KID'S KLASSIC U.K. KOMIC KOVERS 'POT LUCK' OMNIBUS...

Images copyright relevant owners

It's always nice to look back on the familiar, isn't it?  So, even though you've seen them all before, I thought it would be fun to do an 'omnibus' edition of some classic U.K. covers.  Featured in their sequential order, any absentees this time around may pop up in a future post.  Hey, that's something to look forward to, eh?

BABE OF THE DAY - JERI RYAN...

JERI RYAN has a couple of great features that are totally entrancing - her lovely blue eyes.  Of course, that's not to suggest that she's restricted to just a pair of perfect peepers, but you don't need me to tell you that - now do ya?

DAVE STEVENS' THE ROCKETEER...

Images copyright relevant owner

It was in Glasgow's VIRGIN MEGASTORE in 1982 that I saw PACIFIC PRESENTS #1, and probably bought it primarily for STEVE DITKO's The MISSING MAN strip.  However, there was really only one star of the mag, and that was The ROCKETEER by DAVE STEVENS, which had first appeared as a back-up in STARSLAYER #s 2 & 3 after an ad for the strip in the first ish.  (Never bought them and therefore missed Rocky's debut.)

After two issues of Pacific Presents (dated October '82, and April '83 respectively), The Rocketeer next showed up in the November '84 dated Special Edition, The Rocketeer #1 (published this time by ECLIPSE) - only to promptly vanish again.  The Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1 (dated April '88 and published by COMICO), was the next venue for Stevens' high-flying hero, with a 2d issue the following year (dated April '89).  Six years later, a 3rd (and final) issue, this time published by DARK HORSE, hit the stands, dated January '95.

In '85, Eclipse published a collected edition of the first five chapters, and IDW followed suite in 2009, with a very handsome, recoloured hardback volume of all eight chapters.  Sadly, Dave Stevens died in 2008, aged only 52, after suffering from leukemia for several years.  His Rocketeer series remains a high benchmark in the world of graphic storytelling, and it's certain that this very fine artist will not soon be forgotten - if ever in fact.  Here's to you, Dave.

******

And now a word from our sponsor - namely me.  I kept the first two issues of Pacific Presents in the drawer of the writing bureau beside my bed, where they remained in the new house my family moved into in 1983.  Subsequent appearances of The Rocketeer have joined those two issues over the years, though I missed the 3rd issue of Adventure Magazine in 1995.  However, I managed to track one down and it arrived today, and has now joined its companions in that drawer.

As regular readers know, I returned to my former home after four years, so it gives me a glow of satisfaction to know that The Rocketeer's comics journey eventually ended in the very same drawer of the same desk, in the exact same room of the same house in which it began, 35 years before.  That's what you call full circle, eh?

Now, check out Dave Steven's great art, and then leave a comment of appreciation for the man and his work in the you-know-where, if you'd be so kind.

DAVE STEVENS

CARESSING THE KEYS OF MEMORY...

This is another of those tales that I know I intended to relate a while back, but can't remember if I ever actually did so or not.  Anyway, back in 1972 when my family first took up residence in my present abode, the family with whom we swapped houses left a piano behind.  I can no longer recall how long we kept it, whether it was a year, two years - maybe even going on three, but my parents, at some stage, decided to dispense with its seldom-used services.

None of my family played the piano, and apart from a rare visitor occasionally tickling its ivories, the poor 'box in the corner' lay neglected for the most part.  So my father donated it to the town's hospital, and a contingent of youths in the charge of an adult (I have a vague memory they may have been Scouts, but I'm not certain) came to our home one day and wheeled away our unwanted house-guest.  I wonder how it felt being so unceremoniously evicted?

I've long been afflicted with a tendency to imbue inanimate objects with sentience, feelings, emotions - even personality.  What can I say?  I'm off my head!  But did you know that, apparently, when plants and trees are pruned, they scream?  (It's far beyond the ability of human ears to detect, but scientists have registered the 'sound' on audio machines attuned to a certain wavelength.)  True, plants and trees are 'alive' in a sort of way;  they grow - not something that a piano (or any other inanimate item) in the corner of the living-room does.  (As far as anyone knows anyway.)

However, if you cut a leaf in half, and then subject it to a certain kind of infra-red spectrum analysis, the image shows the outline of the full leaf.  So, imagine if a tree, even after being chopped up and made into furniture, yet retains a part of whatever measure of 'awareness' it may have had when it was growing in a forest or field somewhere?  Too far-fetched?  Perhaps, but who can say for sure?

Anyway, where am I going with this you may be wondering.  Years after the fact, I learned that our old piano had been passed onto the church situated across the road from our former abode.  The fellow who told me was one of the boys who had helped remove the piano from our house.  It transpired that he was a friend of a friend, and what's more, coincidentally lived next door to another of our previous homes, though not when we'd lived there.  (Which is neither here nor there, but it's an interesting example of how 'fate' unfolds.)

The woman who now lived in our former residence would undoubtedly have been in that church on occasion, even if only for a jumble sale or a coffee morning.  Given my over-active imagination, I found myself wondering if she might ever have passed her/our old piano without recognising it, and whether it had called out to her in its inaudible voice, not understanding why someone it knew was now ignoring it.  "Hello, it's me - don't you remember me?  I lived with you once and then you went away one day and left me behind.  What did I do wrong?  Did I offend you by being out of tune perhaps?  Why won't you acknowledge me?"

Same goes for myself.  Although no longer living in the area, I was back in that church many a time over the years.  As was my mother in fact, as she attended its Sunday services every week.  I restricted myself to jumble sales and Christmas and Summer fayres, but I surely must have passed the piano, or even stood close to (or against) it on one of my many visits over a period of nearly 20 years.  Did that poor piano also call out to me (or, on separate occasions, my mother), unable to com-prehend why we turned a deaf ear to its cries?

The church was demolished around '91 or '92 (due to structural flaws) and a new (and different) building was erected in its place.  I took numerous photos, both inside and out, before the old church (which had only been completed in 1965 or '66) was erased from the face of the planet, and our old piano - if it hadn't been replaced or dispensed with by that time - is surely in one of those pics.  It was a large church, with two or three pianos in different halls, but I think I got photos of all of them.  Trouble is, they're in a box in the loft at the moment, so I can't check - or illustrate this post with a piccie.  I'll add one later when I find them.

In the meantime, I've used a stock photo of a piano, which will have to do the job for now.  I guess it's always possible that the piano yet survives in the new church building, and now that the thought has occurred to me, I'll make a point of visiting one day to see if it is.  If it's there, I'll be sure to say hello to it, and run my fingers over its keys, just for old times' sake.  If it isn't, I'll gaze upon it's image in one of my photos and bid it goodbye.  After all, it's a friend from the past, and doesn't deserve to be forgotten.

Whatever its fate, hopefully it had a happy life being played for the enjoyment of hospital patients and church groups.  Had we kept it, it's entirely probable that it would never have got to fulfill the purpose for which it was created, and merely been a surface on which to place framed photos or vases.  It was made to make music, and I like to think  that's what it got to do.  (And hopefully yet does.)

Feel free to tell me that I need 're-tuning'.

******

Update:  Below are three photos of two pianos (I think - could be the same one in two different halls).  I took them in the church sometime in the early 1990s, and I'm hoping that one is the piano we had temporary custody of at the beginning of the '70s.  There's no reason why one of them shouldn't be 'ours', so I prefer to believe that one of them is.

 

2000 A.D. - 15 YEARS OLD - 'BEHIND THE SCENES'...

Seeing as we've been pursuing an Anniversary theme with the last few posts, here's a behind the scenes insight into things that readers don't usually get to see.  Above is a flyer I received back in 1992 when 2000 A.D was a mere 15 years old.  Below is the covering letter explaining what it's all about.  Did I attend the prestigious event?  Nah!  I was far too busy lettering just about everything in sight.

(BOND) BABE OF THE DAY - JULIE EGE...

There was JULIE, waiting to greet me with a posy of flowers -

for li'l ol' moi.  There was supposed to be a box of chocolates as

well, but the greedy bint ate them before I got there.

2000 A.D. ANNIVERSARY 'POT LUCK' COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright REBELLION

Well, it's certainly far from exhaustive, but here's a selection of Anniversary 2000 A.D. covers from over the years.  I may have some more, but these are the only ones I could find at short notice.  How many of them do you have?  And if you've got any not seen here, send them to me at once.  I'll give them a good home - honest!

This one's still in its cellophane, hence the wrinkles