We're Heading Into a Storm!!

Welcome to part 6 of

as The Human Fly's comic book story continues at a greater distance from whatever his real life counterpart ever did - as the dialogue in the page below relates that The Human Fly is exposed to rain at 300 MPH…

Though we can't say that was an exaggeration by Bill Mantlo as The Human Fly was seen making the same exaggeration himself in his real life wing walk in the Mojave Desert!

Last Week I started to delve into the mystery of Rick Rojatt to see is he really was The Human Fly. The only conclusion I have managed to come to so far is that possibly Rick Rojatt could be the name of alter ego of the Marvel character The Human Fly but not the real thing, so let's do some more digging

This time here is a 5 minute interview with The Human Fly -"Rick Rojatt" which was filmed by Candian based CBCtv after the Mojave wing walk and makes for interesting viewing

Of course it is kind of hard not to notice that almost everything referred to in this interview did not as far as I can tell actually end up occurring, as well as the reaction from the audience who thought The Human Fly was joking!

That aside what I am going to take away from the interview is the reference to a team of people working on and planning the stunts The Human Fly was doing - we have already seen the Fly worse for wear after Mojave - How much worse will it get?!

Next week I will start to delve into the next stunt The Human Fly performed for real that also featured inside the pages of The Human Fly Comic…!

TRAGIC TALE
As before 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!

"One such title was the Micronauts, which was based on a line of science-fiction action figures already popular in Japan and introduced to the U.S. market in 1976. Bill himself suggested that Marvel license the toys so he could develop a comic around them. Marvel agreed and began publishing the Micronauts comic in 1979. The toy line had little in the way of backstory, metaplot or character development, but that did not stop Mantlo from building an entire universe around the toys, inventing numerous additional characters and even a fictitious alphabet for the setting. The toy line died in 1980, a casualty of pretty much any science fiction-themed brand that tried to compete with Star Wars merchandising. But by then, it did not matter. The Micronauts was a hit in its own right, popular enough with the fans that it won the 1979 Eagle Award for Favorite New Comic Title. The series continued until 1984, with Mantlo writing all but one of its nearly 60 issues, including spin-offs.

Also in 1979, Mantlo took on ROM the Spaceknight, also a licensed property based off a toy line. The toy was a talking cyborg doll produced by Parker Brothers, but sales were so poor, the toy was cancelled within a year of launch. Again, this failed to faze Mantlo, who had already written a detailed origin, backstory, setting and supporting cast for the title, which remained popular (and more importantly for Marvel, profitable) enough to merit publication for seven years, ending in 1986 after 75 issues.

During this time, Mantlo remained Marvel’s “fill-in king”, ultimately writing for nearly every title Marvel produced at the time. He had long runs on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Alpha Flight. At his most prolific, Bill’s work would appear in as many as eight different Marvel titles a month, and his total output exceeded 500 issues.

“Bill was in a class of his own,” recalls Chris Claremont, a colleague and close friend of Mantlo. Claremont’s 17-year writing stint on the Uncanny X-Men and various spin-off titles, from 1975 to 1991, made him one of the most famous writers in modern comic book publishing. Mantlo was different, Claremont says, because he lacked the prima donna ego of most comic book writers. He did not mind sharing story-writing credit on any given issue, often making a point of thanking in the credits anyone who helped him with the script."

NEXT WEEK:- The Human Fly writes a letter to his own comic and more Tragic Tale!