"BURN, NAMOR... BURN!" FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST - PART TWENTY-SEVEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

The sky was a bright blue, with cotton wool clouds floating far overhead, when I purchased PRINCE NAMOR, The SUB-MARINER #14 from CORSON'S (a local shop that, at the time of typing, still exists in the same place today) that summer's day in 1969 or '70.  I remember arriving back home and reading it on my front doorstep, so eager was I to plumb its titanic treasures and immerse myself in all its MARVEL-lous delights.  This was the very first Subby comic I ever bought, but, though I enjoyed it, it would be two or three years before I purchased another.  (The first Annual of the series.)

Interestingly, long before I acquired the replacement for #14 you see above, I bought a reprint of it in TALES To ASTONISH #14 from a shop in Southsea or Portsmouth back in '81.  One glance at the cover instantly transported me to the front doorstep of my old home, eleven or twelve years before.  Strange how the same image can conjure up a different set of memories, isn't it?  Nowadays, when I look at the TTA reprint, I think of the street I stayed in Southsea first, before recalling the memory it summoned back then.  Although, when I look at Subby's original issue, my mind jumps straight back to that front doorstep so very long ago.

The reprint, as well as having it's own set of recollections, also points back to earlier memories of the original, which has only its own.  You'd think it would work both ways equally, no?  You know, I'd look at the Sub-Mariner mag and be reminded of the TTA reprint, in the same way that it works in reverse?  But no, the process only operates in one direction.  It's a bit of a mystery - or is it?  Perhaps it's only natural that some things remind us of past memories, but not 'future' ones (if you know what I mean).

However, here's a bona fide mystery: Why on earth do I get so absorbed in pondering such inconsequential matters as if they were profoundly significant in some way?  That's one I'll probably never be able to solve, but at least it keeps my mind occupied.  Anyway, below is the cover to the reprint, the contents of which were recoloured, but followed the colour scheme of the original pretty faithfully. Marvel had increased their comics' page count at this time, so also included are the 'filler' pin-ups from the back of the mag.

  

And here's a side-by-side comparison of the covers: