I have just read properly The Heritage illustrated by SWORD artist Malcolm Stokes. I'd only skimmed it when I posted it last time. It really does have a SWORDesque feel to it as the last two humans leave a dying Earth to seek refuge on another planet. Stokes's pair of astronauts really do have an air of SWORD personnal like Doctor Morris in the Annual. Have a read!
It put me in mind of the ending to the new Battlestar Galactica series too.
ReplyDeleteThree observations:
(1) Speaking as Toad and being closer to reptiles than you ape-descendants ... I thought this story was heavily prejudiced against reptiles!
(2) That's "scaly ones", not "scaley ones". (glares at the letterer involved).
[see panel 3 of the story's fourth page]
(3) Kayler and Voss might have been a little optimistic .....
Tal watched in puzzlement as the two silver gods lay down and died. How could this be? Surely the gods were undying? Then his eyes caught sight of the strange sticks the gods had used to defeat the scaly ones. His slow mind struggled to recall how the gods had used them. He held one awkwardly toward his rival Kag. There was a bright glare and Kag fell to the ground, a smouldering heap of flesh. Shock and fear ran through Tal ... then realisation followed. With the god's sticks all could be his. He could take his pick of the women; the best of the food would be his by right. Tal would lead ... because now Tal was a god! And he looked around, and was pleased.
Magg had grown tired of Tal's boorish ways. Being the tribal leader's woman had always been her dream, but the price was too high. She knew the gossip that flared up each time Tal's attentions strayed to yet another of the younger women. A plan flared briefly in her mind .... was almost extinguished by the sheer novelty of thought ... and then leapt into roaring flames of ambition. She felt beneath the skin on which the oaf beside her snored. With great care, and with pounding heart, she took the god's stick to her own as Tal continued to sleep. Now SHE was a god! Now was the time for a new reign .... things would be different from now on ....
ReplyDeleteAnd so it goes on ...
Lesson: get rid of the weapons before you die, guys!
ReplyDeleteBTW ... Kayler and Voss dug the hole for the Time Capsule with their Atom Blast guns ... how did they fill it in? They died immediately afterwards. (shrugs). Honest, I like the story really. ^_^
Oh, and the rest of my comments on this are in sign-language ... which is of course the same on all planets with parallel evolutions.
ReplyDeleteHeh heh ... OK, I'm shutting up now, honest (grins).
The problem of how the hole was filled in? easy. The two dying astronauts, in their final death-throes [unseen] crawled to the hole and fell into it to expire. Seeing this the natives were compelled to cover them with earth as is the universal custom of hominids everywhere. Hole filled!
ReplyDelete