BEFORE AND AFTER - IS IT A MIRACLE?

Seller's photo...

 

 

As I've modestly said before, I sometimes amaze myself with my brilliance.  (Why are you all laughing?)  As proof, I now offer visual evidence in the form of 'before and after' photos.  As you know, I recently bought a Bible to complete my set of 17 colour illustrations by Jack Hayes, but the slipcase was a little the worse for wear.  I was never going to be able to restore it to pristine condition, but it was certainly within my abilities to improve its appearance to a higher level, so that's exactly what I did.  Don't believe me?  Then take a look for yourself.  (Click on images to enlarge for greater detail.)

Buyer's photo (that's me, folks)...

Seller's photo...

Buyer's photo...

 

Any Crivvies wishing to shower me with paeans of praise in the comments section should now form an orderly queue.  (That'll be no comments again then.)

The HAYES REPORT - 47 YEARS LATER (Or: TWO BACK In The FOLD)...

 But not these two...

Memory is a funny thing, isn't it?  I've written before about how we sometimes don't realise we've seemingly forgotten something until we're reminded on seeing it again that we really hadn't forgotten it at all.  We just hadn't thought about it in some time, which isn't quite the same as forgetting, even though the effect is pretty much the same.  All we've really done is forgotten to remember it in a while - or perhaps forgotten how to remember it - until sight, taste, or smell of it reignites the memory at the back of our mind and it explodes in our consciousness once more.

Here's an example.  I've told you previously about a Bible my mother bought me back around 1971 or early '72.  A mere 4 or 5 years later (though it would've seemed much longer than that at the time), said Bible having disappeared into limbo at some indeterminate stage, I spied its twin in a bookshop and decided to buy it in order to revisit the wonderful illustrations it contained and reconnect with my past.  The Bible had 15 pictures and I recalled every one with stunning clarity.

What I didn't realise though, was that my original copy had contained 17 illustrations, but it never occurred to me that two pictures were absent as I just assumed that my original copy likewise had only 15 illos.  Recently I discovered the truth when I saw a similar copy to mine on eBay, but I didn't buy it as the cloth cover was blue instead of the ruby red that mine had been.  Instead, I bought an even earlier copy (with 17 illustrations), a Moroccoette, yapp, gilt-edged edition which came in a slipcase.

Remember, I hadn't seen two of the pics in 47 years or so, but I recognised them the second I saw them, to such an extent that it seemed I'd last laid eyes on them only a couple or so weeks back, not nearly 5 decades ago.  Yet had I not seen them both again, I'd likely have continued in blissful ignorance of their existence for the rest of my life.  Strange, eh?  I just can't imagine not noticing if two other pictures had been omitted instead, so familiar do the surviving ones seem.  Is that simply due to my recollection of them being reinforced by acquiring my replacement Bible within a relatively short period of time after the original (and owning it for so long a period since), or were they simply more memorable from the start?

Like I say, given their familiarity, it just doesn't seem possible that I wouldn't have missed any of the others, but that's not something I can test this far down the line.  However, one look at any of them (including the 'returned' pair) and I'm back in my old bedroom of my former house, just a young teenager with eternity seemingly stretching ahead of me, instead of the mortality that waits to ambush me when I least expect it.       

As I've said on so many occasions before, where did the time go?  And can I have it back again please?  If any of you would like to see the 17 illustrations of which I write, you can do so by clicking here.  If there's anything you thought you'd forgotten until something reminded you of it, feel free to record it for posterity in the comments section.  (And should any of you be wondering about the post's title, the artist responsible for the 17 illustrations was Jack Hayes.)

MONDAY'S BABE Of The DAY...

Raquel Welch...

 

 

Cold today, so here's a nice pic of

Raquel to warm us all up.  It's working,

because I feel like taking off some clothes

already - and then I remembered she's not

actually in the house with me.  (I should

never have sent her out to buy me a

 newspaper and bacon buttie.)

Paul McCartney - We All Stand Together (Official Music Video)...

Rupert And The Frog Chorus...

BIRTHDAY WISHES To One Of BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE BRUINS... (Updated)

Rupert Bear...

Copyright relevant owner

Everyone knows his name, and he's 100 years old today.  Whereas I only feel (okay, and maybe look) like 100.  Anyone out there a Rupert Bear fan?  Don't be shy now.  And, below, is the very first appearance of Rupert's long-running strip in The Daily Express, as reprinted in The Adventures Of Rupert The Little Lost Bear back in 1921.

FOUR GREAT NEW BOOKS FOR YOU TO BUY - GOING CHEAP...

Beano Annual 2021 - Dennis's 70th...

Images copyright respective owners

WHS are selling two Annuals for a tenner at the moment, and though they might be cheaper elsewhere (and will get even cheaper on the run-up to the New Year), I decided to grab them while they were readily available so that I don't have to hunt them down later in different shops like I did last year.  There's an anniversary theme in two of them, as it'll be 70 years since Dennis The Menace first appeared in The Beano back in 1951, and Rupert Bear will be 100 years old tomorrow (Sunday).

If you were to buy these books at the publishers' prices, you'd pay a whopping £48.96, whereas if you buy them in WHS, you'll pay only £20 for all four.  What's not to like?  Anyway, get yourself along to the shops tomorrow (if you're allowed, and if they're open) and buy yourself a lovely Christmas present.  Or I suppose you could always purchase them for some friends or relatives if you prefer, but I'm not that generous.  These four beauties are for me! 

(Incidentally, if you only want The Beano book, it can be had for a mere £2.99 from Home Bargains.)

Oor Wullie & The Broons...

Beano & Dandy Dudley D. Watkins Celebration...

Rupert Annual #85 Happy 100th Birthday...

SATURDAY'S BABE Of The DAY...

The Wondrous Lynda Carter...

Lynda Carter popped in for a

visit yesterday, so I invited her to stay

overnight and made her very welcome in

the 'guest room'.  That reminds me, I'd better

take her some breakfast as she'll doubtless be

ravenous after all the energy she exerted trying

to slip out of her chains.  Dunno why, as they

were only to ensure that she was comfortable.

Anyway, nice of her to dress in her Wonder

Woman costume.  (Or  did I dress her

 like that?  Can't quite recall.)

KID NAPPED - FOR 54 YEARS...

But Finally Awoke And Got Around To Reading A Classic!

For around 54 years I've deprived myself of an immense pleasure without being aware of it until the last couple of days.  Back in the latter days of 1966 or the early part of 1967, my brother and myself were each gifted a book as a Christmas present by an aunt and uncle.  (I no longer recall with certainty, but if we didn't receive the books before or on Christmas, they passed into our possession belatedly sometime in the New Year.)

The books were Kidnapped and Treasure Island, both authored by Robert Louis Stevenson, the same writer who penned the tale of Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  (Yup, that's right - no article before 'Strange'.)  As recounted here, my brother was given Kidnapped, while Treasure Island was my half of the gift.  It wasn't 'til around 10 years later that I finally read a replacement copy of the book I'd acquired, and I very much enjoyed it.

I say replacement, as I don't quite know what happened to my original copy, but somehow my brother's book survived and had passed into my hands.  Yesterday I decided to start reading it, having just finished half an hour ago as I type, and it truly was an excellent, gripping, and enthralling read.  To think that this treasure (allusion intended) has sat in a cupboard for lo those many years, patiently waiting to be read simply astounds me.  What could I have been thinking in not embarking in this most pleasant undertaking before now?

Stevenson is indeed a masterful storyteller, and I'd be doing you a disservice if I neglected to commend this novel to your attention if you've not already read it.  And even if you have, if it was many years ago when you were younger, I'm sure you'd certainly enjoy reading it again.  And if you haven't read it before, don't be caught napping - do it soon, as a real treat awaits you!

JAMES BOND In The 21st CENTURY - 55 YEARS AGO...

Agent 007 (Or 221) In Space...

I first saw Sean Connery's likeness in the 1965/'66 TV Century 21 Annual, but I didn't know it was Sean until many years later when I acquired a replacement (sometime in the early '80s) and noticed the likeness immediately.  It's too strong a resemblance to be coincidental, but in another illustration of the same character on another page, he looks more like Steve Zodiac.

Any of you Crivs got the Annual, and have you ever noticed this before?

SUNDAY'S BABE Of The DAY...

The Voluptuous Valerie Perez...

Awesome Valerie Perez is

surely one of the most beautiful gals

on the planet.  I'd do anything for Val

- climb the highest mountains, swim the

deepest oceans, journey to far continents in

search of treasures for her.  There is just no

task I would not undertake for this goddess

among women.  I can't do any of it today,

though, as I'm exhausted after typing out

this long paragraph so I'll maybe do

it all another time, eh, Val?

OUTWITH, BEYOND, OR THROUGH - DECISIONS, DECISIONS...

English As She Is Speaked (Or Writed)... 

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

Roy Thomas was one of Marvel's best writers and editors, possibly even the most important after Stan Lee.  When I first read his X-Men tales back in the late '60s, they were published in a b&w UK weekly periodical called Fantastic, which removed the credits from the splash pages.  Therefore, it wasn't 'til years later that I discovered Roy's tales were not scripted by the same writer as the earlier X-Men stories, so masterfully had he continued in the style Stan had set when the Marvel Age was first aborning.

Recently, while reading Roy's afterword in the first Dark Horse Conan volume from 2003 (which reprinted Roy's Conan issues at a time when Marvel no longer had the license), I noticed he said that he sometimes 'winced' when he re-read some lines in CTB #1.  I presume he's referring to dialogue like 'Without yon wooden bars, the ceremony begins...'  'Without'?  Had Roy been Scottish he'd probably have written 'outwith', which we Scots use as a synonym for 'beyond', 'through', or 'outside'.

Interestingly, a 1994 UK reprinting (above) changed the word 'without' to 'beyond', and the aforementioned Dark Horse reprint (below) substituted 'through' for 'without' (at Roy's request I presume).  Perhaps I'm imagining it, but I also seem to recall seeing it changed to 'outside', though maybe I'm only remembering what I thought would read better after reading the tale way back in the '70s.

Anyway, I've reproduced the three different versions of the panel so that you can see them for yourself, should any of you be interested.  No, don't thank me, it's all part of the (free) service.  Now someone bring a wench to my room, by Crom, I've got some ironing that needs done!

PART TWENTY-FOUR Of COMIC COVERS 'SNAP'!

 Ground Control To Colonel Nick...

Images copyright respective owners

 

Time yet again for another entry in our occasional series of Comic Covers 'Snap'!, wherein we compare covers with the very ones they're based on.  This time it's Nick Fury getting ripped-off by Superman, but if Nick's not going to complain about Supes pinching the layout of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6's 1968 cover then neither am I.  Sequentially, the third cover on show here was actually published between the two above it, when it was reused on the second issue of a two-part reprint limited series in 1983.  The Superman version is from 1989.   

NO TRICKS, HERE'S A REAL TREAT (I HOPE YOU'LL AGREE) - (Updated)

 Things That Go Bump In The Night...

Getting back to the Hallowe'en theme, here's a couple of Aurora model kits I built and painted some years ago (approximately 1983 and '96 respectively), followed by two I built and painted for someone else two or three years back.  Plus, two versions of the same drawing of the Frankenstein Monster that I drew around '82 or '83.  The first one is the inked version of the head, followed by a photocopy of the original pencil version.  Not too shabby, eh?  (He said, fishing for compliments.)

SEAN CONNERY PASSES AWAY...

 But Legends Never Truly Die...

Well, that's it now, isn't it?  Just about all the celebrity heroes we considered family friends when we were growing up are gone, aren't they?  Leslie Crowther, Peter Glaze, Johnny Morris, Rodney Bewes, Adam West, John Noakes, James Garner, Roger Moore, Bobby Ball, and a whole host of others... which sadly now also includes Sean Connery, the big screen's first James Bond.

When Big Tam first played Bond, he was in his early 30s; when he gave it up, he was in his early 40s - and when he reprised the role one more time, he was only 53 or so, several years younger than I am now.  And yet each of these landmarks in my life seem like only the recent past to me, so how can the man who was Bond... James Bond, seemingly only a short time ago, be old enough to have died?

I'll leave it to others to cover his life and career; I just didn't want to ignore his passing as Sean's Bond was, and I'm sure it's the same for many others, a fixture of sorts in my life for the last 48 years.  Think I'll play a Bond soundtrack and make believe that Sean's still around - which, in so many ways, he still is and always will be.

CONAN MINI-COVER GALLERY...

 Conan The Savage...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

Conan The Savage was a 10 issue series by Marvel Comics, published in 1995-'96.  I own the first 5 issues, but not only had I forgotten I had them, I'd also forgotten the mag ever existed 'til I found them in one of my cupboards while looking for something else.  Well there are no flies on me (apart from of the zip variety), so I immediately thought "Hey, I should scan them and do a mini-cover gallery!" so that's exactly what I've done.  Aren't you lucky I'm so full of great ideas? 

The HALLOWE'EN GUY...

 

Images copyright relevant owners

Here's a question for all your cavortin' Crivvies - what age were you when you last went out guising at Hallowe'en?  I guess I was about 10, though it may just have been to a Boys' Brigade party (I was a member) in the church hall over the road from me.  That means that it's been over 50 years since I was an active participant in the Hallowe'en tradition, which seems strange to me as I can remember those dark nights of my childhood as if they were far more recent than that.  I've never been to an adult Hallowe'en party, but I'm sure many of you have, which means you got to dress up annually for many more years than I ever did.  Except for weekends and only to unwind - but that's another story.  (Joking.)

Incidentally, I hate Hallow'en parties for grown-ups (any parties in fact) - let the kids have their fun for goodness' sake without trying to imitate them.  Seeing adults making tits of themselves while dressed up in ridiculous costumes and smashed out of their brains makes a mockery of the innocent pleasure that should be the sole province of children (apart from the getting drunk part obviously).  If you must have a party, then have a party (though I'd advise against it, as I hate seeing people enjoying themselves, especially when the ensuing noise encroaches on my peace and quiet), but you shouldn't be copying kids in order to get your jollies.  Grow up!  (Says the man who still buys toys and comics!)

Ah, I feel much better now, doctor - can I be discharged?  Anyway, as it's Hallowe'en tonight, I though I'd share with you a few relevant images of the age-old tradition, culled from Whizzer & Chips #3 back in 1969 (which was actually a Guy Fawkes issue, though it came out before Hallowe'en, probably on October 25th).  I won't tell anyone if you decide to click on the image of the mask and print out your own copy.  In fact, I've included another couple of masks just in case they'll float your boat as well.  Just don't wear them to any parties if you're over 10!

DON'T PANIC - THIS POST ISN'T WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK IT IS...

Copyright relevant owner

I know what you're all thinking - "Kid's gone loopy and is now going to preach to us."  No, not at all - there will be no religious content in this post about what you should believe, how you should live, or anything else pertaining to the subject of theology.  The only reason I've used the above picture is because there's a story behind it; not much of one I grant you, but, hey - I have to fill this blog with something, otherwise you'd have nothing to read.

There was a time when I was a teenager that I became interested in religion.  I think at some stage in all our lives we go through the "Who am I?, Where did I come from?, Why am I here?, Where am I going?" phase and it was no different for me.  Some of us investigate it and some of us shrug it off, but I think those questions chap at the door of our minds at some point or other if we have any degree of intelligence.  So I investigated for a while, and reached my own conclusions, none of which I'll bore you with (you'll be glad to hear).

However, the preceding preamble is just to set the stage for this book - or to be more precise, its cover.  Back in the late '70s, a friend at the time lent me a copy of this book.  He was no longer living in my home town, and I assume that he wouldn't have bothered to bring it all the way up from down South on one of his infrequent visits, so I suspect it resided in his sister's house (who did still live in my home town at the time) and that was where he acquired it to lend to me.  Whether it was actually his to lend is another matter, though it could well have been.

Anyway, there was a chapter which interested me, so I lent the book to a minister I knew to ask his opinion about it.  (I think I asked my friend if it was okay to do so, but I couldn't swear to it.)  When, after a suitable period, I enquired after its return, he'd 'mislaid' it, leaving me to explain to my pal what had happened.  He expressed disappointment, because, he said, it had belonged to his mother and father who were by then both deceased, but he wasn't angry about it.  His parents were Baptists, so I was surprised that they'd own a Seventh-day Adventist book, but maybe it had been lent to them by someone and not returned.  (If so, that seemed to have become a habit.)  Of course, there's always a chance that he was lying about it being his parents' book just to make me feel guilty.  He was that kind of guy.

Anyway, in the course of time, I eventually cut this particular friend loose because of his tendency to tell whopping-great lies of a humongously absurd nature, but being the nostalgist that I am, I still think back fondly to the time of our childhood and teenage years when we were yet pals.  Which is odd, I suppose, because I wouldn't cross the road to pee on him now if he were on fire.  Anyway, it was only in the last few days, while browsing through eBay, that I noticed that this book was written by the same author (Arthur S. Maxwell) as the Bedtime Stories book I've owned from my earliest days, so I bought one just for old times' sake.

Why?  There was always something about the cover that fascinated me; the cozy 'home and hearth' scene of domestic bliss, peace and tranquillity, that spoke to me of what life could and should be like.  My image of how the world should look is based on Ladybird book illustrations of the '50s and '60s, and the cover and internal illos are of a similar nature, so how could I fail to be entranced by them?  There's more to it than that, though.  The cover also reminds me of a vanished time, a former friend, and my deceased youth, which crept away to die without me noticing, while I erroneously believed it was still alive and very much a current companion.  (I just turned around to look at it one day and found that it was gone.)

So now I have one more aspect of the 'long-ago' back in the fold, another part of my past to warm me as the already far too rapidly advancing winter of my life seems to speed up its approach.  Hopefully, though, it'll take a lengthy 'pit-stop' on the way.

Do any of you Crivvies remember (or yet own) any books with illustrations that evoke fond memories of happier times, or which, when younger, pointed forwards to happy days as you'd like them to be?  Tell all in the comments section.

The AVENGERS #111 TRUE BELIEVERS REPRINT...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here's another True Believers ish, this time reprinting The Avengers #111, available from your local comicbook shop now.  And it costs only a fraction of what you'd probably pay to buy the original issue in pristine condition.

Y'know, I'm a big fan of Don Heck's artwork in general, but there's a point in his career where he went off the boil - sometime in the '70s, I'd say.  His figure-work became a bit loose and 'floaty', by which I mean that his characters didn't appear to be planted firmly on the ground, or looked as if they were just on the verge of floating upwards.  In his later days, Don himself blamed the inkers as the reason for any negative criticism of his work, but I think the blame lay closer to home.

Take a look at the splash page (below) for example.  Anyone else see that Wanda's right leg is shorter than her left?  That wasn't the inker's fault, that's the way Don drew it.  Still, his '60s Iron Man and Avengers tales were a delight, so let's hope that Marvel gets around to reprinting some more of them as TBs.

 

A MIGHTY MARVEL MIX-UP...

 

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

 

Take a look at the first of the above two panels from page 4 of The Avengers #43.  Can you spot the mistake?  Well, it'd be hard to miss, wouldn't it?  Surely, though, the writer (Roy Thomas) who scripted the dialogue also indicated what the 'sound-effect' should be?  Wait, I've got it - it's a doorbell that chimes like a door-knock.  That's surely worth a 'No-Prize' if anything is, eh?  I'm a certified genius.  (Certified anyway - I may have imagined the 'genius' part.)  

BIT OF A MUSER? THIS ONE'S FOR YOU...

For all those of a nostalgic bent, there's a new and exclusive post on my other blog, Mild & Mellow Melancholy Musings.  Click here if you're interested.

THINGS THAT ARE ALWAYS THERE...

I suppose I was around 3 or 4 years of age when I first became aware of the Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories book in my bedroom.  Well, I say 'my' bedroom, but I shared it with my brother.  (It would be another 9 or 10 years before I finally got a room of my own.)  I was always dimly aware of its presence in our first three houses, but it was allocated to the attic along with a pile of other stuff in our fourth house, and was there for years before I rediscovered it one day and moved it into my bedroom cupboard.

It was written by British-born Arthur S. Maxwell, a Seventh-day Adventist and published in the UK, and is one of a series that lasted for quite a few years.  In fact, for all I know, they might still enjoy regular reprintings today.  The stories, purporting to be true, are a bit twee, and looking at them now, they paint a picture of a vanished age - or at least the perception of an age which may never truly have existed except in the minds of a certain 'class'.  I only just started reading the stories and am now around halfway through the book. They're reasonably well-written, though the children featured in them don't speak like any children I ever heard (far too keen to pray), not even when I was a nipper. 

The book was hardly in pristine condition, with scuffs and scrapes to the boards, and part of the spine was missing in the middle, plus a little bit of the cover where the absent piece of the spine folded over.  It may always have been like this, but it's hard to say with any certainty as I don't think either my brother or myself ever read it.  If we ever picked it up out of boredom, we soon put it down again the moment we remembered it was a Sunday School-type book and therefore of no interest to us.  We were both made to attend Sunday School (reluctantly), but I recall at least one occasion when me and a pal skived off and spent our 'collection' money on sweets.  (Villains!)  Where did the book come from?  Jumble sale, church, a relative?  Its source is lost to the mists of time, but it could've been 'secondhand' when we got it.

For many years, neither me nor my brother were allowed beyond the confines of our back garden on a Sunday (apart from visiting our grandparents along with mater and pater) as my mother was religiously-minded (Church of Scotland), though more from a superstitious perspective (it seemed to me) than an insightful or pious one.  She believed people shouldn't exert themselves (as kids are prone to) on a Sunday as it was the 'day of rest', not realising that, to the Jews, the Sabbath was a Saturday and the admonition to 'rest' was only for them, not Gentiles.  We were in our third house before she eventually relaxed a bit and we could get out to the field across the street to play for a while.  I'm not sure exactly when - could've been when I was 7 or 8.

Anyway, digging through my cupboard the other day, I spied the book and decided to effect a repair job on it, to sort of make up for its many decades of neglect.  I gave it a colour touch-up in places, just to make it look neater, and replaced the missing piece on the spine.  I'm slightly colour-blind so can't swear to the efficacy of my work in that department, but the book is now more secure (a touch of glue in places along the inside of the spine sorted out any looseness), and is certainly much better in appearance than it was previously.

Look at the back cover below.  One glance at that seal and I'm a child again, and the shape and dimensions of my room shift in my mind - first one room, then another, then back again, swirling through time and space like my own personal TARDIS.  To be honest, in the natural course of events, had the book not been quarantined in the loft for decades, it would likely have been dispensed with long ago by my parents or brother for being surplus to requirements.

However, I'm glad it wasn't, as it goes all the way back to my earliest days, and to be without it would be like being without some old friend from childhood who I never quite realised meant so much to me 'til I set eyes on them again after a long period, and was reminded of how far back we went before I cruelly and selfishly forgot about them on my day-to-day sojourn through life.  It's ironic to think that had Uncle Arthur still been alive, he'd probably have turned that into a quaint little morality tale for one of his books.

Any of you Crivvies own any books that you've had from infancy?  Spill the Heinz 57 in our ever-lovin' comments section.