SIMON & KIRBY'S STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS COVER GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

For all their celebrated reputation, I think it's interesting to note just how few issues SIMON & KIRBY actually produced of some of their best-remembered comics.  The duo worked on only the first ten numbers of CAPTAIN AMERICA, seven issues of FIGHTING AMERICAN, six of BOYS' RANCH,  and a mere four of The STRANGE WORLD Of YOUR DREAMS.

Captain America, of course, continued for some years under other hands after the pair had departed TIMELY for NATIONAL, but the other titles mentioned above (for other publishers) died with S&K's final issues.  I find that odd because, given their stature in the history of the comics industry, the impression often given is that everything they touched was a solid commercial hit.  As we can see though, that wasn't always the case.

However, even their short-lived mags were not without merit so here's a mini cover gallery consisting of all four issues of their brief excursion into The Strange World Of Your Dreams.

Below is the cover for the unpublished #5, followed by (going by the date) the cover for #7.  No cover for what would've been #6 has been found.  However, I suppose it's possible that what is assumed to be #7 could've been #6 with a planned change of publishing frequency from bi-monthly to quarterly, before it was decided just to cancel the title.  Or perhaps the masthead is a stat from the first ish before the new date was pasted over.  What do the rest of you think?

FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - PART THIRTY-NINE: The INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #66...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

If my old memory is functioning properly, I purchased this ish from the same newsagent's where I'd once regularly bought TV CENTURY 21 when I was a mere six years old.  I then took a trip along to visit a friend who lived in a relatively newly-constructed housing scheme, and stopped by the side of a path bordering a field to read my latest acquisition.  There was some kind of small concrete construct under which I sheltered, and when I'd finished the comic, I continued my journey to my friend's house.  Oddly, I recall nothing much of the rest of the day after reading IRON MAN #66, but I associate the issue - and one page in particular (4th one down) - with the point in the road where I'd stopped to read it.

That's because the field at which I'd stopped resembled the one portrayed on the page.  Had GEORGE TUSKA included a concrete water tower in the picture, it would have been almost a dead-ringer for where I read the comic.  For many years, whenever I passed that field, I couldn't do so without thinking of ol' Shellhead smashing through his gigantic foe; nor could I read the comic without thinking of that stretch of road and the field itself.  Sadly, there are houses there now and the field is no more than a memory, but the memory is never more vivid than when I peruse that page in one of my favourite comics of the past!

If you read this comic back in '74, what are your memories of it, and do you associate it with any particular place?  Humour your fellow old farts by sharing your reminiscences in the comments section.  Quick, before the memory fades forever!

    

Ah, I'm back there now, reading it for the very first time - magic!

RECOMMENDED READING: TRIMPE, HECK, TOTH, AND THE STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS...

All images copyright their respective owners

Still got some leftover festive money burning a hole in your pocket?  Then ponder no more on how you might part with it, frantic ones, 'cos I have some suggestions for you.  Cop a gander at these four tomes, which are worthy additions to any comic fan's bookshelves.  Rather than tell you about them ('cos I'm a lazy git), I direct you to the back covers, where all the spiel you require to make an informed decision awaits you.

Which one floats your boat the most?  Can't decide?  Then buy all four of them and spare yourself the angst of having to choose between them.  Problem solved!  Scurry straight round to your nearest comics shop and press some paltry pounds into the palms of those polite purveyors of pulse-pounding pleasures - that's books, Melvin!  So why are you still here?  Raid the piggy bank and get going!

  

BABE Of The DAY - DOLLY PARTON...

Well, hello Dolly (in the words of the

old song) - DOLLY PARTON that is!  It's

said that singers require powerful lungs, and

it's pretty clear that Dolly is far from deficient

in that department.  Imagine her blowing out

the candles on a birthday cake - she'd likely

 blow the thing clear across the room.