Surprise Cover Appearance by The Human Fly!

I admit I totally missed an appearance by The Human Fly on the cover of a Marvel book. But then, who had any cause to expect The Human Fly to appear on a Marvel cover?? Check him out at bottom right.

This was pointed out on Bleeding Cool and I believe they actually explain the reason for THF's appearance without meaning to. The solicitation for the above book, Illuminati #3, states that it is "villain vs villain". I think the cover artist was directed to draw The Human Fly and he drew the character he most closely associated with that name.

Simple error. Probably. You'd think an editor somewhere would pick up on it and maybe one did and shrugged it off. For that matter, perhaps the cover will be corrected by the time the book is available in January. Not a huge deal. In fact, it's pretty neat!

The New Adventures of the Human Fly!

I guess I totally whiffed on this as it happened.

It was announced last year that the rights to the Human Fly character were acquired so that a movie based on the person who wore the suit as a daredevil could be produced. What I did not know at the time is that a comic book was also in production.  The poster above is in reference to the book's release at the San Diego Comic Con this past August.

You can order the 52 page book from Amazon.  I've included the solicitation below with both the front and back covers.  You can get larger versions of each by opening them in a new tab.

The Human Fly, Canada's stuntman superhero extraordinaire, returns to comics for the first time in nearly 35 years.

Edited by Michael Aushenker (El Gato, Crime Mangler), this crazy mix of action, humor, sci-fi and horror features stories by Aushenker, Tony Babinski and Steve Kriozere ("Femme Fatale") and art by original '70s Human Fly artists Bob Layton ("Iron Man"), Steve Leialoha ("Fables"), Don Perlin (co-creator of "Moon Knight"), Al Milgrom ("ROM: Spaceknight") as well as art by Gerry Talaoc ("The Unknown Soldier"), John Heebink ("Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."), Jim Rugg ("Afrodisiac"), Steve Butler ("Web of Spider-Man"), Rafael Navarro ("Sonambulo"), Javier Hernandez ("El Muerto, Aztec Zombie"), famed letterer Janice Chiang ("Ghost Rider") and more!

Featured stories: "The Human Fly's Back," "Fly vs. Fly," "Other Worlds, Other Dimensions," and more! Join the exploits of the Human Fly as he tackles monsters, robots, time-travelling mad scientists, luchadors, psychotic computerworlds, and, of course, the greatest death-defying stunts ever attempted.... ....All while pursuing his side career as a rock guitar god. Metal!

Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.

ICYMI Art: The Human Fly Now!

I frequent the Comic Book Resources site for news and reviews, but am admittedly less interested in reading the various columns and such.  There is one called "The Line is Drawn", with which I was not particularly familiar.  Here is the description of the concept.

So every week, I ask a question here. You reply to it on our Twitter page (just write @csbg with your reply) and our blog sketch artists will each pick one of your suggestions and I will post them here every week.

I may need to work my way through the archives 'cause this is potentially a pretty cool, fan-engaging idea.  Such was the case recently, at least.  The January 10th edition displayed the art resulting from the suggestions to the previous week's question, which was...

As the new year begins, I think of fresh starts, like perhaps a brand-new #1! So suggest lesser-known Marvel characters that you’d like to see be given the Marvel Now treatment and our artists will work up a cover of their first issue.

Among the mythical covers was this fun Human Fly drawing by Brendan Tobin.

That was good enough in and of itself, but in looking for a shot of the Human Fly against which to compare the updated uniform above, I came across the painting below.

At the moment, I don't know who to credit for the image above but if someone is aware of its source, by all means point me to it.  Edit: I was tipped off by Ed Torres on Twitter that the above is the work of Jun Bob Kim. Thanks to both of you.

Here is the full CBR page in question so you can view the other suggestions that received art treatment.  For the record, I'd be all over that Squadron Supreme book too.

The Wildest Super-Hero Ever...Because He's Real!!

I've always loved that heading...

It also crack me up that the cover (Byrne / Austin!) hypes a nothing character like White Tiger while giving Daredevil a small mention on the bottom right of the cover.  Marvel's marketing has since improved.

For those who may not be aware of this "real" superhero, he is based on Montreal stuntman Rick Rojatt. Some of the comic character's back story has been...let's call it "embellished" for dramatic effect, it would seem, as apparently that version of the Fly had more than half of his skeleton replaced with steel following a car accident which killed his wife and kid(s).  I believe he was disfigured as well.  I don't fully recall as I only owned a few issues and I haven't read them in years.

How does that compare to Rojatt's story?  Well...It's hard to say.  Rojatt just seemed to fade away all of a sudden.  The most detailed account of any of his stunts appear to be this one about a motorcycle jump over 27 buses.  Or most of them, anyway.

Why bring this guy up now?  It appears that the character may be headed to the big screen one day.

The Human Fly might be buzzing around a movie theater soon, as a film about the former Marvel Comic character is in development. A Human Fly comic, based on real-life stuntman Joe Ramacieri, was licensed and published by Marvel from 1977-1979. Over its 19-issue run and in various other Marvel comics, the Human Fly had run-ins with Spider-Man and Daredevil, among others in the Marvel stable. Alan Brewer and Steven Goldmann picked up the reverted rights on the property recently. Eisenberg-Fisher Productions, which is based on the Paramount lot, will executive produce the proposed indie, with financing said to be coming from private-equity sources. Goldmann is poised to direct. Brewer, along with James Reach, will produce. Tony Babinski, Cirque Du Soleil’s in-house historian, wrote the Montreal-based screenplay. Goldmann is repped by Michael Lewis & Associates and Anarchy Management. Brewer and Babinski are repped by WME.

Can't help but note the use of a different name for the Human Fly's real-life persona.  However, in the video clip on the film's website, Mr Ramacieri seems to refer to gentleman who wore the Fly suit in the 3rd person, so I think the above release may be incorrect.

Also can't help but notice that Fly states himself that "no one will ever know" who he is so perhaps the mystery surrounding the character even now is intentional.

Edit:  This site's interpretation may clarify things: "And so it is that the Paramount-based indie production shingle Eisenberg-Fisher has picked up the rights to The Human Fly, a short-lived superhero who enjoyed a 19-issue run during the Evel Knievel-spawned daredevil craze of the late '70s, and based its premise on the real-life exploits of stuntman Rick Rojatt—though the film will be based on the real-life exploits of competing Human Fly, Joe Ramacieri."

Or not.  I don't know of any "competing" Human Fly.  It very much seems like they keep confusing Ramacieri's role in this whole production and that Ramacieri was essentially a promoter.