THE VULCAN THAT ISN'T SPOCK...

Copyright REBELLION

What defines a thing as rare?  Being hard to find surely qualifies you'd think, but here's something that seems to be an exception - VULCAN Annual 1977.  What makes me say that?  Very simple.  When my original copy of this book sustained some cover damage a few years back, I sought out another copy on eBay.  I soon had four copies to keep my original company, and each of them was described in its eBay listing as being 'extremely rare'.

I've since seen several other copies of the book available on the Internet, which have also been described as 'rare'.  In fact, I've probably seen more copies of this particular Annual for sale than any other, all within a relatively short space of time.  It pops up quite regularly, in fact.  Not exactly my definition of rare, but then again,  I'm not trying to punt one for a few more quid than it's actually worth.

Still a nice little Annual though.  And, if you'd like to see The TRIGAN EMPIRE tale depicted on the cover, then click on BIFF! and feed your hungry eyes.  (Update: Now removed, alas.) 

'FAMOUS FIRSTS': THE DEBUT OF DRACULASS...

Copyright REBELLION

Any comics collector of a certain age worth his salt knows who TERRY BAVE is. Terry was one of the stalwarts of the British comics industry for around 40 years, and contributed to many well-known weekly periodicals like WHAM!, SMASH!, POW!, BUSTER, WHIZZER & CHIPS, SHIVER & SHAKE, WHOOPEE, WOW!, MONSTER FUN, SCHOOL FUN, BEANO and DANDY.  (And that's just a few of them!)

Here's Terry's strip from MONSTER FUN #1 - the one and only DRACULASS - DAUGHTER OF DRACULA!  Terry had the knack of making drawing look easy, and that takes real talent.

YOWZA! PART FOUR Of SMASH! COVER GALLERY...

Copyright REBELLION

You know, when I think about it, I realise that I bought 'new' SMASH! in spite of the covers, not because of them.  After all, they didn't reflect the comic's contents and I doubt they attracted anyone who wasn't already a regular reader, perhaps having continued to purchase the paper from its ODHAMS days.

I say that because the WARRIORS Of The WORLD series, which lasted for 46 issues, had too much of an 'educational' slant, that, as we know, is anathema to most young boys.  (Unless you're CYRIL SWOT, of course, who'd probably zealously buy LOOK & LEARN - and not for The TRIGAN EMPIRE.)

Having said that though, due to the childhood memories associated with each cover, I now have a distinct fondness for them that I wouldn't have had at the time. However, I feel that the series would've been better placed on the back covers, with the front of the comic featuring symbolic 'splash pages' of JANUS STARK, CURSITOR DOOM, MASTER Of The MARSH, etc.  (It's not as though they were short of strips to choose from.)

I think such scenes would've been a bigger draw to potential buyers than what was used, but I guess it's easy to be wise after the event.  If you have an opinion on the matter, feel free to share it in the comments section. 

PERCEPTIONS AND PROJECTIONS DEPT - HOW THINGS ARE, OR HOW THINGS SEEM TO BE?

This is going to be a difficult one to express because it's kind of a nebulous concept, but I'm willing to give it a go if you are.  Ready?  Do houses, neighbourhoods and places have a particular 'ambiance' all their own, or does it all depend on the 'eye of the beholder'?

Oh dear, lost your interest already?  I'll persevere.  When I was about 13, the area I lived in had a particular 'feel' about it.  When I moved house in 1972, aged 13 and a half, that 'atmosphere', 'feeling', 'mood' - call it what you will - continued in my new home and street, and I've wondered over the years whether that was something to do with both houses sitting atop a hill.

You see, when I'd come out of either of those houses, I'd stand at the top of a hill and view the horizon in the distance, giving me a feeling of being 'master of all I surveyed'.  As I walked down (literally) either of those streets, the horizon became less visible on the descent, and it's only natural to wonder if my similar experiences of both places is what resulted in my parallel perceptions of them.

Or was it nothing to do with that?  Was it just where I was 'at' in my head at that particular time in my life, and was it me projecting my own subjective perceptions onto both neighbourhoods that accounts for how I regarded them at the time, rather than how they objectively were?  In short, was it how I imagined them rather than how they really were that determined my perceptions?

Had I lived in either of those houses at different times in my life than when I did, perhaps I'd have 'sensed' and responded to those surroundings in another way; perhaps the ambiance, as it appeared to me, would have been different at 19 than it was at 13, who knows?

Perhaps we just 'see', 'sense', 'feel', 'experience', etc., things in particular ways at different times in our lives, irrespective of how things happen to be.  Could it be that we project our own sense of a place onto it, rather than respond to how that place actually is?  All I know is that, these days, whenever I walk down either of the two streets mentioned, although I can remember how things 'used to be', I'm all too painfully aware that they seem different somehow, in ways that I can't fully articulate.

Of course, other contributory factors must be considered, one being that at the foot of the first hill was a school I attended as a boy in the 1960s.  At that time, WHAM! comic was reprinting the adventures of The FANTASTIC FOUR, and on winter afternoons after school I would see the building interiors lit up in the darkness as the cleaners set about their business.

From the top of the second hill (but farther away) I could see another school of a similar design, which, when viewed in the same wintry conditions, reminded me of the school in my previous neighbourhood.  At the time (early '70s), The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL was reprinting those same FF tales, so perhaps the 'deja-vu' type sensation created in my subconscious can hardly be considered surprising.  Then again, maybe not.

   

When we look back on our childhoods much later in life, summers always seem to have been longer, skies bluer, winters whiter, Christmases snowier, etc. - but were they?  Or is it simply the case that's only how we viewed things at the time (or imagined them later), rather than how they actually were?  Time changes all things, alas, but oft-times far too quickly.

Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?  (Presuming, of course, that I managed to express my thoughts in any way resembling a coherent one.)