PART FIVE OF FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY...

Now it's time for our regular trip back into the past for a look at another half-dozen issues of FANTASTIC front covers - along with their back-page pin-ups. If you were around when these comics first went on sale, you'll have a blast revisiting your yesterdays - if not, then just enjoy the pretty pictures. See? What more could anyone ask? There's something for everyone on this blog. Only another fifty-nine to go.

THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES...

A 1988 view of my old school from the top of the street where
I once lived

I arranged access to one of my old primary schools with a representative

of the local education authorities a few weeks back. I wanted to record it

for posterity before it's demolished, which is due to happen in the not too

distant future. The school was empty, the pupils having transferred to a

new building on the corner of one of the football pitches at the far side of

the playground. I had complete access to every corner of the original

building, and I have to admit that it was quite an emotional experience to

revisit the scene of what had once been such familiar territory on a daily

basis for five years of my childhood.

The corridor outside the headmaster's office. His door is the one
on the right

I remember my very first day there, standing in the corridor with my
father (just outside the janitor's room) along from the headmaster's office,
awaiting his auguste presence so that I could be 'processed' and thence
delivered to my first classroom. Another boy was also present and my
father enquired why. Turns out he had found a ten shilling note and was
waiting to hand it in. "You don't want to be late for your classes," my father
said to him. "Give it to me and I'll pass it on, and you can get along to your
classroom." The boy did so, and was thus not only robbed of a legitimate
excuse for missing the start of lessons, but also recognition for his honesty
and any possible reward ensuing from it. I still feel bad for him to this day,
forty-seven years later.

Room 7 - my first classroom at my new school

When the headmaster had finished overseeing the daily influx of pupils,
he came along to his office and my father duly transferred the ten shillings
into his custody - and me along with it. We were invited into his sanctum
sanctorum to complete my official registration and it was there that I
witnessed something I had never seen before and which I can't see (or
do) now without thinking back to that day so many years ago. As he was
speaking, he folded a piece of fullscap paper in half and then proceeded
to use a ruler to slit the sheet up the middle into two A5 sections. To me,
this was comparable to witnessing the invention of the wheel. Why had
such a simple, obvious (and effective) means of paper partitioning
never occured to me?

The stage in the dining and gym hall

Anyway, touring 'round my old school was rather a bittersweet experience.
On the one hand, it was almost as if I'd never left, what with familiar visions
of the past springing out at me from the very walls; on the other, it was rather
depressing to see the state of dilapidation the building had been allowed to fall
into since the prospects of a new school had first become a reality. There had
been a few changes over fairly recent years, but nothing too major to obscure
the welcome glimpse into yesteryear. Pupils from another school will soon be
using the building until their new one is completed, and then I'm afraid it's
'curtains' for my old childhood friend - it's possibly got another year and a
half at most before it's demolished. Having served the community so well
for fifty years, it's about to be wiped off the face of the map as if it
never existed - a sad fate indeed.

The other end. the kitchen is behind the shutters on the right

However, the school will endure - in name, in memory, in photographs -
and also in the hearts of those who once walked its hallowed halls and
corridors in the halcyon days of their childhood. Remember when your
parents told you that one day you'd look back on your school years as
the best days of your life and you thought they were mental? Turns out
they were right after all.

View of the football pitches. This scene was eventually obscured
by opaque safety glass

FOOTNOTE: Incidentally, the photos displayed here are not the ones I
took recently. I decided to use ones taken back around 1986 and 1988
because the school was practically exactly as had been in my day and
was in a much better condition than in subsequent years.

View from the playground. The stairway windows have started to be
replaced with reinforced, opaque glass. Over the years, the classroom
windows on this side would likewise be obscured

******

For a similar, rambling, self-indulgent reminiscence, click here.

PART TWO OF THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN...

Okay, peeps - here's the second part of the origin of IRON MAN

from TALES OF SUSPENSE #39. You have to hand it to STAN LEE's

brother, LARRY LIEBER - he sure could deliver a well-crafted script.

'Twas he who came up with names like ANTHONY STARK, HENRY

PYM, DON BLAKE, URU and probably a whole host of others. Let's

hear it for Larrupin' Larry Lieber - he's one of the good ones. 

THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN - PART ONE...

Oh, you lucky people. Scanned from my very own copy and for your
eyes only, the origin of the INVINCIBLE IRON MAN from TALES
OF SUSPENSE #39. So, join us now as millionaire weapons inventor
ANTHONY STARK has his life changed forever - and is transformed
into a man of iron.

Part Two coming soon.

NEVER SAY NEVER - EVER, EVER AGAIN...

When NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN came out in 1983, SEAN CONNERY
hadn't played JAMES BOND 007 since the 1971 movie DIAMONDS ARE
FOREVER, a whole twelve years earlier. It's therefore rather startling to
realise that Never Say Never Again is now almost thirty years old, because
the period of time between then and now doesn't seem anywhere near as
long to me as the twelve years which preceded it. A dozen years seeming
longer than a twenty-nine? How can such a paradox be? Regular readers
will know that I often theorize, soliloquise and agonise over such time
discrepancies, but relax - that isn't the purpose of this post. So what is?

I was doing a little tidying up today and came across a cardboard standee
I acquired from a once-local record and video shop, and which used to
adorn a wall of my room back in the mid-'80s. The movie had just been
released on video (remember them?) and this was one of the ads used
to promote the fact in video stores across the country. The manager of
the shop didn't really have space for it so kindly enquired if I wanted it,
knowing that I was a Bond fan. He didn't have to ask twice. At first it sat on
top of my portable television before being promoted to the wall, the better
to protect it from being damaged should it inadvertently be knocked from
its precarious perch atop the telly.

Despite all the hype of Connery returning to the role, Never Say Never
Again took a good gubbing from OCTOPUSSY at the box office, proving
the folly of releasing it at the same time as the 'official' EON Bond movie. It
also demonstrated that, at least to the general public, ROGER MOORE
was the 'real' James Bond and Sean Connery the pretender - which must
have been something of a slap in the face to the man who had established
the part. After fulfilling his contractual obligations to promote the movie,
Connery subsequently spoke dismissively of it - basically describing it as a
piece of sh*t that he wishes he had never been involved with. Hell hath no
fury like a 'luvee' scorned, eh?

Anyway, I thought I'd share the ad with you here, what with it being a lovely
piece of art and all. Now all I have to do is find a space for it on my wall
again - and work out why I ever took it down in the first place.

So...who was your favourite James Bond - and why?

BAR SIX - THE BEST BAR NONE?

The last time I recall eating a Cadbury's BAR SIX was sometime in the late
'80s I think. I remember my maternal grandparents used to have a stock of them
when I was a child and I probably first tasted one at their house on one of our
weekly Sunday visits sometime in the late '60s.

Am I correct in thinking that there was a hint of CARAMAC about the taste?
Regardless, they always went down well with a cuppa. Cadbury's should bring
them back at once. Anyone else agree? 

FIREBALL XL5 AND THE MOON MASTERS...

Published nearly 50 years ago in January of 1964, GOLD KEY's

STEVE ZODIAC AND THE FIREBALL XL5 comic is an interesting

little one-shot. Of all the many puppet programmes produced by GERRY

ANDERSON, Fireball XL5 was the only one to be shown on network

television in America, making it perhaps the most successful of all

Anderson's shows in the States.

The comic contains two stories, believed to have been written

by PAUL S. NEWMAN and drawn by MEL CRAWFORD, 'though

PAUL NORRIS and FRANK SPRINGER have also been suggested.

The stunning cover is by GEORGE WILSON, who some think may

have been the cover artist of at least three of the four issues of the

SUPERCAR comic by the same publisher.

As I said, this was a one-shot. It's just a shame that the comic didn't

continue as a series. At least we can content ourselves with the stunning

MIKE NOBLE Fireball XL5 artwork from TV CENTURY 21, which

has recently been reprinted in a series of hard and softcover albums

by REYNOLDS & HEARN and SIGNUM BOOKS.

Anyway, enjoy the first story in the comic, THE MOON

MASTERS, and click here to folow Steve Zodiac as he goes on

the TRAIL OF THE TRAITOR.

You didn't think I'd forget the cover? Shame on you.