GUESSES AT FUTURITY – This was a series of nine full-page illustrations by THE Frederick Thomas Jane, the man behind the Jane’s manuals. He devoted as much attention to detail here as he would go on to do in illustrations of military hardware in later years.
The series ran in Pall Mall Magazine from October of 1894 to June of 1895 and presented a speculative look at life in the year 2000 A.D.
I. HOME LIFE IN ANNO DOMINI 2000 (October 1894) – Jane depicted Brits of the “future” living in homes with very high ceilings. The interior decoration is decidedly eclectic while the wardrobe of these Brits is a kind of retro revival of Medieval clothing.
The people watch a large picture screen on which images appear. Those images depict people garbed like Jane’s contemporaries in 1890s England. Phonograph horns provide the sound for this Entertainment Center of the Year 2000. A wheel of sorts in the wall seems to bring up menus of options, possibly for controlling the sound and the images (channels?) on the screen. Continue reading
FRANCOIS VILLON PART SIX – We pick up at the point in 1457 when the fugitive outlaw Villon found a warm and unexpected welcome in the court of Rene, Duke of Anjou. This figure was also known as “Good King Rene” because technically the crown of the Kingdom of Sicily was part of his royal inheritance. 
ZACA – The Voodoo god of agriculture and the harvest, making him the patron deity of farmers and fieldworkers. Zaca is the friendliest and most approachable of the gods and may be addressed as “Cousin Zaca” if spotted in the fields. 
Recently, a Balladeer’s Blog reader asked if I would compile a list of my “Best of” stories of the 1930s and 1940s pulp hero G-8 and his Battle Aces. That idea makes perfect sense considering I reviewed all 110 book-length stories of this World War One flying ace who should be as big culturally as Doc Savage, Zorro, and so many other pulp icons. 
THE BAT STAFFEL (October 1933) – The very first G-8 pulp novel is at the top of my list. Not only does it nicely capture the tone and nature of the series, but it introduces the villainous mad scientist Doktor Krueger. That Teutonic terror would become the archenemy of G-8, Bull Martin and Nippy Weston as the series of novels rolled along. 
Len Kabasinski, the indie filmmaker behind such productions as Curse of the Wolf, Pact of Vengeance, Ninja: Prophecy of Death and many more, was kind enough to drop by Balladeer’s Blog and add his thoughts about the late Leo Fong.
INSTANT CLASSIC – In this game the BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE (Wisconsin) BOBCATS did battle with the FORT SCOTT COLLEGE GREYHOUNDS. 
LIKE I WAS SAYING ABOVE … – At the other end of the spectrum came this very lopsided affair between the defending champions – the FLORIDA GATEWAY COLLEGE TIMBERWOLVES – and the PASCO-HERNANDEZ STATE BOBCATS. 
ACTION COMICS Vol 1 #1 (June 1938) 
Superman takes down a wife-beater, saves Lois Lane from horny gangsters and clears a woman falsely convicted of murder by tying up the real killer – and even smashing his way into the governor’s mansion to make him call off her imminent execution. 
L’INFERNO (1911) – This 71-minute movie was an adaptation of Dante’s epic poem Inferno, one-third of his Divine Comedy along with Purgatorio and Paradiso. It was also Italy’s first feature-length film, beating Cabiria to theaters by three years. 
Second, L’Inferno has a certain grandeur from being filmed in Italy itself, the home of Dante Alighieri and his guide through Hell, Virgil. And third, nearly all of the footage set in the realm of the damned was filmed amid extinct and semi-extinct volcanoes in Italy, adding immeasurably to the infernal atmosphere. 
A DEMIGOD (1886) – Written by American author Edward Payson Jackson, this work preceded Philip Wylie’s Gladiator by more than 4 decades. 
FRANCOIS VILLON PART FIVE – We left off last time with Villon on the run again, having fled Paris after the Navarre College job in which he and his fellows robbed a record amount of gold for the time period. 
From early 1457 and for a few years more, Villon continued his outlaw existence in and around the French province of Anjou and the Loire River Valley. Depending on the source, Francois either officially became a member of the criminal fraternity called the Coquillards at this time or was already a member and deepened his ties to them. 
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