PART TWELVE Of The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Alas, alack, we now come to the end of yet another slice of the 1970s, this time The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR series of cover galleries which I trust you've been enjoying these last few months.  I've always had a soft spot for the FF ever since I first read about them in  SMASH! and then WHAM! (and then, eventually, Smash! again) way back in the '60s, so I was sad to see their own British weekly mag end after so short a period.  37 issues.  It deserved more.

Anyway, time once again to remember those glorious, seemingly endless summer days of our youth, as we gaze upon familiar covers and images from yesteryear, when the biggest slice of our lives yet lay in the far-flung future, not in a distant land that is long behind us and to which we can never return - except, of course, in the alluring, sweet-scented, mystical, magical mists of memory.

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I've also included the cover and main splash pages of the FF Annual for 1979, which was likely prepared near the beginning of '78 while the weekly mag was still being published.  (It would've gone on sale around August or September of the same year.)  There were two subsequent Annuals for '80 & '81 by another publisher in a slightly different format, so whether they were intended as direct tie-ins to the now deceased weekly periodical or not is open to question. 

WALTER SIMONSON'S ORION COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Take a look at the above cover - I only recently acquired this particular ish after 14 and a half years of its curious absence from the rest of the 25 issue run, purchased when they were first published way back when.  I've written before of the sense of achievement that comes from filling a gap in a collection, and such was the case on this occasion.  Now that I've finally got the complete set, I think I'll sit down and re-read them all from the beginning.

Anyway, you're not here to read about my idiosyncratic views on reclaiming the past, you're here for these dynamic WALTER SIMONSON covers from his ORION mag from the early '00s, so I'd better not detain you any longer.  Enjoy - and don't forget to return for the final part in the series - coming soon!

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

The lovely MARTINE BESWICK

graces our 'Babe' slot today, fellas.  Have

curtains ever before parted to reveal such

 a welcome sight?  Very much doubt it.

FINAL PART (TWELVE) Of CAPTAIN BRITAIN COVER, SPLASH PAGE & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It had started with plenty of promise, but waning interest on the part of readers signed the death warrant for CAPTAIN BRITAIN's weekly MARVEL U.K. mag, which ceased publication with issue #39.  The good Captain continued on in the pages of SUPER SPIDER-MAN, presumably because the pages had already been drawn and paid for, but I suspect the strip wasn't too popular and it quietly disappeared after only 23 episodes, the last six being a two issue Spidey & Cap tale from MARVEL TEAM-UP, split into weekly instalments.

And so we come to the end of another slice of the '70s.  Don't despair though, as we still have The SUPER-HEROES cover & image gallery to enjoy, so tune into that, nostalgia fans, when the next part pops up in a post - coming your way soon!

And just to round things off, below is the first issue of the combined title.  This is the very comic that I gave to a friend back in the late '70s or very early '80s, and which I re-acquired from him around a year and a half ago, over 30 years after parting with it.  (Gets you right there, doesn't it?)