No indeed. If Conrad were to regale you with the prospect of a space-probe adjusting it's orbit and velocity in order to manage a fly-by of a nearby comet, why then you would be excused for thinking this was a science-fiction novel from 1950.
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| The "Rubber-Duck" in space. Come in Dennis Hopper, your time is up ... |
Well, it's all true. The ESA space-probe Rosetta is within 30,000 kilometres of the comet 67P, and is on-course to deploy the "Philae" robot lander later this year. Except -
Well, the closer Rosetta gets, the less 67P looks normal. Whilst it was still an anonymous blob, fair enough, but it now looks like a rubber duck. This is going to mean problems when it's time to land Phil.
Powers
No! Not United Utilities, nor the Essex Water Authority, nor the Cruachan Dam in Galloway. No. This is a comic series created and owned by author Brandis and artist Oeming, in a world where superpowers are not quite common, but not unusual either. There had been an attempt at a pilot last year, if not the year before, which came to naught, but now casting is taking place for a television series. Susan Heyward is in the frame for Deena Pilgrim.
Here we have Deena Pilgrim:
In the comic, Deena is a petite blonde white lady. As is immediately obvious from these photos, Susan is black, but - crikey! - it's not possible to determine how petite (or not) she is.
Is this important? Yes, actually - she is the counterpoint to the main character, Christian Walker, who is a gigantic brute of a man with a very long and shady history. Deena is a moral and physical contrast, so it will be interesting to see who gets cast as Christian - if David Prowse were around, Conrad thinks it would be him.
Invincible
Ah, yes, the exquistitely drawn space-opera that is "Invincible". Conrad finally - after a delay of a week - got down to reading Issue 19, and immediately realised he must have missed an issue. Either that or he has poor memory. Actually, both might be right. Anyway, do you remember the beginning of "Kolchak"? It started off with a light and breezy theme tune, straight out of a Seventies sit-com, which suddenly became menacing and sinister and -
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| A fan guesses whom would play whom. Ah, it'll never happen - how much would they cost? Yea, $850 total. |
- well, Invincible is like that. It begins light and fluffy, and ends up with genocide and madness and planet Earth being so very vulnerable -
We're currently 19 Trade Paperbacks into the series, and Conrad wagers Mr Adlard could manage at least up to Number 50.
The Kraken Wakes
I have finally finished typing-up the transcript of the longhand dialogue which I took down in April -32,000 words.
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| All this - gone! |
What I now have to do is go through and correct idiom, slang, jargon, any references to 1953 that are incomprehensible to us here in 2014, and direct references to money. The latter is important since prices have risen about 50 times since then and now - Conrad referred to this in an earlier post about "Trouble WIth Lichen". In essence. multiply by fifty.
Wench In Trench
Sue Robinson has this account over on Twitter. She is trying to raise money for a sponsored walk on the Western Front, criteria being that you need to be a woman. Hence Conrad cannot go. You also need a sense of humour, so Conrad is out of it on that level, too.
http://www.wenchesintrenches.co.uk/
If your conscience troubles you at all.
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| Wrench In Trench. Close enough |
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