More work in progress from the coming second issue of Folly Ground.
Alas, Luci’s Friday night does not turn out quite as planned. An unexpected televisual interference causes a disruption of a psychedelic nature. Or is it?
Trouble in dreams
Complicated matters of love and filial separation are brewing in far-away constellations. Yet another page of the currently in-progress second issue of Folly Ground, whose theme revolves around a cult scifi tv series (aka ‘Apparent Magnitude’) based on the myth of Pollux and Castor and a lucid dream of sorts that Luci has. The panels here relate to the two posts from 13 and 18 April this year that can be seen below. Progress is slow on this issue, but more will be forthcoming on this blog. Constructive comments always welcome.
Stranger than fiction
More artwork from the forthcoming ‘Folly Ground’ issue. In these pages, Luci has an unexpected encounter in an unexpected place. But is it real?
After 'Due South'
This week’s post was unexpectedly inspired by an old episode of ‘Due South’ I watched by chance on TV last weekend. ‘Due South’, for those old enough to remember, was a Canadian TV crime series from the 1990s about the adventures of Benton Fraser, an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Fraser travels to Chicago in order to investigate the murder of his father. He ends up staying there as a liaison officer in the Canadian embassy, and helps solve many more crimes alongside local detective Ray Vecchio. The TV series was broadcast on Greek (and British) television at the time, although sadly I can’t remember the title’s Greek translation now.
I never watched the series at the time, but last Saturday evening I found myself watching the last half hour of an episode entitled ‘Flashback’ (series 2). In it, a jewellery store is robbed and its owner kidnapped. Fraser loses his memory whilst pursuing the robbers/kidnappers in a getaway car, and Detective Vecchio must help him remember again in time to find the robbers. There is a scene where Fraser is sitting alone in the car waiting for Vecchio when the ghost of his dead father appears in the back seat. They start talking, but inevitably the conversation is interrupted by the returning Vecchio who asks Fraser: ‘Has anything happened?’. Fraser replies: ‘In what sense?’. In an otherwise unremarkable episode, this, I thought, was a nice illustration of what it’s like sometimes to live in your head. That scene stayed with me for a while afterwards. In fact, I liked Fraser’s deadpan reply so much that I decided that I had to get Luci, who often has surreal flights of the imagination in broad daylight, to say it.
So, in conclusion, even the most mundane aspects of popular culture sometimes reveal little nuggets of inspiration one can make use of in some way. If you don’t know or remember what ‘Due South’ is all about, here’s the Wikipedia entry for it.
Apparent Magnitude
Another week, another snippet from the currently in-progress Folly Ground #2. Apparent magnitude is an astronomic(al) term, and it measures the brightness of a star or any other celestial object that can be observed from the Earth. It is also the name of a cult science fiction television series in Folly Ground. The main plot is loosely based on the well-known myth of Castor and Pollux (Κάστωρ και Πολυδεύκης for Greek speakers), also known together as the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι), only this time it is transposed in space. The twin half-brothers (they have different fathers, and one is mortal whilst the other immortal) have been forcibly separated, and they spend the series trying to reunite and get back home to the constellation of Gemini.
‘Apparent Magnitude’ is broadcast on TV615 on Friday evenings at 7 p.m., followed by a repeat at midnight. Although it is not the most popular programme on Folly TV, it has a very loyal, almost fanatical, audience which has allowed the current second series to be filmed and broadcasted. Below is a full-page TV guide advert for the series — naturally in black and white.
Unsurprisingly, Luci and Raf are avid fans of ‘Apparent Magnitude’, never missing an episode. Flo is too, although his priorities are apt to change from time to time if a promising date with an intriguing girl appears on the Friday night horizon. Each one of them finds something to identify with, be it the various dramatic subplots, the technological gadgets, or the degree of attractiveness/coolness of the actors who play the various characters in the series.
Below are a couple of initial sketches of Pollux (left) and Castor (middle) as portrayed by the (fictional) actors Cirrus Reeves and Kirk Cumulus respectively. I should also add that their looks as seen here may or may not change as FG#2 develops. Click on the images if you’d like to see them a bit larger.
Finally, in case you’re wondering, I am only a science fiction fan in so far that I grew up watching ‘Star Trek’ (the original series) and ‘Flash Gordon’ on T.V., and the one film that has really defined my understanding of the genre has been ‘Blade Runner’ (of which I am still in awe of). Otherwise, I am, more or less, a complete ignoramus.
If you are sufficiently intrigued by Castor and Pollux, and would like to brush up on their lives and times, including their rather complex and frankly fantastical origin (twin half-brothers?! really?!), you can pay a visit to their Wikipedia entry.