A MARVEL MASTERWORK PIN-UP...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

For no other reason than I think it's dynamite.  Anyone disagree?  The image was used as an iron-on transfer given away with the first issue of TERRIFIC in 1967. That's the transfer below, frantic ones.  (Click to enlarge, then click again.)

PART TWO Of BUSTER, SON Of ANDY CAPP...

Images copyright REBELLION

BUSTER started out life as the son of ANDY CAPP, but by the time 1968 rolled around his parentage was long forgotten.  The strip was known by various titles throughout its long run - such as Buster's Good Deeds, Buster's Diary, and Buster's Dream-World.  In 1974 the title reverted to Buster's Diary yet again, changing to just Buster in 1985 when artist TOM PATERSON took over the strip from REG PARLETT.  

Surprisingly, for a strip that lasted for very nearly forty years, Buster himself only had six main artists.  BILL TITCOMBE drew the cloth-capped lad's escapades from 1960 to '61, with HUGH McNEILL taking over 'til 1962.  ANGEL NADAL then managed an impressive twelve year run until 1974, followed by REG PARLETT who drew Andy's boy to 1985, when TOM PATERSON took over until 1990. JIMMY HANSEN was Buster's final regular artist until the comic's demise in 1999.

FRANCISCO SOLANO LOPEZ was the artist on GALAXUS, The THING From OUTER SPACE, the story of an alien creature stranded on Earth and befriended by two brothers, JIM and DANNY JONES.  The meek and mild alien, capable of growing to giant-size or shrinking down to about two inches tall, was initially scripted by KEN MENNELL and then by SCOTT GOODALL for the remainder of its long run.  A classic adventure series still fondly remembered to this day.

FREDDIE 'PARROT-FACE' DAVIES was a popular TV personality during the '60s (appearing on OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS in 1964) and was awarded the honour of having his own one-page strip in the comic.  Reg Parlett was the artist behind the comedian's zany antics and got the likeness spot-on.  For some years now, Freddie has enjoyed a career as a well-respected actor, having performed in prominent theatre, television and movie roles - HARRY POTTER And The PRISONER Of ASKABAN being but one of the high-profile, prestigious productions he has appeared in.

PROFESSOR NUTCASE was a retitled reprint of Professor Knockout from KNOCKOUT, drawn by Nadal.  He lasted for about a year under his new identity before fading quietly from the scene into comics limbo.  LOVE HEARTS make your mouth fizz and are still going strong.

The SKID KIDS lasted a respectable five-and-a-half year run from 1966 to 1971 before skidding to a stop.  Written by FRED BAKER, the strip was drawn by DAVID PAGE and then COLIN SQUE, more famous as the artist on ROY Of The ROVERS.

WALLY WHALE And WILLY WINKLE was another Reg Parlett- drawn strip which only lasted about five months.  It was later reprinted in VALIANT.

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See Part Three here, and Part One here.

MARVEL TALES - Of The RATHER 'TALL' VARIETY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Continuing our look at Marvel reprint titles from the '60s, this time up is MARVEL TALES #1 from 1964.  Unfortunately, the cover claim of six 'uncut' origin tales was a bit of a porky as The HULK and Sgt. FURY stories only had the first 6 pages of each strip.  There was also a 2-page extract from TALES To ASTONISH #49, featuring HENRY PYM's evolution from ANT-MAN to GIANT-MAN, plus a 4-page taste of millionaire playboy TONY STARK donning his brand-new IRON MAN armour from TALES Of SUSPENSE #48.

The issue also contained a 2-page spread of some of the gang from the Merry Marvel Bullpen, including STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, VINCE COLLETTA, DON HECK, SAM ROSEN and ARTIE SIMEK.  The splash page of each tale had a blurb detailing where they had first appeared, but someone clearly wasn't paying attention on THOR's origin - it's listed as having been originally printed in JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #38 instead of #83.

Below are the first pages of the six main stories.

Incidentally, the above page's blurb is misleading - the final page was cropped to allow for an extra 'wrap-up' caption.  As far as mixed reprint books go, we had to wait 47 years 'til Marvel got it right with MARVEL FIRSTS: The 1960s.  Still, better late than never, eh?

BUSTER, SON Of ANDY CAPP - PART ONE...

Images copyright REBELLION

BUSTER comic first appeared in May of 1960, cover-dated the 28th - meaning it actually came out on or around the 21st of the month.  The star of the comic was Buster, initially billed as the "SON Of ANDY CAPP", the boozing, smoking, wife-beating, cloth-capped Northern working-class layabout from the DAILY and SUNDAY MIRROR, as immortalized by cartoonist REG SMYTHE.

The tag-line was soon dropped, but - interestingly - on the 35th anniversary of the comic in 1995 - a framed pic of Buster appeared on Andy's wall in the newspaper strip*, seemingly reaffirming the connection.  (Though it was obvious that it had been added and wasn't part of the original art.)  Andy had even appeared in the Buster strip itself back in 1960 - in the June 18th and July 2nd issues, so now his son was returning the favour. (In some early issues of the comic, Buster was referred to as Buster Capp.)

DAILY MIRROR, Saturday, May 27th, 1995

I'll be taking a look at a 1968 copy of Buster in an upcoming post, which will contain the first instalment of the complete issue (give or take a couple of ads).  Stay tuned - same Buster time, same Buster channel...

(Now where have I heard that before?)

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*Thanks to ALLEN CUMMINGS (Buster Editor from 1981-'99), who sent me the Buster strip from the Daily Mirror back in 1995.  Good man, Al.

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For those of you who can tolerate my self-indulgent reminiscences, May 28th, 1960 was the official tenancy commencement date for our new house in a new town all those years ago.  (Doesn't mean we necessarily moved in on that exact day, though it's possible.)  Previously, in the late '50s, we had lived in the West End of Glasgow. I perhaps didn't see Buster until 1966 or '67 and, although then living in our third house in the town, it was in a house across the street from our first one that I became aware of the comic when we were visiting friends in our 'old' neighbourhood. I likely saw VALIANT, LION and various ALAN CLASS comics there also (that's where I associate my first sight of them), as WILLIAM NODWELL, the son of my mother's friend and someone with whom my brother had once palled about when we lived there, always had a stack of them lying around.

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See Part Two here.

PART SIX Of FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

And now, by means of my own personal time machine, we return to the year 1967 and another six covers and back-page pin-ups from FANTASTIC, published by ODHAMS PRESS when the world was younger and seemed a much better place to be.  (If you were fortunate enough not to live in some war-torn or impoverished nation, obviously.)  Look at great the art on display: JACK KIRBY, WERNER ROTH, BARRY SMITH, etc.  Didn't someone once say that the past was a foreign country?  Don't you worry though, Crivs - your passports aren't required if you're with your Unca Kid.  Enjoy - or I'll want to know the reason why!

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.