FANTASTIC POWER-HOUSE PENNANTS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

When FANTASTIC #1 hit the shops 50 years ago, its free gift was a pennant that could hold pictures cut from the backs of the POWER PACK comics - at that time only four, as TERRIFIC hadn't yet been released.  So here's the paper pennant pictures, plus the pennant itself.

Maybe you could make a facsimile pennant using the pics shown here?  Then you could attach it to your car's aerial and drive around your neighbourhood looking like a proper lord.  Right, get started then - I've given you everything you need to do the job.  Don't let me down.

BABE Of The DAY - KIM KARDASHIAN...

I don't care what people say - I

think KIM KARDASHIAN is an

absolute honey.  (And she thinks

 I'm a real manly-man, 'natch.)

A RESTFUL INTERMISSION - TESTING, TESTING... (Updated)

Remember the BBC 2 'intermission' card?  Let's take a little look at it for old time's sake.  (That girl's probably a pensioner now.  And the clown will most likely be dead!)

Oh, wait a minute - it was the photo used in the 'test' card, which was used when there was an intermission between broadcasts - so it was an intermission and a test card. 

And above is Carole Hersee & Bubbles in 2008.  See AM's comment in (where else?) the comments section and click on his link for further details and another photo.

The THREE WISE UNCLES...

Image copyright U.N.C.L.E.  (Tee-hee!)

I wonder if ROBERT VAUGHN was ever p*ssed off by DAVID McCALLUM stealing the spotlight in NBC's The MAN From U.N.C.L.E. ?  Vaughn was meant to be the star, but McCallum got most of the fan mail - and his part was intended to be nixed for the series by an executive after viewing the pilot (in which McCallum didn't feature much, it has to be said), but they got rid of the wrong actor by mistake. Executives, eh?  (And don't you think those three 'autographs' look as though they're written by the same hand trying to make them look different?)

BATMAN GOES WEST...

A great little painting of ADAM WEST,

alias BATMAN, that I thought you'd like.

Tell me I wasn't wrong.  (Or was I?)

I NEED A NUMBER TWO...

I don't really have any reason for showing this, other than

I want to.  Okay?  Oh, and it keeps my U.N.C.L.E. happy!

SPOT The DIFFERENCE: TALES To ASTONISH/SUB-MARINER #1...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I've always liked this JOHN BUSCEMA cover, but never had the original issue of SUB-MARINER #1.  I've got a reprint of it though, in a MASTERWORKS edition, but there's nothing quite like having an actual comic, is there, so I tracked down the much cheaper reprint in TALES To ASTONISH (2nd series) #1 on eBay for a paltry few pounds, and it arrived this morning.  It was only then I realised that the cover art had been 'flipped', but so good an artist was Big John, it doesn't look in the slightest bit awkward.  (As I'm sure you all know, when a piece of art is reversed, it often doesn't look 'quite right'.)

The other thing I notice about the above ish is that three pages have been edited out, but it's done so skilfully that, unless one has the full strip to compare it to, it's not at all obvious and remains a smooth read.  I'm glad to have a comic with that iconic cover in my collection at last.  Y'know, it's just like looking at a picture of myself, as NAMOR's physique is remarkably similar to my own mighty bod.  (Hey, why are you all laughing?)

Feel free to sing JB's praise in the comments section.

PULSATING PIN-UPS PART SIX: BATMAN & ROBIN...

Image copyright DC COMICS

One thing that always bothered me about sidekicks is that it sort of gave away a hero's secret identity.  Take CAPTAIN AMERICA for example, and his teen sidekick BUCKY - which also 'happened' to be the name of STEVE ROGERS' sidekick (and Camp mascot).  Okay, in ROBIN's case, his hero name was different from his real one, but an older man kicking about with a teenager is a bit of a giveaway, right?  At the very least, it's liable to get him talked about - in a reputation-damaging way.

That said, however, this is a great pin-up by BRIAN BOLLAND, so let's put all these nasty thoughts out of our mind.  You listening, FREDRIC WERTHAM?

BABE Of The DAY - LESLIE BIANCHINI...

LESLIE sips her drink and eyes

me seductively as I relax on the sofa with

a cool glass of milk, laughing uproariously at

this week's BEANO (this is fantasy, remember)

while unconsciously emanating mega-masculine

pheromones which most gals find absolutely

impossible to resist.  Ain't I lucky, eh?!

Shame about the rest of you.