The secret behind U.N.C.L.E.’s “whip pan”

The “whip pan” is reversed, revealing an image from U.N.C.L.E.’s original main titles

Who says you can’t learn something new about a show that’s a half-century old?

On Facebook, Ken Kopacki, a member of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Inner Circle page (named after the show’s original fan club), deconstructed the famous “whip pan” of the 1964-68 spy series.

The whip pan — intended to simulate the effect of suddenly whipping your head around — was used as a transition device between scenes. It was cheaper than doing a dissolve, which required more work in the film lab. With a “whip pan,” the film editor simply inserted a short piece of film between scenes.

Kopacki said he was editing a clip and saw how the “whip pan” had a name embedded in it. He reversed the image and saw how it included the name of actor Fritz Weaver.

The reversed image was from U.N.C.L.E.’s original pilot, simply titled Solo. Weaver was one of the guest stars, playing the first villain to clash with agent Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn).

The Solo version of the pilot utilizes the whip pan in its main titles (where Weaver’s name appears) as well as a few places in the episode itself.

At some level, this is akin to how if you played certain rock songs backwards there were hidden messages. In real life, the U.N.C.L.E. “whip pan” is how creative things can happen under tight television budgets.

In 1983, The Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. television movie created a “whip pan” at a Las Vegas casino. The 2015 movie version of The Man From UN.C.L.E. didn’t include a whip pan.

Dynamite to reprint one 007 story, start another

Cover of Issue 7 of Dynamite’s James Bond comic book

Dynamite Entertainment plans a hardcover reprint of the first six issues of its James Bond comic book while issue seven starts a new story line called Eidolon. The two story arcs are by writer Warren Ellis and artist Jason Masters.

Both the hardback reprint and issue seven are scheduled to go on sale in June, according to Dynamite’s website.

The first six issues featured a story called Vargr in which Bond following “a mission of vengeance in Helsinki” takes up “the workload of a fallen 00 Section agent,” according to a plot summary. “Bond has no idea of the forces gathered in secret against him.”

The hardcover reprint is priced at $19.95.

Here’s the plot description for the new Eidolon story:

After World War Two, army intelligence groups created ghost cells called “stay-behinds” across Europe in the event of a Warsaw Pact surge. “EIDOLON” is the story of a SPECTRE stay-behind structure – ghost cells of SPECTRE loyalists acting as sleepers until the time is right for a SPECTRE reformation and resurgence. The time is now.

The regular monthly comic is priced at $3.99.

Ian Fleming Publications, which controls rights to the literary 007, announced a licensing deal with Dynamite in 2014. Dynamite said last year  that Ellis and Masters would be the initial creative team on the title.