funny pages

THE FUNNY PAGES

Comics by Dan McConnell

COMICS AND NOVELTIES

by ron evans

rayguns

Rayguns. One of the coolest (and cruelest) devices in the scifi world and an item that still seems to largely be tied to the eras of its invention (Victorian) and of its widespread popularity (1940s and 1950s) which has mostly kept them retro, steampunk or googie with that glorious mid century modern Space Age flare.

It seems that the raygun was a literary invention (though some claim there were earlier examples) of H.G. Wells as most historians believe they first appeared in Wells’ 1898 classic The War Of The Worlds as the terrifying, and incredibly effective, Heat-Ray. According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction the actual word “raygun” was first used by Victor Rousseau in 1917, in a passage from The Messiah of the Cylinder. And while for now, the world seems to be safe from a real life death ray, many Tesla researchers claim the prolific scientist was onto one of his own over 100 years ago. Some of those more fringe experts even say it’s possible that Tesla caused the mysterious Tunguska explosion in Siberia in 1908 whilst he was testing his death ray many miles away. A neat thought but...probably not accurate.

Still, one has to wonder where we are concerning the reality of a gun that separates our much-needed flesh from our bones. The saying is whatever technology we the people know about and have access to, the military has had for 10 years. The real rub is, if they had one of these “where the hell did that guy just go!” type of rayguns - they could be using them all the time, we’d never know because...he gone. Fun thoughts!