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| Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd |
Hands up if you bought The Crunch comic back in the day, Crivvies. It hit the shelves around two years after 2000 A.D., and I always thought it was intended as DCT's answer to IPC's smash hit, which is still being published today. Well, okay, it's perhaps more accurate to describe it as half an answer as the contents weren't exclusively SF, but the 'tone' of the periodical was very similar to its rival and contained one or two SF strips over the course of its 54 issue run.
So live again those heady days of your youth by drinking in the images on display, then share your thoughts on this classic publication of yesteryear in our comments section.
This is one title I never bought during its official run and I've no idea why. Usually I would buy the first 3 issues of any new comic for the free gifts but this one passed me by. Great covers though. I've bought some since, the Hitler Lives story intrigued me.
ReplyDeleteI usually always bought at least the first three issues of any new comic as well, M. However, if I actually liked it, I'd continue to buy it regularly. These are the actual issues I bought at the time, still with me after more than 40 years.
ReplyDeleteI know of this comic only because it's been featured before on Crivens but I was completely unaware of it at the time which isn't very surprising as I was a Marvel fan with no interest in anything else. The cover date on #5 was my 13th birthday by the way.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated 13th Birthday then, CJ. How rude of me to forget. Looking at these covers now, does The Crunch seem like a comic you would've bought, had you been aware of it at the time?
ReplyDeleteI remember looking through the first issue at the time but at 18 or 19 years old it was no longer my type of comic. It seemed to have a strange selection of war, SF and sports stories. Still so!e very nice looking covers, daft name for a comic though. Was it any good?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was okay for what it was, McS - a weekly comic with a diverse selection of stories with pretty good art in the main. I suppose the name comes from the phrase 'when it comes to the crunch', signifying something crucial. It was perhaps DCT's way of implying that buying this comic was 'crucial'. Of course, I could be over-thinking things there.
ReplyDeleteKid, if it wasn't Marvel I wasn't interested so no, I wouldn't have bought it at the time. The only exception to that rule was annuals and I owned all kinds of non-Marvel annuals such as The Beano, Topper, Beezer, Star Trek, POTA, Dr Who, Space 1999 etc. 'The Crunch' was also a hit tune (no words) by The Rah Band in 1977 so maybe that influenced the comic's title?
ReplyDeletePerhaps, CJ, but if so, it was a bit of an obscure influence seeing as the comic came out in 1979. Was the tune any good? And what became of The Rah Band?
ReplyDeleteYes, 'The Crunch' is very catchy and you can hear it on YouTube if you're interested. The Rah Band had another hit in 1985 called 'Clouds Across The Moon' (including words this time) but that's the last I heard of them.
ReplyDeleteI'll give it a listen, CJ, and see if their '85 hit is on there as well. I don't think I've heard of them before, but given the shocking state of my memory these days I couldn't say for sure. Incidentally, what was your favourite Marvel UK title of all time? POTA, MWOM, SMCW, or what?
ReplyDeleteYou might recognize The Crunch when you hear it, Kid, and Clouds Across The Moon is on YouTube too. I suppose my favourite Marvel UK title will always be POTA as that was my first ever Marvel comic. There's a website called Hunter's Planet Of The Apes which has a cover gallery of the Marvel UK weekly and I look at that cover gallery every now and then to refresh my memory of the covers.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that there's a 5-part POTA cover gallery series of the first year's worth on Crivens as well, CJ. In fact, I'll probably do an omnibus post of them.
ReplyDeleteThe RAH band weren't actually a band it was on person Richard Anthony Hewson. Clouds across the Moon was a pretty nice tune
ReplyDeleteTa, McS. Haven't listened to them yet, but I'll get around to it.
ReplyDeleteI typed Planet Of The Apes into the search box, Kid, so I've been looking at those cover galleries and reading the comments - some of them written by me.
ReplyDeleteHad you forgotten writing them all, CJ, or were there any you remembered?
ReplyDeleteI remembered writing bits of them, Kid, such as when I mentioned that the cover of POTA #4 was completely unknown to me until the internet came along.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised by what I remember and what I forget these days, CJ. I'll probably forget every reply I've written here until I read them again in the future.
ReplyDelete