The FUTILE QUEST For PERFECTION... (Updated)

Copyright DC COMICS

No, your eyes do not deceive you - you are seeing double and, yes, I've shown the cover of this number before as a single issue (though I applied digital technology to disguise some flaws.).  Back in May it was, when I acquired a replacement for my original copy after 43 years.  (I still have the cover and splash page though, 'cos I used them as pin-ups on my bedroom wall in another house.  They're tucked away somewhere safe at the moment.)

As alluded to, it wasn't in perfect condition, as it had the number 10 scrawled on the cover in ballpoint pen (which I assume was a reduction from its price of 15p, and at one time it may have had a sticker on it which had been removed, leaving some residue over the 'E' of Superman.  The '10' wasn't too noticeable, though its impression was visible if the light fell on it in a certain way, and I gave the area around the 'E' a colour touch after removing the residue, but it wasn't in perfect condition.

I decided to wait a while to see if I could live with these flaws, but when I recently saw another one on eBay described as being in near mint condition, I decided to take the plunge and purchase it.  Alas, the seller had failed to notice a couple of small rips on the left-hand lower cover, one which was around half-an-inch long.  He gave me a very generous partial refund after enquiring whether that would be acceptable, and the application of some PVA glue to the rips soon remedied that problem, but the colours on the cover and inside weren't quite as vibrant as the other copy.  The vagaries of printing, alas.

Also, my original copy had, I'm sure, the UK 15p price on it (as does the replacement I bought in May), whereas the more recent copy has the original US price of 40c.  Normally, such things wouldn't bother me if I were buying the comic for the first time, but as I'm replacing the one I had in 1980, I'd prefer it to be a 15p issue. 

So what do I do now?  Learn to live with these imperfections or wait until a near-pristine copy pops up at a reasonable price and go for third-time lucky?  (Fourth if you count my original.)  So far I'm undecided, but if and when I make up my mind, you'll be the first to know (after me of course).  What I'm interested in, though, is what would you do in this situation?  Just accept the flaws or look for a better issue?  The comment section awaits!

******

Ah, you'll have to be quicker, Crivs - just bought another one!    

BATMAN #5 Facsimile Edition...

Copyright DC COMICS

DC's Facsimile Editions just seem to get better and better.  Some earlier issues were scanned from published originals and weren't quite as sharp or as bright as they could've been; others were comprised of a mixture of pages from new proofs when it came to the main strips, alongside murky ads scanned from published comics.  This latest issue is more-or-less perfect throughout and is printed on matte paper, as opposed to the slightly glossy stuff favoured by Marvel.  All-in-all, it adds up to a nice little product worthy of adding to your collection.  If you haven't got it already, rush out and buy it today.  (Or acquire it via eBay like I did.)

Note that on the symbolic cover, the bat emblem is absent from Batman's costume - presumably so as not to clash with the baddies in front of his chest.  (Hee-hee!  I said "chest".) 

BABE Of The DAY - DOLLY PARTON...

 Dolly Parton asked me to join her for a roll

in the hay so I dutifully obliged, though all it did was

get us covered in the stuff.  That's all we did for a couple

of hours, take turns at rolling on haystacks out in her big

barn and telling silly jokes.  Wasn't at all like what Sean

Connery and Honor Blackman did in Goldfinger.

I can only assume I'm losing my sex appeal - though

 Dolly certainly isn't - as you can plainly see. 

TOYBOX TREASURES Of The PAST: A SUPERFAST REMINISCENCE TO 'BUG' YOU...

Funny how some behaviour continues even after a 'change' in circumstances, eh?  Back around 1971/'72, I used to wash cars on Saturday mornings in the car park of the pub on the other side of the shops across from my house.  This gave me some extra pocket-money with which to indulge my buying habits, such as comics and the occasional toy or model kit.  Halfway through June of '72 my family moved to another house in a different area, but because it wasn't too far distant I continued my car washing 'business' in my former neighbourhood as if nothing had changed.

One of my purchases with the proceeds from my labours was the very first Knockout Annual for 1973, bought, it seems from memory, a little earlier than when Annuals usually went on sale in shops, from the newsagent's just along the road from my new house.  Another buy was the Matchbox Superfast Flying Bug (No. 11), purchased from the newsagent's in my old neighbourhood (while residing in my new one) just after a car-washing session one sunny Saturday in 1972.  I forget which item was obtained first, not that it much matters for the purpose of this story.  Annual or car?  Just can't recall.

Maybe a week later, in the company of a pal, the late Alan Bowie (no relation to the singer, whose real name was Jones), I bought a second Flying Bug from another newsagent's, in an area where I'd once lived prior to the two mentioned above.  AB also bought one, being enamoured by mine and wanting one for himself.  Why did I buy another?  I have a vague recollection of having blootered my original with continually scudding it across the living room carpet into the skirting boards and compromising its pristine condition.  I was always a sucker for things that were brand-spanking new.

Close to 30 years ago now, I bought a replacement Flying Bug (boxed), and recently saw another on eBay.  I couldn't help thinking it would be nice to have a spare one - to sort of stand-in for the one my pal had bought 50-odd years ago, on the same day I'd purchased my second Superfast car.  So I promptly bought it and it arrived at Castel Crivens last week.  I'll keep it out for a while to enjoy looking at it, then I'll store it alongside my other one in a box in the cupboard.  First, though, I'll photograph the two of them together (still to do at time of typing) so you Crivvies can cop a gander at them.

Having two of them reminds me of not only an earlier time in my life, but also in my late friend's, who I later fell out with (in 1981) and didn't find out had died in 2013 until September of last year.  So he's gone and I have no idea how long it will be until I follow him, but for the meantime, I can look at these two cars and remember a time when we were best buddies with an eternity ahead of us.  Always better to recall the happy times, eh?  Any of you Crivs own an item which reminds you of old pals who you later lost touch with, and if so, how about sharing it with the rest of us in the comments section?

And just in case you were interested, below is the cover of the Knockout Annual for 1973 (on sale in '72).  It's as Christmassy a cover as you could wish for, though I got it around July, possibly August.  It was the only Annual the newsagent's had, and I remember it was a sunny day.

******

It occurs to me that I have many items that remind me of specific friends, people (and also places), who are indelibly associated with them because they were with me when I first purchased the items in question.  It's almost like a diary entry, being able to look at something and recall who was with me when I bought it, and in what shop in which neighbourhood as well.  It doesn't happen with every item I own, but it occurs enough times to warm the cockles o' me 'eart.  

ACTION MEN Of The 1960s - Guest Post By Doctor ANDREW MAY...

Fellow Crivvie Doctor Andrew May has decided to spoil us all once again with another guest post.  This time he's looking back on one of the most popular toys for boys ever created, which is yet available today in 2024.  Good toys never die, eh?  Over to Andrew...

******

I mentioned in a comment on this blog a few months ago that I still had some Action Man figures from the 1960s, so I'm grateful to Kid for this chance to say a bit more about them.  The four that I still have are pictured above - they're lying flat on their backs because the internal elastic has become so loose they can't stand up on their own.  Apart from that, though, they're in pretty good condition given how much I used to play with them.  One of the brown-haired figures is missing a foot, and the yellow-haired one is minus both hands, but otherwise they've survived the years pretty well.

As you can see, these are all "first generation" Action Men with painted-on hair - originally bought circa 1966-67 when I used to play with them constantly with my best friend of the time, who was the same age as me and lived in the same village.  We were continually swapping toys between us, so the ones I ended up keeping weren't necessarily mine to start with.  My own first Action Man was the yellow-haired one (who, as you can see, quickly got stereotyped as a German), though the oldest toy in the photo is the black-haired one on the left, which originally belonged to my friend and subsequently came to me in a swap.

At one point I also had an Action Man "Talking Commander", which I never really liked, as well as a Tommy Gunn - an Action Man clone from a different manufacturer (Pedigree), which I also didn't like much.  I suspect I ended up swapping one or other of them for that black-haired Action Man, which was always my favourite.

Technically, in fact, that one isn't an Action Man at all but a G.I. Joe - the original American toy from which the first generation Action Man was copied.  You can see this by comparing the inscription on the black-haired figure with one of the others:

The first one reads: "G.I. Joe reg. T.M. copyright 1964 by Hasbro (R) Patent Pending Made in Canada", while the second one says "Made in England by Palitoy under licence from Hasbro (C) 1964".

As discussed recently on this blog, Action Men weren't cheap - the equivalent of over £30 in today's money.  But many years later my mother told me that, after initial misgivings about "boys playing with dolls", she and my father decided it was the best money they'd ever spent on me, because I played with them constantly from age 8 right up until I was 11 or 12.  By that time I was too old for toys as such, but (with a new and more sophisticated circle of friends after starting high school), they became more like today's modern action figures for adult collectors, being put on display with different uniforms and equipment.  I even remember adding stubble to one of the brown-haired figures to make a "Sgt Fury" lookalike!

Back in their early days, however, the figures really got their boots dirty fighting endless back-garden battles.  Here's a couple of photographs from that era:

As you can see from the second of the above garden pictures, I used to have an Action Man "frogman" outfit in those days, complete with wetsuit and scuba tank.  None of that's survived, but I do still have a few miscellaneous accessories - of which the most interesting (to me) is the spacesuit pictured below.  The silver fabric is reminiscent of the iconic Mercury spacesuit (1961-63), but I think it's actually meant to be a Gemini suit (which would have been bang up to date at the time I bought it), because it includes a hand-held manoeuvring gun like the one used by Gemini astronauts on spacewalks.

It's been good to look back on my childhood playthings and I only hope that it's reminded you of many happy moments playing with your Action Men.  Any of you still have them?

******

Thanks, Andrew, for taking the time to prepare this post for your fellow Crivvies.  I'm sure they'll have enjoyed looking back just as much as you did.  Hopefully, they'll be so moved with nostalgia and emotion that they'll leave lots of lovely comments.

Corgi STINGRAY About To Be Launched...

In its 60th Anniversary year, Stingray has been immortalised in diecast by Corgi, costing a whopping £39.99, I assume it's intended for adult collectors and not as a toy for kids - except big kids like me.  (Were toys back in the '60s ever priced at what would've been the modern-day equivalent of £40?)  It looks a beezer, though I don't like those flat edges at the rear of the torpedo silos - probably necessary to accommodate the torpedoes, but ruins the sleek lines of an otherwise handsome craft.  Having said that, can't wait for mine to arrive.  Have you ordered yours? 

BABE Of The DAY - LYNDA CARTER...

Ever wondered what a real woman

looks like?  Wonder no more - it's Lynda

Carter to show just what to dream of in the

romance stakes.  Obviously, women like her

will be wanting guys like me, so don't bother

hoping you'll ever be in with a chance with

a hot babe as stunningly beautiful as the

lovely Lynda.  Poor little you!

Go On, Indulge Me - In Memoriam (One More Time)...

Remembering

ALAN BOWIE

(17-2-1959 - 10-1-2013)

Those were the days, my friend,

we thought they'd never end.

Tiddely pom.

******

So why another 'In Memoriam' post for the same person and a repeat of the above photo after its previous outing a few months back?  Simple.  It's now 11 years to the day since my erstwhile friend passed away (though I never learned of the fact 'til September of last year) and I thought I'd mark the anniversary of his passing on Crivens, as well as in my local weekly newspaper which goes on sale today.  (11 years ago, the 10th was a Thursday, not a Wednesday, not that it much matters.)  I never realised that such notices were so expensive, but I thought it was worth the cost to reaffirm his connection (under his own name) to the town he'd grown up in.

You see, at some stage in the last 26 years or thereabouts of his life, he'd taken to calling himself Alan Bowie-McDonald, though (for reasons beyond my ken) notice of his funeral service in the Cornwall Gazette was listed only under McDonald, which I thought somewhat lacking as, even had anyone from his youth seen it, they wouldn't have known it was him.  I felt compelled to redress the balance by ensuring that his death was also recorded in our home town's local paper under his 'real' name, even if it was 11 years after-the-fact.  It didn't seem right otherwise, even though he'd spent his last 35 years down south after joining the Royal Navy at the age of 18.

You may be wondering about the 'Tiddely pom' line so allow me to explain.  Sometime around 1975 or '76 I bought a combined volume of A.A. Milne's 'Winnie The Pooh' and 'The House At Pooh Corner' (from, if memory serves, the local Boots The Chemist, in whose warehouse I then worked), in which the following poem appeared:

                                                                    The more it snows

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                    The more it goes

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                    The more it goes

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                        On snowing.

                                                                     And nobody knows

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                     How cold my toes

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                     How cold my toes

                                                                             (Tiddely pom),

                                                                        Are growing.

Don't ask me why, but this greatly amused me (yeah, yeah, I know - simple things please simple minds - heard it before) and I soon made AB aware of it, who likewise found it amusing.  That same night (I think) we were both out and it happened to be snowing, so the pair of us launched into an impromptu recitation of the poem - then repeated it over and over again.  Subsequently, we only had to say 'Tiddely pom' to one another to conjure up memories of that snow-clouded evening when we were both only around 16 or 17 years of age.  For that reason I thought it was a nice way to round off the lines from Mary Hopkin's 'Those Were The Days', which we also used to belt-out from time-to-time when reminiscing about the past.

It's strange to think that he spent nearly two-thirds of his life elsewhere, because I still mainly associate him with our town.  There are few spots I can go to which don't conjure forth memories of us roaming or exploring as kids or teens so it's odd to realise that, eventually, his main store of recollections would've consisted of times, people and places from after he'd left our town, myself, and everyone else he'd known far behind.  In due course he'd have come to regard somewhere else as 'home', not where he'd grown up, whereas my 'geographical allegiances' remained the same.  Not that he ever 'forgot' where he was from as it was listed on his Facebook page, but perhaps it was no longer as relevant to him as it had once been.

Anyway, I just couldn't permit notice of his passing (and under a different surname to boot) be confined to another part of the UK, leaving the area he originally hailed from and his birth name unacknowledged, so I thought it only proper and fitting that his home town's local newspaper should also recognise and remember him (better late than never).  To my mind, this is where he yet belongs and, like I said, though the majority of his memories were doubtless of other times and other places and people, it's the earlier ones coinciding with mine which I'd like to think were among the most notable to him, however self-centred that sentiment may seem.  I can never really know, of course, but it's not altogether beyond the bounds of possibility.

I'll purchase my local paper when I'm down at the shops later today, scan the notice, print it out, and then affix it inside the Navy notebook he gave me (along with his old wallet) the last time he was in my house when he was up in our home town on a brief visit in December of 1980.  That somehow seems fitting, don't you think?

Pax vobiscum.  (And Tiddely pom.) 

No, It's NOT A FANTASY - It's AMAZING...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

What's that you're saying?  How can there be a 1000th issue of Amazing Fantasy when it only lasted 15 issues?  Well, you're forgetting numbers 16-18 from around the mid-'90s, but you're right - there were never 999 previous issues before this one.  I dunno, maybe it's symbolic or something, but the above ish (dated October 2022) came into my possession only recently and I found it to be a jolly good read in the main.  I therefore thought you might like to know of its existence (if you didn't already) and want to track one down for your own collection.

Be warned, it can be pretty pricey, though I was lucky enough to pick one up for next-to-nothing - in perfect condition too.  There are less-expensive ones available from America, but the p&p costs are sky-high so you could still end up paying through the nose.  If you can find it cheaply enough, grab it, 'cos it's a cracking read (Gromit).  See the back cover below for a list of who was involved in producing this neat and natty number.  And if you already own this ish, register your thoughts about it in our comments section.  Excelsior!

BABE Of The DAY - PAIGE SPIRANAC...

We're now into 2024, which is

how old I feel these days, what with the

ills and ailments accompanying advancing

years.  However, although we 'old yins' are

all in the same boat, one thing sure to put a

smile on our face and a spring in our step

(for about 5 secs) is the welcome sight

of a babe like Paige Spiranac.

COMICS YOU SHOULD HAVE - BUY 'EM NOW!

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Don'tcha just love comicbooks?  No?  Then what are you doing here?  Oh, you do?  Okay, that's all right then.  First up, above, is the new Facsimile Edition of Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 Featuring The Fantastic Four.  This one has the 'Continued After Next Page' lines before the ads and is a really nice item for those unfortunate enough not to own the original '70s publication.  (Relax, don't you worry about me - I've got it.)

The Daredevil #183 Facsimile Edition, above, doesn't have the '...Next Page...' lines, which leads me to wonder if different people are in charge of overseeing different issues as there seems to be no consistent policy regarding the inclusion of such things.  A minor point perhaps, but to me, it separates the men from the boys when it comes to producing these full-colour favourites from the past.

Copyright DC COMICS

DC's Facsimile Edition of The Doom Patrol #99, above, is the best one I've seen from them so far.  Crisp, clean line reproduction and, unusually for a DC replica, even the ads are bright as a bell and not like the faded, murky scans from published issues seen in previous editions.  Maybe Marvel told them how it was done, but this one is perfect all the way through, not a mish-mash of the 'old' and the 'new'.  I just hope they can stick to this standard in future publications.  In case you were wondering, the Bar Code box is on the back cover, where it doesn't obscure anything.  Oh, and the interior paper is matt, not glossy.

Copyright REBELLION

I've shown you the cover to the Smash! issue, above, before, but not the next two in the series, below, and I thought it best to show all three issues at the one time now that I have them.  They should be available in most comics shops and maybe WHS, as well as direct from Rebellion themselves, so give yourselves a treat and see what The Spider, The Steel Claw, Janus Stark, Robot Archie, Adam Eterno, Kelly's Eye, Cursitor Doom, and Max from The 13th Floor are getting up to these days.  That's your lot for this time around, Crivs.

PREZ - FIRST TEEN PRESIDENT Of The U.S.A. COVER GALLERY... (Updated)

Copyright DC COMICS

Was it in 1973 or '74 I first bought Prez #1 in Blackpool?  Not 100% sure as my family holidayed in the famous seaside resort both years and they sort of run into one another in my mind.  I tend to think it was 1973, but '74 isn't impossible, as Blackpool newsagents were famous for having comics in their spinner-racks years after original publication - in brand-new condition and at then current prices too.  On at least one of those holidays I obtained several Kirby FFs and Buscema Silver Surfers, so buying Prez #1 in '74, the year after it was first published, is by no means impossible.  Not that it matters much, I suppose.  After all, what's a year between Crivs?

I have no memory at all of ever seeing any of the next three issues of Prez.  That could perhaps be because I just never saw them, or simply didn't pay attention to them if I did as I wasn't particularly impressed by the first issue.  I obtained a replacement for #1 a fair number of years ago now, but only because it reminded me of my youth and Blackpool, and a time when I subconsciously assumed my immortality was a given.

It seems like it was only in the last couple of years or so that I learned that Prez lasted for just four issues, so I recently tracked down the remaining three on eBay and promptly bought them, the last of which arrived today.  I'm waiting for a 2016 softcover collection to arrive, which contains not only the four 1970s issues, but also subsequent comics down through the years in which the character made an appearance, so pretty soon I'll be all 'Prezzed-out'.

It's taken me 50 years to catch up on that particular aspect of my past, but better late than never, I suppose.  To celebrate my 'achievement' I've decided to have a cover gallery of all four issues, plus the 'on-its-way-to-me' collected edition.  If you have any memories of (or observations on) Prez you'd care to share, the comments section awaits in eager anticipation.

******

The Verdict: Having now read all four issues, I can say that I didn't really miss anything 50 years ago by not buying 2-4 at the time.  A comic based solely on politics would probably never have been of much interest to teenagers in the '70s, so there's a weird and wacky element to the stories to sweeten the pie for them, but it doesn't really work.  Joe Simon is clearly interested in the environment, the treatment of Native Americans, and gun control, but a comic where the characters appear to know they're in a comic just doesn't work for me.

For example, in #2, when Prez refers to something he said in #1, a character called Chessking replies "Yeah - - I remember reading it in the first issue"  and thus destroys any internal reality at a stroke.  And Eagle Free, who's supposed to be an Indian, doesn't look, to my colour-blind eyes, to be of the correct skin tone.  He's also just a bit too ready to sacrifice the animals with which he is supposed to be in some kind of mental communion, by twice letting some of his birds die gruesome deaths to help save the day.

Jerry Grandenetti's artwork is far too cartoonish, with misshapen characters and distorted perspectives, which may lend itself to the general air of unreality of the stories, but overall, that may not be a good thing.  Whatever it was that Simon & Grandenetti were aiming for with this series, sadly, they missed the target, though I suppose it was an interesting experiment.

******

I've now received my collected edition (shown at foot of post) and have read the intended 5th issue (which was published in b&w in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2), as well as the short tale from Supergirl #10, Sandman #54, Vertigo Visions Prez #1, and an extract from The Dark Knight Strikes Again.  The Vertigo ish had far too much swearing for my tastes (motherf*cker - in a comic?) and wasn't really up to much, but the Sandman tale was intriguing and enjoyable.  Worth having for nostalgic completists who want to remember and reclaim an aspect of their youth.

And below, currently winging its way to me as I type...  (Now here.)

The 'GHOST' Of CHRISTMAS PAST...

Let's say it was 1970 - though it could have been 1969 or 1971.  It's hard to be precise after so long a time.  I bought a SANTA CLAUS figure containing sweets, scoffed them, and then used the figure as the Christmas ornament it was always intended to be.  I bought it from a shop called CORSON's, which still existed up until February of 2018, whereupon the owner (who I remember working in the shop as a teenager when it belonged to his parents) retired and sold the premises, though it still operates as a convenience store under a new name and owner.

But that's by-the-by.  If I remember correctly, the plastic bottom half of the Santa got heat warped (maybe I sat it too near the fire - can't quite recall anymore), and it was reluctantly dispensed with after a while.  When I was down in Southsea in December of 1978, I saw two of them in a shop window*, but they were there only to provide festive decoration and weren't for sale, being the personal property of the shopkeeper.  I tried to talk him into selling me one, but he was resistant to my offers of mucho money.

(*Thinking back now, I'm amazed at there being only a 7-9 year gap between owning my own Santa and seeing another two of them, as it seemed as if aeons had passed in between.  Then I remember it was almost half my life away at the time, which probably explains it.)  

I saw another one on eBay just a handful of years ago and considered bidding on it, but I got distracted and it was sold before I could make an offer.  However, I 'borrowed' the seller's photos and I'm sure he won't mind me using a couple of them here.  I'll keep an eye out for another and make a bid should one come up, as I continue in my quest to re-acquire things I once had and would like to have again.  (It's good to see my old Santa though, even if only in a photograph.)  

Did you ever have this particular Santa, readers, and do you have any seasonal reminiscences about it that you'd care to share with the rest of us?  If so, the comments section awaits your visit.

RANDOM COVER GALLERY OF VARIOUS DC AND MARVEL BOOKS ON MY SHELF...

Copyright DC COMICS and MARVEL COMICS respectively

While racking my brains for a post to do, I noticed some 'books' on the shelf by my side and decided to scan the covers and publish them - just for you.  True, some or all of them may have been shown individually on the blog before, but I reckon they can stand another outing in service of giving you Crivs something nice to look at, so here they are.  Have you got any of them, or have you ever had any and would like to reminisce about what you thought made them so great - or not so great if such be the case?  Then the floor is all yours!

And Now, A Yuletide Message From Our Sponsor...

A quick post to wish all Crivvies A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year.  The tree in the photo is actually older then me so that makes it very old indeed.  This photo was taken around two or three Christmases ago, but pretty much captures the ambiance of my living-room every year.  Have a good 'un, troops.  Hopefully see you all in 2024, if not before that.

WHO ARE YOU GONNA SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH?

Seeing as it's nearly Christmas I thought you might

appreciate a 'festive' offering, so here's The Go Go's

with their song from the '60s.  Bonkers - but fun!

BABE Of The DAY - LYNDA CARTER...

 Here's a cheery-looking Lynda

Carter to bring a big smile to your face,

Crivs.  She's a real womanly wonder, and

 no mistake!  (Why doesn't she ring?)

A TRIO OF MARVEL MASTERPIECES TO AMAZE AND MESMERIZE YOU...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Currently wondering what to spend your hard-earned dosh on?  Then look no further, as here's a trio of comics I recently received through the mail, which you might also like to add to your collection.  Regarding the two Facsimile Editions, the reproduction quality is superb (even the ads), but it mystifies me as to why Marvel omits the 'Continued After Next Page' line from some facsimiles, but not from others.  Both of these issues are without, which rather compromises the nostalgic and historical aspect of them to some small degree.  What think the rest of you Crivvies?