CRIVENS! MIGHTY MARVEL COVER GALLERY - PART SIXTEEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

By the time the last comic in this particular post went on sale, the green spot-colour which had graced some pages of the weekly MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL had disappeared.  Apart from the front and back cover, the few full-colour pages were already long gone and, sad to say, MWOM was beginning to look like a sad imitation of its former self.

Dull grey tones which obscured the art were becoming a prominent feature of the Marvel periodicals and did them no favours at all.  In fact, it's surprising that, over in the States, those responsible for the weeklies allowed the situation to continue for so long, because the printing was truly dire.

And make no mistake - by and large, the murky mess was the fault of the printing, because, as I understand it, the team responsible for the tones in Marvel U.S. 'black & white' mags was the same one who attended to the British weeklies - and the American mags turned out fine.

Take a look at the full-page ad for The AVENGERS further down - believe it or not, I've lightened it up a bit so that you can see it better, but it's still far too dark in places - to the detriment of JACK KIRBY's & DICK AYERS' art.  Some of the pages in later issues were almost black, so impenetrable was the poorly printed Zipatone (Letratone to us) which afflicted the mags

However, despite all that, happy memories abound on sight of these iconic images of yesteryear - for me, anyway.  Let's hope that they produce the exact same result on you if you were lucky enough to own these mags when they first came out  - 40 years ago.  (Wow!)  All together now...

"Make Mine Marvel!"

PICKING & CHOOSING - A PERPLEXING PROBLEM...

Images copyright relevant owners

Anyone else got this problem?  Every so often I feel that I should have a clear-out and reduce my vast collection of stuff to a more manageable size.  After all, I've got books and comics that I haven't looked at in decades, so what's the point in keeping them?  Especially as it might well be eons before I ever look at any of them again.

However, I find that, when I begin to go through things, memories and associations suddenly start springing to mind at the merest glance of seemingly long-forgotten possessions that have lain hidden for years, and I find myself unable to bear the thought of parting with anything.

How do the rest of you deal with such a situation?

BOND - JAMES BOND, 007...

Copyright relevant owner

Here's one that someone out there might be able to help me with.  Above is a JAMES BOND Annual from the '60s, which resides in my vast collection of books, comics, and other assorted items from the past.

However, unfortunately there's a page missing.  Can anyone provide me with full-size scans of page 17 & 18 so that I can restore it to the book?  Or tell me if any Bond DVDs currently available have the Annual as part of a PDF file?  (I've actually got the boxed set of 007 movies, but I don't fancy going through them all to check for myself - lazy buggah that I am.)

So, if you think you can help me restore the book to its former glory, please let me know in the comments section.  I'd be much obliged.

******

And thanks to BARRY PEARL, a facsimile of both sides of the page has now been restored to the book.  Ta, Baz.