Balladeer’s Blog presents another look at an ancient Greek Comedy. This time around it’s one written by Eupolis who – along with Aristophanes and Cratinus – was one of the Big Three of Attic Old Comedy.
MARIKAS (c 421 B.C.) – This was the second comedy to emerge in the new subgenre of Attic Old Comedy called “the Demagogue Comedy”. Aristophanes led the way a few years earlier with The Knights, his comedy attacking the politician Cleon. The play Marikas finds Eupolis attacking the demagogue Hyperbolus, whose reputation for character assassination by way of overstatement lives on in our language by way of the word “hyperbole”.
As with most ancient Greek comedies Marikas has survived only in fragmentary form. Those fragments, along with contemporary references in surviving works, provide what is known about the play. Marikas, the title character, was used by Eupolis to represent the politician Hyperbolus the same way Aristophanes had used the Paphlagonian to represent Cleon in The Knights.
The ancient Greek comedies made a point of breaking the fourth wall on a regular basis (despite the way so many people have convinced themselves that that is a “postmodern” development) and Marikas opened up with a character assuring the audience that the play they were about to see was NOT just a rehashing of The Knights. Continue reading
PEACEMAKER
Powers: Peacemaker was in peak physical condition and was a master of armed and unarmed combat. He designed and tested his own weapons in his secret “Peace Palace” lair in the Swiss Alps. Peacemaker’s action outfit included body armor, a jetpack for flight, plus a helmet for protection AND for radio communication. This hero’s weapons included his powered laser gun and the sonic beams shot from his helmet.
FIGHTIN’ FIVE Vol 1 #40 (Nov 1966) 
The following day Christopher attends an embassy dinner in Geneva, at which Bork and Smith needle each other. Smith dons his Peacemaker outfit and assembles his weapons, then flies out to Bork’s mansion in the Alps. Bork’s private army tries to kill Peacemaker but he outfights them all. 
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE THOMAS JOHNSON 
SIX THOUSAND YEARS HENCE (1891) – Written by Milton W. Ramsey. Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog may remember that I’m usually enthusiastic about these works of “ancient” science fiction and look for any bright spots. In this novel’s case that is very, very difficult. For a book written in 1891 it seems more like an 1820s piece. 
Institution: VALLEY FORGE MILITARY COLLEGE 
SCREAM-IN (June 20th, 1969 to August ?, 1971) – Love-Ins begat Laugh-In which begat Scream-In, a Bad Movie Show that went off the air when the station broadcasting it went bankrupt. Scream-In was previously titled Shock it to Me, a clever combination of the old Shock syndicated horror film package and the Laugh-In catch-phrase “Sock it to me!” 
COAGULUS – The name of the actor playing this vampire character has not come down to us. Some sources state that Coagulus hosted WPGH’s original version of Scream-In titled just Supernatural Movie (later Shock It to Me) beginning in February 1969 – the same month the station started broadcasting. 
TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN CONDOR (1953) – Cornel Wilde stars as the swordsman Jean-Paul, a Frenchman whose evil uncle the Marquis de St. Malo (George Macready) robs of his royal title and his inherited lands. He flees France and sails for Guatemala. 
PART 71 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the June of 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure.
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