Goodbye, Red Brick Road

No!  This Is Not About An Elton John Tribute Band
I mean, that would be disrespectful, wouldn't it?  Sir Elton is still alive and kicking (exceptionally well in "Kingsman", too) and probably still cranking out songs.  The man doesn't know how to switch off and enjoy merely spending his money.
     Although, given our subject matter in this Intro, come to think of it - Art?

Rock it, man!*

     No, what I meant to talk about here is the bankruptcy and administrative death of a somewhat bizarre venture that began a good few years ago in 2011: Mars One.  They were going to send some Hom. Sap. to Mars, and have them stay there.  For ever.  Or, until they died, which might be a whole lot quicker than "Forever", and the whole thing would be bankrolled by selling broadcast rights to the media.
     Right.  I remember the original blurb coming out, and then the whole thing disappeared for a couple of years.  Their target date for putting Hom. Sap. on the Red Planet kept slipping into the future, eventually ending up at 2031.  

How it ought to be done.

     NASA and other scientific institutions were scornfully analytical, demonstrating how Mars One's alleged budget of £5 billion fell short of the total needed by - ooooh, about £85 billion.  Nor did hundreds of thousands send in video applications - actually less than 3,000 did, and they only got through the laughably-titled "Astronaut Selection" by paying Mars One for the privilege.
     Then the television company who were going to pay for broadcast rights pulled out, and some of the more citric scientific critics calculated that the 'colonists' wouldn't last more than 68 days before dying as their oxygen levels fell to zero.
     Bummer.

The truth can hurt, sometimes.

     Then, in late February, the company filed for bankruptcy, though they didn't trumpet this with the kind of fanfare reserved for previous significant occasions; it was only a diligent and sharp-eyed member of the public who noticed.
     So, sadly, all those doughy, basement-dwelling couch-potatoes who paid out thousands and thousands to become Martian colonists have their dreams dashed.**  Awww.
     Now, motley, we are going to roll you up in this carpet like Cleopatra -
     Then we are going to put it through this industrial steam hammer!

Heh!

"Colophon"
I know, I know, these odd words keep popping up in my brain for no reason.  Don't complain, because otherwise you'd be reading about more art in Barcelona, and if you're not careful you may still do so.
     Okay, there I was, trudging to work along Church Street in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell - a street notable for not having a church anywhere near it - and carefully watching where the 163 bus was driving, for there were puddles near the kerb, and that word above popped into my head.  

     "Could it be Esperanto for "Mobile Phone"? I mused, silently, for there were other pedestrians abroad on the pavement who did not deserve to be worried.
     No such thing.  It comes from the Greek "Kolophon" which means "A finishing stroke", and was initially a plate at the end of a book with information about the publisher, the date, typeface used, which edition and so on.  Over time it has come to mean a publisher's emblem.  Art?

Gaze upon -
A colophon.***

     So now we all know.  The puzzle is, of course, why vision of the 163 triggered this memory.

Talking Of Memory -
This one will take a bit of developing, so you may go brew a pot of tea (only ever loose-leaf, of course), toast a slice of wholemeal and set an egg to boil.
     Okay, "Pilote", which Art will illustrate for us.  Art - less coal more goal!

Pilote - the early years

     Pilote was a notable and influential French comic that featured lots of famous Continental artists and writers, and which introduced "Asterix and Obelix" to the world, as well as "Valerian and Laureline", and other stuff.  In fact, so much stuff that we may have to revisit this past parade.
     Anyway, my college used to stock Pilote in the original untranslated French, which meant Your Humble Scribe enjoyed the artwork but only had a very vague understanding of the finer plot points.       Which brings me around to memory.  There was one strip, which was definitely in the later years, probably 1978 or 1979 (maybe 1977),

A later edition that has a SFW cover, hoorah!

which featured (I think) something called Eric, or Elvis, or Elric, who was either a miniature dragon or a species of intelligent mushroom - 
     Don't look at me that way.
     What I do remember is another character, whose name I translated as the "Beautiful Green Hallucination", and who was your typical green-skinned curvaceous comic wench, apart from having a green gas-mask for a face.

This variety of lungy-life preserver

     Yes yes yes, I know this all sounds pervy or drugged or both, but Dog Buns!  I've got the bit between my teeth now and I want to know 1) What the strip was and 2) Who the artist was.  Can I discover anything about it?  No I cannot!  I spent yesterday lunchtime at work trying to track down even a smidgeon of information about it - being rather cautious, as it is not certain that all Pilote artwork is SFW - to no avail.
     I know what the resolution might end up being - buying three year's worth of Pilote back copies from end 1976 to start 1980 and reading every single one.
     Don't laugh.  It may come to that.

There are worse things to be stuck doing ...

"Colophon" - Not To Be Confused With Colluphid, Oolon
A common mistake!  Well, amongst the overlapping subsets of those who know what Colophons are and those who have read and remembered "The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy".  For Oolon - also not to be confused with "Oolong", a type of loose-leaf tea, although given the out-there quality of THHGTTG it's not impossible Oolon is a variety of sentient plant - is the author of several somewhat blasphemous works that - it'll just be easier to give their titles: 

Thus

     You can tell The Man Upstairs is beneficent and merciful, or perhaps just has a sense of humour, for Oolon survived writing his first volume, didn't he?

There you go, you lucky people.  Over a thousand words and no mention of a city in Catalonia with a harbour frontage.  Tomorrow, though - tomorrow is another day.^


*  Sorry.
**  Yeah, but - would they have fitted through the airlocks anyway?
***  All my own work.
^  Obviously.  If it wasn't then I'd be living in "Groundhog Day", wouldn't I?