The passing of greatness
I am now buying a daily paper. This is in part because during hospital visits over the summer I got used to doing crosswords ('superbug', 4 letters - MRSA!) and cannot bring myself to buy a super-jumbo book of puzzles and so look like a secretary. As a result, daily paper = lots more recycling but with the added bonus of being able to monitor the unrest in the world. In case your interested the current unrest level is 'lots'.
It also means you get to read obituaries.
Of course the greatest paper for obituaries is The Telegraph. This is because they specialise in military obits, usually of somebody who did something so bloody brave that you start crying when you read it. This normally involves disobeying orders, a native village, defending a hopeless position with, basically, a fruit knife and adopting some kid who would otherwise not even be a statistic. These men normally have corking nicknames - 'tiger', 'bear', swordfish' and so on. This is in amusing contrast to the rest of their names - Maj. Gen. Reginald Wilston 'Tiger' Thruttock-Buterworth, VC, DSM (bar).
Of course, this brings on feelings of shame at my own lack of heroics, and lack of medals, but most acutely that my nickname is 'cockring'.
So - and this is why this post should have a black border - we come to two passings of greatness.
The first is Peter Norman. Up to now I knew him as 'who?' and that's shamefull, so mums tell your kids - he's the white guy on the podium next to the black guys giving the black power salute at the Olympic Games. Ahhhh, now you know him. Apparently he's a lot more than that, and the story of that photograph, and especially the incident of the gloves, is a great one.
That's the problem with obits. They mark the passing, usually, of people who you really wish you had a chance to know, This is bad because good people are dying, but it's good because it means that the actions of good people are more noteworthy.
Which brings us to Tom Frame.
Tom Frame was part of my childhood and a big part of my adulthood. A true artist, he lettered the pages of the comic 2000AD. I always thought what he did was cool but when I tried to produce my own comic and letter it (sheet of acetate over the art, captions and speech bubbles on sticky paper, then cut out, then stuck on, then jesus jesus jesus it's stuck to my hand) I really had an appreciation.
Make no mistake, this guy was an artist. This was the guy that let Judge Dredd, Halo Jones, Nikolai Dante and Johnny Alpha speak.
This is the guy that made Judge Dredd say 'Gaze into the fist of Dredd!' - the greatest moment in comic history - ever.
It also means you get to read obituaries.
Of course the greatest paper for obituaries is The Telegraph. This is because they specialise in military obits, usually of somebody who did something so bloody brave that you start crying when you read it. This normally involves disobeying orders, a native village, defending a hopeless position with, basically, a fruit knife and adopting some kid who would otherwise not even be a statistic. These men normally have corking nicknames - 'tiger', 'bear', swordfish' and so on. This is in amusing contrast to the rest of their names - Maj. Gen. Reginald Wilston 'Tiger' Thruttock-Buterworth, VC, DSM (bar).
Of course, this brings on feelings of shame at my own lack of heroics, and lack of medals, but most acutely that my nickname is 'cockring'.
So - and this is why this post should have a black border - we come to two passings of greatness.
The first is Peter Norman. Up to now I knew him as 'who?' and that's shamefull, so mums tell your kids - he's the white guy on the podium next to the black guys giving the black power salute at the Olympic Games. Ahhhh, now you know him. Apparently he's a lot more than that, and the story of that photograph, and especially the incident of the gloves, is a great one.
That's the problem with obits. They mark the passing, usually, of people who you really wish you had a chance to know, This is bad because good people are dying, but it's good because it means that the actions of good people are more noteworthy.
Which brings us to Tom Frame.
Tom Frame was part of my childhood and a big part of my adulthood. A true artist, he lettered the pages of the comic 2000AD. I always thought what he did was cool but when I tried to produce my own comic and letter it (sheet of acetate over the art, captions and speech bubbles on sticky paper, then cut out, then stuck on, then jesus jesus jesus it's stuck to my hand) I really had an appreciation.
Make no mistake, this guy was an artist. This was the guy that let Judge Dredd, Halo Jones, Nikolai Dante and Johnny Alpha speak.
This is the guy that made Judge Dredd say 'Gaze into the fist of Dredd!' - the greatest moment in comic history - ever.
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