The new original series from Spike TV follows the country's preeminent extreme animal handler, Urban Tarzan (formerly John Brennan who legally changed his name to the one word URBAN TARZAN) who has over 20 years experience rescuing, capturing, and relocating dangerous and exotic animals. This ten half-hour episode series showcases the unpredictable world of Urban Tarzan and his Urban Tarzan Animal Relocation team, a privately-owned service specializing in exotic and dangerous animals, whose hazardous missions run the gamut from capturing deadly pythons on the loose in residential neighborhoods to tracking down lions that escaped from an animal sanctuary. He also leans on the assistance of Caveman, his right-hand man and reptile expert, in each tumultuous situation.

In the premiere episode, Urban Tarzan and Caveman encounter a gun toting chimp, face a raging bull that terrorizes people in a corn maze, and use their wrangling expertise when an unhinged husband harasses his estranged wife by dumping a 300 pound alligator in her pool.

Growing up just a few miles from the Bronx Zoo in New York City, Urban Tarzan has been captivated by animals and wildlife from a very early age. He took his passion for exotic animals and turned it into a career, becoming a professional animal wrangler and expert. URBANTARZAN is an animal advocate and sees himself as someone who is not just protecting people, but protecting the animal. He is constantly challenged with delicate task of keeping the public safe along with making sure the animal is not harmed in the process. Bitten or stung by seemingly every creature in existence, Urban Tarzan relies on his intuitive sense of even the most intimidating animal.

Fans of Urban Tarzan can join in the conversation about the show by following @SPIKETV on Twitter and using #UrbanTarzan. Sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, blog posts, full episodes, biographies and more can be found on Spike.com's dedicated Urban Tarzan destination, UrbanTarzan.spike.com where content will be updated throughout the season. The series is shot throughout various locations in Los Angeles and uses reenactments of real stories.

Urban Tarzan is produced by Asylum Entertainment and is executive produced by Steve Michaels and JoNathan Koch from Asylum Entertainment. The original concept for the show was created by URBAN TARZAN, Lorraine Yarde and Mark Basile, who also serve as Producers. Sharon Levy is Spike TV's Executive Vice President of Original Series. Chris Rantamaki, Spike TV's Vice President of Original Series and Jeff Savaiano, Director of Original Series for Spike TV, serve as the network's Executives in Charge of Production.

Spike TV is available in 98.7 million homes and is a division of Viacom Media Networks. A unit of Viacom, Viacom Media Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV's Internet address is www.spike.com.
 

Writer: Gaylord DuBois
Artist: Russ Manning
Cover Artist: Mo Gollub
Publication Date: May 01, 2013
Format: FC, 192 Pages; HC, 7" x 10"
Price: $49.99
ISBN-10: 1-61655-095-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-61655-095-0
 

The Writers of the Future Program, established in the finest tradition of the professional giving a helping hand to the novice, has become the largest, the most well-known and the best established discovery vehicle in the field.

The Salt Lake Tribune speculates about "vast thinking vegetable" on Mars
MARS PEOPLED BY ONE VAST THINKING VEGETABLE
Read more at Ptak Science Books!

Back in 1912, The Salt Lake Tribune shared this awesome piece of crazy speculation with its readers. An enormous eyeball plant on the surface of Mars!

Jumping off the theories of Percy Lowell, who believed that the canals of Mars were created by giant pieces of biomass, the author of this article postulated a huge eyeball plant rising up over the surface of Mars. This would explain why the canals appeared to move every year. The eyeball plant's movements were dramatic that we could see them all the way from Earth. Writes John Ptak on Ptak Science Books:

Of course, the whole "living planet" deal doesn't work out so well physically and biologically, though it is a smashing good idea for a scifi story, especially one appearing in 1912. Lowell had a very difficult time explaining the movements of these figures, because--according to his theory--the Martians would've been constructing positively enormous canals that stretch across the planet which were also wide enough to be visible via telescope from Earth--with changing positions, that would mean, possibly, that the Martians would fill these things back up again at the turn of the season, and then build and fill the next, and so on. It would be an interesting calculation to see how much real estate was being moved on Mars every year.

Lowell did come up with an explanation for this seeming motion--turgidly, he felt that the canals themselves didn't actually moved; rather, it was a huge movable biomass on the canals at were changing so much the activity could be seem from space.

As for the claim that this idea was pioneered by the astronomer WW Campbell, Ptak notes, "Campbell was not pleased by this--not at all. And I can well imagine why."

Not only was Lowell telling everyone he saw "canals" bringing water from the poles to irrigate crops, around that same time Nicola Tesla said he received radio signals from Mars. People were still at it in 1924; the government asked all stations to listen for any unusual signals during Mars opposition.

The Positively Enormous Skyscraper Plant Eyeballs of Mars, 1912 Some  five years after Percy Lowell filed his Gigantic Situation of intelligent life on Maris in 1906, and 14 years after H.G. Wells' octopusian Martian invasion, the Salt Lake Tribune published this limb-numbing story on solar-flare-sized plant eyeball creatures who were said to inhabit Mars. Rather they lived of Mars--the eyeball plant was thousands of miles big, growing along the surface of Mars, and then rising up above it to survey itself and its dominion via an unlashed and unlidded eggy eyeball of stupendous size mileage.

But when you squint and feel the whole scenario out, you can sort of see how someone might've come up with this solution to the Martian canals. Or canali, as they were first described in in 1877 in Italian by the very busy and very astute G.V. Schiaparelli--it was unfortunate that the need for mistranslating the word from Italian into "canals" rather than 'channels", but wicked imagination must've taken hold of Lowell, and he ran with the idea that the markings on the surface of the planet were of intelligent design.  (I'm sorry that Schiaparelli is remembered mostly for this particular contribution to astronomy in the popular mind--he was really a pretty extraordinary scientist and historian of science, and in his exceptional biography in the 1910 volume of the Astrophysical Journal there is a long and lauditory appraisal of his life and career, without a peep/mention of the infamous canali).

And by "squinting" acknowledgement I mean squinting very hard--at least it could account for the changing seasonal forms of the canals, as their positions would change if the thing was alive.  Of course, the whole "living planet" deal doesn't work out so well physically and biologically, though it is a smashing good idea for a scifi story, especially one appearing in 1912. Lowell had a very difficult time explaining the movements of these figures, because--according to his theory--the Martians would've been constructing positively enormous canals that stretch across the planet which were also wide enough to be visible via telescope from Earth--with changing positions, that would mean, possibly, that the Martians would fill these things back up again at the turn of the season, and then build and fill the next, and so on. It would be an interesting calculation to see how much real estate was being moved on Mars every year.

Lowell did come up with an explanation for this seeming motion--turgidly, he felt that the canals themselves didn't actually moved; rather, it was a huge movable biomass on the canals at were changing so much the activity could be seem fro space.  There were many problems with the theory, as very ably pointed out by the great Alfred Russell Wallace, who eviscerated Lowell and his intelligent Martian life idea (published in his Mars and its Canals published in 1906 which was followed by Mars as the Abode of Life in 1909)  in his own book, Is Mars Habitable? (1907).  The Mars business eclipses Lowell's other very capable work, or at least so it seems--when the man died in 1910, he was buried on Mars Hill at the observatory in Flagstaff.

The Giant All-Seeing Eyeball was hoisted high in the Tribune, given supposed life by the very highly capable astronomer W.W. Campbell (1862-1930, with his biography here at the National Academy of Science), who is quoted by the paper as being the source of this preposterous theory.  Campbell was not pleased by this--not at all.  And I can well imagine why.

I can't consider the Salt Lake paper's story a hoax (as in the case of the great Moon hoax perpetrated in the pages of the New York Sun in 1835), mainly because it is surrounded by other crazy/funny stories--and it didn't try to present the story as a piece of non-fiction, as is classically the case with hoaxes. The Tribune followed up this story on the very next page with one on how the English aristocracy was turning into gorillas.

How we think the fight will go
Things had gone too far during Mr. Hyde’s last rampage. There were too many bodies; too many witnesses. Jekyll wasn’t going to be able to buy his way out of this one, and he knew it. He was down to the last dregs of the potion that controlled Hyde, and soon he wouldn’t be able to control his murderous alter-ego at all. He owed it to civilization to not let this monster slip out of its chains among them once more.He packed his things at once and made haste for the docks where he spent what remained of his funds on a one-way ticket to Africa. One of the vital ingredients in his potion was the extract of a certain rare flower that bloomed in certain jungles on that continent. It was a long shot, but perhaps he could find it. In any case, were Hyde to conquer him utterly, he wouldn’t be able to harm any more people if confined to the jungle.

The journey took weeks, but fortunately he had just enough of his potion to keep Hyde at bay. There was no accounting for what kind of trouble the monster could cause in the closed quarters of the ship. For this, Jekyll was fortunate. After trading his cane for a machete and battered canteen in a small seaside village, Jekyll ventured forth into the jungle.

Hacking through the vines and brush was an incredible test of strength for a gentleman physician like Jekyll. He wished for a moment Hyde was here. With revulsion, he pushed the thought away and continued deeper into the jungle.

On his second day, Jekyll began to suspect that he was not alone. Occasionally, he heard the rustle of leaves, or the crunch of sticks under foot. These incidences were rare, but often enough that it roused his suspicions. He didn’t have much time until Hyde appeared made his appearance, and Jekyll worried that he wouldn’t be able to contain him this time. He had to find the flower.

As he hacked through a particularly thick bunch of leaves, a hairy and muscular arm reached out and grabbed his wrist, forcing him to drop his machete in pain. Had Hyde managed to separate himself bodily from Jekyll? Would the good doctor now be his victim? Terrified, he was pulled into the bushes.

Jekyll found himself surrounded by apes, but apes of a kind he had never seen before: They appeared almost human. A gleam of intelligence shined from behind their large brown eyes, and some of them even carried sticks. They chattered among themselves, the sounds eerily more like words than animal grunts. He cowered before them, a child’s doll before hirsute giants.

One of the apes – a leader, perhaps? – stepped forward from the crowd. The beast pointed at the machete and back again at Jekyll, nodding as it did so. With that, the apes grabbed Jekyll and began to toss him back and forth, occasionally nipping and slapping at him as they did so. He howled in fear, and felt Hyde stir within.

He was surprised when he heard a howl back – something between human and ape. Out of the trees jumped a muscular, wild-looking man clothed in a loincloth and armed with a dagger. The man landed gracefully among the apes and, to Jekyll’s astonishment, began to “speak” with the creatures in their “language.” The ape leaderroared in anger, but the wild man would not back down, roaring back in return.

Whatever words had been exchanged were enough to secure Jekyll’s freedom. The apes tossed Jekyll to the ground and stomped off into the brush. The wild man pulled Jekyll up to his feet. To Jekyll’s surprise, the man spoke English, and with a slight British accent, at that. “What is a man like yourself doing in my home?”

The doctor had not spoken in days, and his voice was hoarse from shouting. “I … I’m here in search of a flower. I am a doctor, and I need it to produce a medication. My name is Jekyll.”

“My name is Tarzan. And you are fortunate that I happened upon you when I did. Had I not done so, you would have been killed. This tribe of apes cares not for men, and especially outsiders such as yourself.”

Jekyll thanked the man profusely before producing a sketch of the flower he was looking for from his pocket. “Have you seen this? It is of the utmost importance that I find it at once.”

Tarzan took the crumpled paper into his hand, and to Jekyll’s great relief he nodded that he had. “The flower you seek is the amibzhwabee bloom. It grows under a particular waterfall that is only a short distance from here. I’ll lead you.” Thrilled, Jekyll followed the man.

It was late afternoon before they found the waterfall, a beautiful cascade flowing into an azure cenote. Tarzan guided Jekyll to the edge of the waterfall and beyond it, stepping into a small grotto. There in the thick soil just beyond the sunlight grew Jekyll’s flower. The doctor removed his backpack and pulled out a small glass vial and a pair of scissors. Perhaps he might save himself yet. He reached out to clip one of the flowers, but as he did so his hand began to shake.

Suddenly, spasms wracked the man’s entire body as Hyde took control. From somewhere deep inside, what was left of Jekyll watched with horror as Hyde’s hands smash all of the precious flowers. Jekyll was doomed. He was no more.

Jekyll had entered the grotto, but it was Hyde who exited into the dying afternoon sun. Hyde was brutish, animal-like. One grotesque hand wrapped around the handle of Jekyll’s machete, swinging it back and forth menacingly.

Tarzan was shocked to see the thing before him. Perhaps this ogre had eaten Jekyll? No matter. That question would have to wait.
Now, instinct took over; Tarzan had to fight.

Hyde swung the machete in a downward motion, hoping to cleave Tarzan’s head in two like he had that poor man’s back in London. However, where Jekyll’s London victims had been soft, weak, and civilized, Tarzan was strong, a man raised among apes. He easily deflected the blow with a massive strike from his left hand, and caught Hyde’s neck within his right. He squeezed until the man-thing could breathe no more. Hyde’s feet and fist beat feebly against Tarzan’s sturdy frame, but the wild man would not flinch. Soon Hyde was silent and still.

In the grasp of Tarzan, Hyde found his just reward, and Jekyll his eternal peace.

Predicted Winner:

Tarzan. Hyde may be monstrous, but Tarzan was raised by apes. He spent his entire life in the jungle, and he’s as tough as anything the jungle has to offer. If he can take down a lion with a dagger, then he can surely kill Hyde.

Submitted by Ja-On Hillman