The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log » man on the moon

From our continental correspondent – Tintin first on the moon after all

Wim — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:14:12 +0000

As a afterthought to the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11′s moon landing over the weekend, at last the Vatican’s daily newspaper Osservatore Romano has given credit where credit is due. In an article in its weekend edition, it wrote that Neil Armstrong “was not the first human to tread on the surface of the moon,” but rather “the famous Tintin, who took off from the secret space base of Sbrodj, in Syldavia.”

In one of his most famous adventures, Tintin was sent to the moon by his creator, the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, in 1953, a full 16 years before Apollo 11 repeated the feat in reality. Hergé based his story on the information that was available in popular science journals and books at the time, and was later applauded for the amount of realism he had been able to inject in the story. Study materials, models and preparation for the book can these days be viewed at the new Hergé museum in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

As reported by AFP, The Osservatore continued “”You see Tintin and you would think you’re looking at (Buzz) Aldrin, if it weren’t for the attractive orange colour of Herge’s hero’s spacesuit,” only to add that then Pope Paul VI had much praise for the American achievement as well. But, as we all know, the Pope is infallible…

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium home of the first serious quiff on the Moon; you can read more of Wim’s thoughts on comics and art on his Ephemerist blog.

On this day…

Joe — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:49:36 +0000

On this day, forty years ago, human beings began the great odyssey to the Moon. The enormous engines on one of the largest craft ever built ignited and a huge Saturn V ascended into the skies on a blistering column of fire. Take a moment to just think about that. Its too easy now for the Moon missions to be recalled simply as a dry, historical fact, but think about what was actually being dared that July day in 1969, the efforts of thousands of engineers and scientists, vast resources and three men strapped inside the top of an enormous rocket carrying hopes and dreams towards a rendevous with history. All of this less than a decade after Yuri Gagarin had so spectacularly become the first human being in space, itself less than two decades since the first jet planes took to the skies and they, in turn, only four decades after Orville and Wilbur Wright made that few-seconds flight that was an earlier type of giant leap. Allow yourself to marvel at the thought for a moment – human beings were on their way, travelling to the Moon and it was magnificent; embrace that magical sense of wonder.

(the emblem for Apollo 11, (c) NASA; among the many programmes the BBC has mounted for the 40th anniversary you can hear Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin himself recalling those days here)

Blue Moon – Oli Smith joins the TARDIS

Joe — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:56:28 +0000

We all know Oli Smith for his comics creations, his fascinating (and often inventive) videos and the great public profile he’s given to the UK small press comics scene with his work with London Underground Comics. Now he’s joining the world of Doctor Who – the prologue for his Doctor Who story, Blue Moon, went live on the official BBC Who site this afternoon, with more parts to follow tomorrow, Friday and then the last part on Monday. And so far not a sight or sign of “a wheezing, groaning sound”! The story is set during the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission. On his blog Oli points out Blue Moon is actually his second Who story – he also has Total Eclipse of the Heart in this year’s Doctor Who Storybook whch should be out in August.

(a sketch Oli created to go along with his Doctor Who tale Blue Moon, (c) Oli Smith, Doctor Who (c) BBC)

A giant leap

Joe — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:03:13 +0000

Over on the Down The Tubes forum my fellow space geek John Freeman has been encouraging artists to send in work to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of human beings first walking on the Moon, as risky and dangerous a piece of exploration as any carried out in human history but which provided us with the magnificent triumph of Apollo 11′s lunar lander, the Eagle, touching down on the Moon on July 20th, 1969. A little later the first human footsteps in the entire history of our species were made on a celestial body that was not our own home world. Science fiction became science fact. It was a brilliant success for engineering ingenuity and sheer courage, and watched by many via another marvel of the age, globally broadcast television (Sir Arthur C Clarke would later comment that the first lunar landing had been described endlessly by many science fiction writers, in many ways, but they never anticipated a global audience watching those astronauts take that giant leap for manking on television).

(naturally John and collaborator Mike Nicoll had to add a tribute of their own from their science fiction series Ex Astris, which appears in Spaceship Away, online and on mobile phones)

Appropriately enough there are a number of events and programmes marking the fortieth anniversary of one of the most historic moments in history (the BBC is running a whole series of programmes across its network this month) and as a lifelong space geek and comics reader I’m rather pleased John’s brought together these tributes to the magnificent Apollo programme from our beloved genre; go and have a look. For any artists out there interested in contributing, John is still looking for more relevant lunar art.