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| The fantastic 1st issue of Fantastic! |
Well, I'm a little early, butin about 11 days or so it
will be an astonishing 43
years since FANTASTIC
made its debut on the
newsagents' counters and
shelves of Great Britain.
Published by ODHAMS
PRESS, the comic was the
next step in the evolution
of titles like WHAM!,
SMASH! and POW!,
which featured British
humour strips amongst
the MARVEL COMICS
reprints. (Or vice versa
if you prefer.) Unlike
its companion papers
'though, the contents
of Fantastic were not
resized to fit a typical
British comic's page,
instead being granted the privilege of appearing (more or less) in their
original format - albeit in a slightly larger size and in black and white.
True, the credit boxes were omitted, and American spellings, references
and speech patterns were routinely changed ("I ain't" to "I'm not" for
example), but that didn't matter; just to see classic art by JACK KIRBY,
DON HECK and, later, STEVE DITKO in all its crisp and cataclysmic
glory, was what mattered to the readers back in the day - to say nothing
of the power-packed dynamism of scripting by STAN LEE, LARRY
LIEBER and ROY THOMAS.
and speech patterns were routinely changed ("I ain't" to "I'm not" for
example), but that didn't matter; just to see classic art by JACK KIRBY,
DON HECK and, later, STEVE DITKO in all its crisp and cataclysmic
glory, was what mattered to the readers back in the day - to say nothing
of the power-packed dynamism of scripting by STAN LEE, LARRY
LIEBER and ROY THOMAS.
The comic did contain some home-grown produce however, in the form of
the occasional humour page, plus THE MISSING LINK/JOHNNY FUTURE
strip that lasted for the first 51 issues, drawn throughout its entire run by
Spanish artist LUIS BERMEJO.
the occasional humour page, plus THE MISSING LINK/JOHNNY FUTURE
strip that lasted for the first 51 issues, drawn throughout its entire run by
Spanish artist LUIS BERMEJO.
Despite lasting only 89 issues, a Summer Special and 3 Annuals,
Fantastic remains one of the more fondly remembered comics of the
'60s by those who were fortunate (and discerning) enough to have
bought and relished it at the time.
Fantastic remains one of the more fondly remembered comics of the
'60s by those who were fortunate (and discerning) enough to have
bought and relished it at the time.
11 comments:
ah, yes! I remember it well! great fun. I've still got a handful of my old issues tucked away, somewhere 'round here. I'll have to dig 'em out again, if only to have a gander at them Barry Windsor Smith back page posters again!
Barry Windsor Smith - didn't he do well! Especially considering that some of those back page pin-ups look awful in retrospect. (He was only about 17 'though.)
I'm impressed by any comic that hands out free scars. I used to know a man who did that in my local but somehow it wasn't the same.
That's nothing - up in Glasgow, dodging "free" scars is a fairly regular occurrence.
Incidentally, Steve, meant to say - I remember there being some negative TV coverage at the time, voicing concern that it might encourage kids who couldn't get the free gift scars trying to give themselves "homemade" ones, and inadvertently injuring themselves in the process.
Reminds me of when, at the end of TV shows like Batman and Wonder Woman, the announcer used to warn kids not to leap off shed roofs thinking they could fly like their heroes - even though neither Wonder Woman nor Batman could fly.
I remember the Batman announcements. Adam West and Burt Ward filmed a little segment warning kids not to imitate them. I've heard it said that they were filmed especially for Britain, not appearing on the US airings of the show. Apparently British kids are more stupid than their American counterparts.
hell, yeah. we're fekking idiots, the lot of us.
remember, we were the only country IN THE WHOLE WORLD that A Clockwork Orange was banned in FOR FEKKING YARONS!!!!
gawd bless us.
Ah, but remember - it was Stanley Kubrick himself who banned it in this country, on account of "copycat" violence which followed in its wake.
I also remember the warning that accompanied Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons in print: " Captain Scarlet is indestructible, you are not. Remember this and do not try to imitate him." Occasionally there was a variant using the word "emulate", which was the first time, as a child, I had come across the word.
Which just proves why comics shouldn't 'write down' to children by avoiding words they may not know. I learned a lot of new words from comics - like paroxysm, for example. If I didn't know a word and the context didn't suggest what it meant, I simply looked it up.
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