TRIFFIK? I HARDLY THINK SO...

Copyright relevant owner.  (Will they have the guts to admit to it?)

Take a look at the above abomination - TRIFFIK!, from 1992.  If a worse comic than this ever saw the light of day, then thankfully I don't remember ever seeing it.  From the amateurish, awkward masthead to the sub-standard, awful balloon lettering, almost everything about this comic was wrong.  Even the handful of strips that were quite well drawn suffered from being poorly lettered and surrounded by other strips which must have been scrawled by drunken chimps with a burnt match during a break-out from the zoo.

I duly contacted the editor, who had no previous experience working in comics, and suggested that the lettering needed to be improved.  (I wasn't looking for work, being quite busy with my regular assignments in 1992.)  His response?  "I like it the way it is!"  I even sent him a detailed colour 'rough' of a new logo, based on the old one, but bolder, brighter and better.  His response? "Roughs are no good - I can't envision the finished result.  You need to show me why yours is better by doing the proper, finished article."  (Despite the quotes, I'm paraphrasing his comments from memory.)  So, an editor with no ability, no vision and no clue.  Don't get  me wrong - he was a nice enough bloke, but he was never cut out for comics in a professional capacity.

I understand that the comic only lasted for twelve issues - which was about a dozen too many in my humble estimation.  I never bought another one as I had plenty toilet paper at the time and had no need for more.  It remains an object lesson on how not to do a comic.

You'd think a certain Dundee-based publication currently having circulation problems would have learned a valuable lesson from the sad but inevitable fate of Triffik!, eh?  H'mm, apparently not.  What is it they say?  "Those who don't learn from history, are doomed to repeat it."  Let's all hope it doesn't turn out to be the case.

SUPERMAN'S 'BIT On The SIDE' - FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - (PART NINE)...

Copyright DC COMICS

If my powers of recollection are still functioning properly after a period of forty-two years, I first bought the above GIANT SUPERMAN issue in 1970 while on holiday in the Scottish seaside resort of Rothesay.  However, my main recollection of it is, I suppose, from some weeks later, when I was off ill from school one day, being sustained (as was usual in such circumstances) by tomato soup and American Cream Soda.

Let us now, in memory's mystic band, return to an earlier age - when your humble host was but an eleven year old lad with forever in front of him, and pleasure unparallelled could be had from a few comics scattered over a bedspread - as though they were treasures undreamt off that even the brightest bauble could never hope to match.

I remember the picture below having a strange, tingly, effect on my youthful mind (and other areas) as I lay in bed on that pleasant morning over forty years ago.  I pretended it was SUSAN STORM in civvies, and entertained 'romantic' fantasies that would've doubtless brought a blush to the cheeks of many a spinsterly aunt had they been capable of seeing the workings of a seemingly innocent child's mind. Looking at it now, my first thought is "Wow, wotta bod!"  Why haven't I ever met a real woman with curves like that?  (Yeah, I know - I really do need to get out more.  I'll make it a resolution.)   

 

Anyway, hastening past my youthful yearnings as quickly as possible, let's take a look at the rest of the contents.  First up is SUPERMAN'S LOST BROTHER, which I not only associate with that day off school, but also with the garden of our holiday home where I'd first read it some weeks earlier.  Tell you what - I'm going to linger by the above picture for a little while longer, so just go on ahead by yourselves.  I'll join you at the end of the post.

   

Ah, so there you are - hope you haven't been waiting long.  With any luck, our whistle-stop tour through the above images has rekindled a few warm memories of your own associated with this comic from yesteryear.  When I think of it, we really had it made back then, didn't we?  Collectors' item classics for a mere florin - or 'two bob bit' in the parlance of the day.  Nowadays, this would be a softcover book priced at between ten and fifteen quid.  No wonder people call them 'the good old days' - they were!

'KINKY SEX' - TWO WORDS DESIGNED TO ENSURE THAT THIS POST GETS LOADS OF HITS...

From TV Comic Annual 1977.  Art by Bill Titcombe

First of all, there's no kinky sex in this post.  It's a bare-faced subterfuge to lure people into visiting my blog and thus increase my hits.  There's no naked pictures of CHRISTOPHER REEVE, nor any other kind of pervy content that certain people (going by the search keywords they use) seem to be interested in.  Not that I want to attract seriously dodgy geezers and their decidedly 'iffy' interests as regular visitors to my site, but as an experiment, I thought I'd test how much my hits increase by using the words 'kinky sex' in the title.

So, sorry to disappoint all you perverts out there.  If, however, you've dropped in here by mistake, can I interest you in reading a comic?  Go on - you know you want to. 

From TV Comic Annual 1977.  Art by Bill Titcombe