Jules Verne

I think before any other author, Jules Verne probably jump started my imagination first. Starting with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea up through some of his more obscure works, the gears of imagination and adventure were working overtime within me. Still are and, hopefully will be for years to come. My first encounter with Verne's TTLUTS (looks dirty, don't it?) was most likely with the Disney flick starring Kirk Douglas. The only two good things in that movie were the design of the Nautilus, which might only be equalled by the one drawn by Kevin O'Neill in the League Of Extraordinary Gentleman and the second being Kirk Douglas' portrayal of Ned Land. Well, once I discovered the books I was well on my way to an imaginative and creative life.

A part of Verne's works that has always amazed me is just how accurate he was in predicting the future. Whether society took their cues from his writings, or he was just that intuitive remains up for debate, I suppose. From The Earth To The Moon (his launch site was just a few miles away from where Cape Canaveral is now) to Paris In The Twentieth Century (fax machines, monorails...) he seemed to have a way of making the future seem possible, hence The Godfather Of Science Fiction.

Jules Verne's adventures were played out in all sorts of places and with all sorts of modes of transportation, whether it was underground, in the sky, under water, or in space, using ropes, pickaxes, dirigibles, submarines, rockets and balloons. High adventure is where's it's at.