FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST PART THIRTY-THREE - 1974 MARVEL TREASURY SPECIAL GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG...

All artwork images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Some mental images are indelible.  Such a one is of me standing under the canopy of the entrance to my Secondary School's Technical Block, gazing at the front cover of GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG Volume 1.  I believe one of my classmates (who was a friend) was there also, and we were waiting for the bell to ring at interval's end to be allowed access to the 'Teckie' building.

The year was 1974 and I assume that it must have been approaching the holiday season for such a publication to be on sale.  If so, my schooldays were fast coming to an end, as, when the school closed for Christmas, I wouldn't be returning after the two week break.  To be honest, I'm surprised I was even there that day, because I'd gotten into the habit of 'doggin' it' (a word which had an altogether different meaning back then) and didn't usually attend with any degree of regularity.

See that building in the distance?  That was the Technical Block.
And the area to the right of the tree was the entrance...

Not for every period, that is.  I'd take my absence from a few lessons and roam around the town centre, whiling away an idle hour or two, before returning for the subjects I didn't quite mind so much.  I suspect that it was on one such unsanctioned sojourn that I'd bought the accompanying MARVEL Treasury Edition, which is why I had it with me in my schoolbag.  Looking at the replacement I received today, my now-demolished school is miraculously re-created and I'm again standing in that doorway waiting for a now-silenced bell to ring once more.

...and this was the view (sans fence) that would've been mine from
the doorway over 40 years ago.  What you see no longer exists

It seems so close and so faraway in equal measure, and the memories stirred within me are at once both sweet and sad at the same time.  Sweet because I was but a youth, standing on the threshold of the future; sad because most of that future is long behind me and I never seemed to see it as it passed me by.

Have you any fond reminiscences of this particular publication that you'd care to share?  Go on - re-live your youth once more, before the moment passes beyond your ability to recall and is gone forever!

  

FIFTY-YEAR-FLASHBACK To SPARKY & TV CENTURY 21...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Perhaps it's overstating the case to say that it's a 'little- known fact' (I'm sure that most fans of comics from the 1960s will know), but I'm often surprised by just how many people don't recall that SPARKY #1 went on sale in the very same week as TV CENTURY 21 #1, and maybe even on the same day.  One thing's for sure though: both were cover-dated January 23rd - 1965 in Sparky's case, and 2065 in the case of TV Century 21 (seeing as how it was a comic mainly featuring GERRY ANDERSON's 21st century-based television puppet programmes).

Whenever I ask any of my contemporaries who remember both comics from back in the day, none of them associate one with the other.  It's more than likely that D.C. THOMSON & Co had Sparky waiting in the wings, ready to compete with any new periodicals launched by a rival, and issued it to steal some of the thunder of CITY MAGAZINES' comic of the future when they heard of its impending release-date.  Many a parent, acting on the entreaties of their offspring to "get me that new comic", must've returned home with a different one to what was expected, which was doubtless part of any competitive publishers' plan.

Sparky lasted a glorious twelve years, TV21 around half that span, and both comics are fondly remembered by old duffers like myself who bought them way back when.  (Although, to be honest, I wasn't a regular reader of Sparky, buying it only occasionally.)  With the upcoming 50th Anniversaries of the release of these two classic titles, I thought I'd remind you all what their covers looked like and let you wallow in nostalgia for your lost childhoods.  And thanks to John Pitt for reminding me and suggesting the post.

So Happy 50th Anniversary to both comics when the day comes - shame they're not still around, eh?

Copyright relevant owner

CRIME'S HUMAN ERASER - It's The RUBBER MAN...

Copyright REBELLION

Let's see now... there was PLASTIC MAN, The ELONGATED MAN, ELASTIC LAD and MISTER FANTASTIC - Americans all and proud of it, I'm sure.  However, Britain also had its own stretchable crime-fighter in the form of The RUBBER MAN (rendered as one word, RUBBERMAN, in the strip, if not the title) who was every bit as flexible as his pals across the pond.  (And let's not forget DCT's PING, The ELASTIC MAN, a 1930s humour strip which pre-dates them all.)

I can't say for certain who produced the strip you see in this post, but it may've been written by KEN MENNELL and possibly drawn by ALFREDO MARCULETA - if anyone knows for certain, feel free to chip in.  This particular strip appeared in the 1968 SMASH! Annual and is typical of the kind of adventures in which bendy JIM HOLLIS found himself involved, in his quest to find a cure for his condition.

When I look back, Rubberman seems to have been a significant comic strip feature of my childhood.  After the MARVEL reprints, ol' Rubby, along with RONNIE RICH, BAD PENNY and BATMAN, are the characters I most associate with the original Smash!  However, I was surprised to read somewhere that the strip was in only eleven issues of the weekly comic - not counting the ones in the '68-'70 Annuals.

One day, I'll have to go through my back numbers and count the Rubberman strips for myself - eleven issues just doesn't seem right (or possible) somehow.  Perhaps it was eleven separate adventures, each of which consisted of several episodes - that seems just a little more likely - anyone know for sure?  It'd save me a crawl through the comics.  

Anyway, in the meantime, enjoy this strip from the '60s.  The plot may be a bit of a stretch, but it's sure to rub off on you!