THE SAGA OF - THE PAPER PIN-UP...

Images copyright DC COMICS

I unexpectedly find myself with a bit of spare time in which to dash off a couple of new posts, so why deprive you all of my wit and wisdom?  (Okay, so which Crivvie said "Because you have none!" ?)  Here's one of them.  (The other is on MMMM.)

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Cop a gander at the image above.  Back in 1982/'83, I must've had spare issues of a couple of DC comics, one from the early '70s, the other from the early '80s, because I cut an ad for the first series of the SWAMP THING from one and glued it onto a piece of card above an ad for The SAGA Of The SWAMP THING I'd cut from the other.  Alas, memory no longer recalls exactly what comics I desecrated in the process of combining the old with the new.  The plan was to put the homemade pin-up on my bedroom wall with all the other cut-outs and posters that adorned it, but I can no longer recollect whether I actually managed to get around to it before moving house in May of '83.  I'll have to dig out my album of photographs of my old (and current) room and check to see if it's on one of the walls.  Whether it was or not (just checked - no sign of it), it was certainly given a spot in my new bedroom once it had been decorated, though I had to wait a year for the new-built house to settle before I could get around to it.

Anyway, when we flitted back to our previous house four-and-a-bit years after having vacated it, the pin-up was again awarded the accolade of enhancing the decor, and has done so for the past 30 years.  Until recently that is, as, like many other of my posters and pin-ups, it had discoloured with the passage of time and was in dire need of replacing.  So that's precisely what I did.  I carefully removed it from the wall, trimmed off the margins and gutter, then scanned it against a white background and printed out a duplicate.  With one difference (as you can see if you compare the above pic with the one below) - namely, I reduced the space between the top ad and the one below it just a tad, as I thought it looked much better.  Anyway, the image survives, and continues to grace the same spot on the wall where it's been for the last 30 years.  This time though, it doesn't look quite so time-worn as it had become a good while back, leaving me to wonder if there's anything that can be done to replicate the effect on me.

I'm saddened by the fact that I've had to dispense with the services of the original, 35 or so years after cobbling it together on the living room table (which I remember doing as if it were only yesterday) back in '82/'83, but at least this way I've ensured that the image survives without further deterioration for hopefully the same length of time again.  And should it ever need replacing in future, I can merely print off another copy as it's safely stored in a file on my computer.  (And again, I find myself wishing that I could do the same thing with myself.  Bet you feel the same.  If only, eh?)