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Author Topic: Well I'll be.....  (Read 7549 times)
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Permanus
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« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2005, 08:57:09 AM »

Hey, maybe it's this guy!
http://www.yves-rossy.com/en/jetman.php
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Kal-L
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« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2005, 10:36:17 AM »

Down to earth you are, let us dream a superman does really exist!...
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RedSunOfKrypton
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« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2005, 10:37:57 AM »

Quote


You went searching specifically for that to add didn't you? Cheesy

Still that Jet-Man thing is totally awesome!

Oh just to add, it says he flew for 4 minutes, but cut two of his engines with still a half tank left so he probably would have a powered flight time of 6 mintues. This is awfully inefficient, especially considering that the lift is provided by the wing. Even the williams X-Jet which had no wings and who's only source of lift was a turbofan, could fly for a half hour. Even with the weight of the fuel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Jet
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"...and as the fledgeling Man of Steel looks for the first time over the skyline of this city, this, Metropolis, he utters the syllables with which history is made and legends are forged: This, looks like a job...for Superman."
Permanus
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« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2005, 11:46:32 AM »

Quote from: "RedSunOfKrypton"
You went searching specifically for that to add didn't you? Cheesy

Sort of  :wink: . It just stirred this vague recollection I had of this Frenchman throwing himself out of an aircraft with this contraption on his back, so I went to look for it.

I'd still rather this were Superman, of course -- though I came across a crackpot theory online that this flying guy is part of an Interplanetary Security Service, so maybe he's more of a Green Lantern, which works for me too.
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Kal-L
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« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2005, 01:45:30 PM »

From http://www.paranormalmagazine.com/2005/09/flying-man-spotted-in-serbia.html :

Residents in Ljubovija, Serbia, reported seeing a cloaked person flying above buildings "as if he had an invisible engine on his back" and changing directions while in mid-air. Witnesses describe the flying man as a real-life "Superman or Batman". Police in town have refused to comment. Historically, similar sightings have been reported in Europe, mainly during the 1800s. One widely know creature from the period became known as Spring Heeled Jack because of his ability to leap incredibly long distances.
 
And about this Spring Heeled Jack:

Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc.) is a character said to have existed in England during the Victorian era. The first recorded claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack occurred in 1837. Later sightings were reported from all over England, from London up to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London and later in the Midlands, where they peaked between the 1850s and 1880s. Although some unconfirmed reports claim that he could still be active, he is generally believed to have disappeared after 1904, the year of the last recorded incident. Many theories have been proposed to ascertain his nature and identity, none of which have been capable of clarifying the subject completely, and the phenomenon still remains unexplained.

The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and his capacity to perform extraordinary leaps, to the point that it became the topic of several works of fiction and much speculation about a possible paranormal basis.

Spring Heeled Jack was described by his victims as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire". One of these victims also recounted that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight fitting white garment like an "oilskin". Many depositions also mention a "Devil-like" aspect. Many witnesses stated that Spring Heeled Jack's physique was tall and thin, that he had the appearance of a gentleman, and that he was capable of effecting great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe blue and white flames from his mouth, and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. At least two testimonies denote that he was able to speak in comprehensible English.

Isolated accounts of a strange leaping man were in circulation as early as 1817 1, but the first confirmed sighting occurred in September 1837 in London. A businessman returning home late one night from work was suddenly shocked as a mysterious figure jumped with ease over the considerably high railings of a cemetery, landing right in his path. No attack was reported, but the submitted description was disturbing: a muscular human male with devilish features, which included large and pointed ears and nose, and protruding, glowing eyes.

Shortly after this incident, the same character leapt out of the darkness and attacked a group of passers-by. He grabbed a woman, who managed to get away after getting her coat ripped, followed by her companions. One of them, however, a barmaid named Polly Adams, tripped and fell behind. Hours later, the police discovered her lying right where she was attacked. According to her statement, the assailant tore off the top of her blouse, and after grabbing her naked breasts, he deeply scratched her belly with his claws, leaving her unconscious and bloodied, but still alive.

Later, in October 1837, a girl by the name of Mary Stevens was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant, after visiting her parents in Battersea. On her way through Clapham Common, the strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilising her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face, while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws, which were according to her deposition “cold and clammy as those of a corpse“. In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene of the assault. The commotion attracted several residents who launched an immediate search for the aggressor, but he was nowhere to be found.

The next day, the leaping character chose a very different victim near Mary Stevens' home, inaugurating a modus operandi that would become typical of his future deeds: he jumped in the way of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to lose control and crash, injuring him seriously. Several witnesses claimed that he escaped by jumping over a nine foot-high wall, while babbling with a high-pitched and ringing laughter.

A few days later, another woman was attacked near the Clapham churchyard. For the first time, police investigators discovered evidence at the scene of the crime: two footprints about three inches deep, which implied that they may have been made by someone who had landed from a great height. Upon a closer inspection, some curious imprints were found within the impressions, which suggested that the attacker had been wearing some sort of gadget on his shoes, "perhaps some kind of compressed springs" in the opinion of a present police officer. In spite of its importance, the lack of forensic investigators in those days made the police forget about such evidence, and instead of making plaster casts of the impressions, they simply allowed the weather to erode them. Gradually, the news of the strange character spread, and soon the press and the public gave him a name: Spring Heeled Jack.

Official recognition
A public session at the Mansion House, London (c. 1840).A few months later, on January 9, 1838, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir John Cowan, revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House an anonymous complaint that he had received several days earlier, which he had withheld in the hope of obtaining further information. The correspondent, who signed the letter "a resident of Peckham", wrote:

"It appears that some individuals (of, as the writer believes, the highest ranks of life) have laid a wager with a mischievous and foolhardy companion, that he durst not take upon himself the task of visiting many of the villages near London in three different disguises — a ghost, a bear, and a devil; and moreover, that he will not enter a gentleman’s gardens for the purpose of alarming the inmates of the house. The wager has, however, been accepted, and the unmanly villain has succeeded in depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families.

At one house the man rang the bell, and on the servant coming to open door, this worse than brute stood in no less dreadful figure than a spectre clad most perfectly. The consequence was that the poor girl immediately swooned, and has never from that moment been in her senses.
The affair has now been going on for some time, and, strange to say, the papers are still silent on the subject. The writer has reason to believe that they have the whole history at their finger-ends but, through interested motives, are induced to remain silent."

Though the Lord Mayor seemed fairly sceptical, a member of the audience confirmed, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing, tell dreadful stories of this ghost or devil". The matter was reported in The Times and other national papers the next day, and the day after that (January 11) the Lord Mayor showed a crowded gathering a pile of letters from various places in and around London complaining of similar "wicked pranks". The quantity of letters that poured into the Mansion House suggests that the activities of Spring Heeled Jack were common knowledge in suburban London by that time. One writer said he had ascertained that several young women in Hammersmith had been frightened into "dangerous fits", and some "severely wounded by a sort of claws the miscreant wore on his hands". Another correspondent affirmed that in Stockwell, Brixton, Camberwell and Vauxhall several people had died of fright, and others had had fits; meanwhile, another reported that the trickster had been repeatedly seen in Lewisham and Blackheath, but the police were too frightened of him to act.

The Lord Mayor himself was in two minds about the affair: he thought "the greatest exaggerations" had been made, and that it was quite impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth", but on the other hand someone he trusted had told him of a servant girl at Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear’s skin; he was confident the person or persons involved in this "pantomime display" would be caught and punished. The police were instructed to search for the individual responsible for the attacks, and rewards were offered. Many individuals, including Admiral Edward Codrington decided to join the search, but to no avail: he was never caught. Furthermore, he seemed to have grown bolder, and his attacks multiplied.


The Scales and Alsop incidents
 Spring Heeled Jack as depicted on an early penny dreadful.Perhaps the best known incidents involving Spring Heeled Jack were his attacks on two teenage girls, Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop. The Alsop event was widely reported by the press, while a single report appeared on the Scales' attack, presumably because Alsop came from a comfortably well-off family whereas Scales came from a family of tradesmen. This coverage by newspapers fueled the collective hysteria surrounding the case.

On February 20, Jane Alsop, also, opened the door of her father’s house in the district of Bow to a man claiming to be a police officer, who asked her to bring a light because he and other policemen had "caught Spring Heeled Jack in the lane", but this man then attacked her, tearing at her dress and hair until other members of her family ran to help her. She told the Lambeth police investigators that "he was wearing a kind of helmet, and a tight fitting white costume like an oilskin. His face was hideous; his eyes were like balls of fire. His hands had claws of some metallic substance, and he vomited blue and white flames."

On February 23, once again a black-cloaked figure knocked on the door of a house, this time in Turner Street, off Commercial Road. When a servant boy answered the call, the visitor asked to speak to the master of the house, a Mr. Ashworth. The boy turned to call his master when he noticed that the man standing at the doorway had glowing red eyes. In a state of panic, he screamed, attracting the attention of the neighbours. With an angry and frustrated groan, Spring Heeled Jack waved his clawed fist at the boy's face and darted over the nearby rooftops. At the following interrogation by the authorities, the child claimed that he had noticed what became a significant piece of evidence: as Spring Heeled Jack was turning his back at him, he observed that he had a golden embroidered letter "W" on his shirt beneath the black cloak, much like a coat of arms.

Five days later February 28, 1838 7, 18-year-old Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home after visiting their brother, a butcher who lived in a respectable part of the district of Limehouse. Lucy, slightly ahead of her sister, was half way along Green Dragon Alley when a character, who had been waiting at an angle in the passage while she approached, appeared and attacked her. The figure breathed fire into Lucy’s face and then bounded away as the girl fell to the ground, seized by violent spasms which lasted for several hours. The attacker, claimed no less than four witnesses, escaped by climbing from the ground to the roof of a nearby house on a single jump. A few days later, on March 6, Lucy's and her sister made their deposition at Lambeth–street police court in company of their brother, William.


 The legend spreads
Ad for a Spring Heeled Jack penny dreadful (1886).After these incidents, Spring Heeled Jack became one of the most popular characters of the moment. His exploits were reported in the newspapers and became the subject of several penny dreadfuls and plays performed in the cheap theatres that abounded at the time. But, as his fame was growing, his appearances became less frequent, while spreading over a large area. In 1843, however, a wave of sightings swept the country again. Then he appeared in Northamptonshire, in Hampshire, where he was described as "the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame", and in East Anglia, where reports of attacks to drivers of mail coaches became common.

Although terrifying citizens with his apparitions and in some occasions causing injuries of diverse consideration to his victims, so far Spring Heeled Jack had never killed a person. However, that changed in 1845. That year, he was seen at Jacob’s Island, Bermondsey, a low class slum of decaying wooden houses and full of pestilent ditches, which had been immortalised by Charles Dickens as the lair of Fagin and his band of child thieves in Oliver Twist. He was said to have cornered a 13-year-old prostitute named Maria Davis on a narrow bridge that crossed one of the foulest ditches in the neighbourhood, called Folly Ditch, breathed fire into her face and hurled her into the stinking waters below. Witnesses reported the affair to the police, who dragged the ditch and recovered the girl’s body. The verdict at the subsequent inquest was one of death by misadventure, but the inhabitants of the area branded Spring Heeled Jack as a murderer.

During the 1850s and 1860s Spring Heeled Jack was seen all over England, particularly in the Midlands. On the night of February 8, 1855, during an unusually severe winter, long trails of prints appeared in the snow in at least thirty different places in Devon. Each was about three-and-a-half inches long by three inches broad, resembling a donkey's hoofprint, and some seemed cloven. They were said to have crossed roofs, high walls and haystacks, adding to the supernatural impression. The story was taken up in The Times on February 16, reporting that the marks had "caused an uproar of commotion among the inhabitants in general" and that "several of the very superstitious" were saying "it must be the marks of Old Nick", while many others thought it was the work of Spring Heeled Jack.

The last sightings
In the beginning of the 1870s, Spring Heeled Jack began to appear repeatedly again in several places distant from each other. In November 1872, the News of the World reported that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance". The editorial pointed that it was no other than "Spring Heeled Jack, who terrified a past generation". Similar stories were published in the Illustrated Police News. In April and May of 1873, there were numerous sightings of the "Park Ghost" in Sheffield, which locals came to identify as Spring Heeled Jack. These incidents culminated with thousands of people gathering each night to hunt the ghost.

 
Aldershot Barracks – North Camp, Central Road as it looked in 1866.This news was followed by more sighting reports, until in August 1877, Spring Heeled Jack made one of his most notable appearances before a group of soldiers in Aldershot's barracks. A sentry on duty at the North Camp peered into the darkness, his attention attracted by a peculiar figure bounding across the road towards him, making a metallic noise. The soldier issued a challenge, which went unheeded, and the figure vanished from sight for a few moments. As he turned back to his post, he appeared beside him and delivered several slaps to his face with "a hand as cold as that of a corpse". Attracted by the ensuing noise, several men rushed to the place, but they claimed that the character leapt several feet over their heads and landed behind them. According to their testimony, Spring Heeled Jack simply stood there, watching them and grinning, apparently waiting their reaction with glee. One of the guards shot at him, with no visible effect other than to enrage his target; some sources note the fact that the soldier may have fired blanks at him, merely used to make warning shots. The strange figure then charged towards them and spat blue flames at them from his mouth, making the guards desert their posts in panic and then disappearing into the surrounding darkness.

There were several more attacks of Spring Heeled Jack on guards at Aldershot. All these sightings concurred in the description: tall, muscular complexion, wearing a helmet and a white tight fitting oilskin suit.

After these incidents, a massive spree of Spring Heeled Jack's sightings hit all England. In Lincolnshire, he was seen leaping over several houses, wearing a sheep skin. An angry mob chased him and cornered him, and just like in Aldershot a while before, residents uselessly fired at him. Many witnesses claimed that the shots did hit him, sounding as they were hitting a hollow metallic object, like an "empty bucket". As usual, he made use of his leaping abilities to lose the crowd and disappear once again.

 
Modern view of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, Liverpool.By the end of the 19th century, the geographical pattern of sightings of Spring Heeled Jack indicated that he was moving towards western England. In September 1904, in Everton, in north Liverpool, Spring Heeled Jack appeared on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church, in Salisbury Street. Witnesses reported that he suddenly jumped and fell to the ground, landing behind a nearby house. When they rushed to the point, they faced there a tall and muscular man, fully dressed in white and wearing an "egg shaped" helmet, standing there waiting. He laughed hysterically at the crowd and rushed towards them, making several women gasp in dismay. Clearing them all with a gigantic leap, he disappeared behind the neighbouring houses.

The Liverpool incident is usually considered the last time Spring Heeled Jack was ever seen. Although there have been reports of later sightings as recently as 1986, some of them outside England (even in the United States), such claims are too scarce and ambiguous to be confirmed.

Theories
The fact that Spring Heeled Jack was never caught, combined with the extraordinary abilities attributed to him and the very long period of time he was at large, have led to all sorts of theories to determine both his nature and identity. While several researchers seek a rational explanation to the events, other authors echo themselves in the more fantastic details of the story to propose different kinds of paranormal speculations.

Skeptical positions
Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford (1840).Skeptical investigators have repeatedly deprecated the stories of Spring Heeled Jack. Some of them maintain that it is nothing but an exaggeration of the tale of a certain mentally ill zealot, who danced and leapt over rooftops claiming that the Devil was chasing him. Other researchers believe that some individual(s) may have been behind its origins, being followed by imitators later on. It is worthy of note that, following his appearance and for the years that followed, the press, the authorities, and most of the general public considered Spring Heeled Jack to be not a supernatural creature, but rather an individual (or perhaps more than one person) with a macabre sense of humour who delighted in scaring and molesting women. This idea matches the contents of the letter to the Lord Mayor, which accused a group of young aristocrats as the culprits, after an irresponsible wager. A popular rumour that was in circulation as early as 1840 pointed at an Irish nobleman, the Marquess of Waterford, as the main suspect of being behind the events. The responsibility of the Marquess has been accepted by several modern authors, who suggest that a humiliating experience with a woman and a police officer could have given him the idea of creating the character as a way of "getting even" with police and women in general. Said authors speculate that he could have designed (with the help of friends who were experts in applied mechanics) some sort of apparatus for special spring-heeled boots, and that he may have practised fire-spitting techniques in order to increase the unnatural appearance of his character. Lastly, they point at the embroidered coat of arms with a "W" letter observed by the servant boy at the Ashworth incident, a notorious coincidence with his title's name.

Indeed, the Marquess was frequently in the news in the late 1830s for drunken brawling, brutal jokes and vandalism, and was said to do anything for a bet; his irregular behaviour and his contempt for women earned him the moniker "the Mad Marquis'', and it is also known that he was present in the London area by the time the first incidents took place. He was also pointed as the perpetrator by the Rev. E. C. Brewer in 1880, who attested that the Marquess "used to amuse himself by springing on travellers unawares, to frighten them, and from time to time others have followed his silly example". In 1842, the Marquess of Waterford married and settled in Curraghmore House, Ireland, and reportedly led an exemplary life, until he died in a horse riding accident in 1859. Meanwhile, Spring Heeled Jack remained active for decades after, which leads the aforementioned modern researchers to the same conclusion as Brewer's: the Marquess may well have been responsible for the first attacks, while it was up to other pranksters who occasionally imitated him to continue the task.

Either if the legend is based in the zealot episode, or if a particular person or a group of them was behind its origins being followed by mimics later on, skeptical investigators are unanimous in asserting that the story of Spring Heeled Jack was exaggerated and altered through mass hysteria, a process in which many sociological issues may have contributed. These include unsupported rumours, superstition, oral tradition, sensationalistic publications, and a folklore rich in tales of fairies and strange roguish creatures. Gossip of his leaping and fire-spitting "powers", his alleged extraordinary features and his skill in avoiding all attempts of apprehension captured the mind of the superstitious public, and so his figure was given a supernatural aura. This became especially true with the passing of time, which gave the impression that Spring Heeled Jack had suffered no effects from aging. As a result, a whole urban legend had been built around the character, being reflected by contemporary publications, which in turn fueled this popular perception in a vicious circle

Paranormal conjectures
A wide variety of explanations have been proposed by authors who support the paranormal origin of Spring Heeled Jack. Due to the inherent nature of the phenomenon, such theories are speculative and bereft of any proof. The following are just a few:

A common hypothesis proposes Spring Heeled Jack as an extraterrestrial entity, somehow stranded on Earth. Supporters of this theory believe this would explain his non-human appearance and features, (e.g., retro-reflective red eyes, or phosphorous breath), his jumping ability (by suggesting that he may have been native of a planet with greater gravitational pull, like astronauts experienced on the Moon), strange behaviour (which could have been altered through Solipsism Syndrome or as a result of breathing the gases present at the Earth atmosphere), and his longevity.

A visitor from another dimension, who could have entered into this plane through a wormhole or dimensional gate.
A demon, accidentally summoned into this world by practitioners of the occult (a theory that has been incorporated into the RPG "Feng Shui"), or who made himself manifest simply to create spiritual turmoil.
The supporters of the paranormal explanations usually refer as proof of their claims that no human could have ever used a gadget to leap the way Spring Heeled Jack was said to, by pointing that in the 20th century, the German Army experimented on the subject with disastrous effects. Allegedly, such experiments gave an estimated 85% rate of failure, with broken legs and ankles on the testers. They conclude that there was no possibility for an individual to succeed where an official warfare project failed, especially considering that the former had preceded it by many decades. It might be worth noting that there currently is a comparable device being marketed, but this gadget requires modern, state-of-the-art carbon fibre springs.

Spring Heeled Jack in popular culture
 Spring Heeled Jack on a penny dreadful cover page (c. 1904).The vast urban legend built around Spring Heeled Jack influenced many aspects of Victorian life, especially in contemporary popular culture. The Oxford English Dictionary recounts that, in late Victorian times, his name had become a general term for a street criminal who leapt upon people to rob or frighten them, and then relied on his speed in running to make his escape. It cites a Cheshire source from 1887 as an example, where maids who had just been paid their yearly wage were said to be afraid to go out carrying much money, since "there are so many of these spring-heeled Jacks about". For decades, his name was equated with bogeymen, as a means of scaring children into behaving by telling them that if they were not good, Spring Heeled Jack would leap up and peer in at them through their bedroom windows, by night.

However, it was in the field of fictional entertainment where the legend of Spring Heeled Jack exerted the most extensive influence, due to his allegedly extraordinary nature. Almost from the moment the first incidents gained public knowledge, he turned into a successful fictional character, becoming the protagonist of many penny dreadfuls from 1840 to 1904. Several plays where he assumed the main role were staged as well.

------------------------------------------------

The early works invariably presented Spring Heeled Jack as an arch-villain, but remarkably, his figure experienced a metamorphosis throughout the years, and his role was completely swapped to a superhero. The first penny dreadful to introduce such a change was the 1860s edition, and this variation was adopted by all the publications that followed, reaching its highest development in Burrage's 1904 version.

 Spring Heeled Jack, depicted on a modern comic (2003).In these stories (which take place in 1805, after Napoleon Bonaparte has conquered Europe), Spring Heeled Jack is Bertram Wraydon, a young and handsome lieutenant of the British Army, heir to £10,000 a year, who is unfairly framed for treason by his evil half brother Hubert Sedgefield. After escaping from his prison, Wraydon returns seeking revenge on the villains, assuming a secret identity and an odd-looking costume with mane and talons, fighting against evil and helping the innocent. He has a secret lair, where he has hidden what he managed to save of his inheritance, selflessly using it to fund his heroic activities. These include the design of a spring mechanism that allows him to leap over thirty feet, and a device to breathe flames at evildoers. He even has a trademark which he leaves at the scene of his actions; a letter "S" that he carves with his rapier after his mission is accomplished.

Although lacking durable literary value, the Spring Heeled Jack series exerted an important influence as a predecessor of modern day pulp magazine and comic superheroes, taking into consideration that they were written twenty years before the first Zorro adventure and more than half a century before other fictional characters like Batman or the Lone Ranger were created. Such lasting influence and its consequent cultural importance were, for most part of the 20th century, practically forgotten.

However, a renewed interest in the legend of Spring Heeled Jack has sparked in the last years. Several English comic characters were based directly on him since the early 1970s, like Jumping Jack, the Leaping Phantom, Spring-Heeled Jock and Spring-Heeled Jackson.

Even to the present day, the tale continues to attract the imagination of writers, like Philip Pullman (author of the best-selling trilogy His Dark Materials), who published his novel Spring Heeled Jack – A Story of Bravery and Evil in 1989 (ISBN 0440862299). He retakes there the concept of a good Spring Heeled Jack, who dresses up as the Devil to scare villains, much in the tradition of the Victorian penny dreadfuls. A complex paranormal explanation for Spring Heeled Jack occurs almost in passing in The Anubis Gates, a novel by Tim Powers. Best-selling author Stephen King also wrote about a modern-day Spring Heeled Jack in his short story Strawberry Spring. The story was first published in 1968 in Ubris, the literary magazine of the University of Maine, Orono, and was made into a short film in the U.S. by Doveed Linder in 2001.

In 1991, Spring Heeled Jack was one of a number of folklore creatures included in a series of toys called Monster In My Pocket. Spring Heeled Jack also played a major role in the popular children's cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures in one particular episode, where he was defeated after getting in contact with a pinch of salt.

Recently, several comic authors like Ver Curtiss, Kevin Olson and David Hitchcock, have made Spring Heeled Jack the protagonist of different comic adventures. These series, which are set in a shady and postmodern environment, once again give him the role of a superhero.

The story has also provided inspiration for music artists. In 1994, singer Morrissey released a song entitled "Spring-Heeled Jim" on his album Vauxhall and I. Other musicians have named their bands after it, like the English duo Spring Heel Jack and the American ska group Spring Heeled Jack USA.

In 2004, Spring-Heeled Jack appeared as a sinister supervillain in a role-playing game sourcebook called Omlevex. In this product, he was depicted as the arch enemy of Lacie Delmont, a tough-as-nails paranormal detective.

Spring-Heeled Jack is also a sometime supporting character on the webcomic Kota's World.

Note by myself: do we have to conclude super heroes have been inspired by real life characters?

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack

And the Spring-Heeled Jack web page: http://blackcatpress.co.uk/Spring_Heeled_Jack_Page.htm
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