MOONMANDO'S GLASGOW 'GLOSSIES' (EXPANDED)...

On a recent trip to the West End of Glasgow, me and my ol' china Moonmando had a wee suanter roon' the place while he snapped a few photies.  Thought you might like to take a look at 'em.  (You can see me lurking about in the first three.)

And below is one of the above photies (as we say in Glasgow) after Moony had played around with it using digital technology.

WHEN THE SCARLET WITCH WAS GREEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I'm assuming that whoever coloured the interiors of The X-MEN #4 didn't do the cover as well, else it's a bit strange that the costumes of QUICKSILVER and The SCARLET WITCH don't match up.  Green for WANDA on the cover instead of scarlet, and a mercury-blue for PIETRO instead of green.  Almost the same thing was repeated on the next two covers - I say "almost" because Wanda's cossie was right on #6, but not Pietro's.  Funnily enough, a few years later, as a member of The AVENGERS, Pietro's costume became that same silvery-blue.

The cover above is a scan of the actual published issue, the one below comes from a MARVEL MASTERWORKS volume.  I think the slight differences in hue can be attributed to the different printing processes and paper used, rather than the way they've been coloured.  Besides, there could sometimes be a colour variation between copies of the same issue back in the '60s & '70s, due to the vagaries of printing.

  

Below is a side-by-side view for easier comparison.  (Click to enlarge.)

I'VE GOT IT TAPED...

Back in the late '70s and throughout the '80s and early '90s, I kept in contact with friends living in England or abroad via an interesting variation of the 'Cassette-a-Letter'.  Rather than just record a 10 or 15 minute voice message, I'd turn it into an hour long 'radio' show, with records and comedy clips punctuating my meandering monologues about what I'd been up to.

I called these shows 'Groan With Gordie', and soon some of my pals adopted the habit themselves.  'Boak With Brian' and 'Ramble With Campbell' were the sorts of titled tapes that popped through my letterbox at semi-regular intervals.  I still have all of the ones I received, though I suspect that the ones I sent have long since been consigned to the dustbin of history.

These days, of course, there's no need for cassette tapes to keep in touch with anyone.  Skype and the Internet now enable people to have easy access to friends or relatives dotted around the world - almost instantaneously in some cases.  So the advent of emails ended an era for me, and my recorded 'radio' shows shuffled offstage and into far too early retirement.

It's more than likely that I enjoyed recording my tapes far more than the recipients ever enjoyed listening to them, but it was something that I looked forward to doing.  "What should I talk about?  What songs and clips shall I play?", etc.  The new revolution in technology may have changed the way people maintain contact nowadays, making it far easier and quicker, but for any benefits gained, there's always something lost in the swap-over, in my humble estimation.

Let's pause as Gordie sadly gives one last groan in melancholy remembrance of a now-vanished age that will likely never be seen again.