EXCLUSIVE! MY CHEQUE ISN'T IN THE POST...

Guess what, fellow Criv-ites?  A certain Scottish publisher is wanting to pay me me for the first of several submissions which was published last week in one of their famous weekly periodicals.  I've politely declined their kind offer of payment and informed them that they can publish the other items I submitted completely free of charge, if they so wish.  I'm just that sort of a guy - happy to see the fruits of my labour in print.

I'm not going to reveal anything about what it was or which publication it was for, but it's nice to know that it was considered worthy of public perusal in the paper periodical it appeared in.  I'll maybe tell you the full story one day, but, for now, I'm keeping the details to myself.  After all, I have to keep something for a rainy day - other than an umbrella and a sou'wester I mean.

    

Any developments, I'll keep you posted - eventually.

BABE Of The DAY - VICTORIA VETRI...

Here's lovely VICTORIA VETRI taking a

dip.  I think it's well-past time I learned to swim.

Where'd I put my trunks?  Hang on, Victoria!

The TV21 DALEKS LIVE AGAIN...

Here's a great DALEK image from over on

http://www.cosmicbento.com/daleks.html -

check it out for more great pictures.  This one's inspired

by the cover of the very first 1960s book, but there are

also Dalek strips based on the continuity created by

the writers and artists of TV CENTURY 21.

(Update: Link no longer active.)

BEANO WORLD RECORD COLLECTORS' ISSUE...

Image copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

I'm not quite sure why the word "collector's" is rendered in the singular as if there's only one of them in the universe, but I've made it plural in the title of this post.  So The BEANO is now the longest-running weekly comic in the world, but DC's monthly DETECTIVE COMICS came out first - even before the now deceased DANDY, in fact.  For the most part, it's pretty well drawn, though there are still one or two inferior-looking strips that would be more at home in a comic for infants and toddlers, and which let the side down.

I bought this yesterday in my local SAINSBURY'S, priced £2.20.  Why not buy a copy for a niece or nephew today and try and keep the old comic going for a while longer, eh?

PANTHERS & ELEPHANTS - NOW THERE'S AN ODD MIX...

How the memories come flooding back on sight of this record cover.  I bought mine in a chemist's shop in the Westwood Square shopping precinct around either 1976 or '77.  I'd bought the PINK PANTHER Holiday Special for '76 when it first came out (might have been the same year, might not), and I remember reading it while listening to the record.  I seem to recall the one I had being in red or orange plastic, but my recent replacement is the usual black pressing for a 45rpm.  I also seem to recollect that there were two tunes on the B side, the other perhaps being Theme From HATARI, but I could be mistaken about that.

Ah, the '70s.  I thought I was going to live forever, and summer days seemed to last for far longer than they do now.  My parents were out that night, and I have an idea they may actually have been away on a fortnight's holiday, so, either way, the sense of freedom was palpable.  Only myself, my brother, and our dog TARA were in residence on that summer evening of around 40 years ago, and looking back now, I wish I could have those days back again in all their halcyon glory.  Why doesn't life come with a rewind button?   Now wouldn't that be something?!

(Incidentally, I still have my original PP Holiday Special.  Here's a piccie of it for you to feast your eyes on.)

Looking at the date on the back of the record cover makes me wonder.  In 1971, I lived across the road from the shops where I purchased this 45 (we moved in June '72), and it's entirely possible that the single sat in the spinner-rack, waiting for me to buy it in '76 or '77.  If so, I could've owned it four or five years earlier.  Maybe it was inevitable that one day it would be mine, eh?  Cue TWILIGHT ZONE theme.