BLAST FROM THE PAST - TARKAN #1...

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TARKAN is apparently a much bigger character than I gave him credit for, having appeared in comics and movies, though I knew him only from a 1973 British reprint mag.  Although I bought several issues, I was never too impressed with the whole thing, finding the art rather primitive compared to the American MARVEL and DC artists I was familiar with.  He first appeared in 1967, created by SEZGIN BURAK, and that's about as much interest or energy I can generate to tell you about this Turkish comic strip hero.  I recently re-acquired the first ish (for old times' sake), so thought I'd publish some pages here to give you a taste of what you didn't miss if you've never heard of the character before.

Big of me, eh?  Any of you Crivs familiar with Tarkan and, if so, what's your take on this Turkish titan?  Tell all in the comments section.

      

FAMOUS FIRSTS - SAMMY SHRINK...

Copyright REBELLION

From WHAM! #118, cover-dated September 17th 1966, comes the very first appearance of SAMMY SHRINK as drawn by DAVE JENNER.  TERRY BAVE took over drawing the character in issue 151, and continued to draw him for many years afterwards in a variety of periodicals.  This strip, which was extended on either side of the page to make it wider, was later resized into 2 pages for reprinting in the 1973 KNOCKOUT Annual.

Not many people are aware that Sammy started as a full-sized boy before shrinking.  Even Terry Bave evinced surprise at this when I happened to mention it to him the other night.  Was Sammy Shrink one of your favourite strips as a comics-reading lad?  Then share your reminiscences and tell us all why in the comments section.

BABE Of The DAY - BECKY RULE...

Bedazzling BECKY

RULE ushers in the month

of October, Crivs.  Not exactly

kitted out for the weather, but

certainly attired to win a big

 place in all our hearts.

WHAM! - IT EXPIRED WITH BARELY A WHIMPER...

Copyright REBELLION

Behold - the cover to the last-ever issue of WHAM! - #187 to be exact.  Notice anything strange about it?  How about the fact that there's no 'Great news inside for all readers!' banner at the top of the page concerning the periodical's upcoming merger into POW!.  This was highly unusual at the time, as most comics usually gave readers a heads-up when there wasn't going to be any more issues of a title.

However, inside, News From The Floor of '64 goes into overdrive, with a response to a letter suggesting that one of the reasons for the merger is to save readers some pocket money, as there'd now be fewer POWER comics to drain their finances.  Utter pants of course, but they couldn't exactly say the comics were being merged because circulation on one of them had fallen below a certain point.

Anyway, here are the front and back covers, plus the pages announcing the merger, along with readers' letters.  I thought Wham! was a great comic back in the day, but that was mainly because of The FANTASTIC FOUR, FRANKIE STEIN, SAMMY SHRINK, plus maybe one or two others.  Did you have a favourite strip?  Then tell us what it was in the comments section!