On October 9, 2012, PJ Holden (commenting about my forum post regarding the "Tharg Code" letters – http://forums.2000adonline.com/index.php/topic,37197.0.html ) tweeted – "I wish he'd manage to seed a future shock across all of those letters, that would have been mind blowing!"
The tweet inspired me to encode a short science fiction prose story* across fan letters published in multiple comics. The comics in which the fan letters were published are listed below in alphabetical order by publisher. When you read the first word in the first sentence of the first fan letter, then the second word in the second sentence of the second letter, and so on, the code reveals the following story (the relevant words are underlined in bold):
DARK HORSE
1. HELLBOY IN HELL #2 (first sentence, first word): "The 100th issue of B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth was action packed!"
IMAGE
2. SAGA #9 (second sentence, second word): "What immortal works of literature inspire you?"
MARVEL
3. INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #3 (third sentence, third word): "An intelligent man like Bruce Banner accepts the monster within him and blackmails S.H.I.E.L.D. into giving him a job?"
4. THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #4 (fourth sentence, fourth word): "Verily, I almost died from the story's gripping suspense, my poor heart barely able to cope with the sinister mystery of murdered gods."
*The constraints of the letter page format and code limited the story's length. I needed to use as few words as possible to create a story with a Tharg's Future Shocks-style twist. Also, there is an apocryphal legend that Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story using only six words, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to write a story using less than six words. "The immortal man died" was the shortest story I could craft.**
**The story is entitled "A Shocking Occurrence" and is dedicated to PJ Holden.
Jeremy Reed Beebe
The tweet inspired me to encode a short science fiction prose story* across fan letters published in multiple comics. The comics in which the fan letters were published are listed below in alphabetical order by publisher. When you read the first word in the first sentence of the first fan letter, then the second word in the second sentence of the second letter, and so on, the code reveals the following story (the relevant words are underlined in bold):
DARK HORSE
1. HELLBOY IN HELL #2 (first sentence, first word): "The 100th issue of B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth was action packed!"
IMAGE
2. SAGA #9 (second sentence, second word): "What immortal works of literature inspire you?"
MARVEL
3. INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #3 (third sentence, third word): "An intelligent man like Bruce Banner accepts the monster within him and blackmails S.H.I.E.L.D. into giving him a job?"
4. THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #4 (fourth sentence, fourth word): "Verily, I almost died from the story's gripping suspense, my poor heart barely able to cope with the sinister mystery of murdered gods."
*The constraints of the letter page format and code limited the story's length. I needed to use as few words as possible to create a story with a Tharg's Future Shocks-style twist. Also, there is an apocryphal legend that Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story using only six words, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to write a story using less than six words. "The immortal man died" was the shortest story I could craft.**
**The story is entitled "A Shocking Occurrence" and is dedicated to PJ Holden.
Jeremy Reed Beebe