Welcome to part 4 of
Where the Blaze in question is Blaze Kendall and the Human Fly is not a Glory Seeker… but is it all that black and Whyte, as it looks like the Harmony has been disrupted in this next page…
Moving away from the puns for the moment...
None of the supporting characters shown in the comic existed in real life, but what the Human Fly says is almost literally an actual quote…
Last week I found a video of the real-life Human Flys wing-walking stunt onto of a jet plane flying over the Mojave desert at great speed and made note of some of the discrepancies between what was being said and what may or may not have happened in this event
The reason for this is that the jets pilot, the legendary Clay Lacy has a slightly different story to tell…
as you can see from the article Clay Lacy: “The Planes I’ve Flown & The People I’ve Known” Part 2 By Di Freeze,
Take it away Di:-
"His (Clay Lacy's) experience during the Mojave 1000 with daredevil Rick Rojatt, aka "The Human Fly," a Marvel Comics character, falls under that category. The stunt performer, intent on proving he was the "greatest superhero that ever lived," put his life in capable hands when he flew above the Mojave Desert on top of a DC-8 piloted by Lacy.
"We made a mount for him," said Lacy. "He couldn't have gotten off if he wanted to. He always told people he was up there at 300 mph, but we never flew that fast. The fastest I ever flew him was 220 knots, once, just for a short burst. Most of the time, we were flying at 175 knots."
Lacy flew Rojatt two days at Mojave, and later in Texas, where the daredevil was to be filmed for a television special, which was cancelled due to weather. However, Rojatt made one harrowing flight there.
"He was in a little bit of rain," Lacy said. "Actually, they were big raindrops. When they started hitting, it sounded like golf balls. It really beat him up; he said they felt like bullets."
By then, said Lacy, The Human Fly traveled with his sidekick, Mercury, both wearing colorful costumes.
"Mercury had a three-wheel motorcycle and he drove him to the airport," Lacy said.
On that day in Texas, the battered Fly was removed from the airplane and taken to a makeshift dispensary.
"His legs were just raw," Lacy said. "I waited until they got over there, about 15 minutes, and I called for the Fly. They gave me Mercury, and I told him, 'You have to get him back over here! The weather is clearing up.' He said, "What!" I was just kidding with him. He said, 'I don't know... Well, okay.'"
A dismal Fly agreed, and the duo appeared at the airport 30 minutes later.
"He was hurting," Lacy said. "We got a cherry picker, and acted like we were going to put him back up. I went over there, and I said, 'Now, I don't want you to do it, if you can't, but, I think you can.' He said, 'Okay.'"
Lacy finally had pity, and told Rojatt they weren't really taking him up."
I suppose you could say that any showman does exactly that, take the role of a circus ringmaster for example - but one thing to note from the above and the video from last week is the The Human Fly comes across more as a person with a death wish than an daredevil
Admittedly that is a fine line to walk along, but when you first big public stunt fails twice before finally succeeding (but possibly only because the aircrafts speed was lowered to the point where completing the stunt without loosing consciousness is possible) perhaps its not unreasonable to say you set your goals too high, after all there's nothing wrong with building up your stunts a bit and work up to something truly unprecedented
Particularly if the aim really is really more about the message which The Human Fly is supporting - you would think that aim could be achieved with slightly easier to complete stunts just at a few more locations
This aside for the moment, Clay Lacy has just dropped the apparent name of the real life alter ego of the real life Human Fly as being Rick Rojatt and we will pick up on this point next week
As Before I would like to remind you all that the following appears with very kind thanks and much appreciation to Bill Coffin
"The Fill-In King
While most people would not know who Bill Mantlo is, comic book fans might. He was, for a time, one of the top writers for Marvel Comics, and to this day he still has a considerable fan base. When Greg Pak recently finished writing a string of issues of the Incredible Hulk, he dedicated the issue to Mantlo. Bill’s impact on the comic world is significant, but even his most ardent fans generally do not know that he has become defined by a cruel irony: Mantlo wrote superhero stories to inspire people to be good to each other, only to become an anguished man in a broken body, in desperate need of a hero himself.
Bill Mantlo was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1951, the first of three brothers—himself, Mike and Adam. Bill became an avid reader and artist early on, with a love for comic books. But it was in 1962, as the Amazing Spider-Man began to hit the shelves, that he became a die-hard fan of Marvel Comics in particular.
Bill got into the Marvel fandom on the ground floor. Although the company had been publishing comics since the 1930s, it was in 1961 when Marvel began evolving into the engine of pop culture that it is today. Writer and editor Stan Lee and artists such as Jack Kirby reinvented the superhero genre, telling stories that were set in real-world New York, filled with characters who were more human (at least to readers) than their counterparts at other comic companies. Characters who are now household names, such as Spider-Man, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were all getting their big start. For kids who were into comics, it was a special time— the likes of which have never been repeated.
Bill’s connection with Marvel went even deeper, as Jack Kirby was a neighbor of his. Bill often spent his teenage afternoons at “the King’s” house, picking up on drawing tips, geeking out on superheroes and talking about storytelling. It would prove to be a formative relationship for Bill."
NEXT WEEK: Who on earth is Rick Rojatt... and more of "Tragic tale"
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