BABE Of The DAY - JORDAN CARVER...

Only thing I know about

JORDAN CARVER is she's

stunning - but it's more than

enough for superficial me.

"I'LL SEE YOU IN YESTERDAY, DUCKY..."

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I've just returned from the mid-'70s after accomplishing something I should've done forty years ago.  I finally read all 31 issues of HOWARD The DUCK's monthly full-colour comicbook, something I never managed to do at the time.  You see, back then, I purchased the first five issues (which I still have), and for some reason, never got the rest.  In the late '80s or early '90s, I acquired #s 6-12 from a back issue dealer, but I can't recall whether I actually ever read them or not.  Well, I have now!

When I obtained the first two volumes of The COMPLETE COLLECTION of the famous fowl's '70s adventures, I sat down and read them all in their entirety, several issues at a time.  There's something so quintessentially '70s about these stories, and so strongly do I associate Howard with that particular era, that it was almost as though I'd returned to the period to complete a task I'd begun back then.  It was like long-gone neighbours still inhabited their former homes, long-vanished shops still thrived, and the long-shrivelled sense of optimism and eternity still inhabited my once-youthful soul.  I felt as if I was only 16 or 17 again.

That feeling all-too-quickly passed when I finished the last story and reluctantly returned to the here-and-now.  The illusion was nice while it lasted, but reality always stalks such brief excursions into the past, waiting to reclaim you for its own once again.  However, don't let that deter you.  If you'd like to feel young and vital once more, I suggest you revisit a comicbook series that you associate with a dearly missed time in your life and plunge straight in.  The water's lovely, so make the most of it before it evaporates and you find yourself beached on the dry sands of the present.  It's a bitter-sweet experience to be sure, but no less worth it for all that.  What more can I say?  See you in yesterday.