'KID' ROBSON'S COMICBOOKS, CARTOONS & COLLECTABLES!

MIGHTY MARVEL PIN-UP PAGE...

2012-03-20T13:22:00.004Z

Art by Steve Ditko

As all true SPIDER-MAN fans will know, the original STEVE DITKO cover of AMAZING FANTASY #15 was rejected in favour of one by JACK KIRBY (although Ditko inked it). If I remember correctly, the unused cover was eventually published in an issue of MARVELMANIA (or somewhere), but one of the earliest reprintings (and the first British one) was as a back-page pin-up in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #2.

The original cover can be seen here - http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2010/07/amazing-fantasy_17.html - but above is the MWOM pin-up from October 7th (issue dated 14th), 1972. And for the completists amongst you (and who isn't?), below is the cover of the issue from which the pin-up comes.

Art by Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott

A MARVEL "STICK-UP"...

2012-03-19T21:09:00.009Z

Nowadays, we live in an age where publishers think nothing of putting
a couple of quid or more on the price of a comic and adding a load
of useless junk to justify doing so. I remember when a poster or some stickers were the only inducements required to tempt us to purchase a comic that we probably would've bought anyway - and all at no extra cost to the reader.

Here's such an example: THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #3 from 1972 (dated October 21st, but on sale from the 14th) - plus the free gift included in that week's issue. Although, let's be honest - the (perhaps) JIM STARLIN and JOE SINNOTT cover would've sold the comic on its own.

"THE NAME'S BOMB...JAMES BOMB..."

2012-03-19T14:36:00.007Z

I must've ordered several back numbers of this particular issue of MAD back in the day. I loved it so much that, whenever I inadvertently dog-eared or bent the spine of my latest copy, I immediately ordered another one. Until the day that THORPE & PORTER informed me they had run out - no more back numbers of #146 to be had. I eventually managed to buy one from a pen-friend on the Isle of Wight, and that's the one from which I've scanned the following pages.

I remember waxing lyrically and eloquently to one of my school friends about the JAMES BOND parody contained in its pages. "How do you manage to DO all these things?" "Magnificently...of course!" Hell, I'm still using that line today. Whenever I'm showing off to someone by doing a doodle of OOR WULLIE or POPEYE, inevitably I'll be asked: "How do you do that?" And, equally as inevitably, I hit them with my stock reply, stored in my memory banks since 1973. I guess I'm a creature of habit.

Brilliantly drawn by the amazing MORT DRUCKER, this parody has everything. Great art, funny one-liners and James Bond - sorry, Bomb - himself. What's not to love? If you haven't read it before, you're in for a treat - and if you have, you're still in for a treat, albeit one you've experienced before. When this issue first appeared, Bond double-bills still regularly featured in Saturday matinees in cinemas all across the country. It wasn't 'til about 1974 that the Bond movies back-catalogue was sold to television stations, although it was at least another year 'til the first one appeared on the box.

Rereading this issue today, I'm pleased to see that it still holds up very well. And who'd ever have thought that typeset lettering for the speech balloons and captions would work so well - better even than hand-crafted ones? They just seemed, against the odds, to suit Mad to a tee - bestowing upon it a literary respectability that normal comicbook lettering couldn't have achieved.

Just how did they manage to do it? (C'mon - you must've seen that one coming.) All together now...

"Magnificently...of course!"

SUPERMAN - FROM THEN 'TIL NOW (ALMOST)...

2012-03-19T05:10:00.011Z

Most of you will probably have heard of the book "SUPERMAN FROM THE '30s TO THE '70s", which was published in Britain by HAMLYN BOOKS in 1972. (CROWN BOOKS published the US edition the previous year.) With an informative introduction by E. NELSON BRIDWELL, the book featured a mixture of black and white and colour reprints of Superman
classics down through the decades. It was billed as a compendium of Superman 'firsts', but not every story really qualified in that department.
'Twas a nice, big, thick book 'though, and well worth £1.25.

In 1979, Hamlyn reissued the tome in the wake of the success of the blockbuster Superman The Movie, which had been a huge hit only a few months before. Interestingly 'though, the list of Other Media In Which
Superman Has Appeared wasn't updated to include the movie - the book was simply a straightforward reprint (on slightly thinner paper) of the earlier edition from seven years before.

Cut forward to 1983, and Crown released a revised edition, called, funnily enough, Superman From The '30s To The '80s. Apparently DC had very little to do with the contents of the earlier volume, which had mostly been chosen by an editor at Crown. This time around it was a different story. Gone were some of the more whimsical, run-of-the-mill tales, being replaced with newer classics like "The Miraculous Return Of Jonathan Kent" two-parter and "The Origin Of Superman" tale from THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN tabloid-sized treasury special. E. Nelson Bridwell revised his introduction from the '70s, but retained the spirit of the original. If I have one minor quibble, it's that the "Kryptonite Nevermore!" story was omitted this time 'round. SWAN and ANDERSON at their very best, too.

As far as I know, there was no Hamlyn British edition, so the Crown volume is a nice little collector's item which is well worth having, even if you already own its predecessor. Start your hunt on ebay today. In the meantime, enjoy the scans from my personal copy of the book .

THE AVENGING ANGELS...

2012-03-18T21:57:00.001Z

For those of you who may not already know, AIRFIX (now owned
by HORNBY) re-released their 1968 CAPTAIN SCARLET ANGEL INTERCEPTOR model kit a little while ago. Having had this kit back in the '60s, I recently managed to get my hands on the current one and look forward to actually doing it justice this time 'round.

Although the box has been redesigned, it still features the original 1960s artwork. I understand the recent release is a limited edition - but, if you're quick, you should still be able to get your hands on one.

Spectrum is green.

THE RETURN OF BATMAN'S BADGE...

2012-03-18T21:03:00.004Z

You'll remember me telling you about my childhood adventures of playing at BATMAN back in the '60s. (You can read about it here at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/when-batman-wore-wellington-boots.html - go on, I'll be waiting here for you until you get back.)

Anyway, here's a replacement I acquired a few years ago of the actual badge I used to wear on my jumper while running around in my largely homemade Caped Crusader outfit. (Only the mask and badge were
'official' items of merchandise.) Until, that is, it fell off my jumper one night while I was in the school playground at the foot of the street. I later learned that IAN FREW, who lived in the bottom house in my row, had purloined it seconds after it had hit the ground. I chapped his door, but he denied having it, so there was nothing much I could do. It only took me about forty-odd years to acquire a replacement for it. I was glad to finally have it back in my possession - it was like saying hello to an old friend.

DOUGIE'S FANTASTIC COVERS...

2012-03-18T14:09:00.007Z

Don't worry, all you FANTASTIC fans - the following covers will appear in their appointed place in my Fantastic Cover Gallery when the time comes. However, Dougie - from the excellent blogs SOME FANTASTIC PLACE and MATERIOPTIKON - isn't getting any younger. He may well be an old man by the time I get around to publishing them, so I thought I'd feature some of his favourite covers all in one post.

So, here you are, Dougie - feast your eyes on these Fantastic favourites.

Back cover of Fantastic #38

Unfortunately, I don't have the gift - but here's a b&w interior illustration

(Dougie's blogs can be found over at http://somefantasticplace-dougie.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://materioptikon.wordpress.com/ - give 'em a look!)

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FICTION - OR HOW TO SPOT A NUTTER...

2012-03-17T13:07:00.025Z

UPDATE: Since I posted this, the person concerned has rewritten his blog post - twice now - in an attempt to dilute the whinging, self-pitying nature of his childish rant, and also removed the biased and inflammatory mis-

information about me. Typical, eh? Still dancing frantically in an attempt to avoid the consequences of his untruths. Case proven, I'd say.

******

"The truth is out there!", someone once said. And here it is - socially-inadequate retards are everywhere! Case in point: The self-styled
'CAPTAIN', from various sites on the internet, has finally snapped his cap. A petulant man-child who obviously suffers from a massive inferiority complex (or perhaps it's not a complex - maybe he's just inferior) has posted on his blog yet another of his distorted, exaggerated, and far-from-the-truth fantasies at which he is so adept. Let me tell you about this sad and sorry little man who refers to himself as 'The Captain'.

A few years back, in a spirit of helpfulness, I pointed out that he had got something wrong on a post on one of his blogs. He corrected it without admitting the fact, and then denied the error had ever existed. Such disingenuity seems to be a habit of his, as we shall see.

Recently, he posted BEANO and DANDY scans on his blog. He mis-attributed the source of The Dandy ones, at first denying it when I pointed it out, then admitting it, but claiming he was only going by what the person who supplied the scans had told him. Besides, these things aren't important, he claimed.

He disputed my observation that The Beano scans were four pages short, saying that several experts had confirmed they were complete - until I emailed them to him so that he could add them to his blog. He also mis-attributed their source, which I correctly identified. He resorted to his old standby - he was only going by what the person who supplied the scans had told him, and besides, these things weren't important anyway.

(He has since characterised my attempts to supply him with accurate information and missing pages as 'taking issue' with him. In fact, the reverse is true: he took issue with me for trying to be helpful, saying that I was wrong and that he loved a good debate. Until I emailed him the missing pages, that is. Then it was nothing but sulks, huffs, insults and lies all round on his part.)

Are you seeing a pattern yet? Whenever he gets something wrong, it's always someone else's fault - never his. The buck certainly doesn't stop with him in his little world.

Then an old detractor of mine, who had miraculously (and no doubt coincidentally - yeah, right) turned up on (and only on) the two posts to which I had responded and took a mild dig at me, while erroneously claiming that 'The Captain' had been correct in his assertions. The fact that this detractor misrepresented what those assertions were in order to take a pop at me is typical of the sort of thing he does. This person has been accused of bullying on another forum, so I responded by saying that he should reserve such tactics for there. A fairly mild (and appropriate) riposte I would have thought.

Given his obviously fragile grasp on reality, 'The Captain' seized the opportunity to get his own back, theatrically banning me from his site and sycophantically apologizing to said detractor for the 'worst kind of abuse' he had ever seen in over fifteen years on the internet. Perhaps he should expand his horizons? I repeat - all I said was that the person should stick to his bullying tactics on another site.

'The Captain' also used the opportunity to level some inflammatory insults at me, which I demanded he remove from his blog or there would be repercussions. Typically, he distorted the facts to misquote me as having said 'dire consequences', as if to imply some sinister intent on my part. He even claims to have reported me to the police. Am I alone in regarding this person as being somewhat hysterical in his responses? I doubt it.

We now descend even further into absurdity. This oaf then claimed that his wife and child were terribly upset by all of this (a claim he has since repeated, saying I have caused 'worry and consternation' to his family). My response was to say that, going from his immature behaviour, I very much doubted he was old enough to actually be married and that his 'wife' could surely only be of the 'inflatable' variety. I always try to keep a sense of humour about me, even when dealing with obvious nutters. This - and this alone - is what he constitutes as 'vile attacks' on his family. Same goes for 'disgusting comments'.

Are you beginning to see how he distorts things completely out-of-proportion, the better to portray himself as some kind of 'under-siege' victim? Is this the behaviour of a sane and rational man, never mind a mature one? Again, I doubt it. It really is rather pathetic to use one's family (who are probably completely disinterested in this individual's online shenanigans) to try and elicit sympathy for oneself or to assume the moral highground. And all because he was caught out in a succession of errors and can't handle the fact.

He accuses me of having 'libelled' him - although, as far as I am aware, it is impossible to libel a fictitious identity. That's right - he doesn't use his own name, preferring to operate under an alias. Also seems to use a proxy server by the look of it - perhaps he has something to hide? He also accuses me of having libelled my detractor. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but libel is when one states an untruth, isn't it? (Rhetorical question - of course it is.) Nothing I have said about either of them is untrue - and my detractor certainly doesn't seem to be making any kind of a fuss about it as far as I'm aware. Isn't it big of 'The Captain' to insist on taking offence on someone else's behalf?

He also accuses me of having posted an anonymous comment on another blog about him, thus adding some form of supernatural divination to his list of non-accomplishments. (Incidentally, I've since looked at the blog in question and his remarks on this subject seem to be at odds with what the blog owner himself says.)

What should I do? Claim despair over my friends and family being subjected to all this 'worry and consternation'? Tell the police in an impotent act of hysterical rage and frustration at someone ripping the p*ss? Make a complete and utter t*t of myself by according more gravitas to a trivial and absurd situation than it warrants? Well, no - that's mainly his department.

I'll content myself with reminding you what a self-absorbed, immature, disingenuous and deceitful little nutjob he is, and having a good, hearty laugh at him and his foibles. Feel free to join me.

THE UNEXPURGATED BEANO NUMBER ONE...(PART TWO)

2012-03-15T09:43:00.003Z

Don't panic all you completists out there - here's the second half of the first issue of THE BEANO for you to drool over. Unlike the inaccurate claims over on another blog, this one features the full 28 pages (in two parts, this being the concluding one). Unfortunately, for some reason unknown to me, the enlarging feature on all my recent posts isn't working as it should. Before, when you clicked on an image, it would usually enlarge - and when you clicked on it again, it would enlarge to bigger
than the original scanned item.

However, even 'though these images are scanned at a far larger size than the original, the 'optimum' size comes out smaller. Even if you check my FANTASTIC cover gallery (for example), the images there come out at a far smaller size than they should. My earliest posts seem unaffected
'though. Can anyone hazard a guess at what might be wrong? I'd appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Your very own Beano #1. Am I good to you or what? Right - get busy with those printers.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DEAL WITH INFANTILE MINDS...

2012-03-15T00:39:00.029Z

Recently, a Blogger made what I regard as offensive remarks about me on the comments section of his blog. Wouldn't have bothered about them if it hadn't been clear he was referring to me. I sent him an email insisting that he remove his biased, inaccurate and inflammatory insult immediately, otherwise there would be repercussions. Obviously an intelligent person would interpret this as 'legal' repercussions (and much unwelcome publicity on my blog), but I have since received an email from this sad, sorry individual saying he has reported me to the police. My initial thoughts have been confirmed - the man is obviously of severely limited intellect.

What's worse, however, is that in his own account of the event, so eager is he to imply sinister intent, he attributes the words "dire consequences" to me - words I never used. Yet more proof, if any were required, that he's not shy in twisting the facts to suit whatever distorted picture he's trying to paint. I previously described him as someone with no regard for accuracy - I now don't hesitate in calling him an outright stranger to the truth.

What is it with some comic geeks? Are they mentally retarded, or what? The question remains however - who's going to report him for wasting police time?

And to think - all this nonsense simply because he got things wrong three times in a row and resents me for supplying corrections. (Prima donnas, eh? Who needs 'em?)

Error #1: He claimed his Dandy scans came from the 1978 Chimera-Posner book, D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS. No they didn't. When he finally admitted I was right, he claimed that he was given the wrong information by the supplier of his scans. What? The guy doesn't know what he's scanning from? A likely story. Then he said such details aren't important. (So why does he get uptight about it?)

Error #2: I pointed out that his Beano scans were four pages short.
Not so, claimed he, saying that several unidentified experts confirmed his assertion that he had posted the complete comic. (Obviously also a bit of a fantasist.) So I emailed him the four missing pages. No acknowledgement or thank you until over a day after I drew attention to the fact on my blog. Then he eventually posts a "thank you" and later tries to imply it was posted earlier than it actually was.

Error #3: He also mis-attributed his Beano scans to a different source than they actually came from. Talk about sloppy 'accountancy'? Once more, it wasn't until I had again identified the actual source that he tried to imply he knew all along and had simply mis-typed.

He's done this sort of thing before. A couple or so years ago, I pointed out an error in something he wrote. He went back and amended the post, then claimed that he had never made such an error. Without a copy of his initial version I couldn't prove anything, so I didn't make a fuss, down-playing the situation by saying I couldn't understand what had happened. Given his constant squirming and dismissal of detail as being unimportant - when he gets it wrong that is - it's clear he has a massive hang-up about being seen to be mistaken about things.

Now he's going 'all-out' over on his blog, trying to misrepresent the facts and play the role of the victim. When a detractor of mine turned up on his blog erroneously endorsing his claims, he also took a dig at me, to which I responded. (Strange that said detractor only visited the two posts I had remarked upon and missed the subsequent ones. Let's put it down to coincidence, shall we? No doubt we also believe in the Tooth Fairy and honest politicians.)

Sadly, this was the only excuse he needed to try and wrest some kind of perverse victory from defeat, seizing the factual content of my response to said individual as an excuse for which to ban me from his site. (Perhaps he's aware of the 'history' between myself and this person and is exploiting it for his own ends. It's certainly interesting that, out of the four links (now five) to other sites - two are his own - on his blog, one of them is my detractor's. Something sure smells fishy in Denmark.)

Well, it's all a bit dramatic, but it's certainly one way to ensure not being picked up on all the errors one makes - ban anyone who spots them. He likens himself to a seafarer, does this sad and 'stormy' soul - but all I can see is a capricious Captain of an unseaworthy ship, adrift on troubled and turbulent waves.

"Argh-h-h-h! It's 'im!"

PART THREE OF FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY...

2012-03-14T13:12:00.004Z

Heads up, you lucky people. Here we have the next instalment of cracking covers (Gromit) from the ODHAMS PRESS periodical FANTASTIC, first published in the late 1960s. I believe any new back-page pin-ups were either by BARRY WINDSOR SMITH or STEVE PARKHOUSE (husband of 2000 A.D. letterer, ANNIE PARKHOUSE), and these were alternated with reprints of American pin-ups or illustrations adapted for the purpose.

So without any further ado (must remember to pick up a fresh supply when I'm out), let's get started.

Don't know about you, but I love that pin-up of SUE STORM, originally printed in FANTASTIC FOUR #10. Tune in again soon - for further Fantastic covers of yesteryear.

LOO MUG - WHAT A THUG...

2012-03-14T10:58:00.004Z

Interesting to see that a certain professional contributor was accused of bullying tactics on a UK comics forum relatively recently (and no - not by me), with people threatening to leave because of his supercilious, patronising manner. Considering that the character for whom he is best known is a bit of a brainless thug, I find the situation rather ironic to say the least. Life imitating 'art' perhaps?

And now, in a show of 'solidarity', one his pals has banned me from his site for responding to what I saw as a provocative comment from the first individual, implying that my offer to supply pages and identify their correct source amounted to nothing more than "hassle". As the site owner had already revealed himself as a disingenuous back-pedaller with no regard for accuracy, I must confess to regarding his actions as not much of a surprise. Certain types tend to stick together, don't they?

THE UNEXPURGATED BEANO NUMBER ONE...

2012-03-14T04:06:00.008Z

Recently, over on another blog, someone posted scans of the first issue of THE BEANO. Unfortunately, he used an abridged replica edition of the comic given away with THE SUNDAY POST a couple of years or so back. I pointed this out, but he disputed it. I kindly offered to send him scans of the missing pages to complete the issue and he posted his contact details with no other comment. He failed to acknowledge their receipt, he refused to admit he was mistaken in his assertion, he neglected to thank me for my time and trouble, and - worst of all perhaps - he hasn't published the pages I supplied. Can't handle being wrong I guess.

(Since I posted this, he has added a "thank you" to his comments section so that he can retroactively claim I was wrong. And in an act of revenge, he has misrepresented certain facts for the purpose of portraying me in an unflattering light, and banned me from his site. The fact that he favours a regular detractor of mine who is a supporter of his puts his theatrical over-reaction in its proper context.)

Anyway, so that all you Beano fans out there aren't deprived from seeing the complete first issue, I've decided to post the full issue here in two instalments. Here's Part 1, the second half of the comic will appear shortly. In the meantime, enjoy...

Look out for Part 2 - coming soon!

(For some strange reason, images are currently only enlarging to about two thirds of their optimum size when clicked on for the second time. Hopefully this is a temporary fault and normal service will soon be resumed.)

THE BALLAD OF HALO AND ME...

2012-03-13T20:34:00.001Z

When I was a full-time comics contributor a goodly number of years ago,
I was up and down to London like a yo-yo. I remember being given a BUSTER strip (drawn by REG PARLETT) to deliver to THE SUNDAY MAIL in Glasgow during some strike or other, and, on another occasion, I was given a large HALO JONES pin-up to deliver to JOHN McSHANE and the lads from AKA COMICS at the Virginia Galleries, also located in the city.

This was a gift from the artist, IAN GIBSON, and as I knew the boys in the shop, I was asked if I'd hand it across. "Nae bother!" as they say, but when I got home, the first thing I did (apart from grabbing some sleep) was to get someone to snap a photo of me with said page, to demonstrate that I was actually considered responsible enough to be entrusted with such an artistic treasure. As you can't see my face in the photo, I don't suppose any such conclusion can be arrived at, but let's face it - who's going to look at a drawing when my handsome fizzog is on display? So it worked out for the best in the end. (He said, modestly.)

Sorry the image isn't sharper, but it's a cropped section of a photo taken from the bottom of the stairs. I'll see if I can dig out the comic the pin-up appeared in and scan it so you can get a better look. Trust me, however, the printed version didn't do justice to the original.

A DOG'S BEST FRIEND...

2012-03-13T12:41:00.000Z

...is YOGI BEAR, apparently. Who'da thunk it? Cute, eh?

HE IS THE LAW...

2012-03-13T02:37:00.003Z

One of the things I liked about the POWER COMICS from the '60s was the fact that characters in the British strips often referred to the American MARVEL superheroes reprinted in the same pages. I remember the brother and sister team known as THE HUMBUGS (reprinted as The Terrible Twins in SMASH! a few years later, but originally appearing in WHAM!) pretending to be THE THING and THE INVISIBLE GIRL in one of their adventures. Likewise DON STARR, in an issue of TERRIFIC, wished he had SPIDER-MAN's spider-sense on one occasion. This helped foster the illusion that, whether they were humour or adventure strips, British or American, they were all the result of ALF, BART & COS and their team of writers and artists on this side of the pond.

IPC/FLEETWAY don't seem to have indulged in this kind of comics integration to the same extent - at least not that I'm aware of - so the above SWEENY TODDLER strip is a nice-but-rare example of when they did. I'm unaware of who wrote the story, but the artwork is by the irrepressible TOM PATERSON, doing an absolutely 'pitch-perfect'
impersonation of LEO BAXENDALE at his very best. Tom captures Bax's style so well, in fact, that I sometimes wonder if Leo has ever looked at Tom's work and wondered why he can't remember drawing it.

It's just a shame that nothing is being done with the treasure-chest of IPC/FLEETWAY comics characters today. They're a neglected asset
deserving of positive exploitation, and which would surely be enjoyed by many thousands of would-be comics reading youngsters up and down the length and breadth of the country.

UNSEEN DITKO...

2012-03-11T20:23:00.008Z

Feast your fortunate eyes on an uninked and unused pin-up of THE INCREDIBLE HULK by STEVE DITKO, intended for an issue of TALES TO ASTONISH, but presumably vetoed by STAN LEE on the grounds that ol' Greenskin was facing away from the audience instead of lumbering towards them. Such a display of bad manners from BRUCE BANNER's alter-ego would surely never do, eh?

This and other pages can be found in The Incredible Hulk Vol 2 in the softcover MARVEL MASTERWORKS series, which often features pages of a higher archival standard than even some OMNIBUS editions. Why not run along to your nearest comic shop (FORBIDDEN PLANET is a wise choice) and schlop down your shekels in exchange for a copy? You know it makes sense.

ISBN # 978-0-7851-5883-7

MOEBIUS PASSES AWAY...

2012-03-10T13:34:00.008Z

JEAN HENRI GASTON GIRAUD. (May 8th, 1938 - March 10th, 2012)

JEAN GIRAUD, also known as MOEBIUS, has sadly passed away.
I have to confess that I wasn't a fan of his SILVER SURFER graphic novel, PARABLE, with STAN LEE (nor did I share his views on lettering), but when it came to doing the stuff he was good at (which was a lot), he was very good indeed. Comics are the poorer for his passing.

I'll leave it to others better acquainted with the man's life and career to pen a more detailed tribute than I'm capable of. I just didn't want his passing to go by without commenting upon it myself. No doubt some of the many fine blogs in the list on the right of the page will have their own thoughts to express about the legendary artist, so keep your eyes peeled. I'm sure they'll do him proud.

A FISHY TALE OF THREE SUBS...

2012-03-10T00:27:00.008Z

FANTASTIC FOUR #11 (1962)

Sufferin' Shad! Take a look at the above pin-up from the 1962 issue of FANTASTIC FOUR #11 - it's only the avenging son of Atlantis himself, PRINCE NAMOR, the mighty SUB-MARINER! This pulsating pin-up next appeared in Britain on the back cover of TERRIFIC #1 in 1967, before turning up yet again in 1973 as a back-page pin-up in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #15.

TERRIFIC #1 (1967)

It made another appearance in a 1977 issue of THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, but this time it was in black and white (with a bit of Letra-tone), hence my decision not to include it this time 'round - the colour versions have an extra dimension which the b&w one lacks.

MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #15 (1973)

I suppose that the first two versions have more of an 'oceanic feel' to them because of the colour scheme utilised, but the MWOM presentation had much more of an impact on me at the time, consequently being the one I prefer. Luckily, I'm not restricted to just one and can enjoy all of them depending on my mood. Which one is your favourite?

Imperius Rex!

BATMAN'S WORLD OF ADVENTURE - NO PARACHUTES INVOLVED...

2012-03-09T15:06:00.010Z

Art by Walter Howarth

Here's a nice little item I picked up in Gosport (perhaps) when I was living down in Southsea in Portsmouth back in 1981. Thirty-one years later, I'm reminded that I probably had my original copy for only a few weeks when I first bought it back in the faraway '60s. Looking at it today, I remember having quite a few issues of this run, and I also seem to recall a SUPER-MAN companion series. (Even 'though there isn't one listed on the back-page ad, below. Could be wrong 'though.)

If memory is correct, I purchased all four of these titles in my sadly-missed local WOOLWORTHS, and - on the day I bought them - I recall standing in line for a visiting fairground's 'parachute jump' (slipping into a harness and jumping off a ledge - no actual parachute involved) situated in the rear car-park of the tenpin bowling alley in the main shopping precinct of my home town. As I waited, some ned kept asking me to let him read my new acquisitions while the queue wound its way along. I refused of course, because even at that tender age, I was smart enough to realise that he'd be off the moment I handed them over, never to be seen again.

Never even got my parachute jump that day - the queue was moving so slowly that my parents, who were hovering in the background, got fed up waiting and summoned me and my brother back over to the car. Ah well, at least I had my BATMAN and U.N.C.L.E. World Adventure Libraries to console me.

A SAINSBURY'S supermarket has been built on the site of the long-gone bowling alley, and an ICELAND shop now occupies the premises that once belonged to Woolworths, but - somewhere in the back of my mind and in surviving black and white photos of the period - the way things used to be still exist whenever I feel compelled to reconnect with my past. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll even make that abandoned 'parachute jump'.

FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY PART 2...

2012-03-08T21:28:00.000Z

And now, starting with the first ever issue of FANTASTIC that I actually bought, here's the second part of our 1960s' covery gallery of the jewel in the POWER PACK crown. There's something about the cover to #7 which gnaws at me - the speech balloons have been relettered and, if I'm not very much mistaken, the art has certainly been retouched in places - if not completely redrawn (traced, most likely). On what do I base my opinion? By comparison with the cover of the original US version of TALES OF SUSPENSE. If you check it out, you'll see that the faces of KALA and STARK's friends differ slightly from the British printing. I'd be interested in what anyone else thinks on the matter, so don't be shy about letting me know - I'll be waiting.

IT'S FABULOUSLY FLIPPIN' FANTASTIC - PART 1

2012-03-07T17:43:00.007Z

I've lost track of how many previous posts I've published on the ODHAMS PRESS periodical, FANTASTIC - so I'm going to start from scratch and showcase my cover gallery from issue 1. This will save anyone from having to dig through the blog archives in order to find any posts they may have missed. Not for nothing am I known for my thoughtful consideration for others, regardless of even the slightest concern for myself. I'm a veritable saint, I am - even if I say so myself. (And I do.)

Anyway, as some of you will already know, Fantastic was a comic which lasted for 89 issues back in the 1960s, and which reprinted MARVEL stories from the US. The comic featured the adventures of THOR, X-MEN and IRON MAN in the early issues, along with a strip called THE MISSING LINK - which was later renamed JOHNNY FUTURE.

I'll fill you in with anything pertinent as we go along, but for now let's just relax and enjoy the covers and back-page pin-ups from this titanic title from yesteryear - when the POWER PACK seemed to hold sway over newsagents' counters the length and breadth of Britain.

Look out for more cataclysmic comic covers from FANTASTIC - soon!

PART THREE OF SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN...

2012-03-05T06:58:00.004Z

Here we are with the final six issues of MARVEL UK's ill-fated weekly from the mid-'70s, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. You may not have the actual comics (or perhaps you do - lucky you), but at least you now have access to the covers to cast your discerning gaze over. If you had these comics back in the day, it'll be like welcoming old friends - if not, say hello to some new pals. Now you can have the fun of tracking them down on ebay and going for a complete collection. Perhaps you may even have the joyous thrill of discovering them in a charity shop one day and pick them all up for a pound. Now wouldn't that be something?

See Part 2 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/03/part-two-of-savage-sword-of-conan.html

See Part 1 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/savage-sword-of-conan.html

PART FIVE OF TERRIFIC'S COVER GALLERY...

2012-03-04T18:08:00.011Z

I know how hungry you all are out there for your regular fix of comics from the past so I'm not going to deprive you of the latest batch of TERRIFIC covers from the 1960s for another nano-second. Here's issues 17 to 22, along with their back-page pin-ups for you to stare at, glassy-eyed, while you drool all over your computer.

Were you a reader at the time these comics were printed, or did you instead have to make-do with more anaemic publications? Never mind, we won't hold it against you - you've obviously been punished enough and are now a little wiser for your deprivation. Therefore, don't be shy - YOU also are permitted to cast your peepers over these POWER PACK publications, presented here in all their monumental MARVEL magnificence.

Don't forget to tune in again soon for yet another titanic instalment of TERRIFIC COVER GALLERY - only here on Kid's Cataclysmic bloggy-thingy-doo-dah!

PART TWO OF SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN...

2012-03-03T12:05:00.006Z

As stated last time, MARVEL UK's SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN weekly from 1975 only lasted for eighteen issues. We've already seen the first six covers from the short-lived series in a recent post, so here are issues seven to twelve to cast your appreciative peepers over. The last batch will follow shortly.

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/03/part-three-of-savage-sword-of-conan.html

See Part 1 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/savage-sword-of-conan.html

LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE...

2012-03-01T14:50:00.010Z

To be honest, I was never much of a MONKEES fan. Sure, I watched the TV show (sometimes), the same as everyone else of a certain age in the country, but - on reflection - it seems to have been a programme aimed more at teenage girls, so it was really a bit lost on me. Years later, once
the nostalgia factor had kicked in, I came to recall the programme with a certain degree of affection, as it represented a specific period in my past from which I could never quite escape. (Not that I wanted to.)

Now, as an adult (allegedly), I actually quite like a few of the songs
that The Monkees were responsible for - albeit, I have to admit, mainly because when I hear them I'm a boy once more, living in the 'swinging
'60s' when life seemed to be simpler and more carefree than it is today.

So I'm actually saddened to hear of the death of ENA SHARPLES' grandson - alias Monkee DAVY JONES - at the far too young age of 66. Never knew him and never met him, so obviously my feelings are selfish ones, resulting from seeing yet another part of my childhood being
entered into the great 'lost property' catalogue in the sky. His passing serves only to remind those of us who lived through the '60s of our
own fragile and ever-diminishing mortality.

I only wish I knew when my 'last train' was due - I'd try and lose the ticket. (Or at least swap it for the first available 'return'.)

PART FOUR OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

2012-03-01T04:17:00.005Z

As I lay in bed on that lazy March or April mid-morning in 1972, I was unaware that, in a few short weeks, I'd be moving house for the fourth time in my thirteen and a half short years of existence. Through the slightly open window the sound of kids in the playground of my old Primary school at the bottom of the road reached my ears, as I sipped American Cream Soda and enjoyed not having to attend the Senior Secondary educational facility a couple of streets away.

Surrounded by a monumental mountain of comics, the inconsequential illness which had kept me from school was soon forgotten, as I luxuriated in the privileged status of idle absenteeism while my classmates busied themselves with the enforced academic application that such scholarly study demands. Looking back, it's strange to realise that, were it not for the date on one particular comic establishing almost the exact moment in history, my recollection of events would suggest them as having occurred many months before their actual point in time.

The comic in question? The fifty-ninth issue of COUNTDOWN, which also happened to be the first issue of its relaunch under the title of TV ACTION. Cover dated April 1st, it had gone on sale on March 25th, and perhaps the subsequent issue may even have been amongst that pile of comics on top of the blankets. I'm not 100% sure, hence my hesitation in pinpointing the exact month of that school 'sickie' all those years ago. All I know is that it was either in the last week of March or the first one in April.

However, as I said - that was only a mere six or seven weeks away from moving to a different house in a different area. I was blissfully unaware of the fact, although no doubt my conspiratorial parents had been making the arrangements for some time. I was informed of the move only about a week or so in advance, which, with hindsight, I'm actually glad of, as the knowledge would probably have ruined the last occasion I had a day off from school in the house I had lived in since I was seven years old.

One glance at the above comic and I'm once again lying in bed on that morning in 1972, listening to the faint noises from the street as they drift in through my inch-open window - the knowledge that one chapter of my life was about to end and another begin still concealed behind the cover of Time's cascading curtain.

******

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-three-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html

CONAN - EIGHTEEN AND OUT...

2012-02-29T14:17:00.007Z

March 1st, 1975. That was the day that MARVEL UK released two new additions to their regal roster of rampaging weekly publications. You've seen the first three covers of one of them - THE SUPER-HEROES - in a previous post, but now comes the time to turn the spotlight on its companion mag, SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN.

SSOC, as it was affectionately known (in my house anyway), only
lasted for eighteen issues, and I still happen to have my original copies. Therefore, it's not exactly a stretch to dig 'em out and scan the covers for all you rabid fans out there of ROBERT E. HOWARD's Cimmerian warrior, CONAN THE BARBARIAN.

As well as Conan, the mag also featured KULL THE CONQUEROR
as a back-up feature, along with (on occasion) KA-ZAR, LORD OF THE HIDDEN JUNGLE and THONGOR OF LEMURIA. It was quite a decent little mag on reflection, and it really should have lasted longer than it did. When it faded from the scene, it was absorbed by another British weekly
publication, THE AVENGERS. (By the way, Look at the cover above.
Due to the colouring of the grey god's bracelet, at first glance Conan
looks as if he has a reptilian tail.)

Although the weekly was relatively short-lived, the title was eventually revived as a monthly in 1977, lasting for ninety-three issues before coming to an end in 1985. However, that's a whole other story - for now, sit back and savour the first six covers of the weekly title from the '70s.

Remember to keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 sometime soon, when we'll feature another six covers from the series.

See Part 2 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/03/part-two-of-savage-sword-of-conan.html

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/03/part-three-of-savage-sword-of-conan.html

PART FOUR OF TERRIFIC'S COVER GALLERY...

2012-02-29T08:51:00.000Z

It's been a while since we featured any covers from the ODHAMS PRESS publication TERRIFIC, which lasted for forty-three issues back in the late '60s before being incorporated with its sister paper FANTASTIC. So, without any further ado, here's another delectable half-dozen front covers and back page pin-ups. Don't be greedy now - savour them one at a time.

FOOTBALL COMIC WITH NO BALLS...

2012-02-28T06:38:00.002Z

In 1992, new publishing kid on the block, TUNDRA, were developing a fortnightly football comic called GLORY GLORY, which they hoped would be the next big thing in the world of periodicals. 50,000 copies of a dummy version were printed for promotional purposes, with the launch date of the actual first issue announced for September 9th, 1992.

However, after all the time, effort and money spent on producing the dummy, plans were hastily abandoned and Glory Glory succumbed to

an inglorious fate - cancellation before it had even appeared on the newsagents' shelves. So why was the decision taken to abort the project before fruition? I'm not quite sure - as a contributor I was probably told at the time, but have long since forgotten the details. Perhaps reaction to the dummy was less than positive, resulting in Tundra deciding not to risk losing even more money by going ahead with the launch, hence the plug being pulled at the last moment.

Luckily, 'though, I have one of the 50,000 dummies printed, and have decided to unselfishly share with you the cover and a couple of interior pages - just to give you a taste of what might have been.

HAVE A LOOK AT BOB'S BEANO...

2012-02-28T02:20:00.004Z

Once upon a time there used to be two mighty comic empires in this country which were in constant competition with one another. Comics were always being developed in each camp to have something ready at a moment's notice to steal the thunder of any new publication the opposition might launch. However, these two companies were not only at war with each other, but also any other company which was in the same business. For example, did you know that D.C. Thomson's SPARKY came out the same week as TV CENTURY 21? This was DCT's way of capitalising on any kid asking his mum to "Get that new comic for me while I'm at school". Any parent asking for that in a newsagent was just as likely to be handed The Sparky as TV21, especially if the latter was sold out. And even if it wasn't, 7d for TV21 may have seemed a bit dear compared to The Sparky's more reasonable 5d - at least from a parent's point of view.

With that in mind, editors kept up with all the titles the opposition produced, often having racks of their rivals' comics on hand in their own offices to see what the 'other side' were up to. And that explains THE BEANO pictured in this post. It was IPC's Humour Group editor BOB PAYNTER's personal copy, which he allowed me to have in order to clear some space on the comic racks along the side of his office wall. Bob was quite good to me in that way. I picked up quite a few comics for my collection, including a number of FRANKIE STEIN Holiday Specials that Bob no longer wanted, plus the very last issue of TV COMIC.

So have a read at DENNIS's adventures above - and don't forget to thank Bob for it.

AND NOW - A LITTLE 'ICE BREAKER'...

2012-02-28T00:15:00.008Z

Someone once asked me what I'd do to dilute any possible negative influence or bad example comics might have on younger readers. By way of kick-starting suggestions, I pondered the possibility of comics having a little warning on the editorial or letters pages, saying something to the effect of "Hyperman is indestructible, you are not. Do not try to imitate him". (Like Captain Scarlet used to have.) Obviously, the message would be appropriate to the content.

This was met with scorn by the person who asked the question, saying that it was patronising to children. I pointed out that many toys carry such advice, so why not something similar with comics? The packaging on toy guns and bows 'n' arrows warns kids about the dangers of aiming them at people's eyes, etc., which seems a perfectly sensible precaution to me. At the very least, it covers the manufacturers if some kid decides to ignore the 'operating instructions'.

I was therefore interested to see the above panel from a copy of The Beano, after an episode in which Dennis and his pals went skating on a frozen pond. Might have been better in the actual issue in which the strip appeared, but better late than never. Obviously, the person who took issue with me on the matter thinks that it's 'patronising' to exercise a little social responsibility. Thankfully, DCT are not in accord with his views in this instance.

MARVEL ON A RAMPAGE...

2012-02-27T20:31:00.002Z

Here's two of the comics mentioned, but not pictured, in the previous post. THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR lasted for thirty-seven issues before being merged with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL (putting the good ol' FF right back where they started). It was probably one of the better comics that MARVEL UK ever published, so it's a shame it didn't have a much longer run. It has its modern day equivalent in FANTASTIC FOUR ADVENTURES, published by PANINI, but I hear that, sadly, the next issue (#28) is to be the last.

RAMPAGE lasted around thirty-four issues before fading away, to be relaunched a couple of months later as a monthly, featuring black and white tales of THE INCREDIBLE HULK. Despite the weekly featuring THE DEFENDERS and NOVA, this title always seemed a bit lacklustre to me, probably because it was overshadowed by its FF sister publication, which I thought was a great little mag. What's the old saying? "A sparrow may look beautiful - until it stands next to a peacock." Well, I guess TCFF was the latter in that instance, although it only lasted three more weekly issues than the former, so nothing to crow about. (These bird allusions are writing themselves now, so I'm outta here.)

Enjoy the covers.

MIGHTY MARVEL MEMORIES AND MAGIC...

2012-02-27T12:37:00.000Z

I can only speculate as to the reasons why, but after releasing their first three weeklies - THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY, and THE AVENGERS - as individual titles over a period of a few months, MARVEL UK then tried a different approach. DRACULA LIVES and PLANET OF THE APES were both released the same week - as were their next two comics, THE SUPER-HEROES and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. Perhaps they felt that two comics had twice the chance of success - at least for one of them - than one on its own. Who knows?

Their next new publications, THE TITANS and CAPTAIN BRITAIN, were released individually about a year apart, although with RAMPAGE and

THE COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR in 1977, it was back to two at a time. (I think the next Marvel UK weeklies released together were the

THOR and X-MEN titles in early 1983, which soon merged into one mag - making it even more like the Odhams Press POWER COMIC known as FANTASTIC from the late 1960s.)

Anyway, here's a selection of covers from some of the comics mentioned, simply because they're nice to look at and also bring back a lot of memories for me. I'm sure it's the same for you, too - so feel entirely free to indulge yourself in these images of yesteryear.

HERE COME THE SUPER-HEROES...

2012-02-26T23:02:00.006Z

Back in March of 1975, MARVEL UK released two new weekly comics on an unsuspecting British public - THE SUPER-HEROES and SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. We'll turn our attention to the Conan mag another time because, for the moment, we're going to take a look at the more successful of the two titles.

Initially, The Super-Heroes reprinted THE SILVER SURFER tales from NORRIN RADD's eighteen issue US monthly comic mag from the '60s. Taking up the slack in the back pages were THE X-MEN, their adventures being split in two and continued the following week. (Seeing those early X-Men adventures was just like having the late, lamented FANTASTIC back again.) In fact, as the Surfer's first seven American mags were double-sized, the same approach was adopted for his adventures also, until such time as his regular-sized tales were featured.

The Super-Heroes lasted for just under a year, bowing out with issue #50 (Conan only lasted eighteen issues) and being merged with the weekly SPIDER-MAN comic. In its time it managed to showcase GIANT-MAN, THE CAT, DOC SAVAGE, and some MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE tales of THE THING and various guest stars. It was never better 'though, than in its early issues, and it was sad to see it go when it eventually faded from the scene. The name (sans hyphen) was later revived for a British monthly mag called MARVEL SUPERHEROES in 1979, but it was never quite the same. There were even two (at least) hardback annuals by GRANDREAMS before the title disappeared yet again, this time for the final time.

Fifty issues? Is that all? Funny how, when I look back, it seems that the comic lasted far longer than a mere forty-nine weeks of my life. Surely it was around for a couple of years at least? (Nope, I guess not.) I still have my original issues and, sometimes, whenever I want to revisit yesteryear, I dig them out yet again and savour the sight, smell and touch of these classic comics from nearly forty years ago. Then, somehow, I'm magically back in the past and sixteen years old once more, reliving the thrill of settling down with the latest Mighty Marvel mag from the House of Ideas! What more could anyone want?

Anyway, as I'm feeling nostalgic, here's the first three covers to give you a taste of what I'm taliking about. Enjoy.

FIELD OF DREAMS...

2012-02-26T04:25:00.021Z

The spot these kids are standing on no longer exists - at least not in the form you see in the photographs. Twenty-three years after the pictures were taken, an old folks' home was built directly on top of the field where these kids once played. I'm actually in the photographs and remember with startling clarity the early summer evening they were taken back around 1967 or so.

As you can see, we were playing cricket. Only a short while before, I had narrowly managed to dodge a heavy cricket ball and thus avoid a nasty knock to the noggin which could well have rendered me senseless. (Go on - I'll allow you the predictable retort.)

From left to right in the photo above are myself, Robert Fortune, Tony Tierney, Allan Robson and Kenny Tierney. The photos were taken by Mr Tom Tierney, who later became a regular contributor to the letter columns of the local newspaper, under the non de plume of 'Goofy'. If he were alive today, he'd no doubt have a blog in which to record his whimsical (and sometimes serious) observations on sundry subjects, but sadly he's been deceased for quite a few years now.

When we first moved to the area in 1965, it was Tony Tierney who introduced me and my brother
to the rest of the kids in the neighbourhood. I haven't seen Tony in quite a few years, but I still run into Kenny today from time to time, and it was his good self who supplied me with the photos you see on this page. As I said, the field no longer exists - except in photos, memories and dreams - dreams which increasingly seem far more enticing than the rather drab reality of the here and now.

Photographs are marvelous things, aren't they? Looking at a photo is like

gazing through a window into yesteryear, at a moment frozen in time which

grows all the more precious to us the further we become removed from it.

Long has paled that sunny sky;

Echoes fade and memories die;

Autumn frosts have slain July.

Ever drifting down the stream--

Lingering in the golden gleam--

Life, what is it but a dream?

From "Life is but a Dream" - by Lewis Carroll.

******

After posting this, I was going through some old papers and found this letter from my local rag, dated Wednesday 24th April - Thursday 30th April, 1996.

Goofy will be missed

I was saddened to read and hear of the death of Mr Tom Tierney, a great story teller in your column and other publications in his life.

He brought many a smile, with his wit and local stories bringing back many a cheery laugh.

My thoughts to his family.

Ann Robertson
Address supplied

This post is therefore dedicated to the memory of Mr Tom Tierney, aka 'Goofy'. Thanks to him, the above snapshots of a moment from my childhood are preserved forever.

MORE 2000 A.D. BIRTHDAY BABBLINGS...

2012-02-25T01:14:00.036Z

It's doubtless because it's 2000 A.D.'s 35th birthday this week that I've recently found myself thinking back to when I used to be a contributor to the comic for several years, regularly lettering the adventures of
characters like STRONTIUM DOG and ROGUE TROOPER, as well as (from time to time) JUDGE DREDD, THARG'S FUTURE SHOCKS, NEMESIS THE WARLOCK, SLAINE - and a whole host of others.

Unlike the way American comics were mainly lettered in the '60s & '70s - actually onto the pencilled page before inking - British comics had a different system, the lettering being done on what was known as 'patch paper' and then stuck down onto the finished art. In the case of colour artwork, the lettering was applied to sheets of acetate film and processed separately, so that if the artwork was printed out of sync (giving a blurred, double-vision effect) the lettering wouldn't be similarly afflicted.

Most lettering nowadays, of course, is done on computer, but once upon a time letterers had to mark their guidelines on a sheet of patch paper and letter by hand within the lines. Some letterers, like BILL NUTTALL for example, used a lightbox, with the guidelines already marked out on that. He simply placed the patch paper over the box and lettered straight onto it, thereby cutting out having to line each individual piece or sheet of patch.
Sometimes JOHNNY ALDRICH didn't use guidelines at all, but lettered straight onto the patch paper.

Incidentally, patch paper was a generic term for adhesive paper which came in different finishes - matt or gloss - and even in various degrees of finishes. Too glossy and the ink line got thicker as work progressed (due to the ink spreading out on the surface of the sheet); too 'matty' and the line was too thin, with the penpoint catching on the surface as if it were blotting paper. One had to have just the right degree of gloss to be able to letter smoothly and quickly without any hiccups. TAC-TIC was the brand name of one paper, and FASSON CRACK-BACK another.

Whether it was done the US or UK way, quite a few lettering artists used the 'rolling ruler' device in the above picture, enabling them to mark out enough lines for one or two speech balloons at a time. I found it too restricting, preferring instead to line a full sheet of patch paper on my STAEDTLER MARS-TECHNICO drawing board (below), thereby avoiding the 'start-stop' approach employed by most other lettering artists. I usually got about four or five pages to each sheet of patch.

I remember one day, as I was lining my paper on the desk opposite STEVE MacMANUS's in the 2000 A.D. offices (Room 2012), legendary letterer TOM FRAME watched me for a moment before asking: "Do you do your lettering on the board?" I explained that I only measured out the guidelines on the board, preferring to letter the sheet of patch on a flat desktop. "I wondered," he said, "because the edge of the board would dig into your arm. It would be too uncomfortable." I agreed, but pointed out the benefits of being able to do all ones guidelines in one go on a complete sheet of patch, rather than bit by bit as one went along. He never bought one 'though, so I guess he remained unconvinced.

Tom Frame

Speaking of Tom, his lettering put me in mind of the ol' bumblebee paradox. You know the one - apparently bees shouldn't be able to fly because, aerodynamically, their not best designed for flight (although some scientists dispute this). Tom's lettering was a bit like that. Seen actual size, it was too high, too narrow, and a little bit scratchy-looking due to his failing eyesight. It shouldn't have worked - but, in print, it did, as testified to by the fact that many people regarded Tom's lettering style as being as much an integral part of the JUDGE DREDD 'look' as anything else which contributed to it. Tom's best work 'though, in my humble estimation, was the many pages of lettering he did for various IPC/FLEETWAY publications back in the '60s, before his eyesight started to deteriorate.

I remember once, after work one night, going to a nearby wine bar with Tom and Stevie Mac, as well as SIMON GELLER, ROBIN SMITH, and PAUL AILEY (I think), where I watched them play Pool as I nursed a Coke and listened to JIM REEVES on the jukebox. This was unusual for me, because I usually worked in KING'S REACH TOWER up until at least nine at night, finishing off as many jobs as I could before heading for Victoria Station and my nearly nine hours trip home. That night, I must've been ahead of schedule, hence my being able to relax for a bit. When time came to head for the station, I remember sharing a taxi with Steve MacManus as he was going in the same direction for part of the way.

Sadly, Tom Frame died from cancer in 2006, at the age of seventy-four. ALAN McKENZIE (sub editor on the comic) had helped him to transfer his lettering fonts onto a computer programme a few years before, allowing him to continue a career which failing eyesight might otherwise have prevented him from doing. It would be nice if the current owners of the comic, REBELLION, could come to an arrangement with Tom's family for permission to use his fonts on the Dredd strip, thus perpetuating the unique look that graced it for so many years.

Anway, that's enough rambling from me for the moment. Pick up a copy of 2000 A.D. today - before your future becomes your past!

SUPERMAN - BACK TO FULL POWER...

2012-02-24T13:51:00.008Z

It's hard for me to believe that this comic is over twenty-one years old, but sure enough, it first hit the stands back in 1990 - a whole other century away, in fact. Wow, scary! Anyway, the more discerning amongst you will already have noticed that the cover is paying homage to AURORA's fantastic SUPERMAN plastic model kit, which first came out around 1964. The model was rereleased a further four times over the years, 1974, '78, and '84, the last time being in 1999. I'm fortunate enough to have all five
versions of the kit, so below is a piccie of one of them, just so that you can see what a great job artist JERRY ORDWAY did of the cover illustration.

The model pictured is the 1974 release, with the addition of a 1964 nameplate which was only ever included in the first issue of the kit. Below is the box which the model came in. I'm not 100% sure, but the box art may be by DAVE COCKRUM.

REMEMBERING JOHN RENWICK...

2012-02-22T22:49:00.048Z

John Renwick in his church office in the mid '80s

On my answerphone is a message which I haven't yet erased - and I'm not sure I ever will. As long as it's there, I can listen to it every so often and it's almost like he's still alive and left it only mere moments ago.

Sadly, however, he isn't, having died from cancer at the far too young
age of sixty or thereabouts, leaving a widow - Irene, and two grown-up children - John Anthony and Deborah. The knowledge that I'll never get to speak with him again is a sad and sobering thought.

Gordon Shields (another minister), me, and John in 1979

You're no doubt wondering who I'm talking about, so I'll tell you. JOHN RENWICK is he to whom I refer, a church minister I met back in around April or May of 1978 when I was only a callow youth of about nineteen. (That means John would have been in his late twenties at the time, which is far younger than I am now.) I attended a meeting at his church one night because I was at a loose end and free tea and biscuits had been advertised for after the service. Free scoffs? Lead on, McDuff.

John, originally from the Edinburgh area, had relocated to my home
town sometime in the '70s (I think) and didn't stay too far away from me. Subsequently, I would often drop in on him for a game of darts or chess (and sometimes even both), and we would sit and discuss the merits of the JAMES BOND movies and whether anyone ever had a smoother singing voice than country crooner JIM REEVES.

John and me playing darts around '81/'82 - rather campily it appears, in my case

Sometime in the late '80s or early '90s, John and his family moved to Stirling. I spoke to him on the 'phone every so often, and on occasion met with him and Irene when they were back to visit various other friends they had in the area. He often invited me over to his new home, and equally as often I promised to visit - but somehow the years raced away without me ever doing so, despite my best intentions.

Then one day a mutual friend told me that John had been receiving treatment for bowel cancer. I 'phoned him when I heard the news, to express my concern and to ask after him. Somehow I got the impression

that he was over the worst of it, and would make a full recovery, and if John knew or suspected otherwise he never let on to me. (Unless, of course, I was just too obtuse to pick up on it.)

Poor quality photocopy of pencil sketch of
John, circa 1980/'81

One day, in 2010, John
'phoned - I missed the call
by seconds, but once I'd ascertained who it was by listening to the answerphone message - I 'phoned him right back and we nattered away for about twenty minutes or so, with John once again inviting me to visit him and me once more promising to do so at the earliest opportunity.

Well, I'm sure you know where this is going. Sadly, John died not too long after, without me ever getting the chance to keep my word. It's only now, with hindsight, that I wonder if John knew his days were numbered and his 'phone call was his way of saying goodbye in case we never got to meet again.

What can I say? Time flies by so quickly that it seemed John had only moved two or three years before, rather than the twenty or so it actually was. I wish I'd made more of an effort now - had managed to get on a train and journeyed to Stirling to visit John and his family, instead of sitting
feeling guilty over ignoring an opportunity which is now forever lost to me.

Maybe one day I'll eventually get to make that journey and visit Irene. And if so, I'm sure John will be there too, in spirit at least, to welcome me as I finally fulfill the promise I made to him all those years ago.

John and me in his office in the mid-'80s

2000 A.D. - HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY...

2012-02-21T01:32:00.049Z

I wasn't going to bother marking 2000 A.D.'s 35th birthday. All the other comic blogs will most likely be doing something, I thought, so is there any real point? Yes, is the answer on reflection.

After all, it was 2000 A.D. that gave me my first big break when they employed me to letter a THARG'S FUTURE SHOCKS story (THE END OF THE WORLD!) back in January of 1985. (That said, my first published IPC work [not counting a back-page drawing inked and tweaked by KEN REID in a 1973 issue of SHIVER & SHAKE] was a CAP'N & THE KIDS strip in WHIZZER & CHIPS.) So, to celebrate the comic of the future's lengthy run, I now present some hopefully pertinent ponderings from a purely personal perspective.

I have to be honest - I was never a great fan of 2000 A.D. when it first
came out. I remember buying the first issue on February 19th, 1977, and probably bought the next few issues, but it never really grabbed me so I soon gave up on it. Two years later, in 1979, a feature on the new JAMES BOND movie, MOONRAKER, started me buying it again for several weeks. Then the printing changed from web offset and the comic didn't look so good, so I dropped it like the proverbial hot potato, fickle lickle fecker that I was. I still continued to buy the occasional holiday special 'though.

So why bother seeking work on the comic then, if I wasn't a huge fan? Simply because STEVE MacMANUS and the 2000 A.D. crew were attending a Glasgow comic mart back in October '84 and I decided to go along and show them my samples. I had determined to do so several weeks before, after a spell of unemployment, and I thought it was time to put the 'gift' that friends kept telling me I had to good use. When I look back on it now, it was a doddle - no hard slog, no years of constant rejection, no wondering if I was ever going to make the big time - simply "Here's some
lettering samples, any chance you could you give me some work?"

However, I really wanted to pursue an art career, so lettering was merely a way of getting my foot in the door. It had worked for WALLY WOOD and DAVE GIBBONS, so why not for myself? Thing is, I got as much lettering work as I could handle, plus a chance to use my drawing skills on various IPC comic libraries, annuals and holiday specials, so I never had the time (or the inclination, to be honest) to do much more about it. I was soon earning good money, so why take the risk of 'switching lanes' and doing something else? Besides, lettering was easy and I could turn out many more pages of calligraphy a day than I ever could of artwork. By that I mean artwork I was happy with.

I remember lettering a CHARLIE'S WAR strip for BATTLE one day, at a desk in their offices, and looking at the detail in JOE COLQUHOUN's artwork - each panel would probably have taken me several days to draw, what with tanks, soldiers, battlefields, etc. I would've been lucky to turn out a page a week, not counting time for research, so I quietly abandoned my full-time aspirations in that direction. Comicbook artists don't just get to draw the things they like, but also have to meet the artistic requirements of subjects in which they often have little or no interest. I'd settle for making a living in the medium I loved, but without the blood, sweat and tears involved.

However, I recognised that 2000 A.D. was the jewel in IPC's crown at that time, and had a huge respect for it. I was proud of my association (minor as it was) with the comic, and always strove to do the best job possible, often redoing speech balloons or 'sound' effects I wasn't happy with.

And it was great to get work on all the other titles which were extant at that time: WHIZZER & CHIPS, BUSTER, SCHOOL FUN, WOW!, WHOOPEE!, etc. One or two of these weeklies may only have survived in the form of specials and annuals, but it gave me a huge buzz to work on them nonetheless. I remember lettering a strip by LEO BAXENDALE's son, MARTIN, which was just as much a thrill as if it had been his dad. It was a link to my past.

They say that things must come full circle, and such was my experience. My comics career started at 2000 A.D. and finished in 2000 A.D. (the actual year I mean), an ironic profundity which isn't lost on me. The reasons are many and varied, but far too boring to go into in this already over-long personal reminiscence which I hope will be of interest to someone.

I have many fond memories of working on 2000 A.D. and take great pride in having done so during part of the period that many people regard as its 'golden years', when Steve MacManus was at the helm. It's the last surviving link to a time when there was a thriving boys' weekly adventure comics empire in this country. So happy birthday to THE GALAXY'S GREATEST COMIC, and here's to at least another 35 years - for all of us!

"SPLUNDIG VUR THRIGG!"

JUST WALKIN' IN THE RAIN...?

2012-02-20T15:29:00.042Z

Outside, it's a wet and windy day. The rain lashes the streets with unrelenting fervour as, from my window, I observe a few bedraggled passersby scurry for shelter or in pursuit of some purpose know only to themselves. The sky is grey and ominous, clouds swirl overhead in regal, grim-meined majesty, contemptuously regarding us mere mortals as the lowly ants we undoubtedly are.

And that's the weather forecast for today.

However, cosily ensconced within the comfortable confines of my comics covered cubbyhole, I luxuriate in the warmth emanating from the radiator and concern myself with what pithy (no, I don't have a lisp), profound and poignant comments I can bestow opon my eager audience, who look to me to lighten and brighten their unbearable burden by bedazzling them with the wit and wisdom which so freely pours forth from my meaningful, methodical and monumental mind.

Oh, what lucky people you are.

When I was a boy in Belmont, we had an outside

'garden cellar' (as did most of the houses in the street), in which we stored coal in one part and kept garden tools (such as lawnmowers and the like) in the other. (It was called a cellar even 'though it wasn't underground, but apparently the term is not misapplied in such circumstances.) On rainy days I would sit on a deckchair inside the bigger-sized half with the door slightly ajar, reading comics and listening to the rain pattering off the pavement and caressing the concrete roof under which I sheltered.

Even today, I find it a supremely calming experience to sit in a car in the rain and listen to the drops rattlling on the roof in their staccato, tinny-soundimg fashion. There is a wonderfully diverse quality to rain; when one is out walking in it, it invigorates, it refreshes, and it cleanses. Yet, when
one takes the time to regard its presence in quiet contemplation from the comfort of a dry haven, it also relaxes the mind and soothes the soul.

Sadly, refuge in the garden cellar of my youth is a couple of houses ago and many years in the past. However, I can still seek sanctuary in its shadows with one short step into the hallowed halls of memory. As Cicero himself said: "Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things."

Failing that, of course, I can always go and sit in my nice new acrylic garden shed and listen to the rain pitter-patter all around me, the door

half-open to allow me to watch it in silent awe.

******

Incidentally, the photo below was taken about twenty years ago outside
the very cellar mentioned, around twenty years after I had move from the house. How did I manage that, do I hear you ask? Ah, but that's a story for another time.

THE TERRIFIC ORIGIN OF RICK JONES' TEEN-BRIGADE...

2012-02-20T10:43:00.003Z

Actually, there's nothing particularly terrific about the origin of the TEEN BRIGADE - or of RICK JONES. And, to be honest, I hate teenagers - all teenagers. Time they brought back conscription (now that I'm too old for it). That's what they need - a good old-fashioned dose of discipline. Get the unruly, rowdy, little hooligans off the streets and teach them how to march, peel spuds, spit-polish army boots, get super-fit - and - and - er, kill people. (Wait a minute - I think I can see a flaw in my thinking.)

Anyway, here's their origin. Try to ignore the clumsy 'drawing-up' in some of the panels.

"...OF CABBAGES AND KINGS..."

2012-02-19T20:22:00.031Z

Writing a blog can be hazardous at times. It seems that there are those out there in 'internet land' who are simply waiting for someone to express their opinion on a topic so that they can pounce on it and deride, mock, ridicule, and cast scorn in a piously condescending way as if those they oppose
are intellectually retarded in some way. (And, let's face it - sometimes they are.) It happens to everyone who blogs and I'm no exception.

Having a blog requires having something to write about. Sometimes it requires needing something to write about when ideas are thin on the ground. If there's a space, it has to be filled. Believe it or not, this site gets visited many thousands of times every month by people looking for something to read and I don't like to disappoint them. I discuss mainly comics and collectables,
although sometimes also indulge in personal reminiscences and social comment. Even then, however, I try to include some kind of reference to comics, tenuous as it may be.

Sometimes I revisit a topic because there's something more I want to say on the matter, or I think it might be of interest to someone, or I simply can't think of anything else to comment upon. Due to the intended scope of this blog, I'm somewhat restricted by certain 'parameters' and don't like to stray too far beyond them. That sometimes necessitates a certain amount of repetition of subject matter, but I take the view that not everyone will have read my previous posts and therefore some topics can bear another outing. Just like comics, every post is someone's first.

I must confess, therefore, that I find it irksome when I hear of certain people accusing me of having an 'agenda' or an 'obsession'. As it happens, I do have an agenda - but it's merely to inform and to entertain and, yes - perhaps sometimes even to educate - in some small way on various details. The 'agenda' I'm accused of, however, is ascribed to me by one particular person in an attempt to cast doubt on my motives for commenting, and to diminish my opinion on things of which I actually know quite a lot about from many years of personal experience. (Fifteen of which were in a professional capacity)

His issues with me spring mainly from having an opposing view to my own
in regard to one particular topic. (Regular readers will doubtless know to what I refer.) Others share his perspective of course, but tend to be far less 'enthused' about it than he is. Lest anyone should think I'm developing
a persecution complex, far from it. I'm well aware that my 'detractors' consist of (at most) a handful of people with a vested interest in shouting me down and undermining my credibility. I find such efforts amusing for the most part, but they can also be irritating on occasion when they resort to distortion and misrepresentation in pursuit of their aims.

It is, in equal measure, both hilarious and annoying to see one particular person describe his dismissive comments, sly innuendo, attribution of false motives, thinly-veiled insults, patronising attitude, condescending manner, and supercilious remarks over the course of many months as being a 'restrained and mature' reaction. This from someone who seems to see me lurking behind every anonymous comment on his blog that disagrees with him on any matter. Now, there's obsession for you.

Sad thing is, he doesn't seem to realise that, if he didn't indulge in this sort of thing, I wouldn't be boring the pants off everyone by having to address his 'mature and restrained' fantasies.

So, let's be clear. On this blog, any thoughts or theories I opine on comics (any comic) spring from my lifelong love of, interest in, and devotion to
them - not from the figment of someone else's imagination or delusion, who, it seems to me, is guilty of pursuing his own personal agenda when it comes to anyone expressing a point of view at odds with his own.

'Nuff said! (Hopefully.)

THE TERRIFIC ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA...

2012-02-19T12:06:00.006Z

At first glance, a strip featuring the adventures of a red, white and blue, star-spangled, shield-slinging US super-soldier of WWII isn't something which would seem to have any great chance of making much of an impression on the more reserved comics-buying tastes of the great British public. Nevertheless, being the creation of American patriotic fervour back in the dark days of the 1940s didn't seem to deter UK readers from taking the wing-helmeted hero to their hearts.

Here we see how STEVE ROGER's alter-ego, CAPTAIN AMERICA,
came to exist in the swingin' sixties - a man out of his time, but not out of his depth. I don't think the POWER COMICS ever revealed Cap's actual origin - how a rejected army volunteer was given a dose of a 'super-soldier' serum and was transformed into the epitome of physical perfection. He was intended to be the first of many such soldiers, but unfortunately the serum's creator was killed by an enemy agent before
any more of the formula could be produced.

We also see how Cap's teeanage sidekick, Bucky, bit the dust while trying to disarm a booby-trapped drone plane as it took off from an army base somewhere in Europe. Personally, I can't stand teenage sidekicks, so I say "good-riddance" to the little buggah! (Unfortunately, they've recently brought him back into current continuity by revealing that he survived his apparent death.)

Here, then, is how Captain America joined the AVENGERS.

******

COMING SOON: The Terrific origin of RICK JONE'S TEEN BRIGADE!

THE TERRIFIC ORIGIN OF GIANT-MAN & THE WASP...

2012-02-18T14:01:00.006Z

When scientist HENRY PYM first appeared in the MARVEL universe, the tale was intended as a one-off adventure without the slightest notion of any superheroic possibilities whatsover. However, in the wake of the success of the FANTASTIC FOUR, he was dusted-down and promoted to the position of crime-fighting superhero, and given a natty new costume as befitted his elevated status. (As elevated as anyone the size of an insect can be, that is.) Perhaps realising that being ant-sized is hardly liable to strike terror into the hearts of evil-doers everywhere (or even anywhere), ol' Hank soon went the opposite way in the height department, becoming the goliath know as GIANT-MAN.

Pretty soon he was joined by wealthy socialite JANET VAN DYNE, who adopted the alias of the WASP - aptly named, because she was as irritating as an itchy anus. (Bit of a 'looker' 'though, so that was some compensation.) Giant-Man was faced with some pretty lame opponents and would probably have faded into obscurity had he not lucked-out and joined the AVENGERS. He later changed his name to GOLIATH, then his identity to YELLOW-JACKET, and then came an ongoing musical chairs number in which he could never make up his mind as to exactly who he wanted to be. Or maybe I just grew confused and lost interest along the way. Same difference.

******

COMING SOON: The Terrific origin of CAPTAIN AMERICA!

UPDATE: THE DANDY - 'HUGE' RISE IN SALES - EXTENDED EDITION...

2012-02-18T02:28:00.070Z

Interesting to see that some of those who disapprove of me mentioning the declining sales of THE DANDY (although apparently it sold a whole forty-one more copies in the last six months than previously), are doing the very same thing on another forum. Double standards perhaps? I note that one commentator took an oblique dig at me, while spectacularly failing to adequately explain why the comic, if it's as instantly popular as he claims amongst any kids who get their hands on a copy, was abandoned by half of its readership in only a few months after its most recent relaunch back in 2010.

As for his assertion that
the alleged
appreciation
by some kids of the more controversially-drawn strips is proof of their
'quality', well - no, it isn't, actually.
It's only proof that those who like the strips like the strips - and sadly there aren't enough of them. The fact that around half the former readership jettisoned the comic tends to confirm that more people don't like them than do. By itself, of course, this does not necessarily prove lack of quality - but in my humble opinion, having compared certain strips to the best examples of their kind - it undoubtedly is a major part of the problem.

Also nice to see him propose an idea of mine for distributing free
back issues to schools around the country in an attempt to revive the readership. I made this suggestion on the downthetubes forum last year. Seems that my critics don't disagree with me on everything, eh?

******

I've just been advised that, over on another blog, a certain individual continues to trot out the myth that, because some other comics and publications have also recently suffered a varying (and comparatively slight) decline in sales, then this is proof that The Dandy's low figures are down to other factors than the contents being below par. I have to ask - just what planet is this man on? Nobody, least of all myself, has ever denied that other factors certainly play a part - perhaps even a major one - in the general decline of comics (and other once-popular pursuits) over the years.

However, here is the important difference (and I must've said it at least half-a-dozen times by now) - no other comic (to my knowledge) has suffered such a dramatic decrease in sales in such a short space of time in the history of the medium. That cannot be attributed to general factors - it must be as a result of something specific to The Dandy itself. Only the hard-of-thinking could fail to reach such an inescapable conclusion.

It lost half its readership in six months, directly following a relaunch
that has come in for much negative criticism in the press, from the public, and on other forums. (And don't forget the seven thousand or so former readers who registered their rejection of the content by ceasing to buy the comic.) That's more than the "couple of critics" to which he so glibly and innacurately refers in an attempt to downplay the significance of their opinion. (A typical manoeuvre of his.)

And to suggest that anyone's critical observations spring from a desire
to demoralise the editor, writers and artists, etc., is another of the common misrepresentations to which he so frequently resorts. We're simply trying to get them to acknowledge the situation and do something about it - which will never happen while they continue in their state of denial and refuse to accept their share of responsibility for the comic's current sad state.

He can bury his head in the sand all he wants, or deny the facts
and distort the circumstances 'til he's blue in the face and the cows come home, but his lame protestations and impotent attempts to embarrass into silence or dismiss the opinions of those who are only stating the truth will not alter the reality of the situation. Which is simply this:

He's talking through his @rse.

THE TERRIFIC ORIGIN OF THOR...

2012-02-17T19:25:00.001Z

For those who may have thought that certain aspects of the origin of THOR THE MIGHTY were a tad too SF orientated, this was rectified by TERRIFIC neatly excising any reference to THE STONE MEN FROM SATURN from its compact two-page recounting of the tale. Only the bare essentials were required to bring new readers up to speed on the background of big daddy ODIN's hammer-hurling, blond-haired lad from across the Rainbow Bridge.

"But ours is a drama decreed by the fates to be acted out!. Nothing can stop it! Nothing can change it! Watch and see..." And acted out it was, filling us in on how DON BLAKE's Asgardian alter-ego came to be. Having satiated our appetite for Norse Thunder-gods with long hair, we were next made acquainted with the size-changing contingent of the team - but that's a tale for another time.

******

COMING SOON: The Terrific origin of GIANT-MAN and THE WASP!

THE TERRIFIC ORIGIN OF IRON MAN...

2012-02-17T13:14:00.000Z

When ODHAMS PRESS realeased the first issue of their new comic, TERRIFIC, back in April 1967, they realised that perhaps not everyone would be familiar with the pantheon of MARVEL heroes featured in one of the strips contained therein. Although previous adventures of the group had already been published in other POWER COMICS, there was no guarantee that buyers picking up the new paper would've read them.

The group's first story to be presented in the new title was a reprint of the first half of the sixth issue of their US mag, THE MIGHTY AVENGERS MEET THE "MASTERS OF EVIL!", so condensed origins of the individual members prefaced the actual tale itself. Culled mainly from the heroes'

introductory issues, the mini-recaps more than adequately filled in new readers with the backgrounds of those who comprised Earth's mightiest super-team. They even threw in the origin of RICK JONES' TEEN BRIGADE for good measure.

So, let's start with THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN! "Watch his awesome approach! Listen to his ponderous footsteps as he lumbers closer...closer..."

******

COMING SOON: The Terrific origin of THOR THE MIGHTY!

KID ROBSON ON SPIDER-MAN...

2012-02-17T04:35:00.008Z

(Okay - so who said: "Well, get off him you dirty buggah!"?) Hah! I knew that title would grab ya! Too many years ago than is good for me, I lettered a SPIDER-MAN strip for some promotional purpose or other. I also did a HULK one, but never received a copy of the finished result. In fact, I never received a copy of the Spidey one either, and the only reason I'm able to show it to you here is because it was reprinted in THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC HOLIDAY SPECIAL.

Incidentally, I have to make one thing crystal clear - it wasn't me who lettered the rather bland "MEETS DOC OCK!" title next to the logo. I refuse to take the blame for it. (I'd've done something much more fancy.)

The comic's indicia has a few different copyright dates, ranging from
1983 to '88, but those years represent when the strips were originally published, and - as far as 1988 goes - not necessarily when they were reprinted. I have the impression the mag came out around 1989-'91, but I couldn't swear to it.

If anyone knows where the two-page Hulk strip appeared or whether it was ever reprinted, feel free to let me know.

Remember - click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

RIP-OFF BEANO...?

2012-02-16T03:25:00.013Z

I've just watched an episode of RIP OFF BRITAIN, which featured a grandmother's complaint about the price of the comic increasing whenever it includes "gifts". The grandmother wrote to THE BEANO twice and was ignored, before writing to the BBC consumer affairs programme and asking them to investigate the matter.

Rip Off Britain contacted the Dundee fun-factory and was told that, because sales were in decline, a flexible pricing policy had been instituted to attract new readers. They also said that they do not describe the gifts as "free", which is a bit like someone saying that they don't describe torture as being painful. A gift, by it's very nature, is free - otherwise it isn't a gift. Did I say Dundee fun-factory? More like Dunderheid fun-factory.

If (and it's a big "if") the comic sells more issues when it's got toys attached, then those buying it are doing so for the toys and not the comic itself. That's no way for a comic company to pitch its business, because it's essentially an admission that a comic isn't good enough to attract readers on its own merits.

It also leads to another problem: Because many of these "gifts" get nicked, some newsagents place them on higher shelves, out of the reach - and sight - of the children they're aimed at. If they can't see them, they won't buy them - and if the toy is missing (having been stolen), they'll give it a miss for that reason also.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: It's time DCT made up its mind whether it's in the comic business or the lucky bag business. The Christmas Beano and Dandy were practically a fiver each - all because they had a few cheap, useless toys attached. Nearly a fiver for The Beano? Give me a break! (The actual price was £3.99 - close enough.)

Having said that, The Beano at its normal price still represents fairly good value for money, and is a much more attractive proposition than its sister title, The Dandy. However, DCT really needs to get its act together and come up with a consistent way of pitching the comic to the public.

For any sales it may gain with "gift" issues in the short term, in the long term it probably disillusions some regular purchasers and gives them a convenient "jumping off" point. As circulation declines, the price will have to increase, serving only to drive away remaining readers over time. It's a vicious circle, and one that needs to be broken.

Let's hope they've got something up their sleeve - something that isn't going to lead to yet another price increase that is.

WHEN BATMAN WORE WELLINGTON BOOTS...

2012-02-15T17:01:00.032Z

What a difference four or five years makes. I had just turned eight years old when JOHN FIDLER, who lived a couple of doors along from me, got

a CORGI TOYS

BATMOBILE for Christmas in 1966. I coveted it greatly, but for some curious reason, never got around to buying one until my birthday in 1970 or '71 when I was twelve or thirteen.

Nowadays that would doubtless be considered too old to be buying
die-cast toy cars, but back then, twelve or thirteen year old boys were a totally different bag of spiders to what they are now. More innocent, not quite so eager to grow up, etc. Well, at least, that's the way it seems to me through the mist-enshrouded maze of memory whenever I revisit my past. And yes, Summers were longer and it snowed every Christmas. (You can dispute it as much as you like - I prefer my version.)

John Fidler was younger than me by a couple of years and, consequently, smaller. When we played at BATMAN & ROBIN, I naturally took the lead while John was relegated to the position of 'teenage' sidekick (even 'though he was only about five or six).

In my homemade Batman costume (a pair of blue or purple swimming trunks pulled over my corduroy trousers, brown gloves, a black raincoat with the sleeves pulled outside in, a Batman badge on my jumper, a Batman mask bought from a shop - oh, and a pair of wellies) I cut an impressive figure. (In my head anyway.) For my utility belt, I tied some dangly, strappy portion of my father's wartime morse-code apparatus around my waist - I was nothing if not resourceful. (Trust me - it looked the part.)

John wore a domino mask with his mother's lemony silk headscarf tied 'round his shoulders. He cut a less impressive dash in my opinion, but he was only the sidekick remember. Sidekicks aren't permitted to upstage the main hero, and that was me - by dint of being older and bigger and more oblivious to making a t*t of myself by running around in a homemade Batsuit.

My "official" mask was like a black plastic bag with half of one side cut away to reveal the lower face, and eyeholes to allow anyone daft enough to wear it to see all those who were laughing at them. The idea was that, when you pulled it over your head, the corners would stick up like the bat-ears on ADAM WEST's headgear, enabling you to strike fear and dread into the hearts of criminals, who, as we all know, are "a superstitious, cowardly lot".

Unfortunately, the corners tended to stick out rather than up, somewhat negating the desired effect and only managing to strike mirth and merriment into the hearts of amused observers as they fell about with laughter. Undeterred, however, me and John soldiered on, and we must've milked being the caped-crusaders of our neighbourhood for almost as long as the TV show was on telly to inspire us in our dashing deeds of derring-do.

Then, alas, as is the way of things, we eventually grew up. I moved to another area in 1972 and only saw John in passing and from a distance over the next few years. Imagine my surprise (and annoyance) when I ran into John in adulthood, only to find that he'd grown at least half-a-head taller than me. I realised with great sadness that, if we ever decided to reprise our Batman & Robin roles (unlikely as it was), he'd be the "main man" and I'd have to wear his mother's poofy silk lemon headscarf. Life can sometimes be so cruel.

Anyway, John and I reminisced and laughed about our boyhood exploits for a while and then went our separate ways. It must be close to thirty years since I last saw him, although it seems like only yesterday, cliched as that may sound. Where does the time go? In fact, where did John go, for me not to have seen him since?

Sometime back in 1991,
in a fit of nostalgia, I reacquired (at great expense) a mint and boxed 1966 Corgi Toys Batmobile from a shop in Edinburgh. Whenever I look at it, I'm once again running around my old neighbourhood with my boyhood chum by my side, with no thought for the morrow and unmindful of what the passing years may bring.

"To the Batpoles, Robin!"

LEGENDARY ARTIST JOHN SEVERIN DIES AT 90...

2012-02-14T18:12:00.012Z

John Severin

BOOKSTEVE has reported the death of legendary artist JOHN SEVERIN. Click on the link to read what Steve has written:

http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2012/02/rip-john-severin.html

MARK EVANIER also has an interesting post about John at the following link:

http://newsfromme.com/2012/02/14/john-severin-r-i-p/

******

As for myself, I probably first saw JOHN SEVERIN's work back in the '60s on NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D., reprinted in the pages of a British comic called POW! John inked JACK KIRBY's pencils and, as with everyone whose art he embellished, made something that was great even greater still. He did the same with HERBE TRIMPE's pencils on THE INCREDIBLE HULK in the '70s, and also his sister MARIE's work on KULL THE CONQUEROR in the same decade.

John was no "mere" inker however, and was a penciller par excellence himself. He worked on such titles as TWO-FISTED TALES, and FRONTLINE COMBAT for EC COMICS, as well as various western titles for ATLAS/TIMELY/MARVEL. He also contributed (for 45 years) to CRACKED, a satirical magazine very much in the style of MAD, on which he had been one of the founding cartoonists when it first hit the stands back in 1952.

Definitely one of the greats, who will certainly be remembered for many years to come.

RAMBLING REMINISCENCES...

2012-02-14T14:11:00.010Z

King's Reach Tower in Stamford Street

Talking about KING'S REACH TOWER reminds me of when myself and the previously-mentioned KEVIN BRIGHTON were getting into the elevator on the way down to (or the way back from) the seemingly football pitch-sized IPC staff canteen. (No doubt I exaggerate, but it was bloody huge.) As we stepped into the lift, it was so full that there was only room for us to stand facing in the way as the doors closed behind us.

So, we're face to face with a bunch of people blankly staring out at
us, while we self-consciously stand staring back. It was too good an
opportunity to miss. I raised my hand to my mouth and cleared my throat, then said: "I suppose you're all wondering why I've called this meeting..."
A split-second's silence while the penny dropped, then the elevator erupted into laughter.

Kevin Brighton and his pal Del in the IPC canteen

I've used that line a number of times over the years in similar situations and it always gets a response. Casting my mind back, I even remember who I stole it from. It was around the mid-'70s and a fellow called JOHN HATTLE, who was my boss at the time, was relating pretty much the same scenario as the one above (with himself as the protagonist, obviously), in the car park outside a pub along from his shop where I worked. I don't know if he'd appropriated it from a movie for his own purposes, or it was a genuine 'ad-lib' thought up on the spot as he stepped into a lift. Anyway, there I was, ten years later (although it seemed much longer at the time), reguritating a one-liner from my past. Truth to tell, that wasn't even the first time I'd used the line, having done so a few times since I'd first heard it.

However, recalling the situation today, it made me realise how often we store things away in our minds, sometimes for decades, ready for use at a moment's notice whenever the situation demands. As someone who sometimes sports a beard, I'm used to people commenting on it when I grow it back again, usually along the lines of: "I see you've grown the beard back, eh?" (I guess they must lead really boring lives for such an event to be considered worth remarking upon.) I usually respond with: "This one's false - the real one's in my pocket!" It was only when watching a MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. 'movie' a while back that I was reminded of where I'd nicked the line from, so many years before.

A post this dull needs glamming-up a bit, so here's Bob Paynter's secretary, Caroline

Back in 1982, I sent a 'cassette-a-letter' to a friend who was temporarily living in Bournemouth at the time. We replayed it about a week ago (to much merriment at the sound of my young voice) and I was surprised to hear myself tell a joke I'd only then-recently heard, and which I still tell today, thirty years later. It made me realise how many of the jokes I tell nowadays are of a similar vintage. (Note to self: Must learn some new material.)

So what's the point of this self-indulgent reminiscence you may be asking yourselves. Only this:

We really are products of our past, aren't we?

******

Sadly, King's Reach Tower has been lying empty for a few years since IPC Media moved out in 2007. I understand there are now plans to add six floors, reclad the exterior, and turn it into luxury apartments. I'll always remember it as it was 'though.

STEVE THE MIGHTY STEPS DOWN...

2012-02-13T20:11:00.023Z

I see that STEVE MacMANUS, one of the better editors at IPC's YOUTH GROUP Division until the infamous ROBERT MAXWELL bought it over, stepped down last year from his position as Managing Editor at EGMONT, after a career spanning thirty-seven or so years in publishing. (Yes, it's old news, but I've only just heard. I wonder if he got my last Christmas card?)

Steve was the fellow who gave me my big break at a comic mart in the MOIR HALL at the MITCHELL THEATRE in Glasgow on October 20th, 1984. (So blame him.) I well remember my subsequent trips to London to the IPC offices at KING'S REACH TOWER in Stamford Street, and sitting chatting to Steve one sunny lunchtime in the garden of a cheery wee pub just up the road from IRWIN HOUSE, where the Youth Group had been relocated to in preparation for the sale to Maxwell. If I remember correctly, art assistant KEVIN BRIGHTON was also there.

I may have told this tale before, but Steve, Kevin, and myself were standing looking out of a window on the 26th floor of KRT one afternoon (previous to the one above) in 1986, when I asked him what 2000 A.D. might be called in the year 2000. He did a good job of hiding his boredom at hearing a question he'd no doubt been asked hundreds of times before and said something like: "Well, that's fourteen years away, Gordon - we don't have to worry about it 'til then." And, truth to tell, it seemed an eternity away at the time.

It's a scary thought to realise that 2000 is now twelve years ago, and that moment on the 26th floor of King's Reach Tower is a whopping twenty-six years in the past. (Almost half my life away.) I just can't get my head 'round it - it only seems like a week or two back.

Strangely enough, CRISIS, a 2000 A.D. spin-off, was printed in my home town in 1988, and I remember Steve coming up to watch the first issues rolling off the presses, and graciously allowing me to accompany him to share in the occasion. This would've been the final time I saw Steve in person, as I stopped going down to London in December of '87, but I still spoke to him on the 'phone from time to time for a few years after that.

So, if it hadn't been for ol' Stevie Mac, I might never have had a career in comics for as long as I did. (Fifteen years.) Just think - he has to live with the guilt of inflicting me on the comics' world.

Here's to Steve, and let's hope he goes on to even greater things from here on in.

******

See http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2011/01/magical-memories-of-time-long-past.html for my reminiscences of those early days.

PARALLEL LIVES...

2012-02-13T08:10:00.022Z

I sometimes feel that I've lived at least two different lives - and it's all down to reprints of certain MARVEL COMICS making an impression on me at various stages when I was growing up. There are myriad examples I could mention, but I'll restrict myself mainly to one for the moment, that being the back-up tale in SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY #7.

As related in an earlier post, I bought a copy of FANTASTIC #7 back in March 1967, probably around mid-week. I never forgot the comic and the stories therein, and whenever I look at the comic nowadays, I'm back in the house I lived in at the time and still going to primary school just down the road from me. Time travel, pure and simple.

Fast-forward to another house, almost six years later to the very day. (FANTASTIC was cover-dated ahead to April 1st, but as I said, I got my copy halfway through the last week in March, more or less.)
SMCW was dated ahead to March 31st, but - for some strange reason - never appeared in my local newsagent 'til the Wednesday after the Saturday it was due. That was when I bought it, on the Wednesday. Funny how some things stick in one's mind.

Just like Fantastic #7, it also contained THE MIGHTY THOR tale, "THE THUNDER GOD AND THE THUG!" (Unlike Fantastic, it printed the full story, not just the first half.) I was only fourteen at the time SMCW #7 came out, so six years was almost half my life away. It was certainly more than half my remembered life, so proportionately it seemed far longer than the same period would seem to me today. (Six years nowadays seems roughly the equivalent of a fortnight back then.)

SMCW trimmed the panels of the stories they featured, and
because of that and the two-tone grey on some pages, plus the red spot-colour on others, the strips
had an individual aspect that
distinguished them from previous incarnations. That's probably why, today, I can look at the Thor adventure in Fantastic and immediately recall that particular time back in 1967, and look at the same story in SMCW and be reminded of that halcyon period back in 1973.

Each printing has its own distinct identity, enabling me to associate it with two separate times in my life. That would explain why, depending on what presentation of the tale I'm looking at, it sometimes feel as if I've lived two different, but parallel lives around it, daft as it may sound.

As I said earlier, there are other Marvel stories that have the same effect on me. The FANTASTIC FOUR tale, "KURRGO, MASTER OF PLANET X!" also has two sets of memories associated with it. When I look at the reprints of the story in WHAM! from 1967, all sorts of images pertaining to the time swirl through my head, and when I look at its later printing in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL from 1972/'73, a whole set of different images and recollections spring forth. Same story, two sets of memories, two different eras. It snaps my cap.

Now, will somebody please tell me they know what the hell I'm talking about.

INTERNET NEDS (AND LIARS) - THE SEQUEL...

2012-02-12T20:44:00.027Z

I am advised that, over on the pages of his own blog, a certain disgruntled, huffy teenager with an axe to grind is still peddling his disingenuous version of the events behind me taking him to task for his impertinence.
If you're not already aware of the background, read the full story on
http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-deal-with-internet-neds.html
- and then consider the following piece of nonsense:

Okay , so I read the critic mention above's response. He's now stereotyping me, stating I'm a noisy, spotty little teenager who stands on street corners yelling at everyone who walks past.

The point I was making was that teenagers who use the internet for hurling abuse at people are the technological equivalent of those spotty neds who stand on street corners shouting at pensioners (hardly "everyone"). He is noisy (insists on trying to "shout down" adults on his blog), he definitely is a teenager, and if he isn't a spotty one then he's a biological phenomenon.
The fact that he's still banging on his pet drum proves my point, I'd say. He goes on to say:

He also stated that it's okay to talk on a public forum, but I sent him a friend request on a different website, and "that's just creepy".

Once more this person, with scant regard for the truth, disingenuously distorts the facts of the matter. Here are my actual words:

Now, I don't know about you, but I think it's distinctly creepy for anyone around a certain age to be swapping private emails with teenaged strangers...

In other words, nothing wrong with a kid sending a "friends request", but that's a different thing from an adult accepting it. He has presented his own version of my words as if he's quoting me, which is just plain dishonest. He also says he sent requests to 100 of the members, which suggests to me that's he's a bit too desperate to wheedle his way in with people. Obviously a bit of a groupie, wanting to hang out with the guys - most of whom are older than him by a wide margin. Talk about irritating teenage sidekicks, eh? I never could understand why Captain America or the Avengers simply didn't tell Rick Jones to feck off.

Following on from his above comment, he had this to say:

Ok, but this friend request he speaks of was not on a site like facebook, but on a public forum...

He neglects to mention the fact that he had already contacted me privately on my email address, which I subsequently removed from my blog's profile. Also, as far as I understand it, the "public forum" (a site about comics) he refers to permits private communications between "friends", which is why I ignored his request.

It's obvious that he's simply trying to ingratiate himself with as many comics professionals (past and present) as he can, in order to bathe in their reflected glory by being able to claim them as "friends". I'm simply not interested in indulging people like that. My ego doesn't need it. He goes on to mis-state the facts thus:

...my original post was more aimed at the hate pages, and I was simply asking that people stop arguing.

Nope, it was more than that. It was a one-sided attack on those who weren't fans of his artistic heroes, with no mention of the hate-filled comments that have also been directed at those who don't necessarily agree with his assessment of his idols' abilities. He presented it as if only artists who worked for The Dandy had been subjected to abuse. It wasn't balanced, it wasn't accurate, and it was designed only to impress the artists in question with a public display of unwavering, squirmingly-embarrassing declaration of loyalty and hero-worship, regardless of any concern for the facts.

In response to my comment that The Dandy couldn't afford me, he facetiously asks how I know. Simple: I know what I'm worth and I know what they pay. I'll refrain from revealing what a Dandy artist gets for writing and drawing a page (far less than I could earn for a few hours lettering more than twenty years ago) because it's nobody's business but theirs. He then refers to my comment, below:

At first he appeared to be apologetic [in the form of two more messages, which I ignored, to my private email address, obtained before deletion from my blog], but then , in a sudden twist, he went on the offensive..."

Amazingly, despite me having already revealed the circumstances behind this comment - he ignores them to reiterate the lie which prompted my remark in the first place. This is what he says:

Why did I do that? Because I was originally going to leave it at that, but then you started saying nasty comments about me, so I reacted.

An absolute, complete, total, and utter lie. First of all, any comments I made (and which were far from nasty) were on my own blog (in the comments section) and in direct response to rude and abusive comments already made by this individual on other sites. His initial ire comes from me calling him a kid and saying that he shouldn't be involving himself in adult disputes, and that perhaps his parents should monitor his internet activities more closely.

Simply put, nothing more than the measly-mouthings of an obnoxious teenager with a chip on his shoulder who doesn't like being called what he is - a kid.

And a bloody whining, cheeky, dishonest one at that.

(Incidentally, his claim that he's not responding to the rest of my post because he never read it is yet another porky. Simply put, he can't
dispute the truth of it without resorting to a whole load of other lies.)

BARRY SMITH'S THOR...

2012-02-11T01:38:00.004Z

BARRY WINDSOR SMITH, when he was just plain ol' Barry Smith back in 1968, drew this back-page POWER HOUSE PIN-UP for FANTASTIC #50. He would only have been around eighteen years old at the time. To be honest, some of the pin-ups in Fantastic were awful, so if young Barry was responsible for them, he really had progressed in leaps and bounds by the time he started drawing CONAN THE BARBARIAN in 1970.

In 1973, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY #16 printed the pin-up, below, of THE MIGHTY THOR, sourced from an issue of THE AVENGERS, probably, or perhaps even Thor's own comic. One can see the KIRBY influence at once of course, but it's none-the-less effective for that.

I always regarded THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL and SMCW as official replacements for Fantastic and TERRIFIC, so it's kind of fitting that pin-ups of Thor by Barry appeared on the back pages of comics by both publishers, ODHAMS PRESS and MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT, LTD., the latter being the parent company of MARVEL COMICS GROUP at the time.

You've got to hand it to him - didn't the boy do well? (Although it's a shame ol' Goldilock's nostrils seem to have gone walkabout at the printing stage in that second pin-up.)

THE MIGHTY WORLD OF YESTERDAY...

2012-02-09T13:59:00.003Z

They say that when you're dying, your life flashes before your eyes - but there's a less drastic (and not so final) way to achieve the same effect. Simply flick through the pages of the comics you got as a kid and you'll find yourself transported back in time to when you first acquired them, with such clarity that you not only remember the past, but can see, feel, smell and taste it as well.

Such is the case with THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #51. Look at the cover. See the stars twinkling in the night sky? One look, and I vividly recall the September evening when myself and one of my pals found ourselves crawling over the slated rooftops of a centuries-old public house in search of adventure. I can remember the sudden thrill when, underneath us, someone suddenly emerged from the backdoor of the bar to obtain a fresh keg, while we hugged the roof and hoped that they wouldn't glance upwards. Surely 'twas the exact same stars that shone down on us that night as sparkled from the cover of this comic from childhood, which I had bought the selfsame morning in 1973?

Looking again at an old comic is much like rereading a half-forgotten diary entry, in as much that it invigorates the memory and spans the bridge between past and present, allowing us - for however brief a period - to revisit times and places from so very long ago.

"I USED TO BE...HUMAN!"

2012-02-09T02:13:00.004Z

This is a 'luverly' little story by STAN LEE and STEVE DITKO, reprinted in FANTASTIC Annual 1968. (Originally published in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #92.) I remember redrawing the splash page out in my back garden one day, with the intention of copying the whole strip - can't remember if I ever finished it all 'though. As was the custom with British reprints, the credits were deleted and a few words were altered, such as "Good Lord!" to "Goodness!", and "thru" to "through", etc. Can't have lickle kiddies picking up blasphemous oaths from their comics, can we?

Anyway, let's forego the customary waffle from me and get straight into the story.

DEFINITION OF AN EDITOR - SOMEONE WHO WANDERED IN OUT OF THE RAIN AND FELL INTO A JOB...

2012-02-08T04:52:00.031Z

Right, now that I've got your attention with that provocative title, let's talk about editors. Editors, like everything else on this planet, come in all shapes and sizes. Good, bad and indifferent. I've worked for some really good editors in my time, but I've also worked for some total incompetents. The incompetents make for a much more interesting study, so let's focus on them.

Some of the incompetents may actually be quite proficient in ensuring that the whole process of comics production runs smoothly, and that the finished result arrives at the printers when it's due with as few hiccups along the way as possible. In short, they're good traffic managers. However, that doesn't mean that they have any particular skills for editing a comic, in the sense of choosing good writers and artists, matching the most suitable ones together, and catching mistakes - whether it be of spelling, punctuation or grammar. Some editors I've experienced over the years have been diabolically deficient in some or all of those departments.

Let me now tell you of such a tale which demonstrates the truth of the above. I was once approached by an editor about whether I might be available to letter a Holiday Special featuring HANNA-BARBERA characters. I was busy at the time, but mindful of the fact that I might have a quiet period in the future, I enquired about the possibility of it leading to regular work. "We have quite a few upcoming projects," I was told, "so there's bound to be something we can send your way."

I therefore acceded to lettering the proffered project and duly received stats of the artwork. There were three stories which required my tender attentions: THE FLINTSTONES, SCOOBY DOO & YOGI BEAR. These strips had originated as English-language tales, and then been translated into Spanish or Italian for the foreign market. Presumably, the English versions were not readily available, necessitating the foreign editions being retranslated back into our mother-tongue to make them suitable for UK distribution.

The editor happened to speak whatever foreign tongue the strips were in and had enclosed a script of the English equivalent. As most bi or multi-lingual speakers will appreciate, when one language is directly-translated into another, adjustments are required to accommodate the rhythm and phraseology of the latter, otherwise the result tends to be stiff and stilted. In other words, a verbatim translation might read: "The butter pass me please!", instead of the more natural "Please pass me the butter!". While the result was not quite so bad in this particular editor's case, it wasn't too far removed in a number of instances.

What was even worse, however, was that she seemed completely unfamiliar with the Hanna-Barbera characters, which one would have thought a prerequisite for her position. For example: RANGER SMITH was called WARDEN SMITH, PICNIC BASKETS were referred to as LUNCHEON HAMPERS, and I remember seeing another issue in which the TOWN OF BEDROCK was rendered as ROCK CITY. (In the Yogi Bear story, the veterinary surgeon's hut originally had a doctor's sign outside.) Going from back issues, this sort of thing was a regular occurrence, made all the worse by the fact that the finished strips were submitted to HB representatives for approval before publication. (Who, it would seem, were also sound asleep at the wheel.)

On top of that, 'though, the dialogue and captions were just a statement of what was clearly evident in the individual pictures, while at the same time (in one particular story) suggesting an overall plot that wasn't in line with anything portrayed in them. So, if a character was running away, for example, someone would be stating the obvious: "Look, he's running away!", while someone else would be saying something like: "He doesn't want his picture taken!", even if there was no one in sight holding a camera. What was the worst crime of all, however, was that no one ever said anything even remotely humorous.

Being conscientious, I 'phoned the editor and described to her the obvious problems with the scripts, and asked her for permission to address them and to add a little humour. She grudgingly acquiesed, recognising that I was correct, but with her nose put out of joint by me noticing flaws which had escaped her attention. The first story (Flintstones), I amended by about 60%, the second (Scooby Doo) by about 85%, and the third (Yogi Bear) by about 95%. All this extra time and effort I gave for free, my chief concern being only that the stories made sense and were as entertaining as possible.

I also took the time to letter some suitable story titles for the splash pages (they ruined the Flinstone's one by not adding colour), and photocopied established character mastheads from some of my old Hanna-Barbera annuals so that the stories would look as 'authentic' as possible. I doubt that anyone ever lavished as much attention on any of the previous specials as I had with this one. The finished result certainly looked far better than those which had preceded it. After finishing a few pages I noticed another problem, so I then started taking special care to make the
new lettering accommodate the speech balloons as closely as possible, without them looking too big (or small) for the enclosed dialogue. (Which
was often a feature of pre-computer relettering on translated strips.)

Some months after publication, I 'phoned her again to enquire about some courtesy copies she had promised to send which I hadn't received, and to ask if she might have any regular work for me yet. She said she had sent the copies (which, going by her tone, I doubt) and frostily denied ever having suggested that she might send me other work. Yet another example of an editor saying whatever was expedient in order to secure the services of some trusting freelancer, only to discard them when they were no longer required to meet a deadline and save their bacon.

Would it have been better for me to have said nothing and just turned in a patently inferior product? Perhaps, but I felt duty-bound to question the various inconsistencies purely from a desire to make the job as good as it could be, not to show off in some way. Had she dismissed my concerns and asked me to do it as it was, I would have, but she had acknowledged that my reservations had merit. Because of my desire to do the best job possible rather than just 'phone it in', I had made her look more efficient and competent than she actually was.

Trust me, some editors are absolutely bloody useless - but I'll keep their names to myself. And if there's anybody out there who isn't as annoyed by this sort of thing as I am, then I'm a Dutchman.

(This is Kid Van Der Valk signing off.)

I should perhaps add that anything even remotely resembling humour in any of the above pages was dialogued by myself.

PART THREE OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

2012-02-07T03:23:00.016Z

I don't want to give anyone the impression that I was an overly-sickly child when I was a lad, but I'm struck by how many comics I associate with times I was off school and ill in bed. To be honest, usually my ailment consisted of nothing more than being sick of school and fancying a bit of a break, but, occasionally, I was actually

suffering from some life-threatening illness like a mild cold or a dose of diarrhoea. Sometimes I could even milk a slightly higher temperature and a headache for all they were worth.

It was the morning of my eleventh birthday, and my fate had just been decided. Because I was feeling 'off-colour', I didn't have to go to school that day ("Hooray!"), so I sat up in bed and allowed myself to be nourished by frequent administrations of American cream soda and a lunchtime bowl of tomato soup. I was surrounded by a plethora of comics, three of which I particularly remember, being the following: THE MIGHTY THOR #158, MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6, and that week's issue of WHIZZER & CHIPS.

Funnily enough, although I primarily recall these comics from that particular day, I had acquired the two Marvel publications perhaps a week or two before and can still remember buying them. However, I tend to associate them mainly

with my birthday because, in my eagerness to distract myself from my bedridden tedium, I completely immersed myself in their four-colour pages. This no doubt accounts for why the

issues and the day made more of an impression on me than would normally be the case. Anyway, someday we'll get around to looking at MCIC #6 in more detail, but for the moment let's focus on Thor #158.

"THE WAY IT WAS!" proclaims the splash page, and that's precisely what it delivers - a look back at how Thor The Mighty (as he was originally referred to) came to be. Ol' Goldilocks' origin from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83 is re-presented, with some small alterations to its splash to accommodate a flashback scenario. If you compare DON BLAKE's arm in the far-right bottom picture with its original printing, you'll see that it has been extended outwards to accentuate the appearance of his limp.

Interestingly, when Marvel first released their MASTERWORKS editions, they recreated the splash page of Thor's debut from proofs of this reprint (as well as utilising the rest of the pages) because they had apparently mislaid proofs of the original printing. Although a better-quality source has since turned up (which can be seen in the OMNIBUS and one or two other volumes), the inferior version still surfaces from time to time.

I remember my father reading this comic after me, and expressing his disappointment that it was a continued story. I don't think he ever found out what had happened to the 'real' Thor - mainly because I never bothered to tell him when I read the concluding part of the tale reprinted in SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY around 1975. I doubt he would have remembered ever having seen the cliff-hanger ending to the first instalment by then anyway.

So there you have it! I'll reveal the answer as unfolded in Thor # 159 another time. I had to wait about sixteen or seventeen years before I acquired the original American issue, so a few weeks or months of suspense isn't going to kill you.

See Part 2 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-comics-of-pastpart-two.html

See Part 4 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/03/part-four-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html

IS THE 'ART' BEING TAKEN OUT OF COMICS?

2012-02-06T12:09:00.022Z

Front page of hand-lettered promotional leaflet. (Address & 'phone number removed)

As regular readers of this humble blog should know by now (all four of them), your fearless host has never been one to avoid subjects of a controversial nature. So, let's once more leap into the fray and tackle the topic of the role in computers in comics, and whether they've taken some of the 'art' out of the process of producing them. With that subject very much in mind, I once asked a computer-colourist if he'd be able to colour a comic the traditional way, by hand. "No!", was his short and honest answer. Apparently, he didn't think he had sufficient ability and was therefore dependent on technology to enable him to make his comic contributions.

Technology has taken over in other areas too. Lettering, for example. Most comics nowadays are lettered by recourse to computer fonts, enabling practically anyone who can type (and that means just about everyone) to overlay speech-balloons, text panels, sound effects and logos onto a standard comics page. All of which most of them would be unable to produce by their own hand to a satisfactory professional level.

From the reader's point of view I don't suppose it much matters as long as it's done well, although, for myself, I find all those perfectly elliptical balloon shapes kind of tedious. I much prefer the spontaneity of hand-lettering (again, when it's done well), because it allows the lettering artist to accommodate the artist's layout in a much more personal and custom-made manner than computer fonts allow for.

When I used to earn my full-time living from lettering (mainly), many years ago now, I used to take great delight in making speech-balloons fit in spaces that one would think had no room for them, and to do it in a way that didn't seem forced and awkward-looking. For the most part I succeeded, and obtained immense satisfaction from making a page look as if the art and lettering were an 'organic' whole. I find that a lot of computer-lettering doesn't look as if it's part of the artwork, but rather some 'disembodied' shape that floats above each panel of a page.

Photo of promotional leaflet's centre-page spread of hand-lettered logos

A couple of years or so back, I briefly considered returning to comics and had a go at computer-lettering with some fonts someone lent me, just to see what the process was like. How mind-numbingly tedious it was compared to the actual thrill of handling an original page of art and affixing one's lettering, either directly onto the page or an acetate overlay (for colour work) in such a way as to make it a 'finished' piece. I soon abandoned the exercise as it afforded me not the slightest iota of creative satisfaction. I felt like nothing more than an office secretary. (Which is fine if that's what you want to be.)

I should perhaps make it clear that I have no problem with genuine hand-letterers putting their fonts onto a computer programme and going down that route. After all, these guys have been in the trenches and earned their stripes; anything that makes their job a little quicker or easier is not something I'm going to grudge them. Legendary 2000 AD calligrapher TOM FRAME eventually resorted to computer-lettering (I believe his deteriorating eyesight made it increasingly difficult for him to continue in the 'old-fashioned' way), but he had more than earned the right to do so, and it was his own lettering style he utilised.

It does niggle me however, when I see some of the newer people credited as letterers when they should more properly be listed as typographers - or in some cases, just plain typists. After all, they couldn't letter a page by hand if their lives depended on it.

If you can't play the game, then don't wear the name. 'Nuff said.

(Agree or disagree? Feel free to let me know, but try and do it without cussing at me. You know how sensitive I can be.)

Back page of hand-lettered promotional leaflet

PART TWO OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

2012-02-06T00:13:00.013Z

And here's another little belter of a comic from out of the dim and distant, fog-enshrouded mists of time. Actually, that last part's a lie - because I remember having my original copy of this comic as if it were only...well, not quite yesterday, but last week at least. That's due to the fact that, not too long after acquiring it, I was ill and confined to my bed for a day or two, and I remember rereading the comic tucked up in bed with only a bedside light to illuminate my literary pursuits. Feeling slightly better after finishing #143 of THE MIGHTY THOR's Asgardian adventures, I got out of bed with the intention of going downstairs to the bosom of my family. My brother assisted me, but I took a sudden dizzy turn at the top of the stairs and had to be returned to a horizontal position under the warm, cozy, enveloping blankets I had just abandoned mere moments before. No wonder the issue is burned into my memory - who would ever forget a night like that?

Something else I remember about this comic is that it was reprinted in SMASH! at 'round about the same time as I obtained the American original, and I remember comparing the different layout of the story in the British weekly to its US parent. (The MARVEL reprints were resized, two pages to one, for their UK appearance in what was the last remaining POWER COMIC from ODHAMS PRESS.) One thing I learned in subsequent years is that VINCE COLLETTA
had started to ink this issue, but for reasons of illness, or being needed on another comic with a more immediate deadline perhaps, BILL EVERETT took over the embellishing chores. If you look really carefully at the splash page, you can see the mix of the two artistic legends' different styles.

This story was eventually reprinted in ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS in 1974, and when I finally got my hands on a copy soon after it was first made available to the British reading public in '75, I was overjoyed to once again see this fondly-recalled friend from my boyhood. True, only about six years or so had passed since I had owned the original comicbook, but that was over one third of my life away at that point and consequently seemed much longer than the same period of time would likely appear to me nowadays. (All to do with proportions I guess.)

The scans you see on this page come from a copy I obtained more years ago than I care to remember, (Or am actually able to, in fact.) It's certainly close to half my life away anyway. I only have to look at the cover and I'm back in my bedroom in Belmont once again, reading the comic by the soft light of a lamp, with the outline of the room's furnishings faintly visible, as they stand guard in the gloom beyond. One look, and I'm a child once more. (So much for the comment of one cheeky young internet critic who said that my childhood was long behind me; the truth is, It's never truly left me. It's probably the same for all of us.)

Anyway, feel free to forget my self-indulgent waffle - just so long as you enjoy the scans herewith presented and are perhaps reminded of your own first, long-ago encounter with this cataclysmic comic, then I can savour the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.

Altogether now: "For Odin, for Asgard!"

******

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-three-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html

See Part 1 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-comics-of-past.html

FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST - PART ONE...

2012-02-05T13:14:00.036Z

A comic I well-remember buying back in the '60s (and which I re-acquired many years ago) is DAREDEVIL #53, entitled "AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING..." As you can most likely guess by the title (and if you can't, then take two demerits), it's a re-telling of ol' Hornhead's origin, drawn by Genial GENE COLAN and Gallopin' GEORGE KLEIN, with most of Smilin' STAN LEE's original dialogue (or paraphrasing of), book-ended by some new exposition by Rascally ROY THOMAS.

Apart from seeing Daredevil in his original red and yellow togs again (a colour scheme which I've always preferred, despite the all-red apparel being more suited to the character's devilish demeanour), one of the things that appealled to me about this issue was the snow-covered rooftop setting of the present-day aspects of the story, as MATT MURDOCH, in his superhero outfit, reminisces about how he first became the crime-fighting nemesis of evil known to friends and foes alike as THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR!

It seems to me, if my recollective faculty is functioning properly, that I purchased this periodical (the shop from where I bought it still exists) at a time when the snow likewise
lay 'round about (but not quite so deep and crisp and even) on the ground of my own little part of the world in the Cimmerian-like wastes of Caledonia.

Perhaps, 'though, the old memory is playing tricks, and it's simply the case that the comic's wintry scenes are so evocative - and made such an impression on my young psyke at the time - that my mind has rewritten the past to accommodate the story's setting. (Sometimes the way we remember things is far better than the way they actually happened, I'm sure you'll agree.)

Who can know for sure? And does anyone apart from me actually care one way or another? (The answer is undoubtedly "No!") For myself, however, I prefer to think that the atmospheric ambience of the comic coincided with my own part of the country's then-current climatic conditions, thus enabling me to imagine that the events of the four-colour terrific tale
transpired at the same time and in the same world as the one I happened to inhabit.

Anyway...trust me, it's a comic well-worth having in your collection.

Another favourite comic of the past coming soon. Don't dare miss it!

See Part 2 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/favourite-comics-of-pastpart-two.html

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-three-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html

CONAN THE CANCELLED...

2012-02-04T07:32:00.008Z

You're looking at maybe the shortest-running British comic ever printed! IPC's THUNDER lasted twenty-two issues back in the '70s, JET held on for twenty-one, and, in the mid-'80s, SCREAM! disappeared after fifteen. No doubt there are quite a few examples of other comics that didn't survive too long, but I'm wondering if there was ever one that lasted less than the three-issue, fortnightly, CONAN THE ADVENTURER in 1994. That's a mere month before it stumbled to a halt.

I believe it was meant as a tie-in to a TV cartoon of the same name, which accounts for the classic BARRY SMITH Conan The Barbarian reprints being retitled to match, but the comic obviously just never sold. I've no idea if the cartoon series was any more popular with TV viewers in the UK, but I suspect not, otherwise the comic would doubtless have been more successful.

Note that on issue #3's cover, it only says Conan, the rest of the logo having disappeared. An oversight or deliberate? Who knows? Not me for sure. Anyway, enjoy feasting your eyes on the covers and splash pages of one of the shortest comic runs in history - Conan The Cancelled!

Remember to click on images to enlarge (it's well worth it), then click again for optimum size. By Crom!