Death-Walk!

Welcome to part 3 of 

Where we launch straight into the middle of the action with a great splash page by Lee Elias (reproduced by myself), which shows The Fly Hanging upside down from a helicopter above a jet in the rain travelling at 300 mph…

If you was with me last week you saw that I found that Human Fly Spectaculars Ltd was a real company set up for "PERFORMING LIVE STUNTS WHICH FEATURE WING WALKING OR A PERSON BEING STRAPPED TO A FLYING AIRCRAFT"

If we go back to Bill Mantlos Essay "The Making Of A Hero",Bill himself said The Fly... 

"was hoisted to the top of a DC-8 jet aircraft which proceeded to take off on a 200-MPH flight over the burning Mojave Desert…"

Well something that specific must be pretty easy to prove or disprove, right?

Witness the below 23 minute video from 1976 of the Fly doing almost exactly what Bill Mantlo described

As you can see the real costume was the basis for the comic not the other way around, The Fly existed before the comic did - also in the video there is a mention of 2 previous attempts at the same stunt, one at Dallas in which the fly was subjected to rain at speed

It seems from the splash page of the comic above, that Bill Mantlo chose to combine the best elements of at least these two attempts as the basis for the contents of issue one

While we still no have no idea as to the fly's identity, some more clues are provided in the video - such as his age and well as the details of The Fly's background which again, almost exactly matches what Bill Mantlo outlined…

Yet there seems to be one or two discrepancies with speeds being stated by the fly, and a few other things - nothing apparently that couldn't be explained at this point…

But the Fly himself seems to come out of this somewhat worse for wear!

Next week we will hear about this event from the pilot of the plane, none other than Clay Lacy…

TRAGIC TALE
Before we continue from last week, I would like to remind you all that the following appears with very kind thanks and much appreciation to Bill Coffin

You can read the entire article here http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2011/11/07/tragic-tale and of course it comes highly recommended

Take it away Bill Coffin!

"The victim of a closed-head brain injury from nearly 20 years before, Bill cannot move from his wheelchair to his bed without help, nor can he feed himself, go to the bathroom or conduct any other kind of normal physical activity unaided. He can move his arms, but the fine motor control in his hands is very poor. He needs someone else to put his glasses on for him, and when he wants to take them off, he can only drag his hands across his face and let the glasses clatter to the floor.

Bill can hear and recognise when people speak to him, but his own speech is slow, laboured and typically consists of single words or very short sentences. Most times, he simply yells at anybody who enters his room. He has a history of lashing out violently at staff and patients, though in his current condition, the only person he is likely to hurt with a swing is himself.

His room is nearly empty. No television. No radio. No books, magazines or newspapers. No decorations on the walls. No mementos from previous visitors. Nothing at all to mark the individual who has lived here since 1995. A solitary prison cell has more personality than this, even though Bill is not prohibited from going anywhere. He just lacks mobility, and most times, the will. His average day consists of waking up, getting changed and cleaned by the morning shift nurses, and then a sit in his wheelchair, where he stares at nothing. When he has had enough, he is transferred back to his bed, where he closes his eyes and tries going back to sleep. At some point he will be fed, and after that, more sleep.

Today, however, he has a visitor. A man comes to his room, but immediately Bill wants no part of it.

“GO.” he shouts. “GOOO!”

Bill’s social worker is nearby, openly skeptical that this visit will do anything other than agitate Bill into a state that will make him difficult to handle for the rest of the day. But Bill’s nurse, Fatima, moves in and places a hand on his shoulder. For reasons the staff will not disclose, Bill is disturbed by the presence of any men in his room, which is why his nurses are female. Among them, Fatima has the best rapport with Bill and her words soothe him enough to listen.

“Now, Bill, you can’t talk to him like that,” Fatima says. “Do you know who that is?”

“Who?” Bill asks, genuinely perplexed.

“That’s your son.”

Bill’s head turns suddenly, fixing on his visitor. This is more than a surprise.

“Hi, Bill,” says the visitor, a 45-year-old man in a puffy red jacket. “It’s me, Adam.”

Tears come to Bill’s eyes. Then they come to Adam’s. It is the first time either one has seen the other in 17 years.

NEXT WEEK: Clay Lacy tells us about what happened at Mojave and we see more of Bill Coffins seminal "Tragic Tale"