Pilot Light - Enlightenment for our Readers

Pilot, light my fire!

And indeed he does (in a good way of course). And so as a fiery fan, I was delighted when Mr Loring handed me the following introduction to his creation, wrapped in a brown paper-parcel and marked 'very dirty adult stuff enclosed' (the looks I got!). It explains things a little, rants a lot more, but it is nice and has some nice pictures, so having introduced it, here is Mr Loring to introduce his introduction to The Forever Pilot.

Mr T. (but not the famous one), Prop.

Intro 2 Intro

I wrote this introduction some time ago now, for a proposed fanzine dedicated to The Pilot. The small, photocopied magazine itself took an age to produce (about a year per copy as I juggled day-jobs and life in general). And after sending out preview issues to every comic shop I could find the address of, nobody was interested in stocking the ‘zine, and so the whole thing fizzled out, remaining just a lot of files in a folder on my Computer’s hard-drive. Until now that is. As the Pilot has been resurrected for this blog, I thought it might be useful to disinter some of the other bits and pieces I have written about him

Reading the introduction now, I find it a bit too bombastic, a bit too breathless, like the introduction to the old Dick Barton Radio serial; in fact it probably shares similar constraints with it’s much more concise predecessor, in that I was trying to cram all the ideas I had about The Pilot into a very small space.

It does seem very sure of it’s self, wearing it’s antipathy to the modern hero and the modern world in general on it’s sleeve. But, I suppose I was in a dark place then, and The Pilot was really just a great escape for me, a way of jumping worlds if not times, and a reasonable way of keeping sane.

I am not so sure about The Pilot now, nor that the modern world is so entirely awful. Perhaps, in the future I will take on board today’s trends in fantasy and science-fiction and give the Pilot an interesting back-story. But whatever the future holds for the character (another couple of blog postings? A return to ‘zine form? Even a proper book of his adventures?) I am excited again about the infinite possibilities his world and adventures contain.

Enough now of this introduction to my introduction. Here is the original in all it’s shouty glory:

Robert Loring

Leeds, 2008

Pilot Light – an illuminating introduction to the Forever Pilot and his Universe

1. The Antique 21^st Century

The Forever Pilot is an anachronism and the world he inhabits is an atavistic playground of smoky chimneys, fog and rain; a world that continues where our Victorian era ended. In this antique 21^st Century, the buildings are more ornamental than mighty. The streets are cobbled

and secretive beneath the soft glow of gas-lamps. Horse-drawn cabs still ply their trade, whilst jet-cars and jet-vans roar overhead. Communication is by wireless, telegraph and ethervision, Cinema is important, but wastes no time with the undignified act of talking. Aeroplanes and automobiles don’t exist, but airships, steam-trains and steam-ships do.

In The Forever Pilot’s universe there has never been a true world war, only a great number of minor skirmishes. Imperial Russia has risen to be the most powerful nation on Earth, and what we know as the U.S.A. has never existed. Instead, the continent of America is divided up into a mass of tiny, independent countries, uneasily rubbing shoulders with territory owned by the great colonial powers.

Oil in this alternative universe is a useful commodity, but not a religion. There are no multinational corporations, only Emperors and Priests; and quaint, Tyrolean Principalities still exist, along with their cuckoo-clocks, pine forests and werewolves.

On the great North American prairies, Cowboys, Indians and Buffalo still roam, whilst above their heads, gentlemen explorers are orbiting the Earth on giant iron platforms. These same explorers have also set foot on the moon and Mars, and thanks to Professor Zim’s Prometheus Propulsion system, are setting out to conquer the outer worlds.

Although the outward trappings of this alternative Earth are ostensibly Victorian, great strides in morality and equality have been made. The men and women may still wear the kind of clothes our great, great-grandparents wore; bowler hats, crinolines, galoshes, high-button shoes, lace and taffeta, corsets, monocles, waxed moustaches and so on; but amongst men and women a new kind of equality exists. Women have the vote in most civilised countries, and have achieved equal status in most areas of work and private life.

These same men and women may well be more naïve than us, trusting the old order and the leaders who enforce it. They may well be more in the dark about the dangers of living than we are, but for all that are surely less fettered by the neuroses and anxieties that keep us in our world down. Also, though they may be full of all sorts of absurd prejudices and superstitions, they are freer to believe in themselves and their own actions. And in a world where television isn’t the ultimate arbiter of taste and morality, they are less impressed by physical perfection and more stirred by deed.

However, just as in our world, tyranny, folly, fashion and fad still sway the majority. Corruption in politics is commonplace, and there are revolutionaries and anarchists dedicated to bringing down what they believe to be an ancient and decaying order. As a result, bombs are being thrown just as they are being thrown here; only because on that world, man’s ingenuity has been devoted to exploration and adventure instead of war; the capabilities of such weapons are limited. Unlike in our world, there are no ‘smart’ bombs delivering random slaughter from the skies; no generals armoured by the sophistry of war, believing that wanton murder is merely political and no more harmful than some sort of statistical chess game. There, unlike here, war is a thought a hateful game best left to the professionals.

Looking at it as a whole, the world of The Forever Pilot is not necessarily better than our own. Human nature is human nature after all, even in a parallel universe. But at least to its credit, that other world isn’t quite so shallow, violent or restrictive as our own.

2. The Atavistic Pilot

Traditionally a hero will have a secret identity. Even the mysterious and sinister Shadow was either Lamont Cranston or Kent Allard as it suited him. The Forever Pilot however, has no discernible other identity, and is a true man of mystery. He doesn’t have a girl/boy friend and no obvious secret crushes on anyone. He doesn’t have a Forever pet or a reassuring home life. The

Forever Pilot undoubtedly has problems (as anybody would without the above advantages) but whatever these problems are, he seems more content burying them in his adventures. Perhaps it isn’t healthy for him, but sadly in his old-fashioned world there are no real psychiatrists to inform him of the fact.

The Forever Pilot’s costume is bulky and uncomfortable-looking, something of a militaristic mish-mash which makes him look like a cross between a fencer, a cavalryman and a straightjacketed lunatic. For transport he relies on the most up-to-date vehicle, a Norton Skyranger jet-bike. For weapons however, The Pilot has to rely on good old-fashioned fists, a revolver and sabre, and of course his quite considerable intelligence.

In behaviour, he is a gentleman with impeccable manners and a dashing, witty demeanor. And when it comes to a fight, he always prefers to ask questions first and punch noses second.

Despite his often warm and congenial manner, The Forever Pilot is still an outsider in every respect. During his early adventures in Europe, it is often noted that he speaks the language of each country with impeccable fluency. Yet to the discerning ear, a slight English accent is apparent. From this it would seem that The Forever Pilot originates from England. But which England?

The Pilot is clearly from a more technologically-advanced civilisation: his frequent references to concepts alien to those around him, such as psychiatrists and electron microscopes, testify to this. So is his England an England of the far future or one belonging to a parallel universe? Or could the answer be something more sinister? Could The Forever Pilot be from an alien world where his alien language is spoken with what to an untrained ear sounds like an English accent?

Another, even more sinister explanation of The Pilot’s obvious ‘foreignness’ is that he is not human at all, but in fact a robot programmed to simulate the movements and habits of human beings , ultimately lacking any real human responses or emotions.

As well as being materially separate from the other inhabitants of his adopted world, The Forever Pilot is also separated from them by a certain moral or spiritual barrier. And like the many that have trodden the mean streets before him, The Forever Pilot may be ‘in’ the world but is clearly not ‘of’ it.

The weary thoughts and aspirations of the ordinary man are not for The Pilot. Popular opinion, the average idea, the safe passage of fashion and acceptance by the group: all are a kind of poison both to creativity and to the clear, moral stance needed to fight crime and human iniquity. To be human and frail is to give in, to ‘let off the hook’, to forgive or ‘turn a blind eye’ to certain aspects of crime. But because The Pilot is able to step out from the half animal fog that blinds the ordinary man, he is able to always act with absolute conviction and near absolute impartiality.

One way to describe The Pilot is that he is an ‘embodiment of granted prayer’, a phrase used by George Trendle to describe his own fictional creation, The Lone Ranger.

But just as with the rest of humanity, The Forever Pilot also has his inconsistencies, not altogether concomitant with the idea of him as a cold, evaluating spirit.

Whilst on the one hand he is more of a man-shaped hole in space than a living, breathing human being, The Pilot also has a buccaneering, devil-may-care attitude towards his adventures.

And here lies a conundrum: does The Pilot do good because he is a good man? Does he do good because he is seeking revenge against evil, because once a great evil was done to him? Or does he do good because deep down he knows that he is a bad man and wishes to somehow erase his guilt through doing good?

Some of the people who have encountered The Forever Pilot are more of the opinion that he is simply out to stave off a sense of ennui; the inevitable boredom that comes to one who has seen the meaninglessness of eternity.

The answers to all these riddles may be revealed as the stories progress. Then again, perhaps they are ultimately unimportant. Sometimes in life, too much knowledge of what we love can destroy it. So perhaps it is better to leave The Forever Pilot undefined, like a shadow cast on a sunlit wall, flickering, fascinating, but forever remaining dark and incorporeal.