The full story...
The Power of Persistence : A short story
1982 was a great year.
It brought what, to me , are possibly the best movies of all time - E.T. , Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan... It bought me my beloved Commodore 64 - the real birth of my love of computers. It introduced me to a new fiction genre - the ‘Technothriller’ in the form of the re-release of ‘Firefox’ to coincide with the release of the Clint Eastwood movie.
And, in October - it bought to me issue 4 of a certain magazine. I’d heard of it before- seen the rabidly over-promising TV ad campaign but never purchased it. I bought this one specifically because it had Darth Vader on the front - and I was hoping for insider news or hints on the next year’s hot property- ‘The Revenge of the Jedi’ (as it was being called at that point) - and all for 40p.
I got it home - and realized that it came with a poster depicting a concept I had only recently become aware of in aviation technology- the ‘Stealth Aircraft’ (qv ‘Firefox’).
I hung it on my wall - and fell in love.
Fast forward to 1985. My Commodore 64 has a coffee ring on it. A stereo sits where my Star Wars action figures previously inhabited. I’ve discovered girls - and my parents are repainting my bedroom. I get home to the smell of emulsion and wallpaper paste.
My walls are devoid of all posters.
‘We made room for new things - and those old ones were so tatty...’
The search starts. Firstly - asking friends. Visiting newsagents. Then comic shops. Then magazine shops. Then book shops. Then comic conventions. After a couple of years - I give up.
The name of the magazine fades from my mind - however the the image of that majestic green aircraft- silently thundering over a moonlit snowscape to deliver its unexpected payload of destruction on an unsuspecting target - and the excitement and mystery, and all the feelings and dreams and questions and... all stayed with me.
20 years pass. I discover the internet holds answers to questions of nostalgia. There are communities dedicated to answering the question ‘do YOU remember..?’
I join - and post my question. 2 years later (while myself constantly searching and re-searching and refining my list of terms) I get a hit - from a photo website. Someone has a photograph of themselves standing in front of the poster - an image scan of a photo from 1982...
The magazine name is clearly visible in the corner.
‘Look Alive’.
My fire is rekindled. I have a specific set of terms to search with.
I search probably once a month - often hours into the night.
For 10 years.
And we find ourselves- tonight.
Add back pain. Add insomnia. Add a dream where I remember, vividly, details I’d completely forgotten about. The smell of the print. The feel of the wood chip wallpaper as I pressed my hand gently to the glossy surface. The fine brushstrokes of the artists hand. The artists name - at eye-level as I sat on the sofa in my old bedroom in my family home listening in bliss to Jarre’s ‘Oxygene...
It began with ‘H’
Har....Harm... Hark....
Hardy.
It’s past midnight now -and I can hear Kelly’s soft breathing from the next room.
My hand - shaking with a mixture of excitement, fatigue and pain - starts to type.
No luck on the first try. All the old familiar pages I’ve seen night after night, year after year.
I try a different tack. I search for the magazine name - and the last name of the artist.
No hits... but a number of mentions in a document charting the history of the publication ‘Look Alive’ was designed to replace (the legendary ‘Look and Learn’).
There. A list of artists featured in that magazine- with a brief note that some of them went on to write for its ill-fated successor.
And the name.
Wilf Hardy.
A quick image search reveals hundreds of pieces of artwork- mainly fictional and historical- but a major proportion of them... aviation art. And in an eerily familiar style.
It takes me approximately 2 more minutes to locate an archive of images and download the poster.
https://flic.kr/p/MRygRD
https://flic.kr/p/MRygRD
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