Thursday, July 10, 2025

JET VYNER, COLIN FORWARD, and the MYSTERY OF SPRINGHEEL JACK

An article about Springheel Jack by John Vyner was published in the Flying Saucer Review for May & June in 1961.  A few months later it was re-printed in FATE magazine in October.

Blaise and Merlyn Vyner, John's sons, have four drawings by John's friend Colin Forward which seem to be connected with the article in one way or another, they might have been commissioned in the hope of publishing a book.

As yet I haven't actually seen the article so I don't know if the drawings were printed.

Dr David Clarke discussed the article in some depth ( see the link below ).  Although he dismisses its content, he acknowledges that it seems to have influenced subsequent thinking on the subject of Springheel Jack ... in my mind, amplifying the kernel of a cultural meme ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_115534

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/urban-legendary/spring-heeled-jack/

https://www.abebooks.com/magazines-periodicals/Fate-Magazine-October-1961-True-Stories/1293385706/bd

 

 

the illustration below seems to be sourced from the case of LUCY SCALES, which is described in the WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring-heeled_Jack

 

Scales case

On 28 February 1838,[13] nine days after the attack on Miss Alsop, 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of Limehouse. Miss Scales stated in her deposition to the police that as she and her sister were passing along Green Dragon Alley, they observed a person standing in an angle of the passage. She was walking in front of her sister at the time, and just as she came up to the person, who was wearing a large cloak, he spurted "a quantity of blue flame" in her face, which deprived her of her sight, and so alarmed her, that she instantly dropped to the ground, and was seized with violent fits which continued for several hours.[14]

Her brother added that on the evening in question, he had heard the loud screams of one of his sisters moments after they had left his house and on running up Green Dragon Alley he found his sister Lucy on the ground in a fit, with her sister attempting to hold and support her. She was taken home, and he then learned from his other sister what had happened. She described Lucy's assailant as being of tall, thin, and gentlemanly appearance, covered in a large cloak, and carrying a small lamp or bull's eye lantern similar to those used by the police. The individual did not speak nor did he try to lay hands on them, but instead walked quickly away. Every effort was made by the police to discover the author of these and similar outrages, and several persons were questioned, but were set free.[14]

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we must pause indefinitely here ... 

this article cannot be completed until i can find john vyner's original

 

... which i have now sourced and paid for, and am awaiting delivery "with fingers crossed" 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 



also see valentine dyall's article ... 

Everybody's Magazine for February 20, 1954

 

... TO BE CONTINUED ... 

 

 

Thursday, June 12, 2025

hokusai dragons


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

  

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

he was sometimes commissioned to paint dragons ... and he may have seen the dragon as expressing an aspect of his own character ... 

 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

MASKS ... PART 13 ...


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 















































































































... to be continued, as & whenever ...

 

whirlpools by the masters, HIROSHIGE and HOKUSAI ... N.B. people tend to forget the importance of the master-block-cutters and the printers who processed the artists' drawings ... and the paper-makers, and the bookbinders ... and the people who made the artists' brushes ... etc, etc


 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hiroshige,  Whirlpools at Awa, 1857

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45025

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hiroshige, Whirlpool at Naruto in Awa Province,  1853

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53783

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hokusai,  Mountains and Water,  Naruto Whirlpool,  1817

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/65613/whirlpool-at-awa-katsushika-hokusai


Tuesday, May 20, 2025

HORST P. HORST ... his fashion photographs of women were so perfectly perfectionist ...


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_P._Horst

 

... and he photographed women so "intensely" that it never occured to me that he was gay ...

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 to be continued, as & when ...

 

Friday, May 2, 2025

a little scrapbook of thunder and lightning

twice ... on flights to spain ... i've encountered lightning

the first time, on a late flight, an ashen faced young woman in a polo shirt & johdpurs sat next to me and began to shake before the plane had even left the ground ... she'd never flown before ... as we made the long glide towards malaga the plane skimmed a hilltop town just as a storm began ... in the first flash, i saw the spaniards' washing on the lines

the second flight was in daylight, to madrid ... just as we were about to start the long turn at the west of the city, captain was told to wait because the runways were awash in a sudden storm ... we went into a holding stack, circling above segovia and the mountains to the west of madrid ... we flew in and out of enormous clouds which were sometimes illuminated with diffuse lightning ... between the clouds were vast chasms filled with daylight, but the clouds themselves contained the deepest shade of GLOOM

( Hmmm ! ... I wonder if any paint companies mix a shade called GLOOM ? ) 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hokusai

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

a japanese god of thunder

 

 

 


 

chen rong ... the nine dragons

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

laura knight

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mother nature in switzerland











https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_2020-3015-81?selectedImageId=1613746637














texas, 2025



... to be continued as & whenever ...