CONAN The TRUE BELIEVER...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI.  2019 reprint of CTB #1

At long last!  CONAN The BARBARIAN is back where he belongs - at MARVEL COMICS.  I saw the TRUE BELIEVERS reprint of #1 on another blog on Friday and promptly bought a few copies from various mail order dealers.  The first of them arrived today (that's it above) and is a joy to behold.  Around a year or two ago, I purchased the original 1970 issue, but had the TB edition been available, I might not have bothered.  (But, then again, might have.)

If you're not lucky enough to own the original, then the new reprint is the next best thing, the main difference being that the height of Conan's name in the logo has been compressed to allow for the True Believers banner.  The story has, of course, been reprinted quite a few times over the years, so I thought I'd present the ones which featured the original cover (in some form or other) from my own collection.  So here they are, starting in reverse order from the one above.

The name was amended to 'Conan The Adventurer', but that aside, this UK
weekly featured the original Barry Smith tale.  The mag lasted 3 issues 

This 11 issue run preceded the UK weekly title by just a few
months.  (Despite the cover date, it went on sale in March)

This b&w UK Pocket Book hit the shops in 1980, and lasted for 13 issues

Savage Sword Of Conan #1 hit newsagents in 1975, lasting 18 weekly issues

The original 1970 issue that started it all

The first and the latest - side-by-side

RUMINATING REPOST: BOB - BETTER BRING BILL - BATMAN'S BACK...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Remember the BATMAN craze of the '60s?  TOPPS published a set of cards to cash-in on the interest that the TV show had incited, and to anyone who had them back in 1966, the above and below images will surely bring back happy memories of their childhood.  A further two sets were released after the first, and - fortunately, for people like myself who never kept the originals - Topps reissued them back in 1989 when the TIM BURTON/MICHAEL KEATON/JACK NICHOLSON big-budget Batman movie hit the screens.

What amazes me is that the reissue came out around 30 years ago, whereas there was only a 23 year interval between them and the originals.  That means I've now owned the reissued cards far longer than I would've had the first set, had I kept them (which I didn't) until the new ones came out in '89 - yet it doesn't seem like anywhere near 30 years ago since I acquired them.  In fact, sometimes it doesn't even feel like it was 53 years ago since '66 - other times it does, alas.

Ah, happy days.  More '60s Batman merchandise soon, perhaps.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering about the contrived title, it alludes to BOB KANE and BILL FINGER, the men who brought Batman to four-colour comicbook life back in 1939.