The MAN WHO OUTDISTANCED DEATH...

Image copyright relevant owner

Several posts back (here), I told you how I first became aware of the inevitability of my own mortality.  That evening, I came downstairs from my bed, wailing "I don't want to die!  I don't wan't to die!" - the exact words of the runner on the cover above.  What's strange is that I first read this issue's story in a black and white L. MILLER reprint comic sometime in the '60s - in a house across the road from the one in which I'd uttered these very words.  In what way does that matter, you may be thinking.  Well, I no longer lived in the neighbourhood, and I'd inhabited another two houses since moving some years before.

So, in a sense, reading that story expressing my selfsame cries of several years earlier, across from the very home in which I'd uttered them, well - it somehow brought things full circle in an odd kind of way.  The cover and interior strip were drawn by GEORGE EVANS, and it's a cracking little yarn, believe me.  Like to read it?  KARSWELL's currently got it on his blog, which you can enter by simply clicking here.  Remember to come back afterwards and tell me how great you think the story is.  It's a very atmospheric tale indeed, so get on over there!  (And leave a comment on Karswell's blog as well.)

Incidentally, if anyone knows whether this tale was also reprinted in an ALAN CLASS title, I'd very much appreciate you letting me know, as I'd like to track down a copy.  Ta.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - MARTINE BESWICK RETURNS...

MARTINE BESWICK is far too

stunning not to see more of her, so here

she is again to make you slobber and swoon

at her obvious charms.  In fact, let's make that

our slogan - "More of Martine!"  Who knows,

it might just catch on.  Now excuse me just for a

moment while I go and dig out my king-size

 drool cup.  I'm going to need it.

A STAR, A PUMP & A SIDEBOARD...

LITTLE STAR images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Well, if that title doesn't grab your attention, nothing ever will.  Back between 1971 and '72, while I was yet 13, I had a paper round.  One dark morning, in January '72, while in the newsagent's collecting my newspapers for delivery, I noticed a new comic on sale - LITTLE STAR.  It was published by D.C. THOMSON and was a companion paper to their TWINKLE title.  Even though Little Star was a nursery comic and I was obviously far and away too old for it, I purchased the first few issues anyway.  (I could seldom resist the lure of a new weekly.)

The second issue had free gift stickers of characters from the comic, which I promptly affixed to a tubular, cardboard ARIEL BALLOON PUMP, purchased from WOOLWORTH'S back in, if the price of 3/11 marked on the surface is anything to go by, the (probably late) '60s.  Thing is, I remember the day my mother bought this balloon pump (which I still have) as I was with her when she did.

The balloon pump resided in the sideboard for many years, until said item of furniture was gifted to a relative sometime in early 1981.  12-odd years later, I bought the sideboard back, and the balloon pump was reunited with its 'home' and has lived there again for 22 years.  There's a clown on the pump, whose face I covered with a sticker, but I always remembered that face - or so I thought.  Having bought another pump only recently, I was surprised to discover that the face was not similar to MAD's ALFRED E. NEUMAN as I had believed for many a long year, but entirely different.  However, upon seeing it again, the reset button was pressed in my mind and the memory of it as it actually was instantly resurfaced.  Funny thing memory, eh?

What surprised me though, was that, after 40-odd years of thinking that there had been only the seven stickers I'd affixed to the balloon pump, there had actually been eleven - plus a badge.  I didn't remember the other four - or what I did with them - and they would've languished in limbo if I hadn't re-acquired the early issues of the comic and seen a picture of them all.  As I said - funny thing memory, eh?  Below is the ad from #1 for the upcoming free gift.  (The same illustration was used for the cover of #2.)

So, no great insight or profundity this time around (when is there ever, some may be thinking), but I just wanted to relive the past for a few moments and considered it selfish not to share.