"THE SEXY STARRY-EYED SIREN OF SPACE!" PART TWENTY-TWO OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

Images copyright DC COMICS

It is, of course, a total mystery as to what attracted my attention to the cover of SUPERMAN #243 back in 1971 or early '72.  After all, just take a look - a back view of a woman snogging the face off CLARK KENT's awesome alter-ego - what is there about it that could possibly entice the 12 or 13 year old boy I was at the time to choose it above all the other mags in the spinner-rack at my local newsagent's?

You recognize irony, I'm sure.  What attracted my attention?  Well, that derriere for a start.  That lithe, sinuous body, that long flowing hair - who wouldn't want to be the mighty MAN Of STEEL in a situation like that?  So, like the furtive little perv that I was, I bought it like a shot.

  

The captivating cover was by NEAL ADAMS, the interior story by the titanic team of SWANDERSON, and the STARRY-EYED SIREN Of SPACE was every bit as seductive inside the comic as she was on the cover.  I miss stories like this - complete and self-contained in one issue, backed-up by a FABULOUS WORLD Of KRYPTON tale and a SILVER ANNIVERSARY STORY for good measure.

I well remember sitting on the armchair next to the big brass log box beside the fireplace as I read this comic, the blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds clearly visible through the front window.  I can also recall drawing Superman's face from the middle of the big panel on page 5, and later drawing a strip in the simpler style of the Silver Anniversary story.  Happy memories of so very long ago, made almost tangible by seeing the images again while scanning them for this very post you're now reading.

   

Nowadays, comics seem to consist of talking heads for panel after panel and nothing much seems to happen from issue to issue.  I still buy some U.S. superhero comics, but - desperate as I am to like them - I find that I neglect them for months because nothing compels me to dig deeper after an initial browse-through.  Sometimes I don't read them at all, and they lie ignored and forgotten in a corner, gathering dust.  I almost feel sorry for them, poor abandoned little things.

Maybe I should sell them, but what if someone might think I'm only doing so because I'm a pauper who needs the dosh - obliging me to write a long, boring, self-indulgent blog post explaining that I'm not in debt and giving some of my chums the opportunity to write in and reassure me that they don't and never would think such a thing.  Oops!  Sorry - thought I was someone important whose circumstances anyone gives a fig about for a moment there.  (Don't worry if you haven't got a clue what I'm on about - you can be sure that somebody, somewhere, does.)

  

Anyway, returning to the real world (more or less), feel free to enjoy the various images from a comic that comes from a time when comics were entertaining month after month, and the reader didn't have to wait until the collected edition to work out what the hell the story was all about anyway.  Those were the days, sure enough!  Agree?  Either way, why not say what you think in the comments section.