Some clues on dating the bamboo hang glider art with the control frame seems to be told on an piece that Jill is apparently selling...the original:
The written statement on that art:
Quote:
"From a 1938 and 1939 episode featuring Smilin' Jack, alias POWDER, a spy and a prisoner in Devils Kitchen on Death Rock. Also we see the famous makeshift glider escape ..."
Quote:
"Hot Rock Glide"
Episode where Jack escapes from Death Rock by building a Bamboo Glider. $35.00
Conclusion on dating the images of the bamboo hang glider: The images were at least available in the "1938 and 1939" period; because of syndication, the images may have been reproduced in many newspapers and books; facts on the radiant copies are not known to me. But this time period is then definitely before 1962. And this might have been one hang glider that Jim may have seen; his research papers lent to me had indication of a studying of early 1900s hang glider material. We still do not exhaust Smilin' Jack yet as to hang gliders. Anyone?
The old issues of comic books are collector items that sell for big dollar amounts. However, since a large amount of the art of Smilin' Jack showed in books and newspapers, one is teased to find Smilin' Jack hang gliders showing in more places than the comic books. The tease in the "HOT ROCK GLIDE" art piece is the use of the word "famous" for the makeshift glider escape. What is behind the use of the word "famous" in that; and what might that fame done to public consciousness of hang gliders?
For research: On the Wing debuted with the other new strips on October 1, 1933. Five weeks after the strip started, Mosley got a telegram in Chicago from Patterson: “Change the name of On the Wing to Smilin’ Jack,” it said. Mosley wired back: “The name of the main character is Mack not Jack.” But Patterson was not deterred by details: “Change name to Smilin’ Jack,” he responded.
Informative on the artist-aviator and the beginnings of Smilin' Jack:
http://www.tcj.com/smilin-zack-mosleys- ... ue-yonder/Quote:
A feeler to Neil Larson has been put out to see if we know if hang glider Jack Lambie had been familiar with Smilin' Jack. My gut feel is a yes on that, having known Jack's aviation interests and his name and his Hang Loose plans and his very manner; indeed, now knowing more of Jack Mosley and the Smilin' Jack, I sense a kind of reincarnation in Jack Lambie. Speculation here.
Quote:
Jack's first big break in newspapers was with the aviation-focused series called "
On the Wing" For research we clip a quote from the above linked article:
Quote:
On the Wing debuted with the other new strips on October 1, 1933. Five weeks after the strip started, Mosley got a telegram in Chicago from Patterson: “Change the name of On the Wing to Smilin’ Jack,” it said. Mosley wired back: “The name of the main character is Mack not Jack.” But Patterson was not deterred by details: “Change name to Smilin’ Jack,” he responded.
For hang gliding history purposes, the duplication of the comic strips is fertile, I think. I clip a quote from the same page as above quote:
Quote:
Smilin’ Jack was reprinted in comic books during the 1940s and 1950s and collected in two saddle-stitched paperbacks Mosley published, Hot Rock Glide: August 1938-March 1939 (1979) and De-Icers Galore: April-August 1941 including some sample Sundays, 1934-40 (1980). Two other paperback collections from Classic Comic Strips, Volume 1 and 2 (n.d.), carry the continuity from the first daily strip, June 15, 1936, to March 20, 1938 (Volume 1 reprinting the first On the Wing), followed by a quarterly magazine that published about two dozen issues covering much of the period from March 20, 1939 to July 4, 1948. A movie serial, “The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack,” appeared in 1942 from Universal. The New York Times published Mosley’s obituary on December 25, 1993.
My sidebar about the first name "On the Wing" is a very visceral connection with the wing, perhaps the root of hang gliding....maybe human on the wing or human hanging on the wing. Hang gliding seems very much a hanging on or from the wing thing. Around the cartoon series, forgive yourself and others if names get confused around Zack, Mack, and Jack, as that was part of the real story.
