MAD COMIC COVER GALLERY OMNIBUS...

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As most of you crazy Crivvies will already know, Mad started out as an ordinary comicbook for its first 23 issues, before metamorphosing into a magazine format.  You'll have seen these covers before in a four part cover gallery I did a few years back, but I thought it would be handy to re-present them in an omnibus post so that they're all in one place.  Enjoy refreshing your memories.

Oh, go on then.  Below is what the first magazine version's cover looked like.

The LEGEND Of LOBEY DOSSER...

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In Glasgow's leafy Woodlands Road sits a statue of three Scottish legends; namely Lobey Dosser, his horse El Fideldo, and bad boy villain Rank Bajin.  Every Glaswegian of a certain age will doubtless have heard of Lobey, even if they've never read any of his cartoon strips.  That's because the appellation is used to describe anyone of a dishevelled appearance seemingly of no fixed address.  Apparently the name originated from homeless transients who'd sleep (doss down) in a tenement's 'lobby' when they had nowhere better to stay.

So it would seem that the name existed before Bud Neill, a Scottish cartoonist and poet, appropriated it for the star of his comic strip which was a huge hit in its day.  It could be slightly surreal at times, but was always funny - as I discovered only recently when I acquired the two collected editions on view in this post.  Of course, I'd heard of Lobey decades ago, but was unaware that these two books existed, the first of which I acquired in a charity shop and the second via eBay.  Thank goodness I did, as I haven't stopped chuckling over them since.

I don't want to spoil you, so I'll show you just one example from the contents (after the covers).  Even if you're not a Glaswegian, you're bound to enjoy Bud Neill's comic creation, though this small sample presented here can hardly do it justice.  For more info on Bud, read the back cover below.  (Click to enlarge.)

Below is the statue in Woodlands Road, across from which (and along a bit) was the late Neil Craig's comics shop by the name of Futureshock.

FOURTEENTH & FINAL PART OF SECRET ORIGINS COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

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Okay, so let's get it out of the way.  Here we are at last, with the long-awaited (cough) final part of an almost 8-and-a-half years odyssey through the covers and various interior images of the 50-ish Secret Origins series from around the late 1980s and early '90s.  We saw the last regular mag in the previous gallery instalment - this time around it's Annuals, Specials, and Giants just to complete the set.

Actually, Weird Secret Origins doesn't really belong here as it's a reprint issue published in 2004, a few years after the Replica Editions (1997/8 & 1999) of the first two mags from the '60s - plus a retro-style 'third' mag called Even More Secret Origins (2003), but I decided to throw it in just for good measure as it was stored away with the other mags in this post.  (Wouldn't want it to feel unloved and rejected, now would we?)

So that's it Crivvies - it's now time to fill in the hole, pat down the earth, say our final goodbyes to Secret Origins, and focus on what lies ahead in future posts.  Hopefully you'll all be along for the ride!  In the meantime, feel free to bid your final adieus to this series of DC mags in our eager-to-hear-from-you comments section.

(I must confess to a sense of accomplishment - I started and I finished (eventually).  Magnus Magnusson, John Humphrys, and Clive Myrie would be proud of me.)