NEW DOCTOR WHO ANNOUNCED...

...he'll be continuing in the role for a good while yet.  (Ha!  Had you going there for a second, eh?)

******

Shame that this Glasgow Police Telephone box is on a concrete platform.  Because of that, and the fact I'm leaning back against it, I look almost like a dwarf.  However, I think this is an intriguing look for the new DOCTOR WHO when PETER CAPALDI eventually packs it in.  

Are you paying attention, BBC?

BABE Of The DAY - RAQUEL WELCH...

Poor RAQUEL seems to have fainted.

Stand back, all, and give her some air.  I'd better

administer some mouth-to-mouth and a vigorous

chest massage.  (If it's good enough for LARRY

 HAGMAN, it's good enough for me.)

HONEST - I ONCE HAD A 'NOBEL PRIZE'...

I've shown these photos before, but there's a reason for their reappearance.  I'm unsure as to which of the photos was taken first (possibly the colour one), but both of them were snapped in 1965.  The colour picture was taken outside the house I recently regained entry to for the first time in 50 years, and the b&w pic was captured in Port Bannatyne when we holidayed there in May/June of '65.  (That's #19 of TV CENTURY 21 I'm holding in my grubby paws.)

Look at the car though.  We had this car from 1964 to around 1969 or '70, and I remember reading early issues of TV21 right up to middle issues of FANTASTIC while being driven home from the shops after buying them.  The car is a NOBEL 200, the British version of the German FULDAMOBIL, and had a fibreglass chassis.  I only ever saw one other (at a distance), and though I've a strong impression that I was in our Nobel at the time, I now wonder if it might actually have been from our new vehicle (a RELIANT ROBIN) - which, if so, means it's entirely possible that what I saw was our own, former car.

However, let's not get bogged down with uncertainty at this stage.  The point is that it was a rare car, and even without the photos, the licence number (77 JJO) was lodged in my brain from an early age.  That's mainly because, another house later, it matched our house number - 77 - and the JJO has a rhythm about it which is hard to forget.  Looking back, it's the only number plate of the several cars my parents owned that I remember.  I'd like to think it's still out there somewhere, owned by a collector, and wasn't consigned to oblivion many years ago.

I tend to regard it as a long-absent family member with whom I'd like to get reacquainted.  If, by some slim chance, any of you happen to know of its whereabouts, or how I could find out its fate, then let me know, eh?  It'd be nice to hear that it still exists.

******

Update: Managed to find and buy a limited edition, white metal model (1.43 scale) of the car on eBay.  It was manufactured by a German company called BUDIG in around 2008.

The TITANS CENTRE-SPREAD POSTER GALLERY - PART NINE...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here it is - the final part of The TITANS centre-spread poster gallery, including the one comprising two parts from SUPER SPIDER-MAN in a crossover promotion between the two titles.  (In other words, a ploy to get you to purchase a comic you didn't usually buy.)

Okay, folks, that wraps it up for this series.  Drop in again soon to see what else Crivens! has up its sleeve.

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

BLUE BOY...

JIM REEVES backing band were called

The BLUE BOYS.  Appropriate, given the

title of this song.  Take it away, Jim.

TV21 - ADVENTURE In The 20th CENTURY (MARVEL UNIVERSE)...

Images copyright respective owners

Strange as it may seem, many MARVEL fans who bought the ODHAMS POWER COMICS back in the '60s, tend to think that - ALAN CLASS monthly mags aside - Marvel reprints in Britain all but disappeared until The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL was launched on September 30th 1972.  What they apparently forget (and I include myself) is that TV21 published various Marvel tales within its pages from issue #62 (cover-dated November 28th 1970) to #105 (cover-dated September 25th 1971), which was its final issue before being merged with IPC's VALIANT.  (The Marvel strips didn't survive the merger.)

Over a span of 10 months, The SPIDER-MAN, The SILVER SURFER (with a guest-appearance from The FF), The GHOST RIDER (that's the one with a horse, not a motorcycle), RINGO KID, HOMER The HAPPY GHOST, and perhaps one or two other strips, dominated up to half the comic some weeks - so it's strange that so many comic fans appear to have forgotten Marvel's continued presence in the world of U.K. comics between March 1969 and September/October 1972.  (The dates when SMASH! abandoned Marvel reprints and MWOM went on sale, respectively.)

Perhaps it was the brevity of their presence.  After all, 44 issues can hardly be considered a long run and, as far as I can recall (without looking at every issue), none of the Marvel strips were ever featured on the cover - apart from an occasional mention in the banner, but certainly never in a prominent way. 

Anyway, as a little treat, here's a look at the Marvel content of the first issue (#62, new series) of TV21 to feature such strips.  Cast your eyes carefully over each creatively-crafted page.  Are you beginning to remember?  Are memories, long suppressed, starting to claw their way from the back of your brain to burst once more into the warm glare of welcome recognition?  Then congratulations!  You are whole once more and your past is once again your present.  I have done my job and done it well, so it's time for me to leave you and your joyous reminiscences to spend some time together alone.  After all, you know what they say - three's a crowd.

See you next post.

Don't forget - click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.