"The Black Ball of Trundle Hill" from Action Annual 1983

[Emperor]

In Fortean Times 272 pages 28-29 they discuss the "The Black Ball of Trundle Hill" that appeared in Action Annual 1983 (which like the later Action Special is a bit of an oddity considering Action shut its doors in 1977 - there seems to have run from a least 77 to 83).

There he says:

I contacted Martin Baker, author of the book Action: The Story of a Violent Comic (1990, Titan Books), but his research did not extend past the initial run of the comic. I also contacted a couple of enthusiasts who had created web-sites about Action, but they too were only interested in the original run of the weekly comic. Various writers and editors work on Action: Pat Mills, John Sanders, Steve MacManus and others worked on the title, but it is unclear if they were involved with the later annuals or not. I have been unable to find contact details for any of them.

Now I'm sceptical Pat worked on those later annuals but as editor of 2000AD he might know who did and we can get a message through to him. Steve MacManus would have been helping Tharg at this point but he'd presumably know what was going on at related titles and I suspect David Bishop can get a message through to him.

Does anyone have nay better ideas of who to contact?

If they followed the 2000AD annuals model the factual text pieces are just that, although they might have just been cobbled together from other sources. Coincidentally that issue and the one before looked at World of Wonder and I was struck by the fact that the illustration of Douglas Home levitating from there was reused in the article on him in the 1979 2000AD Annual (compare page 57 with FT271 page 46, the only real difference is the image has been flipped - it gives the credit to Leslie Caswell).

[The Legendary Shark]

I emailed Pat Mills about this and he replied:

Yeah, someone got in touch with me and asked if I could help, but I was never involved with annuals.   I read the article - creepy stuff.  But I suspect pure fiction, especially appearing in an IPC annual."

[JOE SOAP]

Right, we need a dedicated mystery thread, this is too fascinating not to get lost in.

[Emperor]

I emailed Pat Mills about this and he replied:

Yeah, someone got in touch with me and asked if I could help, but I was never involved with annuals.   I read the article - creepy stuff.  But I suspect pure fiction, especially appearing in an IPC annual."

I suspected you might have and his answer is pretty much along the lines I expected, which is why I think we need to broaden the search. I think Steve MacManus is a better bet, especially as there was no actual Action comic around then, so there wouldn't have been a team who'd just cover this automatically - I'd guess it was farmed out somehow.

Right, we need a dedicated mystery thread, this is too fascinating not to get lost in.

To the mystery machine...

[The Legendary Shark]

I've got David Bishop's email address if you need it - but then, I suspect you have it too.

[JOE SOAP]

Right, we need a dedicated mystery thread, this is too fascinating not to get lost in.

To the mystery machine...

[JOE SOAP]

I've got David Bishop's email address if you need it - but then, I suspect you have it too.

Take this to the Bishop...

[The Legendary Shark]

That's brilliant! ...and now we need a thread for cardboard models of Justice Department vehicles.

[SmallBlueThing]

In the absence of the "mystery thread", I'll ask this here:

Anyone ever heard of "The Kentucky GlowMan"? (Large, not you- I know you've already been here). Basically a mutual friend of Large48 and I told me the story when we were very young- it terrified him at the time, did so for me- and now, years and years later, he can't remember even telling me! The bastard. It's haunted me ever since but I can find no mention of it in the literature of the unexplained, so I'm wondering where it came from- my friend not being the sort to make stuff up back then.

A bloke sitting/ sleeping in an outhouse in kentucky looks up at the transparent corrugated plastic roof to see a glowing human figure staring down at him. The figure jumps off and runs away across the fields. Next morning a look at the roof reveals melted human footprints.

Did this come from an early Action annual too? 

SBT

[Emperor]

Kentucky and glowing suggests the Kentucky Goblin (goblin/glowman?) case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly%E2%80%93Hopkinsville_encounter

The details don't fit exactly as you describe but what you heard might be a garbled version of that story. If not then nosing around it for similar cases (and there are some listed there) might turn up the right story.

If not, then this is the most comprehensive site on encounters with strange humanoids and if you scroll down to the bottom there is a search box, adding glowing + kentucky in there brings up a lot of results but you could sift through them and see what you find:

http://www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/index.shtml

[maryanddavid]

Im pretty sure Steve Mcmanus didnt have anything to do with the Action annuals, they ran till 85. Ill drop him a line and ask him tomorrow.
I suspect its Barrie Tomlinson that would have been group editor over the annuals, and farmed it out to a junior Editor, I will and find out!

David

[Emperor]

Im pretty sure Steve Mcmanus didnt have anything to do with the Action annuals, they ran till 85. Ill drop him a line and ask him tomorrow.

Cheers, as he was in the general vicinity at the time, it is possible he has an idea about the best person to ask.

I suspect its Barrie Tomlinson that would have been group editor over the annuals, and farmed it out to a junior Editor, I will and find out!

That's great thanks.

[M.I.K.]

Glad to see someone's brought this up. I was going to, but it completely slipped my mind.

[Leigh S]

So what exactly is the black ball of Trundle Hill?

[Emperor]

So what exactly is the black ball of Trundle Hill?

From memory: During WWII soldiers stationed on the ancient hill fort there encountered a strange black sphere which apparently was able to move a heavy wooden beam before rolling off uphill and disappearing.

[edit: Oh and it is a bit spookier than the summary might suggest.]