WELCOME To The VILLAGE...

Every week, for about 10 or 12 years, I used to visit a little village overlooking the sea.  The stone cottages, the rowboats on the beach, the hills in the distance, all were familiar sights to me for a large part of my childhood and teenage years.  To me, this village existed only in a framed print of a painting hanging on my grandparents' living-room wall above the fireplace (though, as far as I know, it's a real location), and that framed window was a portal into a place of peace and tranquillity beside the seashore.

I still visit that little little island today on occasion, as that self-same painting passed into our possession when my grandparents moved into an old folks home in the late 1970s or very early '80s.  When I want to remember those halcyon days (to use a well-worn phrase) of my childhood, I'll wander into the room in which it hangs and stand and gaze upon it, recalling a vanished era that becomes more precious to me the farther it recedes on the horizon of history.

The painting is by an artist named T.R. SANDERSON, of whom I can find no personal details when I Google the name, though there are examples of his or her art on view.  Does anyone know anything about the artist, and - even more important - can you identify where the above picture was actually painted?  Who knows, one day I may actually stand on the spot where the painting was produced, and pretend to myself that I've stepped through the frame and onto that hopefully not too far distant shore. 

PART TWO Of CAPTAIN BRITAIN COVER, SPLASH PAGE & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Still with us?  Good.  Here's a post that all those who lived through the 1970s and bought the comics of the era should enjoy.  CAPTAIN BRITAIN was a weekly periodical published by MARVEL U.K., and probably had more colour in it than any other British comic (outside of a nursery title) on sale at the time.  Sadly, it wasn't to last for the mag's entire run, but it made the initial issues stand out as something different from its stablemates and competitors.

I'd bought the first five issues (seen in part one) while working in the warehouse of my local BOOTS The CHEMIST, and one glance at them and I'm back walking the corridors I last trod nearly 40 years ago.  (I used to buy the comic from JOHN MENZIES while on my way to work in the morning.)  At some stage in the late '70s or early '80s, I gave all my CBs (and also the merged SUPER SPIDER-MAN & CAPTAIN BRITAIN issues) to a pal, who still has most of them.  I kept #1, but a few years later, I regretted my rash action and started buying replacement issues from various sources.

This results in an odd situation, in that, although I still retain the initial impressions and associations that these comics made on me when I bought them the first time around, because I was living in another house when I acquired the replacements, many of the issues also conjure up memories of my time there as well as my previous (original) set of recollections.  It's almost as if I've  lived two lives around  the same comics, strange as that may sound.

However, my self-indulgent reminiscences have held you back long enough from all the goodies awaiting you.  It's now time for you to refresh your own personal recollections connected to the five issues set forth here - so cast your mind back to the long ago, and prepare to relive yesteryear as if were happening in the here and now for the very first time.  (And don't be shy about sharing your memories with the rest of us.)

'ON The SCENE': PART SIX - SHAZAM...

Copyright DC COMICS

At last - part six of On The SCENE, featuring the original CAPTAIN (SHAZAM) MARVEL.  It's been almost a year since part five in this occasional series, and I reckon two more instalments will cover practically the complete 1966 magazine.  Still to come is a feature on the then-new BATMAN movie with ADAM WEST and BURT WARD, plus more great ads than you can shake a stick at.

See you in part seven - if not before!

SCREAM! COVER GALLERY - PART THREE (OR 2001: A SCREAM! ODYSSEY)...

Copyright REBELLION

Are you of a nervous disposition?  Do you scare easily?  Are you always looking behind you at the slightest noise?  Then lean forward and listen closely - I've got something to say to you.  Now, I don't want you to be alarmed, but...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Okay, now that I've got your attention (don't worry, I'll wait 'til you come down off the ceiling), I just wanted to say that, with this instalment, we've now completed  our gallery of all 15 issues of SCREAM!, first published over 30 years ago by IPC MAGAZINES.

So - I'll leave you to it then.

Unfortunately, because there was no issue  #16, the fourth part
of the above poster was never published (as far as I know)

And just when you thought it was safe to look under the bed, here are all 5 covers to the Holiday Specials.  Right, off to the bathroom cabinet with you and have your tranquilizers.  Sleep tight - and ignore the tapping on your window - you don't want to know what's out there, believe me.  You really don't.

WooooOOOOooooOOOOooooo!!!