Comics have changed a lot haven’t they? When I was a kid, the best the UK had to offer were the Eagle, Hotspur, the Beano, Dandy, Topper and such. In the US, the advent of Tower Comics, DC Comics, Atlas Comics and eventually Marvel created a whole new genre. In parallel, Manga in Japan followed its own evolution with the both converging eventually with the graphic novel. We’ve come a long way from Corky the Cat.

Growing up in the UK, the delights of the US comic industry were hard to get hold of – or would have been if it were not for one man – Alan Class. Class began printing in the UK in about 1958, using printing plates that may have been illegally purchased. Each black and white magazine featured reprints of material dating back to the mid ‘50s from Atlas, Charlton, ACG, Tower and Marvel (among many others). Stories were mixed together from different magazines – and even different publishers in a single 9″ by 7″ issue for 1/- sterling (5p). Even when the supply of plates ran out in the late ‘60s, Class continued publishing, reissuing the same material in different arrangements, until at least 1988.

The subjects covered were mainly fantasy (“The Hidden Room”, “The Man who could walk thru Walls” “The Hands from Nowhere”), science-fiction (Earth’s Secret Weapon”, “The Four-Armed Thing”, “The Invaders”) and super-heroes (Fantastic Four, Spiderman, the Phantom). They had colorful covers – adapted from US covers – and exciting titles like “Out of this World”, “Uncanny” and “Secrets of the Unknown” all sure to spark the imagination of a young lad like me who wanted something more exciting than “Fraser of Africa”. They also had the brilliant dynamic artwork of people like Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby.

Eventually we started seeing the original US editions over here and the demand for Alan Class’s versions dropped. Now, in the days when comics are collectibles and come in protective plastic envelopes, Alan Class’ stuff has also become sought after and appears occasionally on ebay.

It took me a long time to find any information on Alan Class or AC comics as they are known – there was very little on the web about it. In the end it became a kind of quest and I started collecting scans of cover art and any article I could find. I put the whole lot together in a website that you can find here. It has about 160 examples of cover art and lots of info.

Today’s Pet Peeve

This is a big one that really should get a few blog entries of its own but for now I’ll just touch on the subject. It is the trademarking of the English Language. I was reminded of this when reading this story about a small pub in England that usually offers a traditional Christmas Dinner during the season and on its menu refers to it as a “family feast”. KFC in their sweet “we’re bigger than you” mood challenged the use of the term since they had trademarked the words “Family Feast” to describe the slop they peddle which comes in a bucket so you will have something to throw up into when you’re done. In the end the challenge came to nothing – but this is only an example. A woman form Novato decided to print her daughter’s name on her T-shirt. The little girl is called Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea Ltd of Florida didn’t like this since they had trademarked those words and demanded $16 Million. Similarly the title of Al Franken’s book “”Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.” was challenged by Fox news. Why? Because they own the words “fair and balanced”. It gets worse. Be careful with the word “illustrator” – it belongs to Adobe. Donald trump is trying to register “You’re Fired” and don’t use the word “pride” injudiciously as “the word PRIDE(r) is a registered trademark held by Fierté Canada Pride”. I am sad to say I may no longer be able to refer to those of you who read my blog as “friends” any more since “friends” is now regarded by Netflix as their trademark.

Good Games

There are plenty of games similar to Amazon Quest but I find this one the best of the lot – perhaps I just like the music. Click on the ancient icons to put three together of the same type then they disappear. Clear the board and you go up to a harder level. Simple yet strangely satisfying. Beware the croaking frog!

Ok that’s it for now. Inspired by Roller Coaster Tycoon, the children have gathered all the covering from their beds and are using it to make the staircase into a theme park ride…

So we have had a face on Mars, (for me a classic case of apophenia ) various pyramids on Mars and other junk. Fortunately this has been supplanted by some real and interesting revelations about the red planet from the excellent technology we have out there. But now we have a new mystery object – which, so far, the pseudoscientists haven’t had chance to speculate on.

This will probably be called the “Hole on Mars” because that is exactly what it is – a hole. Or as Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society calls it : “a window onto an underground world”. The May 23^rd image releases from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE team included this one, of a fairly uninteresting looking lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons. Uninteresting, that is, except for a black spot in the center.

This black spot is one of seven possible entrances to underground caves identified on Mars. At its highest resolution of 25 cms per pixel, the HiRISE camera sees the detailed shape of the slightly scalloped edge of the hole, but no amount of image enhancement can bring out any further details inside the hole. That means that the walls of the cave are overhanging — the cave is larger below the ground than the entrance we can see at the surface — and that it is very deep.

The cave is so big and so deep that almost none of the light that enters the cave comes out. The hole that we see is really just a skylight on a big underground room. As for why that room is there and what we are likely to find in it – that’s anyones guess for now. But I’m sure there will be plenty of guesses. One cant help but remember H.G. Wells’ “First Men In the Moon” where the apparent lifeless surface of the Moon reveals an underground civilisation accessed through a hole just like this.

However, don’t let me put ideas in to your head – there will be plenty in the weeks to come who will do just that. What interests me is just why would there be underground caverns and cave systems on Mars anyway? On our planet we associate such formations with limestone and underground streams – what process is at work on Mars? Incidentally, I was tempted to use the word “subterranean” in the preceding text until I remembered that means “under the Earth” . So what would the correct word be in this case? Submartian?

You can find more pictures and details of other martian holes here. And how about this for an impressive looking Earth-based hole?

Good Games

This has been a favorite for a while now – Tower Blaster. The principle is simple – arrange numbered blocks in order to form a tower before your computer opponent. The game isn’t timed, the skill is in placing the blocks in the right place as they are presented to you. A natural understanding of probability helps. It also helps to turn the annoying sound track off.

Pet Peeves

Today’s pet peeve came up at a recent “fête” – various stalls and activities organised in a field somewhere to raise funds for some worthy project. Inevitably there was a stall offering food and drink and inevitably an horrendous queue (US: “line”) before it. So I work out what my brood want to eat and drink, let them carry on with the fun while I join the queue and settle in for a long wait.

Eventually I get to be only one person away from the counter. They ask the guy in front of me what he wants and then he shouts across to the eight or nine people he is ordering for and asks them “what do you want?”. Since some of them are children and the rest cant seem to make up their mind I wait another 15 minutes while they hum and haw their way through the choices on offer before finally placing an order. Now I don’t object to the fact that he was representing a group of people rather than just himself – that’s what I was doing and it seems the only sensible way to go about this. What I don’t understand is why did he wait until he had gotten to the counter before finding out what people wanted? Like me he had been standing there for 30 minutes – ample time to put together his order and even to allow for last minute changes of mind. Why add to the waiting time for all the people behind him? So that my peeve: people who make others wait because they don’t know what they want.

Time to go now. My kids have discovered that the broken laths from the bed make excellent swords…

Two of my ongoing passions came together quite pleasantly today.

One of them is my interest in old TV programs. Every now and then, disappointed by the quality of fare offered on the 100s of TV channels at my disposition I think back nostalgically to programmes of yore. I  then usually start on an Amazon / ebay hunt to see if I can find DVDs of stuff you simply never see broadcast these days. I have managed to pull together episodes of “Public Eye”, “Danger Man” , “Ghost Squad”, “Interpol” “Gideon’s Way” and even one episode of “The Sentimental Agent” (about which the only thing I could ever remember was the theme tune).  Its not that these programmes are substantially better than stuff produced today (although they do stand up remarkably well), its just that I get a remarkably cosy feeling watching them again.  I suspect there is also something about black and white that I like too but cannot explain.

Another passion is the radio. We are lucky here in the UK to have a brilliant talk radio service, courtesy of the BBC, with dramas, documentaries and  comedies of the highest order broadcast over various media (DAB, FM, Satellite, Internet and pod-casts). There is also an enormous back catalogue available via BBC7. What in the US they call “OTR” (Old Time Radio) is still alive and well in the UK. I record stuff greedily off the Internet, transfer it to  my .mp3 player and use it to ease the burden of my daily commute.

These two passions came together today when I discovered that The Avengers (which naturally I have complete on DVD) was also broadcast as a radio serial! It seems that during the 60’s there was no effective TV service in South Africa (people used to hire 16mm film projectors and rent films to show at home). Consequently radio was the main medium and when “The Avengers” became such a hit in Europe and the US,  a company called Sonovision produced a set of Avengers adventures for the radio. The voices were provided not by McNee and Rigg but two English actors, Donald Monat and Diane Appleby. The scripts used were the original drafts for the TV series adapted for sound-only. As such they did not incorporate subsequent revisions (of which there were many) that did affect the later TV version and the story differences can be substantial.

You can download all the restored versions here for free! Sound quality is not so hot but it is interesting to hear how Monat and Appleby interpret their parts and how different many of the stories are from the TV equivalent. One interesting aside: they kept with the Emma Peel character even after the TV series had changed to Tara King just by changing the references to “Miss King” to “Mrs Peel” and using the same actress. The net result must have been confusing for listeners since the Emma Peel of earlier episodes (with a PhD and proficient in martial arts) inexplicably became incapable of reading a map, clumsy and frequently helpless.

Pet Peeves

It was in thinking about my habit of recording stuff to play back at my leisure that I was reminded of another of my bugbears – the way time is represented.  There are two issues here. One of them is the old saw about 24-hr clock versus this a.m. / p.m. nonsense. Whoops I’ve given away which side I’m on.  Well really – we live in a 24 hour world with round-the clock services where “7:00″ is just as likely to mean a.m. or p.m. Its not just that we don’t need the a.m. and p.m. stuff (the time can be expressed more efficiently and unambiguously as either 07:00 or 19:00) it is also that it is frequently forgotten leading to confusion and mistakes.  But whichever side you are on in this argument there is the other issue – TV and Radio Listings.

I don’t know where you get your listings info from but all the sources I use seem to have unilaterally decided that the “day” begins at 07:00 (am) and ends at 06:59 (am). Want to know what will be on the TV at 6:00 Monday morning? You will find it listed as a “late night” programme on Sunday in TV guides, newspapers and websites everywhere. Why???

The fact is we are increasingly moving to the point where everything that can be broadcast may well be accessed by people all over the world so these cultural  peculiarities of the host broadcasting companies or listings agencies are becoming a hindrance – particularly if you are programming something to pick up the broadcast.

Right I feel better now. Time for a game.

Games

Today’s offering – Hoshi Saga - is not so much a game as a set of 30 or so little puzzles – some would even say adventures of discovery. Each little box when opened will reveal “something” (exactly what varies) which, when you interact with it in some way (that’s for you to find out) will reveal a star. Find the star and you can move on to the next one. Its beautifully done – and its all in black and white! Mmmm…

That’s all for today. My kids are bouncing on the bed again – more repairs on the way I think…

So this is the first blog. Probably the most difficult to write. I did consider doing some biographical stuff, who I am, why I’m writing etc but quite honestly I think that is better if it unfolds slowly over the blogs to come. I also have some ideas on regular sections of the blog etc but again I think I will just freewheel for a while and let the recurring themes start recurring before I tie myself into some format.

Mysteries

I’m fond of mysteries and here is one that may interest you. Its about UFOs and I should state my opinions on the subject before we start:

• I think it is highly likely that given the size of the universe, there will be life on other planets than just this one

• I think given the age of the universe it is highly likely that there are civilisations out there a percentage of which will be more advanced than our own

• However, despite taking a passing interest in the subject I have never yet seen convincing evidence that we have been visited by anyone or anything of extraterrestrial origin (excluding getting blasted by meteors every now and then).

So in this – as with many things - I am skeptical. OK on with the current mystery:

It all started on May 11, 2007, when a person called “Chad” contacted the US Radio show Coast to Coast reporting having seen and photographed a UFO near his home in California on May 6th. You can see this first report here:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page2022.html?theme=light

Then, May 15th 2007, a further report – this time from Lake Tahoe , California was registered with MUFON (UFO investigation society) and a further picture sent in of the same or a very similar object.http://www.ufocasebook.com/strangecraftlaketahoe.html

Next, on May 18th 2007, a woman (Shirley P.) on sent in a mail to earthfiles.com stating that she had seen the same object a few years ago in Sequoia National Park but didnt take a picture.
http://www.ufocasebook.com/lettersstrangecraft.html

On May 21st 2007, someone calling himself rajman1977 posted on Flickr his account of a sighting in Capitola, California on May 16th http://www.flickr.com/photos/8418528@N06/. This object is similar but subtly different.

Since then there has been a lot of discussion on various boards and the pictures have been scrutinised for fakery.  The general conclusion has been that there is no obvious evidence that the pictures have been faked but with present day CGI it would be easy to create images such as this from scratch. In fact someone has done just that. He reckons it took him 90 minutes to knock together the following image which is almost as convincing as the others. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8455761@N06/511283665/

While everyone else has been looking at the pictures, I have been looking at the written accounts that came with them. What I notice is remarkable similarities between each account. Not in what they are talking about but the way in which they express themselves.

Firstly, all the accounts are articulate, well constructed as four or five paragraphs of about 3 or 4 sentences each.  This is itself is suspicious – I would expect at least one of them to have spelling mistakes or poor punctuation. There are other similarities:

1. Use of quotes to describe the thing:

Chad:
with me to take photos of this “craft”.
I’m worried is that this “craft” has got some kind of radiation

Shirley P:
what was described as “drones”
 in regard to the “aerial drones” spotted

Rajman:
we noticed this “object” sort of hovering

2. Use of VERY in caps:

Chad:
Then it moves VERY quickly and is out of sight
 It is VERY smooth and slow

Shirley P:
I read with keen interest the article(with VERY good photos)about

3. Use of colons

Chad:
Location: I would prefer not to say for now

Shirley P:
I joked:”So it’s NOT a UFO?

The above makes me think that rather than four witnesses we may well have only one or possibly two. So whats the conclusion? I would put my money on a couple of hoaxers with good CGI skills deciding to try and create a “flap”. But why? So far I cannot see anyone making any money out of this – or perhaps this is yet to happen. It has been suggested that this is the start of a viral marketing campaign for the forthcoming Transformers movie. Whatever the case I am sure there is more to come. So watch this space…

Good Games

Most of the web based games bore me but occasionally I find one sufficiently diverting to make me waste the precious little time I have. Here is one  - Grain Strain - that amused me for a while recently. It requires no explanation except to say that when you reach level 8, the puzzles start again from the beginning but with a stiffer time limit. Have fun.

Today’s pet peeve

I have a difficult commute. Trains and tubes during the rush-hour crush. Crammed into unwillingly intimate contact with this unwashed sausage of squashed humanity, nose pressed into strangers armpits, grabbing and being grabbed to maintain balance with every lurch and swerve of  the carriage. Long and difficult hikes up and down crowded stairways.  

I dont like it . Not at all.  I never get a seat. But sometimes, just sometimes if I’m very very lucky I might get a “perch”.  These are little padded areas that are embedded into the walls of the carriage. Just at the height where you can lean back on them and with a bit of buttock adjustment take ther weight off your aching feet. It may seem trivial – I suppose it is  – but that meagre little bit of semi-comfort can have a significant effect on reducing the torture of the journey. So now we come to the peeve. There is a kind of person that is increasingly beginning to annoy me – the perch blocker.

Perch blockers are people who stand in front of a perch – and dont sit on them! They deprive others (i.e. me) from using the perch but dont use them themselves. Imagine you are dying of thirst and in front of you stands a person hogging a bottle of water – they wont let you have a drink – but they dont drink it themselves! This is the feeling one gets watching the perch blocker. If you dont want to use it – move away so someone who needs it can, you ****!

OK, I feel better now.

Thats all for now…

I think that will do for my first blog. There are strangulation sounds coming from the kids’ rooms….