KIRBY In The AVENGERS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

No, not the movie - the comic.  I purchased The COMING Of The AVENGERS recently (a beautifully recoloured reprint of the first ish - well-worth having) and was surprised to see what looks like a young JACK KIRBY as one of RICK JONES' BLEEDIN' IRRITATIN' TEEN BRIGADE.  (I'm sure that's their full title.)  Above is the cover by Jack and DEAN WHITE) and below is a teenage JK standing behind and to the right (our right, that is) of Ricky-boy himself.

Well, whaddya think, Criv-ites?  Is it Kirby or not?  Answers on a postcard please to... (okay, just leave them in the comments section).

PART SIX Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Regular readers may remember me mentioning (in a previous post) MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6 as one of the comics I re-read while off ill from school on the day of my 11th birthday, along with The MIGHTY THOR #158 and WHIZZER & CHIPS #5, so cometh now the time to talk about it in a little more detail. 

I have many different memories associated with each tale in this particular mag, which, in retrospect, I'd likely owned for longer than previously imagined.  Seems to me I'd bought it only a few weeks before, but it's entirely possible that I'd had it for months.  One benefit of cover-dated weekly comics is that, years later, one can pinpoint one's associated memories with utmost precision.  For example, on September 30th, 1972, I bought The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1.  I remember it was a Saturday and I recall the circumstances, but - if not for the date on the cover (October 7th), which was the week after it went on sale as per British tradition - I may later have been able to recollect the year, but probably not the month and day.

With American comics it's different, as they usually arrived on U.K. shores months (or even years) after they were published, so it's often more difficult to accurately ascertain their precise time of purchase.  As already noted, if we associate a particular moment in our past with a British comic, there's a date on the cover to mark the spot, as it were.  With a U.S. mag, the opposite is true - some other means of being able to recall exactly when it was acquired is needed.  For example, the only reason I remember that my brother bought SUPERBOY #146 and X-MEN #45 for me on December 15th, 1968 is because it was his birthday, not because of the dates on the covers.  In short, we use U.K. comics to date memories from around the time of purchase, whereas with U.S. ones, we usually have to rely on associated events (if we remember them) to determine when they came into our possession.

       

Now, if I was far smarter than I am, I would've been able to convey the above info in about three sentences instead of three paragraphs - but I'm not, so you'll have to live with it.  Anyway, when I look at MCIC #6, I associate a certain pic of SUSAN STORM with me sitting at a particular desk in one corner of my primary school classroom, and a picture of The HULK with me sitting at another desk in the opposite corner.  How can such a paradox be?  I either had the comics (or selected cut-out piccies) for far longer than I remember, or because of the following reason.

                                                                                                      

I often bought the same comic twice, weeks or months (perhaps even a year or so) apart.  Having cut out pictures from one particular ish, I'd later regret it and buy another copy if I saw it.  (I should explain to foreign readers that, as U.S. comics came to this country as ballast in ships and were stored in warehouses, batches of the same issues often turned up years apart.  That's why, for example, I was still able to buy a pristine copy of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #158 from a newsagent's in Blackpool in 1973 that I'd first purchased in my home town back in 1968 or '69.)

However, I don't suppose any of that is relevant to anyone but myself, but I'm trying to place these stories in the context of the time so hopefully you'll forgive my self-indulgence.  One page in particular that I associate with the day of my birthday is the one where The THING drags PRINCE NAMOR The SUB-MARINER from the ocean.  In fact, a page or two which followed it are also ensconced in my memory banks, but the one below is probably the most dynamic so I'll share it with you here.  JACK KIRBY at the very top of his game, no doubt about it.

Well, I could go on and on, but it wouldn't be fair to subject you to any more of what some may regard as my tedious reminiscences about my uneventful past.  I only hope that, in relating my memories of this particular comic, it may kick-start your own.  If so, feel free to relive and share them in the comments section - that's what it's there for.

FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST PART FIVE - MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #1...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #1 was precisely what it claimed to be on the cover.  Talk about living up to its name?  Reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR #2, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3, ANT-MAN from TALES To ASTONISH #36 and TALES Of ASGARD from JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #97 - what more could anyone want in a comic?

I recall buying this mag back around 1967 or '68.  I hadn't read any of the stories before (must've missed the FF tale when it was reprinted in WHAM!, and the Spidey story in POW!) so it was all new to me.  I was intrigued by the fact that the group didn't wear costumes, and one Spider-Man panel seemed to possess a distinct 3D quality to it.  (As it certainly did when it was included as part of a VIEWMASTER set in the '70s.)

I managed to get my hands on quite a few issues of MCIC after that - and I still remember each and every one of them.  I've since re-acquired most of the first 30-odd issues (the title changed to MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS with #23), and I often derive great pleasure from poring over them and reliving the time I first obtained these classic comics so many years ago.

Interestingly, when MARVEL first issued their reprint collection mags (like MARVEL TALES, etc.), the original printing of each story was unobtrusively listed along the bottom of the splash page.  It wasn't too long, however, before this information was placed in a larger 'arrow-blurb' which obscured part of the artwork.  Because of this, they sometimes had to shrink and chop the page around to avoid covering too much of it.  Why not just print the info smaller then, as they had done originally? Perhaps they were obliged by law (or motivated by conscience) to make it clear that the mag contained no new material, although I would've thought the title fulfilled that requirement more than adequately.

Regardless, Marvel Collectors' Item Classics was a superb comic mag, so - for those who weren't around at the time, or who simply want to refresh their memory - here's a super-quick taste of the first issue.

      

And, in case you were wondering, below is the picture which struck me as having an almost 3D quality about it when I first saw it around 45 years ago.  I now cringe in abject shame at the memory of cutting out the Spidey figure from my original copy. Bleedin' little vandal.

PLEASE RELEASE ME...

Copyright REBELLION

As ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK (born ARNOLD GEORGE DORSEY in 1936 and taking his stage name from a 19th century composer) is representing the U.K. in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, I thought it would be fun to take a look at his appearance (sort of) in a comic strip when he was at the height of his fame back in 1967.

The comic was called POW! and the strip was entitled The DOLLS Of ST. DOMINIC'S - about a  ST. TRINIANS-type group of schoolgirls who later joined forces with The TIDDLERS from WHAM! when the two comics merged at the beginning of 1968.

Engelbert used to sing under the name of GERRY DORSEY before adopting the more famous appellation by which he is currently known - and to which he legally changed it at the height of his popularity way back when.  Let's hope the 76 year-old singer wins it for Britain with his ballad, 'Love Will Set You Free' on May 26th.

******

FOOTNOTE: Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed that the name 'Engelbert' has clearly been relettered (as has the surname), suggesting a last-minute update.  One speech balloon has been overlooked however (page one, panel seven), and the name is rendered as 'Jimmy' - no doubt the likeness was also altered.  Can anyone hazard a guess as to who the original singer may have been?

TWO COMICS In ONE - DOUBLE The FUN?

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

It had worked for WHIZZER & CHIPS for 21 years over at rival publishers FLEETWAY/IPC - so why not for D.C. THOMSON's two declining weeklies from the 1950s, The BEEZER and The TOPPER?  The only real difference being, of course, that Whizzer & Chips had only ever been one comic (despite the cover claim), whereas Beezer and Topper were two distinct publications.  However, the decision was passed down from on high - henceforth the two comics would become one - with both logos sharing almost equal prominence on the cover.

The Beezer started life as a tabloid-sized comic in 1956, the first issue being cover-dated January 21st, whereas The Topper had preceded it by three years, the first issue being cover-dated February 7th, 1953.  The latter was likewise tabloid-sized, switching to A4 size in 1980, with the former following suit in '81.  The combined result in 1990 managed to survive for three years before some of the most popular strips were split between The BEANO and The DANDY.

Here, then, is selection of some of the colour strips from the first combined issue (cover-dated September 22nd, 1990) of two once- great classic comics.  Hard to believe it's nearly 20 years since it disappeared from newsagents' shelves.  Tempus fugit.

A GENTLE BREEZE From HUSHABYE MOUNTAIN...

Over Easter, one of the most famous cars in the world was parked in my local central shopping precinct.  Or at least, a replica of it was.  It's MOT'd, taxed, insured, and fully road-worthy, so it is a real car - it's just not one of the half-dozen that appeared in the actual film.  However, apart from the number plate, GEN 22 (as opposed to the original - GEN 11), I'd say it would be difficult to spot the difference unless one is a total expert on CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG and all its variants.

I first saw the film on TV in the mid-'70s and bought the soundtrack LP not long after.  I now have it on CD as well - along with a DVD of the movie itself.  Back in the '60s, one of my cousins had the CORGI TOYS model of the car, and today I have several versions in my collection: The Corgi original, a '90s rerelease, a recent, cheaper Corgi version, and three Corgi Juniors.  I've also got a bigger, super-detailed version around 14 inches long, not counting the front and back wings.

Here, though, is an actual full-sized, fully-working replica of the car which I photographed in a quiet moment over Easter.  Standing next to it, one is amazed by the sheer enormity of the vehicle - it's huge - about 16 feet long.  If it ever comes to your town, make sure you go and see it - it's well worth doing so, I assure you.

It's not unusual to see the film attributed to DISNEY in TV listings whenever it's on the telly, but, in actual fact, it's an EON production - the same company which makes the JAMES BOND movies.  Hardly surprising when you consider that it was IAN FLEMING who wrote the book on which the movie was based.  The SHERMAN BROTHERS composed the songs for the film, which partly explains it being mistaken for a Disney one as they also wrote the songs for the earlier MARY POPPINS.  The fact that DICK VAN DYKE starred in both cinematic classics cements the misconception in most people's minds.

The original 1967 car was designed by KEN ADAM and FREDERICK ROLAND EMETT, and built by ALAN MANN RACING in Hertfordshire.  Like the original, the replica above had its boat-deck portion built by actual boatbuilders.  Also, the brass snake horn is from one of the original movie Chittys, so therefore shares a connection to the 'real' one.

Incidentally, the car does have wings (I saw them on a previous occasion a few years back -see photo below), which for some reason weren't deployed this time around.  (They're separate pieces which have to be affixed.)  Perhaps it was due to space restrictions in the display area, or to prevent people tripping over them.

WATCHING THE CLOUDS DRIFT BY...

Image copyright DC COMICS

I'm not 100% sure exactly what year it was - maybe 1969 or '70 - when the above comicbook first came into my possession, but some of the stories stuck in my mind from that point on.  It was a fellow by the name of GRAHAM BROWN, whose family lived in the house across the back lane from ours, who gave it to me along with some others - none of which I now recall, strange as it may seem.  (At least, not in relation to that particular day.)  What was it about this comic which etched itself in my memory?  Who can tell after all this time?  Certainly not me.

I remember the day was a sunny one.  I was sitting on a small rug on the path in my back garden, leaning against the door of the cellar in which I often sat when it rained, listening to drops pattering off the roof.  Not today though.  Today the sun shone brightly overhead, and on the far horizon I could see a famous Scottish mountain, purple against the blue sky, and white clouds drifting lazily by in the distance.  A faint hint of a balmy breeze gently blew on my face and hair, and it felt good merely to be alive without a care in the world.

My garden cellar.  'Twas the door on the right against which I sat

As I sat there, out came Graham with a pile of U.S. comicbooks and dropped them into my lap.  I can no longer recall if the comics were a gift freely given or exchanged for a heavily discounted monetary consideration.  Graham was a friend of my brother, so wouldn't have wanted to be seen exploiting his pal's younger sibling.  In fact, let's be charitable - let's just say he gave them to me because he'd read and was done with them.  That's more than likely the case.  And thus the day passed into history.

When I bought SUPERMAN From The '30s To The '70s in late 1972, I instantly recognised three stories from the 80 page giant: The CASE Of The FUNNY PAPER CRIMES, The MYSTERIOUS Mr. MXYZPTLK, and SUPERMAN, CARTOON HERO.  However, when I obtained a replacement copy of this issue a couple or so years ago, there was one adventure I didn't recall at all - WHEN SUPERMAN LOST HIS POWERS.  Some aspects from another tale, The EYE Of METROPOLIS, seemed vaguely familiar - but had I not seen it again first, I doubt the suggestion of memory would ever have occurred unprompted.

The very mountain in the distance - Ben Lomond

So why did I seemingly forget those two tales as opposed to the other three?  Was it because their splash pages weren't featured on the cover and therefore made less of an impression on me?  Or could it be that, not having appeared in the '72 Superman book, their previous association wasn't reinforced in my memory like the other strips were?  Perhaps it's simply the case that the stories weren't particularly memorable.  Guess I'll never really know for sure, but it's unlike me to forget two stories in one comic.

A picture, 'tis said, is worth a thousand words - it can also be worth many memories. I only have to look at that cover and I'm once again a boy sitting out in my back garden, reading comics and occasionally watching the clouds drift by.  Oh, to be a lad again.

******

I'd give all wealth that years have piled,
The slow result of life's decay,
To be once more a little child
For one bright summer-day.

From "Solitude" by Lewis Carroll.  March 16th, 1853.

The CLOAK - The FIRST And The LAST...

Images copyright relevant owner(s)

The CLOAK first appeared in POW! #18 on May 13th (cover-dated 20th) 1967, drawn by Birmingham-based artist MIKE HIGGS.  It had a different look to other strips in the comic and, given its spy/mystery/horror-themed stories (albeit in a comedy vein), proved popular enough to last nearly two years.  It started in Pow!, continued in POW! & WHAM!, then SMASH! & POW!, and finally ended in SMASH! (Incorporating FANTASTIC) #162, March 1st (dated 8th) 1969.  I remember the strip mainly because I fancied LADY SHADY, the Cloak's EMMA PEEL-style sometimes sidekick.  (Wotta bod!  Makes me want to marry a drawing.)

Anyway, for all you Cloak fans out there, here's his first and last appearances from the swingin' '60s.  He's turned up at least a couple of times in recent years - first in the back of a self-published comic by a former assistant of Mike Higg's, and then in the pages of CRIKEY!, a (now defunct) mag devoted to British comics and their creators.

Here, though, is how it all started - and finished - so very long ago.

Above - The Cloak's debut issue - unheralded on the cover

******

The cover to his final appearance in Smash!  I've included the second page
of The Swots & The Blots strip so that you don't feel short-changed

A TRUE TALE Of BIRTH AFTER DEATH...

Images copyright DC COMICS

1974.  The date trips off my tongue with such familiar ease that it still seems fairly recent to my mind.  Hard to believe, then, that it was actually 38 years ago when I was still a mere lad.  Back then, DC COMICS had a title called BLACK MAGIC, which reprinted SIMON & KIRBY tales from a magazine of the same name published in the 1950s.

I remember buying the first issue with such startling clarity that I almost feel as if I went to bed last night as a 15 year old boy and woke up today the age I am now.  Life really does go by so fast, alas.  However, it's a story in the second issue that made a big impression on me which has lasted to this day - "BIRTH AFTER DEATH".

It purports to be a true account of events leading up to the birth of SIR WALTER SCOTT, the famed Scottish novelist, playwright and poet born in Edinburgh in 1771, who died in Melrose at the age of 61 in 1832.  (ROB ROY and IVANHOE being but two of his works.)

Although I've checked, I've never been able to find any corroborating evidence to back up the tale, but I find it hard to believe that Simon & Kirby would simply have made the whole thing up.  I remember reading the comic (on the day I bought it) in the graveyard of a local centuries-old church, complete with the burial vault of a once-prominent family from ages past.  Creepy but apt, don't you think?  Obviously that's why I associate the tale with the place today.

1822 portrait of Scott by Raeburn

Anyway, have a read and make up your own mind.  Fact or fiction?  To me though, it's one of those stories that - if it isn't true - it ought to be.

******

UPDATE: Simon & Kirby's story is true after all (with just a little artistic licence in regard to minor details).  From THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL, Tuesday, October 18th, 1932, comes the following account.  (Thanks, Tongalad.)

Sir Walter Scott's Mother Buried Alive Five Years Before His Birth

Old Essay Reveals She Was Rescued From Tomb Due to Ghoulish Sexton

London England - The astonishing fact that Sir Walter Scott's mother was declared to be dead and was actually interred five years before Sir Walter Scott's birth is recalled in a letter to the Daily Express, sent by George MacDonald, Birmingham.

"Her weird sepulchral experience," says MacDonald, "is described as follows by a great essayist of many decades ago."

Buried in Vault

Here is the description:

"Miss Rutherford, while lying in a trance and declared by the physicians to be dead, was laid away in the family tomb in the great vaults under the parish church.

"At night the ghoulish sexton stealthily entered the tomb, opened the casket and proceeded to rob the elegant and entombed lady of the jewels which were on her person according to the then prevalent custom.  Finding some of the finger rings too tightly fixed, the unconscionable thief took his pocket knife and slashed the flesh from the fingers.

"Came to Life"

"The sudden shock and flow of blood caused a reaction of the vital forces, and the reanimated lady opened her eyes, uttered an exclamation of amazement and attempted to rise up.

"The guilty and horror-stricken rascal's hair rose straight upon his head, and with the yell of a desperate madman he rushed forth, thus raising the alarm which brought help and rescue to her.

"She lived many years subsequently, none the worse for her awful adventure which occurred five years previously to the birth of Sir Walter."

******

Click the link below (provided by Tongalad) to see the actual newspaper's front cover:

http://news.google.com/newspapersnid=1499&dat=19321018& id=uahQAAAAIBAJ &sjid=2SEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5668,6482729

Unfortunately, the above link appears to be no longer active, though it was for years. 

HAS THE BUBBLE BURST?

As far back as I can recall, I've always had a thing for Bubble Cars.  I remember being on holiday one year when I was about three or four - in Ayr perhaps - and trying to win one from a grappling machine.  (Or what- ever they're called.  You know the thing I mean - one of these plexiglass cases found in amusement arcades and [nowadays] shopping malls where you direct a crane-type grappling arm and try and lift the prize desired.  There must be a name for them, but if I ever knew it I've forgotten.)

Anyway, the owner of the amusement arcade, seeing my disappointment at not being able to secure a dark red Bubble Car, beckoned me to follow him (don't panic, my parents were with me) and, going behind a curtain into the back of the arcade, gifted me with a friction-drive Bubble Car of my very own.  Perhaps that's what started my lifelong love of such vehicles, although it doesn't explain my initial desire to acquire one from that machine in the arcade.  Maybe I just liked the shape and the colour. Anyway, regardless of what started me off and whether it was before or after this momentous moment that I developed my appreciation of them, that was the very first Bubble Car I ever owned.

I acquired my second one when I was about eleven or twelve.  It was a CORGI TOYS diecast HEINKEL Bubble Car in a bright orange. I'd have preferred a red one, but the shop (R. S. McCOLL'S) had no such animal, so an orange one it was.  To date, I only have ten Bubble Cars in all (six on display in the accompanying photos), two being three-wheeled affairs, the remainder having a full complement of four.  Yup, believe it or not, some Bubble Cars were actually of the four-wheeled variety, which may come as a surprise to you.

Interestingly (to me at least), that holiday in Ayr was also where I obtained my very first TV COMIC publication - a TV Comic Holiday Special.  At that time I had no idea it was a special edition of a weekly comic, not discovering this fact 'til a year or two later.  In truth, if it hadn't been for MIGHTY MOTH on the cover and DICK MILLINGTON's artwork inside, I would never have associated my first purchased issue of the weekly with the earlier holiday special.  It was the look of Mighty Moth I remembered, not the name of the comic.

Although my parents never owned a Bubble Car, they did acquire a NOBEL car in 1964 or '65, which did sort of suggest a hint of the shape of one.  (See photo below.)  We had this car for at least three or four years, possibly five, and in all that time I only ever saw its twin once.  As far as I'm aware, no toy company has ever issued a scale model of this uniquely-shaped automobile, which is a shame as I'd dearly love one.  (Are you reading this, Corgi?)

So there you have it.  Another rambling reminiscence in which probably no-one apart from myself is even remotely interested.  At least I've recorded these childhood memories for posterity, which - should my memory fade with time - I can return to in the future and remind myself of precious moments I'd forgotten.

******

Update, July 2015: I recently learned that a German company called BUDIG released a limited edition, white metal model of the car around 2008, and I managed to obtain one from Rotterdam on eBay.  Here are three of the seller's photos of the one I bought.