We were contacted recently by Gianluca Gianfaldoni, the talented modeller whose diorama of Jeff Hawke, Fortuna and the HOPE starship, was featured in one of our posts last year. He has told us that he intends to make another Hawke model in the near future , but in the meantime has sent us some pictures of his latest creation. It features a subject from another well-known British sci-fi series, namely BLAKE’S 7 and is a beautifully executed model of the LIBERATOR, the alien craft which Blake, Avon and Jenna, capture and then commandeer for themselves.
Gianluca tells me that the model was scratchbuilt mainly from everyday objects including a beach-toy, lipstick cases, pins and scrap plastic, together with some plastic-card and modelling putty. The photos below show how such objects are transformed by a master-modeller, into an iconic spaceship.
We eagerly await his next Hawke creation. Skipper Prossitt
The LIBERATOR from Blake’s 7, by Gianluca GianfaldoniThe LIBERATOR – showing view from the side-front
There is one story in the Hawke series that has always stood out as being entirely different from the rest. UNQUIET ISLAND is exceptional in that it is entirely Earthbound, and contains nothing of aliens, supernatural forces or futuristic inventions which are the usual fare of all the other tales. It is a type of story that one would more usually associate with Modesty Blaise or James bond and has no science fiction aspects about it whatsoever. It fact there are slight pre-echoes of Ian Fleming’s Thunderball novel of 1961 which concerns the underwater retrieval of two atomic bombs.
The experimental rocket lies on the sea bed off the Scottish coast
The narrative is quite straightforward and concerns the testing, loss and retrieval of an experimental rocket , and a thwarted attempt by the Soviets to take possession of it. As the story proceeds we continually expect some Deus-ex-machina in the form of an alien craft to suddenly sweep the story into a new direction – but it never happens.
UNQUIET ISLAND makes a striking contrast with SANCTUARY , which immediately precedes it and which really sets the tone for all the subsequent stories and first lays out that Galactic landscape with its cast of characters that was to become so familiar to readers as the years went by.
Jeff, Mac and Laura meet Sheena on the hills of Moraig
I spoke to Sydney about UNQUIET ISLAND and he pointed out that it was no co-incidence that it was the first script that Willie Patterson, his future collaborator, had written on his own.
Sanctuary had been a collaborative affair, and had shown us the first glimpse of that “tipping-point” technique which was to become such a trademark of the Hawke tales.
Sydney considers that UNQUIET ISLAND can be seen as Willie taking stock of the Hawke universe , setting the characters on a firm foundation and exploring their relationships before sending them out into the unknown in the following stories.
There is more characterization in UNQUIET ISLAND and the dramatis personae are more sharply brought into focus. They are seen in everyday situations and for the first time the interplay between them is more fully explored. They appear here to be more rounded and believable . Even the two villains are developed to some extent, especially the fishing boat captain who, while he is keen enough for the pay from his foreign masters, balks at the prospect of losing his beloved boat.
Jeff, Laura and Mac become more three-dimensional in UNQUIET ISLAND, a development which continues into future stories. Skipper Prossitt
I spoke to Sydney in order to elicit his own views on the use of the “Tipping point” in the Jeff Hawke stories as discussed in the post of 20th November 2016. He made the interesting observation that this concept really only came into play when both he and Willie Patterson worked jointly on the stories. Sydney says that his own style , when working alone on the stories , was always one of straightforward narrative development. He also observed that in the only story that Patterson wrote alone , “unquiet island” , that it was also one containing a single unfolding narrative. The occurrence of a “ Tipping point” first occurs in SANCTUARY, which was their first collaboration, where both Chalcedon and the Galactic federation suddenly turn up, and change , what is up till then, a fairly straightforward story about monitoring a Venus probe , into a story of Galactic politics ! It continues in many of the stories in which they subsequently collaborated, and which form, in the eyes of many readers, the Golden Age of Hawke. Sydney thinks that this is no co-incidence. There was, he thinks, a particular chemistry that came into play when they worked together ; the elision of Willie Patterson’s ablility to imagine fantastic plot situations together with his own realistic and technically accurate style of drawing caused those “Tipping point “ situations to come about – the real and familiar world, suddenly tipping into the fantastic.
He speaks very highly of his friend’s story-telling gifts and of his ability to hold dissimilar and opposing storylines in his mind at the same time and to knit them together in surprising ways , to put , what might be described as a sort of cognitive dissonance, to a creative use.
Sydney remembers the works of Arthur Koestler, an influential writer and philosopher in the fifties and sixties, one of whose works ‘ The act of creation” explores the use of cognitive dissonance , in various forms of creative endeavour: scientific discovery, art and humour. Willie Patterson’s creativity fitted very well into that very mould. Skipper Prositt
One of the most famous “Tipping point” occurences in JH is the sudden appearance of the Alien craft in OVERLAND, when an antarctic expediton becomes a small but key part of a cosmic incident.
SYDNEY’S PLANS FOR THE DAN DARE STORY IN THE “PLANET” NEWSPAPER
In writing the Dan Dare strip Sydney says that he had two clear aims. Firstly to update the Dan Dare Universe to reconcile it more with present day knowledge of the Solar system, particularly with what we know of the actual conditions on Venus, but in a way that would not disturb or contradict the Dan Dare timeline and which would not jar with the sensibilities of existing fans. Secondly, mindful of the existing Dan Dare universe, he was keen that the new story should be a development from that universe, moving it forward but using the characters and technology from the original comic , and exploiting any unused storylines or loose ends which may not have been completed in the original strip.
His central plot idea was to create a threat coming in from outside the Solar system, a threat so overwhelming that that Earth and Venus would have to pool all their resources in order to overcome this foe. Sydney’s story opens with
Dan’s encounter with the entity on Titan leaves his mind reeling. Sydney’s first drawing of Dare in the “Planet” serial
Dan, who has apparently lost his memory, in a somewhat disheveled state. If the story had continued, Sydney wouldhave gone on to reveal that this memory loss was due to an encounter that Dan had had with this encroaching entity as he was sent to investigate it by Spacefleet. Contact with it had given him some valuable information but had had a devastating effect upon his mind , causing a kind of self-imposed amnesia.
Sydney’s first thought had been to set this first encounter on Mars, on one of the Earth settlements, where archeologists had discovered that ancient Martian civilization had been itself destroyed by this entity , a part of which still resided within the planet. But a little research showed that this particular storyline would clash with THE RED MOON MYSTERY which had already accounted for the destruction of ancient Mars and the realm of Dortan-uth-Alger. So another setting had to be found for this first encounter. An obvious choice was the Saturnian empire, contact with which had not been made in any of the Dan Dare stories since OPERATION SATURN except for a brief appearance of Tharl in OPERATION SILENCE ( Eagle annual 6).
So Dan would have been sent to the Saturnian empire to investigate the complete cut in communications between it and the inner planets. Some new political disturbance had been suspected, but instead the party found nothing but devastation on the inhabited moons, now lifeless and barren, their inhabitants driven to madness and destruction . In the ruins of Titan city Dan was to encounter the Entity that had
Titan city, as depicted by Frank Hampson in OPERATION SATURN, would be a desolate ruin when Dan and his party arrived to investigate the communication breakdown
wrought the destruction or at least the part of it that remained there. The expedition returned to Earth where reports of the new threat were shared with the Treens and Therons. As Dan had been the only member of the party to actually experience a “close encounter” with the entity, he alone suffered the mental collapse that we see in the opening panels of Sydney ‘s story. It was decided that some rest and recuperation might release important memories , memories which could give some vital clues about the entity.
And what of the Mekon? His last attempts at the re-conquest of Venus had ended in debacle and he had abandoned this plan on discovering that his ally Xel had failed in his own invasion of the Earth (see. Dan Dare – THE MOONSLEEPERS). Now without the help and resources of the Last Three (see – ALL TREENS MUST DIE), the Mekon was forced to retreat to his satellite headquarters far out in Deep space. But he was not yet beaten, for another opportunity seemed to be presenting itself. Here his own Treen scientists had also spotted the encroachment of the entity, and resouceful as ever the wily Mekon decided that it might be a useful ally.
To be continued . Skipper Prossitt
The disappearance of the Mekon’s fleet in MOONSLEEPERS. Had he decided to re-group and exploit the power of the encroaching entity?
Part five of the missing panels for the Asset strippers, showing the original , longer introduction to the story. Previous panels can be found in earlier posts. Skipper Prossitt
Below are strips 982 to 987 of the missing and longer introduction to ASSET STRIPPERS. Earlier strips from the same missing sequence can be found in earlier posts on this Blog. Skipper Prossit
While there have been numerous books on the great sci-fi classic, 2001 a Space Odyssey, one of the best must surely be “The 2001 file” by Christopher Frayling. Published two years ago this large volume contains the rediscovered artwork by concept designer Harry Lange who was responsible for much of the “look” of this film. From early drawings and concepts the book shows the development of Lange and Kubrik’s ideas, up to their final fruition on the screen.
It covers the evolution all the spacecraft, satellites and spacesuits in minute detail and is a beautifully produced volume.
Looking at the early sketches and models for the Discovery, before it took on its final familiar form, I was reminded of my post from 23 July 2015 entitled “Hawke’s spaceship – The Aristarchus” in which I pointed out the basic similarities between Hawke’s Jupiter ship and the Discovery . The early concept models of Discovery in “ The 2001 file” before it evolved into its final elongated shape look even closer in appearance to the Aristarchus. Sydney comments that he himself was inspired by the work of Chesley Bonestell, the pioneer of sci-fi art who worked with such luminaries as Willy Ley and Werner von Braun, and his influence can be seen in both the Aristarchus and the seminal drawings of the Discovery by Lange. Skipper Prossitt
A view of a 3D model of the Aristarchus from the Hawke story OVERLORDOne of Chesley Bonestell’s spacecraft illustrations from Colliers magasineHarry Lange’s early concept model of the Discovery from THE 2001 FILE
Many of the stories in the JEFF HAWKE series use a storytelling technique which might be described as a “Tipping point”. It is used to great effect in the strip and might be explained as follows: The stories start off in our familiar world , its familiarity enhanced by the depiction of accurate and realistic technology and familiar landmarks, such as London scenes or English high streets . The narrative proceeds and develops as we would expect until suddenly this familiar matrix is violently intersected by another stranger one and our perspective is suddenly shifted from the quotidian to the cosmic . A good example is OVERLAND which starts with a fairly straightforward story of an attempt to recover an ancient plesiosaur preserved in the Antarctic ice. From discussions in the British museum to working out the mission logistics, all proceeds as one would expect. As the mission develops and the tractors locate the creature and attempt its extraction, our belief that this is a realistic story set in our own real world is cleverly re-inforced . Then suddenly the “Tipping point “ occurs . Our reality is shattered as an enormous spacecraft hovers above the expedition, and the story is seen from a new and vast perspective. It is revealed that the plesiosaur is merely bait in a vast cosmic power play, a struggle for hegemony of the Galactic federation , for which Hawke and co are to be used as negotiators.
The plesiosaur expedition is discussed by Navy experts – from OVERLAND
Probably the most visually dramatic example of the “Tipping point” is in the classic ANTI-GRAVITY MAN. Again – a seemingly routine story of an attempt to launch a cylinder of nuclear waste into orbit and the problems which occur when the rocket motors fail to achieve sufficient thrust for orbital velocity. Again the technology is realistic and the attempts to safely retrieve the cylinder involving docking procedures etc re-inforce our belief that this is happening in a familiar world. Then suddenly the “Tipping point” occurs , summed up visually in what is probably the most famous image in the whole JH series. A 60’s mini cooper with a few modifications suddenly appears in orbit alongside the stricken space capsule and our perspective is suddenly changed. In contrast to the first part of the story, where even putting a spacecraft into orbit has been achieved with huge difficulty, we now have an incredible alien technology with capabilities of reaching all the planets of our Solar system and beyond with baffling ease.
The “Tipping point” can be discerned in many of the Hawke stories especially those where Willie Patterson was at the helm and usually divides the stories into two distinct halves. It is by no means unique to Jeff Hawke of course ( Rupert the bear stories use it frequently!) but it is used to great effect by Messrs Patterson and Jordan. Building up this everyday, familiar world in such a careful fashion emphasizes the strangeness and shock of the aliens or their technology when they do finally appear, and serves as a foil against which the strange and alien worlds appear in sharp and shocking focus. Skipper Prossitt
The most famous and visually dramatic example of the “Tipping point” in Jeff Hawke – from ANTI-GRAVITY MAN
We were contacted recently by Gianluca Gianfaldoni, the talented modeller whose diorama of Jeff Hawke, Fortuna and the HOPE starship, was featured in one of our posts last year. He has told us that he intends to make another Hawke model in the near future , but in the meantime has sent us some pictures of his latest creation. It features a subject from another well-known British sci-fi series, namely BLAKE’S 7 and is a beautifully executed model of the LIBERATOR, the alien craft which Blake, Avon and Jenna, capture and then commandeer for themselves.
