Month: December 2020

  • Micronauts #3 (March 1979)

    Micronauts #3 (March 1979)

    Micronauts vol 1 #3

    March 1979
    “Death Duel at Daytona Beach”
    Bill Mantlo, Michael Golden (breakdowns) & Joe Rubenstein

    Cover
    A space cruiser battling the Endeavour on a street corner. Acroyear and Rann flying. A couple of people in the street shocked by what’s happening (a typically Marvel cover). Michael Golden and Joe Rubinstein.

    PAGES 1-2: Ray Coffin, Steve’s father returns home to find the garden wrecked by last issue’s attack by space cruisers.

    • The family’s dog, Muffin, seems dead. Presumably killed by Acroyear last issue. (We’ll find out that Muffin isn’t actually dead. It just looks like it.)
    • Steve’s father is Ray Coffin. He considers taking Steve to see doctors at NASA until he finds the remains of the attacking cruiser destroyed last issue.
    • Bug is still alive and hiding in long grass.
    • Steve’s mother is dead.

    PAGES 3-7 (3, 6, 7, 10-11): The Endeavour and Shaitan’s battle cruiser battle above Daytona.

    • The Endeavour exits warp at West Daytona Beach.
    • In a scene reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a group of air traffic controllers view the battle between the Endeavour and Shaitan’s battle cruiser.
    • Jets are scrambled from Cape Canaveral. One of them has the call-sign, Tiger 8.
    • CB radio – popular in later 1970s – is mentioned as spreading news about the space ships.
    • The sign to Daytona Speedway is seen (advertising Pepsi).
    • The Endeavour has a THORIUM GUN (also called its BELLY GUN) which Microtron is able to use. Golden uses an upside-down panel to show Microtron sitting in the gun seat and hoping its lubricant doesn’t rush to its head as a moment of light relief. Marionette uses the DECK GUN.
    • Shaitan’s battle cruiser separates into parts on page 6. Shaitan declares he won’t be bested in battle.
    • Rann mistakes a skateboard park for a mountainous area.
    • Time Traveler appears to Marionette to reveal that there is a tracking device aboard. (Why the all-powerful Enigma Force only now reveals this is unknown?) The Time Traveler seems ponders about Karza’s reaction to the news of other universes.

    PAGE 8 (14): Duchess Belladonna arrives at Karza’s body banks.

    • Duchess Belladonna describes Karza as “courtesy incarnate”. She is old and dying. She reserved Marionette’s body as her own. She demands Argon’s as a replacement but Karza refuses, insisting that he is using Argon for a special experiment.

    PAGES 9-15: The battle continues above Daytona Beach.

    • Acroyear shows no mercy to one of the Acroyear pilots (of a WING FIGHTER) when the pilot appeals for it.
    • The Micronauts are able to communicate with humans because Biotron SYNCHED THEIR BRAINWAVES (Rann tells us this in a thought balloon).
    • The two thorium guns on Endeavour can be linked.
    • The jets can’t see anything so return to base.
    • Acroyear calls Shaitan: “Betrayer of worlds”. Acroyear is powerful enough to stop Shaitan’s craft in flight and, despite his boasts, Shaitan uses a warp drive to escape his brother.
    • There’s a gentle scene between Acroyear and Microtron when he returns to the Endeavour. It gives the impression that Acroyear treats Microtron as a person but also there’s a sense of paternalism (he calls Microtron “little one”).
    • The police arrive at the skatepark ready to breathalyse the witnesses to the the battle.
    • Rann assumes the role of leader of the Micronauts (well, Endeavour is his ship). He does seek the opinions of the team. Marionette believes Karza will seek to enslave Earth’s universe.
    • Rann uses Bug’s brainwaves to try to find the insectivorid.
    • The Endeavour seems to fly out to sea rather than retrace its route to the Coffin household.

    Pages 15-16 (30-31): Bug overhears Ray Coffin talking on the phone. The owner of Speedway Skateboard Circus is interviewed by the police.

    • Bug overhears Ray Coffin speaking to a director at the Institute (presumably someone at NASA). Ray’s put the damaged craft and the dead Acroyear into a shoebox (just like the real toy).
    • The manager of Speedway Skateboard Circus is called Martinelli. Police ask him if he’s trying to pull an insurance scam.

    Next issue: “A body hunt on Homeworld while the Micronauts roam the Earth! A’ Hunting We Will Go!”

  • The Mandalorian

    Finale of Season Two was so unexpected. I was genuinely excited when I realised who had arrived at the end.

  • The Construction of Lost Hearts by M.R. James

    The Construction of Lost Hearts by M.R. James

    M.R. James’ Lost Hearts is a tautly-constructed short story with an impressive economy of narrative. It’s a macabre tale of an elderly occultist luring children to his home and murdering them in an attempt to magical powers and immortality. An unnamed narrator (James?) relates the tale.

    It seems to me that there are three movements in the story: events up to 24th March 1812, the evening of 24th March and “certain papers” from Abney’s desk explaining his motivations. There’s also a coda to the story is the delayed revelation that Abney has been killed with his heart exposed (this action of withholding a climactic detail to the very end of the story is something James and other supernatural writers appear to do frequently).

    The story is constructed like this:

    1. In September 1811, Stephen Elliot arrives at Aswarby Hall. James describes the architecture, evening and a little about the occult interests of Mr Abney, Elliot’s elderly cousin.
    2. Dialogue between Stephen and Abney in which the old man confirms Stephen’s age.
    3. Description of Mrs Bunch, the housekeeper.
    4. Mentions of aspects of the Hall through questioning by Stephen.
    5. One November evening when Stephen asks Mrs Bunch whether Abney is a good man. Mrs Bunch recounts the arrivals and disapearances of the two children.
    6. Stephen has a “curious dream”. There’s also a paragraph in which James digresses to a description of the vaults of St Michan’s Church.
    7. Two incidents in the approach of the spring equinox. The first is the torn nightdress and the scratches on a bedroom door. The second, the following evening, in which Parkes, the butler, who claims to hear voices (of talking rats) in the cellar.
    8. The events of 24th March: Abney’s invitation, a description of the night, the sight of the ghostly boy and girl and the scene where Stephen stands outside the library door, hearing Abney’s attempt to cry out.
    9. Extract from Abney’s papers in which he explains his attempts to bring about ” a very remarkable enlightenment of the spiritual faculties” discovered in the writings of Hermes Trismegistus.
    10. The final paragraph is a description of Abney’s body.

    What’s great about Lost Hearts is the manner in which there’s thoroughly nasty occult practices going on masked by the ordinary, everyday.

  • Shipping

    Shipping

    I was just about to order a book from the US. The shipping is £10 more that the cost of the book. Madness. What’s annoying is that the site doesn’t reveal shipping until you click through payment method so that it would be easy to buy the book before realising what had happened. It’s a book I’d love to get… but not that much.

  • Richard Corben

    Just read that Richard Corben, a visionary illustrator and comic book artist, has died aged 80. His recent work on Hellboy was incredibly impressive.

    Richard Corben, RIP

  • “there is a psychic war being stoked”

    Emotional – and quite frightening – piece by Hardeep Matharu on the threat of fascism and a need to innoculate ourselves agaist a virus of hatred:

    “In a digitised information age, there is a psychic war being stoked, and raging, within ourselves; a ‘soft’ fascism being nudged into our hearts and minds – at the hands of social media companies, corporations and rogue actors intent on weaponising people’s worst instincts – and their most human of vulnerabilities – for personal and partisan gain.”

    – The Powerful Lure of the Soft Fascism Within

  • broken down!

    broken down!

    Awaiting rescue. One of those times when there are so many things you realise you should on have done… for instance kept the breakdown number somewhere in the car!

    Update: The RAC were brilliant. Turned out to be a flat battery caused by putting hazard lights on when I pulled over. Lots of lessons learned tonight.

  • Mystery of the Gatwick Drone

    Seems that there never was a drone. Great article by Samira Shackle.

    The Mystery of the Gatwick Drone | The Guardian