Chairman Steve: Just wanted to take thisopportunity to thank Steve Shipley for allhis hard work for UFO during the last twoyears and especially T-Frags. Thanks formaking my transition to the group sosmooth. Look forward to more comicsfrom you.Chairman Rob: And welcome Rob to thepost ofUFO chairman. May your time atthe helm be a good and profitable one.

Unreal # 0 (Spring 2012, Jim Main). Itseems as if there are several ways to editand publish a magazine. In my previouscareer as a publication designer I ranacross two methods of editorial oversight.The first was with a religious non-profitthat had their own editorial/writing staff.The editor (with input from theorganization's leader) crafted a magazinewhich harnessed the literary skills of ateam of staffwriters. There were somearticles by outside writers (especiallyfrom within the organization) but mostwere by the writing staff. I later workedwith another faith-based non-profit wherethe editor was the president's wife. Shegot almost all of her material from outsidewriters (often though, but not always,solicited). She would heavily edit somearticles (to the point of almost rewritingthem) and other pieces needed very littlerevision. My early experiences in 1960scomics fandom presented a different formof editorial supervision. Many fanzineeditors of analogy titles basically askedfor submissions and apparently printedpretty much what came it (or at least thatwas the perception). It seems as if JimMain uses the original fanzine (now smallpress) method. Jim selects a theme/topicfor a specific publication and sends out ainternet "cattle call" to potentialcontributors to help fill the pages of themagazine. Of the Main Enterprise pubsthat I've seen so far the results of thismethod are mixed at best. I appreciate thatJim is dedicating this issue to the lateUnreal publisher Rod Synder. Very nicetribute. In some ways Unreal with itshighly eclectic contents harkens back the

old genzines of the 1960s and 70s.The Atomic Round Table (by SamGafford): Back in the early 1960s I cameacross a rather unusual (weren't they all)comic that sported men in knight's armorriding on giant dalmatians. I enjoyedreading several of the stories then mostlybecause of the beautiful Murphy Andersonart. Gafford does a good job summarizingthe charm of the original series and thenumerous permutations of the seriesconcept since then. Sam's conclusion isdon't tamper with past features that weremeant as "stand alone" series-- that werenot meant to fit into some grandoverarching continuity scheme.The Mr E comic is a public domain herocomic strip by some guy named Ensign.Only comment: There were two endingsto this story (Main ran the happy ending).The ending not seen was a unhappy onefor Mr E (some have used the term"cautionary tale").Larry Johnson does a fine job describingand analyzing two rather obscure horrormovies The Devil Bat and The FlyingSerpent. In some ways I appreciate Larrypicking such relatively unknown films—perhaps because there has been verylittle recent commentary dedicated to them.He doesn't have a whole lot of criticalcompetition to compete with. I've done thesame thing myself. However I lookforward to reading Larry's analysis on lessesoteric movies or comics in the future.Mr. Abusador: This is not my kind ofcomic strip. The concept is pretty awful-toilet material literally. I'd suggest Earl trydoing some comics with a person who hasa sense of nobility and good to play offthe low-life characters. This strip ispopulated with crummy, disgusting peoplenone ofwhich have any commendablequalities. The artwork needs to maturebeyond the Jack Kirby/John Byrneinfluenced style. Martin's sense of panel-to-panel story telling is good but he needsto work on refining his inking andlettering.Prey: This is an interesting snapshot fromover 25 years ago with Carl Taylor, a

The Ensign Report #5 (Nov. 201 2) UFO Edition.

Comments and opinions by Don Ensign. Published in Tetragrammaton Fragments #225.

strong Jack Kirby imitator, (see page 2)expressing other influences like JohnByrne, John Romita and John Buscema-pretty much the 1970s/80 Marvel housestyle. Taylor does some competent panellayouts with good inking and use of crafttint/zipatone. It is interesting looking atthis piece from the mid-1980s to realizehow much computer lettering andtones/color have changed the way we docomic art in the 21 st century. The conceptof a vampire getting his comeuppancefrom an "Alien" is clever.Sunrise: Nice little story glimpsing intothe afterlife of vampires. Having aferryman transport one's soul down theriver Styx is a pale reflection at best of theBiblical view of the life to come. "Thingswhich eye has not seen and ear not heard,and which have not entered the heart ofman, all that God has prepared for thosewho love him." I Cor. 2:9)Sivad: Your Monster ofCeremonies. Thisis a loving tribute to a local Memphis,Tennessee horror movie host from the1960s by Steve Keeter. It is well writtenfull of nostalgia for a local boyhoodcinema favorite. Back in the early 1970s Imoved to Southern California andwatched a similar Monster Host namedSeymour (Larry Vincent), Similar toSivad, Seymour would actually inserthimself into the horror or science fictionmovies using separate overlappingscreens to toss in satirical commentsrelating to the action. The humor rangedfrom corny to very funny. Seymour'sprogram lasted for five years and shortlyafter it ended Larry Vincent passed away.The stand alone illos I liked best were theConan piece and the back cover by JamieChase. Chase is a very good illustrator--excellent work. Also CliffKurowski andMarc Haines did a fine job on the cover.

Tales of Fantasy (2012, Larry Johnson)The Hand: Over the past several years I'vebeen doing an extensive research projectof the old Fawcett comic book character,Captain Marvel Jr. During the last sixyears ofCapJr's Golden Age career theeditors and writers developed an elaborategeographic setting for the character. TheBlue Boy's alter ego crippled newsboyFreddy Freeman had a newsstand on thecorner ofOak and Main in front of the

Citizen's Bank. Across the street was RedO'Riley's gas station and down anotherstreet was a soda shop and two or threeblocks away was Mrs Wagner's BoardingHouse where Freddy lived (also RedO'Riley and the friendly cop on the beatOfficer Bellows lived there). You get thepicture. It seems as if Johnson is doing thesame thing with Brookston. On page 4 ofthe first story a pimp assaults a prostituteand in the same alley in the second story(page 4) the Hand rescues an apparenthomosexual. We know because a poster ofMr. Morphote adorns the brick wall of thealley and the BSI sign on the cityscape.What is interesting--this is the same alleythat the Kreski ambushed MadameBoogla's son in TOS #56. This is greatpre-planning on Larry's part. We also haveexterior and interior shots of the JavaJunction with a large picture ofZooy(TOS #58) on the wall in both stories.Gabrielle Lagrange (last in #56 and 57),Detective Kolowski (#56) and JoeCarbone (#57) also makes reappearances.This story has something that is earlysixties "Ditkoque" about it. There is aloner Freddy Brown who comes intopossession of a powerful device. Hedoesn't know quite what to do with it –sohe naturally makes a costume and fliesaround the city and runs into folks whoneed rescuing. Freddy is very unsure ofhis new found powers. Mr. Morphote is apivotal character. It appears that Mr.Morphote was the person who let theKreski into the alley in #56. Also it looksas if it Mr. Morphote is the comic bookvillain Dr. Morpheus (second story p. 9).This shows the blurring between the"real" world ofBrockston/Greenville andthe comic book world ofThe Hand ofJustice. A further blurring is the existenceof the electronic glove device invented byJanos Podreczny in the 1950s at the sametime as The Hand ofJustice comic book.Larry is playing with our minds leavingclues all over the place.Johnson's artwork while simple (thisstory's illos reminds me not only ofDitkobut CC Beck). I very much like the use ofperspective and the interior room shoots.There is a sense of real space andsolidness. Also enjoyed the book shelvesdisplaying the works of the masters likeBlake, Burke, Main. Shipley, Imes,

Bullock and others.We definitely need tosee more of the Hand.The prose fictionpiece, "SlimeMolding" was far lesssuccessful. When Ifirst starting readingthis tale it felt likeLarry had anassignment to producea story where youimagine yourself as aslim mold in a collegewriting class. Thisstory took me aboutthree sittings toactually finish. Theterm "leaden prose"kept coming to mind.This yarn has propergrammar but it just was not written in acompelling way. Perhaps Larry needs toread it out loud and edit it like crazy. I'veenjoyed Larry's non-fiction writing oncomics history but this short fiction storyjust didn't make it for me. Great lettercolumn and fun Space Cat strip as usual.

Matt Baker With Love #1 (2012, DanBurke) While Dan Burke is no longercurrently a UFO member I wanted toaddress his book in T-Frags. As noted inpast columns I listen to Dan's podcast. Hehas mentioned on occasion his admirationfor the work ofMatt Baker. Baker was anAfrican-American comic book artistactive from the mid-1940s until his deathin 1959. Baker specialized in what hasbecome known as "Good Girl" comicbook art for such publishers as Fox,Fiction House and later developed a moresophisticated drawing style for St John,Charlton, Atlas and other publishers. Inthis volume Burke concentrates onBaker's earlier work especially of FictionHouse's Tiger Girl, Sky Girl, Sheena andFox's Phantom Lady. Most of these storiesinvolve shapely heroines cavorting aroundengaging in various adventures and in thecase of Sky Girl misadventures. Sky Girl'santics are actually quite funny unlike therather dull episodes of her jungle sisters.Baker drew attractive young women verywell and this was the reason most readers(male) purchased these comics. For their

times the comics were racy especially thecovers of Fox's Phantom Lady.Burke crams numerous color and black &white reprints of these comic book storiesplus examples of the syndicatednewspaper comic strip Flamingo Bakerdrew in the 1950s. For the most part theseare well produced/scanned from theoriginal comic books and even theoriginal art and published throughCreateSpace. The only quibble I have isthat some of the pages are jammed withfour pages of comic book stories so youneed a magnifying glass to actually readthe dialog balloons. Burke weaves somehelpful explanatory commentary aboutBaker's life and art style in and out of thenumerous reprints. He compares Bakerfavorably with the work of Jack Kirby andCurt Swan. The author writes aboutdifferent period ofBaker's artistic careerhowever he doesn't actually state whenthese several periods began and ended.Perhaps in the three subsequent volumesofMatt Baker with Love Burke willfurther clarify these periods of artisticdevelopment.The value of this kind of book is if youlike seeing the work of a specific comicbook artist in paper form and printed wellwith minimal but very favorablecommentary this is for you. This isessentially a showcase or tribute book. Ifyou are looking for more incisive anddetailed criticism you'll probably need tolook elsewhere. Interestingly

This is a model of Wayne Gardiner's Knightingail comic heroineinterviewing a Dalak at the Tucson Comic Con. Nov. 3, 2012

TwoMorrows Publishing is coming outwith their own Matt Baker book this Fall.In conclusion Dan Burke's Matt BakerWith Love lives up to its title.

Hero Central Universe #7 & HCUConfidential #2 (2012, Jason Bullock) Iappreciate the explanations in HUC:Confidential. It helps to get me up to speedon what Jason is attempting to do. Andwhat he are attempting is quite ambiteous.Trying to weave a comic strip story fromvarious strands of classical myths. Irecently came across a couple of books thataddress these issues. They are ForgottenHistory ofthe Western People by MikeGascoigne and the Ancient Post-FloodHistory by Ken Johnson. Gascoigne pointsout that the third century BC Greek writerEuhemerus put forth the notion that thegods were just deified men. Euhemerusand later writers claimed that Zeus wasOrisis and Isis (a wife ofZeus) was apriestess ofHera, Zeus' wife/sister. AlsoZeus was the son ofKronos (the BiblicalHam, son ofNoah). Other sources(Johnson) claim that Japheth (another sonofNoah) was the ancestor ofZeus andHercules. The issue is that there could be aconnection between classical pagan mythsand Biblical genealogies. You might wishto study these sources which could enrichthe storyline you are working on.HCU #7: Very nice cover-great coloring.This was basically an extended fight issuewith some movement on characterdevelopment and storyline. The figuresmove very well and the artwork has lots ofenergy. Nice layout and good panel-to-panel story telling.Just a couple of technical issues: In HCU:Confidential: First, in the "Writing Dramain HCU" and "What is an Avatar?" everyline's first word was capitalized. This isdistracting and it should be corrected in thefurure. Second, the blacks and lineworkaround each form needed to be beefed up(they are now muddy -even gray). Whenyou bring your scanned pages intoPhotoshop (or Photoshop Elements) go tothe Menu Enhance and hit on Auto Levelswhich should darken up the blacks. Yourcan also use Adjust Lighting under theEnhance Menu.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving, aMerry Christmas and a wonderful NewYear.

Bio-Speak 5

Back in 1 959 on one of mysummer job trips to a localstrawberry farm I talked toanother boy about the TVSuperman. We had just heardthat George Reeves had diedunexpectedly. Is seems as ifeven then the rumor of his

suicide was going around. Theboy couldn't fathom howSuperman could kill himself oreven die. While being only 11 Iharbored no such illusions aboutthe mortality of a human actor oreven if there was a Superman.Like many kids growing up in the1 950s The Adventures of SupermanTV Show had become a part ofmy kid culture. This wasSuperman--as I was then discon-nected from the comic books.Oddly I thought that Superman'scostume was mostly red not blueas in the comics. The costume Isaw on my black & white TVscreen was predominately gray(the cloth colors). This wasbefore Superman Red andSuperman Blue. When I startedpursuing comic collecting the TVSuperman was a fading memory.