PENULTIMATE PART (TWENTY-TWO) Of MIGHTY MARVEL COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Only one more instalment to go, frantic ones, 'til the first 66 issues of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL in this cataclysmic cover gallery series is complete.  What'll I do then?  Well, as mentioned in a previous post, I'll run the few glossy covered MWOMs (and SMCWs) in my collection, and I still have complete sets of The SUPER-HEROES, CAPTAIN BRITAIN, COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR, BIG BEN, and various other comics which I can share with you all.  And, if nothing else, I can still bore you with rambling reminiscences of my childhood, old bits of furniture, and utterly self-indulgent exercises in neurotic nostalgia.  So, don't despair - there's plenty of life in the old blog yet.

Hey, what are you doing?  Get down off that cliff - you'll hurt yourself.  Whaddya mean, that's the idea?  I thought you liked this blog?

Dear me, some people are just never satisfied.  Tsk.

SMASHING IDEA FOR A COVER GALLERY?

Copyright REBELLION

What do BOB HOPE, JOHN LOWE, and the first issue of the revamped SMASH! comic from 1969 have in common?  The answer is that around 29 and a half years ago, on October 13th, 1984, I met Bob Hope, saw John Lowe make history by scoring the first televised 9 dart finish, and re-acquired the first issue of the 'new' Smash! I'd first bought in March of 1969, then sold to a classmate a few days later.  (For that tale, click here.  Go on, I'll wait for you.)

On that memorable day in 1984, I was in Edinburgh to attend the legendary Mr. Hope's evening show at The Playhouse, and stopped in at a comics shop in the late afternoon to have a bit of a browse.  There was a box containing 72 issues of the 95-issue run of the new Smash!, so I bought them all on the spot.  I took #1 away with me, plus two '50s movie mags which Bob autographed that evening, along with a couple of LP covers from recordings of his old radio broadcasts that I'd brought from home.  (In case you were wondering, I was sitting in a bar having a soft drink before the show and watched Big John score his 9-dart finish on the pub telly.)

As for those remaining issues of Smash!, I arranged to pick them up from the dealer when he attended a Glasgow comic mart the next week, I believe.  (Incidentally, that mart was the one at which 2000 A.D. offered me freelance work as a lettering artist.)  If so, I seem to recall that the dealer forgot to bring the comics with him, which means I either got them at a subsequent mart, or through the post at intervals.  (Of course, I could be misremembering after all this time and perhaps it was a later mart the dealer told me he'd be attending anyway.)

I've picked up 21 of the missing 22 issues over the intervening years and, yesterday, obtained the absent ish (second-last one) from Amazon, and am currently wishing my life away until it safely arrives.  It's taken me practically 30 years to complete the set since I re-acquired that first issue in Edinburgh on that day in October of 1984, but you know what?  It only seems like a few years ago at the very most.

So hands up if you'd like to see a cover gallery of the revamped Smash!?  Better yet, why not let me know in the comments section.  You know how I look forward to hearing from you.