BLIMEY! It's The MISSING LINK - PART SIX...

Copyright REBELLION

BLIMEY!  Ol' LINKY is back - and he seems a little hot under the collar.  (If he had one, that is.)  Here I thought he was a pillar of the community, but it turns out that's just not enough for him - he wants a column all to himself.  Just look at him climb up NELSON's.  (No sniggering, you lot - this isn't the FRANKIE HOWERD show.)  Incidentally, I haven't trimmed off the panel borders on the sides of the pages in the scanning process - that's the way they were printed in FANTASTIC #6, back in 1967.  (In my copy anyway.)

Remember to stay tuned for more Fantastic adventures of The MISSING LINK!  (For Part Seven, click here.  For Part Five, click here.)

 

DANNY DARE 'BLASTS OFF'...

Copyright REBELLION

As promised, faithful Crivs, here's another firework-themed strip from WHAM!.  This time around it's ol' DANNY DARE, legendary space pilot DAN DARE's #1 fan.  One of the things that strikes me about these old strips is how frequently fisticuffs were indulged in.  Years ago, my local newspaper occasionally published the odd strip cartoon by yours truly (for which I was paid), and I remember the editor, MR. BARR, rejecting one for being too violent.  (This was around 1984.)  The panel in question involved a bully receiving one punch to the fizzog by PERCY PROON, YOUR NUMBER ONE LOON (the hero of the strip), and this was regarded as a bit on the rough side for the local paper.  Seems it was all right to print stories about muggings, murder and rape, but a single cartoon punch was considered too much for readers' sensibilities.

One thing's for sure - what some of the kids in comics got up to with fireworks on bonfire night back in the '60s would never be countenanced today.  Also, consider the bad example set by Danny in the above tale, whereby he profits from selling items thrown out by mistake and which don't belong to him.  Nowadays, that second-last panel would be redrawn and relettered to read something like this: "These forks were valuable antiques!  I got a reward for returning them to the owners!"

THE FAB FOUR FEEL FINE...

Copyright relevant owner

I recently saw the above photograph on one of the sites in my blog list.  It was in a pretty damaged condition, with creases all over it (see below).  I find some challenges just far too appealing to ignore, so, with the aid of some computer technology, I set about restoring the picture to something closer to its original state - with the intention of then sending it to the person on whose blog I had seen it.

Trouble is, I can now no longer recall which site that was.  So, if this photo belongs to you, please copy the restored version with my compliments.  Obviously, it could stand some further work, but I only had so much time to devote to it.  Hopefully, you're happy with the results.

And below is an alternate version just for the sake of variety.  If the person to whom the photo belongs sees  this, can he or she let me know please.  Also, if you know which blog the pic comes from, please let me know in the comments section.  Ta.