BABE Of The DAY - ZOE McCONNELL...

All hail the stunning Zoe McConnell,

one of the most beautiful Page 3 Girls of

the 1990s.  If I had a figure like hers, most

 likely I'd be a woman - so no thanks.

TOYBOX TREASURES Of The PAST - SANTA'S OCTOBER VISIT...

It's now November 1st, but this classic collectors' item arrived at Castel Crivens yesterday, much to my delirious delight.  "Hold on," some of you may be thinking, "don't you already have this item, purchased around four years ago, with which you bored the rest of us for far too long?"  The answer's yes, but that one was an earlier version (I believe), with a smaller box than my original, and which required the bagged appendages to be slotted into place by the buyer.  This one has the window display box I recall from childhood, with Santa, sack, tree, tail, and reindeer head already affixed, and even though it cost me five times the amount I paid for the other one, I'm pleased as punch to have it - not that I'd  have minded it being less expensive to be honest.

Anyway, being the magnificently generous person I am, I thought I'd share it with all you Crivvies (yes, even you, Tory-hating CJ) so here's Santa's 'Space Blimp Of Christmas' for you to drool over - figuratively speaking of course, 'cos I don't want the box getting soaked.  It's usually described as being 'extremely rare', but how can it be?  After all, I've got two of them! 

In the unlikely event you may have forgotten its predecessor, that's it below.

BABE Of The DAY - GAIL McKENNA...

One of my favourite Page 3 girls

from far too many years ago, gorgeous

 Gail McKenna yet rings my bell.  Ding

dong (as Leslie Phillips would say).

 How about the rest of you?

The 'RETURN' Of CHEEKY & JOEY...

Isn't it funny the things you find yourself buying when they remind you of something from childhood, don't you think?  In my primary school years we used to have a pair of budgerigars called Cheeky and Joey, and there's an interesting story about them which can be read by clicking here.  Recently, while passing a shop window in my town's main shopping centre (now sadly in such serious decline that it's up for sale), I spotted two ornamental ringers for the pair of budgies we'd once owned.  Bought them immediately of course, and they now sit on the shelf of a display cabinet in my living-room.  It's like Cheeky and Joey have been resurrected, and whenever I gaze upon them, I think back to those long ago years which are so dear to me in retrospect.

Sure, they don't move and they don't sing, but at least I don't have to clean sh*t out of a budgie cage on a daily basis, so that's a plus.  It's just nice to look at them - and remember.  Any of you Crivvies got any animal ornaments that remind you of childhood or teenage pets?  If not, if you saw one, would you buy it?  Do tell.

BABE Of The DAY - DENISE MILANI...

Here's Denise Milani getting herself

ready for a hot date with me.  Fortunately

she's got a head start in the 'looks' dept.,

so it doesn't take her very long at all.

50 YEARS FABULOUS FLASHBACK - PLANET Of The APES & DRACULA LIVES... (Updated)

Images and characters copyright relevant and respective owners

'Twas back on Saturday October 19th 1974 that two new Marvel UK weeklies hit newsagents' shelves, likely resulting in kids across the country asking their parents for an increase in their pocket-money.  The 'first' of these titles - Planet Of The Apes - lasted for 123 issues, having subsumed Dracula Lives - its sister periodical - at #88, which means DL obviously only managed to last until #87.

POTA also included at some stage various Marvel characters, such as Warlock, Captain Marvel, Ka-Zar and the like, with US Killraven strips being redrawn and relettered as Apeslayer strips, such was the shortage of actual Apes material.  In fact, new Apes strips were specially drawn for the weekly title then later reprinted in the US mag, probably the first and perhaps only time such a thing has happened.

Dracula Lives reprinted (in b&w with grey tones) the main strip from the US colour title Tomb Of Dracula, along with Werewolf By Night and the Frankenstein Monster, as well as (later down the line) Ghost Rider and Man-Thing.  Both of these British weeklies could've done with better printing, especially Dracula Lives, but hey, we were young and things like that didn't seem to bother us too much at the time.

So, 50 years later, let's think back to our youth and celebrate a time when Marvel UK was on the march, before its output started to dwindle and decline in later years.

******

When composing this post earlier, I merely took the covers and posters from folders of earlier scans, but I decided to go that extra mile and dig out my copies of the mags so that I could show you some of the contents, the better to prompt your memories.  Remember them? 

And in case you were wondering, below is how the above poster looked in its original form - as the cover for the US version of Dracula Lives #5.  (Wish they'd left the burd in the UK version.)

MAD COMIC COVER GALLERY OMNIBUS...

Copyright DC COMICS

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...

Copyright relevant owners

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.  (Hard to believe it's been over 10 years since he died in July 2014.)

Tell you what, let's make that four Scottish legends, shall we?  See photo below.