SO WHY DID 'BEN' CALL IT A 'DAY'? I 'SMELL' A STORY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I'm probably a product of my time.  The word 'probably' in that sentence is really only to provide alliteration, as there's not much (if any) doubt about it.  We're all products of our time you see, being shaped by what we experience as we grow up to become curmudgeonly old farts, of which I am now one.  If you're past middle-age, you are too.

Comics don't seem like comics to me anymore.  I was in a local comicbook store a few weeks back, and on the row upon row of shelves of periodicals staring back at me, I saw only one that had a speech balloon on the cover.  It was like they were declaring themselves to be respectable, genuine magazines now, not mere comics  As if to prove their point, they were all printed on glossy magazine-style paper, with superior, multi-hued colouring, not the cheap newsprint with Ben-Day dot colours that comics had back in my day.

However much I may enjoy reading some of the new titles around today, I don't get the same feeling I do as when I read a comic from the 1960s, '70s or '80s.  There's a scent that emanates from comics of those times that is almost like a drug, taunting, teasing, and caressing my olfactory organs with an aroma that is truly tantalising.  Today's comics no longer have a splash page, instead featuring a boring page of expository text, to facilitate the inevitable collected edition several months down the line.  See?  Comics aren't even the 'real deal' nowadays, being no more than a dry run for the trade paperbacks or deluxe hardcover volumes that follow.

It's arguable whether today's comicbooks are better, worse, or just the same as they ever were when it comes to storytelling techniques or artistic ability, but to me, one thing is certain - they're simply not as satisfying, as encompassing a sensory 'experience' (involving not only sight, but touch and tang as well) as they used to be back when they weren't striving so hard to be anything other than what they were.  Namely, a half-hour's pleasantly entertaining diversion from the everyday problems and irritations that beset us all in this crazy game called life.

And hey - didn't they smell great while doing so?   

BABE OF THE DAY - CINDY CRAWFORD...

Hey, is it just me, or do any of you Crivs

ever get bonnie 'babes' CINDY CRAWFORD

and BROOKE SHIELDS mixed up?  (H'mm,

I guess it's just me then.  Ah, well...)

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ANNUAL #1...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Now this is better.  A hint of KIRBY's abstract musculature remains, but thanks to the inks of VINCE COLLETTA (I think), the main drawing of THOR and HERCULES is far more visually convincing than the cover of THOR KING-SIZE ANNUAL #5, shown in a recent post.  Now, here's a puzzle for you: Which of the four small cover panels is the odd one out - and why?

BEAR OF THE DAY - YOGI...

YOGI BEAR's being a bit naughty here, 'cos

there's surely an age restriction on this swing-park

slide.  He's bolder than the average bear though,

as well as smarter, so he does what he pleases.

(Sigh!  My hero!)

NON-KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: THE MIGHTY THOR KING-SIZE ANNUAL #5...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

It pains me to say it, but this JACK KIRBY cover is awful.  It gives the impression that Jack wasn't really trying to produce great work (or was perhaps no longer capable of it), he was merely meeting his page quota by churning them out as quickly as he could with as little effort as possible.  His art had become a poor parody of itself by this time, and he didn't even seem to care just how obvious it was.  Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

BABE OF THE DAY - ABI TITMUSS...

Looking good, honey - looking good.

Call me any time you like, gorgeous!  (Is

what ABI TITMUSS said to me the last

time we ran into one another.)

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS: KULL THE DESTROYER #11...

Characters copyright The Estate of R.E. HOWARD

A new direction for KULL The CONQUEROR (and a new title for his mag) also saw a change of artist - MIKE PLOOG.  Although I've got the 10 preceding issues, I don't have any following the above, so I may have to rectify that one day.

(Not too well at the moment, so apologies for the brevity and sporadic nature of my posts.)

BABE OF THE DAY - JESSICA ALBA...

All hail magnificent JESSICA

ALBA.  I think I'll use her legs as a

tunnel and push all my diecast DINKY

cars through them.  Stay just as you are,

Jessica, while I go and fetch them, I'll be

right back.  (And doesn't she do a super

Cote de Pablo impression?!  The

 girl's got talent, sure enough!)

The MASTERWORKS SERIES Of GREAT COMIC BOOK ARTISTS #2 - FRANK FRAZETTA (Again)...

Images copyright DC COMICS

It was meant to be an ongoing series, but it lasted for only three issues, making it easy for interested Criv-ites to obtain a complete run to add to their comics collection.  You've already seen #s 1 & 3, so here's the middle ish for you to paste your peepers 'pon.

No, don't thank me - it's all part of the (free) service.

BABE OF THE DAY - SYBIL DANNING...

No, silly, not SYBIL FAWLTY, SYBIL

DANNING for cripes' sake!  You think we're

all perverts or something?  Sybil Faulty- huh!

(Though now that I think about it...)

DECISIONS, DECISIONS...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here's a good one for you.  You come home from work one day to find that your wife has given away your prized comic that you've had since childhood to the Church jumble sale, which is on the following afternoon.  Next day (after checking on your wife in hospital), you rush down to the sale the second it opens to buy back your treasured periodical, but when you get there, guess what?

There's another issue of the same comic, but in almost pristine condition, whereas your own is really rather tatty.  You have only just enough to buy one or the other, as you've only got £2 on you (yours costs 50p, the other is £2), and a snotty kid is beginning to show an interest in them from further down the table so you'll have to move fast.

Neither copy is worth very much on the collectors' market, the comic is only of sentimental value to you, and that pristine issue reminds you just as much of your childhood as your battered old copy.  So have a think and then tell me - which one would you buy?

BABE OF THE DAY - JENNIFER BEALS...

Kinda chilly to be dressed like

that, JENNY.  Better throw on some

warmer clothes before you go out to buy

me my morning paper and bacon buttie.

 Hurry right back now, sweet-cheeks,

'cos I'm absolutely starving.

PART TWO OF FURY COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

There's no messing about on this blog - here's part two of our FURY cover gallery, so that you can all gape at CARLOS EZQUERRA's action-packed artwork.  Little did I realise when I was buying these comics back in 1977 that just 8 years later I'd be lettering his STRONTIUM DOG strip in 2000 A.D., which was only a few weeks old when Fury first went on sale.  It's a small world, eh?  Right, let's go!

FURY COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

FURY was an odd mag for MARVEL, in that it tried to emulate the appeal of rival weeklies like VICTOR, HOTSPUR and BATTLE, and steal a slice of the U.K. war comics market for itself.  It never really caught on though, consisting of a hodgepodge of reprints from Marvel's back-catalogue of various war-themed stories, and lasted for a mere 25 issues before being merged into MWOM.  (And take two demerits if you don't know what those initials stand for.)  On the plus side, from issue #3, the covers were drawn by CARLOS EZQUERRA, so let's look at the first 'dirty dozen' of them right now!

TIME IN A CUP...

Until a few years ago, a handful of JAJ/PYREX cups, like the one in the photo, used to reside in a cupboard in the kitchen.  I think they occupied a kitchen cupboard in just about every house I've ever lived in, but I associate them with two in particular - this and the previous one.  At some indeterminate stage they disappeared (given, I suspect, to a relative), but I recently acquired a replacement set on eBay.

Just looking at them brings my childhood back to me in a rush, and I'm once again a 10 year old boy in the kitchen of the house I lived in at the time; or a 14 year old teenager in the home I currently occupy.  It's almost a mystical thing, this sense of 'time-travel' on such occasions, and I'm sometimes amazed at how even one item can conjure up memories of entire periods of one's past life to mind.

So I've now had a cup of tea in one of my 'new' cups, and lingered in yesteryear for a spell.  Is there any specific item from your youth that you'd like to have again, to help recall a particular period in your life with a keenness and clarity that, somehow, only a tangible object can bestow?

The comments section awaits.    

BABE OF THE DAY - JOLENE BLALOCH...

Sexy JOLENE BLALOCH smoulders on

the stairs, blocking my way as I rush to the loo.

Later, Jolene, later - it's a turtle's head about

to drop here, lass - so move your @ss!

The MASTERWORKS SERIES Of GREAT COMIC BOOK ARTISTS #1 - FRANK FRAZETTA...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Well, I said I would and now I have.  At least in part, in that here's the first issue of DC's The MASTERWORKS SERIES Of GREAT COMIC BOOK ARTISTS, featuring the artwork of FRANK FRAZETTA.  The second issue likewise showcases FF's work, and it'll be appearing here fairly soon - on CRIVENS!, absolutely the best blog you've ever seen in the last 30 seconds!