CAFES, COPPERS AND CASH - HONESTY ALWAYS PAYS...

A couple or so years ago, I was strolling along Gibson Street in the West End of Glasgow having just enjoyed a latte in The Offshore Cafe, when I spotted a wallet lying on the road between two parked cars.  I went into a nearby restaurant to see if anyone had dropped it, but there were no takers, so I handed it in to a police station on the way home.

There was £175 in the wallet, plus two credit cards, so I knew they'd be reunited with their owner before too long.  I was asked by the desk officer if I wanted a reward, but I declined - the owner might've needed the money to pay bills, and I'm a great believer in doing the right thing for its own sake, not for personal benefit.  Yes, I know that probably sounds a bit pompous, but I assure you, I'm no saint - I do, however, aspire to honesty.

(And to be completely honest, I have to confess that my action wasn't altogether altruistic - it would've preyed on my conscience if I'd kept it and I'd have worried about the fates punishing me for my crime.)

Imagine my surprise when, some weeks later, I received a note from the police, informing me that the owner had left a reward for me of £50 - wow!  He'd been advised that I wasn't looking for one, but he'd left it anyway.  I can only imagine that he hadn't expected to see his dosh again, so felt extremely grateful that his expectations had proved unwarranted.

I felt grateful myself, of course, but even better than the money was the sense of perhaps having restored someone's faith in the integrity of his fellow man.  I recall a previous occasion when I found £5 and handed it in to my local police station, only to lose £20 of my own funds the very next day.  No, that wasn't handed in, but at least I got the fiver back in two months when it wasn't claimed.  I was still £15 down though.

So is this post just to blow my own trumpet about my honesty?  I'd like to think it springs more from looking for topics to write about and, in doing so, mining one's personal experiences to meet the constant need for material.  As someone else once said - if you blog for long enough you'll eventually start writing about what you had for breakfast.

That reminds me of a great roll and sausage I had the other day, which I simply must tell you about - - h'mm, maybe not, eh?   

KIRBY'S CAPTAIN AMERICA COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

If, like me, you're of a certain age, you probably still think of barcodes on comic covers as a fairly recent intrusion.  Fact is 'though, that they've now been adorning the fronts (and, occasionally, the backs) of our favourite four-colour comicbooks for a total of 37 years.  The little striped box appeared for the first time on issues dated May/June 1976, although (in America at least) they went on sale in February/March of that year as they appeared on newsstands a few months ahead of the actual date on the cover and in the indicia.

So, to my eyes, a comic still doesn't look right if it's been defaced with that oblong zebra pattern in the bottom lefthand corner. No, for me, comics were purer and less compromised when they were free of that ugly little intruder that defaced the art which called to me from the spinner-racks, even if I've now known it for a far longer period of time throughout my life than I have without. Curious how our ideas of how things should be done are established from such an early age, isn't it?  I still consider Lsd (pounds, shillings and pence) as 'real' money and decimal currency as a relatively recent usurper, although it's now been around for more than four fifths of my life.

So what's that got to do with CAPTAIN AMERICA?  Not much - except it may've been the sixth issue of JACK KIRBY's Cap where I first noticed (and resented) the barcode box.  (It was either that, or SUPERMAN #296.)  I was glad to see Jack back at MARVEL, even if  his output at this time didn't quite live up to his first tour of duty at the much-lauded 'House of Ideas'.

Diehard Kirby fanatics were ecstatic to see Jack resume the reins of the character he'd helped co-create back in the '40s, but readers used to the more sophisticated and ambitious tales of writers like STEVE ENGLEHART were less than enchanted by the King's more direct action-adventure orientated stories.  However, Jack produced 22 issues of the shield-slinging AVENGER (and two Annuals) - which was, I believe, the longest-lasting title of his return term - before leaving Marvel for the second and final time.

Anyway, without any further ado, let's look at the first 11 covers of Jack's Cap.  The remainder will feature in an upcoming post.

******

(I should point out for American readers that, to differentiate U.S. Marvel comics on sale in Britain from their black and white U.K. editions, the 'Marvel Comics Group' banner was replaced with 'Marvel All-Colour Comics' when the plates were altered from cents to pence.  They were still printed in the States though.)