(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - CAROLINE MUNRO...

LAMB'S NAVY RUM and BOND

Girl, CAROLINE MUNRO, is today's babe!

Remember her in Dr. PHIBES and CAPTAIN

KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER?  If she ain't

a babe then no one is!  Now, wipe that drool off

your chins 'cos you look utterly ridiculous and

that will simply not do, Crivvies.

AT LAST! SECRET ORIGINS Of The SUPER DC HEROES...

All images copyright DC COMICS

It just doesn't seem like 38 years since I first saw the above book advertised in the pages of a DC comic and thought how nice it would be to have one.  Back then, however, American items were far more difficult to come by for British readers unless they were also sold on these shores - and, alas, not everything was.  If the book was ever available in this country at the time, I never saw it - nor have I ever spoken to anyone who had a copy back then.

Fortunately (sometimes), the Internet has made our wide world a much smaller place, and today I gleefully received what appears to be a first edition of The SECRET ORIGIN Of SUPER DC HEROES.  For a book which is nearly 40 years old, the condition is immaculate, and my next step is to secure a protective clear 'library' sleeve for the dustjacket.  This was obviously an attempt by NATIONAL PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS (as DC was known at the time) to plough the same field that MARVEL had with ORIGINS Of MARVEL COMICS, which had been a best-seller a year or two before. 

Several copies of this book are currently on sale on eBay, in hardback and softcover editions, in various conditions, in prices ranging from around $30 right up to the $300 mark.  Believe me, I got it at an absolute steal for a fraction of that higher amount and less than the lower one.  So far, I've only had a chance to browse through it, and I've detected just one little mistake. The date of the 'creation' of the Silver Age FLASH is given as 1967 instead of '56, but let's assume it's just a typo and forgive it this one indiscretion.

However, rather than witter on about it, why not show you some of the interior pages?  No sooner said than done, faithful fans (of comics, not me) so hold onto your hats - we're off!

Okay, that's enough - there's no point in spoiling you.  However, just look at all the characters (below) covered in the book - nice, eh?   Might be worth a visit to eBay, don't you think?

SPECTRUM IS GO - ER, THUNDERBIRDS ARE GREEN, ER - OCH, SORT IT OUT FOR YOURSELVES...

Copyright relevant owner

At first I wasn't going to bother with this Annual, mainly because it wasn't quite a CAPTAIN SCARLET book or a THUNDERBIRDS one, but it was going dirt cheap on eBay so I decided to let the moths out of my wallet and grab it.  It arrived yesterday, and, as you can see, like all of the original GERRY ANDERSON based Annuals, there's no year on the cover.  This was no doubt to maintain the 21st century illusion (can't have a 20th century date on a book supposed to be from a hundred years in the future), but it also probably allowed newsagents and booksellers to keep it on sale for longer than normal.   It was published in 1969 for 1970, just as interest in the SUPERMARIONATION programmes was on the wane, which is perhaps why the decision was taken to issue a combination Annual rather than one for each programme.

Anyway, to give you a little taste of it, here's a titanic Thunderbirds tale illustrated by RON TURNER.  If you all behave yourselves, I may feature a Captain Scarlet story from the same book in a future post.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Speak up - I can't hear you.

BABE Of The DAY - The REAL DEAL THIS TIME - SOPHIA LOREN...

Apparently, yesterday's Babe of the

Day was a ringer, so here's the real deal!  I

 present - stunning SOPHIA LOREN.