Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of B.C. Boyer’s neglected 1980s superhero the Masked Man. For Part One click HERE
ECLIPSE MONTHLY Vol 1 #9 (June 1984)
Title: Goodbye
Villains: The Joe Manfredi Gang
Synopsis: The Masked Man shared this issue of Eclipse Monthly with the sword & sorcery trio Steel, Stealth and Magic (cover art) and the old west gunslinger Rio.
The story opens at the offices of The Daily Horn newspaper a day or two after the attack by the Architectural Terrorists. The staff is still grinding out their daily paper while repairs are done to all the damage inflicted during last issue’s battle.
The Masked Man (Dick Carstairs) is on-hand as Editor-In-Chief J Judah Johnson (a pastiche of J Jonah Jameson) assigns our hero’s reporter friend Barney McAllister to scour the city to see if any more members of the Architectural Terrorists are still at large. Continue reading
A PLUNGE INTO SPACE (1890) – Written by THE Robert Cromie, later editions of this novel came with a preface by Jules Verne himself. Scientist Henry Barnett, after 20 years of labor, has mastered “the ethereal force which permeates all things,” a combination of electricity and gravity. This mastery will allow for interplanetary space travel. 
In anticipation of encounters with hostile life-forms on other planets, the clique has also manufactured disintegrator weapons, with which they fight off curious parties of indigenous tribes in order to preserve their secret. 
PART THIRTY-NINE – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets in the September of 1910 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer: 
*** “Republocrats,” as Pearson and his Fool Killer called the corrupt fraternity of career politicians/ career criminals who belonged to the two gangs called Democrats and Republicans. Today the term is spelled “Republicrats.” 
THE INVISIBLE MAN (1984) – This was a British television miniseries version of the H.G. Wells science fiction story and was originally aired in 6 episodes of 27 minutes each. It was later edited and repackaged as 3 episodes running 50 minutes each. 
Pip Donaghy shines as the madman Griffin and conveys a true sense of danger behind his envelope-pushing scientific brilliance. Much of his performance rests on his terrific voice-acting, naturally, but he is always convincing. 
STALKER – With the WITCHER series such a sensation right now, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the forgotten 1970s sword, sorcery and fantasy series called Stalker. 
STALKER #1 (July 1975) 
UTOPIA or THE HISTORY OF AN EXTINCT PLANET, PSYCHOMETRICALLY OBTAINED (1884) – Written by Alfred Denton Cridge. An unnamed narrator comes across the remains of a meteor that entered Earth’s atmosphere. This narrator has the gift of psychometry (the author’s uncle was THE William Denton) and after he picks up the tangerine-sized chunk of black rock from another planet he begins getting impressions from it. 
The planet was just 2,500 miles across and was home to a race of roughly 5 1/2 feet tall humanoids, some with yellow skin, some with brown skin and others with gray skin. All the races had long, black hair. Utopia sported Earthlike plains, mountains, lakes and rivers with just one huge ocean. 
*** Senator Gore himself, for muddying the waters of his own accusations by accusing Vice President James S Sherman of an illicit interest in the land deal. Gore wound up having to admit that his accusation was based on hearsay. 
THE AMERICAN GIRLS – If you’ve ever wondered what Charlie’s Angels might have been like if it had tried doing slightly (very slightly) more serious stories, The American Girls is your answer. Priscilla Barnes in her pre-Three’s Company days co-starred with Debra Clinger in her post-Clinger Sisters days in this series about two sexy female reporters for a television news program. 
Barnes played Rebecca Tomkins and Clinger portrayed Amy Waddell, two field journalists for The American Report, a fictional 60 Minutes or 20/20 style television news magazine. They traveled the country in a van which served as a mobile studio with plenty of up to date equipment. David Spielberg played their producer Francis X Casey, making him a combination Charlie AND Bosley for the show. 
