WIN A BADTIME BEDTIME STORYBOOK FACSIMILE...

All you have to do is answer this question:  On whom did LEO BAXENDALE base DANNY from the BASH STREET KIDS?  First correct answer wins.  Here are the rules.

U.K. entrants only.  No professional comic contributors.  No one under 18, although parents can enter on their children's behalf.

Use comments section to submit your answer.  When winner is announced, send details of where you'd like prize to be sent.  (Details will NOT be made public, passed on, used for any other purpose, and will be deleted from my computer once prize is despatched.)  P.O. Boxes are acceptable.

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Looks more like a case of IF winners are announced.  Don't people like competitions or, as Tongalad has suggested, is the question too hard?  (And he guessed right at his second attempt.)  Surely Baxendale fans must know the answer?!

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COMPETITION NOW EXPIRED!

The correct answer is that Danny was based on illustrator THOMAS HENRY's depiction of WILLIAM BROWN (by RICHMAL CROMPTON).

IPC SAMPLER COMICS & PULL-OUTS...

Based on the MONSTER FUN logo still being part of the BUSTER masthead in the above pic, I think it was towards the end of the 1970s when these mini 'Comic Samplers' appeared in various IPC comics.  I used to have a couple of other ones, I'm sure, but they seem to have been lost to the maws of time.

When you think about it, it seems like a great way of promoting different comics to a wider readership.  There was one drawback of course, which was that only existing readers of the titles in which they appeared ever got to see them, and if they were already buying the comics being promoted, then no sales would be gained.  Worth trying though, and it's an idea that The BEANO should've considered when The DANDY was relaunched back in 2010.

Another thing I used to love about IPC comics is when they'd print pull-outs over several weeks, which, when stapled together, resulted in a complete mini-comic. Feast your eyes on the ones in the second photo - great, aren't they?!

In fact, if you're all well-behaved little Criv-ites, I may well feature the contents of some of them for you to drool over in a future post.  Which one would you like me to start with?  

The SAVAGE SWORD Of CONAN #1 (U.K. EDITION)...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

Ah, October '77 - I remember it well.  (October is when this November-dated mag probably went on sale - if not September, even.)  At one time I had just about every issue in this series, but gave them to a pal in a moment of madness; now all I retain are the first and last issues to remind me of those happy days gone by.

Look at the artwork.  I was surprised to learn that JOHN BUSCEMA wasn't too keen on ALFREDO ALCALA's inks over his pencils, a fact which, frankly, I find truly astonishing.  Great as John B undoubtedly was, Alcala's inks gave the finished pages a whole new depth and dimension, resulting in a perfect example of a 'greater than the sum of its parts' scenario.  Just why Big John couldn't appreciate that is amazing. 

The mag finally came to an end with issue #93, cover-dated July '85, an impressive almost eight-year run.  Luckily, I got another chance to collect these tales (and some of the cover art that fronted them) when CONAN SAGA made its debut in 1987.  No doubt we'll be taking a look at that series at a future date.