PART FIVE Of FIREBALL XL5 - By MIGHTY MIKE NOBLE...

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And now... the penultimate episode in this six-part adventure starring STEVE ZODIAC and the crew of FIREBALL XL5.  (Originally featured in TV CENTURY 21 #38, cover-dated October 9th, 2065.)  Off the top of my head, I can't think of another U.K. artist other than MIKE NOBLE who employed the 'torch in the face' lighting technique usually associated with U.S. comics creator WALLACE WOOD.

Admittedly, there's no example of it in the accompanying two pages, but it was often evident in many of the strips that he illustrated in his long and illustrious career.  (I'm not suggesting that Noble imitated Wood, only that there was sometimes a similarity in the way they both rendered shadows on faces.)

Noble really was a brilliant storyteller, and his action scenes were always compelling and second to none.  Of the four Fireball Annual covers from the '60s, it is arguably the one by Mike Noble that remains in people's memories so long after the fact.  Quite a few artists, amongst them the renowned FRANK HAMPSON and DON LAWRENCE, drew the exploits of Fireball XL5 (in TV21 and other publications) over the years, but Noble remains the one most associated with the strip.  No mean feat in the face of such stiff competition.

Anyway, hopefully you've been enjoying this look back to yesteryear, and will join us again soon for the final part of this action-packed adventure.  (For Part Six, click here.)

CITY In The SKY...

Returning from the shops a week or two back, I stopped at a bench on the outskirts of the park near my home.  As I sat gazing into the distance and enjoying the rest, I was struck by the formation of the clouds on the horizon, which seemed to me like some vast Olympian city of the gods hovering in the sky.  In my imagination I could see tall, robed figures, their noble brows adorned with laurel wreaths, strolling leisurely amongst immense, marbled columns, untroubled by the cares and woes that so often beset we mere mortals.

The park greenery lay before me like JACK KIRBY's NEW GENESIS, while 'SUPERTOWN' floated serenely overhead.  Were they, in some benign and bemused way, studying we finite beings who live our lives in the blink of an eye compared to the eons-long span which gods are heir to?  Did they observe me looking longingly at their heavenly haven?  Did kindness touch their hearts for one brief moment and cause them to call to me, inviting me to stride the streets of their celestial city, there to spend my days in idyllic pursuits, free from the ravages of time?

Then a dog barked and, alas, the fragile spell was broken.  Returned to reality, I bent and retrieved the shopping bags which lay at my feet.  With one last lingering look at the city in the sky, I turned and slowly made my way up the hill to where, at journey's end, a far more humble home awaited me than the one which had so recently seemed to beckon.