"DO YOU TAKE PLASTIC, MAN?" FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - PART THIRTY-TWO... (Updated)

Images copyright DC COMICS

Funny how we sometimes like to 'repeat' the past, isn't it?  I first bought the above comic mag around 1973 (though it was issued in '71) from my local R.S. McCOLL'S in the main shopping centre of my home town.  The memories that resurface just typing that sentence almost overwhelm me; memories of shops that no longer have a presence in that centre - or anywhere at all in some cases.

Well-known shops such as WOOLWORTH'S, SAFEWAY, The CO-OP, GALBRAITH'S, TEMPLETON'S, KRAZY CUTS, TIMOTHY WHITE'S, HENDERSON'S, FINE FARE, and W. & R. HOLMES, have turned off their lights and pulled down the shutters one by one.  Others, like HALFORDS, have upped-sticks and relocated to out-of-town retail parks where rents and rates are less expensive.

Sorry, I got distracted there - we're not here to talk about extinct shops, but DC SPECIAL #15, featuring JACK COLE's PLASTIC MAN.  I had such a soft spot in my memory for this mag that, when the 'lost' 80 Page Giant PLASTIC MAN Annual was issued in 2003/'04, I bought it immediately just because it reminded me of the yellow covered mag from the '70s that I'd once owned.  That's what I meant about repeating the past.

One thing I thought I'd first read in this comic was that Jack Cole drew pages printed size (at least for the origin tale) - not twice up as was the custom of the time.  However, search as I might, I found no mention of that fact anywhere in my recent replacement ish, but I definitely read it somewhere way back in the '70s.*  (LEO BAXENDALE fell out with The BEANO editor for doing something similar to meet a deadline once, refusing to redraw the page when the editor insisted on it, so obviously the same allowances weren't made for him as Jack Cole.)

Anyway, enjoy the selection of images from this mag from over 40 years ago.  Time doesn't just fly, it also stretches  - at least, it does when you've got your very own time machine in the form of a classic comicbook from your youth!

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*Update 2nd April '24: Today I obtained back issues of #s 12 & 13, and in the latter number on the letters page (Plastic Postcards) an editorial response to a comment by one Scott Gibson says the following:

Here's a trivia tidbit to increase your appreciation of Cole -- he did all the PLASTIC MAN art the same size, on 6" by 9" art boards, while his fellow artists of the forties worked on 14" by 22" originals that allowed them twice as much room to work in!  Today's artists strike a happy medium, mostly working on 10" by 15" originals.

So, although these two issues don't immediately ring memory's bell (haven't read them yet), I obviously must've had them back in the day as #13 is clearly the source of that piece of info about what size artboards Cole used.

  

LET'S HAVE A GIGGLE...

Okay, I admit it, I'm just showing off!  Above are five bound file volumes, four of which used to belong to ODHAMS, and the fifth one to FLEETWAY.  They were given to me by an IPC editor who I assume just wanted the space in his office, and knowing what a fan I was of the POWER COMICS, he offered them to me.  I greedily accepted and they've now been in my possession for around 25 years or so. 

Curiously, Odhams didn't include all 52 issues for the year in their books, only 50 issues from January to December.  Had they bound all 52 issues, the WHAM! volume would've had the final two comics (#s 186 & 187), but the book ends with #185.  The POW! volume has #s 1-50, the SMASH! pair contain the first 100 issues, and GIGGLE contains the complete set.  (They're not numbered past the first two and I can't be bothered counting them.  If only my DENIS GIFFORD comics catalogue were handy.)

I remember buying a copy of Giggle back in the very early 1970s ('71 perhaps) from a charity shop in my neighbourhood shopping precinct and not being overly impressed by it, though the HERLOCK SHOLMES strip lodged in my memory.  I don't recall ever having seen the comic anywhere before that.  One day, I'll pore through the bound volume and see if I can identify which one it was, but I'd be surprised if I remember.

Anyway, not a bad little set of volumes to have on one's bookshelf, eh?