FIFTY FANTASTIC YEARS...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Was it really 50 years ago today that the very first entry of  the MARVEL AGE made its debut?  It was if you lived in America, but I've no idea when THORPE & PORTER first started distributing FANTASTIC FOUR in this country.  In the States, the cover was dated November, but the mag (as was the custom) was actually released in August, presumably to give it a longer sales potential on the spinner racks of newsdealers across the USA.  For overseas readers, once the required sum was printed for the home market, the date and price were removed from the printing plates (9d being substituted for 10c), and the presses rolled off another batch, with the name of British distributor (T&P) added to the indicia.

Here's to at least another 50 years - for all of us.

WHAT THE HECK? A JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here's a nice little tale from JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #85 by STAN LEE and DON HECK, called "FILBERT'S FRIGHTFUL FUTURE".  (Not too sure about that ending.  After all, if you can travel into the past, you're doing so from the 'future', surely?  It's all relative.)

The ADS THAT MADE AN @SS OUT OF ATLAS...

A genuine ad.  Copyright relevant owner

CHARLES ATLAS (real name Angelo Siciliano, born 1892) seems to have been around forever.  Practically everyone remembers the ads from comicbooks throughout the '60s and '70s, though they actually debuted back in the '40s.  He died in 1972, aged 80, so he was an old man for much of the period that people of my age group first became familiar with his athletic frame and visage staring out from the comics of our youth.

The ads are so iconic that they have become a target for affectionate lampooning in the pages of the selfsame publications that the originals were printed in.  Here, for your amusement, are just a few of the many parodies which have appeared - enjoy.  (And tell us your favourite in the comments section.)

A lampoon (as if you couldn't tell).  Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

YOU GOTTA HAVE HOPE...

The one and only Bob Hope



October 13th, 1984.  That was the day I fulfilled my long-time ambition of drinking in a pub called The RED LION.  (Okay, it was only a Coke, but it still counted.)  I had always wanted to do so since reading the name in The WIND In The WILLOWS many years earlier, when Mr. TOAD had sauntered into a pub of the selfsame appellation and ended up stealing a motorcar on his departure.

Not that I had the intention of doing anything similar (though I could've nabbed an ashtray as a memento if I'd wanted to) - it's just that there was something about the name that appealed to me.  It conjured up images of old-world charm, of another era when things seemed simpler and more pure.  Ruddy-faced gents crouched 'round a roaring fire, quaffing from flagons of ale held nonchalantly in their weather-beaten hands, as coachmen and travellers, filled and fortified, prepared to embark on the next leg of their journey.

I repeated the feat two or three years later, when I had lunch with the assistant editor of IPC's BUSTER in another Red Lion pub just across from Downing Street in London.  That was still in the future however; for now the heady rush that came from watching JOHN LOWE score the first-ever televised nine-dart finish in history (on another pub's TV later that evening), and then meeting the legendary BOB HOPE an hour or so afterwards, just before commencing his gig at The EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE.

I met Bob again in 1994 at The GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, and had my photograph taken with the great man and his wife.  I have his autograph several times over, on records, books, magazines and photos.  Above is the one he sent me a few weeks before his concert in Edinburgh on that magical and eventful night back in 1984, and below is the photo taken ten years later.

So - hands up all those who've ever drank in a pub called The Red Lion?  H'mm, quite a few of you, eh?  Okay, hands up all those who've met Bob Hope - twice?  (Nope, thought not.)

The STEADY STRANDS Of SUN - PHEW!

 

Art by Neal Adams



The past few days have been of the gloriously warm, sunny, summer kind that we imagine all our childhood summers to have been like, and as I stepped off the train from Glasgow early yesterday evening with The DEADLY HANDS Of KUNG FU #12 in my possession (bought from a back issue shop in the city), my mind drifted back to a similar gloriously warm, sunny, summer late afternoon of 36 years before, when - as a mere freckle-faced teenager - I'd first purchased my original copy of this black and white magazine.

I'd also obtained the very first MONSTER FUN Holiday Special on the same day.  (IPC were quick off the mark with this one, as the weekly publication had only been out for a very short period - a matter of weeks, in fact.)  I remember that it reprinted the initial SAM'S SPOOK strip by LEO BAXENDALE, which first appeared in SMASH! in Jan/Feb of 1971.  It still sported the "starts today" blurb on the top left-hand side of the logo, no doubt the result of an editorial oversight as such blurbs were usually removed from out-of-sequence reprintings.

(NOTE: My memory of this was confirmed when, a week after typing the previous paragraph, I obtained a back issue of this comic also.  I've inserted the cover and Sam strip above.  Click to enlarge.  Interestingly, the page had previously been resized into two for the Smash! Annual for 1975, issued towards the end of '74.)

Art by Rudy Nebres

Back in 1975, a friend was with me when I bought these two publications, at some stage during a day out in Glasgow.  On our return, I accompanied him (still clutching my precious comics) as he visited his sister's in-laws, who resided not too far from the house I'd lived in when Sam's Spook first made his debut, and from which my family had moved only three years before in 1972.  (In fact, their house was the architectural double of my old one, so it was almost like revisiting my former home.)  It's because of this that I associate both these comics with my previous neighbourhood just as much as with my then (and still) current one.  Funny thing, memory, eh?

Art by George Perez, Rico Rival, and The Tribe

I'd bought this ish mainly for The MAN With The GOLDEN GUN cover art and article, having seen (with the same friend) ROGER MOORE's second 007 movie not too long before.  (It had its UK premiere on December 19th 1974, but my local cinema didn't screen it until sometime in '75.)  Reading it again for the first time in nearly 40 years, I was surprised by how much of it I remembered - even down to actual paragraphs.  The mag also had SHANG-CHI, MASTER Of KUNG FU and SONS Of The TIGER, with artwork by RUDY NEBRES and GEORGE PEREZ, plus a BOND pin-up by the great GRAY MORROW.

I often think back fondly to that particular summer day - and many another day from long ago also.  (Perhaps I may even have warm recollections of yesterday in the years to come - I hope I've got at least another 50 ahead of me, optimistic as that may be.)  Little did I then realize that my friendship with the pal I'd known since I was 7 would last barely another six years, but such is life - something to look forward to in blissful ignorance of what might happen, and to look back on in fond reminiscence (hopefully) of what did.

I hope all your summers turn out to be gloriously warm and sunny - even if only in memory.

Art by Gray Morrow

BATMAN - WITH ACCESSORIES...

Copyright DC COMICS

Above is an extremely rare LOUIS MARX BATMAN toy from the 1960s.  I had two of this figure (at different times) when I was a kid, and have very happy memories of playing with them, especially the second one I received for Christmas in 1966 or '67.  (Could even have been '68.)

Marx had a soldier figure out at the same time (in fact, it actually predated the Batman one), which had the exact same head (minus the black mask - a sticker - on the face in the above pic) as his Caped Crusader counterpart.

I had a great time dressing up 'little Bruce' in his various pieces of equipment and subjecting him to all sorts of imaginary ordeals and adventures.  (Oo-er, it's just clicked how pervy that sounds, so I'll deny it in court.  Someone please tell me I wasn't the only one.)

Incidentally, despite the backing card's claim, the only thing that moved on the legs were the boots, which turned from left to right - or all the way 'round if you preferred.  Hardly what one would call fully-articulated.

I eventually swapped the toy with a pal for the soldier version and then, the very same night, watched Bats meet his doom as an older lad (ROBERT FORTUNE) launched him into the air while saying "Let's see if he can fly..." - only to see Batman smash to pieces on his descent.  My stunned pal immediately wanted to effect an annulment of our swap, but I was having none of it.  Poor Bats.

Anyway, if you were fortunate enough to have had one of these figures as a kid, here's a look back into the past - happy reminiscing.  (If not, this is what you missed.)

YOU'LL BE THUNDER-STRUCK...

Issue #1.  Images copyright relevant owner

One of my favourite comics as a boy was THUNDER, containing such gems as ADAM ETERNO, STEEL COMMANDO, BLACK MAX, GAUNTLET Of FATE, and various others, including a couple of one-page humour strips.  Looking back at my collection, over 40 years later, I'm surprised by how boring the covers were - perhaps the most effective were issues 2 & 3 - and it was probably the comic's inability to stand out on the newsagent's counter which contributed to its remarkably short lifespan of only 22 issues.

Issue #2

Thunder's most impressive strip was undoubtedly Adam Eterno, the man who couldn't die - unless struck a fatal blow by an object made of solid gold.  (So a glancing blow on the back of his head from a gold-plated cigarette lighter was hardly going to bring him down.)  Adam survived for quite a few years, first when Thunder was absorbed by LION, and then when Lion was merged with VALIANT - before disappearing into comics limbo and the fond memories of former readers lucky enough to have caught this short-lived comic thunderclap.

 

Issue #3

Below:  The first-ever instalment of Adam Eterno from Thunder #1.

See also here - and here.

NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESS...

 

Art by Ian Gibson

 

I've just watched a programme called SCOTLAND'S AMAZING COMIC BOOK HEROES on TV.  How nauseating to see a particular ex-editor gush sycophantically about one of two currently high-profile writers he once described to me as "a couple of pretentious w*nkers!" when they contributed to the comic on which he used to work.  Funny how those who never had a good word to say about someone suddenly change their tune when the person becomes famous and successful - especially if there's 5 minutes screen time on the telly to be had.

And why was PAT MILLS, the creator of 2000 A.D., 'airbrushed' from the comic's history and not given a mention?  (Apart from the fact that he's not Scottish that is?)

The CAMPY CAPED CRUSADER GOES WEST...

ADAM WEST as The BATMAN 

Yeah, don't worry about the title - it doesn't make much sense.  (Grabbed your attention though, didn't it?)  Look at the above photo - I can't help but think that it actually goes some way to capturing the dark and mysterious aspect of BATMAN as he was originally envisioned.  It makes me wonder what the result would have been had the TV Producers decided to go down that avenue instead of the one they ultimately chose.  Would it have been as successful as it was?  Who knows?  One thing's for sure, however - the childhoods of kids in the1960s would have been markedly different.  Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?

Adam's screen test costume

ONE TO LOOK OUT FOR...

Artwork by Jack Kirby

Due to be released any time soon is the above little beauty.  Keep an eye out for it and if you see it before I do, give me a shout.  Just love that cover!

"JUST ONE MORE THING..."

Peter Falk (1927 - 2011)

Legendary actor PETER FALK, famous for playing rumpled raincoat-wearing Los Angeles Police Detective Lieutenant COLUMBO, has died at the age of 83.  BERT FREED was the first actor to play the part in a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, entitled "Enough Rope" with THOMAS MITCHELL in the role when the plot was used as the basis of a stage play called "Prescription: Murder" in 1962.

LEE J. COBB and BING CROSBY were originally considered for the part when it was decided to turn the play into a one-off TV movie, but Cobb was unavailable and Crosby turned it down. The rest is history - Falk made the role his own, first in the 1968 TV movie, and then in a semi-regular series from 1971 until 1978. Falk reprised the role in 1989 and continued playing the part for several more years, his last portrayal being screened in 2003.

The actor developed Alzheimer's disease a few years ago, and died peacefully at his Beverly Hills home on June 23rd.

MARVEL GREAT GENE COLAN PASSES AWAY...

Gene Colan (1926 - 2011)

Sad to learn that MARVEL legend GENE (The Dean) COLAN passed away on June 23rd (yesterday). Who can forget Gene's astounding artwork on DAREDEVIL, IRON MAN, Dr. STRANGE, DRACULA and HOWARD The DUCK, not to mention his pulse-pounding panels on DC's BATMAN and WONDER WOMAN?

I can't even begin to do full justice to his career, so click on the side-link to MARK EVANIER's blog for a worthy appreciation of the man and his work.

21 MOVEABLE PARTS? I HOPE NOT...

You're looking at the design patent of G.I. JOE, first released in 1964 by HASBRO (Hassenfeld Brothers).  Look at the illustration closely - count the parts.  I make it 20, yet the ads which used to appear in American comicbooks back in the '60s (The Adventures of Andy and George), it was claimed that ol' Joe had 21 moveable parts.  So I just have to ask - did he originally have an extra part that was 'removed' before he went into full-scale production?  And if so, what do you think it was?  (The mind boggles.)

And in case you ever wondered, 'G.I.' apparently stands for Government Issue, though competing explanations include Galvanized Iron (after the initials stamped on metal military equipment), General Infantryman, or an army classification rendered in Roman numerals - GI.  No doubt there are various others.

The ULTIMATE BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL #1 - NOW ON SALE!

Images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Exclusive to WH SMITH and on sale now is this colour-packed celebration of 60 years of DENNIS The MENACE, priced at £4.99.  Comprised of 68 pages (including cardboard covers) and containing some of the best Dennis strips from BEANO Summer Specials down through the years, it also includes famous characters like LITTLE PLUM, The BASH STREET KIDS, BIFFO The BEAR and quite a few others.  With artwork by DAVEY LAW, DUDLEY D. WATKINS, ROBERT NIXON and the usual stable of artists.  All in all, a nice little collectors' edition which is sure to appeal to everyone, from innocent little kids full of the joys of life, to overweight slapheads who have never had a girlfriend.

PRESENTING: KID ROBSON'S ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART ONE...

Pencil drawing of Iron Man #150 cover

I received an email recently asking why I didn't feature any of my own art on my blog.  Obviously someone hasn't been paying attention, but to save anyone who's interested from having to wade through the archives, here's the first part of an 'omnibus' selection of a few pieces.  Some of it is over 30 years old (and pre-dates my professional career), so please be gentle.  Click on picture, then click on result for enlarged viewing.

For Part Two, click here.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART TWO...

Unused fanzine cover.  For Part Three, click here.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART THREE...

Pencil drawing, drawn as a teenager.  For Part Four, click here.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART FOUR...

  

Parody of Amazing Fantasy #15 splash page.  For Part Five, click here.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART FIVE...

'Unofficial' Desperate Dan strip.  To see black & white copy, click here.

For Part Six, click here.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART SIX...

"Yawn! Wonder what kind of day it's going to be, Fred?"

Camping cartoon for poster, drawn as a teenager.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART SEVEN...

Photograph of colour caricature.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART EIGHT...

Black & white copy of unused colour advertisement.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART NINE...

Fanzine masthead.

ARTWORK OMNIBUS - PART TEN...

Unpublished pin-up.