The Zodiac is watching your every movement. Les aventures de Zodiaque was one of France’s most poplar pulp-style serials. Published by Editions de Neuilly throughout the 1950s, this one is entitled Cinq, quatre, trois, deux, un zéro and appeared in 1957, making it the 183rd entry in the series. The man who worked overtime to churn these out was Gaston Martineau, aka Gaston Martin, and the stories involved the exploits of Zodiac and his sidekicks Elayne, Dede and a reporter named Gaston Martin (subtle, no?). The cover was painted by Aldé, who we gather was Martin in disguise. You have to be impressed. You’ve probably noticed the black “Europe n° 1” on the cover. That isn’t part of the title. Martin had been interviewed on the recently launched radio network Europe n° 1 by Pierre Maintigneux, and the cover was publicizing that fact. There’s a photo of Martin and Maintigneux on the rear of the book from the interview. We’ll get back to this series pretty soon, but for now you can see more covers at Muller-Fokker’s excellent webpage here.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot. 1912—Pravda Is Founded
The newspaper Pravda, or Truth, known as the voice of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg. It is one of the country's leading newspapers until 1991, when it is closed down by decree of then-President Boris Yeltsin. A number of other Pravdas appear afterward, including an internet site and a tabloid. 1983—Hitler's Diaries Found
The German magazine Der Stern claims that Adolf Hitler's diaries had been found in wreckage in East Germany. The magazine had paid 10 million German marks for the sixty small books, plus a volume about Rudolf Hess's flight to the United Kingdom, covering the period from 1932 to 1945. But the diaries are subsequently revealed to be fakes written by Konrad Kujau, a notorious Stuttgart forger. Both he and Stern journalist Gerd Heidemann go to trial in 1985 and are each sentenced to 42 months in prison.
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