GUY "SUDZY" SUTHERLAND

WHY DOES SUDZY MAKE RAYGUNS?

 

 

Back in 1950 there was a 10-year-old boy who loved comic books.  He especially loved superhero and science-fiction comics, which was probably true of many boys.  However, this boy was particularly fascinated by the HARDWARE of science-fiction; the spaceships and the weaponry which were so luridly

depicted in the comic books.  What if one could actually rocket to other planets, encountering all manner of alien beasts and/or alien cultures?  Surely one would need weapons of extraordinary capabilities to handle any hostile contingencies! Such weaponry was supplied in great variety in the comics.  They gripped

the boy's imagination.

     

     Then in the fall of 1950 a pair of science-fiction movies hit the silver screen.  One was an underfunded black & white space potboiler with a highly improbable plot entitled, "Rocket Ship XM". It starred a very young Lloyd Bridges.  It was later followed by a much more expensive and colorful production entitled, "Destination Moon".  The boy was galvanized.  He just knew he had to become an astronaut.

 

     In October, 1950, the fledgling TV industry began airing a very low budget science-fiction series of 15-minute episodes called, "Tom Corbett: Space Cadet"; broadcast in the late afternoon, of course.  You know where the boy was every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after school!  The weapon of choice for Space Cadets was a nifty looking little item called a 'parralo-raygun' which could stun and 'freeze' its targets in place.  I don't think the special effects budget allowed for any other kind of effect.

 

     Nevertheless, the parralo-raygun ignited the boy's creative impulses.  Astronaut training would have to wait for completion of high school and college.  In the meantime, he could start making his own rayguns!  The boy's father had a basement workshop with some scrap 2"X4"s and a hardware bric-a-brac drawer containing springs and bolts and pull handles and curtain rod holders and other assorted odds & ends.  The first rayguns concocted by Sudzy (the boy's nickname) were simplistic, rasp-filed, nailed-together, crude things indeed.

 But he felt a curious sense of satisfaction and achievement every time he knocked out a new model.

 

     Raygun production only held sway for a couple of summers in

the early 50s.  By the time he hit Junior High (I guess they call it "Middle School" now), Sudzy had other interests and obligations.  But he never lost his love for science-fiction.  And he pursued other forms of art throughout high school and college, eventually graduating with a major in Theatre and a minor in Art after serving a stint in the Air Force.

 

     Fast forward to the 70s when Sudzy began a career in insurance claims and had a wife and young son of his own.  (Somehow the astronaut thing

never panned out.)

 

     Sudzy had a great time raising his son; indoctrinating the lad in the ways of comic books and science-fiction movies -- and rayguns.  Sudzy had a basement workshop of his own now and began making rayguns for his son and his son's grade school pals.  

     

     Over the years, though, Sudzy began lavishing more time and attention

to the finished product.  The designs became more complex.  The materials incorporated store-bought items as well as scrap wood and throwaway objects.  Tubing, reflectors and knitting needles joined the bottle caps, razor blade handles and other doodads gleaned from waste baskets.  The rayguns evolved from homemade toys into SciFi Artifacts; pop sculptures, if you will, made for their own sake.  And for that sense of satisfaction derived from each new model.

 

     

 

        

​