Time for a little art.
Once upon a time, in the distant past, I had ambitions to become a comic book artist. I wrote and drew my own. My models…well, I am very much a fan of extreme realism, so some of the less mimetic, more representational comic art leaves me unimpressed. My idol when I was a kid, trying to do this, was Russ Manning. He was the ne plus ultra of comics technicians, and not only because of his superb style, but for the substance of the comics he did. Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 A.D. was just about everything I ever wanted in a comic book, along with its spin-off, The Aliens, which did not last very many issues.…