken the independent path, bypassing the big publishers.

Doug: "[The independent market] is extremely competitive and getting more so as more creators are turning to self-publishing (including industry legends like Rick Veitch).  The mainstream publishers of course have the lion's share of the market, so I don't feel competitive with them at all. The typical X-Men or Batman reader could care less about what I am doing, especially since it does not involve superheroes. So to me, the real 'competition' is with other self-publishers...and their numbers have grown legion in the last 20 years."

To promote his company Doug attends comic book conventions, manning a dealer table.  He has noticed increased interest as he has added more items.  In the beginning it was hard to sell with only one book but now with more books and artwork there's greater interest. But it's mainly promotion, not profit, when he attends a convention.

Doug: "For me, it is mostly about getting the word out, but man cannot live on bread alone. Making enough to cover expenses is a good way to avoid a dismal feeling at the end of the day. However, I have had shows where I lost my shirt but had a lot of great conversations and interactions. These can pay off down the road, so look at every encounter as an opportunity.  If you go in solely to make money you will almost always be disappointed."

He mentioned an experience that meant more to him than money.

Doug: "A couple of years ago in Buffalo, I had a man in his 30's walk up to my table excitedly and introduce himself. He had been looking forward to seeing me when he saw my name on the advertising. Turns out that as a 15 year old kid back in 1995 he picked up a copy of my first book, Slackjaw, and had been a fan ever since. I had not done a convention in Buffalo since 1997 so he had wondered what had happened to me...he wound up buying 2 pages of original art and several books...

"It was an amazing experience to know comics had resonated with him so much. It made my entire weekend! (Heck, I still think about it sometimes!) I imagine that pros hear those stories all the time, but for a completely independent creator like me, it is a rare, but euphoric event!"

Asked for advice he offered some tips for anyone interested in operating a dealer's table.

Doug: "Pay attention to how your table is merchandised. Make sure you have legible signs, and things are logically and neatly laid out. You want to attract eyeballs. Be friendly, make eye contact, and don't be afraid to use a little carnival style hucksterism from time to time...

"Create sales bundles or use incentives. People love getting a deal. I will often offer a free print with a book purchase, for example, or $5 off purchases over $25. Create a bit of excitement.

"Also...ALWAYS be nice to the kids! Especially if they are budding artists and want to show you their art. Be positive and supportive...tell them to keep practicing!"

Doug's latest project is his first full color book, We All Travel Time, produced with his brother Rick.

Doug: "Rick did a bang up job on his end of things and the book is terrific!"

More information on Doug's books can be found at his official Facebook page, Facebook.com/TalesFromTheDougside.  His books are available on Amazon.com -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s//ref=mw_dp_a_s?ie=UTF8&i=books&k=Mr+Douglas+J+Arthur -- and at his Square online store -- https://squareup.com/store/Douglas-Arthur-2 .

After All What Are "Friends" For?

(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 over the years.  The roof would be fixed, time would pass, and it turned out the fix wasn't permanent.  With the last flood I wanted to move into another unit in the building where the ceiling didn't shower rainwater but the landlord said no.

Apparently you really build up positive karma when you're a good tenant, paying rent on time, not causing any problems.

It was stressful finding someone to help me move, getting a pickup truck to haul my stuff.  I told another "friend" how again and again my plan to move was being held up by this one major factor.  I would get a lead that turned out to be a dead end.  I wasn't whining about my fate. I didn't say that I was giving up; I was still pressing on.  I only stated the basic facts of the situation.

My "friend" replied:  "You're being too negative."

Once again another person so well off compared to me who had no understanding what it's like to live with limited resources.  He could easily hire a moving company to do all the work.

Before the move I had to throw out a lot of stuff I had accumulated over two decades plus. Even after the move I have an excess of material I have to purge.

But there's material I don't want to trash, my writing and photography.  Like any creative person I want to leave something behind that others might appreciate.

The day may be coming that it's all going into the dumpster.  It seems to be the only way to escape.

One of my real friends took the opportunity to get away.  He had the money to relocate to a place where a new job was waiting.  He summed up his feelings this way: "Now I don't have to worry about dying in Plattsburgh."

I've never been alone in hating this podunk pimple.

Others have moved away but didn't properly plan their escape.  They ended up returning.  And regretting that decision.

When I leave it will be forever, no looking back.

There are better places where to die than Plattsburgh.

DIY Zining The Old Tech Way

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 master copy.  The stencil is placed on a rotating drum and paper is fed through the unit by a hand crank, ink transferring the master copy impressions to each sheet.  Before photocopiers and computers arrived on the scene many fanzines were printed with mimeograph machines and similar devices.

Such manual production isn’t easy but James has always been an individualist, a fact reflected in what he writes about.

James:  “I'm a private person so even though I share a little personal information here and there, I don't consider my zines as perzines (personal zines).

 “I'm a vegan and libertarian and have written on the confluence of those two philosophies.  I write about society, philosophy, movies, novels, and short stories, and how my take on these all blend together.  Lately my favorite fiction has been speculative fiction, most notably by Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, but these are just a few.  I'm into existential themes, in the broader sense, as they relate to my life, not so much the stereotypical Sarte and Camus stuff, which are a bunch of pretentious baloney.  I may slip in some offbeat humor now and then, but so far, nobody seems to notice or get it.  I hope to start getting back into making zines that are totally self-indulgent, no matter how much they might bore, confuse, or annoy people or make them uncomfortable.”

Recently James has been forced to rely more on modern technology.  But there’s always old tech in reserve.

James: “I recently bought another mimeograph for $40 but I haven't really looked at it too closely.  It's in my detached garage and it's been too cold and snowy [to work on it.]” 

“I always have a back-burner intention of trying to getting my old mimeographs and ditto machines working, but the likelihood gets more and more remote as ink cartridges and fluid get scarcer and scarcer.

 “If it were a little more doable and I were a little more disciplined and energetic I'd definitely do more zines on ditto or mimeo.  I recently went to a copy shop nearby and it's not only 12 cents a side with the only volume discount kicking in at 250 copies, where it goes down a mere 2 cents.  And in both cases, unlike in the past, there's no price break at all for double-sided.  So DIY printing is still an economic issue, not just a quaint notion.”

He tried somewhat more recent old tech, a Dell PC circa 2000 CE but that proved to be too problematic.

James: “I had some confusion and frustration with that now and then, but in the last few years I'd been using it, I had pretty much mastered it and could make it do my bidding. At some point, my composing computer kept telling me the ink cartridge in my HP deskjet printer was ‘improperly installed’ or something like that, and to ‘remove and re-insert it’.  After trying this a billion times over a few weeks, I gave up.”
  
So he tried another used computer but was frustrated once again by overly technical problems.

James: “In the last 6 months or so [the second computer] wouldn't let me access my Word files anymore.  It said:  ‘WINWORD caused an invalid default in module USEREXE at 0007:0006ad3’.  I have no idea what that means and I'm not going to waste my precious time, wrack my brains, and subject myself to major boredom by investigating it.”

He tries to keep zine production as efficient and easy as possible.  He has been using old tech mixed in with some easy tech.

James: “Right now I'm composing shorter zines on my trusty old typewriters, who never give me terse, haughty, technicalese warnings and prohibitions, or composing in my Yahoo Mail Draft box, saving them, transferring these to a Word file at the library computer, and printing them out there.”

He says 98% of his printing is done at a copy shop.  The other 2%?

James: “Once in a while, only when I run out of copies of an issue and really need some,  
I'll make a few copies at a time on a Brother personal copier I have.  It's very glitchy and misfeeds paper all the time, so it's frustrating and inefficient.  I only use it in a pinch.”

Ideally James would publish only using human powered machines.

James: “Electro-mechanical machines might be able to be run off solar or some other off-grid electrical source, but electricity, at least AC, has always scared me too much to want to work with, at least with older, worn-out machines.”
And in the event that modern civilization with its complex technical structure should fall apart he can dust off that $40 hand-cranker mimeograph in his garage.

*  *  *

Contact info:

James N. Dawson
P.O. Box 950
Spokane, WA  99210
U.S.A.

His zines are available for dollars/stamps/trades/the usual.

Fun With Camera Comics

(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.

Suspense!

(From Ray X X-Rayer #131.)

Ultra Q – Episode 27: The Disappearance of Flight 206

Watch The Skies

(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 do-it-yourself newsletter.  He launched “UFO Magazine” in 1962.  He used a spirit duplicator to produce his newsletter.  No, a spirit duplicator wasn’t a paranormal machine to clone a ghost.  It was a printing press that used stencils and a solvent mixed with alcohol (henceforth the term spirit) to produce copies.

A spirit duplicator – AKA ditto machine – was an affordable option back then for people to produce newsletters that were snail mailed to readers or just personally passed along.

A stencil served as a master.  When someone wrote, typed or drew on it he had to be careful not to make a mistake.  Once an impression was made that was it.  Then the stencil was placed on a drum that spun off copies usually by hand-cranking.  Muscles were put to work.  The duplicator’s “ink” contained materials not exactly salubrious to an operator; breathing its fumes could produce high spirits.

Decades later Rick is still getting the word out via hardcopy but without a ditto machine’s smell.  Among their other benefits computers don’t have to be hand cranked.

As editor of Flying Saucer Digest newsletter Rick has maintain the tradition of paper over photons.  He uses stamps and envelopes, not electricity, to reach his readers.

While Rick the teen saucer fan was publishing his newsletter two other Clevelanders around his age, Al Manak and Ron Pelger, provided their take on strange aerial objects through their own zine.  They launched Flying Saucer Digest in the summer of 1967.  

In 1970 Al Manak convinced Rick to merge UFO Magazine into Flying Saucer Digest.   

Rick: “Since that time I've held several different staff positions with FSD over the years and took over as editor shortly before Al's untimely death in 1999.”

His wife Carol serves as managing editor.  Her duties include production, proofreading, financial aspects, and editorial decisions.  Like Rick she has an open mind regarding the UFO enigma. 

Flying Saucer Digest celebrates its 50th year this summer.   Over the decades Rick has observed the changes in ufology beyond publishing technology.

He has noticed that individual researchers nowadays are less apt to share information with their peers.

Rick: “I don't know, maybe it is the incentive to make a few quick bucks from publishing books and articles, not to mention getting paid to speak at various UFO conventions and gatherings that are held oh so frequently these days. Back in the day most researchers would gladly attend these gatherings at their own expense ( maybe accepting a free table to sell their material in exchange ) to get their ideas and findings across, as well as comparing notes as it were, with other researchers in order to bolster their own work.”

Rick has seen how the internet explosion over the last twenty years or so has impacted ufology.

Rick: “[The net] has made it easy for every Tom, Dick and Harry out there to essentially copycat especially interesting UFO sightings or strange motifs associated with the current ufological world view. Without having to give your name as was necessary in the old days when reporting something strange to the news media, today behind a creative e-mail address you can let your imagination run wild and come up with some really whopping tales to report to gullible UFO organizations and sites already convinced that the UFOs are indeed space ships visiting the Earth with a collection of bizarre life forms on board doing all sorts of nasty things to us Earthlings.”

Rick has problems with researchers who only believe in ETH – the extraterrestrial hypothesis.   This predominant bias, he thinks, invalidates ufology.

Rick: “I believe that ‘ufology’ does not presently deserve ‘validation.’  It is certainly little more than a rather complicated and at times contentious sub culture that deserves study by social scientists rather than those from the hard sciences. At one time, and we are talking about at its very beginnings in the 1950s, it had the potential to become a scientific movement that could have attracted qualified researchers to eventually blossom into something truly scientific in scope, but unfortunately degenerated into a disorganized circle of buffery that still is at the helm.”

Buffery?

Rick: “By ‘buffery’ I refer to those UFO buffs who basically control the field and its thinking. To me, anyway, a buff is a derogatory term for someone trying to oh so scientific, but in reality is a rather clownish seeker of the gee-whiz by playing a role.”

Is ufology closer solving the UFO enigma than fifty years ago?  “Hell no.”

Rick does have a theory about what is happening with aerial phenomena.  “What would I bet that the answer is? I truly feel that the phenomenon of that which we call UFOs and related phenomena has been with us since our very beginnings on this place we call Earth. ‘We’ are somehow related and intertwined in some way that we may never really understand. So many theories have been put forth over the years, but I doubt if any time soon we will be prepared to say which one, or ones, actually ‘explains’ this relationship.”

Despite the elusive solution his interest in UFOs hasn’t wavered.

Rick: “After all these years I still possess  that wonderful sense of wonder, dreaming and awe that I've had from the start of my journey in the UFO world, and that has sustained me on my quest to make sense of this most likely unanswerable enigma.”

As before he keeps one eye on the heavens.


*  *  *

To celebrate Flying Saucer Digest’s 50th year Rick has been reprinting covers from past issues, classic flying saucer art, with recent newsletters.   Beside FSD he has been publishing special publications, some of them long out of print.  The more popular titles are being reprinted to mark the five decades milestone. 

If you want to read a traditional UFO zine send $2.00 to R. Hilberg Publications, 377 Race St., Berea, OH 44017 to receive a sample copy.  Also you can request info on Rick’s special publications.

Recycled Godzilla: The Frill Is Gone

(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 off with a goofy crash helmet. These sartorial mutants are armed with oversized but ineffective ray guns.  Of course their weapons have to be useless against giant creatures, necessitating the need to Ultraman to save the day.   When trouble looms large Shin Hayata uses his power rod to encircle himself with a band of light, transforming himself into Ultraman.

Or in this episode Ultrabully.  As the titans engage in fight Ultraman doesn't act like a noble superhero.  He waves his hand in front of his face indicating that Jirass smells bad.  Then Ultraman waves the monster towards him.

Now dealing with a monster doesn't mean a superhero has to fight nice but this time Ultraman takes sadistic glee in trouncing his enemy.  He reaches out and rips off the frill from Jirass's neck, leaving a nasty red wound behind.  Then acting like a proud matador Ultraman waves the frill like a cape, causing Jirass to charge but miss.

Then Ultraman kills off his foe, dropping the detached frill on Jariss as a final petty insult.  Since Ultraman is a marital artist one would think he would have been trained to show more decorum.

Good entertainment for the kids.  They learn a hero doesn't need to be noble, he can act like a egotistical prick.

An Artist’s Life: From Flesh Garden To Hugo Gernsback

(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 spoofed a popular space hero.  (“Flesh Garden” should not be confused with a movie called “Flesh Gordon” which took – ahem – a different satirical approach to the same material.)

Steve:  “As a little boy I came down with the flu and my grandmother gave me a stack of comics; among the Andy Pandys, Little Lulus, and Donald Ducks was a copy of MAD #11: I opened it up to Wallace Wood’s terrific splash panel “Flesh Garden!", and I think it was then that I began wanting to become a cartoonist!”

Besides Mad EC also published SF and horror comics, the latter creating a parental uproar over its gruesome stories.  A psychiatrist, Dr. Frederick Wertham, proclaimed comic books were causing juvenile delinquency, turning innocent children into switchblade slashing criminals. 

Steve: “When I grew older enough to appreciate to the serious E.C.s (which my parents didn’t allow in the house) most of their titles had folded, thanks to Fredric Wertham’s witch hunt. Luckily, there was a used bookstore a few doors down from our apartment building so I was able to collect back issues for prices that would drive today’s collectors mad with envy.”

The EC SF titles “Weird Fantasy” and “Weird Science” published adaptations of Ray Bradbury short stories.  This lead Steve to travel to the library and discover other authors like Robert Heinlein.  He was one step away from discovering SF fandom.

Steve: “[I]n the summer of 1957 I had started a penpal correspondence with a fan named Peter Francis Skeberdis, who I discovered in the lettercol pages of Larry Shaw’s INFINITY magazine. At some point I scribbled a cartoon on one of the pages of a letter I sent him. Peter in turn sent my scribble (which was pretty awful) to F.M. and Elinor Busby, and during my first week of high school (Music & Art, which was the high school that some of my E.C. heroes had gone to) I suddenly had an issue of my first fanzine, CRY OF THE NAMELESS #116, with MY cartoon in PRINT!! Wow!”

In the early 1960s Steve attended meetings of The Fanoclasts club in Manhatten.  The group was hosted by Dick and Pat Lupoff who produced a fanzine called XERO with bhob Stewart.

“At the time my cartooning was pretty lame,” says Steve, “both in execution and in concept, but one evening Dick set up his lighting table, handed me some stencils and styli and ordered me to sit down and DRAW! I was really on the spot; what to do?—and then I thought about fantasy author Lin Carter’s pet rabbit, which he kept in his bathroom. The damned thing was rather vicious, which made it awkward to use the facilities, but it was great humorous material so I did a six vertical panel sequence called ‘LIN CARTER’S BUNNY RABBIT.’ It was crude as hell but something I could build on, the launching point for me as both a fan artist and a pro. I’m grateful to Dick but I don’t know if Lin ever forgave me.”

He had hoped to break into the comic book industry after art school.

Steve: “However, by the time I graduated, it was apparent that comics were a dying industry —apparent back in those days, that is! DC was more or less a closed shop that practically owned the distribution system, effectively limiting Atlas Comics —the future Marvel Comics— to a handful of titles, and then, I think, there was Charlton. As far as I was concerned, those companies published mediocre dreck (Krypto, the Super Dog!), compared to everything Feldstein and Gaines had done. When the first issue of Fantastic Four hit the newsstands I thought it was interesting but that it would never last —so much for my abilities as a prophet!”

As a student Steve realized he had to make a living.  His parents urged him to enter the advertising industry.  

Steve: “I made pretty good money as a pasteup artist  — far more than many beginning comic book artists— and got to see quite a few of the Madison Avenue top agencies; BBD&O, Dancer Fitzgerald, Y&R, Revlon, but didn’t particularly like what I saw, all these people working in those tiny little gray cubicles. I also noticed that those people I liked, the mensch types, never seemed to last very long, while the weasel types, the Eddie Haskells, tended to predominate. Maybe I exaggerate, but at any rate I had no motivation to move up into art director positions and was making a comfortable living where I was.”

He’s proud of one particular claim to fame in the ad field.  A campaign to promote a particular cigarette used the concept of brand loyalty, implying that such loyalty proved the Tareyton was the best.  A man appeared in a print ad with a black eye accompanied by the slogan: “I’d rather fight than switch!”  Steve was the air brusher who added the famous black eye to the model.

His interest in comic books remained.  In the late 1960s an opening appeared to come his way.  

Steve was friends with artist “Dapper Dan” Adkins who was working at Marvel Comics, a good connection in the industry.  Dan penciled the Dr. Strange series but wanted to switch to inking.  Steve’s fan art had been often compared to Dan’s pro work so the two teaming up on Dr. Strange was a natural fit.

In Marvel’s early years “Fabulous Flo” Steinberg served as secretary to editor “Smilin’ Stan” Lee.  (It was the Marvel Age of Alliterative Nicknames.)

Steve: “I put together a bunch of penciled pages and Dan took them in to the Marvel offices. A few weeks passed and then I got a call from Dan: his wife Jeanette had been by the offices and was told by ‘Fabulous Flo’ Steinberg that ‘Dan’s friend’ had been hired.”

Steve quit his regular job, leaving behind a bad-tempered boss.  He sped over to Marvel where he spoke with production manager “Jumbo John” Verpoorten, learning that he didn’t get the gig.  Why?  Fabulous Flo had mixed up Steve’s name with the artist who was really hired, Frank Springer.

Steve: “Gosh, Flo didn’t seem that fabulous just then!”

Steve did land other comic book jobs.  Freelancing provided him with steady work until “Black October,” a crash in the industry in 1995 caused by various factors.  Besides outlets drying up he also struggled with a changing job market for illustrators.

Steve: “I discovered that my commercial art skills were all obsolete, replaced by computer software. I had no computer skills, I had no computer, and at age 55 I had no marketable skills; wow, that was a depressing shock!”

He survived through a series of “shitty” temp jobs until he found full time employment at a book company in 2002.  He learned computer skills along the way, becoming adept at Photoshop.  After retiring from the book company he keeps busy with free lance work and fan cartooning.  As for the latter the Hugo award for Best Fan Artist just stayed out of reach but he kept campaigning even after 14 losses. 

2016 was the magic year for him.  15 was the charm.

The win proved Steve’s point: You have to be an egotist to survive in the arts.

And in life.

TAFFy Pull: Nominee John Purcell Draws In the Votes

(From Ray X X-Rayer #131.  http://efanzines.com/RXXR/index.htm )


Welcome to SF fan alphabet soup.

TAFF. CUFF. DUFF. GUFF.

All three organizations raise funds so that science fiction fans can travel to conventions in other parts of the world.  Three candidates are vying to win TAFF, Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund.*

The TAFF 2017 Ballot explains: "TAFF has regularly brought North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions. It exists solely through the support of fandom."

This year it's North America to Europe.

Fanzine editor  and 2017 TAFF nominee John Purcell took the time to explain how TAFF works.  John is a Minnesotan transplanted to Texas.  His day job:  His day job: instructor at Blinn Community College.  Hobbies:  Besides SF fandom there's music, playing guitar.  He publishes two fanzines with easily confused titles, Askew and Askance.  (I know after writing a letter of comment to the wrong zine.)

He explained a fan declares the intention to run for TAFF and then needs to line up other fans to nominate that fan.

John: "TAFF requires a total of five nominators (two from the destination continent, three from the sending continent) to send in their nominating statements to the current TAFF Administrators."

"Once the requirements are met," he continued, "the administrators then announce that the race is on and open it for any fan to vote until the deadline [this year March 4.]"

A TAFF nominee can campaign through fanzines.

John: "[T]hat's the way I like to do it: through not only my fanzines, but through other zines by mentioning TAFF in locs I send out. Of course, it's very nice when other fan editors mention the race in their fanzines, and some even have come out in support of my candidacy."

As a sign of changing times he said social media provides another promotional venue.

Part of the winner's duties is to act like a goodwill ambassador, spending time meeting  fans in the host country or continent.  The winner will attend the 2017 WorldCon in Helsinki, Finland.

John: "At the WorldCon the fan fund winners participate on panels and the Hugo award presentation, in addition to being a Goodwill Ambassador, as you put it. These duties sound like a lot of fun to me, and I am really looking forward to it."

He added each TAFF winner becomes the fund administrator for two years.

Next year the Worldcon location flips back to the US.  It will be held in San Jose, California.  If John wins TAFF this year he will assume the duties of the North American administrator, helping fans in Europe to travel here.

I forgot to ask John one question about the other fan funding organizations.  If it gives you GUFF do you CUFF DUFF?

*NOTE: You can learn more about the other two candidates, Sarah Gulde and Alissa McKersie , at http://taff.org.uk/ballots/taff2017.pdf .  And don't get this TAFF confused with the Turku Animated Film Festival.