THUNDERBIRDS 2 & 4...

Not the best quality photo admittedly, but I took it in fading light and didn't want to use the flash.  It is, of course, toy company VIVID's new THUNDERBIRD 2 (along with TB4) from the new programme based on GERRY ANDERSON's cult 1960s TV show. I've only seen the first episode and was uncertain as to whether I'd be buying the latest toy range, but the vehicles are enough like the originals not to be too jarring, so I bought TB1 & TB2.  I'll be getting TB3 pretty soon as well.

Not too shabby, is it?

PLAYMATES From FAR-AWAY PLACES - PART THREE...

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

Relax, only 9 more to go before we've worked  our way through these back cover LITTLE STAR pages.  I paid for 'em and I'm gonna use 'em!  (Did nobody else ever buy Little Star when they were a kid?  Okay, so I was a teenager when I first bought them back in 1972, but hey - it was a new comic - with free gifts - and I just couldn't resist!)

GREEN LANTERN COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

The original incarnation of GREEN LANTERN appeared back in 1940 in the pages of ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #16, and his 'civilian' (and secret) identity was railroad engineer ALAN SCOTT.  However, he's not the Green Lantern we're interested in today, that particular accolade belonging to test pilot HAL JORDAN, who made his debut appearance in SHOWCASE #22 in 1959 as part of NPP/DC COMICS editor (and writer) JULIUS SCHWARTZ's SILVER AGE attempt to revive superheroes.  Over the decades, the history and continuity of GL and the GREEN LANTERN CORPS has become increasingly convoluted (to say nothing of boring - to me at least), so I won't attempt to explain it all here.

Instead, let's just look at some fantastic covers from a time when comicbooks were a lot less complicated - and far more interesting and entertaining.  Hey, here's a novel notion - do you think there might be a connection there?  So, who's your favourite Green Lantern?  Let the world know in our controversial comments section!  All together now:

"In brightest day... in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight!

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power - -

Green Lantern's Light!"

   

BABE Of The DAY - HEATHER THOMAS...

HEATHER can't come to the 'phone -

she's a little 'tied-up' at the moment.  Yup, that

joke's a little 'ropey', but come on - it's the best I

can do at such short notice.  Stunning Heather was

kicking at my bedroom door for over six hours last

night.  In the end, I had no choice but to get up

 and let her out!  Boom-boom!

PART TWO Of PLAYMATES From FAR-AWAY PLACES...

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

I'm not quite sure just how common the name SUZIE is in China, but I'd hazard a guess and say not very.  From the back cover of LITTLE STAR #2, published 43 years ago in 1972.

JIM REEVES 'LIVE'...

Here's JIM REEVES recording The BLUE

CANADIAN ROCKIES in the studio back in the

early '60s.  Marvel at the ease with which he does it,

and don't be fooled if the audio appears slightly out-

of-sync with the video.   I have a superior version of

this clip on DVD - and there's nothing about it to

suggest he's lip-syncing to a pre-recorded tape.

PART EIGHT Of CAPTAIN BRITAIN COVER, SPLASH PAGE & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Some stunning pics await you in this latest post in the CAPTAIN BRITAIN gallery series, so I'll try not to hold you back from the good stuff for too long.  With top artists like BUSCEMA, STERANKO and MOONEY, it's a wonder that the comic only lasted 39 issues.  What's the world coming to when all that talent can't ensure success?

Having said that, some of the new splash pages designed to bridge the gaps between stories divided into parts for episodic presentation over a number of weeks weren't always in the same class as the pages they fronted, so perhaps that fact deterred some readers from sticking with the title for longer, who knows?  (It sure ain't me!)

Were you a CB fan back in the day?  Feel free to reminisce to your heart's content in our cataclysmic comments section!  (And don't forget to remember to come back for part nine.)

BEAR Of The DAY - YOGI BEAR...

Seems like YOGI's claim to being smarter

than the average bear is absolutely true!  Look

- he can ride a scooter.  Wotta bear!

PLAYMATES From FAR-AWAY PLACES - PART ONE...

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

Nope, not the type of playmates that first spring to mind if your a follower of HUGH HEFNER's magazine, but something altogether more innocent.  Back in 1972, the first dozen issues of LITTLE STAR featured a series on the back cover called PLAYMATES FROM FAR-AWAY PLACES.  They're nice and colourful (with a few age spots, alas) and I thought it would be nice to show them on the blog.

So here's the first one.  Reminds me of the illustrations in the LADYBIRD books I read in school as a child.  (Wish I was again.)  I bought the first 25 issues of Little Star not too long ago, to hopefully mine the content for material to publish on the Blog, so you can let me know if it's the sort of comics-stuff you're interested in.

BABE Of The DAY - SAMANTHA FOX...

Here's a foxy little babe for

you: the sultry SAMANTHA FOX.

(Did you see what I did there?)

"WHERE AM I?" "IN THE VILLAGE!"

FANTASTIC FOUR images copyright MARVEL COMICS

On Saturday afternoon, I took a slow stroll down to the Old Village quarter of my town.  On arrival, it started to rain quite heavily, so I sought refuge under the overhanging boughs of a tree which sheltered a wooden bench.  Just across the road from where I sat was the former house of a long-dead aunt and uncle whom my mother occasionally used to visit, with me in tow, whenever we were in the vicinity.  I associate a couple of FANTASTIC FOUR stories with that house and area, because I'd usually just bought an issue of WHAM! (which reprinted FF tales back in the 1960s) when we descended on their split-level home.  (There's also a Mighty THOR story - "The MYSTERIOUS Mr. HYDE!" - from FANTASTIC, another ODHAMS PRESS comic, that also conjures up images of their small, old-fashioned, 1950s style living-room.)

The FF stories were "KURRGO, MASTER Of PLANET X!" and "The END Of The FANTASTIC FOUR!", although they weren't complete tales, just segments of them, as each one was broken up over at least two issues.  When The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL reprinted these same stories about five or six years later, myself and one of my pals were frequenting the area, as it was there that a centuries old pub was (and still is) located.  We were in the weekly (at least) habit of clambering over its slated rooftop in search of adventure (me with my rolled up copy of MWOM stuffed into my inside jacket pocket to protect it as much as possible), and we passed my aunt and uncle's house on our way.

So, not only do I have two sets of recollections for each of those FF tales, but they're both associated with the same specific locale, due to the coincidence of my being in the same area on each occasion.  True, had I been somewhere else the second time around, I'd still have remembered my initial reading of those stories, but the memories were all the more vivid for being conjured up in the same place as on previous instances.  Today, whichever of the two printings of either tale I peruse, I immediately think back to the Old Village section of my town as it was then.

However, my memories and associations of 'the Village' aren't restricted to the Fantastic Four.  As I sat on the bench shielded from the rain, I was but a short space away from where some other benches used to be, on which, at various times, I'd sit and look through other comic mags I'd bought from a nearby newsagent's (now a GREGG'S), on hot, sunny, summer days of so very long ago.  LOIS LANE and MISTER MIRACLE are just two of the titles I also associate with the area, and I'm sure if I dug around in the recesses of my mind, a few others would soon resurface.  It's best not to search for them though; rather, let them rise unprompted when one is casually browsing through a stack of old comics from the dim and distant days of the early '70s.

No great insight into anything this time around, sorry to say (when is there ever, you may ask), merely a self-indulgent wallow in 'personal nostalgia' in yet another typical 'Rambling Robson Reminiscence'.  Hopefully you got something out of it though.  If not, don't worry - there's always next time.  

PART TWO Of MARVEL'S The SUPER-HEROES COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's difficult for me to fully accept that 40 years have gone by since I bought the comics from which the images you see before you are taken.  1975?  Surely it was only a few years ago at the very most?  Nope, it's actually been 40 years, and as I type these words, I sense the shadow of a silent spectre falling upon my shoulder and I resist the sudden compulsion to turn around and look, and thereby seal my fate sooner than is scheduled.

But that's enough of the doom and gloom.  For the moment, let's celebrate this worthy U.K. MARVEL weekly from the past, and live again those halcyon days when everything seemed right with the world.  It may have been only an illusion cultivated by our ignorance of what lay before us, but illusions are sometimes the best and dearest companions of our youth.  Now - enjoy!

       

Big JOHN BUSCEMA shows how to compose a cover - a classic!

This was the very first X-MEN story I ever read - in the pages of FANTASTIC #7 by ODHAMS
PRESS in 1967.  Like this printing, it was split into two parts and continued in the next issue