BangZoom Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theagenes Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I decided to pull out my Classics Illustrated yesterday and read a few. One of the ones I read was Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe. I've read quite a few Poe stories through the years but I'd never heard of Hans Pfall. Here's a little bit of background info about the story. From Wikipedia: The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in the June 1835 issue of the monthly magazine Southern Literary Messenger, and intended by Poe to be a hoax. Poe planned to continue the hoax in further installments, but was upstaged by the famous Great Moon Hoax which started in the August 25, 1835 issue of the New York Sun daily newspaper. Poe later wrote that the flippant tone of the story made it easy for educated readers to see through the supposed hoax. Plot summary The story opens with the delivery to a crowd gathered in Rotterdam of a manuscript detailing the journey of a man named Hans Pfaall. The manuscript, which comprises the majority of the story, sets out in detail how Pfaall contrived to reach the moon by benefit of a revolutionary new balloon and a device which compresses the vacuum of space into breathable air. The journey takes him nineteen days, and the narrative includes descriptions of the Earth from space as well as the descent to its fiery, volcanic satellite. Pfaall withholds most of the information regarding the surface of the moon and its inhabitants in order to negotiate a pardon from the Burgomaster for several murders he committed as he left earth (creditors of his who were becoming irksome). After reading the manuscript, the city authorities agree that Pfaall should be pardoned, but the messenger who brought them the text (apparently a resident of the moon) has vanished and they are unable to restore communication with him. Literary significance Poe's story may have had an influence on, and is referenced in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, which seems to be a retelling of the story. Very interesting, BZ. I've read a lot of Poe as well and I had never heard of this one either. Very cool. Thanks for sharing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBedrock Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I'm still having trouble with the fact that Hans threw that box of kittens out of the balloon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theagenes Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 That was pretty horrible---although it was accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciorac Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 That was pretty horrible---although it was accident. He wept for them. What more do you want? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theagenes Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 That was pretty horrible---although it was accident. He wept for them. What more do you want? Soft kitty. . . warm kitty. . . little ball of fur. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciorac Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 That was pretty horrible---although it was accident. He wept for them. What more do you want? Soft kitty. . . warm kitty. . . little ball of fur. . . Sheldon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 I decided to pull out my Classics Illustrated yesterday and read a few. One of the ones I read was Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe. I've read quite a few Poe stories through the years but I'd never heard of Hans Pfall. Here's a little bit of background info about the story. From Wikipedia: The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in the June 1835 issue of the monthly magazine Southern Literary Messenger, and intended by Poe to be a hoax. Poe planned to continue the hoax in further installments, but was upstaged by the famous Great Moon Hoax which started in the August 25, 1835 issue of the New York Sun daily newspaper. Poe later wrote that the flippant tone of the story made it easy for educated readers to see through the supposed hoax. Plot summary The story opens with the delivery to a crowd gathered in Rotterdam of a manuscript detailing the journey of a man named Hans Pfaall. The manuscript, which comprises the majority of the story, sets out in detail how Pfaall contrived to reach the moon by benefit of a revolutionary new balloon and a device which compresses the vacuum of space into breathable air. The journey takes him nineteen days, and the narrative includes descriptions of the Earth from space as well as the descent to its fiery, volcanic satellite. Pfaall withholds most of the information regarding the surface of the moon and its inhabitants in order to negotiate a pardon from the Burgomaster for several murders he committed as he left earth (creditors of his who were becoming irksome). After reading the manuscript, the city authorities agree that Pfaall should be pardoned, but the messenger who brought them the text (apparently a resident of the moon) has vanished and they are unable to restore communication with him. Literary significance Poe's story may have had an influence on, and is referenced in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, which seems to be a retelling of the story. Very interesting, BZ. I've read a lot of Poe as well and I had never heard of this one either. Very cool. Thanks for sharing this. It actually made me so curious that I read the first half of the original Hans Pfaall story this morning. It was obviously intended to be humorous, but it has some elements that clearly are very early science fiction. A quick search revealed that the story indeed is considered among the earliest in the genre as it was published just 17 years after "Frankenstein". I was surprised by how different this lighthearted yarn is from Poe's later horror stories and his personal tragedies. If anyone knows more about this, I'd be very interested in your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB-Gun Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) I like the Green Turtle covers. Very nice. Am I remembering correctly that you posted a couple of pages from a Green Turtle story a couple of years ago? I recall a cool splash that is likely the one Et-Es-Go said was in issue #1. Yes, you are correct. I posted this scan a while back. It took me a while to find it because I labeled it incorrectly. Scan is from Comic Book Plus. Edited June 20, 2012 by BB-Gun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
excelsior1986 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I like his turtle knife. It looks like something the turtleman from call of the wildman should have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 I decided to pull out my Classics Illustrated yesterday and read a few. One of the ones I read was Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe. I've read quite a few Poe stories through the years but I'd never heard of Hans Pfall. Here's a little bit of background info about the story. From Wikipedia: The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in the June 1835 issue of the monthly magazine Southern Literary Messenger, and intended by Poe to be a hoax. Poe planned to continue the hoax in further installments, but was upstaged by the famous Great Moon Hoax which started in the August 25, 1835 issue of the New York Sun daily newspaper. Poe later wrote that the flippant tone of the story made it easy for educated readers to see through the supposed hoax. Plot summary The story opens with the delivery to a crowd gathered in Rotterdam of a manuscript detailing the journey of a man named Hans Pfaall. The manuscript, which comprises the majority of the story, sets out in detail how Pfaall contrived to reach the moon by benefit of a revolutionary new balloon and a device which compresses the vacuum of space into breathable air. The journey takes him nineteen days, and the narrative includes descriptions of the Earth from space as well as the descent to its fiery, volcanic satellite. Pfaall withholds most of the information regarding the surface of the moon and its inhabitants in order to negotiate a pardon from the Burgomaster for several murders he committed as he left earth (creditors of his who were becoming irksome). After reading the manuscript, the city authorities agree that Pfaall should be pardoned, but the messenger who brought them the text (apparently a resident of the moon) has vanished and they are unable to restore communication with him. Literary significance Poe's story may have had an influence on, and is referenced in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, which seems to be a retelling of the story. Very interesting, BZ. I've read a lot of Poe as well and I had never heard of this one either. Very cool. Thanks for sharing this. It actually made me so curious that I read the first half of the original Hans Pfaall story this morning. It was obviously intended to be humorous, but it has some elements that clearly are very early science fiction. A quick search revealed that the story indeed is considered among the earliest in the genre as it was published just 17 years after "Frankenstein". I was surprised by how different this lighthearted yarn is from Poe's later horror stories and his personal tragedies. If anyone knows more about this, I'd be very interested in your thoughts. It's one of his earliest published stories so I would guess he was still finding his voice as a writer; and since he was still a young man, he probably was a happier less troubled individual than he was later in life. I'm doing lots of reading this summer, maybe I'll see what the library has to offer in the way of Poe biographies next time I go there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 I like the Green Turtle covers. Very nice. Am I remembering correctly that you posted a couple of pages from a Green Turtle story a couple of years ago? I recall a cool splash that is likely the one Et-Es-Go said was in issue #1. Yes, you are correct. I posted this scan a while back. It took me a while to find it because I labeled it incorrectly. Scan is from Comic Book Plus. That's the one! Thanks for reposting it, BB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the differing approaches (serious vs. humorous) that Timely and Street & Smith took responding to the negative stories that the press was printing about the comic industry in the late 40's. The text story in Supersnipe was one that I hadn't noticed before stumbling across it yesterday while reading a bunch of Street & Smith comics. December 1948 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 February 1949 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 April 1949 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 June 1949 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 August 1949 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangZoom Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 Supersnipe v4#11 (April-May 1949) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sacentaur Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 The grown-ups of this world owe you young people an apology, becasue we haven't made the world a very secure and peaceful place in which to live. Whether published in June 1949 or June 2012, this unfortunately still rings true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
