PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM...

And you'll be playing this song again and again, catchy little number that it is, by father and son team BING & GARY CROSBY.  Subtitled 'The Happy Tune', it's aptly named!  Why not give it a listen and see for yourself?

PATSY CLINE - IS SHE CRAZY?

She sure is!  Listen to her admit it in her

own words.  (Okay, they're actually WILLIE

NELSON's words, but why quibble?)

PART TEN OF SMASH! COVER GALLERY...

Copyright REBELLION

Here's SIMON TEST getting up to all sorts of exciting escapades on six covers of SMASH! from 1970.  This is the latest in our cover gallery featuring this titanic title from 40-odd years ago, and it was one of Britain's best periodicals for boys in an age when there was still a comics industry in this country, as opposed to the 'craft fair' that exists today.

I've mentioned before that, spectacular as these covers are, I think IPC missed a trick by not alternating the featured character from week-to-week, as it would surely have intrigued potential new readers to see a different face staring up at them from newsagents' counters from time to time.  Any thoughts on the matter?

PART TWO Of UNTOLD TALES Of SPIDER-MAN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

And now, another big bunch of covers and images from UNTOLD TALES Of SPIDER-MAN, a retro-mag from the 1990s which set its stories back in the days of LEE & DITKO's era of the wondrous web-slinger.  I filled you in on just about everything you need to know about the mag last time, so there's no point going over old ground.  Instead, let's focus on the difference between comics of today and what I like to call 'the good ol' days'.  In a local comicbook store recently, I overheard someone talking about the subject.  He may only have been referring to a specific title, but his comment was apropos to most contemporary comicbooks, the main purpose of which seems to be to provide content for collected editions and thereby sell the same material twice.

"You've got to read them all together or they don't make any sense!" was what he said, referring to a continuing story-arc in a series of issues of the same title.  And he's right.  I can't be bothered with all that.  When I pick up a comic, I want it to be self-contained, or - if it's a continued story - to be no more than three or four issues at most.  That was the good thing about the comics of a now-vanished era; there may have been a continuing sub-plot to keep the reader interested, but the main storyline was usually done and dusted in one ish.  The only comic I know of that does this today is DAREDEVIL in PANINI's The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL.

Got any thoughts on the matter?  Then you know where the comments section is.  In the meantime, enjoy the piccies from a comic that knew how to give readers what they wanted.