DINGBATS, DIVORCES, And SOUL LOVE...

Copyright TWO MORROWS PUBLISHING and DC COMICS

Another book that arrived at Castel Crivens yesterday is the above one - Jack Kirby's Dingbat Love, by TwoMorrows Publishing in cooperation with DC Comics.  I meant to order it when it was first announced as being in production a couple or so years back, but you know how life has a habit of getting in the way of one's plans.  Then recently I was reminded of it when I saw it on another blog, so wasted no time in buying myself a copy.

Rather than me witter on about it in my typical longwinded way, below is the official spiel on the back cover - though I suspect diehard Kirby fans will already know its contents having already bought theirs.  A nice touch inside is what Soul Love #1 could've looked like had it been published - well, it has now.  It was also available as a separate magazine in limited numbers, but I only learned that on that other blog and my chances of obtaining one are probably zilch.

Kirby's dialogue is clunkier than a thrupenny bit (or pound coin nowadays), but his art (for the most part) is top-notch - though there's one panel with a guy resting books on his bonce, which looks like the top of his head has been sawn off.  The Dingbats Of Danger Street is another proposition entirely; not what you'd call bad, art-wise, but not Kirby at the top of his game.

What with my original issues, Kirby Omnibus volumes, and now this, I think it's safe for me to say that I now have everything that Jack Kirby did for DC during his '70s run.  Well done me! 

Below is an Alex Ross illustration based on JK's layout for the proposed cover of Soul Love #1.  I don't know why (and nothing to do with Ross's art), but to me, it doesn't quite have a 1971 'look' to it for some reason.

Look at the panel below.  It really astounds me that Jack couldn't see what was wrong with it in regard to the 'head meets books' department.  It leaps off the page at me, so why not him?

SUPERMAN - KRYPTONITE NEVERMORE 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION...

Copyright DC COMICS

Back in 2009, DC Comics Classics Library published a collected edition of the 9 issues featuring Superman's 'Kryptonite Nevermore' saga from start to finish.  I was disappointed to see the contents had been scanned from published comics, resulting in the reproduction not being quite as sharp or as colourful as it might (should, in fact) have been.  (There must also have been blank spots on the lettering which required retouching, but whoever did it misspelt a couple of words.)  "If only they'd recoloured new proofs, it would've been perfect" I thought.

Well, now they have!  In 2021, to commemorate this series' 50th Anniversary, DC essentially reissued their 2009 book, though with newly restored colour on every page (and no spelling errors) - making it the volume it deserved to be to begin with.  My only reservation is that due to the tight binding, there's not enough of a margin between the page edges on either side of the spine, making two separate pages appear, at a glance, almost like a centrespread - all through the book.  Thankfully, the pages don't disappear into the binding and are still easily readable.

The text pieces are the same as the 2009 edition, but even if you have that one, maybe it's time to upgrade to this visually superior presentation with high quality reproduction and perfect colour-registration - just as it ought to be.  (I only learned of this hardback last week - my copy arrived yesterday.)  Don't be a fool - rush out and buy it now (or order one from eBay or Amazon), as this is a book that should be on every Superman fan's bookshelf.  If you haven't read these tales before, boy, are you in for a treat!  (And even if you have, you're still in for a treat.)

And below is what the 2009 version looks like.  Nice, but the reproduction of the contents in the 2021 presentation is far superior.

SUPERMAN GOES LARGE - COVER GALLERY...

Copyright DC COMICS

I find myself slightly confused when I look at these Superman covers, Crivvies, the reason being that I bought some of them while living in one house, and the rest of them after flitting to another - but not all in the sequence they were issued.  (I'm not exactly sure where I was living when I got one comic, as it fits into my memory of either house.)  So for example, I purchased #247 while living in house 'A', but bought #245 while living in house 'B' - but what do you care about that?  I just find it odd that my memory flits from one house to another depending on which issue I'm looking at, as some weren't acquired in their original order.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there - I just thought I'd strike while the iron is hot following the previous post and show you some more 52 page mags (though a couple of them say 48 pages as they obviously weren't counting the covers), plus a couple of 100-pagers for good measure.  Although not all originally obtained in their sequential order, I've displayed them numerically as that's clearly the sensible way to do things.  None of these issues are my originals of course, but I've now owned some of the replacements for up to 40 years, which is far longer (by an immense margin) than I ever had their predecessors.

Did you have any of these great story-packed comics back in the day, and if so, what memories do you attach to them?  Share your reminiscences in the comments section for the enlightenment and entertainment of your fellow Crivvies. 

SUPERMAN IN 25 CENTS, 52 PAGE, BIGGER & BETTER ACTION COMICS COVER GALLERY...

Copyright DC COMICS

Remember when DC Comics upped the price of all their mags to 25 cents and increased the page count to 52?  They weren't exactly a success with readers and were purportedly part of the reason for DC being overtaken by Marvel when it came to sales.  I thought they were great though, and superb value for money (even more so in the UK, where we got them for 7 and a half pence) considering all the back-up stories (new and reprint) that we got for our dosh.  If not for the short-lived 52 page line, I might never have got to read some old strips and learn of characters from the '30s, '40s, and '50s that were previously unknown to me.

There were 11 issues in all of 52 page Action Comics, of which I had only 7 in my current collection until I recently tracked down the missing 4 to complete the set.  "This calls for a celebration!" I thought, and decided to present you Crivvies with a cover gallery of the full run.  The 7 I already had I've owned for decades and were replacements for my originals bought back in the day (early '70s), so I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to buying the rest of them.  However, I've finally accomplished it and can now share the covers with you here.  Remember any of them?  Tell us about it in the comments section.

Note that the old 'attention grabber' of featuring Clark and Superman as separate individuals has been utilised on 2 covers out of the 11.  This was a popular sales ploy by DC at the time, which presumably increased sales of such issues, hence it being repeated every now and again.

This ish and the next one say 48 pages - obviously not counting the covers

Now we have 52 - well it sounds better value for money than 48, doesn't it?

'BURN' THOSE STOLEN WALKIE-TALKIES HAS A DIFFERENT MEANING IN SCOTLAND...

This photo was obviously taken on a different day to the others

I meant to relate the following tale quite a while back and thought I actually had, but I can't find it on the blog anywhere so it looks like I never followed through.  (Just as well we're not talking about farts, eh?)

Anyway, sometime around late 1971 or early '72, two pals came to my door one dark wintry evening bearing a pair of battery operated walkie-talkies (still boxed) that one of them had nicked from Woolworth's.  I say two pals, but only one was actually my pal, the other being my friend's pal, and he was the one who'd done the actual nicking (he was well-known for it).  They tried to unload them by asking me if I wanted them, but I said no.  To be honest, I'd have liked them, but as my father worked for the police, my acceptance of the stolen items wasn't really an option open to me.

Now back in 1971 I had a newspaper round, for which I was paid the princely sum of a whole £1 per week.  (Rich beyond the dreams of avarice - yeah, right.)  This involved delivering papers twice a day, six days a week (Monday to Saturday), and once on the Sunday (as in only the mornings, as opposed to mornings and evenings on the weekdays).  It was either on a Saturday or Sunday (a couple of days or so after I'd been offered the walkie-talkies), while delivering papers, that I stopped to lean over a railing and peer (peer I said, not pee) into a burn (a water course) which ran through an underground tunnel out into an open channel (situated across the road from the bottom of my street).

Just at the opening of the tunnel was the box for the stolen walkie-talkies, which I imagined to be empty, but to make sure, I lobbed a nearby half-brick onto it and was surprised to hear plastic breaking.  I therefore carefully descended to where the box lay and retrieved it, placing it into my canvas bag for newspapers.  The next day I got my father to take them into his place of work, and was given a receipt which said they'd be mine in six months if they weren't claimed.  I was struck by how pointless it had been for someone to steal something and then jettison it, so I assume it had been more for the thrill of stealing than for ownership of the stolen items themselves.

A few months later we moved house, and it was maybe a month or so afterwards that I received a letter informing me the walkie-talkies were now mine to claim - so I did.  Obviously I hadn't told anyone (except my brother) that I knew they were nicked and who'd nicked them, but I wasn't a 'grass' and it wasn't really relevant as I'd found them completely by accident and with no prior knowledge of where they'd been dumped - or, in fact, even that they had been.

Anyway, the damage inflicted by the brick wasn't severe (the cover to one of the battery compartments being cracked, nothing a little glue couldn't fix) and I soon had them up and working.  In the very room where I now type this, I tried them out with my then-neighbour while he was in his room next door.  I don't recall using them much after that and couldn't say what eventually happened to them, but I sometimes feel a little guilty over profiting from someone else's criminal act, though I take some consolation from the fact that at least they didn't.

Funny the things one remembers so many years after the fact, eh?  Sadly, although I've plenty photos of the dump-spot (taken many, many years later), I don't have any of the walkie-talkies.  They were grey though, if that helps you to envision them (should you want to).    

CLARK KENT'S CONTRADICTORY CONFUSION - A BONE-HEADED BOO-BOO...

Copyright DC COMICS

Help me out with this one, Crivvies, just in case I'm missing something.  Readers of Action Comics #407 don't know that Clark Kent has been kidnapped until the moment revealed in the above page, and it comes a s a bit of a surprise (as intended by the writer) due to the actual kidnap not being shown.  However, that's not the problem.  As Clark says in his speech balloon in panel 2, he's being used as a hostage against himself, so he clearly understands the reason for his abduction (and is doubtless aware of the inherent irony of the situation).

So why then, in panel 3, does he ask himself why he was snatched and what he has do to with things when he just said why in the previous panel?  And he undoubtedly heard (super hearing remember) the baddie explain his motivations in the panel before that, so there's no reason for him to wonder.  So what's going on?  Careless dialoguing, or some hasty last minute revision in one panel without first comparing it to the preceding one (or vice-versa)?  

I'd say it's just careless scripting by Cary Bates.  If Clark's speech balloon in panel 3 read as follows, it would make more sense: "King Andrews!  I was looking for him for days!  He's obviously got some plan cooking involving me as Superman... but what is it?"

So he knows why Clark was snatched - to be a hostage to deter interference by Superman - but what he doesn't know is where Superman comes into the picture as far as what the baddies' plans for him are.  That's not what comes across in the speech balloon in that third panel though.  Or could there be another explanation for the seeming discrepancy that hasn't occurred to me?

Any ideas?  Enlighten me and set my throbbing head at rest.  

SCENARIOS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE - ANOTHER BONE-HEADED BOO-BOO...

Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

I recall first reading these two Daleks pages from TV Century 21 on separate mornings (a week apart) on my way to school back in 1965, and I've never forgotten them since - or indeed the precise point where I was on my route when I read them.  One thing that never occurred to me to wonder about at the time though, was where the heck the Emperor suddenly procured a handy-dandy, life-size inflatable plastic copy of himself to fool his pursuer.  Doesn't withstand scrutiny when it comes to looking for logic in these two strips featuring the Scions of Skaro, does it?

Can any of you Crivvies come up with a plausible explanation for where the inflatable Emperor came from?  If so, then let yourselves loose in the comments section.  

BABE Of The DAY - SYBIL DANNING...

Amazing Sybil Danning is in her

wetsuit 'cause we just had a water pistol

fight in the big 'red room'.  My gun's bigger

than hers and therefore holds more water, so

I won.  I've made her positively moist, don't

you think?  (Hoi!  Behave, you smutty-

 minded lot or you'll be barred.)

TREE IN A ROW... (Updated)

'Twas a nice sunny day yesterday, so I took myself off for a jaunt around one of my former neighbourhoods to lose myself in memories of yesteryear.  I was saddened to see that a line of seven or eight trees at the bottom of my old street had been reduced to two by the recent storms, and parts of their dismembered branches still lay on the ground, the result of their encounter with council workmen who'd cut up and removed the fallen trunks.

I was even more saddened though, to learn that one particular tree, situated closer to my old house, had also been removed - though not as a result of the storms.  The discoloured remains of the flat, scarred base of the trunk was testament to the fact that it must've been felled some months ago, likely due to disease of some kind, but it was a sad sight to see.  The tree had yet been there on my last visit, and displayed no obvious signs that its days were numbered.

It was a large tree just off the side of a field (or what remained of a field to be more precise, as half of it had been requisitioned for amenity houses for the elderly 30 or so years back), used by neighbourhood kids as a swing. (In fact, it was the main tree used for this purpose, though occasionally others served the same function.)  Indeed, when I lived there, and on my frequent visits thereafter, more often than not it had a rope (with a piece of wood tied to the end of it for sitting on) hanging from an overhanging branch.  I climbed that tree as a kid and swung on it many a time, and it represented a cherished part of my childhood.  (A few years ago, I had another swing on one of those ropes when no one else was around - what fun!) 

Come June 14th, it will be 50 years since I flitted from the area, but as I visited regularly over the years on account of still having friends who lived there (or thereabouts), my familiarity with the place never diminished.  In fact, there was a spell that lasted for quite a number of years where I hung about the area more often than would've been the case had I never moved.  You see, while staying there, I'd already started to stray further afield in search of adventure, but once I'd flitted, I could hang about to my heart's content without worrying about the potential risk of parental observation and intervention in my escapades.

Over the decades, as is my wont, I took quite a number of photos of the tree (and others), and once I've finished typing this, I'll dig out one or two to accompany this piece.  Another friend from childhood now gone, alas, and I find my heart is heavy at the reminder that nothing lasts forever.  I always took a certain comfort on seeing familiar sights (whether it be trees, lampposts, 'phone boxes, original street signs, etc) when revisiting any of my old neighbourhoods, and the fact that some old 'pals' will no longer be there to welcome me in my own rapidly diminishing future is a sad and sobering thought.

I'll try and wring some small measure of consolation from the fact that its roots still run deep where it once stood, and hope that there will eventually be some regrowth around its base.  However, I'll miss it whenever I visit from now on and the place won't seem quite the same again.  It's been there all my life up to this moment and it just doesn't feel right now it's absent.  Anyone else ever think like this, or am I just bonkers?

I should just add that the plastic tree on the Aurora Batman model kit (above) always slightly reminded me of a pruned version of the real, now departed one, as I fancied it leaned at nearly the same angle though it wasn't to the same scale.  By that I mean Batman was larger than the plastic tree he swung from, whereas a fully grown man would've been dwarfed by the real one.  (Yes, okay - I'm bonkers.)

Feel free to indulge my madness by leaving a comment should you feel inclined.

******

Update January 2025: I've just dug out the following two photos from sometime between 10 to 12 years back, both taken by a pal with my camera.  The long-shot one is a little out-of-focus, but the medium-shot one captures me in all my irresistible glory.  Y'know, I think I loved that tree because of the time in my life it represented to me, so I'm glad to have a couple of pics of us both together.  (Sob!  Where's my hankie?)

UFO - NO, I'M NOT BEING RUDE...

Images borrowed from Anderson Entertainment

Received my copy of the UFO Comic Anthology Volume One earlier today, published by Anderson Entertainment, and it's indeed an impressive collection.  If you were a fan of the show, or read these strips in the pages of Countdown back in the early '70s, then you're sure to appreciate this hardback edition.  The book was packed in a robust mailer and delivered within a couple of days of ordering, so I'm well-chuffed.

As for the book itself, I've got one or two minor niggles, such as wishing digital technology had been employed to remove some scuffs and scrapes from the panels of a few of the original comics used as source material (the paper used back in the day was prone to this sort of thing), but overall, there doesn't seem to be too many examples and the reproduction is generally excellent.

The book uses perfect binding, but the double page spreads are tightly 'clipped' at the spine, making some captions and speech balloons difficult to read smoothly and requiring a little guesswork on the reader's part, but the spreads can be flattened slightly in the middle to help distinguish the lettering to better effect and not overly detract from one's enjoyment.  It's a mild inconvenience, and it's difficult to see how it could've been avoided.

Anyway, despite my pernickety observations, this large-sized tome gets a thumbs-up from me.  Why not hunt one down today, either from a good book shop or the Anderson Entertainment site?  You won't regret it.

******

Since first publishing this post, I've now also got the second volume.  Same high quality.