Number 668
Fortean Comics
When I saw scans from the sole issue of Captain Wizard my jaw dropped, twice. First, it's a superhero story drawn by Jack Alderman, whose heavily inked, lead-footed and stiff style I've usually seen only in crime comics, although last year I showed a goofy magician story by him.
The second reason for my amazement is that the writer of this Captain Wizard story uses the books of Charles Fort as the basis for the story. If you haven't heard of Charles Fort go here for a fairly good biographical piece on this fascinating and eccentric author.
From Captain Wizard #1, 1946:
Fort's books predate the comic book era. John Keel once told me he was reading Fort when he was a kid. He also told me that when Action Comics and Superman came out, it was all the kids his age could talk about. The two went together-- kids who liked Fort liked superheros and vice versa, apparently.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you might want to check out the old radio show, "Quiet, Please!" as it was written by a reader of Charles Fort. The "Northern Lights" episode might entertain you in particular. That entire series was written by Willis Cooper, who had written the script for "Son of Frankenstein." Another equally highly-recc'ed episode is called, "The Thing on the Fourble Board."
ReplyDeleteWow, Pappy! As the kids say nowadays, WTF!I thought I had taken the brown acid there for awhile. This one was so weird from start to finish, I loved it!
ReplyDelete...and I guess theres no reason not to have comics based on Fort's writing, after all, X-Files(TV) did and lasted several seasons!
Peter, thanks for the info on John Keel, a writer I'm interested in.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting such a delightful story. It makes me want to read Aristophanes' play The Birds, and about the original Cloud-Cuckoo-Land with its perfect city between the clouds.
ReplyDeleteI have worn out my early 70's Dover Books edition of the Complete Charles Fort. I discovered it way before X-Files, during my Alien/UFO/Occult book phase in the 80's. Much as I enjoy John Keel's compilations, the only author who can really spark ones imagination and lead ya down that dang rabbit hole is Jaques Vallee; who Francis Truffaut portrayed in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Someday when I got some spare time (?) I want to record Fort's books for Libravox and make them available on archive.org. His final book, Wild Talents, is AMAZING ! Great post Pappy ! Keep us posted if more of these Fortean comics surface !
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