Reassembling Eggs

Myron Slurve is an inventor. He is also a misanthrope. He is the latter because humanity doesn't appreciate his accomplishments as the former. (Also because women don't. Or maybe mostly because women don't.) His crowning achievement is a machine that projects a ray by which people and things can travel through time. He has also invented the coffee shower, the foldable baseball bat, and the egg reassembler. That all happened in the mid-1940s. Only now has science caught up with Myron. Only now have scientists uncracked the code on how to un-boil a hard-boiled egg. You can read more in a story called "Scientists Crack the Code on How to Un-Boil a Hard-Boiled Egg" by Liz Neporent at the website of ABC News (Jan. 26, 2015), here. Too late for Myron Slurve, his idea could lead to new ways to fight cancer.

Story and art copyright 2015 Terence E. Hanley

Text copyright 2015 Five Star Comics

Cherry Trees from Space

In a two-part story in Five Star Comics #2 and #3, The Amalga-Mates, the world's first Siamese twin superheroes, go up against Doctor Hugo Wickwaff, who is convinced that acorns taken on board the last space shuttle mission have special properties because they have been exposed to cosmic radiation. Doctor Wickwaff steals the acorns. The Amalga-Mates take on the task of retrieving them and delivering him to justice.

So why does Wickwaff think irradiated acorns have special powers? Because that's how his favorite comic book supergroup, The Fantabulous Five, got theirs. But that's just a comic book, you say. (Actually it's a comic book within a comic book.) Well, before you begin scoffing, read "'Cherry Tree from Space' Mystery Baffles Japan" on the website News.com.au (Apr. 12, 2014) by clicking here. There you will find that cherry tree seeds taken into space in 2008 and planted upon their return have resulted in young trees that have bloomed six years ahead of schedule.

"Exposure to cosmic rays?" you ask.

"Exposure to cosmic rays?" the author of the article asks. 

"Of course, there is the possibility that exposure to stronger cosmic rays accelerated the process of sprouting and overall growth," says Kaori Tomita-Yokotani, a researcher at the University of Tsukuba. "From a scientific point of view, we can only say we don't know why." We can only advise Kaori to read more comic books. We can only advise you that the trees bloomed on April 1.

Story copyright 2014 Terence E. Hanley

Art copyright 2014 Larry Blake and Tim Corrigan

Original text copyright 2014 Five Star Comics

Bad-Luck Bats

Art imitates life, but sometimes it goes the other way. A scene from Five Star Comics #2:

Now, from Cerros de Amotape National Park in Peru:

Photograph by Yufani Olaya

No, that's not a mutant. It's a cane toad that has just attempted to swallow a bat. What appear to be purple appendages on either side of the toad's mouth are actually the bat's wings. What appears to be a tongue is the bat's tail. Luckily for the bat, he made an unpalatable dish: the toad spat him out, he picked himself up, brushed himself off, then flew away.

You can read the whole story, "Alien-Like Creature Actually a Toad with a Big Appetite" by Pete Thomas, at the website GrindTV (Sept. 23, 2013), here.

Art copyright 2013 Terence E. Hanley

Text copyright 2013 Five Star Comics