The End is just Beginning to Start

Welcome to part 19, the final part of

Last week I left you with a few questions:- Whatever Happened to the Human Fly comic,  to the Stunt competition, to the Human Fly for real and to the comic book character?

Is there a better such of information /answers to all these questions? (including those asked last week)

Okay, let's start with the comic and the stunt competition

In issue 19 of The Human Fly a letter from Matt Kaufman appears which amongst other things asks the following question:-

"By the way, how are the sales on the HUMAN FLY? Hopefully, good - the book's still monthly. I'm interested in seeing how well an action adventure comic with only occasional violence sells"…

To which the editorial reply is:-

"Like you said, Matthew, the fact the fly's well on his way into his second year as a comic book character must say something about his success in the medium.  We're hoping the next year will be as encouraging as the first - especially in character developments and plot twists, while we attempt to add an element of drama that Bill (Mantlo) has said felt the book was lacking."

But then in that self same issue of the Human Fly comic issue 19 on the last page, last panel….

"AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE MARVEL BULLPEN

This is the final issue of the HUMAN FLY-- the wildest hero ever!  Much to all of our regret, ending the FLY here also means that the HUMAN FLY STUNT CONTEST ends as well, but we thought it would be nice to mention the five winners whose creative stunt ideas might have appeared in these pages.  All have received an autographed page of original HUMAN FLY artwork.

Thanks for coming along for the wildest ride in years.  It's been fun!"

Now lets check through the facts we have so far.  The stunt contest itself was announced in issue 15 only a few issues before cancellation

Also in issue 15 there was talk of story or plot ideas being exchanged for future issues which never saw print

The letter in the letters page of issue 19, and its answer would not have been that far in advance of issue 19, and it looks like that last panel was redrawn slightly to have its typed message inserted at probably the last minute

All of this suggests that cancellation of the comic was not only very sudden, but probably not due to low sales.

The leads to speculation as to what actually happened here

To my mind at least the wording of the letter is interesting for what it does mention and what it does not - obviously it does not give any reason for cancelation, but what it does do is call the Human Fly "the wildest hero ever" and repeats this by referring to "the wildest ride in years"

Just to remind you all, the banner at the top on the cover of every issue of The Human Fly Comic was "The wildest super-hero ever-- because he's real!"

Both the "super" and "because he's real" are missing from a letter that goes out of its way to mention "wildest" as the only point of any information at all, does that mean that Marvel finally found out The Human fly's true colours?

But to be fair that is just open speculation on my part, but it is a close as I think we can get - at least right now…

So what ever happened to the Human Fly comic book character?

Well, At San Diego comic con this year the first issue of The New Adventures of The Human Fly was debuted

This is a annual anthology title with different contributors taking their own unique and interesting look into the Human Fly comic book character published by Cartoon Flophouse

You can check it out more about this at http://cartoonflophouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-new-adventures-of-human-fly-debuts.html

if you would like a copy just email Micheal Ashenkar at chipmunksandsquirrels@yahoo.com, he will take paypal

This new comic is both fun and interesting, but is firmly in the land of fantasy, there is no mention of anything The real life Human Fly did

Also, the comic is published by a new company Human Fly International inc. this is Canadian company and as you would expect has a filing on the internet

This is the same company and people directly behind The Human Fly Movie

yes, movie..

which has a web site here http://thehumanflymovie.com/THE_MOVIE.html

where you can see The Mojave wing walk in full

plus a 5 minute feature "the story behind the movie", which follows below

And this movie, would appear to be the best place to answer whatever happened to the Human Fly for real and who was behind him - not forgetting of course hopefully being better source of information /answers to all the questions about The Human Fly (including those asked last week)

So it appears after all, that The Human Fly comic character at least has finally become the Phoenix after being in ashes for some 40 years

And the real life Human fly, well - just watch the video and draw your own conclusions

What happens from this point onwards is another story altogether, for now this is the end of my journey into The Human Fly

This journey into The Human Fly is dedicated with much respect to both Bill and Micheal Mantlo, both are true heroes 

NEXT WEEK: VOTE! You chose what will appear in this blog next