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Back Mail Angel's Archives When the people at Bop Archival Development City Office asked me to contribute to the website, I didn't know what they expected. I thought everyone was familiar with Sam's story and couldn't see myself adding to it. Then they explained that no one else shared the story with Sam the way I had and they really wanted my insights and point of view on the beginnings of Bop. I agreed to offer my reminiscences and will contact some of my and Sam's friends to "fill in the blanks" when I wasn't there. I suppose I should start at the beginning, when I met Sam. It was 1945 in Acuña; Sam was working at radio station XION and I was traveling with my uncle selling baby chicks from his farm. He and Sam made a deal and they both became rich from those chicks. It wasn't the last time Sam got rich either, but I'll get to that. It was May 19, warm and steamy. My uncle had a nice car, but no air conditioning then, and colored folk weren't often welcome to stop for cool air...or anything else. When we entered the radio station, it looked like a madman's cell. Sam would announce the records and do the sales pitches, work the phone and make deals, answer the door and settle in guests...he worked ten-hour shifts every day on the air and another three or four hours on the phones. He was heard all over the States and Mexico, clear to Canada and almost to Europe. And he was wearing himself out. Seeing this, and knowing how successful Sam was, my uncle made Sam a deal. He had Sam hire me for a cut of the chicken money; as long as the chicks sold, my salary was paid. I would stay as Sam's assistant: answering phones, setting up interviews, eventually even running the board for him at times. I suppose that was when people first started to think of Sam and me as a couple, but we weren't. In fact, we never were, much to the surprise of most people. Two people don't usually work closely together for almost 40 years without something developing, but Sam was different. He was totally devoted to the music, and would do whatever it took to see it survive and prosper. Everything else--the cartoons, the movies, even the Park and city--was ancillary for him, as long as it served the music. That day was special for a lot of reasons, actually. I joined Sam, but he really wasn't alone. Dr. Amwerth was with him, like he had been since that day on the ship. I think I'll get one of Sam's Navy buddies to tell that one. But another old friend--a Navy friend--also joined Sam that day. Not as close to him physically as I was, because he was on his way to California, but Burk Wise was as close to Sam in business as anyone would ever be. March 12, 2008 I was worried when I agreed to provide this column for BAD CO. that people would grow bored with my memories. Then I recalled: Sam has been called the World's Most Recorded Man. From the time he could afford it, Sam made recordings of his conversations, meetings, even informal strolls through the park or elsewhere. It's why so many revelatory documentaries exist about Sam and the Park. Then I thought: Sam was always transparent about those recordings and the Park loves to release them to allow more insight into its past. Why not integrate them into these logs so you, the reader, get a better sense of Sam and those in his world? So whenever they're available I'll transcribe those tapes appropriate to the story and you can be right there with us. I promised to tell you about what else happened the day I came to work for Sam. Burk Wise, another Navy friend of Sam's, had come to show Sam what he had been doing since the war. He had been developing animated cartoons even while he was in the service, like Ted Siegel or Sparky Brown. Now that he was out he was on his way to Hollywood to sign contracts. He and Sam had been close and he wanted to offer Sam a role in the new business. Sam knew very little then about that kind of entertainment, but he had helped Burk get on his feet and both men knew they wanted to maintain a business relationship. Sam gave Burk $5000 to help cover his expenses getting across the country and setting up in California, and they signed an agreement giving Sam a half-interest in the new business. As much as Sam believed in his friend, he never expected the Wacky Boys to become the most successful animation and, later, film production house in the world. Burk's first short, Manic Melody, was released that fall and was an immediate smash. It featured Hillbilly Cat, a seemingly slow-witted gray cat who reliably got the better of any situation (sort of like Burk himself, now that I think of it.) In Melody, 'Billy was hired to sweep up a theatre. The piano player arrived for work drunk and 'Billy changed clothes with him, stuffed him in a closet, and played his shift. The audience loved him and demanded the owner keep him. The owner was outraged and threw 'Billy out. It turned out the piano player was the owner's nephew and the owner's wife pummeled him with an umbrella for 1) letting her nephew get drunk and 2) letting him be locked in a closet. The owner had to retain his nephew-in-law, while 'Billy took a job playing piano across the street at his competitor's theatre. The audience, of course, abandoned the first theatre en masse and the short closed on 'Billy pounding the piano with a giddy smile while money rained around him. It was a new kind of madcap cartoon, and more importantly featured the kind of music Sam had championed in the service when Burk met him: a raucous, rhythm-driven dance beat with a playful melody on top. Anthony Chess would have recognized it instantly, and in fact the Wacky Boys would produce promotional films for him and many other rock and roll pioneers in the next decade. March 19, 2008 I wanted to introduce Dr. Amwerth to Sam's story, because some people know how important he was to Sam's success, and many do not, and either way the story needs to be told. However, they first were acquainted when Sam was in the Navy and his crew was called upon to help the doctor get one of his experiments out of Europe. Since I wasn't there, I called on one of Sam's shipmates to get his memories of that event. At first I thought he might be reluctant to talk about it. I was wrong. Once Red North started talking, he wouldn't stop. I'll be returning to his stories in the future for more about Sam's days before we met, but for now I'll let him tell you about the Incident at Sea. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • It had been a dull few weeks previously. We had left Liverpool on July 24 and hadn't even laid eyes on our special passengers. It was strange how that used to happen. We'd be sent on special missions, picking up people and packages and never knowing what was going on, but this time we sure learned. We had been at sea for two days at that time and it was just getting light. A group of us were gathered around Sam in the radio shack, like we often were. He was a genius with that stuff and he'd finagle around until he picked up music for all of us. Course he was always up to that anyway. He useta tell us about meeting Jordan Louis when he was working at Dekka in New York before he signed up. In fact, he had found a Louis show that morning. I don't remember if he was picking it up live from somewhere or if it had been recorded, but the man was on fire. I remember it was Louis because the rest of were having to listen to Beefy Guignon rant about how no self-respecting white man would ever buy his music. Beefy was like that. He'd dance at the canteen no matter who played, but he couldn't stand people thinking he would associate with or support the coloreds. Think I heard his granddaughter might have changed his mind. That morning was quiet, like I said. But then we heard a commotion on deck. We were under attack. The Germans had a squadron coming at us and they hadn't even shown up on our screens. Well, it wasn't the first or last time we'd see something like that. Sam was a whiz with the radio, but it wasn't up to him to keep everything on the ship working and sometimes things just happened. So we scrambled, but it was pretty clear we were in trouble. There were a dozen planes and we had no one near us. We were supposed to be running alone so it wouldn't be obvious we had anyone important on board. Turns out it didn't matter and we were lucky we had who we did. I'm amazed to this day that we heard what we did. Even over the explosions, the shouts, the planes, we heard that thing bursting through the doctor's cabin walls and tearing into the planes. It was seven and a half feet tall, and looked like a naked orange man. No hair, made like a G.I Joe doll, but it looked at those planes and next thing you knew it took off from the ship like it was just gonna jump off the edge of the world. It leaped up and caught hold of one of the planes, tore off the canopy, pulled the pilot out, and tossed him onto the deck. The fall and impact killed him, and the thing went on to the next. It either figured out or decided to start flying, so after it couldn't leap from plane to plane anymore it started flying after them. In the end we shot down four from the ship and the thing--Amwerth called it 'Quantum'--tore apart the rest. He didn't let any escape, and if they radioed anything back about it I guess their superiors didn't believe it. It wasn't until Amwerth was stateside that we started to hear about his mechanical soldier, and by then the home front was so thick with powered heroes he almost got lost. After the war, though, that was a different story--but I guess Miss Black will be telling that. You know, for all that chaos that day, we only lost one man, and I don't know if the Navy ever knew it. See, it was a fella named Razak. He was a Malaysian refugee who had been on his own and travelled all the way from his home to England. He had helped out with the Royal Navy for a while, then he met Sam while we were on leave in Liverpool picking up the doctor. I think they fell in together because they were both orphans--rootless, you know? Anyway, Sam worked a deal with Skipper so Razak came aboard and enlisted, but since he didn't have any papers, proof of citizenship, or anything I don't think he ever hit the scrolls officially. Well, during the battle he was too close to the edge and an explosion carried him over the side. By the time we could look for him he was long gone. I felt sorry for the little guy. He'd been through so much I guess I thought he deserved to do more before he went out that way. March 31, 2008 As you could see from the last installment, Red North had a lot to say about his Navy experience with Sam, so I’m turning this edition of Black Mail into an extra-long entry and letting Red take the floor. I’m sure you’ll agree it’s worth it. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • So this Quantum creature—I guess you’d call it an android now, but we just called him a robot (although I think Mike called him a golem)—he cut through those Jerry aircraft like the Black Flare or the Swing Sisters, or like the Hipster, the Swing Kids, or Midnight Cannonball were tearing up the Bundists back home. What we had yet to learn, though, was how his energy blasts would affect us all.
He really only let loose with those quanta-blasts once on the deck. After that, Amwerth told him to get in the air to do his fighting. I guess he hadn’t done any field tests and didn’t know how the overspill would react. I know this is supposed to be about Sam, but the only thing to tell about him here is how he was about the only one on the deck that day (besides poor Razak) who wasn’t affected. Eight of us were, though, and since the last of us has pretty much retired from the life we led after that day, I got clearance from the boys to tell our story.
The closer we were to Quantum that day, the stronger, the longer-lasting and the more diverse the abilities were we gained. I was second farthest, and I still have a level of strength a man a quarter my age would be happy with. In 1946, I could lift a tank and use it as a baseball bat. Now any physicist would tell you picking up a tank by its cannon shouldn’t work, so it seems maybe our abilities included some kind of telekinesis or...something. No one has ever fully explained how our quantum powers work, and we’ve had over 60 years to research them. But I’ll let Angel get into that. The point is, I got strong and tough—you still can’t cut me with any regular blade—and called myself Centurion. Vic de Vries became Steelsmith. He could generate and control these organic steel fingers. He could make cages, poles, even arms really. He, Mike Dudek, Greg Reiersen were all about the same distance away. Mike became Lodestone, able to control magnetism—and later, we found out, electronics, which came in damn handy from about the mid-50s on. Even after he retired, he worked for the military. They never found a way to exactly duplicate his powers, but he was invaluable to hundreds of missions. Greg called himself the Golden Ghost; we gave him hell for that, but none of us could come up with anything better either. He could manipulate gravity, as it affected him or anyone or anything else. He was the best flier among us.
Oh yeah. We could all fly. We were all stronger, tougher, and faster than we were before, more than most any other human—excepting some of those guys I mentioned above, and the other heroes of the age. Maybe Angel will have me back to talk about some of my old pals and some of the bastards we fought. (Sorry, Angel. That’s the Navy in me coming out again.)
So, Greg, me, Mike, Vic. Chet Whitshaw, the southern boy. God, he was a good fella. He picked up energy blasts. Could flatten a battalion all by himself. I know cause I saw him do it. Called himself Howitzer. He was also the fastest of us, which we always laughed about. A good ole boy like that, normally you could see the dead flies dropping off him, and now he was so fast, he’d disappear faster than a case of beer at Beefy’s house.
Ah, Beefy. Y’know, no one liked Beefy. He was a big guy with a small mind, fighting a war for his country while he bitched about having to ‘protect’ a bunch of Frogs, Russkies, Polacks, Stripes, Kikes, you name it, Beefy hated em. Now, remember, that’s his words, not mine; I’m just tryin to show you how hard it was to work with him, even before the powers. But after that, we knew we were stuck with him. If we tried to lock a guy like that out, it would mean we’d have to fight him, and with his powers, probably kill him. I’m not saying we never did that—it was a war—but it would have been tough. His powers? Beefy became Blackball; he could generate these black spheres of energy and use them to construct anything he thought of. Admittedly, that was his weakness—Beefy never could think of a hell of a lot—but he made an impressive opponent, and a time or two when we did have to fight him it was a challenge (yeah, we fought him—mind control. It was the fifties.) Another note about Beefy and his prejudices—I don’t know if he couldn’t figure out his teammates’ backgrounds or if he was one of these guys who hates a whole group of people but can’t deny an individual’s worth when he gets to know him, but he never seemed to catch on that Pete and Mike were Polish (Pete’s folks didn’t even speak English), Vic was Dutch, and I’m Irish-Italian. The best joke is that my wife Linda did some research on Beefy’s family tree after she joined us as Lady Blue, our coordinator, and found out his ancestors were Huguenots.
Pete Novak got a big dose from Quantum, too. He became the Caul, and I always wondered how hard that was on him—he was catatonic during that first fight, and we didn’t have time to deal with it right then. As it turned out, we probably couldn’t have anyway. His abilities were mental; his mind was instantly opened up with telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, postcognition—all that stuff the CIA has fooled with for years just switched on in his head. The way he described it he could reach out to any mind anywhere, human, alien, animal, anything. The overload shut him down for days and he went through the motions of life without communicating. When he ‘came back’ and tried to explain, he quit almost instantly because he could drop the thoughts directly into our heads. He may have been the most powerful of us, and he was certainly the best of us for having to deal with that.
That leaves Eli Feder, Sequoia. He was the toughest of us, even though he was the farthest from Quantum. He turned indestructible, and is able to impart some of that durability to others. We never knew if it was limited in any way, so we never asked him to ‘share’ with us, although Chet and Vic both took injuries during our adventures that led him to do so on his own.
And that’s how the Navy Blues were born. Now in the sixty years since, some of us retired and our kids and grandkids have taken over, since it turned out our abilities could be inherited. They have faded with each generation, but the Blues remain a pretty tough crew—tough enough we all figured it was okay to tell our story. Thanks again, Angel—it was fun to reflect on the old days again.
And thank you, Red—no one can tell the story like one who was there!
Thanks to Red North for his memories. April 3, 2008 I’d previously promised to tell you more about Dr. Amwerth, Quantum, and the Elgim. Given last week’s lead-in from Red North, I think the time has come. After the war, Sam and the doctor traveled the country a good bit scouting locations for the Park. Much as he had before enlisting, Sam sought out live music wherever he went. Now he was intent on building a resort area celebrating the music he loved, as well as capitalizing on the success the Wacky Boys were having in Hollywood. In 1953 Amwerth convinced him to check the Memphis area, which Sam did indeed relish. He was still undecided; he liked Chicago but was afraid the climate would never work out. He also visited Burk Wise in Hollywood in 1953 but was unsatisfied with land availability. He returned to Crittenden County, Arkansas, which had become his home base, and made his pitch to the town council of Rockville: he would be given carte blanche to tear down the town and construct, as he saw fit, the world’s first and only rock and roll theme park that is a city. In return, he guaranteed the residents of the county a higher standard of living for one generation—20 years of prosperity. If the residents chose to leave town, so be it. If they stayed, they lived and worked at Sam’s will—where and how he directed, with the promise of more money and better living conditions.
The most strenuous objections came from two bodies: the farmers and the Morrises. The farmers saw the proposal as the forced extinction of their way of life. Sam’s initial plan—to build the city over the farmland and install light-diffusing lenses throughout the park—was shot down; the farmers refused to be ‘moles’ for Sam, and seemed ready to block the Park at any cost. Ultimately, Sam paid to relocate the intractable parties in toto outside the county. He moved to move the houses, barns, even the soil itself to a depth that insured the families were in fact plowing their ancestral earth. Once finished, however, they enjoyed no promise of security like the townsfolk who remained. Some succeeded and some failed, the farmer’s life for centuries.
The Morrises, meanwhile, had been Rockville’s most prominent family for years. Morton Morris was elected mayor in 1942. His son Marvin practiced law in town. Both opposed Sam’s offer, knowing it represented at least a significant blow to the family’s power. Although the town was split on the decision, Sam prevailed and construction began in 1956. Sam continued to travel the world gathering inspiration for the park. Amwerth was gathering things, too, as you’ll learn next time. April 9, 2008 The reason Amwerth had been so intent on Sam basing his operations in Rockville was his knowledge of the area’s peculiar history. Rockville had been one of the few small towns before or during the war with meta-heroic activity. The Mechanic was Rockville’s first powered hero, but he was soon joined by the original King Cougar, the Prophet, the Rockville Warrior and the Thunder Road Irregulars, Man O’War, and others. This heroic tradition appealed to Sam also, and led directly to some of Amwerth’s later activities. The doctor really exploited the city’s pride in its native heroes by introducing new versions of the classics and originals of his own creation by the combination of his quantum research, genetic material collected over the years of his association with Sam, and one more element about which almost no one knew.
Everyone is familiar with Wacky Ranch, the theme unlike any other. Established in 1985 on the site of Junior and Maggie Yasgur’s farm, it is the home of Hillbilly Cat, DooWop Duck, and all Bop’s other cartoon mascots. What is lost on most people, though, is that these characters are actual living beings. They were once normal household pets, farm and wild animals, but were mutated and evolved by sudden exposure to radical energies.
And those energies? Beginning in the 1940s, there was a sharp rise worldwide in reports of UFOs, particularly in the US. There was a reason for this, but I have much more to tell you about Sam and the Park before we get to that. For now, it’s important to know that this ‘flying-saucer fever’ made the reports of August 1950 much easier to dismiss. Many reports came in that night not only of a flying saucer, but a flying saucer seemingly in distress, even crashing a few miles west of the Mississippi River in Rockville. Additionally, some sharp-eyed observers reported a second craft that appeared to be following, even chasing the first, but which seemed to wink out of sight before it passed over the river.
All of that was true. The first craft was the stolen escape vehicle of the Sheb, a notorious monster of the spaceways. The Sheb was an assassin and a cannibal, six feet four inches tall, 320 pounds, and best described as a demon: short horns protruded from his forehead and a spiked tail from his lower back. The second vehicle carried the agents sent to rehabilitate him: five members of an altruistic race who did not believe in punishment, but who had developed skills and abilities enabling them to benefit the inhabitants of any world. It’s unclear if they came from another planet, dimension, time, a combination of some or all of these...we would come to know them as the Little Green Men, or Elgim (LGM).
They landed normally in Memphis and approached the site of their quarry’s crash. The Sheb’s craft had been demolished, and only the creature’s inherent resilience prevented his death. As it was, the Sheb lost an eye and a horn in the crash. In a relatively fortunate development, however, he also suffered from amnesia, so the entire question of his rehabilitation could be set aside. His crimes had already made him the scourge of the galaxy, unwelcome anywhere his reputation reached. Because the Elgim had assumed responsibility for him as part of their mission, and also because of their own nature, they promptly decided to remain on Earth.
Now what has all this to do with Sam? The reason this particular group of Elgim was sent after the Sheb was the Sheb’s one weakness: music. Particular sequences, harmonics, tempos, progressions would render him vulnerable, malleable, even unconscious. These five Elgim were not only law officials, but musicians. With their primary mission no longer one of capture or containment, they elected to pursue their melodic mission along with the Sheb.
The influence of the Elgim and the Sheb cannot be overestimated. Their music electrified the Memphis area, while the energies leaking from the Sheb’s ruined ship flowed downriver and precipitated the rhythm & blues/rock & roll revolution. The energy also spread northward to St. Louis and Chicago, west and east: the vital waves were not restricted to the flow of the river. As the music prospered, more Elgim and other extraterrestrials came to Earth. Unknown to most Terrans, this influx of alien culture radically altered the sound of the music and the face of law enforcement.
That’s how the energy from the Sheb’s damaged craft brought the Wacky Boys characters to life on the Yasgurs’ farm and how flying saucers brought rock and roll to Memphis.  *Areas of culture-altering energy activity, 1950-1955 unaltered map © Mapquest
April 16, 2008 Last time I told you about the Elgim and alluded to how Dr. Amwerth was involved with them. Everyone has wondered how Sam maintained Bop City’s record of safety, the perfect weather, even the seemingly impossible activities within the park. The answer is an interplay of Amwerth’s quantum research and the abilities and technology of the Elgim. While Amwerth had been quite successful with Quantum, the Elgim controlled and manipulated matter and energy with greater precision because for them it was organic and innate. The five represented the five ways their race manifested these abilities:
Lyno, the guitarist who assumed the Terran name Teddy Bulloch, possessed photo-manipulative powers.
Atomo, bassist Cal Moor, controlled the physical world: strength, endurance, resilience, speed, etc.
Xemo, guitarist Zachary Strother, manipulated the environment: temperature, the elements, gravity, pressure, magnetism, etc.
Spiro, keyboardist Abe Hanks, was a telepsychic.
Bongo, drummer Woody Thomas, manipulated soundwaves.
Because of the Elgims’ prominence in and around Memphis, Amwerth had an abundance of their genetic material with which to work. But the doctor did not work exclusively in combinations of the Elgims’ DNA. Instead, he had a nearly unlimited palette because Sam had requested a way to present the most authentic recreations possible of music’s greatest artists and performers. Amwerth drew on the genetic databank he (and, inadvertently, Sam) had collected to create the quanta-rockers, super-powered rock-and-rollers who provided security for the park as well as the most eerily accurate impersonations imaginable.
After only two seasons, Sam called his quanta rockers together to announce they no longer needed to worry about providing security. There were no loss-prevention issues, no health or safety concerns. The Elgim themselves (and later a handful of quantas like the Dude and the Bard) monitored and rectified all dangerous situations: no cars went out of control, no one stole, no one ran a traffic light. No one was hurt or died of preventable causes within Bop. It rained daily for 45 minutes; a minor inconvenience, and in the middle of the night it was a brief celebration for some.
Relieved of the security concerns, the quantas were repurposed. Sam conceived the Fight SeenTM: quantas would stage battles among themselves or with the new quanta-villains he charged Amwerth to create. It was an immediate hit with crowds, as they responded to the conflict the Park had removed.
An unintended consequence of this new direction was the rise of meta-villains Sam had not commissioned. None was foolish enough to attack Bop City, where it was understood that kind of random activity would not be permitted, but it did force Sam to turn his attention beyond the Park. He instructed Amwerth to create quantas specifically to address these threats, which led to another, much more dire development.
The doctor began creating ‘extra-Park’ quantas, beginning with the 4th Power, the Rebels, and the Answer. Basing them in London, they appeared to be beyond Sam’s influence. Luckily, the Mystery Tramp had been created the previous year and had been providing all quantas, both new and pre-existing, with the story of Amwerth’s larger plans. This had led to three camps of quantas: those loyal to Sam and willing to defy Amwerth; those who followed Amwerth and the direction he provided, including those farmed out beyond Bop, to the government and elsewhere; and a group who became increasingly independent, many of whom joined Billy Blue in a loose affiliation that would be quite important on the day of the Great Change. April 24, 2008 I believe I’ve mentioned Dr. Amwerth’s Cassandra 6000 before, easily his greatest single creation, because without Bop’s continued success would have been quite different, if not impossible. The Cassandra was capable of analyzing historical, social, economic and others trends and predicting future directions. Not precisely predicting the future, but foretelling certain patterns or waves, particularly in music, which enabled Sam to prepare and provide themes and attractions to capitalize on those trends when they exploded. That was how Sam had Wheel City, Littlepool, and all the post-original themes prepared to open just as the styles they honored surged to prominence. It begs the question: if the doctor and Sam could foresee musical and financial trends as they did, how did the Great Change catch them unprepared? The answer, once revealed, is quite simple, and explains much more as well. The Great Change did indeed catch Sam by surprise...but not Amwerth. He was, in fact, its orchestrator, as well as the engineer of much of human history for at least forty years previous.
It remains unclear precisely when the being known as Dr. Franz Amwerth came to this planet. It is certain he was acquainted with Hitler before the biergartens and while he cannot be said to have engineered them, he did note their effectiveness well. He was active with the Third Reich but never joined the party, and the nature of his relationship kept him from being prosecuted as a war criminal. In fact, the Cassandra (which may have been brought from his home planet, rather than his own invention) allowed Amwerth the foresight to desert the Nazis and throw his lot with the Allies, specifically the U.S. The creation of the Navy Blues and the subsequent research and development done with them freed Amwerth to work with Sam. This suited the doctor well, because of his belief that the minds and hearts of the public would be better molded by popular culture than political rhetoric. Few might have agreed in 1945, but twenty years later it would become a strong argument; in fact, by then pop culture and politics might be said to have merged.
By using his influence with Sam, Cassandra’s forecasts, and various technologies, Amwerth pursued his assignment: the development of a stronger race to house the intellects of his dying planet. His association with Nazi Germany had been an early attempt, but he quickly recognized the many flaws there: too slow, too unsure, and, not least, the results tended to be no ‘stronger’ at all. Amwerth’s specimens, on the other hand, were universally superior to their base materials. Their problems were also manifest, however; the resultant beings would never acquiesce to giving up their own lives to house another lifeform; they were too strong to be forced to do so; and although no one but Amwerth knew it, his quantas were not ‘merely artificial’ creations, but were recombined (or as Amwerth put it, ‘remixed’) from the collected DNA samples of performers, the quanta-manipulative data of the Elgim and Quantum, and the physical bodies of runaways Amwerth collected from the streets of Bop and elsewhere. When Sam directed him to produce quantas to send beyond Bop, Amwerth saw it as a mandate and the numbers he produced skyrocketed. Although the Mystery Tramp was aware of this ghoulish practice, he feared a war between the many factions would not result in Amwerth’s definitive defeat. He continued to work in secrecy, tracking the strengths and weaknesses and waiting for the day victory could be assured.
As we know, the choice of that day would be made for him. May 1 , 2008
Even while Amwerth headed the quanta project, he had lieutenants. The first of these, Dr. Augustus Roont, was brilliantly gifted but always lacked focus for the project as Amwerth defined it. Ultimately that was likely beneficial to mankind, and Dr. Roont’s contributions certainly enriched the quanta community, not least because he discovered that quantas could be produced without using runaways or other ‘expendable’ base material. Roont perfected a method of producing quantas using only the performers’ (or other human) DNA, the quanta power grid, and random matter around which the matrix would grow. His accomplishments were documented by Lupe Luis, reporter for the Finger-Poppin Times, although the public would not know for years what base material Roont had replaced.
Roont’s assistant, Chic Andrews, was a frequent contributor of material, leading to many wacky transformations which often required the help of King Cougar or another of the Cougar Clan to put right. Giant Armadillo Andrews, Cactus Andrews, Putty-Boy Andrews, and the Red-Headed Quarry of 10,000 B.C. are but a few of the misadventures generated by Roont’s DNA Den during this Silver Age of quanta-genetic experimentation.
Following the Great Change, Roont continued his work but was largely supplanted by another great scientific mind who assumed leadership of the quanta project. Dr. Tom Raley introduced his own element to the mix: in an age of drug experimentation, he added various psychoactive compounds and produced results his predecessors never foresaw. In fact, some quantas even returned to his lab to ‘upgrade’ their abilities. One very successful result Raley frequently customized for his patrons was the ability to generate ‘spectres’: solid-light sculptures whose weight, density, elasticity and other properties the creator could dictate. These were similar to the images the Navy Blue called Blackball could generate, but were generally much more vibrant, with greater detail and unlimited in color. They also could be summoned instantly, rather than being assembled from bits of energy (although it’s been suggested that all such constructs appear at the speed of thought.) Some quantas developed ‘specialties,’ creating the same spectres regularly, much as their parent performer might be expected to ‘play the hits.’ King Cougar has often generated his Ghostly Train, or left evildoers for the police inside a Cellblock Rock, while Midnight Cannonball, one of the earliest meta-heroes, asked Dr. Raley for the treatment and has since often used his Bonds of Love, as well as his permanent familiars Phlip, Phlop, and Phly.
May 9, 2008
As promised, I want to bring you Sam’s own words whenever possible. Although it wasn’t the first time he touched the world’s stage, Sam’s appearance before the Rockville town council did mark a turning point in his career. It was the first instance of an increasingly familiar phenomenon, the successful media figure taking a serious role in politics. The derision Sam would soon face was merciless as his Park and his plan had to be successful to be taken seriously and the slightest misstep was judged catastrophic. For these reasons Sam tolerated no errors; his planning was complete and his execution flawless. The following is both a transcript and description of the recording Sam made of his proposal to Rockville. He insisted it be captured on film so there would be no misquotes, exaggerations, or elaborations later. Of course there were, but he squelched them quickly and the Park progressed all the better for it.
The Rockville Town Council meeting of November 18, 1953, began like any other, a little late, with the six members of the council and the mayor settling restlessly into their seats and talking about how soon it would be over so they could get home. They didn’t realize Sam had staff in the room already recording audio; he didn’t want to miss a thing. The regular business wrapped in a hurry—funds allocated to replace a bent road sign, committee meetings extended—then turned to the one new and curious item: the proposal from an out-of-state holding company to bring new commerce to their small town. The name of the company, Pandora Productions, was deliberately provocative and completely bogus. The address and phone number were mine, and I had a neighbor answer the only three times it rang. If Sam and a small handful of other strangers hadn’t been in town hall before the meeting started, I think they would have just redlined it altogether and headed home to Arthur Godfrey.
That wasn’t how it went.
Mayor Morris: Finally this evening, we have a representative from Pandora Productions with a business proposal for Rockville. Are you here, Mr. ...Nugetre?
Sam: Actually, Mr. Mayor, it’s Bop. Sam Bop.
(Naturally, this revelation met with a certain uproar from the council. There were only two other citizens at the meeting, one who had come about the sign and one who was waiting to be released for a DUI.)
Order, order! Well, welcome to Rockville, Mr. Bop! I’m sure we’re all eager to hear anything you have to say.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I hope the entire town will be as cordial toward my proposition.
(Sam ruffles some papers, clears his throat, and generally pretends he needs to prepare the pitch he’s had in mind for years.)
As I’m sure the council is aware, the nature of our country has changed since the war. Entertainment is becoming a higher priority for the American family. Automobiles are becoming a necessity for families, often two or more to a household. Those autos take the family to the drive-in, the theatre, visiting near and far. I propose to help Rockville seize an opportunity to bring those families here for fun with an entertainment destination unlike any previously seen.
(Here Sam unveils the first of several paintings of Bop City, with sweeping coasters and towering resort buildings looking like Monte Carlo. The council is stunned, then a couple members can barely contain their laughter. I still wonder if they thought Sam was delusional, or if one or both could see that if Sam thought it was a good idea, then Rockville had hit the jackpot.)
Gentlemen, this is Bop City, the world’s first Theme Park That is a City. It will employ every current citizen of Rockville, and several thousand more I anticipate attracting. It is fully self-sufficient, producing all the food, power, and other resources necessary to make a city thrive. Additionally, it will attract a half-million visitors in its first year of operation, with no practical upper limit.
Don Warren, Council member: Mr. Bop, forgive me interrupting here, but...what are you talking about? This is a small town! There aren’t two million people in the entire state! How do you arrive at those numbers, why would they come here, what would they do...what would we do with them?
(Mumbling among the council)
Mr. Warren, all your questions are quite valid, and believe me I’ve considered them thoroughly. If you’ll look over the brief I’ve prepared for each of you, you’ll see the numbers are not only accurate, but conservative. I offer Rockville a chance to be the vanguard of a new type of community, a new type of resort, for a new nation, and I offer this with no risk to the town. With the council’s blessing and the town’s cooperation, Rockville will be reborn as the prosperous community in which everyone longs to live.
Hezekieh Dinwiddy, Council member: Mr. Bop, what makes you think the good citizens of Rockville aren’t already living where they ‘long’ to?
Well put, Mr. Dinwiddy. Let me respond by sharing with you some numbers you may find interesting. Since 1945, the population of Rockville has dropped by 12%. That is measurable, but wouldn’t be alarming in a much larger town. As it is, it represents the loss of five graduating classes for Rockville. Interestingly, that is not far from the actual loss; Rockville is hemorrhaging its young people, and new people are not moving in. Between the loss of young natives, death, and lack of immigrants, this town will be abandoned in a generation. There will always be farmers, yes, but industrialization has passed Rockville by, and its youth are going elsewhere for better-paying jobs. I am offering those jobs: better pay, here at home, providing a stake in keeping Rockville alive.
But it wouldn’t be Rockville, would it, Mr. Bop? It would be Bop City. Your city.
True enough, Mr. Warren. Since I would be assuming the entire risk and responsibility for keeping the community alive, I would also like to position it with a name I believe would encourage its success.
Tavon Shields, Council member: I see your modesty has not been overestimated, Mr. Bop. In return for your generosity, what would be expected of the good people of Rockville--or Bop City?
Nothing and everything, Mr. Shields. I would assume full fiscal responsibility for the town for the generation I mentioned earlier; for twenty years I will guarantee every Bop citizen a higher standard of living than he or she would otherwise have experienced in Rockville. In return, I will be the decision-maker on the direction and future of the Park.
The Park? You mean the town? The city?
All of the above, Mr. Mayor. The town will become a city, and the City is the Park.
And you would be the emperor, huh?
Nothing so lofty, Mr. Dinwiddy. I believe you would find I have a reputation as a quite amenable employer and would hope only to broaden that reputation with this, the greatest undertaking my companies have ever considered.
Stackhouse Porter, Council member: And what if you fail, Mr. Bop? Where does that leave Rockville?
First, without becoming contentious, Mr. Porter, I would direct you to my business record. I have never experienced anything like failure. That said, again, I guarantee the future of every citizen with my personal assets. No one will suffer through this offer. If, after that twenty years, the Park is not seen to be a success, I shall happily withdraw and Rockville can resume its current path.
I think we all can see that a project such as you envision would be irreversible, Mr. Bop, but it is incumbent upon us as stewards of the town to review your proposal and share it with the citizens. Thank you for your time this evening. We will let you know something as soon as possible.
I’m sure of that, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, gentlemen.
_____________________________________
The abrupt way the mayor ended the meeting always puzzled me. I don’t know if he thought the other councilmen were going to become increasingly disrespectful to Sam or if he thought he needed to talk to them away from Sam before he lost every bit of his power. The story of the Morris family’s power is one for another day, however. Next time I’d like to talk about some of the other pivotal members of Sam’s life, and how they relate to the Park’s story. May 16, 2008
Sometimes it may seem that Bop City came together entirely through Sam’s doing. While the Park would certainly not exist without him, Sam was never the only person involved. Dr. Amwerth and Burk were with him from the beginning, and although I don’t claim any part of the Park as my own, I was as well. There were others, too, who are often overlooked in the Park’s story.
Tony “Wheels” San Giancarlo owned Cars of the Stars on Tour, driving and exhibiting famous autos and autos of the famous before ground was ever broken for the Park. Sam approached Tony and offered him a permanent home in Bop with a custom-built domed gallery and unique displays for each specimen. The deal was made, and the gallery built as another pre-opening draw. On opening day, the gallery was beset by thieves. It proved to be a most advantageous robbery attempt—for Sam. The crooks were captured without loss of life or property when the Mechanic, Rockville’s first hero, returned to action for the first time in twenty years. The foiled robbery, caught live on camera and seen around the world, set the stage for Bop’s new heroic tradition and provided another level of attraction for the Park. Tony offered the exhibit, renamed Cadillac Ranch, as the Mechanic’s HQ. He agreed and built his base below the gallery, calling it the Garage. Bop’s annual Star Car Rally is also held at the Ranch.
Speaking of early heroes, the Rockville Warrior also joined Sam early in the Park’s development, and it was a great benefit to Sam that he did. The Warrior had been active before the Second World War on both sides of the river, along with his juvenile aides the Thunder Road Irregulars, in crushing the numerous illegal activities typically found in a river town like Rockville. He consulted with Sam for years and still drops by the offices at Bop City Central when he feels the need arises. No one knows the Park and the City better anymore.
The Irregulars, all grown up now, have played differing roles in Rockville and Bop City. Of those who remained in Bop, three entered public service and one furthered his family’s business interests to become the wealthiest man in the state. As Sam had promised, those who wished to continue farming had their land transferred out of the city. Joe Filson did just that, leaving his tenant farmers to work the soil outside Bop and becoming the largest landholder to transfer property to Sam and the Park. Tavon Shields and Monroe Morris you met last week. The other Irregular who entered public service became Chief Prosecutor, a thought that would have been unlikely if it had been any woman but Dani Puterbaugh. Her father had been Constable before Rockville was incorporated, and her great-grandfather had been one of the first to build a house in the town. No one could have named a family with more vested in Rockville. She was always the voice of reason in the Irregulars and had carried that with her to adulthood. The last Irregular was Ptolemy Tiernan, “The Smartest Kid in School”—any school. Lemmy was the kind of kid no other kid picked on because they knew someday they would need him. The lovable nature of this genius made the way his life ended all the more tragic.
May 28, 2008 Since this is Memorial Week, I hope all of you enjoyed the special programming offered by the Park—the spectacular exhibition by the Navy Blues 3.0, and the concert by SSgt. Larry Badger and the Dell-Victors. The fireworks performed by Red Hot, Electric Sky, Epiphany, and DeLight were rapturous as always.
The holiday made me consider Sam’s relationship with the military and his nature as a patriot. As a veteran Sam felt his duty to country strongly; his military service represents a large part of the training he received to achieve his technical accomplishments. He also felt the friends and connections he made in the military were the most important in his life, crucial for his later and ongoing successes.
Much as his status as a veteran informed his nature, the fact that he was an orphan was perhaps more significant. Sam felt that he had started with nothing, even less that those who typically invoke that phrase because he didn’t even have a family. His earliest years spent in a children’s home were difficult for Sam. Always a social being, he was frustrated by the company of children who wanted nothing more than to get out, get away. Ironically, Sam left many of those children behind when he ran away from the South L.A. Orphans’ Home. In 1938, after seeing the first King Cougar comic book, he realized orphans could be much more than he had thought.
After leaving the orphanage, Sam began the itinerant existence that made him so relatable. He had met Abe Goodie in 1936 when the Dust Bowl Minstrel had visited the orphanage, and briefly joined him in his travels in 1937. In 1938 Sam travelled east and sneaked into the Spirituals to Swing concerts in New York. He also met John Roberts, who was on his way to a recording studio. The combination of the lifestyle and technology of recording music, the fantasy opened up to Sam in the comic pulps he saw beginning that summer, and the cartoons he saw in the theatre outside which he shined shoes all molded Sam into the media titan he would become.
By 1940 Sam had met the Parker Family in Texas, Chris Charleston in Oklahoma City, Mon Williams and Tad Dowd in Tennessee, Stovall Farmer in St. Louis, and was like a mascot to Jordan Lewis on the streets of New York. He had bussed tables for Dr. Byrd in the French Quarter, fetched sandwiches for Jet Nourre in Kansas City, and bird-dogged for Coy Carson one night in Birmingham. He walked horses for Len Lewis and Ray Vontour, tuned Paul Stellar’s guitars, and of course was Blind Vernon Jellison’s assistant for several months in San Antonio. No one questioned the reason of a boy with no apparent home or family; Sam was always big for his age and had been able to handle himself in any situation for a long time.
Seeing the country through the eyes of youth but at the side of entertainers who had seen much more, and all at a turbulent time in history (aren’t they all?), gave Sam an appreciation for the national character few others of any age could have matched. When he saw the nation come under threat Sam was back in California and saw Jet Nourre the night before he shipped out. The Navy would give Sam yet another perspective on the people of America, this time from different economic classes and a wide variety of educational and experiential backgrounds.
I never met anyone who loved his country more, or had a better grasp on how that country was composed and how to reach its people. In my opinion, that was Sam’s greatest skill: knowing, loving, and reaching America.
May 30, 2008
A man like Sam is sure to attract his share of enemies over a lifetime. Whether through action or inaction, chance or design, anyone as successful as Sam has been will amass a string of business rivals, broken hearts, intellectual opponents, and failed friendships to match the successes. Sam is of course no exception, but his nemeses tend to be more visible, more public. The best-known of these is surely Ginger Wind.
Whatever her real name, if she ever was given one, it is lost to time. Ginger was born and raised in a north African brothel where she entered the workforce at the age of eight. She was traded and shipped throughout a system of such houses for years before she caught the eye of a warlord who seized her as his own. He added her to his harem, where she began to build the plan her life would follow. Over the next four years she rallied her colleagues and enticed the men in the chieftain’s circle to overthrow him. She had promised many of the men she would help him usurp the warlord; when the day came, she and the harem slew all the men and she became the warchief. With the late chieftain’s fortune she founded a community northwest of Dubai and began building a hedonist paradise. She has kept this rogue nation alive by providing pleasures found nowhere else on earth.
Despite almost untold wealth and a palette of entertainment Sam would never touch, Ginger Wind still envied Sam the technology and success he enjoyed. She saw the two of them as both siblings and ideally-matched lovers, a personal and professional partnership that would be unstoppable. Their interactions were never pleasant, and went from barely polite to unbearable in their short tenure. To give some idea, here is an excerpt from their first meeting in 1982:
Sam: Miss Wind, welcome to Bop City.
Wind: Please call me Lazula. I don’t believe in formality between the sexes.
I see. Well...Lazula, I understood your name was Ginger Wind.
I have no name. What I choose to call myself is my business, and Lazula serves my purpose. In my language, it means ‘enchanting one.’
What language would that be, Lazula?
I told you. My language.
Ah. So, what brings you to our Park?
You’re aware of the Pleasuredome, my park in Caigeastan.
Certainly. I wish you the best. Any such additional facilities raise the bar for all of us.
Well, I want to raise the bar with you, certainly. We are very similar, you and I. Orphans made to survive on our own at an early age, overcoming the trials and tragedies of an uncaring world, thriving and prospering in fields that might have rejected us. I believe we have much to offer each other, and would like to see us working closely together.
I’m not in the market for a partner, Miss Wind.
I told you, it’s Lazula, and I have much more than a partnership in mind.
As that may be...Miss Wind, the future of Bop City has always been under my exclusive control and that is a situation I have no desire to change. I appreciate your interest in our conjoined fortunes, but—
Obstinate man! Are you too blind to see what I am offering? Not just the opportunity to marry our fortunes for our mutual benefit, but privileges you have apparently never shared, privileges men around the world have killed and died to taste.
I believe we’re done here, Miss Wind. Angel, will you show Miss Wind out?
I know the way out. I know many ways.
___________________________________________________
The Pleasuredome would open in Caigeastan in 1984. Sam never saw it, and Ginger never spoke directly to Sam again. Sam knew there was nothing in her plans that interested him, and any plans she pursued involving Sam did not include his cooperation. While the Pleasuredome was and is a success, Ginger Wind has never given up trying to incorporate, or, failing that, subvert Bop City. She was Sam’s greatest enemy, and he never understood why.
The truth, when it was revealed, was simple to understand, and would have broken Sam’s heart.
June 6, 2008
With the passing of Mac Ellas this week, I thought it would be opportune to look at the beginnings of the quanta program in Bop: how the performers were invited and integrated, who the first of the quantas were to be created, and how the way the program developed depended on its origins.
Bop scholars know that the heroic tradition of Rockville is one reason Sam chose that community to remake as Bop City. Besides the Rockville Warrior, many other golden age champions hailed from or visited Bop: Midnight Cannonball, Blue Mountain, Texas Swinger, Dr. 88, Southern Cross, Dixie Dog, Singing Cowboy and Cowboy King, the Brakeman, the Troubadour, and the original King Cougar all passed through Rockville during their legendary careers. When the building of Bop City was announced, several of these heroes returned to see their old stomping grounds and offer their help in revitalizing the community as necessary. While many were no longer up to the level of activity they had once pursued, they still were invaluable in shaping Bop’s future, and many contributed indirectly either through their DNA for the quanta program or offering training and even their names for the next generation of heroes. The original King Cougar was among the first to agree to shepherd a new hero with his name, and Sam chose the code name for the quanta (later to be quantas) based on Jesse Aron. Indeed, as the Park and its influence grew, there would be many Jesse/Cougars: rockin’ fifties Jesses, Cuba Jesses, military Jesses, judo Jesses. King Cougar is perhaps the most recognizable of the quantas, regardless of the incarnation.
Jim Jordan’s quanta counterpart is probably the second best-known. Mr. Blue was to the street what King Cougar was to the sky, protecting the common man from the common threat and patrolling the urban landscape as King Cougar patrolled the spaceways. Just as King Cougar would have a legion of allies at his level—Selene, the Image, Man o’War, Blue Shadow, Witch Doctor, and his greatest ally/rival, King Comet—so too would Mr. Blue have an urban army at his back: the Minister, Cool Blue Cat, Red Hot, Midnight Walker, Grease Monkey, Wild One, Soul Man, Jim Dandy, and his partner, the amazing street fighter who helped keep Berry Fields and Checkerville safe for a decade, the Mac Ellas-based Rhythm Method.
Sam had amassed a mountain of material from the 1930s forward on which the initial quantas were based, but the influx of the original heroes and the new performers’ willingness to play Bop City as the Park developed made the program a smashing success from the very beginning. No act wanted to be left out as they saw their rivals’ quanta-equivalents take to the skies or perform in the Fight SeensTM Sam had instituted. Soon every r&b and rock-and-roll performer saw a stop in Bop to inaugurate their quanta as a vital step in their path to stardom. That is why today some quantas are better known and remembered than their source performer.
The trend would continue this way. No fledgling act could imagine success without spawning a quanta; like a star in Hollywood, a Lodestone cover and a morality arrest, it was a part of the career. Naturally the biggest names would generate their quantas: the Hang 5 would give us the Surf*tars, the Quarries generated the 4th Power, the Mannish Boys spawned the Hot Rod Gang, and so forth in the 1960s, while lesser-known performers also gave us such quantas as the girl group Tomboy, L’Esprit Noel within his fortress the Wall of Sound, and the psychofolkster the Hurdy Gurdy Man. In the 1970s the TV sensations The Canary Family generated the Canary Aerie, a virtual quanta franchise unto themselves. Lemon Juice produced Quattro Tarot, Hazel Tinker’s counterpart was the Deviant, and Hugh Gerard helped create Silverbird.
The program endures today, of course, as Bop visitors still throng to see their favorite performers’ quanta versions in genetically-enhanced action over the City That Rock Built. Several of the older performers—and quantas themselves—have returned to the laboratories to reinvent themselves, some more than once. Bryan White-Duke, whose original quanta was Space Driver, has had a half-dozen quanta incarnations: Epiphany, Savaj, Myme, the silver age Image, and the Morphing Man, which is likely the last incarnation because of his ability to change himself without outside engineering.
Literally thousands of quantas pack the streets, skies, and seas of Bop City for visitors’ enjoyment, safety, and thrills, but the loss of any one makes us immeasurably poorer. The same must be said for the loss of rock and blues pioneer Mac Ellas, the man whose music, rhythm and melody, sparked the creative fire of so many listeners. Goodbye, Ellas. Thank you.
June 10, 2008 Ginger Wind’s plans to join with Sam were never genuine. Had Sam acceded in any way, it would only have given her access to the aspects of his success she craved most: the technology, genetic, mechanical, and environmental. By 1984 the environmental control of the Park had been taken over by mostly mechanical means; the Dude had long been limiting his involvement and as other systems took over his duties he found it easier and easier to remove himself from the operation. The unique mechanical innovations of the Park also intrigued Wind, as she sought the neg-grav, tesseract, and other fantastic technologies available to Sam via Amwerth. Lastly, the quanta program fascinated her, but the pool from which Sam drew rarely ventured into Wind’s arena; it was too dangerous to one’s career to work with her rogue nation, even for the monetary and other rewards she could offer. Another, earlier generation of entertainers tended to ally itself with her endeavors, but that too is a story unto itself.
Because Wind could not entice Sam to join her, and Amwerth, who could have provided her with much or all of her desires, seemed impervious to her persuasion, she was forced to turn to other sources. It is unclear how she managed it, but somehow she contacted a separate alien race which provided her with processes and machinery that helped her simulate Bop City’s attractions, but in a darker, more threatening way. Because Wind did not have the quanta pool from which Sam drew, she had no benevolent overseers, and the Pleasuredome saw grisly accidents on a regular basis. Some contend that that was part of the appeal to the newer park: the element of risk, which Sam had eliminated.
Certainly one element of Wind’s venue was very different from Bop’s environment. The power required to drive an attraction like the Pleasuredome is phenomenal, and despite Wind’s vast fortune she searched for alternative sources to the traditional, especially since the reliability of those could be spotty for Pleasuredome’s location. The aliens, the Doonab, provided the solution in the form of giant mammalian-amphibian creatures who could physically power certain systems and whose byproducts could also be processed. It was a breakthrough of sorts, but there was a price, as there usually is in these cases. The creatures exuded an airborne toxin similar to (5,6)-7,8-didehydro-4,5-epoxy-17-methylmorphinan-3,6-diol diacetate, making it likely that any guests of the Pleasuredome would be repeat visitors.
What would have been a simple business rivalry in normal circumstances became much more, as Bop City and the Pleasuredome became symbols of light and shade, safety and peril, even life and death. The inevitable final confrontation brought the rivalry to an end, but not in the simple, clearcut way such things often do in fiction. On April 8, 1994, after ten years, the Pleasuredome fell and a new esthetic was born for Bop City.
June 24, 2008 Ginger Wind's plans for the Pleasuredome to replace Bop City as the world's favotire vacation destination never allowed for failure. If Bop could not be conquered, it must be destroyed, and after a decade of steadily increasing the danger to the Dome's guests in the name of greater thrills, Wind had amassed the forces to attack Bop directly. While no air assault from the Persian Gulf would be possible, Wind had devised a much subtler plan. On April 5, 1994, the first of Wind's operatives began arriving in Bop City. Staying in many of the most famous resorts or in simple motels, her agents were spread to every corner of Bop's forty square miles by the time the attack was to commence. At 4:00 on the morning of April 8, shortly after the daily rainshower had ended, the so-called Rodent Raiders began the hostilities. With eight initial primary attacks and two inferior actions beginning slightly later, the entire park was thoroughly engulfed in the battle within minutes. Occurring on a Friday and during the school year, attendance was lower than it might have been. Speculation has been that the attackers might have been showing some concern for the innocents, but others more cynically believe it made the choice of targets easier and caused less wasted effort; the raiders could concentrate on the quanta defenders of the Park. Although Wind's forces had successfully masked their intent through the efforts of the Doonab, response to the attacks was swift and soon vicious battles were raging at each of the attack points. The Chairman had led Wind's attack on the downtown area, breaking the spire from McCarty Tower and calling for King Cougar to meet him. It was to be the first of many disappointments for Wind's army, as King Comet and the Comet Corps engaged him. In Checkerville, King Cool had left his suite at the Large Charge and begun a march to join the Chairman in what was expected to be the most important confrontation. That may have been the case, because his forces were met by Mr. Blue and the Rhythm Method, Jake Blade and Bad Influence, the Three Kings, and the Blue Shadow. King Cougar had responded to the disturbance nearest to him, outside Lucille's in Billyville. Captain Cougar, the King's imperfect duplicate created by Les Longhair, had launched his attack from Lucille's with the plan to move on to King's Corners; met by the King, the Cougar Corps, and even the Golden Age King Cougar, he was instantly outmatched, but the property damage was monumental. To the east in Rockville, the Candyman had begun his siege of the Wall of Sound, believing the surprise would keep L'Esprit Noel trapped. This was yet another disappointment, as L'Esprit was nowhere near Bop, but his demesnes was defended by Red Hot, the Teen Idols, and Charon and his Sirens of Bop. In Littlepool, the Brit Basher had awoken at Celluloid Heroes and begun destroying the resort. He may have been most outmatched as the quantas swarmed over him and the Doonab forces. The Answer alone would most likely have carried the day, but they were joined by the 4th Power, Freak Legion, Silverbird, Last Chance, and the Sheb, rallying his latest collaborators, the Electric Light Infantry. Longtime anti-Bop crusader Apollyon had taken his Values Family to Chocolate City in an attack that was as personal as Ginger Wind's, and with her cooperation believed he might at last defeat the perversion he saw in Bop. The irony of being met there by Overnight Sensation, the Acid Queen, Lord Velvet, and Mothership and the Atomic Dawgs was almost as crushing as the actual battle. Meanwhile, a battle raged in a virtual plain between the Power Station and Foxy Lady, where King Crazy had been enlisted to hold the line against any forces from any direction. He seemed not to realize that meant his official defensive position was 'surrounded.' He soon surrendered to the Mystery Tramp, the Boogie Knights, and Chain Male. The most fierce battle was undoubtedly the conflict in Texasland, where the Midnight Idol had invaded from Hard Town with the largest contingent of Doonab and camped in Frost Giant Forest. In this battle, as the Tres Hombres, Domenik and the Do-Rés, the Macon Shakers, and the Living Beat assembled, they were joined by Quattro Tarot, who revealed a hitherto unseen ability: the four members combined their powers to return Starhammer to earth. The pyrotechnics exploded from Tejasgaard and the Ax of Thunder walked among men again. The smaller battles were probably less notable because Wind's forces were unprepared to execute them properly. Despite practicing amphibian maneuvers for months, when the Doonab attacked Wilson Beach and Love Island their unfamiliarity with water was insurmountable. Led by Aprhodite and Lolita Lynn, they were repelled by Selene herself on Love Island, accompanied by Chiffon, Tomboy, Melodelle, and Whiter Shade, and on Wilson Beach by the Coral Coaster and the Sea 7, the Surf*tars, and the Perfect Pair. In a few short hours, all Wind's plans were crushed. Although she herself had never left Caigeastan, enough of her army incriminated her to justify a tribunal that led to the fall of the Pleasuredome and a revolution in the nation. The event was no less tumultuous for Bop City, however. Seeing that Sam's dream was such a target for the world's hatred, Bop City changed its philosophy from that of a simple playground to that of a potential leader, a lighthouse of encouragement, justice, and equality. Brighter days were ahead. July 23, 2008
I’ve heard from some of our readers that there is concern I’m not dealing with certain aspects of Bop City that some find compelling, namely the unusual, the paranormal. I must admit that in the nearly 50 years of Bop’s existence many odd occurrences have taken place here. In a fantasy theme park partially founded on alien technology, that may seem obvious, but at that there are still phenomena in the Park that defy explanation. I have decided to use this longer Black Mail to examine a few of these.
L’Esprit Noel: The Spirit came to Bop in 1960, sensing an environment complimentary to his work. He constructed his fortress and encircled it with his Wall of Sound, absorbing the pain and distress of visitors and transmogrifying it into the building blocks of which his Wall and the nearby Tower of Youth are made. The Tower of Youth is a Bop City rite of passage; in their 13th year, Bop residents come to the Tower, select a brick, affix their unique ‘signature’, and add the brick to the Tower, the living, growing monument to Bop’s ongoing musical legacy.
The Chimmps: After the PINC was established in 1967, visitors and emigres flocked to Bop City, fascinated by the style, atmosphere, and freedom found here. Not only from other worlds but from other strange dimensions came these visitors, sometimes just for a holiday but sometimes permanently. One set of such newcomers were the Prime Apes, a simian foursome from a world like our own but dominated by a more ape-like species. Arriving here, the quartet began both a musical career and a heroic campaign using their singular abilities, their unique worldview, and the nom de guerre the Chimmps.
PINT: A deliberate experiment from Wacky Ranch, samples taken from the Hype were blended with the DNA of four tortoises in an attempt to interest young people in powerful new music. The four resultant creatures, the Post-Punk Irish Nihilist Terrapins, became unlikely but unquestionable heroes for the youth of 1982.
Dream Police: Operatives of the Spirits of Radio, the eternal sources of inspiration for all art, the DP patrol the farthest reaches of the subconscious, cataloging visions and battling mental irregularities and corruption.
Wooly Charlie and Danny, the Woolly Bully: Charlie was a dirt farmer in Rockville before anyone had heard of Sam Bop. A mobster named Buddy Rudy came to believe there was oil on Charlie’s property and tried to force the land from him. Charlie refused repeatedly and Rudy became increasingly angry, eventually killing Charlie’s prize bull Danny. When even that didn’t persuade Charlie to sell, Rudy slew Charlie as well, throwing his body into the same swamp where he had hidden Danny’s remains. It’s unknown how or why forces came together in that swamp to return Charlie and Danny to a semblance of life; some believe it was a reaction within the cesspool of organic waste, some that intrinsic mystic energy from the region that would one day be Bop’s Vieux Carre saturated the corpses and reanimated them. Whatever the case, Charlie and Danny shambled from the swamp and took revenge on Rudy and his gang, taking up residence in the china shop the mobsters had used as a front. They remain there, protecting the innocent when evil threatens.
Starhammer: Timmie Joe Bright was truly touched by the gods. His birth was heralded by the Master and Electric Sky from the Twin Realms, attended by the Three Aces, and praised in song by Isaiah Townes, Syretta Hancock, and Mick Macafee. As he grew to adulthood he was joined in battle alongside the Rio Trio and in romance by Keri Kirby. His meteoric rise and tragic plummet are known to all, as is his resurrection at the hands of his heralds and his subsequent reign as a supernatural crusader of the blues. Chosen by John Robertson, high priest of blues guitar, as scion of the blues kingdom, Bright is entrusted with the power of the Starhammer, Tejasgärd’s sacred ax.
Brain Police: The creation of accidental combustion of Vinny aPaz’s quanta codes, the Brain Police ride the waves of human thought, combining and interpreting its random impulses. They are frequently called upon to defend musical experimentation in the face of closed minds.
Angel Black was Sam Bop's personal assistant from 1945 until 1980. These memoirs are exclusive to BAD CO. |
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