This strange title of speculative fiction (which is what Mr. Ellison calls it) is actually a series of short stories of which the above title is only the lead story.

And in this tale, (in my opinion only) it blends a little bit of “Colossus, the Forbin Project (D.F. Jones) end of the world type plot, which has been taken over by super computers. That book came out the same year as Ellison’s in 1966.

But in this case, the American supercomputer (each country has one) is the only one that has not helped wipe out the world of humankind.

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Although the name of this posting is, ‘Lambert’s Words, etc.,’ I actually write for the Bystander Group LLC, which is controlled and run by my agent, so that I may contribute and put in all of the creative writing part of the thrice-weekly SubStack material.

And rather than go to another picture of a long running super-hero comic, like Batman or Superman (which actually did get that high in their numbering, I thought I’d pick a different picture. So, today I contributed a cover from the long running comic series, Dell Comics (which sprang forth from an offshoot of the Dell Publishing, which might have been named, Dellacorte?) which by the late 40s and into the 50s became sort of a tryout comic for titles much like ‘Showcase’ and “the Brave and the Bold” was for DC Comics.

Today’s cover is the “Water Birds and the Olympic Elk” topical issue from 1956. A hint to let you know, this tryout did not go beyond this single issue!

But something different anyway, eh?

And that is what we’ve been striving for over at, not only Bystander with their series of different book titles, but also a large smattering of different subjects on the three-times-a-week posting here at Lambert’s Words etc.

I guess that’s why we added the, “and Other Stuff,” to the title, allowing for all sorts of other things that I may be able to both talk and write about.

Although, many of the comic book companies that I write about, have taken decades to get to this high watermark number, we’ve been able to reach (on this posting) #700 in only about five years, which when you include our three-times-weekly Facebook postings, along with the many books I’ve written and lectures and other magazines that I’ve written for…I’m one busy beaver!

I don’t know what I’ll be writing about when this particular anniversary number doubles…but have no fear, I’ll be here at this very site, still plugging away to entertain and (electronically) speak to all of you out there!

I started thinking back about Dolly Parton, after hearing of her passing last week at the ag of 80.

I remember going to ‘Dolly Wood’ years ago with some relatives, even though I really did not want to go, since I did not really like country music much.

But I loved my time there!

I went to the movie “9 to 5” (from 1980) because I like the writer but was amazed that Dolly stole the movie. And the song became so popular that Sheena Easton’s, song of the same name had to be changed (as she wrote it) to “Morning Train.”

I loved the movie!

In 1983, I listened to a hit song that the Bee Gees wrote (I was a big fan of theirs) that was done by a duet of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.

I loved the song!

Years later, I found it funny, that Dolly herself, did not want to be inducted into the Rock and roll Hall of Fame, since she was not a rock artist, but the fans voted and the rock and roll committee put her in there anyway.

I was happy for her!

And then she showed her altruistic side, when she created a system called the “Imagination Library” that gives free books to children in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain and Ireland from the time of birth to five years old, every single month.

I love the program! (Especially, since I was able to contribute writings to Mrs. Barbara Bush’s ‘Project Literacy, United States… P.L.U.S.)

And as I found out by accident her passing on the news that day, I found myself watching about her life for a few hours.

I was engrossed!

I guess in the end, for a big Beatles fan, I also became nothing more than an overall…

…Dolly Parton fan!

These lyrics from the chorus of this song, basically show how long I studied and educated myself on Dolly Parton’s life for this article.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK- “Working nine to five, what a way to make a living!” (Dolly Parton, 1980)

Minutes later, after everyone was resting comfortably in the drawing room, Heathcliffe Kraytor as softly as he could, clanked into the room where his friends and employer were. “Might I interest anyo…

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In the music business of old, ‘Gatefold’ was a term that explained the record album and its sleeve. Gatefold meant that the record sleeve could open up like a book. Displaying a multitude of pictures, liner note, printed lyrics and so forth.

My first gatefold album happened to be the Beatles, ‘Help’ album (the American version only) that when opened up, displayed a myriad of photos from the movie, which I had not seen yet.

In this case, the album contained only one side of music from the film with side 2, being orchestra soundtrack music (by Ken Thorne) from the movie, which is pretty good for someone like me who collected soundtracks.

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I ran across a box of 45 records last week (all doubles for me) and saw the Beatles, ‘Long and Winding Road’ picture sleeve single, albeit a little worse for wear.

And that made me think of something else.

The fact, only discovered years later, that Neil Aspinall, the De-facto president of Apple Corp, the company that ran all of the Beatles’ affairs and projects (and still exists today as a ‘holding tank’ for their monies and directions) was compiling film clips, articles, stories and just about anything else that was on hand, to create a sort of “history of The Beatles.” And this idea of his began almost from the moment the band broke-up!

The name of this project?

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I talked about the backstory of Cillia Ward last week. The only thing that I have to add this week is that this story first appeared in Bystander Adventure #11, followed by the recent sequel in Bystander Adventures #18. Check them out on Amazon books or Barnes and Noble.com

CHAPTER THREE

After what seemed like a lifetime, but in reality, was probably only about a half a minute or so, Cillia, the Captain and Herbert all looked up from the floor of the street after the cacophony of gunfire died down. The trio noticed instantly that the monsters that had followed them through the portal from the other dimension were all gone…every single trace of them! Cillia Ward raised her head slightly and shouted from her prone position on the street. “Major Kraytor, I must commend you on your aim, have you been practicing?” The mechanical man’s jaw opened slightly and a sound emitted.

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Yes, it has become a cult classic, but still not enough cartoon lovers know about this great Saturday morning animated 30-minute sci-fi joy!

Thundarr is about a barbarian that lives in the post-Earth ending event that takes place in the future world of (gasp, did I miss it?) 1994, which is filled with magic, sorcery and weird sci-fi stuff.

Call it Planet of the Apes on sci-fi acid!

It was created by comic author, Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck) with friend Martin Pasko (writer of Superman comics).

A little bit of Alex Toth artistic designs did not last long as Alex left the show and the major character designs were all left to Jack Kirby. And if you don’t know who he is, then stop reading now, please!

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Hot on the heels of the Who’s monumental ‘Tommy’ album, which seemed to dominate the charts for over a year, with the ‘singles,’ “Pinball Wizard,’ as well as ‘See Me, Feel Me,’ as well as the overall greatness of the rock opera double album itself, the Who released a stand-alone single (45’s we used to call them) in early 1970, entitled… ‘The Seeker.”

Released only 8 months after the Tommy (which was released on May 23, 1969) album, “The Seeker” single was a short song that talks of emotional and spiritual searching.

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Today, I’d like to talk a little about one of my favorite Bystander Adventure Series books, number #11, to be precise and how it came to be.

You see, after writing ten of the adventures, and the previous one, #10, being an all-company cross-over, world-wide adventure, I wanted to settle on a single character…so I did, a young lady magician, by the name of Cillia Ward.

I created the name from a friend of mine whose last name was Ward and Cillia Black, the English singer. But then I thought of helpers that she might need, since she was also an action hero as well as a mystic. I wanted to be different and thought about (since the book takes place in England, 1910) an ex-Queen’s Guardsman (cannoneer, to be exact) that might be played in a movie by actor Peter Dinklage, who also had a talking Lemur, that only Captain Gordon Lewis (the height challenged soldier) could understand.

Lastly, a butler was put into the fray, but a metal, clockwork butler, who is demure, but action ready with installed weapons. His name is Major Heathcliffe Kraytor, also an ex-soldier, who I based on my heart surgeon, Keith K.

And I’m giving you a little background on this book, since there has been some mild interest from some of my remaining Hollywood contacts.

So, in that vein, I give you over the next few weeks, the first few chapters of the book and characters we have been discussing!

Cillia Ward, Dimensional Detective, “Goblin-On-Thames” (A Preview)

CHAPTER ONE

“Captain Lewis!” The young lady wearing the dark cape and the black shoulder bag shouted to her friend as she slid along the rainbow-colored beam of light that stretched like a bending ribbon across the pitch-black darkness of the sky. She waved her gloved hands as she tried to attract the extremely short, military man’s attention. But another sudden bend in the band of light and Cillia Ward, also known as “The Dimensional Detective,” had to place both of her gloved hands by her side not only to push against the beam and help her maintain her balance but also to keep from falling to one side or the other and into the deep void of the dark, ethereal darkness. As she began to squint, scanning both sides of the colorful beam for her partner and friend, Miss Ward heard a terrible screeching sound coming from her left. Her eyes widened a bit as she saw a thorn-covered, flying beast heading directly for her. From the inside of her brown vest, she retrieved a color-shifting wand and pointed it straight at the creature. “By the binding agents of Bartoom!” Cillia, her long brown hair flowing behind her, shouted as she pointed the wand at the flying thing. Instantly, dark straps of energy appeared, circling the creature’s jaws together before then materializing around its wings, preventing it from flying any further. Not being able to stay afloat in the dark space, the thing then plummeted downward, deeper into the inky, blackness. Another screeching sound made Cillia turn to her right, even as she tumbled on a downward path, like a child playing on the roundabouts. But this creature, the same as the other one she had just dispatched, was so close that the Dimensional Detective did not have a chance to throw her weapon-laden arm across her body to aim and call upon the oath that she had just a moment before, evoked. Just then, in a flash of light, the horned flying thing vanished in a soundless explosion of brightness. The dark surroundings replaced the very spot where the creature had just been as if it had never existed at all. “Drop dead, you blasted gooney bird!” A man of about three feet tall, wearing the red military jacket of the Indian Lancers brigade, with a black, bushy beard that reached halfway down his chest, placed his top hat back on his head and regained his balance as he too slid down a bright orange beam of light that ran parallel to Miss Ward’s. “You’ve saved the day again, Gordon, thank you!” Ward smiled as she finally caught sight of her friend as he also slid at a great speed atop his brightly colored beam of light. Staring through the artillery field goggles that he had worn as a cannonade specialist during Britain’s last major armed incident, the retired military man saluted back in the direction of his likewise skidding friend and stated loudly. “I know we’ve been friends for a while now, but no need to be so familiar, Miss Ward, Captain Lewis will do.” As he finished speaking, a wiggling, pulsating motion occurred under the tunic of the Captain. Within moments a tan colored Lemur poked its head out from under the collar of the army jacket. “Chee-Chee!” “Herbert, I thought I told you to stay home. What are you doing here?” Cillia shouted at her friend, the Lemur. “Chee-Chee!” “Alright, I admit you probably did help on that last mission, but next time try and listen, I only warned you for your own good.” Cillia did indeed seem to understand the small, furry friend’s language. “Chee-Chee!” “And quit shifting around under my tunic,” stated the Captain as he too understood Herbert’s particular style of communication. “Chee-Chee!” Herbert raised a tiny arm and saluted his army friend. But a sudden cacophony of noise made the trio turn their necks to the rear. They were amazed that the sound came from several dozen more of the thorny flying creatures heading right for them! “We can’t wait any longer I’ve got to use a favor!” Ward shouted the words to her two friends. “What kind of favor?” Lewis shouted back with loud inquisitiveness. “At a time like this, does it really matter?” “No,” shouted back the Captain, “go ahead, be my guest!” Ward pulled a sphere from her shoulder bag and hurled it into the space where the two beams came closest to one another, about fifty yards ahead of the trio. She then pointed her wand at the sphere and screamed. “Lord Manate, grant me this favor and create the ‘Holes of Home,’ please!” Instantly, a grid of round-ish holes, clumped together to form a circle of, well…holes, appeared ahead of them. “Jump, we’ve only got five seconds before it closes,” shouted the Otherworld Adventurer to her pair of friends. “And we’ve only got about three seconds before those gooney birds catch up to us!” The Captain peered behind him as the dozens of deadly, flying things were almost within reach. Cillia dove to her right as Gordon dove to his left, with Herbert hanging on for dear life. As the threesome left their beams of light to travel across the dark void, they both aimed their bodies for the holes that had appeared quite a distance in front of them. But ten feet in front of the holes and with the flying creatures close enough to reach out and grab them, Ward and Lewis slammed into one another and began to each bounce off in a different direction and away from the potentially life-saving hole. The Captain reached out and placed his military baton in the Dimensional Detective’s free palm which she quickly closed her hand around tightly. The immediate action kept the friends together and headed in the right direction towards the large hole, rather than spinning wildly away from one another and into the dark maw of nothingness. The loud screeching of the dangerous creatures were filling the ears of the Cosmic Crusaders as they found themselves a nanosecond away from being torn to shreds so far from their birthplace of circa 1910, London, England. And then they entered the lightness of the hole and then there was an instant feeling of…nothing!

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A few weeks ago, I talked about the Badfinger album, “Wish You Were Here.” I even mentioned to you readers not to confuse it with the later (by one year) Pink Floyd album of the same name.

Well, now I AM going to talk about the Floyd album…because it is a great one!

It seems that in the beginning, I did not care that much one way or another, about Pink Floyd. I liked them, but did not go out of my way to purchase any of their albums…I just enjoyed one of their earlier hits… “See Emily Play.”

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Yes, long before Bob Geldoff (who was knighted for his project for creating ‘Live-Aid’) there was the ‘Concert for Bangladesh,’ created and produced by ex-Beatle George Harrison. In fact, when Bob got the idea for ‘Live-Aid,’ the first thing he did was call George and asked him what to do.

George’s reply?

“Keep all the lawyers out of it!”

But getting back to 1971, it was on behalf of his friend/teacher/mentor, Ravi Shankar, whose country had been ravaged by earthquakes and floods, that when George was asked for help on what to do, George quickly wrote a song, which was then released to generate money for the country.

The first opening lyrics tells the story as it actually starts off the tune…

“My friend came to me, sadness in his eyes, he asked me for some help, before his country dies…”

And help he did!

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I was still getting a lot of writing gigs, but I did not need my own company to protect my intellectual properties yet, or so I thought.

Then I got a ton of radio gigs, more teaching at colleges and then got divorced. That was followed by some work for the Sci-Fi (as it was known as then) channel, followed by writing for the White House children’s program, Project Literacy United States (Project Plus) for one whole summer. I still have the thank you letter from Mrs. Barbara Bush on my wall!

This was then followed by writing for VH-1 Behind the Music, for a few episodes (only one was televised) and a ton of health problems.

But luckily, I was re-married by this time and had entered several film contests where I got a bunch of my friends together and made many movies, before my health went south.

It was here, that the concept of “whoever is standing by,” or literally… ‘Bystanders,’ took over! And the film stuff was going on, I was doing more film writing, directing and performing, than an actual writer took the fore.

Of course, this was after my 11-or-12-year stent as a columnist at the News-Herald had just ended, so I had plenty of time to rest as my health was starting to give me trouble.

I had created the Bystander Group name but still wasn’t doing anything with it other than film projects when a friend, Jim, came to me with a proposition. He wanted to see me write more articles and maybe even books, but I was just healing for a year or two and did not want to think about novels at that time.

Jim asked me a creative question!

He gave me one or two scenarios and asked me what I would do with them if given the task?

I gave him my answer, outlining a book when he cut in and said, “Then write it!”

Which I did. His only encouragement was, “More epilogue to prologue ratio…finish those the books!”

Which I also did. He helped me find a bottom feeder publisher, but it was a publisher…and I used the new company name…The Bystander Group (this was before the lawyer experience).

The books name? I called it… “the Thirteenth Echo.” Afterwards, one book led to another, which led to a series of magazines which were locally pretty successful!

To protect myself though, I did get a lawyer to incorporate in a small way, hence now… “The Bystander Group LLC”

That’s when things really started taking off, but not as much as they soon would.

The News-Herald asked me to come back to their paper to become a blogger, which I did, three times a week.

Then, after meeting a computer savvy friend, Michael, I created an online twice-monthly, eight articles per issue newspaper, called, “The E-Comics Gazette,” which ran for 17 years along with the blog that I named, “Comics: Don’t Get me Started!”

To help ease my workload, I finally got an agent by the name of Angie, who had some connections and turned my efforts onto a national publisher who was very interested.

He made us an offer, but after three months we still did not sign with him. He called and asked us what was wrong? We explained that the then president of The Bystander Group LLC. was giving us trouble and the reply from New York was this.

“Then just give me a call when you get things straightened out, the offer still stands.

It was at that exact moment that the Bystander concept became alive and permanent!

So, I was writing three different electronic newspapers at once for many years on all of them, when I started touring in a one-man Orson Welles play and began teaching and lecturing again.

“Lord, there was a lot of work and writing going on, don’t you think?”

But after a severe accident which forced me to give up some of that writing, the doctors and my agent suggested a program of small bits of writing to keep my hand in until I healed.

Well, I had just heard about this writer’s forum called Sub Stack and realized you could write short essay pieces for them. Angie called explained the situation to Chris Best, the owner of the site and he invited me into (at least that’s the way my agent phrased it, for I was still too weak and injured from my accident) the forum.

Now, several years later, I’m writing a ton of books, 42 in just 14 years, several magazines published, not to count the 3,073 articles I’ve written in that same time span!

I guess the companies I have created from my teen years, especially the more recent Bystander Group LLC. which has brought me a long way since my teen years.

Maybe also the fact that I’ve had my nose to the grind-stone for 50 years since being that professional writer, starting at the age of 16!

And THAT is basically the history of the Bystander Group LLC. as well the story of the 250^th week anniversary of our Sub Stack site which you read before you!

We even have a fan club now!

So, give Lambert’s Words a tryout for $5 a month or $50 a year with both bonus and free stuff available, and remember, I’ll be writing directly to and for…YOU!

Thanks, a whole bunch!

This week is the (anniversary) 250^th week of my Sub Stack articles, (three per week) so believe me, that’s a LOT of writing going on over here at the Lambert office/den.

But how did it start?

I guess you could say it started way back when I was 16 ½. That’s when I started my professional writing career, interviewing rock stars for the Cleveland ‘Scene’ magazine. And in my naïve teen years, I decided to create a company to protect all of my writing and my creations.

Hence…Wonder Horse Productions.

Somebody must have thought it was a great idea, for the next thing I know, my friend Charles (who was part of the company) and I were on the front page of a few local newspapers (big ones too) and off I was on a journey to the adult world.

Yet, I was so young that still couldn’t (at least I did not have my license) drive!

And as that same teen that I was when I created the company, I produced a couple of local rock concerts and got into the newspapers again!

What’s a young entrepreneur to do?

But as the writing jobs grew, I did not need the company as much anymore and the institution grew fallow until it popped its head up once more 20 years later when I started a comic book company named (from an abbreviated form of Wonder Horse) Wonder Comics! The comic book in question…Happy!

The comic book did well enough and there was even interest from the animation studio of the Simpsons television show, but at the time, I did not have an agent to push the deal through, but in the end the whole project fell apart…but that is a story in itself for a later time.

Then the Wonder Horse as well as Wonder Comics again fell back into the shadows while time passed and frustrations grew as I kept writing, lecturing at local colleges and took advantage of a book (‘Superman at 50’) that I contributed to.

This led to my own column at the News-Herald which ran for around ten or eleven years straight.

Having my picture on the front page of the Life and sometimes Entertainment page, really got me a lot of notoriety. So…why not take advantage of that very thing?

I started appearing at more and more lectures, started teaching more and began a 15-year run (still going on, by the way) in a one-man play on the life of Orson Welles. This came about as a recommendation from Orson’s own cameraman that he used the last 15 years of his life…Gary Graver, who I became friends with.

But as I became more well known in the Northeastern Ohio area, I became attached to more and more creative projects- small film projects and several different radio shows as well as my ongoing writings!

I needed assistants, helpers…and as long as they were creative and talented and people I could trust, I would hire or ask anyone that happened to be standing by to help! Or in a different form of word, if not people that were standing by, then…bystanders!

What a name for a new company!

To be continued in Part 2 on Wednesday.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK- “Why is everyone gushing over my projects so much, I mean, anyone can do what I do, and if they can’t…then they’re lazy!”

Declared by me, Chris Lambert at the age of 16, asking to himself, why everyone was bothering me about the start of my career, not realizing I was sort of successful from the start. This was probably the most stupid and vain thing I ever said in my life, since I thought that my talent level was so low, that everyone on Earth could do what I did without any trouble at all.

Hi everyone, Chris Lambert here to let all of you know what’s going on concerning upcoming Bystander Group LLC business.

To start off, there was a very successful event yesterday. I was at the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio, right outside the ‘Comics and Friends’ comic book shop. I got to meet with a lot of fans and friends, both old and new, as business was good and everyone (myself included) seemed to have a great time!

Regarding the current agenda, the Bystander Group is in the process of putting out three new books by Christmas.

The first one will be the new Batman book, “The Batman Dailies”, an overview of all of the times that the Caped Crusader had adventures going on in the daily newspapers over the years.

The other two books will be one research book on the history of what I feel are strange and odd stories that went on in comics over the years! Lastly, my third Sherlock Holmes novel will be coming out at Christmas. The first couple have turned out to be quite popular, so let’s hope the third time CONTINUES the charm!

And of course, the important news…this week begins the celebration of the 250^th straight week of essays, stories, articles and pictures on the Substack site, “Lambert’s Words, Comics and Other Stuff.”

This will include the finale of the “I-Qube” sci-fi tale that has been running as well as a pair of essays on the history of the Bystander Group LLC logo, that I appear under for much of my work. Luckily, due to an agreement that my agent negotiated with the publishing company many years ago, this also includes all of my novels!

Take care and talk next month!

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Today I’m writing about a book I’ve had in my collection since around the 4^th or 5^th grade in elementary school… “-Daybreak 2250 A.D.” And surprisingly, my copy is still in pretty good shape as seen in the picture today above the article.

This novel by Andre Norton is an interesting one, in a world after the world is thrown back into the stone age due to war, one man named Fors, hunts for…NOT FOOD…although I’m sure he does that too, but instead to hunt for knowledge to bring back the things that mankind might need to bring them forward in their lives (or would that be backward for their lives, since they had all the cool stuff to ease existence before the end of the world came about).

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I ran across this video in my collection as I was sorting the other day. It’s from the silent movie, “the Bat.” This was supposedly one of the inspirations that both Bob Kane and Bill Finger (co-crea…

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