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Killer Kane
Killer Kane is a fictional character in the ''Buck Rogers'' comic strip and its subsequent 1939 ''Buck Rogers'' serial film produced by Universal Studios.M. Keith Brooker, ''Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels''.Santa Barbara, Calif. : Greenwood Press, 2010. (pp. 551-2) The character also appeared in the 1979 film and subsequent TV series, in which he was a defector from Earth to the Draconian Empire and sought to assist its malevolent leader Emperor Draco and his daughter Princess Ardala in their plans to conquer Earth. Comic strip In the comic strip, Kane was a dark-haired, mustachioed soldier. Kane first appeared in the January 30, 1929 comic strip.Jeff Rovin, ''The Encyclopedia of Super Villains'' New York, N.Y. : Facts on File Publications, 1987. (pp. 175-6) He was romantically involved with Wilma Deering; however, after Wilma left him for Buck Rogers, Kane became a criminal and Buck's mortal enemy. Kane carried out numerous criminal schemes and attempted to ki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ninth Configuration
''The Ninth Configuration'' (also known as ''Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane'') is a 1980 American psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by William Peter Blatty, in his directorial debut. The second installment in Blatty's "Faith Trilogy" after ''The Exorcist'', it is based on Blatty's 1978 novel ''The Ninth Configuration'', which was itself a reworking of an earlier version of his 1966 novel ''Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!''. The initial 1966 publication of the novel featured an exclamation mark at the end of the title, while all subsequent publications saw it removed. The first half of the film has the predominant tone and style of a comic farce. In the second half, the film becomes darker as it delves deeper into its central issues of human suffering, sacrifice and faith. The film also frequently blurs the line between the sane and insane. The film was recognized with the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and two other nominations at the 38th Golden G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilma Deering
Wilma Deering is a fictional character featured in the various iterations of Buck Rogers which have spanned many media over the years.Robert Jennings,"Bucking the Future: From 1928 to the 25th Century With Anthony Rogers". ''Comic Buyer's Guide'' July 5, 1990. (pp. 58, 60, 62, 65-66). Through all the versions of Buck Rogers, Wilma Deering has maintained some clear characteristics. She is a sometimes-romantic interest for Buck, always a loyal defender of Earth, and an attractive and smart woman. She is generally depicted as brave with a penchant for getting herself into trouble. As with other science fiction heroines from the pulp science fiction genre and others, she has sometimes been depicted as a damsel in distress but more often as an assertive adventurer. In this way, her character resembles that of Dale Arden of the Flash Gordon comic books and movie serials, and also the character Lois Lane from Superman. Pulp origins Wilma Deering appears in the very first Buck Rogers st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comics Characters Introduced In 1929
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. There is no consensus amongst theorists and historians on a definition of comics; some emphasize the combination of images and text, some sequentiality or other image relations, and others historical aspects such as mass reproduction or the use of recurring characters. Cartooning and other forms of illustration are the most common image-making means in comics; '' fumetti'' is a form that uses photographic images. Common forms include comic strips, editorial and gag cartoons, and comic books. Since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels, comic albums, and ' have become increasingly common, while online webcomics have proliferated in the 21st century. The history ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming The Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the ''Flash Gordon'' comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, television series and film adaptation. Ming is depicted as a ruthless tyrant who rules the planet Mongo. Alex Raymond's comic strip In the comic strip, when the heroic Flash Gordon and his friends land on the fictional planet, Mongo, they find it ruled by an evil emperor, a despot who quickly becomes their enemy. He was not named at first, only being known as "''The'' ''Emperor''" until several issues later, when his name was revealed to be "Ming". The capital of his empire is named Mingo City in his honour. In addition to his army, Ming is shown to have access to a wide variety of science fiction gadgets, ranging from rocket ships to death rays to robots. Though evil, he has his weaknesses, which include a desire to marry Flash's beautiful companion, Dale Arden. Ming's daughter Princess Aura i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labor Camp
A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especially prison farms). Conditions at labor camps vary widely depending on the operators. Convention no. 105 of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO), adopted internationally on 27 June 1957, abolished camps of forced labor. In the 20th century, a new category of labor camps developed for the imprisonment of millions of people who were not criminals ''per se'', but political opponents (real or imagined) and various so-called undesirables under communist and fascist regimes. Some of those camps were dubbed "reeducation facilities" for political coercion, but most others served as backbones of industry and agriculture for the benefit of the state, especially in times of war. Precursors Early-modern states could exploit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brainwashing
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashing is said to reduce its subjects' ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values and beliefs. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them. Research into the concept also looked at Nazi Germany, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. In the late 1960s and 1970s, there was considerable scientific and legal debate, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used, or in the conversi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penthouse Apartment
A penthouse is an apartment or unit on the highest floor of an apartment building, condominium, hotel or tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting .... Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features. The term 'penthouse' originally referred, and sometimes still does refer, to a separate smaller 'house' that was constructed on the roof of an apartment building. Architecturally it refers specifically to a structure on the roof of a building that is Setback (architecture), set back from its outer walls. These structures do not have to occupy the entire roof deck. Recently, luxury high rise apartment buildings have begun to designate multiple units on the entire top residential floor or multiple higher residential floors including the top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics. Robots can be autonomous or semi-autonomous and range from humanoids such as Honda's ''Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility'' ( ASIMO) and TOSY's ''TOSY Ping Pong Playing Robot'' (TOPIO) to industrial robots, medical operating robots, patient assist robots, dog therapy robots, collectively programmed ''swarm'' robots, UAV drones such as General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, and even microscopic nano robots. By mimicking a lifelike appearance or automating movements, a robot may convey a sense of intelligence or thought of its own. Autonomous things are expected to proliferate in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th century, coinciding with the rise of authoritarian governments in countries such as Fascist Italy (1922-43), Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Empire of Japan, Imperial Japan, Francoist Spain, the Soviet Union (and later Russia), Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, China, and Turkmenistan. In the Western world, there are historical examples of people who have been considered and have considered themselves dissidents, such as the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In totalitarian countries, dissidents are often incarcerated or executed without explicit political accusations, or due to infringements of the very same laws they are opposing, or because they are supporting civil liberties such as freedom of speech. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raygun
A raygun is a science-fiction directed-energy weapon that releases energy, usually with destructive effect.Jeff Prucher, '' Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction,'' Oxford University Press, 2007, page 162 They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, laser pistol, phaser, zap gun, etc. In most stories, when activated, a raygun emits a ray, typically visible, usually lethal if it hits a human target, often destructive if it hits mechanical objects, with properties and other effects unspecified or varying. Real-world analogues are directed-energy weapons or electrolasers: electroshock weapons which send current along an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel. History A very early example of a raygun is the Heat-Ray featured in H. G. Wells' novel ''The War of the Worlds'' (1898).Van Riper, op. cit., p. 46. Science fiction during the 1920s described death rays. Early science fiction often described or depic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiot
An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. 'Idiot' was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard themself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by 'profound mental retardation', which has since been replaced by other terms. Along with terms like moron, imbecile, retard and cretin, its use to describe people with mental disabilities is considered archaic and offensive. Moral idiocy refers to a moral disability. Etymology The word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ''idiōtēs'' 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ''idios'' 'personal' (not public, not shared).Liddell-Scott-Jones ''A Greek– ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". The antonym of a villain is a hero. The villain's structural purpose is to serve as the opposition of the hero character and their motives or evil actions drive a plot along. In contrast to the hero, who is defined by feats of ingenuity and bravery and the pursuit of justice and the greater good, a villain is often defined by their acts of selfishness, evilness, arrogance, cruelty, and cunning, displaying immoral behavior that can oppose or pervert justice. Etymology The term ''villain'' first came into English from the Anglo-French and Old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
