O Raio «U»

Info On This Retro-Futuristic Comic Book:

Le Rayon U (The U Ray) is a comic book written and drawn by the Belgian comics creator Edgar P. Jacobs in 1943.

Publication history

In 1941, the outbreak of war between Germany and the USA meant that American comic strips could no longer be imported into Nazi-occupied Europe.^[1]
Alex Raymond's strip, Flash Gordon, was then being published in the Belgian comics magazine Bravo. Artist and former opera singer, Edgar Pierre Jacobs was therefore asked to bring the current story to a satisfactory conclusion, which he did. He was then commissioned to produce a science fiction comic strip of his own. Le Rayon U ("The U-Ray") began serial publication in Bravo in 1943.^[1] This version had text boxes which described the action and the dialogues in the style of many Belgian comics of the time, similar in a way to Hal Foster's version of Tarzan and Prince Valiant.
In 1974 Jacobs reformatted Le Rayon U in order to include speech bubbles. This version was published in the comics magazine Tintin, and in book form by Dargaud-Le Lombard.

Synopsis

Le Rayon U is set on an Earth-like planet which combines elements of the distant past, present and far future. Two of its nations, Norlandia and Austradia, are in conflict. A Norlandian scientist, Marduk, has devised a weapon called the "U Ray", but requires a mineral called uradium in order to put it to actual use.
Marduk therefore organises an expedition into an unknown part of the planet in order to find the uradium. Those accompanying him include: his assistant Sylvia Hollis; the explorer Lord Calder; Adji, Calder's Indian manservant; and Major Walton and Sergeant Mac Duff of the Norlandian secret service.
The explorers encounter all manners of threats, including prehistoric monsters, giant snakes and tigers, a tribe of hostile ape-men, and the meddling of Austradian spy Captain Dagon. More welcoming, but no less intriguing, is a civilisation of Aztec-like people.

Characters

In itself Le Rayon U is a classic of Belgian science fiction, but the influence of Flash Gordon cannot be denied:

• The Austradian Emperor Babylos III resembles Ming the Merciless;
• In appearance, Marduk, Lord Calder and Major Walton are similar to Hans Zarkov, Prince Barin and Flash Gordon respectively;
• Like the dark-haired Dale Arden, the dark-haired Sylvia Hollis is coveted by almost every male character she meets, be it man or beast!

Dagon, the main villain, was modelled on Jacobs himself.
Marduk, Calder and Dagon were to be the models for Mortimer, Blake and Olrik, in Jacobs's classic series Blake and Mortimer.

Extracts Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Rayon_U

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_P._Jacobs

Sky Captain e o Mundo de Amanhã (Edição de Coleccionador)

Info About This Great Retro-Futuristic Movie:

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 American pulp adventure dieselpunk film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut. The film is set in an alternative 1939 and follows the adventures of Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a newspaper reporter, and Harry Joseph "Joe" Sullivan (Jude Law), alias "Sky Captain," as they track down the mysterious Dr. Totenkopf (Laurence Olivier), who is seeking to build the "World of Tomorrow".
Conran spent four years making a black and white teaser trailer with a bluescreen set up in his living room and using a Macintosh IIci personal computer. He was able to show it to producer Jon Avnet, who was so impressed that he spent two years working with the aspiring filmmaker on his screenplay. No major studio was interested in financing such an unusual film with a first-time director. Avnet convinced Aurelio De Laurentiis to finance Sky Captain without a distribution deal.
Almost 100 digital artists, modelers, animators and compositors created the multi-layered 2D and 3D backgrounds for the live-action footage while the entire movie was sketched out via hand-drawn storyboards and then re-created as computer-generated 3D animatics. Ten months before Conran made the movie with his cast, he shot it entirely with stand-ins in Los Angeles and then created it in animatics so the actors had an idea of what the film would look like. Sky Captain is notable as one of the first major films (along with Sin City (2005), Casshern (2004), and Immortal (2004) to be shot entirely on a "digital backlot", blending live actors with computer generated surroundings.
Sky Captain grossed $37.7 million in North America and $20.1 million in the rest of the world, totalling $57.9 million, below its estimated $70 million budget. Since the overhead of theater, marketing, and other costs raises the break-even point of a film to roughly double its production cost, it likely lost about $80,000,000 prior to TV and DVD revenues.^{[citation needed]}


This Extract Is Taken From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Captain_and_the_World_of_Tomorrow

More Info: http://www.skycaptain.com/

Major Alvega

Info About The TV Series (Only In Portuguese...):

A PERSONAGEM

Major Alvega é uma personagem fictícia, ás da aviação anglo-português da RAF (Royal Air Force, a Força Aérea britânica), e herói da série de banda desenhada que fez grande furor nas décadas de 1960 e 1970 em Portugal, aparecendo recorrentemente nas páginas de pequeno formato da revista juvenil "O Falcão".^[1]
No título original em inglês tratava-se de "Battler Britton - England's fighting ace of land, sea and air".^[1] Battler Britton, criado em 1956 por Mike Butterworth e Geoff Campion, foi protagonista das mais variadas aventuras, todas caracterizadas por muita acção, suspense e um toque de humor, nas quais defrontou (e venceu) alguns dos mais importantes intervenientes da Segunda Guerra Mundial: Rommel, Goering, Hitler e Mussolini.
No entanto, numa época em que a censura (ao serviço de um Estado Novo fervorosamente nacionalista) obrigava todos os heróis do género a figurarem nomes portugueses (e por consequência alguma forma de ascendência lusa), o protagonista seria rebaptizado de Major Jaime Eduardo de Cook e Alvega, um ribatejano por via paterna e inglês por via materna, que teria frequentado os passos da academia Coimbrã enquanto estudante.^[1]

A SÉRIE TELEVISIVA

O Major Alvega veria a sua última aventura impressa em 1987, mas acabaria por retornar num novo formato, a televisão. No fim da década de 1990 do século XX, a RTP daria nova vida ao personagem numa série que combinava actores verdadeiros, como Ricardo Carriço (Major Alvega), Rosa Bella (Fräulein Schmidt), António Cordeiro (Von Block) e Henrique Canto e Castro (Sir Hugh) com cenários de animação e a narração de Fernando Pessa. Produzida pela Miragem e realizada por Henrique Oliveira, a série constituiu um avanço importante em termos de originalidade e técnica de produção em Portugal, apesar da curta duração da mesma.

FICHA TÉCNICA
Ano: 1998 / 1999
Canal: RTP
Estúdios: Miragem
Elenco:
Ricardo Carriço - Major Alvega
Rosa Bella - Fräulein Schmidt
António Cordeiro - Coronel Helmut Von Block
Fernando Pessa - Narrador
Outras personagens:
Canto e Castro - Sir Hugh
Júlio Cardoso - Churchill
José Wallenstein - Professor Strudell
Alexandre Falcão - Hitler
Cristina Homem de Mello - Makelove
Adriano Martins - Goering
Nelson Machado - Kraftwerck
Luís Esparteiro - Coronel Jervies
Paulo Sousa - Pierre
Jorge Loureiro - General Britânico
António Capelo - Director do MI5
Vítor Mouteiro - Mensageiro
Jorge Mota - Comodoro Britânico
António Paulos - Jacques Remy
Jorge Pinto - Schroder
Henrique Oliveira - Giancarlo Macarrone
Episódios:
1ª Série
01: Objectivo Berlim
02: Intriga em Lisboa
03: Operação Águia
04: Duelo de Gigantes
05: Rumo a Tarento
06: Missão: Branca de Neve
07: O Ceptro de Akhnaton
08: O Segredo de Peenemunde
09: O Agente X
10: Notas Falsas
11: O Sósia
12: Nome de Código: Komet
13: Uma Noite em Casablanca
2ª Série
01: Traição Fatal
02: Milagre de Dunquerque
03: O Ninho da Águia
04: Missão no Tibete
05: Outubro Vermelho
06: S.O.S. Titanic
07: Destino Nova Iorque
08: Sob o Sol de Creta
09: Operação Vampiro
10: A Grande Fuga
11: O Enigma da Antárctida
12: Allo, Mona Lisa
13: O Dia da Libertação
Ficha técnica:
Realização – Henrique Oliveira
Assistente de realização – Maria Pires Pereira
Produção – Margarida Santos
Produção executiva – José Luís Vieira
Assistente de produção - Alexandre Vale, Miguel Guía
Secretária de produção – Sandra Coelho, Margarida Ramos
Guião – Henrique Oliveira, António Cordeiro, José de Pina, Filipe Homem Fonseca
Música – José Pedro Moura
Casting - Patrícia Vasconcelos
Guarda roupa – Maria Manuel Cruz
Cabelos – Augusto Morais, Miguel Viana
Director de animação – Rui Taborda
Animação – António José Gonçalves e José Luís Leitão
Director de som – José António Oliveira
Cinematografia – Paulo Souza
Edição - Fernando Neves
Operadores de câmara – Miguel Macedo, Jorge Nogueira
Electricista chefe – Manuel Carlos da Silva
Electricistas – Zé Faísca, João Gravata, Victor Justo
Marketing - Maria Luís Vieira

Extract Taken From: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Alvega


Episode #1 From Youtube: