HEY, BIG FRANKIE...

Copyright REBELLION

From WHAM! #20, cover-dated October 31st 1964, comes FRANKIE STEIN, drawn by - yep, you guessed it - KEN REID.  Just think - over 50 years old and still miles ahead, art-wise, of a lot of the stuff that appears in the few surviving kids' comics of today.  We were spoiled back then, and no mistake!

BABE Of The DAY - LEE MERIWETHER (AGAIN)...

Look who's back - the alluringly lovely LEE

MERIWETHER.  She was so happy to be our Babe

last time, she asked for a return appearance.  (In my

fevered imagination - and that'll do for me.)

HARRY HAMMERTOE... The SOCCER SPOOK...

Copyright REBELLION

From SCORCHER & SCORE mag, cover-dated August 19th 1972, comes a strip called HARRY HAMMERTOE... The SOCCER SPOOK.  Drawn by the prolific and gigantically-gifted REG PARLETT, who was another cartoonist who could show some of the 'young' team in comics today how it should be done!  Every panel a joy - as was every strip he drew in his long career!  More Harry Hammertoe soon.

POW! It's KEN REID'S DARE-A-DAY DAVY - PART TWO...

Copyright REBELLION

From POW! #2 (ODHAMS), cover-dated January 28th 1967, comes a page of DARE-A-DAY DAVY, illustrated in the manic style of British comics cartoonist KEN REID.  Compared to Ken's highly-detailed artistry, many cartoonists of today are mere scribblers, who pale into insignificance measured against the giants of yesteryear - when Britain had an actual comics industry and not the faded, atrophied remnant that exists today.  And don't be fooled by those who say that comics are still a vibrant force to be reckoned with - that's merely wishful thinking on their part.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: FANTASTIC FOUR #55...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

I recall having this comic when I was a kid and being amazed at how detailed the art was compared to JACK KIRBY's early FF work, which I'd read in the pages of WHAM! comic, a British weekly published back in the '60s.  Those reprints were in black and white, so seeing my favourite super group in colour was another eye-opener and added a whole new dimension to the amazing quartet's cataclysmic cosmic capers.  And though I didn't mind continued stories, it was good to read a complete tale in one issue.