Yes, t'was today in 1783, that Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier initiated the livestock-crewed flight that ushered in the Golden Age of Ballooning!
from "Airecords" in Adventure Comics #40 (DC/Detective Comics, Inc., July 1939), by Terry Gilkison
Here's Biggles to Explain it All for You™:
(Click picture to Skytanic-size)
Can you back that fact up, Real Fact Comics? Well, of course you can...it's right in your name!
from "Scoops...Pictures to Remember!" in Real Fact Comics #6 (DC, January 1947), pencils and inks by George Roussos
Not to be outdone, Real Life Comics does the same! Oh, that rivalry between Real Life and Real Fact Comics has provided us with some of the vest four-color entertainment we've seen!
from "The Story of the Balloon" in Real Life Comics #33 (Pines, July 1946), creators unidentified and unknown
What we never knew about that date: The World's Tinest Man kickstarted the Golden Age of Ballooning!
from "Stowaway on a Hot-Air Balloon" in The Atom (1962 series) #27 (DC, October 1966), script by Gardner Fox, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Sid Greene, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Also present at that lofty event: Time traveller Stuart Taylor and the AnachroPals!
from "Montgolfier's Balloon Ascent" in Jumbo Comics #126 (Fiction House, August 1949), pencils and inks by Jack Kamen
We will return to The Golden Age of Ballooning after this!
And we're back! Right, Four Color? Wait, there's not even one color here!
from "The Great Balloon" in Four Color #813 (Dell, July 1957), pencils and inks by Sparky Moore
But only Four Color knew that The Montgolfier Brothers also invented Siegfried and Roy.
from Four Color #836 [Walt Disney's Man in Flight] (September 1957), script by Don R. Christensen, pencils and inks by Tony Sgroi, colors by Western Publishing Production Shop
"'Round 'bout then, those Montgolfier boys were in a whole mess'a trouble." (plucks on guitar)
from "Daredevil's Miracle!" in Captain Jet #4 (Farrell, November 1952), art by The Iger Shop
Why, without balloons, comics themselves would be impossible. Right, The Batman?
from "Passion Nocturnale" in Detective Comics #530 (DC, September 1983), script by Doug Moench, pencils by Gene Colan, inks by Dick Giordano, colors by Adrienne Roy, letters by Ben Oda
So, what have we learned, Dennis Mitchell? (Absolutely nothin'. Say it again.)
from "Au-gusty" in Dennis the Menace Bonus Magazine Series #160 [Dennis the Menace Yearbook] (Hallden/Fawcett, January 1977), creators uncredited and unknown
Those same balloons invented by the Montgolfiers still cruise the modern sky, giving rise to the Second...Golden Age of Ballooning!
from Top 10: The Forty-Niners (DC/America's Best Comics, October 2005), script by Alan Moore, pencils and inks by Gene Ha, colors by Art Lyon, letters by Todd Klein
Until something even more sensational came along to replace it.
from "The Golden Age of Ballooning" on Monty Python's Flying Circus, series 4, episode 1 (BBC/Python (Monty) Pictures, October 31, 1974)
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2 comments:
Do you mind if I post an excerpt from a post I made on my now-defunct comics blog, Recreation Annex, on 12/31/2006? The links didn't transfer but here's the text:
Back in the day, “Happy” Terrill was simply a good-hearted guy who attained crazy powers in a ballooning accident.
(’Cuz that happened a lot back then … )
I had forgotten this aspect of The Ray's origin, and I was so tickled by the idea of a ballooning accident (BA) as a plot device, that I did extensive research on Googled the phrase, and here's what I came up with:
Commissioner Gordon's son Tony used a BA as a way to fake his death so he could spy on/in Red China. (I am Batgirl's Brother; scroll down about halfway).
A BA is the fulcrum on which the plot of Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love (and the Daniel Craig movie that was based on it) swings.
A Harvard alum chose a BA as his fake death, this time to avoid solicitation of donations, when the university mistakenly thought him deceased. (Death by Junk Mail; scroll down to July 11, 2003).
Apparently, one of the characters on the television show Lost is on the island because of a BA (Re: Will the 'Others' get angry now?, scroll down to 02-16-2006, 07:20 PM).
The hero of this mystery novel is almost killed in a BA.
Coe College offers a science class that investigates the mystery of an alchemist's BA. (FS-110-18 STEALTH SCIENCE , about halfway down).
And finally, an Air Force pilot injured in a BA may be the source of the first "live alien" sighting. (Injured Air Force Pilot, the very last entry).
Ah, those were heady days...
That's great, Walaka! Thanks for sharing.
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