You Know How It Goes
You start off researching a topic, and you end up hours later down a virtual rabbit-hole with no clear idea how you got there, especially if there was gin involved. Thus, Conrad has been banging on about 'Oak' of late, as used in whisky casks, the creation of which is an art lightly salted with science. I am not clear if they mature gin in oak casks and may have to get back to you on this.
Because I have a mind that resembles a skip with several thousand tonnes cubic capacity, I recalled a character from "2000AD" who went by the name 'Oakman'. Was there any internet presence for this character? Art!
That's Oakman there, looking like a tree. I should elaborate that this is the very excellent "Zenith: Phase Three" story, which ran for months and months.
I'm going to have to explain all this background, aren't I? <deep sigh>. Okay, Zenith is the titular superhero, super-strong, able to fly, practically invulnerable, and also a horribly shallow, self-centred and selfish person. His day job is being a celebrity manufactured pop-star, flirting with the paparazzi and schmoozing at events. Events force him to take up the superhero mantle for real.
In 'Phase Three' a collection of superheroes across a series of alternative realities come together to fight the inhuman Lloigor, who want to control all realities in the metaverse, typical world-domination stuff only lacking in unlimited rice-pudding. Allow me to pinch a quote from the very well-researched 'International Hero' site - The Zenith Superhero Scorecard
"During the epic Third Phase, Zenith and his cast joined an array of other heroes from across the multiverse in a fight against the deadly Lloigor, who were terrorising some of the alternate Earths in the multiverse in host bodies stolen from other superheroes. ZPT is a delight for fans of British superheroes, as there were dozens of them dotted around throughout the story, both as themselves (when copyright problems didn't get in the way) and under pseudonyms (when they did). Some of these characters were readily identifiable, but others are not. What we need is a scorecard!"*
Art!
Oaky at bottom starboard. I wasn't aware of the alternate identities and copyright issues at the time. Copyright amongst British comic characters can be a complex field, because various titles were bought up or subsumed into other comics and whom owns what can be a legal labyrinth.
Conrad has, inevitably, read the series, and as it came out back in the day, one issue per week. I think I've sat down and read it all the way through, but only once, and that was years and years ago. I was minded to dig the issues out, but - there's always a but, isn't there? Art!
To get to the boxed sets of "2000AD" I'd need to shift allllllll these comics first, which means going up and down the stepladders for ages. We'll come back to that. Art!
All three of these appear in ZPT, in considerably more realistic fashion thanks to artist Steve Yeowell, whose work is impressive I have to say. Conrad had no idea until yesteryon that this comic or these heroes existed, so this dog is learning new tricks indeed.
If Conrad has whetted anyone's appetite for ZPT, then it did come out as a trade paperback, except that was ten years ago and it may no longer be in print. I did find a blog called "Thoughts Of A Workshy Fop" where he reviewed the story and used pictures - just none of Ol' Oaky. Art!
Yes, that's 'Robot Archie', allegedly under the influence of LSD - which is hard to explain since he's a robot and it ought to have no more effect on him than an aspirin - and a Tyrannosaurus Rex he's riding like a steer. I think Archie must have done the artwork on the dino, you'd have to pay flesh-and-blood artists big bucks to take on a risky job like that. Art!
Your Humble Scribe supposes it's a trade-off: is it worth tracking down a copy of the above or should I just get to humping and dumping piles of comics? The other problem will be accidentally reading other strips in the relevant issues, which is a besetting sin of mine. Then I'll be posting about those strips on here and you'll know I weakened.
"The War Illustrated Edition 206 11 May 1945"
Despite the Second Unpleasantness being over in Europe, TWI regularly published two weeks behind their title date, partly due to the distances involved when the war was waged in North Africa and then Italy, and partly to ensure nothing important got published that the opposition might detect. Art!
For Your Information, if it mentions '8th Army' then the photograph is from Italy, as this formation, alongside the South Canadian 5th Army, was battling into Northern Italy at the time of publication. Yes, they are using mules, no, this is neither silly nor outdated. We have covered this before, and Professor Peter Caddick-Adams' excellent 'Ten Armies In Hell' goes into the subject matter in more detail than you were aware existed. Simply put, mules can carry tremendous amounts of luggage up mountains where there are no roads or paths.
Serendipity!
It was only 500 years old and could have lasted easily another two or three centuries. Naturally, the locals and local government are appalled and very, very angry at this dendro-destruction - we English take our oak trees extremely seriously.
On Wednesday, Enfield Council's leader branded the felling "an outrage" and said all legal options were being considered.
There are nearly THREE THOUSAND Comments on this news item, and people are barely holding back from declaring that the culprits ought to be flogged and hung and then flogged again, after which they'll be re-hung and flogged a bit more. Professor Caddick-Adams has posted on Twitter that he's not going to patronise Toby Carvery again. So there!
Let's See What DJ Tango Does About This
I predict an all-caps rant on Truth Social about how mean everyone is to him, and how good he is at golf, and how South Canada needs to secure the Moon to monopolise it's cheese. Art!
To quote: "The American Base Commander has earned the Defense Minister's Medal for Special Efforts!"
The colonel in question, the lady in uniform you see above, had the temerity to challenge JD Vance's assertions about how Denmark was, in fact, Mordor, just a bit flatter and wetter. Vance's belief in free speech only extends as far as not daring to criticise him at all in any way whatsoever ever ever ever, because his mother didn't make him spaghetti meatballs enough when growing up, or something. Besides which, everyone knows Mordorvia is the real evilllll empire.
Go Denmark.
Yes Yes Yes
I haven't posted anything about 'Crisis Point' yet, just be patient, because when I do post you're going to get the lot. Until then, I am going to leave you with the not-quite NSFW event in July in Sheffield, known punnily as "The Joy Of Six". Art!
* I had to type all that out, it won't allow me to copy or paste the original. Sigh.
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