Thursday, December 30, 2010

THE CURSE

by Rick Green

When most of us here the term, “The Curse” we think of our girlfriend being really mean once a month.  But for Hoverboy fans, The Curse is something quite different.  And not just because we don’t have girlfriends.

It’s because “The Curse” is one of the biggest reasons that Hoverboy is  considered the 137th greatest comic book character rather than, as he rightfully deserves, the 73rd.  Some of the top comic creators refused to get involved in Hoverboy comics because they feared for their lives. Which is ridiculous.  I think they used the Curse as an excuse, and the real issue was that Hoverboy was considered by some, as being a nasty, Fascist and/or lame character. Which I think is ridiculous too.


Hoverboy Co_Creator Charles Nutt's father, Peter.  Who's
explosion during the Battle of Cantigny is often cited as the
first occurrence of the Hoverboy "Curse".

“The Hoverboy Curse” of course refers to the untimely deaths of so many people who worked on Hoverboy comics, films and even radio shows.  To be honest, I think the Curse is kind of overblown. 

Here is my thinking. 

In the Golden Age of Radio, everyone smoked. So no wonder a lot of the writers, actors and sound effects people died young. The fact that many of these people died young from strange medical disorders like being hit by a car, crushed by a runaway boat, or Testicular Elephantitis may not have a lot to do with smoking… at first glace.  But if you think about it, maybe it does.  Somehow...

As for movies, the fact is, because none of the top comic creators worked on Hoverboy, and it was produced by a third tier publisher like Vengeance, means that the budgets for Hoverboy movie serials were always low. That meant the worst stuntmen were hired. The worst directors. The skin-flint-iest producers.  So deaths from falls, car crashes, plane crashes, and gun accidents are naturally going to follow.  Critics point out that these deaths usually happened away from the studio, when the people were at home, but I still think there’s a pattern.

Death of stuntman Bill "Limpy" Roberts, which was used as the cliffanger
for Hoverboy Serial "Hoverboy Versus the Warlords of Neptune, Chapter 4:
Giant Rocks of Death!"
As for the comic creators dying young, and dying in horrible ways, well, yes. Okay, I’ll give you that one. It’s one thing for a person to die from a burst appendix, but when Hoverboy writer Gig Newman died from the burst appendix of the fat lady sitting beside him on the bus, okay, yeah, that’s just weird. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation. I’m not big on superstition, and I never will be. Knock on wood!

Ouch… Damn, another splinter… 

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