SOME 'SMASHING' FACTS & FIGURES From 1966 - PART ONE...

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Something you won't know is that the ODHAMS PRESS bound volume of the first 50 issues of SMASH! didn't include #2.  It wasn't pulled out later - it was simply missing when the comics were gathered for binding.  Luckily, I have a spare copy of that 2nd collectors' classic (as I do of #1 also) - and it too is an Odhams file copy, the one with details of who did what and how much they got paid for doing it.

If I recall correctly, I had practically a full year's worth of these issues, each with a label on every strip noting the financial facts and creative cast of those involved. (Odhams kept two sets - one with labels and one without, and I was given both.)  I gave the labelled ones away, but retained #2 so that I could transplant it into my unlabelled volume and complete the set.  First, though, I carefully steamed off the labels to conserve the information for comics historians everywhere.

So, enjoy reading some sensational strips from one of Britain's brightest comics of the 1960s, and indulge your curiosity at how much the contributors got paid for their labours.  And if you like this instalment, be sure to click here for Part Two.

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(And in case you wonder why The GHOST PATROL was 'free', it's because it was a retitled reprint of The PHANTOM PATROL from SWIFT, a few years before.)