SMASH! COVER GALLERY - PART THIRTEEN...

Copyright REBELLION

SIMON TEST still dominates the covers of SMASH! weekly, making me wonder if he was the runaway leader in the comic's popularity polls.  We'll never know for sure, alas, but perhaps the fate of the pulsating periodical would've been different had JANUS STARK ever looked out at readers from the newsagents' counters. Curiously, when it came to the Annuals, HIS SPORTING LORDSHIP was the cover star (apart from the first and last ones, which featured TRI-MAN and a generic Kung-Fu/Karate figure, respectively.)

Want to see more of these covers?  Then be sure to let me know in the comments section.  And if any of you Crivs would like to remind yourselves of just what the Annual covers looked like, then click here.  (The ODHAMS PRESS Annuals are also featured.)

   

POLYSTYLE GRAB-BAG COVER GALLERY...

Characters copyright relevant and respective owners

A mixed bag of covers from POLYSTYLE PUBLICATIONS, folks, with TV COMIC HOLIDAY SPECIALS from 1963, '79 & '80, and the 1972 & '86 POPEYE ones.  I remember being fascinated with the Popeye Special from '72 - there was just something about the cover and the paper that, in their pristine state, exerted a curious hold on me - I just loved to gaze at it.

TV Comic was a great weekly for a good while, but declined in quality in later years, containing more and more reprints, until it was eventually cancelled in 1984 - a whopping 32 years ago that, to me, seems like only a half dozen at the very most.  Strange how that works, eh?  Did you ever buy any of the Holiday Specials, Crivs?  What do you recall about them, if anything?