DITKO'S DOOM: SPIDER-MAN POCKET BOOK #8...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Since my posts on MARVEL U.K.'s Pocket Books from the early '80s, I've acquired a few more on eBay.  I'll be adding the above cover to the relevant post, but I thought it deserved one of its own, so impressed am I with the illustration since first seeing it on an issue of POW! back in the '60s.  I just love this cover, and although I don't have the original U.S. issue of The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #5, I do have the reprint (cover and all) in an '80s issue of MARVEL TALES.

However, I thought I'd use this issue to demonstrate how inconsistent these PBs could be when it came to reproduction.  Take a gander at the page below, which is perfectly adequate given the reduced 'Digest Size'. 

Now look at the following page and note that the top tier is fine, but the bottom (third) tier has huge chunks of detail missing from STEVE DITKO's art.

Same again with the page below.  Look at the last panel - the detail is almost non-existent and FLASH THOMSON and his admiring crowd are practically invisible.

Having said that, however, these mags were great value for money for readers who wanted to catch up on the early tales of their favourite Marvel heroes without having to fork out a fortune on original issues.  As for the cover, I've actually got a DOCTOR DOOM figure that's clearly based on Ditko's interpretation of the character.  I may have shown it before a while ago, but here it is again in a pair of pics for those who haven't seen it.  Cracking, isn't it (Gromit)?

GERRY ANDERSON'S TV CENTURY 21 COVER GALLERY - PART NINE...

Copyright relevant owner

As it's fifty years since TV CENTURY 21 first hit the shelves, it's now time to look at anther ten covers of what was arguably Britain's most successful adventure comic for kids (at least, it certainly was at the time).  ALAN FENNELL was the editor for the first two or three years of the comic's lifespan and it was probably never better than when under his stewardship.  Hard to believe that it's been almost a quarter of a century since some of these strips enjoyed a new lease of life for a new audience in the early '90s, in the pages of THUNDERBIRDS THE COMIC, with Alan once again being the man at the helm.  (Very fitting, I thought, and nicely bringing things full circle.)

However, that's enough verbal reminiscing for the moment.  It's now time to indulge our nostalgia by paying attention to the pretty piccies.  Got a favourite?  Don't be shy now - be sure and let your fellow Criv-ites know!