The ULTIMATE BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL #3...

Copyright D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd

A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that there was a third ULTIMATE BEANO HOLIDAY SPECIAL due to go on sale, so I went looking for it in my local WH SMITH's.  The previous two had been placed next to The Beano weekly and therefore I'd had no difficulty in securing copies for myself.  However, when I went hunting for the third volume, it was nowhere to be seen - although, curiously, there were new copies of the second edition located on the same space on the shelf where I had obtained mine.  These were actually in a special display tray attached to the shelf, clearly marked "Ultimate Beano Holiday Special".

I asked an assistant, but she didn't know anything about it - nor where the new copies of #2 had sprung from.  Over the next few weeks I asked again - no joy, nobody could help.  I was in WH Smith's again today and asked one of the women responsible for the magazine section about it and she led me along a trail to where obscure magazines were located - in a corner of the shop and on a shelf at adult eye-level, marked "Bookazines".

"Wouldn't you be better placing them next to The Beano where kids are more likely to look for them and where the first two editions were situated?", I enquired.  "Head office said they were to be stocked where they were put!", she replied.  "Well, why don't you put some of them next to the weekly where Beano fans can see them, and leave some of them where they are, and that way adults can see them and buy them for their kids?", I suggested.  "Might do!", was the reply.  (Incidentally, the special display tray at the comics section was now completely empty.)

It seems to me that the obvious place to position them is where comic fans will automatically look for the thing, but also have some where casual browsers can see them and perhaps buy a copy on impulse, either for themselves or for their kids.  (How come nobody else seems to have that much common sense?)  However, it seems pretty bloody stupid to put them all where absolutely nobody who is actively looking for a copy can actually see it - especially when a shelf-tray specifically designed to display the mag is lying forlorn.  D.C. THOMSON would be just as well printing the damn things with invisible ink on invisible paper.

Anyway, if you've been looking for a copy in your local Smith's, chances are that they're not where common sense dictates they ought to be (the comics section), so keep searching.

The ONLY GOOD ALIEN - PART TEN Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Returning yet again to the theme of memory, The AVENGERS #89 is a comic which I associate with two places: the first being the seaside town of Largs, which is where I purchased this esteemed publication in June or July of 1971, and the second being my living-room back in my home town, in which I sat by the fireside and re-read the comic and soaked up SAL BUSCEMA's art.

What's surprising is that the issue is dated for June 1971 (though in the States, it would've come out around March), so for me to have actually obtained the mag when I did is quite amazing.  Usually, U.S. comics didn't show up in Britain until many months, sometimes years later, so this seems to be one of those seemingly rare occasions when distribution here wasn't so far behind as was frequently the case.  Not quite sure why, but it occasionally happened with other issues too.

My family were holidaying in Largs that year, and my father had gone into a newsagent's to buy some tobacco for his pipe.  Also inside was a spinner-rack of U.S. comicbooks from which I chose this collectors' item issue.  Apparently, it was the first episode of what would later become known as the KREE/SKRULL WAR, but I was ignorant of that fact at the time.  I didn't get to see subsequent issues until they were reprinted in a weekly British MARVEL comic several years later.  By then, I was living in another house and that holiday in Largs seemed like an inordinately long time in the past.

What I find curious is that the cover instantly transports me back to the newsagent's and surrounding environs, but the splash page (and others) summons up images of my living-room, with me sat beside a big brass log box next to our fireplace back home.  Isn't it funny how one comic can carry associations with two different places, eh?  As far as I know, I've not been back to Largs since.  I wonder if that newsagent's still exists?  If so, it's most likely had a refit by now and looks nothing like it once did.  Wouldn't it be nice though, if it remained the same?  That way, if ever I should return, crossing its threshold for the first time in over 40 years would be like stepping back into yesteryear.

Although, funnily enough, whenever I hold this comic in my hands and pore over its four-colour pages for the umpteenth time, the exact same experience is achieved.  Spooky, huh?

******

UPDATE: On June 26th 2014, I returned to Largs on a day trip, but could see no sign of the newsagent's/tobacconists from 1971.  It was an odd experience because, although having last been there 43 years before, it seemed to me like I'd been only yesterday, making the changes that had occurred in the intervening period all the more difficult to accept.  Strange indeed.