ARE YOU LOOKIN' AT ME?

"BOO!"

ROBERT DE NIRO as the FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER?  Don't make me laugh!  There's only one person who ever pulled off that gig, and that's KARLOFF The UNCANNY!  Boris - or as he was known to his pals - BILL PRATT (his given name being William Henry Pratt) - has never been bettered in his portrayal of the much-misunderstood and maligned monster, in my famously humble opinion.  (Though GLENN STRANGE & LON CHANEY Jr. gave honourable impersonations.  The less said about poor BELA LUGOSI's portrayal, the better.)

Regarding the image below, I originally drew the face freehand (using a photo as reference) back in around 1981/82.  Back in 1985 I was contributing to HUGH CAMPBELL's fanzine, FUSION, and I decided to knock up a cover for it.  I hand-lettered the logo, added some Letratone, drew the shoulders, then cut out a photocopy of my drawing of the head and stuck it down.  (I wasn't drawing all that again.)  The scan below comes from a poor photocopy of the original finished cover.

I can't recall if I ever sent it to Hugh (perhaps Fusion had folded before I got around to it), but it was never printed.  You're seeing it here for the very first time. (Actually, I'd previously used the head to do a cover for RON BENNETT's catalogue, SKYRACK's FANTASY TRADER, but I never got around to sending that either.)

Art & logo by Kid Robson

STAND BY FOR ACTION...

Copyright relevant owner

While we're discussing GERRY ANDERSON-related subjects, let's take a look at another beautiful piece of artwork - this time round the front cover of the 1966 STINGRAY ANNUAL, painted by RON EMBLETON.  There's no point in saddling this piece with needless verbiage from me - art like this speaks for itself.

"I WISH I WAS A SPACEMAN..."

Images copyright relevant owner

MIKE NOBLE still illustrates today as well as he ever did.  Age took its toll on the talents of KIRBY and DITKO, but you'd be hard-pushed to find any deterioration between the quality of what he produced week after week in the pages of  TV COMIC, TV CENTURY 21 and LOOK-IN (and many other titles) back in the '60s, '70s and '80s, and the occasional commissions he undertakes today.

It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words - here's two pictures which prove that little adage a thousand times over.  Above, the cover of the 1966/'67 FIREBALL XL5 Annual; below, the cover to one of the disc holders in the complete DVD collection of the same programme.

MEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWW!!!! LEE MERIWETHER - THE CAT'S PYJAMAS!

You want words too?  Are you mental?
Just look at that face.  'Nuff said!

CURT SWAN - The MAN With The GOLDEN PENCIL...

Copyright DC COMICS

Study the above cover - doesn't SUPERMAN look as if he's actually hovering in mid-flight outside CLARK KENT's high-rise apartment?  You really do believe a man can fly!  Doesn't Clark look like he's really clinging on for dear life to avoid falling to his doom?

Artists like ALEX ROSS have accustomed us to realistic depictions of superheroes - but, back in the '60s - CURT SWAN had been there, done that, and bought the celebration mug - at a time when comicbooks were regarded as kid-stuff and as far removed from realistic illustration as could be.

The cover has an almost 3D quality to it, and when I look at it, I wonder why, back in the early '80s, many then-current "new kids on the block" artists described Curt Swan's work as "boring".  I don't think it was boring - he just had an uncanny knack for making fantastic events look as if he'd glanced out of his window and recorded them on artboard as they happened.  The word I'm looking for is - real!

I remember this cover from my childhood, and the effect it had on me then.  It still has that effect today.  That takes a special kind of  talent - and talent was what Curt Swan had in spades!