Monday 18 December 2017

WHAM! #80 - COMPLETE CHRISTMAS ISSUE FROM 1965...

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Here's an early Christmas gift for all you Criv-ites around my age - the complete WHAM! #80 from December 1965, to rekindle your memories of this weekly paper if you were a reader at the time.  Perhaps you had this very issue, and now you're reunited with it after a mere 52 years - doesn't time fly?!  For myself, I didn't start buying Wham! until after it began featuring The FANTASTIC FOUR in late 1966, and by then the comic had lost its photogravure printing and was published on cheap newsprint paper.  The reasons for this were down to expense, obviously, as the comic hadn't performed as well as had been expected when it was launched in 1964, so cost-cutting measures had to be implemented.

However, the comic was yet being printed in its original format in December '65, which creates a strange paradox for me.  Y'see, between the time of Wham! coming out and me first buying it, I'd lived in three different houses, and when I started getting the comic, it was in the cheap newsprint format.  That's why I associate Wham! as I knew (and remember) it with the house I was then in, whereas its previous format 'belonged' to the time of my two prior houses - though not to my memories of the houses themselves, as I was completely unaware of the title at that time. Consequently, to see this December 1965 photogravure copy from the time I was living in my third house is rather confusing for me as, to my mind, it just doesn't 'fit' my recollections of this particular period of my life.  To me at this time, Wham! was a newsprint comic, not a photogravure one.

Anyway, enough self-indulgent prattle from me, though it's a small price to pay for the treat that now awaits you.  You may now indulge yourself in these comic glories from over 50 years ago. Some strips show background 'bleed-through' from the previous page, which I've lessened slightly, but I can't remove it completely without wiping out detail on the side you're reading.   




Were you one of the winners of a copy of this LP?  Imagine what they're worth now















4 comments:

Lionel Hancock said...

Good to look at it again after all these years.. Smash Wham and Buster where my favourites. Once the Fantastic Four arrived that really out Wham on the map. Thumbs up

Steve said...

I had no memories of reading Wham in 65 but as soon as I saw Georges Germs the memories came flooding back it was as if someone had turned a light on inside my head.For a brief time I was transported back to happier times,if only I could go back to those days when Christmas was a truly a magical time.

Anonymous said...

Good to see Wham I did not get that at least not regular. The Georgie's Germs story reminds me of my experiences with the coins in the xmas pud. Sitting next to my dad at the table he kept pulling out all the larger denomination coins which were silver coloured where I only got the three penny piece. Of course I did not realise at the time it was a wind up so the more I moaned the bigger the next coin and the bigger the laughs for everyone else!

Terence

Kid said...

The good thing about all your comments, lads, is seeing how many happy memories were conjured up for you from seeing these pages. That's what this blog's all about. H'mm, now which one should I feature next?



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