THE HUMAN FLY movie!?

 Looks like someone is making a documentary on THE HUMAN FLY! 


 

Long-time readers of this blog know that the Human Fly is the 1970s real-life masked stuntman whose exploits were made legendary in the 19-issue Marvel Comics series. I have written about the comic book (and my passion for it) here before, which you can find at this link.  

The YouTube clip above is an intro to the film, which hopefully will be completed and released. Despite all my years of being a fan of the Fly, I had never seen any video footage of him, so I was literally beaming with excitement when I finally watched the promo film. Imagine waiting some 35 years to actually watch a childhood hero of yours in action? For me, the Fly from the comic series (which was written for it's entire run by one of my favorite writers, Bill Mantlo) is the real Human Fly. He's the one whose story I followed for a year and a half as an 11 yr old, all wide-eyed and star struck. The fact that I knew the comic was based on the real-life stuntman just made him all the more awesome in my mind.

While all my friends were tripping over themselves to get to the new STAR WARS movie, I was daydreaming about the wildest superhero ever, because, hello, he was real!

My good friend Michael Aushenker (fellow cartoonist & Fly enthusiast) wrote an article a few years ago for BACK ISSUE magazine, (you can read my review of it here) providing the most comprehensive history in print I've ever read on the backstory of the Human Fly. It's worth seeking out (and not just because he actually got a quote from me for the piece!). While there are some unanswered questions and rumors regarding the Human Fly, and I imagine the documentary will address (expose?) them, I'll always have my idealized version of the Fly, as illustrated by such master cartoonists as Frank Springer, Carmine Infantino and the untouchable Mr. Frank Robbins, with captivating scripts by the great Bill Mantlo. 

I'm eager to see the full story of the Human Fly, warts and all. It's about dang time, and I know there is an underground cult of Fly Fans just waiting for this flick. It won't be the super blockbuster movie that THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or THE AVENGERS will be, but what the heck, those characters ain't real!

 A color marker sketch I did just before writing this post, and after watching the video for about the 5th time since last night...