BABE Of The DAY - TIA CARRERE...

Tell you what, Crivs - TIA CARRERE

may be a 'looker', but she's not much of a

dancer, is she?  My parrot can dance better

than that - and I don't even have a parrot!

(????????????????)

KID KLASSICS: MOONLIGHT, MEMORIES & MADNESS...

Image copyright DC COMICS

Above is the cover to a comic which reminds me of three other comics at the same time.  "How is such a feat of mighty memory-mastery possible?" you may be asking.  So, let us now, by the power of our imaginations, return to October 7th 1972 and the Old Village quarter of my hometown, where I, resplendent in my brother's cast-off cord jacket - slightly too big for me and worn for the first time that Saturday morning - was attending a jumble sale held in aid of the 8th Scout Troop in the 'old hall' in the grounds of the Old Parish Church.

This and subsequent images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I'd previously purchased The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #2 earlier that morning, and, later, SUPERMAN #251 en route to the village.  Now, in the kind of hall that spoke of a long-vanished age - anything from the '20s to the '50s - I was to add MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #1 and TERRIFIC #1 to my awesome acquisitions.  The previous owner seemed to have used the issue of MSH as a dartboard at some point, but it was still readable, and I think it was the first time I'd owned a complete copy of that particular Terrific, a U.K. weekly launched five years earlier which had graced the shelves for a mere 43 issues.

Looking for a place to pore over my comics as I left the jumble sale, I wandered around to the back of an adjacent, nigh-derelict building (a dentist worked from a room or two on the upper floor) which adjoined the local, centuries old public house next to the church (and overlooked the graveyard).  It was an inquisitive boy's delight, and a week or so later, under the dark velvet canvas of the star-kissed heavens, yours truly and a friend were crawling across the roof of the pub, and even using the exterior, cast-iron fire-escape staircase to gain access to the back 'courtyard' below.  This location became the source of surreptitious exploration every so often over a period of two or three years and holds many happy memories for me.

So, I can't look at any one cover without also thinking of the other three - or of that jumble sale, my cord jacket, and an old pub next to the final resting place of long-gone local 'worthies', who had doubtless quaffed many a flagon of ale centuries before in the very building over whose slates two teenage boys daringly defied death in the airy Autumn moonlight.

******

The building at the back of the pub

Interestingly, I occasionally visit the upstairs lounge bar for a soft drink and a bag of crisps, and have done for many a year now.  It's an odd sensation to think, while sitting there, that I'm under the very roof I once crawled over as a 14-year-old lad so very long ago. I sometimes wonder if any modern-day counterparts of me and my pals have ever retraced our footsteps (and handprints) in the years since we first braved the slates, but it's unlikely.  The building at the back of the pub is now residential and access to the roof can no longer be obtained through its grounds.

******

 For an earlier mention of my rooftop adventures, click here.