Parallel - Part Two

Welcome to part 14 of

In which we continue the examination of The parallels between the Human Fly's origin and Bill Mantlo's real life tragedy as started Last week 

The Human Fly's origin is continued n the words of Bill Mantlo himself (from his essay "The Making of a Hero" as seen earlier on this blog):-

"The determination grew.  He would strain to rise, to move from his bed.  So aggressive did his actions become that doctors were forced to sedate or strap him down out of fear that he would harm himself.  Realising that this was proving counterproductive, he calmed down, lulling his doctors into a sense of security that he at least accepted his irreversible condition...

...while every night, under cover of darkness, the victim of an accident that would have left most others for dead or paralysed for life began to secretly exercise his unresponsive body... until it became responsive, until it became his body again...and perhaps something more than it had been before."

And now from Bill Coffin's Tragic Tale, Bill Mantlo's real life tragedy…

"Both Adam and Corinna visited their father regularly while he was at Gaylord, and they could see that he was becoming ever more angry and distraught at his condition. During one visit, Bill asked Adam and Corinna to kill him. After that, neither could bear to see their father in person again, confining contact to letters and telephone calls.

Three months later, CIGNA declared there was nothing more to do and informed Mike coverage would cease. Mike argued that his brother was still progressively recovering, and that even though some of Gaylord’s therapists refused to work with Bill, the family was assisting with therapy. Mike would visit Gaylord every weekend. Bill’s mother Nancy would sit with him and go through speech therapy. Bill’s father William would visit three times a week to assist with physical therapy.

And the work was paying off. Mike recounts that by November 1992, Bill regained his ability to speak and could sit up in a wheelchair. He was no longer on a ventilator or a feeding tube, and his family could even take him out to dinner. Bill could now read a menu and place his own order, and it could be understood by the wait staff."

And we will now alternate between these two stories to conclude:-

The Human Fly:-

"Four years later, the man sat up in bed, then stood, then walked... to the amazement  of his doctors who had long ago given him up for lost."

Bill Mantlo:-

"Bill arrived at Meadowbrook in 1994. Mike describes it as a “very small, very intense” rehabilitation center where Bill made progress in both speech and vocational therapy during the first few months. Bill recovered to the point where he was able to type at a computer and maintain his concentration long enough to begin writing once more. He started keeping a journal in which he recorded random creative thoughts as well as some personal reflections. During one therapy session, he even produced a two-paragraph short story for one of his doctors about an invasion from Mars."

Bill Mantlo remains at Queens-Nassau this very day, he never fully recovered.

Here is the entire  comic page as recreated by my hand:-

To my mind, and I hope this is the right thing to say - the depiction of The Human Fly's origin in a way represented everything that Bill Mantlo believes in, and believes in strongly, that hope was always found in inspiration and it was down the individual to provide that inspiration by setting an example by being a hero themselves, by believing in themselves and their strength of will and becoming something larger than life in the cause of inspiring as many people as possible, Bill becoming a lawyer for the underprivileged underlines this

Bill Mantlo wants more than anything else to have been in the incredibly lucky position that The Human Fly is shown in, where he gets out of the hospital bed and goes on to be something more, it is the strength of Bills beliefs and conviction that keep him going but also made it so difficult for him just after the accident.

Bill Mantlo is still the same person inside, but he is trapped inside a body that no longer can respond and one can only guess at the frustration he feels

Yet in many ways his story is richer and more meaningful than the Human Fly's ever was, and not just because it happens to be the truth, but more because Bill is completely identifiable as a complete human being, the tragedy is his accident could have happened to anyone, not just some flamboyant risk taker

Bill Mantlo needs a hero, and he has a real life one in the shape of his family, in particular his brother Mike, who help him make the best of his life.

The Human Fly's origin may well be fiction, but one thing is for sure his motorbike crash at Montreal Olympic Stadium was very real and so was his reaction to that event and this is exactly where I will pick up from Next week!

If any of you wanted to help Bill Mantlo, please go to Greg Pak's site here  Where you can donate via paypal

Parallel - Part One

Welcome to part 13 of

In which we see the Human Fly hanging onto the wing of a jet for dear life…

This week I start on a rather unique journey where the two ongoing threads that have been winding through my recreation of The Human Fly, that of the story of The Human Fly and the real life events of Bill Mantlo, the writer of The Human Fly comic finally come together.

The parallels between the Human Fly's origin and Bill Mantlo's real life tragedy are impossible to ignore and it makes perfect sense that the comic book depiction of The Human Fly's origin should be depicted in contrast to Bill Mantlo's real life events and here we will finally start to see why…

Let's Start with The Human Fly's origin in the words of Bill Mantlo himself (from his essay "The Making of a Hero" as seen earlier on this blog)

"It began some six years ago in a head-on car crash on a lonely road near Ashville, North Carolina.  A young man driving the first car was seriously injured.  His wife and children were killed instantly and he, on being rushed to hospital, hung for days between life and death... fighting inwardly to survive, summoning all his will in a fierce desire to live"

And now from Bill Coffins Tragic Tale , Bill Mantlo's real life tragedy…

"On Friday, July 17, 1992, Bill left work early for the weekend, and made his usual three-mile rollerblade journey through Brooklyn traffic to his apartment near Morningside Park. Just four blocks from home, a car came around a corner and hit Bill. The left side of Bill’s head impacted the windshield. He rolled across the hood of the car, and the right side of his head impacted the pavement. The driver never stopped and was never identified.

The accident jostled Bill’s head so violently that his brain squashed against the inside of his skull, and his brain stem severed. This did not paralyze him, but it would make it very difficult for Bill’s body—particularly his extremities—to accurately receive and process electrical messages from his brain."

And we will now alternate between these two stories to continue

The Human Fly:-

"Two Weeks later, this man, broken in body, was taken off the critical list.  It was said that he would remain a cripple for the rest of his life."

Bill Mantlo:-

"Bill spent the next two weeks in a coma at Saint Luke’s hospital in midtown Manhattan, after which he remained in critical care for another two months. During this time, he was still on a ventilator and a feeding tube, as his brain was too damaged to tell his body how to swallow or breathe."

The Human Fly:-

"In the months and years to come, this young man underwent countless operations, financed by the father of the driver of the second car.  These operations replaced a substantial amount of the skeletal frame with steel, seeking to supplant scientifically what the body itself was no longer capable of recreating.  Doctors still remained skeptical of his chances of ever walking again, though he had regained some power of movement. For this young man, such an existence was a living hell.  It was more than he could accept... and he was determined to prove his doctors wrong - or die trying."

Bill Mantlo:-

"Bill’s memory was shattered by the accident, though he was aware of what had happened to him, and he had a sense of how grievously he had been injured. Throughout his early rehabilitation, Mike says, Bill was consumed with rage, both at the state of his own health, and that whoever had hit him had successfully fled the scene. This made him combative during rehabilitative therapy sessions. He was still quite fit and strong enough to resist therapists physically, which became a problem and prevented Bill from making much progress."

Here is the page of the comic recreated in its entirety:-

Rather than to try and just tell you my own thoughts on this I think it is best for you the reader to draw your own Parallels and conclusions about these two stories which will conclude Next Week, join me then!

Next Week: Parallels concludes

I'm Being Swept From The Jet!

Welcome to part 12 of

In which after The Mercenary shoots a gun through the fuselage of a jumbo jet, the blast is somehow enough to sweep The Human Fly from the jet in this next physics defying recreated page:-

Now we conclude with the final part of "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson's story of his experience building a rocket powered motorbike for the Human Fly , a story which appears in full on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

Last time The Human Fly did indeed fly on top of a rocket powered motorbike, but it was not a case of happy landings as:-

"The rear end dropped, nearly arching the bike completely backwards as it hit the receiving ramp hard, before then crashing down on him."

Over to Ky for the rest of this:-

"My heart just pounded as I stood there, witnessing the crash of all crash landings right before my eyes, and a hush fell over the crowd, as we all feared the worst. It looked like nobody could have possibly survived such a crash landing. We were soon relieved though when we realized he was actually okay. He'd survived the crash, and he'd done it-he had broken Evil's record, but not without paying the price. He waved to the crowd as he was carried off on a stretcher, suffering a broken ankle and a couple other injuries. *Now, if you ever want to hear more details about this story, just buy me a Diet Coke the next time you see me, and I'll be happy to share one of the most bizarre events of my life with you.

That jump, and my rocket bike, went down in the history books and then, as things work out, I lost track of both the Human Fly and the bike. I'm happy to say, however, that this story has a rather unique ending. Even though I had long since gotten over owning that fine machine, I received a call not long ago from a stuntman friend of mine, Bubba, a renowned and darn good motorcycle jumper himself, with some astonishing news. He told me he had picked up a "Trading Times" magazine while he was in Florida, and was dumbfounded when he spotted a motorcycle in it that he could have sworn was my original rocket bike. He gave me the phone number, and I immediately contacted John Werner, the owner, who attested and confirmed that it was in fact the bike used in that incredible stunt. I told him to name his price; I wanted it back, and BADLY, so he agreed to sell it back to me for $6,500. I sent a good friend of mine down to pick it up, and am pleased and proud to say it is now resting back in my rocket shop where I built it some 23 years ago. They had it rebuilt after the crash, and it looks good as new, in great shape.The only thing they changed was to ad a gas tank. I find myself just staring at it frequently, and reminiscing back to that history-making event quite often. I'm happy to say that if you ever hear of anybody looking for a bike that can jump 27 buses? I've got just the thing, but there's one condition! They need to see a psychiatrist first."

Hopefully you will have noticed that as Ky's story progressed the stakes seemed to get higher and higher, The Human Fly wanted the stunt to be even more dangerous (more buses) until he was told otherwise (by Ky), The Human Fly didn't practice the stunt at all (despite saying he practised on TV), the team putting together the ramp made fatal errors (despite being described as professionals, again on TV) which was fixed only at the eleventh hour (at the insistence of Ky) - only to have The Human Fly still suffer from a horrific crash

It is kind of telling that this was the last stunt that The Human Fly is known to have performed for which it can be proven that it did actually happen, and that The Human Fly did kind of disappeared after this

But our story is not done yet - we have in fact reached the pivotal point in of this journey through the Human Fly's story and indeed Bill Mantlo's…

Speaking of which…

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!:-

"It was also at this time, however, that his marriage fell apart. Mantlo had married Karen Pocock years before when they were both working at Marvel (Pocock was a letterer). Pocock had a young son, Adam, from a previous marriage whom Mantlo accepted and raised as his own. In 1981, the couple had a daughter, Corinna. And when Bill entered law school, Karen left her own career as a photographer to become a teacher; their calling to help people had been a joint life change. But by 1988, he and Karen were bitterly divorcing. The experience was hard on both children. Adam, 21 years old and an accomplished bicycle mechanic, stayed far from home to distance himself from the emotional carnage. Corinna was only seven and stayed with her mother, but the stress of the divorce also had a long-lasting effect on her. To this day, she does not readily share details about it. Regardless, Bill, Adam and Corinna still saw each other regularly and maintained a close relationship. Both Adam and Corinna describe Bill as a great father.

Throughout his time at Marvel and at Legal Aid, Bill was an avid runner, biker and rollerblader, keeping himself in excellent shape. A favorite activity was to take Adam and Corinna dirt biking in Central Park. Bill always wore a helmet, and insisted that his kids did likewise. But when rollerblading, Mantlo did not wear any head protection, like many other early rollerbladers. It was an oversight that would destroy his life."

Those of you who have been reading these two stories week after week, may have wondered at which point was they going to tie together, when would fact be Paralleled with fiction and which would be fact and which would be fiction?

Over the next two weeks, the true and real life story of Bill Mantlo the true tragedy will be paralleled with the possibly fictitious origin of The Human Fly as written into issue 1 of The Human Fly by Bill Mantlo himself

Join me NEXT WEEK for Parallel!

My Name's Not Peter Parker!

Welcome to part 11 of

In which after The Human Fly finally secures himself onto of a flying jumbo jet in the rain, the passengers inside somehow hear a noise outside and come to the conclusion there must be someone up there, which is lent some credence by Spider mans spider sense in this next recreated page:-

If you was with me last week I shared the third part of "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson's story of his experience building a rocket powered motorbike for the Human Fly , a story which appears in full on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

Last time, Ky not only discovered that The Human Fly didn't appear to practice his stunts, but also that the people building the ramps didn't appear to know what they was doing - there appears to be only one way this can end, right?

Over to Ky…

"We watched the entertainment, but there was no sign of the Human Fly anywhere. As intermission approached, we were all really apprehensive, and to be honest with you, I truly couldn't believe my eyes when Rick and his entourage entered the arena. I had secretly been hoping he'd maybe gotten up that morning, looked in the mirror and asked himself, "Do I really want to die? Is this really a good idea? Do I really want to break Evel's record this badly?"

That was not to be, though, and as the promoter announced the stunt, and he took center stage in full costume, the crowd went absolutely wild. I stood in awe as he hopped on the motorcycle, waved to the crowd, looked over at me, gave the thumbs up, turned on the safety switch, and slowly opened the throttle.

The rocket bike started up the ramp slowly at first, and then the Human Fly pinned the throttle wide open. The cloud of smoke was a sight to behold in the nearly pitch dark arena. The super-heated steam shot out the back as the bike climbed up the ramp and instead of launching forward into the air, went much higher than it should have, and nearly straight up. 

Because of the wrong angle, it stalled when he let off the throttle, and the rear end dropped, nearly arching the bike completely backwards as it hit the receiving ramp hard, before then crashing down on him."

Will the Human Fly survive and what happened next??! Ky's tale will conclude next week… 

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!:-

"In 1985, Mantlo took advantage of a tuition reimbursement program Marvel offered and put himself through law school, writing scripts by day and taking classes by night. In 1987, he passed the New York State Bar and while he still wrote the occasional comic book, as well as starting various novels and screenplays, he considered himself a full-time lawyer. He received a number of offers to work for real estate legal firms but he opted to work for the Legal Aid Society, a private not-for-profit that provides free criminal defense representation.

Mantlo made about $40,000 a year at Legal Aid, which was  considerably less than he was making at Marvel. But that was  almost the point: he became a lawyer mainly because he felt he had done all he could with comics to send messages about social causes. In law, he could help people more directly.

In court, Bill lived up to his reputation as the Boisterous One, earning numerous warnings from the bench for his fiery brand of delivery, especially while cross-examining police officers. As one justice recalled, Mantlo was the nicest person he ever had to hold in contempt of court. Once, Bill was arrested as part of a sweep against a sit-in by a local school union he was representing. He used his phone call not to arrange for bail, but to order pizza for himself and everybody else in the holding cell."

NEXT WEEK: Did The Human Fly Survive?  And more Tragic Tale!

If We Give Up We're Nothing!

Welcome to part 10 of

In which Ted Locke "The Handless Engineer" finds he is far from the only victim as The Human Fly shows Ted his own scars and asks for Ted's help via a stirring speech whilst in the shadow in this next recreated page:-

If you was with me last week I shared the second part of "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson's story of his experience building a rocket powered motorbike for the Human Fly , a story which appears in full on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

Where Ky found out a large Life Insurance Policy had been issued for the Human Fly (who Ky names as Rick Rojatt), but nonetheless built the ordered rocket powered motorbike - a modified Harley Davidson XL-1000 boasting 6,000 HP!

Let Ky continue…

"I let Rick know the bike was ready, so we delivered it to Montreal. We all met up the day before the big event, delivered all the equipment, and met with the promoters to discuss the plans.

They had hired contractors to put the jump equipment together for us, which I wasn't real happy about, but finally agreed to. We went over the stunt as thoroughly as possible, and much to my amazement, Rick didn't want to do any practice runs at all. He just sat on the bike, admiring it, determined to just wait until the time came. I gave him step-by-step detailed instructions on how to operate the rockets, and he just took it all in, nodding as I went along. I knew he understood what I was saying, but I hardly slept that night because I was always so safety conscious, and typically rehearsed stunts many a time before actually performing them.

I was uneasy with this particular situation."

No practice runs flys completely in the face of both The Human Flys own CBC interview as shown earlier as well as the professional stunt persons typical approach, there would have been plenty of practice, building up to the biggest jump bit by bit…

"Jim Deist, Dar Robinson, and I arrived at the arena bright and early. Much to our surprise, we could clearly see that the blueprints for both the jump and receiving ramps were obviously not adhered to, as there were major flaws in both of them. The jump ramp was much too steep, which would cause the rocket bike to come off it at the wrong angle and stall. I was even more concerned about the receiving ramp, though, as the last ten buses were supposed to be covered by plywood extending to the ramp. What we found instead was a plywood ramp that was about six feet above the buses, with exposed steel cross members. I told the promoters that their contractors, or whoever it was that built these things, obviously didn't follow the blueprints we'd provided, and I was not going to fuel up the rocket bike until major changes were made to the receiving ramp. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but it did turn into a major ordeal by the time we did our last safety inspection, which forced the Showtime to change quite a bit."

The ramp was also completely flawed, so it appears it is not just The Human Fly who may have been unprofessional, but also his arrangers…

Next week The Human Fly attempts the rocket powered jump, how bad will it get?!

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!:-

"Where Shooter noticed this most was the ease and frequency with which Mantlo created new characters. Until Shooter got Marvel to implement a policy that gave writers a small percentage of any licensing for characters they created, any new intellectual property belonged to Marvel. While Shooter was working on that incentive, he told his writers to not create any new characters, to ensure they got a piece of whatever they would be worth. There was substantial money to be had once the incentive program was in place—$30,000 checks for the action figure rights on a single character were not unheard of. This is why Shooter had wanted the writers to hold off for a bit.

“Not Bill. Are you kidding? He was making characters like they were going out of style. He was irrepressible. He was a font of ideas. There was no limit to his creativity,” Shooter recalls. “I appreciated it on behalf of Marvel, but I felt bad for Bill that he had created these things that if he had waited a little while, he would have owned a piece of them. You know what his attitude was? ‘I’ll make more.’ I really admired that.”

By the mid-1980s, however, Mantlo’s writing assignments were dwindling. The days of lax deadline management were long gone, and most writers were doing their own fill-ins. Plus, Mantlo had locked horns enough with Shooter and Marvel top brass (including Stan Lee) that new editors were not particularly willing to work with him. Mantlo did not help matters with a failed attempt to unionize his fellow Marvel writers. He spoke his mind with such freedom and bluntness that he earned the nickname “Boisterous” Bill Mantlo, or merely, “The Boisterous One.”

NEXT WEEK: How do you land a rocket powered bike and more Tragic Tale

If I Fail Now The Fly Dies!

Welcome to part 9 of

Where we get the key to Ted Locke's double amputation courtesy of a flash back where in the Vietnam war Ted is planning to blow up a bridge when a innocent mother and child enter into the area - without any hesitation Ted runs into the fray and looses his hands as a consequence in this next recreated page…

If you was with me last week I shared the first part of "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson's story of his experience building a rocket powered motorbike for the Human Fly , a story which appears in full on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

As well as linking the Human Fly to Rick Rojatt, Last time Ky himself was expressing concern for the stunt going as far to say "it wasn't that there wouldn't be a crash, for I was certain there would be. It was just a matter of how bad it would be…"

With that established we continue with Ky's story:-

"The guy was determined, and since my business at the time was working with stunt people, daredevils, and people with death wishes, I remained intrigued and as optimistic as possible, praying I wouldn't fall witness to the hand of death "swatting" the Human Fly. I became even more concerned when I received a phone call from an insurance broker, Bruce McCaw, who called to thank me as he told me I was responsible for throwing a lot of business his way. When I asked him what he meant by that, he told me he'd just issued a life insurance policy on the Human Fly, and that Lee Taylor had been a client of his, as well. That really got me thinking.

As we prepared for this stunt, it soon became obvious that one of the biggest challenges we faced was the space constraint in the arena; there was no room to accelerate to the speed required, so I came up with a plan. I'd build a rocket-powered motorcycle that would sit right at the bottom of the ramp instead of making the usual fast and furious approach. All the Fly would have to do was get on, wave to the crowd, press the button, say a quick prayer, and hang on for dear life!!

Rick liked the idea, and agreed to try it, so he sent me a brand new 1977 Harley Davidson XL-1000 Sportster, a true black beauty, to build from. I put exactly three miles on it, and then the fun began. I yanked out the engine and built two 1,500-lb. thrust hydrogen peroxide rockets, which I mounted one on top of the other, directly underneath the fuel tank. Other than the two polished stainless steel rocket motors hanging off the back of the bike, I left everything else intact, including the headlight and taillight, to make it look completely stock. By the time I finished, this refined machine boasted 6,000 HP. In other words, if a guy were to take this thing out to the local drag strip, hold the throttle wide open, and hang on hoping the tires didn't fall right off? He'd be capable of going well over 300 mph in the ¼ mile."

The finished bike looked like this:-

Next week we will hear from Ky how The Human Fly felt that practice made perfect…

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!:-

"There were other problems, too. Because he was writing so fast, and under tight deadlines, Mantlo was known to rehash stories that had already run in earlier issues, or crib an idea too closely from another source while searching for a storyline to develop. Mantlo was hardly the only Marvel writer to do this, but he was one of the few who caused some problems along the way. In one case, while scripting an issue of the Incredible Hulk, Mantlo borrowed from an Outer Limits episode written by Harlan Ellison. Ellison called Shooter to complain, and settled things for a standard writer’s payment for the issue, an acknowledgement in a later issue’s letters page, and a lifetime subscription to all Marvel comics.

In another case—and one that remains a point of debate within comic book fan circles—Mantlo was accused of plagiarizing an unfinished story treatment written by artist Barry Windsor-Smith, again for the Incredible Hulk. Shooter’s version of the story is that Windsor-Smith had brought to the Marvel office an unfinished treatment for a story explaining the origin of Bruce Banner, the Hulk’s mild-mannered, but easily enraged, alter ego. Shooter wanted to buy the story on the spot, but Windsor-Smith insisted on finishing it first, and he left rough drafts behind. Mantlo, while visiting the Marvel office, found Windsor-Smith’s work, figured it was open for use, and wrote a story off of it. The Incredible Hulk itself was between editors, and the story’s lineage was not noticed until the issue was in print. The story remains one of Mantlo’s most popular, and it was developed as a core element of the script for the 2003 film adaptation of the Hulk. Windsor-Smith never stopped holding a grudge over it.

“He did a tremendous amount of good work for us,” Shooter says, stressing that Mantlo’s good far outweighed his bad. “The nice thing about Bill was that other writers could be picky fanboys, but Bill would do anything. Book about a stuntman? Sure. Book on a toy? Sure. And he gave it a good effort, no matter what it was. He could do any job and he was always polite, always nice. You couldn’t help but like him.”

Next week: Preparation for the Rocket bike stunt and more Tragic Tale!

You've Given Up Before You Even Got Started!

Welcome to part 8 of

Where in the continuing attempt to reproduce Issue 1 of The Human Fly comic, we find Blaze is given both inspiration and motivation by the Human Fly himself...

With Blaze's real injury being one to her confidence and self belief in this fantastic page originally drawn by Lee Elias:-

If you was with me last week, I confirmed that the second real life stunt that can be proven that the Human Fly performed (which also went on to appear in The Human Fly comic) was a Rocket powered motorcycle jump over 26 buses

Quite a bit of this proof comes from the designer and engineer who built the rocket powered bike The Human Fly used "The Rocketman" aka Ky Michaelson on his own website http://the-rocketman.com/human-fly.html

You can read the whole story there all in one go But here is part 1 of Ky's Human Fly story:-

"In 1977, I was contracted to build a rocket-powered motorcycle capable of jumping over 27 buses. The jump was to take place in the Montreal Olympic Stadium, as a half-time show for a concert featuring Gloria Gaynor and a number of other disco stars of the 70's. The daredevil rider was Rick Rojatt, otherwise known as the Human Fly. At the time, Evil Kneivel held the record jump of 13 buses, and Rick wanted to beat it badly. Rick's claim to fame at that point in his career was an astonishing stunt he'd performed over the Mojave Desert where he'd wing-walked on a DC-8 and actually made two low flying passes at 250 mph, a nearly impossible feat, and truly death-defying. The other very unique thing about this off-the-wall daredevil was that he was never seen out of costume, and kept his true identity a secret by wearing a red mask and a white cape, identical to the comic book action hero."

So Ky is the second person to link The Human Fly to Rick Rojatt - there is nothing here to say how Ky knew the Human Fly was Rick or anything similar, but then neither is there anything to say he was not (unlike Jim Shooter in earlier postings about The Human Fly) so at least there is a possibility that The Human Fly and Rick Rojatt was one and the same

"From the moment I met this guy, I was convinced he was an accident looking for a place to happen, especially when he told me he wanted to attempt 36 buses. I managed to convince him otherwise when we discussed the fact that in order to do something that remarkable, he'd have to hit the jump ramp at well over 100 mph, and continue to burn the rocket a couple more seconds after take off. I explained that it was definitely possible, but the fact remained that acceleration of that magnitude in such a small area would launch him head-first through the concrete pillar at the opposite end of the arena. That conversation resulted in his finally accepting the challenge for 27 instead. He'd still have to travel at 80 mph, and it wasn't that there wouldn't be a crash, for I was certain there would be. It was just a matter of how bad it would be by the time he reached our nets and a huge airbag we'd have set up. 
I knew the decrease in speed and thrust would make a huge difference, and I felt we could pull this one off with minimal damage to the bike or to Rick (hopefully)."

If you remember I have already noticed how The Human Fly appeared to pushing the line in-between doing a fantastic stunts and just sheer recklessness, this on the basis of his wing walking stunt having to go through 3 attempts, 2 fails in rain at high speed and with the Human Fly being unconscious at the end of the first 2 attempts - I also noted how there was a specific statement about how carefully planned and designed The stunts the Human Fly was undertaking from The Human Fly himself in his CBC TV Interview

and here we have a professional who clearly is already wondering what is going to go wrong and how badly…

Next week amongst other things we will be treated to the Rocket Bikes rather unique specifications!

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!:-

"Rough Drafts

But Bill’s writing was not perfect, and nobody knew that better than Jim Shooter, Marvel’s editor-in-chief and the guy who worked most directly on overseeing Mantlo’s work. Shooter became a comic industry legend in his own right during his nearly 12-year stint with Marvel, from 1975 to 1987. More than any editor before him, Shooter worked to make every Marvel title inhabit the same overall setting, creating a universe of thematically linked titles in which characters and storylines could easily cross over from title to title. Fans often refer to Marvel comics produced under Shooter’s watch simply as the Shooter era. More than a few of them contend that the Shooter era is the high point of all Marvel publishing.

Shooter notes that back when he was first editing comics—and Mantlo was just beginning to write them—publishers paid writers by the page, and it was a pittance, at that. The job was so pathetic, Shooter recalls, that one only did it because they truly loved the medium or they had no other choice. Those who could make a living at it had to be very fast at what they did. And Mantlo was fast. But his work often required a great deal of editing, if not full rewriting.

“I think it amused him that I was staying up all night fixing his stuff and making him look better while he’s staying up all night cranking stuff out and making more money,” Shooter says. He kept a file that consisted of entirely rewritten Mantlo script pages. If a single word of Mantlo’s remained on the page, it did not make the file. At the end of a single year, Shooter recalls, he would have a ream of paper in the file."

Next week: The Motorbike that can fly and more Tragic Tale!