STEEL JEEG

A secret history of the transforming robot in pop culture: Without those old-fashioned paper dolls, there would be no Bild Lillie. Without Bild Lillie, there would be no Barbie. Without Barbie, there would be no GI Joe. Without GI Joe, there would be no Henshin Cyborg. Without Henshin Cyborg, there would be no Microman. Without Microman, there would be no Micronauts. Without Micronauts, there would be no Transformers.

Steel Jeeg (above), created by Go Nagai and Tatsuo Yasuda. I remember the rare, imported Japanese toys which you could find in the 1970s. The die-cast metal robots seemed so heavy in your hand, more like a power tool than a toy. I made a small color Jeeg screenprint last week, for no reason at all, really, just because he's been on my mind. I wanted have someplace tangible to place the thought so I could stop carrying it around with me, stuck inside my head.

From paper doll back to paper doll.

OLD PEAK

Machu Picchu is an archetectural marvel located 8,000 ft above sea level. Often referred to "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu was constructed around 1462, at the height of the Inca Empire. It is believed the city was originally inhabited for only 100 years then abandoned.

FLYING SAUCERS

FLYING SAUCERS MYSTIFY THE AIR FORCE-- Official investigators can't decide, are they from far out in space-- or simply "far out"?

Alex Hamilton of Woodsen County, Kansas, was awakened at 10:30 one night by the sound of a disturbance in the cow pasture on his farm. Peering into the night, he observed a huge airship, some 300-feet long, hovering just 30-feet over the frightened herd of cattle. A brightly-lighted control compartment under the craft was occupied by six strange beings clearly visible through transparent panels in the walls of their vehicle. Hearing Hamilton and others approaching, the weird creatures revved-up a big 30-foot rotor under the aircraft which lifted it 300 feet up into the air. Air the same time, a spotlight from the hovering vessel played on Hamilton and company, who had succeeded in getting within fifty yards of the craft.

As the startling airship moved off to the northwest, it carried off a two-year old heifer dangling at the end of a cable dropped about the struggling animal's neck. The hide, legs, and head of the unlucky cow were discovered four miles away the next day.

This incident is all the more astonishing because it happened seventy years ago-- in 1897!

Perhaps the same strange aircraft that plucked up farmer Hamilton's cow visited the village of Sisterville, West Virginia, a few days earlier in April, 1897. Luminous red, and shaped like an immense cigar, the airship hovered in the darkness while two brilliant searchlights glared down on the town below.

The townspeople were awakened and alerted to the aerial visitor by the shrilling whistle of the local sawmill. Some observers claimed they distinguished large fins on the sides of the craft, while others noted flashing red, white, and green lights on its sides and ends. Many witnesses estimated it to be about 180-feet in length and 50-feet in diameter.



--From WHAMMO GIANT COMICS, 1967. Illustrator uncredited, art editor: Del Potter.