VOTE!

This week I am putting the future of this blog in the hands of everyone who reads it!

It only seems fair and right that you should be able to chose what project will appear on this blog next, so here are a few choices to help you all along (with a sample recreation for each) in no particular order

Just for any new visitors, I will attempt to recreate an entire comic by hand, pencils, inks and lettering

The Man Of Steel Mini Series Issue 1 - Written and penciled by John Byrne

This would be an good opportunity to compare the recent superman movie of the same name to the comic book series, both of which look at Superman's origins

Super Spidey Stories 31: Star Jaws

Possibly something a lot more light hearted would be better after The Human Fly, I certainly had a lot of fun with my attempt at Spidey-man vs gnat man and rotten

Iron Man 231: Penciled by Barry Windsor-Smith

This would be a good place to look at the career of Barry Windsor-Smith

Something else entirely: Please specify in comments on this blog entry

Of course I can make an attempt at something completely different which you would prefer to see, there is only a few rules - 1) It can only be a single issue of a comic book that is not more than 30 pages (sorry but at one page a week, it will take too long to do anything else) 2)It has to be an existing comic book that has been printed

As an example do have most of pages of "Tales of The Black Freighter" already drawn waiting for something to happen to them

I am going to give you all just one week to vote that is until September 11th 2013, please vote by posting a comment on this blog post.

One other thing, there will have to be at least 30 votes in total received.

One reason I am asking you all to vote is that the number of people viewing this blog has decreased to the point where I have to see if anyone is actually interested in seeing anymore of this blog at all!

If by this time next week, I have less than 30 votes, then I will wrap up this blog with a few items which have not appeared on the blog before!

Thank you all for your votes

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

We've Done A Good Day's Work!

Welcome to part 18 of

Where The Human Fly is triumphant and is mobbed by a crowd in a baseball pitch in this the final recreated page from issue 1 of The Human Fly Comic:-

Last week I promised I would try and answer the big burning questions about The Human Fly that have been accumulating as this blog has progressed through what is known of the real-life character of the same name, as I hope it is fairly clear most of the answers can only at best be semi educated guesses as the details / proof necessary in most cases is not known…

Was The Human Fly Real?
Yes there really was a person who wore the same costume as seen in the comic, the corner box of each  comic issue, and in the trademark filing for Human Fly Spectaculars Ltd and called himself The Human Fly

Did the real life Human Fly really do stunts?
Yes, at least 3 attempts at a wing walk (one successful) and one successful rocket powered motorcycle jump can be proven to have occurred

Was The Human Fly really Rick Rojatt?
The comic character is Rick Rojatt even though that was never revealed within the pages of the comic itself, as for the real life Human Fly, my best guess is that "Rick Rojatt" is possibly an alias the Human Fly used

Was the real life Human Fly really in a car accident?
It seems unlikely that The Human Fly was really in a car accident of the extent that is shown or has been described, certainly not to the extent of injuries shown or described - see next question…

Did the real life Human Fly really have a skeleton of steel?
Again its very unlikely, possibly some limbs or a portion of bone could have been replaced, but it is unlikely it would have actually been steel that was used.  It is medically rather difficult to replace the entire or even parts of the skeleton, there's the issue of no bone marrow (meaning no red or white blood cells being produced) and the question of how do you graft working muscles onto whatever you replace the bone with and have them still working. Also the Human Fly did not appear to walk with any kind of obvious gait / limp - in other words there was nothing obvious to suggest he had been that seriously injured in the first place - just look at the real life racing driver Nicki lauda for a comparison

Did the real life human fly do "good deeds"?
Yes there is is video of The Human Fly visiting kids at a hospital

Was the real life human fly a professional stunt man?
All the evidence suggests he was not, at best he appears to be an enthusiastic amateur. He did not appear to prepare for or practice his stunts adequately and did not seem to be aware of the difference between a risk and outright danger that not preparing /practising can cause

Why did The Human Fly (and or his PR people) say he failed the motorcycle jump at Montreal when he succeeded?
There seems to be no obvious reason for this, but see the next question…

Why did The Human Fly (and or his PR people) blame mechanical failure of the rocket powered motorcycle as the cause of the Montreal accident when it appears to have been bad judgement on the part of The Human Fly?
It is clearly stated that a large insurance policy was taken out against The Human fly just prior to Montreal and this does appear to be at the very least a rather large coincidence…

Was The Human Fly prone to exaggeration?
Although it is fair to allow some leeway in the name of "showmanship" (like you would with a ringmaster in a circus) most of what The Human Fly is recorded as having said does not bare that close scrutiny, a lot of what he said he was going to do, he never did not even in the context of a recorded attempt

How did the press treat The Human Fly?
By all accounts rather cynically and with derisiveness

Was it a mistake to make a comic based on a real-life character?
Actually I think the mistake was the other way around, in taking a real life person and expecting them to become an ideal, when in reality they are just a human person and prone to weaknesses, failures, mistakes and any number of things which would only muddy the waters in terms of them being the physical representation of an ideal.  As an example I can't think that Captain America could ever be actually real, I can certainly imagine a person being as passionately patriotic as Captain America is but within the confines of being a person, not an infallible ideal

Does this mean the comic should have been more "real-to life"?
No, because it is the comic and in particular the heart that Bill Mantlo put into it which is what everyone really remembers and celebrates more than the real life Human Fly - a comic based on what actually happened would have never achieved this

So just to provide a bit more on this, as to my mind this is one of the focal points of my journey through The Human Fly - The idea and the ideal of what The Human Fly could be or what he could represent is something Bill Mantlo strongly believed in, Bill Mantlo believes in the traditional heroic myth and making inspiration by example, in short Bill knew exactly what a mythical hero should do and be, someone for kids to look up to and be inspired by and a hero is exactly what Bill Mantlo is, not just for the comic but for the way he lives he life both in the past and in the here and now

Finally here are some more 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?

All of these and more in NEXT WEEKs final concluding part of my journey into The Human Fly

Nothing can save you!

Welcome to part 17 of

With The Human Fly hanging on for dear life in mid air onto The Mercenary, luckily enough spider-man is around with his web parachute in this next recreated page:-

The Human Fly Visits The Marvel Bullpen!
The following "Marvel Special Feature" was printed inside the 15th issue of The Human Fly comic, The scans are the best I could do, but all of the photos are incredibly hard to see… as is some of the text, so I will type the text again above each frame of this feature

The "commentary" (or text) is by Bill Mantlo, Photos by D. Jon Zimmerman

"Imagine our surprise one sunny day earlier this year when one of Marvel's very own super sensations presented himself (along with his new sidekick, MERCURY) in the Crimson-costumed flesh at the Reception Room of the Marvel Bullpen itself! STAN (THE MAN) was the first to extend a warm, if somewhat awed welcome to the HUMAN FLY!"

Yes that's Stan Lee, of course!  as for Mercury being a "new" sidekick, we saw him in the video footage of the wing walk over the Mojave Desert, where he is described as the Human fly's "long term friend"

"Then AMIABLE ARCHIE (Star Wars) GOODWIN put in an appearance with a few of the pulse-pounding HUMAN FLY covers he'd helped to design as former Editor-in-Chief"

The caption provided for Archie has some fun at the expense of Mercury…

"While shutterbug DWIGHT ZIMMERMAN snapped away, the FLY autographed pages to be offered as prizes in the HUMAN FLY STUNT CONTEST! (See Below) Then he and MERCURY stopped in to say 'Hi!" to JAZZY JOHN ROMITA,  Marvel's Art Director and SPIDER-MAN artist supreme!"

(The Virginia in question is Virginia Romita, John Romita SRs wife and mother of John Romita Jr)

"Next to greet Marvel's own Dynamic Duo was JIM (TROUBLE) SHOOTER, hardworking Editor-in-Chief!  The FLY introduced MERCURY, and plans were immediately hatched to work Merc into the Fly's own mag!"

Here is proof that Jim Shooter did indeed meet The Human Fly for real - Hopefully we remember that it was Jim Shooter himself is cited as making the link between The Human Fly and Rick Rojatt - at least in terms of his comic book identity - (Jim shooter, incidentally is probably standing on a box or something similar as he is well known for doing this in any photo to make himself look even taller than he already was)

"As the FLY talked about his stunt-cycle failure in Montreal last year (shown in HUMAN FLY issue 11), of his plans for future feats of daredevil daring as well as giving us a progress report on his upcoming career as a recording artist… who should come running into Marvel's Editorial Office but BOISTEROUS BILL MANTLO - Fly-scripter par excellence?!"

This gives us a rough idea of when the Human fly did visit the offices of Marvel and it would appear to be before the publication of issue 11, but after Montreal, making this possibly the last recorded appearance of The Human Fly in costume

It also cements again the source of the "real-life" details published in issue 11

"Finally, BOISTEROUS BILL MANTLO (Ya can't keep a good man down…or out of a picture!), The FLY and MERCURY tossed around a few plot ideas for upcoming issues of the HUMAN FLY! Then they all posed for the historic photo you see to your left before a giant mockup of the memorable cover of HUMAN FLY 1"

Mercury never did appear in The Human Fly comic, and with the possible expection of issue 11, none of the issues of the comic included any "plot ideas"

Luckily enough I have managed to find a much better quality version of this photo,which follows below and confirms that it does appear to be the same person wearing The Human Fly costume as seen in the video of the wing walk over the Mojave Desert, as The Human fly is clearly taller than Mercury in both

Finally there was also this announcement for The Human Fly Stunt contest

"Design a stunt that not even the Human Fly can perform, using whatever props your imagination can conjure forth - then figure out how the Fly can do it and live!  Ideas must be typed or clearly written - no more than one page (with a sketch of your idea, if possible…"

"Winners will see their stunt in print, as drawn by a marvel artist and will receive a credit plus an original Human Fly art page signed by the Fly himself!  Deadline is October 31, 1978 pilgrims… so if you're gonna do it - do it now!"

We will return to the the Stunt contest in two weeks time - but…

NEXT WEEK: We reach the last page of The Human Fly issue 1 and finally I attempt to answer all the questions about The Human Fly, Was he really real? Was he really Rick Rojatt?? All this and more next week

NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!!

Welcome to part 16 of

Where it's time for Spider-man to join in and help The Human Fly, causing The Mercenary to get "The blazes out of here" but NOT if The Human Fly can help it in this next recreated page:-

Before we pick up from last week, one thing that does bare mentioning is the appearance of spider-man within the pages of The Human Fly comic, while one may dismiss this possibly as something Marvel routinely did (and possibly still do ) when introducing a new character there was actually both a legitimate story reason and a legally binding reason for featuring spider-man

That was to make it clear that The Human Fly was not the villain of the same name as first featured in The Amazing Spider-man annual 10

Which was written by none other than… Bill Mantlo

Anyway this Human Fly is actually Richard Deacon, was not at all based on a real person and yes, was created by… you guessed it, Bill Mantlo…! You can read more about Richard Deacon here…

http://marvel.wikia.com/Richard_Deacon_(Earth-616)

The inclusion of Marvel Universe characters into The Human Fly did however create an ongoing tension in the letters pages - in my opinion The Human Fly comic was a little bit more realistic and more closer to the laws of physics and reality as we know them than a typical Marvel comic,  so yes a actual man bitten by a radioactive spider does seem a little bit put of place…

But it's one of many lines which are blurred within The Human Fly comic, which brings us neatly to last week, when we started delving through issue 11 "a true-to-life account of the near-tragedy at Montreal" or so the the cover copy would have us believe

Having found disputes with the recreation of that actual event and Ky Michealson's telling of the event, we moved on to ask what did The Human Fly do next in the comic after the accident…

In this page below we see The Human Fly make an attempt ("A Second chance") at another motorcycle stunt, this time to ride over the full length of the Gateway Arch St. Louis, Missouri…

which looks (in real life) something like this

The next page provides emapahsis for how vertically challenging the first part of the arch would be and how important it is for the Human Fly to succeed

And having made it to the top its plain sailing all the way down, with the event and its success being a very cathartic event for The Human Fly, who has shown he has regained his self belief as a result of this successful attempt…

To conclude we see the Human Fly about to perform a song and at the bottom we can see "The Monteral stunt took place on October 7, 1977 as depicted" (which clarifies that the rest that follows above is clearly fiction)

If any further proof was needed as to the source of the "real-life" elements in this story the I think this seals the deal, again its completely what the Publicity for The Human Fly stated on the letters page, as shown in this blog a few weeks ago

So what did the Human Fly do in real life after Montreal?

Unfortunately It does not appear to be question with an answer

I can find no evidence that is available to suggest that The Human Fly did any stunts of any description at all after Montreal or ever actually did a performance as a singer or part of band or anything similar at all, in fact after the Montreal Motorcycle incident The Human Fly appears to have more or less vanished from sight, not to be seen in public in any big way ever again

I leave to come to your own conclusions on this, before I provide my own in two weeks time…

NEXT WEEK : The Real Human Fly visits the offices of Marvel comics, complete with very murky photographs

He's Only One Man!!

Welcome to part 16 of

In which The Mercenary declares his fellow hostage takers "idiots" as they unable to stop The Human Fly, despite him being "Only one man" as this next recreated page shows…

And the unseen narrator adds "The Fly is the embodiment of the hopes of many men!", which brings us neatly to the point under discussion from last week - having established that The Human Fly did in fact get injured during his rocket powered motorcycle stunt, how did The Human Fly react to that?

This week, we get to hear from The Human Fly himself (or at least his representatives) again courtesy of the letters page of the Human Fly comic, this time from Issue 13….

"Dear Marvel,

I have been reading the many letters you have been forwarding to me with great interest.

I am certainly very pleased about the response to the comic series, but more than that, to the positive reaction from all you readers towards The Human Fly.  It makes me very happy, and inspires me a great deal, to see the enthusiasm and support I'm getting from Marvel Fans.

As you may very well know, a short while ago I was injured while attempting to jump 26 buses on a rocket bike in Montreal, Canada.  I found myself once again in a hospital bed, from where I am writing this letter.  This experience in the hospital reminds me of that auto accident many years ago in Ashville, North Carolina.

One would think that this second confinement would discourage me.  Quite the country, if anything, it is giving me more strength to go ahead with my hopes of becoming the world's greatest daredevil.  As you know, I want to help other people less fortunate than myself by donating a good portion of my earnings to world research and to charitable organisations.

My fans probably don't know this, but, as a child I was exposed to a strong musical background.  I have decided that, in addition to my daredevil stunts, I will pursue my musical career (which I stopped somewhat after the accident), I've alway been interested in rock music.  Its eels to me to have the same kind of vitality and uniqueness that I wish to project in my stunts.

May I Just say that soon you'll be hearing from the Human Fly musically.  I'll be going into the recording studio as soon as I am out of the hospital to tape my first album.  I hope that my friends out there, in addition to looking for my stunts and Tv appearances, will keep their eyes and ears open for The Human Fly Rock Show.  I hope to make people happy with my music as well as my daredevil feats.  And, as with my stunts, a good part of any money I earn through my music will be turned over to charitable organisations in whatever cities I perform.

Best regards to everyone.

THE HUMAN FLY"

The first, and most obvious thing to note about this letter is its distinct lack of obvious hyperbole and or show biz talk, whilst still, yes serving in some respect as publicity for what the Human Fly is doing next, the letter is written much more in a matter of fact way and has a degree of apparent integrity and honesty as a consequence…

The next thing is the fly himself does not clarify what his injuries was nor the nature of his actual accident one way or the other, but then he does not appear to blame "mechanical failure" or his own possible lack of expertise as being at fault either, no the accident just happened and thats all

The fly also does not clarify his success or otherwise at doing the stunt

All this leaves us with in terms of determining how much we should pay attention to the letter above is what The Human Fly exactly did following his accident…

Before we move onto that, however, I have to mention issue 11 of The Human Fly comic, take a look at the cover below…

The cover copy says it all, "A true-to-life account of the near-tragedy at Montreal"

So over this week and next, lets delve into selected pages from this issue titled "Silver charity, sudden death"

In the Splash page above , the "rock star" angle is used as framing device to tell the story in flashback sequence, with the singing being a method of expressing the anguish caused…

In this next page above - straight away the comic is implying mechanical failure with the rocket bike as being known and before the fly even starts the stunt, but the fly decides to go ahead anyway… 

Only to crash back wheel down onto a bus with security guards having to pick him out of the tangled metal wreckage

In short these pages are a almost a word for word recreation of the letters page article featured last week, which does not remotely compare to Ky Michealson's actual true life story in which there was no mechanical failure and the fly crashed on the receiving ramp (meaning he actually succeeded in his attempt and did not fail)

That in of of itself is already enough to dispel the cover copy of issue 11

But what happens after the accident in the comic…? Find out NEXT WEEK

The Human Fly Was Born!

Welcome to part 15 of

In which we conclude the flashback origin of The Human fly, showing his inspiration, to help other people with disabilities and then returning to his precarious position riding on the outside of a Jumbo Jet at speed, a Jet The Human fly intends to board, as this next recreated page shows:-

If you was with me last week, I suggested that The Human Fly's origin was possibly fictional - this is mostly from the point of view that actual proof of the events as described are not readily available - 

Still I was far from the only person who had this point of view, witness part of a letter from Micheal White as printed in the letters page of The Human Fly Comic, issue 5:-

"…was he" (The Human Fly) "really in a car accident as described in your story and in your letters pages?  If you know this for sure, where do you get your information?  If it's widely publicised, then wouldn't the doctors who healed him know who he is? (I don't imagine there are metal-reinforced bone cases everyday!)"

and the response…

"…yes, The Fly was in a car accident, and the incident shown in our books was a recreation of that.  Our sources: The Fly! You tend to believe a guy who's doing as much good - without renumeration - as he is.  As for the docs who put him back together, plus some - the Fly tells us he swore them to secrecy"

On the surface this seems to make sense, its well known that a doctor does not normally share patient information and in fact has a oath not to do such a thing.

But the actual process of the operation and in particular what steps would have to been taken to make sure the Human Fly could still generate red or white blood cells (as any metal limbs would obviously not have had bone marrow, and in case as extreme as what the fly is described as having where most of his skeleton was replaced, this would have been one of many problems, all  of which are lethal), so I would have thought at the very least as Michel White himself implies that there would have been a medical journal article about something like this

And I think we have seen enough doubt in the veracity of The Human Fly as source of information…

But to be fair -again as I said last week - the motorbike crash at Montreal Olympic Stadium was very real and The Human Fly was definitely injured in this, so let's focus on that and see how much the phoenix myth is followed by The Human Fly and use that to help us decide how likely it is The origin of the Fly (and his skeleton being all metal) is true or not…

And once again, let us return to the letters page of The Human Fly comic, issue 8:-

"As we announced on this page on HUMAN FLY 5, the real Human Fly was scheduled to make a rocket-motorcycle jump over 25 buses - a new world's record - at Montreal's Olympic Stadium on October 7th.

Well the Fly made the jump, but only seconds after he blasted off a long ply-board ramp, the motorcycle lost power, the back wheel dropped, and the Fly crashed onto the top of one of the buses only yards away from the receiving ramp"

Now, compare the above to Ky Michaelson's story (as related in earlier instalments) and already there are quite a number of discrepancies

The motorcycle did not loose power nor have any mechanical fault at all, it went off the launch ramp at the wrong angle and stalled, and then "the rear end dropped, nearly arching the bike completely backwards as it hit the receiving ramp hard, before then crashing down on him.", so actually landed on the receiving ramp, not yards away from it..

So The Human Fly actually succeeded in his stunt according to Ky! You would have thought whoever was writing the information being sent to The Human Fly comic would have very much focused on that, but no they Said the Human Fly failed?!

To continue with the story from the letters page:-

"Crashing through the plywood covering, the Human Fly was trapped in a tangle of iron struts, and lay there without moving while security guards thought to free him, fighting back a tearful crowd that had rushed onto the field to get a better view.

Despite the violence of the impact, the stuntmen was still conscious and raised both arms above his head in a salute to the crowd as he was lead away on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance."

while all Ky Michaelson had to say was :-

"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."

And it's only Ky, who actually tells us what the injury was

But the point is still, yes The Human fly did in fact injure himself, so the question is now - what did he do next

Does The Human Fly soar to greater nights and thus affirm his origins?

Find out, starting NEXT WEEK!