The EXPLOITS Of SPIDER-MAN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Well now, lookee here - another cataclysmic clutch of colourful comics covers and images from The EXPLOITS Of SPIDER-MAN, published by MARVEL U.K. back in the early '90s.  As related in our first instalment, it took me over 21 years to acquire #5, which seems to be quite rare.  Not only didn't I see it back in '93, but I've only ever seen it available on eBay on two occasions in all the time I've been specifically hunting it.  A BBC children's programme called 'TAKE TWO', hosted by SARAH GREENE, filmed the production of number 5 and broadcast it to the nation (as related in the issue itself), so maybe that accounts for why it was so difficult to get back in the day - perhaps  it sold out with all the heightened awareness that the programme generated, or the free MARY JANE poster was a 'must have' for teenage readers.

Guess I'll never know for sure - not that it matters much now that I finally have the issue (and poster) in my collection.  So join me in celebration of the happy union and paste your peepers on all these pulse-pounding pages.  Just think - a 100 page, full-colour monthly mag for only £1.99 - wouldn't it be great if they could do that now?!

Remember to come back for part four - coming soon!  (Or whenever I find the time to get around to it.)

CHERILEA BATMAN - MINE, MINE, MINE!

You're looking at a CHERILEA BATMAN figure that I recently bought on eBay and which will shortly be winging its way to me.  It was originally sold (only?) in WOOLWORTH'S at the time of the Bat-craze that swept the country (and maybe even the world) back in the 1960s, and there was also a ROBIN figure.  So powerful is the association of this item with the time and place in which I first purchased my original (one of a few) that I'm overwhelmed with images of the living-room of my old house to such an extent that it seems that I'm still living there.

Remember those little glass-phial HUMBROL paints that Woolworth's also sold?  Because of the waxy surface of the figure, the paint used to chip off very easily, and I used to repaint the Caped Crusader and his crime-fighting chum with those little gloss enamels in an attempt to restore them to their pristine beauty.  Isn't it strange the things that remain in your head after so many years?  Now all I have to do is keep an eye out for a Robin companion figure.  In the meantime, here's a photo 'borrowed' from SUPER STUFF In The BRONZE AGE Blog which shows the Dynamic Duo together.

Although I remember these figures from childhood, - the colours, their stance, the bases - I don't seem to recall them being so 'distorted', with short, stumpy legs and football-shaped heads.  In my mind, they both seemed to be perfectly proportioned - which just goes to show, I guess, that no one has an infallible memory - not even me.  Or perhaps such details are beyond the concern of kids and therefore make little impression on their young minds.

Do you remember these figures?  If so, feel free to reminisce to your heart's content in our ever-lovin' Criv-ites comments section.  Who's first?

BABE Of The DAY - CINDY CRAWFORD...

CINDY CRAWFORD - simply

because she's stunning.  Agree?