WINNERS, LOSERS & LIARS - OR: FACTS, FABLES & FIBS...

           Me                                                     The other guy

Once again, I unfortunately find myself placed in the position of
having to address a certain controversial matter that I imagine most
of you won't have much interest in - might even be bored by, in fact.
I've dealt with the subject before, but the individual concerned seems
determined to pick at the scab by constantly adding, subtracting and
altering the details of his provocative and misleading remarks in an
malicious attempt to malign my name and impugn my good charac-
ter.  Such an attack cannot go unanswered, but if you prefer to
skip such posts, I completely understand.

******

I guess his hits must be down. Why else would he be trying to stir

things up again by posting such a blatant lie on his Blog?  What am I

talking about?  You remember me telling you about a comics forum I'd

joined a good while back and then resigned from on account of a hand-

ful of people who resented my membership doing their best to

create controversy around me? 

I grew weary of certain members being allowed to say anything

they liked either to or about me without the moderators calling them
to account, so I resigned from the forum.  My resignation, as far as I'm

aware, is still there for everyone to see.  After I'd resigned, one particular

moderator somewhat impotently banned me for - are you ready for this? -
leaving the forum.  Yup, that was my 'crime' - I'd left the forum.  The
site owner subsequently invited me to rejoin, but I declined because I
couldn't be bothered having to deal with the handful of @rseholes
who clearly regarded the site as their own personal playground
and didn't want to share it with me.  No big loss.

Got that?  So what do you call someone who completely ignores

the facts of the case (even 'though he's aware of them) and continues

to claim that I was banned from this forum because of my 'behaviour'? 

I'll tell you - a big fat feckin' liar, that's what!  This is a guy who has taken

frequent pops at me in the comments section of his Blog (without explicitly

naming me, but making it obvious to whom he was referring), prompting

me to respond on my Blog in humorous, mocking fashion of his childish,

obsessional behaviour.   When these responses to his provocation had

eventually served their purpose, in the fullness of time I removed some

of them because they were no longer topical.  Once, in a fit of one-

sided generosity, I removed a few of them to give the guy a

break and wipe the slate clean. 

But guess what? He's now claiming that I removed them in

order to 'play down' my 'aggression', thereby suggesting that he has

some kind of 'special insight' into my motives.  Let me tell you about

aggression:  This is the guy who once issued a thinly-veiled 'come and

have a go if you think you're hard enough' challenge to me on some-

one else's blog, and has been accused of being a bit of a bully on the very

forum he claims I was banned from.  (And from which, according to the

site owner, was himself once temporarily banned.)  He has been banned

from at least two Blogs that I know of, the owner of one of them being

informed that a warning would be issued to this person by his Internet

Service Provider for his behaviour.  (Whether it was or not I have

no way of knowing, but I hardly expect him to admit to it.

And he is a liar, remember.)

And now, as far as I can see, he's at it again in his best sly,

sleekit, sh*t-stirring fashion.  I've not long been alerted to the fact

that he's currently claiming to be the victim of 'trolling'.  (That usually

means that someone has ventured to offer an opinion contrary to his own.)

 I've previously mentioned here that I find such designations childish and

immature, and the first resort of the emotionally insecure who can't handle

any kind of dissent to their own rigidly-held opinions.  Well, guess what?

In two seemingly casual, throwaway sentences - "If you don't like the

phrase, stop doing it. It's cowardly and it's childish and it's

not welcome here" - he appears to be pointing the finger in my

direction - without actually naming anyone of course, and thus

allowing him to deny having anyone in particular in mind.

He's done this before on quite a few occasions - it seems
to be a pattern of his.  He makes remarks that readily apply to a
specific circumstance or person, but does so in such a way that allows
him to deny it when challenged.  Then he levels accusations of paranoia
at whoever's calling him to account, hiding behind the fact that no names
were mentioned, even 'though it's fairly obvious just who or what his
comments or accusations were levelled at.  He's fooling no one of
course, apart from himself and a few sycophants, but it allows
him to evade accountability for his outrageous statements.

What he perhaps doesn't realise is that I restored most of my
previous posts about him quite some time back (in response to his
continued attacks on me on various Blogs, forums and Twitter sites),
long before he'd mentioned I'd deleted them.  Any that I didn't restore
was simply down to me not keeping them on account of them being no
longer topical, not because I was trying to conceal them for any reason.
In his typically obsessed way, he claims to have archived these posts,
so, if he'd be kind enough to supply me with copies of any he can't
find on my Blog, I'd be more than happy to re-post them.

To be completely honest with you, I find it utterly disgraceful
that a 'full-time professional comics contributor' should indulge in
such outrageously provocative and disingenuous behaviour, but he
obviously has problems of some kind.  In the meantime, kindly re-
member - I've given you nothing but cold, hard facts - whereas
he continues to deal in lies, distortions and insinuations.

Hardly the behaviour of someone you can trust, I'd say.

BABE OF THE DAY - TRACY SCOGGINS...

TRACY SCOGGINS has appeared in DYNASTY,

THE COLBYS, LOIS & CLARK, and BABYLON 5 -

plus quite a few dreams of mine.  I don't know about the TV

programmes, but in my 'productions', she won an award -

and now she's made BABE OF THE DAY!  Is

there no end to her stunning talents?

THE AIR THAT I BREATHE...

Here's k.d. lang with a classic track that she more

than does full justice to.  So sit back and relax and let

her dulcet tones envelop your lug'oles.

COOO-EEE! PANEL-BY-PANEL - RENT-A-GHOST LTD...

REG PARLETT was one of the greats!  Anyone who knows any-

thing about the history of British comics art would never even consider

disputing that simple, incontrovertible fact for a second.  Anything and

everything he drew was imbued with a spontaneity and deftness of line

that was effective, pleasing on the eye, funny, and seemingly (and no

doubt deceptively) easily accomplished.

What we have here is an episode of RENT-A-GHOST LTD.,

from the March 17th 1973 issue of BUSTER.  Each panel has been

scanned from the original art, and - thanks to IRMANTAS from the

wonderful KAZOOP blog - I can show the published page to allow

you to do a direct comparison, enabling you  to appreciate Reg

Parlett's artwork at its finest!

And, to my eyes, that's mighty fine indeed!

BABE OF THE DAY - LYNDSAY MARSHALL...

I first became aware of LYNDSAY MARSHALL in an

excellent programme called GARROW'S LAW a few years

back.  The above pic is a still from another programme she

was in, although I haven't actually seen it.  Still, what does

that matter?  She's still a babe!

YIPPEEE! PART FOUR OF JACK KIRBY'S CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

By now, if you've seen the other three posts in this run and are

really serious about collecting classic comicbooks, you'll want to add

these issues to your collection.  (Assuming that you don't already have

them, naturally.)  Don't know where to start?  Panic ye not, O DC disciple.

All of the JACK KIRBY CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN are

available in an Omnibus Edition which should be available at your local

comicbook store.  (Why not give FORBIDDEN PLANET a try?) 

You might even be able to pick up the previous two volumes of

the DC ARCHIVES books which featured the tales.

Interestingly, the Challs mag was still running when Jack Kirby

returned to DC in 1970, but was cancelled shortly afterwards.  A hand-

ful of reprint issues were subsequently published in the early '70s, and the

series was later revived for a short time, but not until after JK had departed

DC. There seems to be debate over who actually created and wrote the strip;

some sources credit Jack Kirby alone, others attribute it to Jack and DAVE

WOOD.  There always seems to be controversy around 'The King'.  JOE

SIMON claimed to have created CAPTAIN AMERICA on his own,

Jack claimed to have been solely responsible for every good thing at

MARVEL, and even his best-known '50s DC work has a cloud

of uncertainty over who did what.  Pattern or coincidence?

 Meanwhile, it's poor ol' STAN LEE who carries the can for

being a 'glory-hog'.  Hardly seems fair to me, I gotta say!

    

BABE OF THE DAY - NICHELLE NICHOLS...

Captain's log - should've flushed it away, the dirty

buggah!  But enough of such levity!  We gather here today

to admire the womanly charms of NICHELLE NICHOLS.

Just think - WILLIAM SHATNER got to snog her - and

was paid for it, the jammy rascal.   I'd have volunteered to
do it for nowt - even 'though I was only ten at the time.

PART TWO OF THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Welcome back!  Couldn't keep away, could you?  And who can

possibly blame you when there's some classic comicbook art by both

JOHN BUSCEMA and JACK KIRBY on display.  THE COMPLETE

FANTASTIC FOUR was a terrific MARVEL U.K. weekly periodical

which filled us in on the then-relatively recent adventures of the Fab

Four (no, Melvin, not THE BEATLES) , plus super classic stories

from the early '60s.  Who could ask for more for a mere 10 pence?

I suppose it's a shame that all these titanic tales weren't in colour,

but British readers were used to the majority of their regular weeklies

being mainly in black and white.  On the plus side (as I noted last time),

Marvel had finally managed to master the use of ZIPATONE (that's the

U.S. equivalent of LETRASET) so that the grey tones didn't obscure

the detail on the art, as had once been the case with previous titles.

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me.  I now unleash upon you

highlights from another three issues of  The Complete Fantastic Four.

More CFF still to come, frantic ones - be sure not to miss them!

  

MY PARTNER THE GHOST...

MY PARTNER THE GHOST was the American title for

ITC's RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED) when it was

broadcast in the States in the '70s.  The theme tune by EDWIN

ASTLEY is a belter, but so also is the DAVID ARNOLD theme

(sung by NINA PERSSON) from the 2000-'01 BBC remake.

Here's the latter in all its ghostly glory to send a shiver of

pleasure down your spine.

CRIVENS! JACK KIRBY'S CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART THREE...

Now we're into the good stuff.  WALLY WOOD takes JACK

KIRBY's superb storytelling prowess to even greater levels with his

sublime delineation of DC COMICS' CHALLENGERS OF THE

UNKNOWN.  "Greater than the sum of its parts" is a bit of a cliche,

but never was it more true than when Kirby and Wood were com-

bined on the art duties of this iconic comicbook from the '50s.

As great as JOE SINNOTT, VINCE COLLETTA and MIKE

ROYER were (and I know we'll get some stick over the inclusion of

VC's name there), no one ever enhanced Kirby's art better than Wally

Wood  did - bar none.  (ALFREDO ALCALA did a great job inking

JK's pencils on DESTROYER DUCK, and had Jack been at the top

of his game at the time, the results would've been comparable to his

Wood-inked  Challs pages.  They almost were - but not quite.)

Anyway, that's my opinion on the matter.  Feel perfectly free

to disagree in the comments section - or even just say what your

favourite Challengers cover is.  Go on - be the first!

  

COMPUTER GENERATED FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER...

Having looked at KEN REID's FRANKIE STEIN,

let's now turn our attention to the original inspiration for the

strip - FRANKENSTEIN.  What we have above is a CGI clip

that someone made a while back.  I'd love to see a full-colour

remake of the 1931 movie, with a CGI BORIS KARLOFF

MONSTER.  Anyone feel the same?

PANEL-BY-PANEL - FRANKIE STEIN...

I've featured this FRANKIE STEIN page before, but this time I

thought I'd scan it from the original artwork and present it panel-by-

panel, the better for you to appreciate the mastery of KEN REID's

awesome artwork.  It's when you see art of this high standard that you

realise how woefully inferior some of the pages in the last incarnation

of THE DANDY were.  (Regardless of the feeble protestations

to the contrary of some misguided souls.)

To enjoy each panel at its best, click to enlarge.

And below is the published page from WHAM! #134,

January 7th 1967.