ALAS, POOR MARVEL - I KNEW IT WELL...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Regular readers will probably be aware of my quest to brighten up my room by replacing old, worn, faded 'wall adornments' with brand-new, gleaming, pristine ones.  Here's the latest, just put in place a few moments ago - the cover of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #13 from 1972.  I'll spare you a comparison with the old one, as it takes no great feat of imagination to visualise a piece of rippled, yellowing paper.  Suffice to say that it makes a huge difference to the 'hue' of my room.  Won't be long now 'til my bedroom walls look as fresh as they used to almost 30 years ago.  Excelsior.

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(The original was given a 'Viking funeral'.  I don't like discarding things that have served me faithfully for many years, but at least its 'spirit' lives on in its doppelganger.)

JUST WILLIAM...

Copyright relevant owner

The covers you see here are from a boxed set of four WILLIAM BROWN books (also sold individually) by RICHMAL CROMPTON.  The illustrations on numbers two to four are from the original 1920's dustjackets by THOMAS HENRY, while number one is from an original dustjacket from the '40s.  The SUNDAY TIMES described the series as "Probably the funniest, toughest children's books ever written", but the stories were originally aimed at adults and appeared in HOME magazine in 1919 (then HAPPY MAG) before being collected into book form, the first of which appeared in 1922.  There were 38 books in total, the last one being published posthumously in 1970.  The earliest ones are the funniest though, and if you've never read any before, you should give 'em a try before you fall off the twig