{"id":1818,"date":"2010-12-28T21:07:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-29T02:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2010-12-28T21:07:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T02:07:06","slug":"day-89-more-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/2010\/12\/28\/day-89-more-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 89: Solar-Phone!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahhh, everything starts out nice and trippy for the gang — Jimmy O., Superman and “that resurrected rat-pack of rollicking rowdies,” the Newsboy Legion — when they attend the Hairies’ Friday night “sing in” at The Project! Unbeknownst to our heroes, Homo Usurpus<\/em>, the Four-Armed Terror, is about to make a rampaging entry into the vast underground government complex! But, let’s enjoy the Solar-Phone party while things are temporarily nice \u2019n\u2019 friendly!<\/p>\n

The mind-bending episode begins with typical Kirby hyperbole, with the caption reading: “Wild Area! Zoomway! Habitat! Outsiders!<\/em> Strange names in a strange world which has evolved in a great natural cavern beneath modern America! This is the world of The ‘Project<\/em>\u2019 — where the secret of the century has been kept! The harnessing<\/em> of the DNA molecule!!!!<\/em> The breaking of the genetic code!! Man<\/em> experimenting with life!! Jimmy Olsen<\/em> is there! And so is his pal Superman<\/em>. They’re alive and well among the wondrous DNA<\/em> denizens! But who can say for how long? — For a mighty, living juggernaut is fast<\/em> approaching!”<\/p>\n

Jimmy is seated and at the controls of a strange device, part keyboard, part image transmitter — and all<\/em>-Kirby in design! — and he’s sporting a wide grin. “Wow!<\/em> When the Hairies invited us to their dance, I never<\/em> imagined they’d let me officiate like this, Superman!\u201d<\/em> The Man of Steel, standing behind the young reporter, is wearing what appears to be oversize earphones with a type of visual attachment. “The Solar-Phone<\/em> is their latest<\/em> invention, Jimmy!”<\/p>\n

The there’s this caption: “Among the variety<\/em> of living species produced in The ‘Project<\/em>,\u2019 the ‘Hairies<\/em>\u2019 are amazingly productive! They are mechanical geniuses!<\/em> — And the Solar-Phone is new<\/em> evidence of their strange life-style! It gathers the radio-signals<\/em> from the stars and converts them into mental musical images!” Sitting on the floor before Jimmy and Superman is a horde of hippy-like Hairies, the Newsboy Legion among them, each wearing the same head device as the Last Son of Krypton, most holding hands and eyes closed, ready to embark on a journey into the mindscape! One girl says, “Our minds receive!<\/em> The ‘dance<\/em>‘ begins!” A hirsute fellow adds, “We are all together<\/em> — we hear<\/em> as one! We see<\/em> as one! We soar<\/em> as one!” Then the scuba-crazed Legionnaire chimes in: “Man!<\/em> This is cool!<\/em> It’s like a movie musical — and everybody’s in it! Includin’ me, Flippa-Dippa!<\/em>\u201d Superman tells his friend, “Keep playing, Jimmy!” You can’t<\/em> do anything wrong! The Solar-Phone arranges<\/em> all incoming signals into patterns of harmony!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And then, in three full pages of krazy Kirby kollages, we understand what all the excitement is about! “What the dancers see<\/em> is a new<\/em> and wondrous<\/em> universe of shifting, kaleidoscopic geometric forms!” The group seem to be experiencing what most of us would call a mass hallucinogenic acid trip, perceiving themselves as floating past fantastic images. Gabby is ecstatic, sharing with his fellow travelers, “Wow! <\/em>This is great! It’s like we’re floatin’ free in Wonderland!<\/em>\u201d Scrapper is similarly delighted: “It’s a nutty Hollywood set wit’ symphony music all around us!” But Big Words hears something different, telling his pals, “That’s not the music I hear!” Explains an opulently tressed young lady, “Each of us hears the music in the way it pleases him most!” Jimmy puts it best, gushing, “Groovy! <\/em>This is a real gas!” The Superman looks ahead and observes, “The scene is changing! What lies ahead?”<\/p>\n

The panorama switches to an even more fantastical sight — “Soon, the dancers are whirling and soaring past strangely bizarre<\/em> and beautiful worlds…” Giant flowers, massive planets, Buddhaheads, stone carvings abound. Notes Scrapper, “Dese flowers smell for real — like dey wuz from Kelly’s Funeral Parlor!<\/em>\u201d Even Superman is impressed, exclaiming, “Fantastic!<\/em> The Solar-Phone communicates all this!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Then — BWOM! POW!<\/em> — “Suddenly<\/em>, the enchanting dance is brought to a jarring halt!<\/em>\u201d The walls are quaking. “The shocks that bring the dancers back to harsh reality continue with fearful intensity!” Yup, the Four-Armed Terror is knockin’ on the front door! But that’s another episode…<\/p>\n

No doubt about it, the always prescient Jack Kirby envisions virtual reality here, right down to the headphones and goggles, mixed with the Merry Pranksters’ Kool-Aid Acid Test to keep it contemporary. Sure, it’s a diversionary moment, maybe even throw-away, but wondrous awe works superbly well with the pacing and the caption stating the Solar-Phone “gathers in the radio-signals<\/em> from the stars” certainly opens the doors for some story possibilities down the road.<\/p>\n

I love this kind of stuff from Jack because it represents the joyful side of imagination when contemplating future technology. Sheer wonder! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahhh, everything starts out nice and trippy for the gang — Jimmy O., Superman and “that resurrected rat-pack of rollicking rowdies,” the Newsboy Legion — when they attend the Hairies’ Friday night “sing in” at The Project! Unbeknownst to our heroes, Homo Usurpus, the Four-Armed Terror, is about to make a rampaging entry into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,6,15,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-entries","category-earth","category-jimmy-olsen-137","category-weapons-devices"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3urou-tk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirbymuseum.org\/blogs\/365fourth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}