In 2024, we've experienced the loss of several luminaries in the world of entertainment. These beloved figures—actors, comedians, musicians, singers, and coaches—have touched our lives with their talent, passion, and dedication. They've left an indelible mark on our hearts and shaped the world of entertainment in ways that will continue to inspire and influence generations to come.
Among the incredible actors who bid farewell this year, we mourn the loss of a true chameleon who effortlessly.
Born in New York City, New York,[1] Mike Esposito graduated from the High School of Music and Art, where one of his classmates was future comics artist Ross Andru.[2] Originally Esposito dreamed of becoming an animator at Disney. This ended when his father did not want him to leave New York for the West Coast.[2]
Following his military service, Esposito entered the comic-book field drawing for the publisher Fiction House and later for later for industry giant DC Comics, then called National Comics.[3] Because writer and artist credits were not routinely given during that era of comic books, a comprehensive account of his work is difficult to ascertain. His first confirmed work is as penciler and inker of the war comics story "Heat Of Battle" in Men's Adventures #6 (Feb. 1951), from Atlas Comics, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics.[4]
He and Andru co-founded the studio Mike/Ross Publications in the early 1950s.[3] The two artists became longtime collaborators, working together on various projects over a span of four decades. Their first known credited collaboration was the cover and a 24-page story, "The Jungle That Time Forgot" in the whimsical adventure comic Mister Universe #2 (1951; no month given, but published between the July and December issues).[4] This five-issue series was the sole title from a comic book company they founded, Mr. Publications.[1] The two also co-founded Mikeross Publications in 1953, which through 1954 produced one issue each of the 3Dromance comics3-D Love and 3-D Romance, two issues of the romance comic Heart and Soul, and three issue of the satiric humor comic Get Lost.[5]
By this time, after having teamed for early work on Key Publications' Mister Mystery in 1951 and Standard Comics' The Unseen and Joe Yank (the latter credited as "Mikeross"), the two began a long career as one of DC Comics' primary war story artists, alongside the likes of Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, and Jerry Grandenetti. Beginning with a story each in All-American Men of War #6, Our Army at War #14, and Star Spangled War Stories #13 (all Sept. 1953),[4] For those titles as well as G.I. Combat and Our Fighting Forces, Andru and Esposito drew hundreds of tales of combat under editor and frequent writer Robert Kanigher. With Kanigher, they co-created the non-superpowered adventurers the Suicide Squad in The Brave and the Bold #25 (Sept. 1959). They also drew early issues of Rip Hunter, Time Master in 1961.
Silver Age
Shortly after DC Comics ushered in the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books by reimagining such Golden Agesuperheroes as the Flash and Green Lantern for modern audiences, Andru and Esposito began a long run on DC's Wonder Woman, from issues #98–171 (May 1958 – August 1967), "defining her look during [this] boom period".[1] As well, with writer-editor Robert Kanigher, they co-created the robot superheroes the Metal Men in Showcase #37 (April 1962), going on to draw the first 29 issues of the lighthearted series Metal Men, from 1963 to 1968.
Esposito gradually began freelancing for Marvel Comics, starting with his uncredited inking of industry giant Jack Kirby's cover of Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965).[6] For his inking of Bob Powell in the "Human Torch and the Thing" feature in Strange Tales #132, and his inking of Don Heck's "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense #65 (both May 1965), he took the pen nameMickey Demeo (occasionally given as Mickey Dee or Michael Dee) to conceal his Marvel work from his primary employer, DC.[7][8] He also occasionally worked under the pseudonymJoe Gaudioso for the same reason.[8][9]
When John Romita, Sr. succeeded artist co-creator Steve Ditko on The Amazing Spider-Man, beginning with issue 39 (Aug. 1966), Esposito, initially as Demeo, was the first inker on what would become Marvel's flagship series. After three issues, Romita inked himself for the next half-dozen before Esposito returned — uncredited for issue 49 (June 1967),[10] then as Mickey Demeo until finally taking credit under his own name with issue #56 (Jan. 1968). Except for one issue (#65) inked by his successor, Jim Mooney, the Romita-Esposito team continued through issue #66 (Nov. 1968),[4] establishing the new look of Spider-Man. Esposito continued to use the "Demeo" creidt sporadically, including on the debut story "Guardians of the Galaxy" in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (Jan. 1969), and on The Amazing Spider-Man #83 (April 1970), his last recorded use of the pen name.
During this period as well, for DC, the Andru-Esposito team segued from Wonder Woman to The Flash, drawing the super-speedster superhero's adventures from issue #175–194 (Dec. 1967 – Feb. 1970). All the while, Esposito regularly inked such artists as Irv Novick and Curt Swan on the Superman family of comics, including Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, Superboy, and Superman, and numerous Superman-Batman team-ups penciled by Andru in World's Finest Comics. The Kanigher-Andru-Esposito trio introduced the Silver Age version of the split-personality superheroine feature "Rose and Thorn" in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105 (Oct. 1970).[4] For the black-and-white comics-magazine publisher Skywald in 1971, Andru & Esposito contributed many stories across the line, including to the horror titles Nightmare and Psycho and the Western titles Wild Western Action, The Bravados and Butch Cassidy, and with writer Gary Friedrich created the motorcycle-riding superhero Hell-Rider.[11]
Andru and Esposito formed the publishing company Klevart Enterprises in 1970.[citation needed]
Spider-Man
The Andru-Esposito team first drew the flagship Marvel Comics character Spider-Man in the premiere (March 1972) of that superhero's first spin-off comic book, Marvel Team-Up, nearly every issue of which featured Spider-Man paired with another hero. While Andru did not remain on the series, Esposito would go on to ink several issues, often those penciled by Gil Kane.[12] He and Andru eventually took over the flagship title The Amazing Spider-Man. Esposito inked the vast majority of a nearly four-year run on the title, encompassing issues #147-150, 152-171, 177, 179-182, 185-186, 188, and 191 (Aug. 1975 - April 1979), all penciled by Andru except for three issues Sal Buscema and two by Keith Pollard.[13] He inked the feature stories in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4-5 (1967–1968), over Larry Lieber's pencils, with the latter's issue introducing Peter Parker's parents; Annual #10 (Nov. 1976), over Gil Kane; and Annual #22, over Mark Bagley. Esposito additionally inked several issues apiece of The Spectacular Spider-Man; the children's comic Spidey Super Stories; and a host of Spider-Man miscellanea, such as Spider-Man Giveaway: AIM Toothpaste Exclusive Collectors' Edition (1980), and Spider-Man Giveaway: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse #1 (1984).[4][14]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Esposito inked virtually every major Marvel penciler on virtually every major Marvel title, from The Avengers to X-Men.[4] By the mid-1980s, however, his Marvel work had tapered to a trickle. Among his final Spider-Man work, he was co-inker on the story "Moving Up", penciled by Alex Saviuk, in Web of Spider-Man #38 (May 1988); inker of the following issue's cover; and inker of the 11-page partial origin retelling "My Science Project, penciled by Bagley, in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23 (1989). His final Spider-Man story was also his last with Andru, who died in 1993: the graphic novelSpider-Man: Fear Itself (Feb. 1992). Esposito's final Marvel tale was Last Marvel the 11-page Darkhold story "Skin", penciled by Dan Lawlis, in the horror comics title Midnight Sons Unlimited #2 (July 1993).[4]
Later life and career
By this time, however, Esposito was well-ensconced at Archie Comics, inking hundreds of teenage-humor stories starring Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper and the other high-schoolers of Riverdale, U.S.A., generally over the pencils of fellow former longtime Marvel artist Stan Goldberg. His final Archie work was inking four Goldberg stories in Betty #56 (Dec. 1997).[4]
Personal life
Esposito's first wife, Mary, died when he was in his 40s. He later married his second wife, Irene. Esposito had two children: Mark, who predeceased him, and Michelle.[1] Esposito lived in Lake Grove, New York, on Long Island, in his later years, and died October 24, 2010, at age 83.[1]
An Andru-Esposito drawing of Wonder Woman appears on one of the 10 character stamps issued in the U.S. Postal Service's 2006 commemorative stamp series "DC Comics Super Heroes".[15]
A paparazzo character was named after him on the Smallville episode "Trespass."
In 2007 Esposito and Andru were the subjects of a biography titled Andru and Esposito: Partners For Life, published by Hermes Press (ISBN 978-1932563849).
David Stahl was an American conductor who studied under Leonard Bernstein and was famous for his interpretation of the work of Mahler died from ymphoma he was , 60.[1] He was the Chefdirigent of the Staatstheater am Gaertnerplatz, Munich, Germany, and the conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He died on October 24, 2010 after battling lymphoma for two months. [2] His wife, Karen, passed away in September 2010.
(1950 - October 24, 2010)
Biography
Early life and family background
Stahl was born in New York City, the son of Jewish emigre parents. David Stahl's father, Frank L. Stahl, is an engineer who took part in the restoration of the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1980s. He was born in Fuerth, Germany and attended the same elementary school as Henry Kissinger. Edith Stahl, David Stahl's mother, immigrated to New York in 1938 from Essen, Germany. David Stahl's grandfather, Dr. Leo Stahl (m. Anna Regensburger), was the Jewish Community Leader of Fuerth during the Nazi time. He was interned in Dachau from 11 November to 7 December, 1938, and emigrated to England in 1939. Arriving in New York in 1947, he was, according to Das Schicksal der jüdischen Rechtsanwälte in Bayern nach 1933, by Reinhard Weber, unsuccessful in business and died there in 1952, aged 67. Frank's sister Liselotte, after a time in Manchester, England, also came to New York, where she died in 2007.
Professional career
After making his Carnegie Hall debut at age 23, Stahl came under the tutelage of Leonard Bernstein, eventually taking over as music director of the Broadway production of West Side Story. In 1984, he became permanent conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and in 1996 he was invited to be guest conductor at the Staatsteater am Gaertnerplatz. He assumed the title of music director there as of the 1999/2000 season.
As an enthusiast of Bernstein, he has been behind several revivals of Candide, including conducting an acclaimed 2003 German language production narrated by Loriot[3] and, recently, a 2008 production in Charleston, SC.[4] He has also been involved in the staging of a notable production of the Gershwin brothers' Porgy and Bess in Charleston, SC (the city where the opera is set) which went on to tour internationally in the early 1990s.[5] In 2009 he will celebrate 25 years at CSO and 10 years at the Gärtnerplatz. He is married and has three children.
The York Theatre featured Stein's Take Me Along, Carmelina, and Plain and Fancy as its 2006 "Musicals in Mufti" staged concert series. Stein revised Carmelina reducing it to a cast of seven from its original Broadway version for the York reading.[15] Its 2007 series featured four additional Stein musicals, Zorba, Enter Laughing: The Musical (renamed from So Long, 174th Street), The Body Beautiful, and The Baker's Wife. The readings are presented in concert format in mufti, in street clothes without scenery or props.[16]
The York Theatre, under Artistic Director James Morgan, went on to produce a critically acclaimed fully-staged off-Broadway production of Enter Laughing: The Musical from September 3, 2008 through October 12, starring Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker.[17] It was nominated for a 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding revival.[18] A Broadway transfer has been announced.[19]
Encores!
Victoria Clark starred the City CenterEncores! production of Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein’s Juno. Directed by Garry Hynes, with guest music direction by Eric Stern and musical staging by Warren Carlyle, Juno played for five performances, from March 27 – 30, 2008 at New York City Center and was the first presentation since the original Broadway staging in 1959 to use the original orchestration by Blitzstein, Hershey Kay and Robert Russell Bennett.[20] Juno, with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein is based on the 1924 play Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey. It originally opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater on March 9, 1959, starring Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas and played a total of sixteen performances. Songs include "I Wish It So", "We’re Alive", and "One Kind Word".[5]
Personal life
Stein lived in Manhattan with his wife Elisa, a psychotherapist. He was a member of the Dramatists Guild Council from 1975 until his death.[21] Joseph Stein died in 2010, aged 98, from complications of a fall. He had also been ill with prostate cancer.
He had three sons, Daniel, Harry and Josh, from his first marriage to Sadie Singer Stein, who died in 1974. He also had a stepdaughter, Jenny Lyn Bader, and a stepson, John M. Bader, from his marriage to Elisa Loti.
Honors
In January 2008, Joseph Stein was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.[22] He was honored by The Dramatists Guild of America with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008[23] and by the York Theatre with the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre in 2007.[24] Joseph Stein was awarded the prestigious York Theatre Company's Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in 2007
Other organizations to honor Mr. Stein include Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, which gave him a Distinguished Achievement Award; the Walnut Street Theatre, which gave him the Edwin Forrest Award for outstanding contributions to the theatre in 2001; the Alumni Association of City College, which awarded him the Townshend Harris Medal in 2004; and Encompass New Opera Theatre, which honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
Ior Bock [i:or bok] adopted Bror Holger Svedlin; was a Swedish-speaking Finnish tour guide, actor, mythologist and eccentric died from being stabbed he was 68. Ior Bock was a colourful media personality and became a very popular tour guide at the island fortress of Suomenlinna, where he worked from 1973 to 1998.[1]
( 17 January 1942 Р23 October 2010) In 1984 Bock raised public interest and discussion when he claimed that his family line (Boxstr̦m) had been keepers of an ancient folklore tradition that provides insight into the pagan culture of Finland, including hitherto unknown autofellatio exercises connected to old fertility rites. These stories are often known as the Bock saga. His eccentric philosophical and mythological theories gained a small international cult following.[2] Until his death, Ior Bock still maintained a number of friends that kept analyzing his stories [3][not in citation given][unreliable source?] and who kept working to complete the excavations made to verify the Bock saga.[4]Biography
Birth
According to Bock's autobiographical The Bock Saga, he was born as the result of an incestuous relationship between sea-captain Knut Victor Boxström (1860–1942), who would have been 81 years old at the time, and his daughter Rhea, 42.[5] Knut's only son had been killed in the Finnish Civil War in 1918,[5] and this was a desperate measure to continue the male line and bring the extensive family-saga about heathen times to the public eye. Knut Victor Boxström died shortly after Ior's baptism, one month after his birth. Consequently he was adopted by Rhea's husband, Bror Gustaf Bertil Svedlin.[5] In 2004 the freelance journalist Magnus Londen published an article [6] where he claimed that Ior Bock was actually an adopted son of Rhea Böxström-Svedlin and Bror Svedlin.[5] According to Londen, official adoption documents in the National Archive in Helsinki prove that Ior's biological mother was a 23 years old gardening instructor in Porvoo.[5] His father was said to be a Spanish sailor. After Bock's death a family friend from Sibbo, quoting her mother, supported the adoption claims.[7] In 2003, Ior Bock had answered Londen's queries by explaining that the adoption-theme was a necessary precaution from his mother to hide the incestuous act that lead to his birth.[5]
Adolescence
According to Magnus Londen's article, young Holger Svedlin was sent off to to an orphanage for one year at age nine. Londen, citing unnamed acquaintances of the Svedlin family, states that Holger (who had adopted the name Ior, meaning Eeyore in Swedish) had displayed irrational behaviour and that his mother had been unable to cope with him since his adopted father had died the previous year.[5] It was during this period that, according to the stories he later told, his twenty years of daily training into the sound system and secret saga of his family began. It was his biological mother as well as his aunt/sister Rachel who taught him for two hours every day, and only when they were away was he in the orphanage.[5]
At the age of 15, under the name of Ior Bockström-Svedlin,[citation needed] he got into training practice as a lighting technician at Svenska Teatern (The Swedish Theatre) in Helsinki. Here he completed his basic education to become a professional actor at age 21. According to Magnus Londen, the time in theatre training was both a joyous time when Holger was able to exert his gregarious side—he loved being the centrepiece of all social activity—but it was also darkened by his sense of lacking a real, and significantly credible, identity. Due to his alledgedly dark, southern European features, rumours abounded concerning his ancestry. According to Magnus Londen's article he would even play into these rumours himself at times stating that he had arrived in Finland along with a band of Spanish soldiers, being their mascot, and that his actual name was "La Plata". On other days he attempted to bleach his hair and eyebrows "desperately wanting to be accepted as Finnish."[5]
In the following years Ior Svedlin became a renown actor, due to engagements at the Swedish theatres in Vaasa, Turku and Helsinki.[citation needed] Apart from guest-plays in Stockholm he also got to direct some smaller productions.[citation needed] Most famous[citation needed] is the TV commercial "The Coral Man", where Ior Svedlin showed his skills both as a director[citation needed] and a dancer.
Due to[says who?] his family's specific interest and knowledge of Finnish history Ior Bockström-Svedlin became privately engaged with the history of the 18th century sea fortress Sveaborg (Finnish: Suomenlinna) in Helsinki. From 1969 until 1984, when his contract with the Society was terminated, he was employed daily as a tourist guide at the service of the Ehrensvärd Society.[citation needed] According to Magnus Londen, the stories told by Ior Svedlin during his guided tours gradually evolved in a bizarre direction, resulting into a conflict with his employer.[5] From 1984 to 1998 he continued his studies of Sveaborg while guiding on a free-lance basis, using his new name Ior Bock.
Starting in the mid-1970s, a new chapter in Ior Bockstrom-Svedlin's life began to develop when he began paying regular visits to the well-known hippie paradise Goa on the Arabian Sea coast of India. Every year from October to April he would spend in the small village Chapora, developing a significant crowd of supporters, or apprentices as some back in Finland would call them.[5] Magnus Londen speculates that it was here that his fanciful tales about Sveaborg were developed, to be retold to the tourists during his guiding employment the following summer. At this time hashish became a staple ingredient of Ior Bock's life.[5] According to Ior, he had been occasionally smoking with the consent of his parent from the age of 14 since hemp-growing and smoking had been a tradition in the Bockström-family—until 1965 when the use of cannabis was prohibitted.[citation needed] According to Londen, Ior Svedlin was interviewed by the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet in 1982[5] and he was quoted there giving a statement that Londen has found most poignant in yielding a critical perspective on Ior Bock's own biography which he began to present to the public two years thereafter.
People have attempted to understand why the Indian philosophy has reached highest in the world, despite the people having neither reading nor writing skills. But it has been built up through an oral tradition. The eldest was taught by his father, and it was his duty to again teach his siblings.
Magnus Londen writes that on the 24th of February 1984, in Goa, Ior Svedlin had a profound inner experience—for the first time seeing himself as only Ior Bock, no longer Ior Svedlin. And he also sees that he has been chosen".[5] His mother died a little over a month later[5] Londen further writes that when he returned to Finland that year people noticed his change, that he was perceived as being aloof and incoherent. Londen again cites unnamed acquaintances of Ior Bock.[5] Londen claims that this was when his employers at Sveaborg no longer would have him.[5]
After the funeral of his mother Rhea on 23 June 1984,[8] Ior claimed that she had left him a will containing a very specific duty, which was to bring their family-saga to the attention of professional historians as well as the public. The first recordings were done in Swedish in 1984 and 1985 at The Archive of Folklore in Helsinki. Later he gave further outlines and specifics in numerous tapes, and in 1996 the Finnish writer Juha Javanainen collected some basic extracts in the book Bockin Perheen Saga (Helsinki, 1996).
Excavation of the Temple of Lemminkäinen
In 1987, Ior Bock and his supporters began fund-raising in order to finance excavation of a sediment-filled cave that is situated under the hill 'Sibbosberg', situated north of Gumbostrand in Sipoo, 30 km east of Helsinki - at the estate Bock had inherited from his parents. The cave was supposed to lead to a furnished temple-chamber inside the Sibbosberg, known as the Temple of Lemminkäinen Inside of the temple-chamber a spiraling hallway is described, with small hall-rooms were created to hold the collected treasures from each generation from the heathen culture of ancient Finland. The time of ongoing storage are counted in millenniums, accumulating a large treasure chamber. The last storage was done in 987 when the entrance-hall was filled and the entrance-door closed and hidden, as foreign warlords would enter the Baltic area and threaten Finland.
A number of digs in the cave were made on various occasions during 1987–1998.[9] After two summers of excavations on the entrance and in the cavern beyond it, the diggers reached about 50 meters into the hill.[citation needed] No archeological remains have been found but the so-far explored sub-terranean space is by far the largest cave ever found in Finland.[citation needed] The cave was filled with a mass of sediments, such as clay, sand, silt and rapakivi. Digging out the sediments the excavators have explored straigth walls, a ceiling and a floor consisting of weather-eroded bedrock (granite). The surfaces have been made by natural processes.
The National Board of Antiquities in Finland has never considered the Sibbosberg as an archaeological site. The participation of professional archaeologists in the Sibbosberg excavations has been restricted into a couple of official visits, during which nothing archaeologically significant was observed. In a recent archaeological survey, the Sibbosberg cave was defined as a natural formation of geological interest. According to the surveying archaeologist, the only man-made feature there is a recent rock carving[10]
In 1990 the police arrested Bock and 33 other participants in the dig on suspicion of use and distribution of hashish. When the court sentenced three of Bock's foreign companions the results were a public scandal and the withdrawal of the sponsor of the excavation, the big building company Lemminkäinen Group. Since then smaller digs were made. In 1999 a stabbing attacker left Bock quadroplegic. When Bock was still in hospital his debts to the Lemminkäinen Group and to a geo-technical contractor (from 1992) were used to instigate a process against him for debts and credits. During Bock's stay in Goa the following winter his assets were confiscated and his properties sold.[5]
Hoard of the Kajaani castle
Another location of the Bock's stories was the early 17th century stone fort in Kajaani. According to Bock, a castle was situated in the place already in the 13th century, when a royal treasure of Kings of Finland, including a golden buck statue, was hidden in a well in the courtyard of the castle. Some excitiment arose when ground-penetrating radar investigations made in 1996 and 2000 suggested that a sizable metal item was located at 4 meters depth of the courtyard of the fort.[citation needed] According to the state archaeologist Henrik Lilius the item was probably an old cannon that could have fallen into the well during the destruction of the fort in 1716. A new investigation made in 2006 was not able to verify the earlier observations.[11] During an archaeological excavation made later in 2006, it was noticed that an electric ground cable had been dug in the courtyard at 40 cm depth. According to the project manager Selja Flink of the National Board of Antiquities, it was most probably the object noticed in the ground-penetrating radar investigations. According to Flink, there is no archaeological or documentary evidence of the well mentioned by Bock.[12]
Later phases
On 3 June 1999, Ior Bock was attacked in his home in Helsinki and stabbed several times. The attack left him a quadriplegic.
Until his death at the age of 68, Bock maintained a circle of friends and followers, who were still impressed by his stories and hoped to start again the excavations at the Sibbosberg.
Death
On 23 October 2010, Bock was stabbed to death in his apartment in Helsinki. Police arrested two male suspects of Indian origin, (aged 19 and 28), who had shared his apartment and had worked as his personal assistants.[13][14] The case is now investigated as a suspected murder. According to the police, a quarrel had preceded the act of homicide. On 9 November, the police reported that the younger suspect, born 1991, has been set free and is not suspected anymore.
Outline of the Bock Saga
At her funeral on 23 June 1984, Ior claimed that his mother Rhea (Boxstrom-Svedlin) had left him a very specific duty, confirmed in her will, to bring their ancient and unknown family-saga to the attention of professional historians as well as the public. The first recordings were done in Swedish in 1984 and 1985 at The Archive of Folklore in Helsinki. Later he gave further outlines and specifics in numerous tapes and in 1996 the Finnish writer Juha Javanainen collected some basic extracts in the book Bockin Perheen Saga (Helsinki, 1996).
In his saga Ior Bock employs a distinct etymology, based on the letters of the Scandinavian alphabets (Swedish and Finnish language). To support his (allegedly) historical saga he related it to old Scandinavian folklore, describing a nucleus that is supposed to be the origin of both the Scandinavian and the Finnish cultures. The saga describes a detailed sound-system, built on the sounds of the Scandinavian alphabet. Based on this phonology the saga explains an extensive mythology and a chronological, stringent history. The "historical outline" covers a number of topics; from the origin of man before Ice Age and a global caste-system, to the break up of this global population due to the appearance of the Ice Age, climatic fluctuations and continental drift. The saga explains how this first, tropical culture was divided into ten different kingdoms as life on each continents developed into parallel but different biotops. During the eons of time when ice-time proceeded a small group of people, the Aser, where caught inside the ice of northern Europe - inside the Baltic Ocean. The end of Ice Age broke this isolation and became a "new start" of humanity - since all the various populations could now be reached - and reach each other. Regaining contact with the various tropical kingdoms the Aser were instrumental in spreading a "root-system" of words, to develop a common ground for communication and exchange between the various cultures. Since the legendary "deluge" (Younger Dryas) 10.000 years ago the connections rapidly established and similar cultures started on all the different continents, leading to parallel cultures on the respective continents, leading to the ethnicities, constitutions and civilizations we know as Stone Age and Classical Antiquity.[15]
During these millennium, the Asers were drafting and cultivating their inter-continental connections, enhancing the exchange of knowledge, skills and produce world-wide. The purpose was to produce common features and grounds for language and culture, through the exchange of procreators, skills, crafts, arts and architecture. Their method was co-operation between parallel constitutions of royals, nobilities and laymen. According to the saga the Eurasian monarchies were established shortly after the Ice Age. From the one arctic group of people that survived Ice Age, called "Aser", only three families were first made to explore the Eurasian north - and leave offspring i their respective regions; east, west and south of the Baltic Ocean. These off-springs became the core-families of three major kingdoms, who managed to grow into the societies that managed to populate western, central and eastern Europe. Within the open lands of northern Eurasia, the royals were producing 'houses' of nobility to inhabit and populate the various regions and there found a third cast of offspring, called Earls, to produce structured societies within their respective shires and villages.
The Bock saga explains that the historical kingdoms of Eurasia descended from the three kingdoms found by the Aser already during early Stone Age. Similar constitutions is claimed to have existed already in the southern hemisphere, on all other continents. Since the ancestry of all these tropical and arctic royals would lead back to a common source, the word "All-father" was recognized by them all as a common origin of all human beings. Thus the renewed contact and resurrection of common roots and goals resulted in a positive contact and exchange, producing a world-wide net of genetic and academic exchange - leading to the innovations, produce and trade of agriculture, metals and alloys that led to advanced arts, tools, craft and technology.
A major theme in the poetry and prose of the Bock saga is the exposure of the ancient fertility-cultures of antiquity, whose legal traditions - based on inheritance - where contradictory to the interest of foreign invaders and illegal regimes. Consequently, to handle an occupied population, the religions of the Middle Ages exercised an absolute repression of all the old fertility rituals, since they required and recreated the memory of the old codexes. Consequently the heathen traditions of sexual visibility and identification was massively condemned and sanctioned with the most severe of punishments. One such heathen tradition was that of drinking the "divine vine" or the "water of wisdom", which literally refers to the female sap (ejaculate) and the male sperm.
According to the saga the pagan traditions were based on a naturalistic philosophy, where it was regarded a virtue to "save and not spill ones semen or female ejaculate". This could be done by sharing the liquids in a "69" or by practicing autofellatio – which the family-saga names sauna-solmu. The Finnish expression for this "sacred vines" would be Viisauden Vesi—the water of wisdom, which in other traditions are known under cryptic terms such as "The Water of Life", "The Seeds of Life", "The Nectar of The Gods" or "The Elixir of the Blessed". In the early Christian context these classical issues were mis-translated, to "blood" and "flesh", to stigmatize the pagan peoples as wild beasts, vampires and cannibals. Paradoxically the liturgy is still defining "the flesh and blood of Jesus" as our most sacred rite, the communion. Even if the tools of the communion today are explained to be "purely allegorical" their origin are still to be explained.[15]
While the men would learn how to "curl up" in a "sauna-knot" and drink directly from their "clubs", the women would normally ingest their mahla, female ejaculation, with a straw. According to the Bock Saga this used to be a collective tradition amongst men and women, where "heart-friends" (of the same sex) would share each others liquids as a special favor and sacrament, to enhance their respective fertility and vitalize their neurological energy. The saga claims that within the heathen cultures this recycling of sperm and sap was obligatory at the age of 7, when it was combined with yoga exercises.[16]
In popular culture
In 1994, Kingston Wall, a Finnish progressive rock group included the core of Bock's mythic symbolism on their last album, Tri-Logy. The saga was described in the CD booklet and some of the song lyrics featured themes from it.
George Cain was an African American author who is renowned for writing Blueschild Baby, a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1970 who died from kidney failure.he was , 66. The basis of the book is about the life of a drug user who finally overcomes his addiction. Cain was a drug user too, but unlike the character in his novel, he never overcame his addiction nor went on to write another book.
(October 27, 1943 – October 23, 2010)
Born on October 27, 1943, as George Maurice Hopkins, he would adopt the pen nameAfrica Cain, later choosing to use his original first name. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan and moved with his family to Teaneck, New Jersey after graduating from the McBurney School, which he attended on scholarship. His basketball skills earned him a scholarship at Iona College, but he dropped out as a junior and headed to the American Southwest. While in Mexico he was charged and sentenced to six months in jail for possession marijuana.[1] After completing his sentence he moved to Brooklyn and started writing Blueschild Baby. George Cain's representative character in the book starts using drugs in high school, which starts his descent into the drug world, following the death of a favorite grandmother in a fire. The George Cain in the book finally finds his way and stops using drugs, but Cain himself had his life destroyed by drugs.[1] The book describes how Cain's middle-class parents moving to the suburbs only to find themselves "surrounded, hounded and harassed by the white mob". Reviewer Addison Gayle, Jr., of The New York Times called the book "the most important work of fiction by an Afro-American since Native Son", describing "a world that only black people can fully comprehend", written in "a language that abounds in colorful in-group symbols and metaphors".[2]
Despite favorable responses to the book, he never completed a planned sequel to his debut book and as described by his ex-wife Jo Lynne Pool he "had a lot of friends from the street, and they were going down", and he went down along with them, his life and family falling apart.[1]
Cain died at the age of 66 on October 23, 2010, in Manhattan due to complications of kidney disease. He was survived by two daughters, a son and five grandchildren.[1]
Mike Esposito ,[1] who sometimes used the pseudonyms Mickey Demeo, Mickey Dee, Michael Dee, and Joe Gaudioso, was an American comic book artist whose work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and others spanned the 1950s to the 2000s died he was , 83. As a comic book inker teamed with his childhood friend Ross Andru, he drew for such major titles as The Amazing Spider-Man and Wonder Woman. An Andru-Esposito drawing of Wonder Woman appears on a 2006 U.S. stamp.
where one of his classmates was future comics artist Ross Andru.[2] Originally Esposito dreamed of becoming an animator at Disney. This ended when his father did not want him to leave New York for the West Coast.[2]
Shortly after DC Comics ushered in the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of Comic Books by reimagining such Golden Age superheroes as the Flash and Green Lantern for modern audiences, Andru and Esposito began a long run on DC's Wonder Woman, from issues #98–171 (May 1958 – August 1967), "defining her look during [this] boom period".[1] As well, with writer-editor Robert Kanigher, they co-created the robot superheroes the Metal Men in Showcase #37 (April 1962), going on to draw the first 29 issues of the lighthearted series Metal Men, from 1963 to 1968.
The Andru-Esposito team first drew the flagship Marvel Comics character Spider-Man in the premiere (March 1972) of that superhero's first spin-off comic book, Marvel Team-Up, nearly every issue of which featured Spider-Man paired with another hero. While Andru did not remain on the series, Esposito would go on to ink several issues, often those penciled by Gil Kane.[12] He and Andru eventually took over the flagship title The Amazing Spider-Man. Esposito inked the vast majority of a nearly four-year run on the title, encompassing issues #147-150, 152-171, 177, 179-182, 185-186, 188, and 191 (Aug. 1975 - April 1979), all penciled by Andru except for three issues Sal Buscema and two by Keith Pollard.[13] He inked the feature stories in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4-5 (1967–1968), over Larry Lieber's pencils, with the latter's issue introducing Peter Parker's parents; Annual #10 (Nov. 1976), over Gil Kane; and Annual #22, over Mark Bagley. Esposito additionally inked several issues apiece of The Spectacular Spider-Man; the children's comic Spidey Super Stories; and a host of Spider-Man miscellanea, such as Spider-Man Giveaway: AIM Toothpaste Exclusive Collectors' Edition (1980), and Spider-Man Giveaway: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse #1 (1984).[4][14]
