The COMPLETE INCREDIBLE HULK POCKET BOOK COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

The American version of The INCREDIBLE HULK mag lasted for only 6 issues when it was released back in the '60s.  In the '80s, the British Pocket Book sized monthly mag managed to hold on for 13 before it came to an end, undoubtedly (like its State-side counterpart) due to disappointing sales.  It wasn't helped by some of the reproduction being awful, with line drop-out from weak source material and very poor printing.  Some of the re-sized pages obscured by Zipatone and first published in '70s weekly comic The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL were also used, which, in the reduced dimensions of the pocket books, looked pretty terrible.

However, it wasn't all bad, and some stories reproduced quite well, reminding me of a smaller version of U.K. weekly comics SMASH! and FANTASTIC, in which I'd first read most of these tales back in the '60s.  Anyway, 13 is supposed to be unlucky, but not for you, as you now have the pleasure of perusing this passel of pulsating piccies from the palpitating past!  Go to it, pilgrim!

I now no longer recall if I bought this and the following issue in my home town or, having missed
them, bought them in Southsea or Portsmouth at the beginning of 1981.  A friend who was with me
also bought them, and I may've purchased them again to have extra copies.  The cover from a spare
copy of #4 (below) adorned my bedroom wall for decades 'til being replaced with a fresh print of it

I bought this one in Portsmouth and recall reading it on the ferry over to the Isle of Wight in 1981

BABE Of The DAY - ALICIA SILVERSTONE...

The stunning ALICIA SILVER-

STONE as BATGIRL.  (Wow!)  Ah,

decisions, decisions!  Alicia or Yvonne

Craig?  Who do you all prefer as the

 caped cutie?  Sure is a tough one.

NOW COMES... COLOSSUS!

Copyright REBELLION

Whenever I first read a book, the images that form in my head are thereafter indelible.  Even if I re-read the book twenty years later, the exact same imagery is conjured up in my mind as before - although sometimes a more careful contemplation of the text might reveal that what I'd envisioned was perhaps not in perfect accord with the mental picture the writer was trying to paint.  (It's usually pretty close though.)

What do I mean exactly?  Well, if a writer's description of a location is similar enough to one I'm familiar with, then that's where I'll think of whenever I read the associated piece of text.  For example, KENNETH GRAHAME's WILD WOOD (from The WIND In The WILLOWS) is an amalgam, to me, of two different woods in two different neighbourhoods where I lived as a youth.  Exactly which wood depends on precisely which paragraph (or sentence) I'm reading, but one descriptive passage will suggest one wood, and another the other one.  These images formed in my brain when I first read the book, and these are the images that remain with me to this day, no matter how many times I re-read it.

So what's any of that got to do with this strip from the FANTASTIC Annual for 1968 (issued in August/September of 1967)?  Well, what I've just waxed boringly about in the preceding preamble is pretty much the same when it comes to comic strips.  With one obvious difference of course, as comic strips have their own accompanying set of images which don't require much, if any, interpretive contribution on the part of the reader.  However, comic strips still carry with them their own associations of where and when they were first read, so they leave their own indelible impressions on a reader's mind in a similar way to what novels do. 

For instance, I so associate the COLOSSUS strip - drawn by the amazing Spanish artist JOSE ORTIZ MOYA - with the house and neighbourhood in which I stayed when I first read it, that I'm right back there again in a heartbeat on sight of this particular tale.  Regardless of however many homes I've lived in (or ever will live in) since my initial exposure to this story, whenever I've re-read it over the years, it's always that first house I find myself thinking of each time I pore over this astoundingly awesome Ortiz artwork.

Anyway, give yourselves a pat on the back - it goes without saying that you all deserve a gold BLUE PETER BADGE for having to wade through the previous paragraphs of self-indulgent tosh to get to a point that should've taken only a few sentences.  You know me though - in love with the sound of my own computer keyboard.

If you think you recognise the art style, you'd be right.  As well as drawing Spanish strips and working for WARREN PUBLISHING in the States, Jose also drew strips such as The THIRTEENTH FLOOR and The TOWER KING for IPC MAGAZINES.  He did much more than I've mentioned here of course, and fans of the man and his work might like to read more about his career by looking him up on WIKIPEDIA.  Sadly, he died aged 81 on December 23rd, 2013, but he leaves behind a rich legacy of absolutely amazing artwork.

Anyway, congratulations - you've scaled the final plateau.  Now you can enjoy this 12-page strip by one of the comic strip medium's true masters.