Monthly Archives: September 2020

PULP HERO G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES: STORIES THIRTY-ONE THROUGH THIRTY-THREE

Wings of SatanBalladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the neglected Pulp Hero G-8.

This continues a story-by- story look at the adventures of this World War One American fighter pilot who – along with his two wingmen the Battle Aces – took on various supernatural and super- scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.

Scourge of t he Sky Beast31. SCOURGE OF THE SKY BEAST (April 1936) – Doktor Krueger returns yet again! This time the little fiend is reworking a super-scientific menace that he used against the Allied Powers in the very first G-8 adventure, The Bat Staffel. The plane-sized giant bats are back in action but this time are improved to the point where they may be impossible for Allied pilots to overcome. Continue reading

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THE DEMOCRATS’ WAR ON THE REST OF US: YOUNG RIPPA COURAGEOUSLY CALLS RIOTERS LEFTIST MONSTERS

Stop Democrat ViolenceHere at Balladeer’s Blog I have long discussed the need for Third Parties. For a change of pace from me dealing with that type of thinking here’s a video from YoungRippa59. He too bashes both major parties but recognizes that right now it is definitely the Democrats/ leftists behind the rioting and violence. (That violence will probably increase as the election approaches because the Democrats are determined to muddy the results with their fraud-friendly “vote-by-mail.”)

At any rate, subscribe to YoungRippa59’s YT channel HERE  and for his item RIOTERS: THE MONSTER BUILT BY LEFTISTS see below:

And for more on Democrat atrocities including their 2020 war on the rest of us: 

Democrats, the hate-filled party I’m ashamed to admit I used to belong to before they lost their sanity, continue living up to their new label as “The House Harkonnen of Politics.” For specific examples …
Continue reading

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS

I didn’t put up the college football results from the NAIA the other day to gauge the reaction. Enough readers DO still want the results and were curious about the missing football post, so here we go:

NAIA

Benedictine RavensROAD SHUTOUTS – The BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS crushed their hosts the CLARKE UNIVERSITY PRIDE to the tune of 38-0   ###    Meanwhile the DAKOTA STATE TROJANS dismembered the PRESENTATION COLLEGE SAINTS 42-0 in their own house   ###   And the CENTRAL METHODIST UNIVERSITY EAGLES likewise won 42-0 at the GRACELAND YELLOW JACKETS.

Ave Maria Gyrenes helmet GNO WIN FOR YOU! – The AVE MARIA UNIVERSITY GYRENES kept the visiting FLORIDA MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY LIONS winless. The Lions are playing in their very first year of intercollegiate football and the Gyrenes made them 0-2 with a 42-6 beatdown.

Concordia (NE) BulldogsWORKIN’ OVERTIME – The CONCORDIA (NE) BULLDOGS hosted the HASTINGS COLLEGE BRONCOS on Saturday. Four Quarters weren’t enough for these two Great Plains Athletic Conference foes, with Regulation ending in a 28-28 tie. In Overtime Concordia shut out the Broncos then scored a Touchdown to win it 34-28. Continue reading

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MALDOROR 2:5 – INDELIBLE BLOOD GLITTERING LIKE A DIAMOND

mascot sword and gun picBalladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the macabre 1868 French language work The Songs of Maldoror.

PLEASE NOTE:

As I’ve warned in the past, don’t let the 1868 date fool you. There are disturbing elements to this.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you if this really gets to you. 

INDELIBLE BLOOD GLITTERING LIKE A DIAMOND

Maldoror 2 5Back to the insane, taciturn and blood-thirsty Maldoror we’re used to this time around. The supernatural being has been strolling through a particular narrow Paris alley as part of the ground he covers while taking his walk. A slender ten year old girl, oblivious to the danger she’s courting, takes to following him each time until he gets to the end of the alley where she and her mother live.

Growing bolder she even takes to playfully blocking his way sometimes. On occasions when Maldoror tries to walk through at a brisker pace she speeds up her own gait to keep pace with him. On occasions when he goes slowly through the alley the little girl matches that pace, too. When she tries to start a conversation with the monstrous figure by asking him what time it is he coldly replies that he has no watch. Continue reading

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DARRELL SCOTT, MARTIN LUTHER KING PERSON OF COURAGE, SAYS TRUMP HAS “DONE MORE FOR THE BLACK COMMUNITY THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN MY LIFETIME”

Darrell ScottThat statement from the highly respected Darrell Scott echoes my own sentiments about how de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has done more to help the working class and the poor than any other president of my lifetime. 

A link to the entire article is below but first some excerpts:

“He’s done more for the black community than any other president in my lifetime,” Scott said. “So when he said, ‘What do you have to lose’ he showed us that we didn’t have nothing to lose at all.”

black support for trump“Scott also stated that there is “enthusiasm” for President Trump amongst those located in inner cities. Scott said that he believes Democrats were “egging” on those who took part in several violent riots across America after the death of George Floyd.

Scott listed some of what he considers to be President Trump’s accomplishments for the African-American community:

“He’s exceeded expectations, he has surprised his critics, and he stepped up to the plate with one home run after another, criminal justice reform, prison reform, historic funding for HBCUs, Opportunity Zones, historic low levels of unemployment for blacks. He’s done ceremonial initiatives on behalf of the black community, dedicated Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home as a national landmark, he released average and ordinary Americans …” Continue reading

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NOVELTY PRESS SUPERHERO PANTHEON

You demanded more superheroes, you got ’em! Here is Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the neglected figures from Novelty Press.

TWISTER

Secret Identity: Bob Sanders

First Appearance: Blue Bolt Comics Vol 2 #1 (June 1941)

Origin: After getting carried up into the funnel of a tornado which killed his parents, teenager Bob Sanders learned he had somehow (you know comic books) acquired tornado powers. He donned a costume and fought crime as the superhero called Twister.

Twister 2Powers: Twister could spin around so quickly that he could generate, control and become part of a tornado strong enough to send cars and trucks flying. By punching villains while spinning around he could k-o them through walls. In addition, by breathing in a lungful of air, this hero could exhale it as gale force winds.

Somehow, Twister’s powers enabled him to construct and use a Cyclone Gun which shot intensely powerful bursts of air.   

Comment: At one point a Twister story tried justifying this hero’s powers by saying he was a direct descendant of Odysseus. But all Odysseus did was temporarily control the winds in a bag as a gift from the god Aeolus. Why didn’t they say Twister was descended from Aeolus instead?

White StreakWHITE STREAK

Secret Identity: Manowar/ Dan Sanders

First Appearance: Target Comics #1 (February 1940)

Origin: Manowar, called White Streak by the media, was an android left behind by the lost civilization of Utopia thousands of years ago. The Utopians destroyed themselves with war so they left their super-powered android in suspended animation to come to the aid of the next civilization if war caused by greed again threatened destruction.

White Streak picWhen the South American dictator Don Ruizen of Bolita went to war with his neighboring countries over oil, the Utopian robot Manowar activated itself in the volcano where it was hidden. After defeating the armies of the warmongering Don Ruizen, the android moved to America, from then on battling the forces of evil as White Streak.

Powers: White Streak had superhuman strength, invulnerability, the power of flight and could shoot rays of white energy from his eyes. That last ability prompted the press to give him his nom de guerre.

Comment: This android superhero was programmed to blend in with human beings and adopt the language and customs around him. He accomplished this so well he often used the secret identity Dan Sanders, FBI Agent.      Continue reading

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VENUS IN FURS: OPERA VERSION OF THE 1870 NOVEL

VENUS IN FURS: AN OPERA – Here at Balladeer’s Blog I love sharing my enthusiasms. My blog posts where I provide contemporary slants to Ancient Greek Comedies to make them more accessible have been big hits over the years, so I’ve begun trying that approach with operas, too.

Previously I presented how I would handle opera versions of the 1930 science fiction novel Gladiator and of the original 1966 Spaghetti Western Django. This time I’ll deal with Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch’s erotic 1870 novel Venus In Furs in opera format.

VENUS IN FURS

LANGUAGE: French.

SINGERS: A Tenor, a Baritone, a Soprano, 3 Mezzo-Sopranos and 2 Basses

I would present Venus In Furs as a two-act opera. I originally pondered a one-act format but that would have run into the same problem as the Richard Strauss opera Capriccio with the length pretty much dictating an intermission at some point.

Obviously what was daringly explicit in 1870 is just a bit titillating – even silly – here in 2020. I would not treat the story as outright comedy but like a more serious version of battle-of-the-sexes tales like The Taming of the Shrew with elements of Gothic Horror and dark comedy thrown in.

That fluctuation between opera seria and opera buffa would reflect a bit of the approach used in the 1786 opera Prima La Musica E Poi Le Parole. Act One would be a bit light in tone with the real darkness coming in Act Two. 

ACT ONE: A POSH HEALTH RESORT IN THE CARPATHIANS, 1870. Continue reading

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NAVIS AERIA (1768): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

Navis AeriaNAVIS AERIA (1768) – By Bernardo Zamagna. Written in 1768 Navis Aeria (“Ship of the Air”) was the Italian Zamagna’s attempt to take concepts we of today would associate with science fiction and present them in the old, quaint format of Epic Poetry.  

The verse story detailed a flight around the world in a flying machine which was basically a sailing ship with four huge balloons around the sails and connected to a main mast. Zamagna presciently observed that one day aircraft would constitute “other Argos to carry chosen heroes” on their adventures.

The entire First Canto (Or “Canto the First” as some of the more pompous translations put it) is a poetic glorification of science, mathematics and what we now call aeronautics. As poetry it’s as lame as poetry by the Wright Brothers might have been but as a very early work of science fiction that opening Canto is very moving and ground-breaking, especially the end which excitedly predicts vessels that will one day take human beings to the moon.
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AUSTRALIAN NEWS ON JOE BIDEN’S SENILE, INCOHERENT RAMBLINGS

Here’s yet ANOTHER overseas news outlet looking at Senile Joe Biden’s obvious dementia and/or other issues. Here in America, Democrat fascists have been too busy rioting, blocking emergency room access for wounded police officers and informing on their fellow citizens to really pay attention to such things.

Even when Biden’s hopeless condition is brought to their attention their only response is to file complaints demanding that the footage be taken down. Democrats are gonna Democrat I guess. 

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PULP HERO G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES: STORIES TWENTY-EIGHT THROUGH THIRTY

G-8 Skeletons of the black crossBalladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the neglected Pulp Hero G-8. This continues a story-by- story look at the adventures of this World War One American fighter pilot who – along with his two wingmen the Battle Aces – took on various supernatural and super- scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.

G-8 was created by Robert J Hogan in 1933 when World War One was still being called simply the World War or the Great War. Over the next eleven years Hogan wrote 110 stories featuring the adventures of G-8, the street-smart pug Nippy Weston and the brawny giant Bull Martin. The regular cast was rounded out by our hero’s archenemy Doktor Krueger, by Battle, G-8’s British manservant and by our hero’s girlfriend R-1: an American nurse/ spy whose real name, like G-8’s was never revealed.

Blood Bat Staffel28. THE BLOOD-BAT STAFFEL (January 1936) – Doktor Krueger strikes again! This time our hero’s archenemy has created menaces that seem more in line with something the Austrian villain Dr Mollfuss would come up with.

Scores of monstrous man-bats are flying through the skies over No Man’s Land, terrifying and killing Allied pilots in this latest super-scientific offensive by the Central Powers. G-8 recognizes the hand of his nemesis Doktor Krueger behind this deadly and horrific threat (though as I mentioned above I’d have laid my money on Dr Mollfuss given his love of animal-men). The man-bats are also able to shoot bolts of electricity from their fingertips for no apparent reason!  Continue reading

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