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.

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

Copyright DC COMICS

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.)