SPIDEY GETS HERE - EVENTUALLY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS.  Yes, it contains the free gift

I usually get there in the end, and so it was in this instance.  34 years and another house and neighbourhood away, I was buying the UK weekly SPIDER-MAN comic, but happened to miss a couple of issues.  Not that I wanted to, but they were just nowhere to be found in any of the shops I looked for them at the time.  Thank goodness for eBay!  A year or two ago, I got the issue below, and today I received the issue above, thereby completing that run of comics I was buying back in 1984.

I gave both issues a cursory glance and placed each of them in the respective space that had long awaited their arrival, and maybe one day I'll give them a proper read-through.  Suffice enough for the moment that they're there when I want them, and that 1984 seems as fresh and new as if it were only a year or two away, instead of the gulf that it actually is.

So I'm glad to have them, though can't help but being slightly sad at the thought that I may not have another 34 years ahead of me to locate any new comics that escape me today.  Every rose has a thorn, eh?  

MIGHTY MOTH'S WINTER & HOLIDAY SPECIALS...

Copyright relevant owner

MIGHTY MOTH is probably one of the earliest comic strip characters I remember from childhood, maybe even the earliest.  I first saw him in the 1962 or '63 TV COMIC Holiday Special while either holidaying (aptly enough) in Ayr (I think), or perhaps only visiting on a day trip.  The title of the comic didn't register with me, nor did the name of the character (though I was aware he was a moth) - it was the artist DICK MILLINGTON's distinctive style which I remembered.  A year or two later, while thumbing through a weekly issue of TV Comic in a newsagent's, that style jumped out at me and, although I didn't become a regular reader of the periodical until the late '70s, I did buy the occasional issue over the years up until then.

It was because ol' Mighty reconnected me to an earlier time in my life that I bought the Winter Special bearing his name towards the end of 1980.  That's it above, the very same one which I've now owned for just over 38 years - wow!  I only found out a few short years ago that there was also a 1981 Holiday Special and have been trying to obtain one ever since.  (I featured an image of it in a couple of posts some years back, but it was 'borrowed' from eBay.)  I'm now glad to say that my very own copy arrived yesterday, thereby completing my two-issue set.  At least, I'm only aware of two, so if anyone has any info about other issues, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

I've just read (or re-read in the case of the first one) both comics over the last couple of days, and my already huge regard for Dick Millington's talent and appreciation of Mighty Moth has increased to even greater heights in the process.  I derived a goodly portion of laugh-out-loud moments from the strips, and Dick's deceptively simple style possesses a really funny visual quality that's quite impressive.  To get a laugh from just looking at a picture suggests that it must be good, and there are quite a few of them in these two publications.  It's possible that I never knew Dick's name until I saw it on his HAPPY FAMILIES newspaper strip (having recognised his style), which, if so, means I was an adult (allegedly) before I could put a name to the artist.

Mighty Moth's basic premise was the same as (though preceded) the FRANKIE STEIN strip in WHAM! (and later comics), in that 'dad' was always trying to get rid of the one who inadvertently plagued (but loved) him.  In Mighty's case, he sometimes deliberately tried to annoy dad (usually in revenge for dad's hostility), but this was merely in service to a story, and, in fact, he often seemed to regard dad and his wife as actual parents.  Anyway, in celebration of me finally having both Mighty Moth Specials, below are a handful of strips to hopefully provide you all with a few chuckles.  If only REBELLION would acquire the rights to the character and do some collected editions - The COMPLETE MIGHTY MOTH.  Sounds good to me.

Look at the 3rd panel in the 3rd tier - little Mighty sits like a happy kid next to
his 'dad' on the way to the seaside.  That pic of Mighty made me laugh out loud

Hoppit from TV Terrors makes a cameo appearance in the last tier's middle pic 

An unpublished fanzine cover I drew 34 years ago, featuring Mighty Moth
 and some dude in long underwear whose name escapes me for the moment