"WHERE AM I?" "IN THE VILLAGE!"

FANTASTIC FOUR images copyright MARVEL COMICS

On Saturday afternoon, I took a slow stroll down to the Old Village quarter of my town.  On arrival, it started to rain quite heavily, so I sought refuge under the overhanging boughs of a tree which sheltered a wooden bench.  Just across the road from where I sat was the former house of a long-dead aunt and uncle whom my mother occasionally used to visit, with me in tow, whenever we were in the vicinity.  I associate a couple of FANTASTIC FOUR stories with that house and area, because I'd usually just bought an issue of WHAM! (which reprinted FF tales back in the 1960s) when we descended on their split-level home.  (There's also a Mighty THOR story - "The MYSTERIOUS Mr. HYDE!" - from FANTASTIC, another ODHAMS PRESS comic, that also conjures up images of their small, old-fashioned, 1950s style living-room.)

The FF stories were "KURRGO, MASTER Of PLANET X!" and "The END Of The FANTASTIC FOUR!", although they weren't complete tales, just segments of them, as each one was broken up over at least two issues.  When The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL reprinted these same stories about five or six years later, myself and one of my pals were frequenting the area, as it was there that a centuries old pub was (and still is) located.  We were in the weekly (at least) habit of clambering over its slated rooftop in search of adventure (me with my rolled up copy of MWOM stuffed into my inside jacket pocket to protect it as much as possible), and we passed my aunt and uncle's house on our way.

So, not only do I have two sets of recollections for each of those FF tales, but they're both associated with the same specific locale, due to the coincidence of my being in the same area on each occasion.  True, had I been somewhere else the second time around, I'd still have remembered my initial reading of those stories, but the memories were all the more vivid for being conjured up in the same place as on previous instances.  Today, whichever of the two printings of either tale I peruse, I immediately think back to the Old Village section of my town as it was then.

However, my memories and associations of 'the Village' aren't restricted to the Fantastic Four.  As I sat on the bench shielded from the rain, I was but a short space away from where some other benches used to be, on which, at various times, I'd sit and look through other comic mags I'd bought from a nearby newsagent's (now a GREGG'S), on hot, sunny, summer days of so very long ago.  LOIS LANE and MISTER MIRACLE are just two of the titles I also associate with the area, and I'm sure if I dug around in the recesses of my mind, a few others would soon resurface. It's best not to search for them though;  rather, let them rise unprompted when one is casually browsing through a stack of old comics from the dim and distant days of the early '70s.

No great insight into anything this time around, sorry to say (when is there ever, you may ask), merely a self-indulgent wallow in 'personal nostalgia' in yet another typical 'Rambling Robson Reminiscence'.  Hopefully you got something out of it though.  If not, don't worry - there's always next time.