Once again, sorry for the brief pause in posting, I don’t know whether anyone’s noticed (I hadn’t till recently!) but Sci-Fi-O-Rama is about to reach 300th posts – thanks for all the support so far! Too mark this cyber milestone I have something pretty special planned – more on this very soon…

In the meantime lets shift the focus of this 299th post back to the comically surreal world of US Black Ops patch art, all images are scanned from Trevor Paglen’s excellent book “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” which turned up in the post the other day.

Here then are my notes:

Top: First up is the wonderfully sinister “Global Engagement – Military Spaceplane Technology Program”.

The source of this patch is the Philips Laboratory Military Spaceplane Technology Program (MiST) at Kirtland airbase New Mexico. Interesting too note here that the swooping X-Wing derived craft was in fact deemed too derivative and in stepped George Lucas’s army of lawyers with a cease and desist order! The patch you see here is an updated version featuring a modified craft, these modifications presumably include shoving the the cockpit down the nose cone and fitting a cosmic cow catcher to the front.

2nd Top: “Pete’s Dragon II”

This evil looking little creature sits on a commemorative patch apparently worn by Stealth Fighter Test Pilot Pete Barnes during secret flight tests in the mid eighties. The design is based on the 1977 Disney film Pete’s Dragon which follows the story of a green dragon named Elliot who was invisible to every one except a boy named Pete…

3rd Top: “Procul Este Profani – Special Projects”

More dragon action here with this snarling variant gleefully ripping through a thundercloud. This macho patch is from the 416th Flight Test Specials Projects flight working on advanced technologies for the F16 combined Test Force situated at Edwards Air Force Base. Members of the unit translate the latin phrase as “Keep your distance, you who are uninitiated”

Bottom: “National Reconnaissance Office – Snakes”

3 Cobras writhe and encircle our planet, more super menacing stuff from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Trevor Paglen notes that this patch’s origin is entirely obscure, perhaps the Latin phrase might give a clue which translates as “Never Before, Never Again” – maybe something to do with an missile early warning system? Incidentally is there sexual dimorphism in Cobras? I couldn’t work out why only the centre snake has the famous flared hood.

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As with the last post for further reading and imagery check this New York Times article and interview with Trevor Paglin http://is.gd/eMcOz or visit Trevor’s home site: http://www.paglen.com/

Also as I now have a copy of “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World”  I highly recommend purchasing a copy yourself via Amazon, here’s a link: http://is.gd/eMdbl

And here’s a link to the prior post…

Something slightly different – and frankly bizarre! – obscure US Military Patch graphics. I first tagged this set a while back (2008) but only just rediscovered whilst mining through the ever increasing stack of Sci-Fi-O-Rama resource bookmarks!

What we have here then are six samples or military shoulder/pocket patches taken from “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” (published Melville House Dec 2007) a compendium of rarely seen “Black Ops” Military Unit/Projects memorabilia researched and compiled by American Artist’s Trevor Paglen. What constitutes a Black Ops Project then? well basically it’s any classified US military research project veiled in secrecy that quietly guzzle funds from the federal budget. Examples of Black Ops which have trans-located into the public domain include the F-117 Stealth Fighter or the B2 Stealth Bomber and those projects that don’t and remain forever shrouded? well it’s a conspiracy theorists wet dream isn’t it…

I’ve always been a fan of embroidered sew on patches be they Military, Space, Movie or otherwise (having assembled small collection via ebay) anyway this set with it’s extremely weird mix of cartoon visuals, Sci-Fi, the Occult and sinister cryptic slogans pretty much blows any other patch art into oblivion…

Here’s the notes then for the chosen images:

Top: National Reconnaissance Office Dragon Path – This patch is one of Trevor Paglen’s absolute favourites, and it’s not hard to see why! The whole visual concept – the green dragon holding the world in its clutches, American flag wings, and its tail wrapped around a diamond – is extremely sinister, and screams “Imperialism/New World Order/Illuminati” well at least that’s my half-baked conjecture!. The actual source of the patch apparently has something to do with a classified Satellite (probably signals-intelligence) launched into a geosynchronous orbit in 2003…

2nd Top: This one’s definitely my favourite – wicked design – Minotaur is a still-classified program undertaken by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs division, the Skunk Works.

3rd Top:“We Own The Night” – This patch commemorates the August 17, 2000, launch of a “classified National Reconnaissance Office payload” atop a Titan IV rocket.

4th Top: The Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile was a classified cruise missile symbolized by the Tasmanian Devil. The acronym Tssam recalled the cartoon character.

5th Top: The classic ‘Grey’ alien with a B-2 bomber in it’s clutches, the slogan “To Serve Man” apparently a reference to a classic Twilight Zone episode… The 509th Bomb Wing flew B-2 stealth bomber test flights, and used to be based at Roswell, N.M., home of the notorious ‘Roswell Incident‘.

Bottom: This one with it’s glowing eyed green wizard creature remains something of an enigma, Trevor notes: The origins of this patch remain unknown. The red star is in Southwest, which is many secret units’ home, while military intelligence typically uses green vaults.

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For further reading and imagery check this New York Times article and interview with Trevor Paglin http://is.gd/eMcOz or visit Trevor’s home site: http://www.paglen.com/

Also you can buy a copy of “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World” starting from via Amazon, here’s a link: http://is.gd/eMdbl

And finally for more Secretive Military patch design inspiration check out this site: http://www.u2sr71patches.co.uk/area51.htm

A polar expedition about to be ruined (in a big way) by a bizarrely crowned, giant furry humanoid…

This is the work of zany Belgian Illustrator Brecht Vandenbroucke, an artist who specialises in mixing playful cartoon like, video game visuals with horror and general weirdness… Suffice to say then, that his portfolio includes some pretty far out work, definitely raises a smile for me!

To see more of Brecht’s work check his Flickr Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/brecht_vandenbroucke/ or blog http://brechtvandenbroucke.blogspot.com/

Here’s something a little out there to say the least!

Super freaky sweatshirt designs adorned with completely over the top 8-Bit coloured, LSD tinged, David Shrigley-esque drawings – a quick taster of the work of Parisian collective Shobo Shobo… Love all the primitivism and neon/mettalic colours, Great stuff! there’s a real art to styling something this outrageous!

Shobo Shobo make drawings, art work, installations and fashion and is the brainchild of Mehdi Hercberg and Kanh Linh La. Check out more of their Fashion at: http://grogore.free.fr/accueil/accueil_set.htm or visit the main site: http://www.shoboshobo.com/

“The strange and beautiful Tarot cards form a system of communication through symbols, showing the relation between God, man and the universe; the symbols act as stimuli to the imagination and it is for each student to interpret them for him or herself….” Taken from Man Myth & Magic Issue #100

Full post to follow soon…

The Werewolf mythology depicted here in three Old World Etching/Woodcuts. These scans are taken from a lengthy essay featured in Man Myth and Magic Issue #107 ( from around 1971?).

Article synopsis: “Stories of men having the power to change themselves into ravening beasts have gained currency in almost every part of the world; a universality which suggests that the under-lying idea emanates from deep within man’s own mind”

Mention Werewolf and it’s impossible not to think of scenes from John Landis’s 1981 Horror / Black Comedy An American Werewolf in London particularly the stunning metamorphosis sequence and the immortal lines “Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors – Beware the moon, lads”. This article predates that film by 10 years or so, and references material back to antiquity, most interesting is it’s discussion on the mental illness known as Lycanthropy  a kind of insanity in which the patient believes himself to be a beast, especially a wolf. Although this condition was diagnosed as far back as the 16th Century it had little effect on the superstition,  the articles surmise is that known instance of werewolves attacks and tyranny probably had more to do with the rapists, maniacs, and serial killer’s of the day…

The Scans relate to: (Top and Center) The Werewolf of Eschenbach, Germany 1685, said to have preyed on children. (Below) Werewolf attacking a man, from a 15th Century German Work.

Full article scanned and hosted over at Flickr: http://twurl.nl/drh3qo

I’ve been running a little bit low on original Blog resource material until yesterday when a trip to my local antiques centre yielded a selection of this obscure magazine publication ‘Man Myth & Magic’ with it’s tagline’s: ‘An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Supernatural’ & ‘The most Unusual Magazine ever Published’

Man Myth & Magic was a UK based publication that ran for 112 weekly issue’s starting in 1970 – as mentioned the magazine feature’s many Illustration’s ranging from quirky woodcut’s of Ye-olde spooky folklore; Werewolf’s, Witches’s, Demon’s through to double page spread reprint’s and analysis of the work of master Artist’s/Illustrator’s such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grunewald, Aubrey Beardsley and many more…

The cover art used here is Teutonic Mythology  ’Siegfried Killing The Dragon’ taken from a 19th century German edition of nibelungenlied.

A selection of images taken from the excellent Ufopop.org a mammoth resource/archive which seeks to document all visual references to that most elusive of enigma’s – “The Flying Saucer”. The site includes scans and Photos of magazines, books, comics, merchandising and toys, samples start from as far back as 1915! that’s well before the term “Flying Saucer” was first coined – June 1947 – when American pilot Keneth Arnold spotted several unidentified flying object’s above Mt Rainer, Washington State.

Ufopop.org is run by dedicted Ufologists Jim Klotz and Les Trecce-Sinclair,  and whether your a believer, sceptic or just looking for some Retro Sci-fi nonsense do check it out – highly recommended !!

A note on the images selected (top to bottom)

1. The Film Journal – Magazine cover 1974

2. Dwarf Rapes Nun; Flees in UFO – Book Cover – Arnold Sawislak – 1985…  A Daily/Sunday Sport Headline if ever there was one!

3. The Flying Saucer Bernard Newman 1950 – Book Cover

4. Flying Saucers C.G. Jung 1959 – Book Cover – Extremely ominous, very cool… deceptively simple.

5. Discover 1984 – Magazine Cover – Like this too, very 80′s

6. TV Guide  June 1978 – Magazine Cover – Very Close Encounter’s… anyone bored on Illustrator? this looks ripe for a 21st Century style revamp…

7. The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF Donald A. Wollheim, ed. 1980 – Book Cover… pretty weird!

8. Interplanetary News Service Report No.4 1964 – Magazine Cover

9. Pursuit  Spring 1977 – Magazine Cover

10. Flying Saucer News No.4 April 1974 – Magazine Cover… a typical example of a fanzine like cover, crude perhaps, but striking and fun looking.

All images abducted (sorry!) via http://www.ufopop.org

One final note on the subject of all things hovering & unexplained I’d also recommend Nick Cook’s investigative novel ‘The Hunt for Zero Point’ which treads the line between science and science fiction -  loads of speculative goodies such as how the US Army plundered secret Nazi weapons, future proplusions systems, time distortion, disappearing battleships etc etc… an intersting well researched read that stops short of absurd sensationalism.

I came across the bizarre image and story reading about Cryptids on Wiki. A Cryptid is any animal, creature or in this case plant that has been reported to have existed, but has not been proven ie: Loch Ness Monster or Yeti…

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Latin: Agnus scythicus or Planta Tartarica Barometz) is a semi-legendary plant of central Asia, believed to grow sheep as its fruit. The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbillical and grazed the land around the plant. When all the plants were gone, both the plant and sheep died. Read more…

Image Taken from From: Lee, H. 1887. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary: a Curious Fable of the Cotton Plant, to Which Is Added a Sketch of the History of Cotton and the Cotton Trade. S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, London.