VALIANT STORY Of The WEST...

Images copyright relevant owner

Back around the mid-'80s, an IPC/FLEETWAY editor gifted me with, among other items, his file copies of a two-issue series from 1966, called VALIANT STORY Of The WEST.  At least, I think there were only two issues - if anyone has any info to the contrary, feel free to let me know.  They were obviously trading on the name and good will of the weekly Valiant, then a popular comic for boys, but a mere two issues seems to suggest that the title never really took off.

The covers were beautifully painted and the b&w interiors had some nice art, but unfortunately the strips were rendered rather boring-looking by the use of typeset speech balloons, rather than a more spontaneous hand-crafted calligraphy which would have brought the pages to life a bit more.  I've included a couple of interior pages to let you see what they looked like for yourselves, but I can't help but think they would have been vastly improved by the addition of colour. 

The style of the interior artist looks extremely familiar, but his name escapes my memory for the moment.  When one considers the numerous foreign artists IPC/Fleetway used, it's impressive that they were able to realistically portray so many diverse cultures in such detail, whether it be the Old West, London or wherever.  One can only assume that they must have had access to extremely extensive reference files.

If you think you can identify any of the artists, please feel free to do so in the comments section.  I believe in credit where credit is due, so don't let them languish in anonymity if you can shed any light on the matter.  It would be nice to see these old strips given justice by being relettered and coloured up for a contemporary audience.  Who knows?  Maybe it'll happen one day. 

I've scanned the images at quite a high resolution, so click on any of them to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.  That way you'll be able to appreciate them the way they deserve to be.  At only two issues, the title may have been a failure, but you have to admit that it was literally a Valiant attempt.

PART NINE Of TERRIFIC COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's always sad when we have to say goodbye to an old friend, and unfortunately such a time is now upon us.  For forty-three weekly issues in 1967, it graced our lives (we of a certain age) with its company before taking the walk that would be "quite some time" and vanishing from sight forever.  Well, not quite forever - not to those of us who still have our back issues to dig out every so often and relive those heady days of yore.  In eight previous posts, I've shared with you thirty-eight covers and back-page pin-ups, and we now complete our journey with a visit to the last five issues ever printed.

However, is a journey ever really over when we can retrace our steps whenever the fancy takes us?  True, it's like a section of time played on an endless loop, but we can jump on and off whenever we feel like it with no inconvenience on either side.  It's there for us when we want it, and it's always going to be there, even if we forget about it for short periods of time while we get on with the necessary business of living in the present.  So, here we are - issues #39 to 43 of the fifth title in the POWER PACK published by ODHAMS PRESS back in the '60s.

It's been a TERRIFIC ride.  Why not take it again some day?

For Part Eight, click here.

BOND AND BEYOND - '77 STYLE...

Copyright relevant owner

It was the long, hot Summer of 1977.  (Ever noticed how all Summers seem long and hot in the hallowed halls of memory?)  35 years ago, but (astonishingly) as fresh and alive in my mind as a lover's whispered goodbye.  Myself and two friends were making our way to the local YMCA, into which one of them was moving for a few months before relocating to Cornwall to begin his training for a (short-lived) career in the Royal Navy.  The sun beat down upon us, a gentle breeze caressed our heated brows, and, from the speaker of a small radio one of us carried, came the 45 rpm version of BOND '77 by MARVIN HAMLISCH, who had written the soundtrack of the soon-to-be-released blockbuster biggie, The SPY Who LOVED ME.

I purchased the single (which I still have) that same day, from the record department of my local BOOTS The CHEMIST (the shop whose employ I'd left only a few months before), and my next acquisition was the original soundtrack LP the instant it became available.  At the appointed time, I also dutifully trotted along to the local cinema (called, unsurprisingly and unimaginatively, 'The CINEMA', which had the largest screen in Scotland) to see the 10th JAMES BOND movie in the 15 year-old series which had started in 1962.

Back then, in the days before home video had become the latest 'must have' possession, the only way to see a movie more than once (not counting repeats on TV) was to trot back to the cinema for another screening, which I usually did - again and again and again - though only with movies I'd enjoyed, obviously.  I no longer recall exactly how many times I went to see The Spy Who Loved Me, but I know I saw MOONRAKER four times two years later, and, in between, I'd seen SUPERMAN The MOVIE a staggering seven times (five in the ABC in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, twice in my local cinema) before I was fully sated.

Bond girl Caroline Munro

Anyway, on my last visit to see The Spy Who Loved Me, I spied (no pun intended) the manager, Mr. BOB JOHNSTONE, in the foyer as I made my way out.  On a spur-of-the moment whim (and what other kind is there?), I approached him and politely asked if I could have the poster as the movie was at the end of its run.  Much to my surprise he acquiesced, and duly set about taking it from its display case before pressing it into my eager hands.  I still have it to this day, though, sadly, Mr. Johnstone has 'retired' to that great cinema club in the sky and 'The Cinema' is now a Bingo hall (and has been for longer than its 20 years as a cinema).

So, here's to the Summer of '77 - long since vanished into history, but the spirit of which yet lingers and is only a thought and sometimes merely a dream (or even just a movie) away.

WHEN THURSDAY WAS WEDNESDAY...

The second Annual I bought in my new house - around five months after moving in

Forty years ago to this very day, Thursday was Wednesday.  No need to check, just trust me - I know whereof I speak.  "How so?" you may enquire, despite feeling cheated on discovering that this post isn't quite so intriguing as the title may've suggested (as so few things are once they've been explained).  Because forty years ago, on Wednesday, 14th June 1972, my family first moved to the house in which I currently reside.  The official tenancy commencement date was actually Monday, 12th June, but I presume we couldn't book the removal van for that precise date, hence the two-day delay.

However, although having moved in forty years ago, I've only actually lived here for thirty-six years.  "How so?" you may again ask - if you're still reading.  Well, after living here for eleven years, we relocated to another house and area for just over four years.  Then we moved back to this house again.  Why?  The other house was altogether far too big for us and too far away (on the outer reaches of Tatooine as one of my pals described it) for friends and family to be bothered to visit unless there was a temporary warp between dimensions - and that happened all-too infrequently.

The very first Annual I bought in my new house - around two or three months after moving in

Forty years.  Sure doesn't seem like it.  I'll have been back in this house for twenty-five years on August 1st - more than double the amount of time I lived here the first time.  Again, sure doesn't feel like it.  As I've often said before, sometimes it seems that I went to bed one night as a teenager and woke up the next morning as a middle-aged adult.  Where did my life go?  One blink and I missed it.

One day, if it hasn't happened already, you too will wake up one morning and wonder where the last forty years of your life went.  My advice to you (don't panic, it's free) is to make each and every one of them count.

The third book I bought in my new house - five or six months after moving in

TERRIFIC COVER GALLERY - PART EIGHT...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

The countdown has begun - 10... 9... 8... 7... 6 - but the next five will have to wait 'til Part Nine, which will be the final instalment of our TERRIFIC COVER GALLERY series we've been running over the last few months.  This current crop of covers and back-page POWER HOUSE pin-ups have artwork by KIRBY, DITKO, EVERETT and SMITH (yup, you guessed it - Barry Smith - before the Windsor), so they're not to be sneezed at.

Smith was only around 18 or so at the time he was drawing for ODHAMS PRESS, and the Kirbyesque influence is still discernible in his work.  A year or two later, he went to the U.S. with pal STEVE PARKHOUSE (reputed to also have contributed some pin-ups to the Power Comics), to seek fame and fortune.  Wonder what happened to them, eh?  Were they ever heard of again?

Regarding #38's cover, I recall reading the GIANT-MAN & HULK story within, and strongly associate it with Christmas-time.  (Which makes sense, as the comic is dated December 30th - though it would've come out the week before, on the 23rd.) However, the story had previously been reprinted in SMASH!, so I no doubt read it in that title also.

Tune in again soon - for the last part of this Terrific series.  You surely wouldn't want to miss the final five, would you, Crivvies?

******

For Part Seven, click here.

AZTECS - YOU'RE 'BARRED'...

"AZTEC - A feast of a bar!" - and it sure was, being the only real rival that MARS Bars ever had.  Aztec Bars first appeared in 1967, and apparently the TV ads were filmed at a genuine Aztec pyramid in Mexico.  I seem to remember an Aztec warrior crouching at the foot of the temple before ascending the stairs, but I'd be grateful for some Criv-ites' confirmation that I'm not just imagining it.  Aztec Bars disappeared sometime in the '70s (some sources say the early '70s, others say 1978), though they returned in a limited edition revival in 2000.  I bought a good few of them, but they were back for such a short time that it almost seems like a dream.

Ah, the good old days.  Strange to think that others will regard today as one of their "good old days" tomorrow.  (You know what I mean - I hope.)

The DAY DON BLAKE 'DIED'...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Some people believe that DON BLAKE died back in the mid-'80s - killed off by WALTER SIMONSON (during his now legendary run on The MIGHTY THOR's monthly mag) when he had ODIN remove the enchantment from the mystic mallet MJOLNIR which allowed his son to switch identities between Human and Asgardian. The truth, however, is something else entirely: In actuality, Don Blake died back in the '60s, when STAN LEE and JACK KIRBY decided that he was nothing more than an invention of Odin, created for no other reason than to teach the arrogant Thunder god humility by reducing him to mortal status with his memory removed of who he actually was. 

It was in the pages of The MIGHTY THOR #159 that we first learned that Don Blake was not, in fact, "a star-kissed Earthman who had accidentally stumbled upon the greatest discovery of all time", as the readers had been led to believe up to that point.  He was "merely a myth... a casual creation of all-wise Odin", and, as such, had no status as an actual human being - beyond being somewhere handy to hide when Thor required a little rest and relaxation. 

I have to confess that I was never happy with this turn of events.  Although I had read Thor #158 (which had set up the question as to who Thor/Blake 'really' was) back in the '60s, it was not until the mid-'70s that I got to read "The ANSWER At LAST!" - when Thor #159 was reprinted in two parts in the pages of the U.K. SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY.  (Sometime around the mid-'80s I managed to acquire both issues of the original American editions.)

Readers could relate to Don Blake in a way they never could to Thor himself.  You and I could both imagine that we, too, might one day be lucky enough to discover something that would bestow upon us powers beyond imagining and elevate us to god-like status.  All we needed was that single stroke of good fortune and who's to say it wasn't possible?  However, once Don Blake became a non-person, and it was revealed that finding the hammer was all part of some "pre-arranged Asgardian plan" and not a mere whim of destiny to which all of us were potential heirs - well, in some way Thor was never quite the same again.

   

So don't blame Walter Simonson for despatching Don Blake to the depths of oblivion back in the '80s - it was Lee and Kirby who sounded his death-knell a good 15 years earlier.  Not one of their better ideas I'm bound to say, and one for which there was no real need.  There is a way for Thor and Blake to exist as distinct individuals, one human, one Asgardian, with either one inhabiting whichever form suits them - I came up with a simple but effective explanation years ago.

As most readers will be aware, Doctor Don Blake was restored to modern Marvel continuity a couple or so years back.  Should the current team working on the title be reading this and need a helping hand in deciding exactly what the good doc's place is in the scheme of things, then give me a call.  Just tap your walking stick three times on the ground for a direct line.

******

Agree?  Disagree?  Don't care?  Just wanting an argument?  Feel free to comment, whatever your opinion.

The MARVEL TRAIN Now ARRIVING At The STATION...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Back in the early 1980s, Glasgow's CENTRAL STATION still looked much the same as it had in years gone by.  If you were a movie-maker, with the addition of a few appropriate props and actors dressed in period attire, it wouldn't have been too difficult to transform it into a train station from a bygone era.  It was on the counter of a suitably old-fashioned newsagent's kiosk on the station platform in 1982 that I first clapped eyes on MARVEL TALES #138, featuring a reprint of SPIDER-MAN #1.  I bought it right away of course.  And thus, for me, the Marvel Age of Comics had returned!

I soon acquired the previous ish which had reprinted AMAZING FANTASY #15, and henceforth made sure to obtain all subsequent issues.  (Though not always in sequence or in the month they were published.  In fact, one or two issues took me years to track down.)  As most people will know, a lot of Glasgow's old architecture is nigh-identical to (and pre-dates) that of certain parts of America, so whenever I bought a copy of Marvel Tales in the City from that point onwards, even though the strips were around twenty years old, they never seemed dated, due to the fact that the DITKO cityscapes through which ol' Spidey crawled and swung were practically the same as those of my place of birth.

These copies of Marvel Tales were the next best thing to having the original issues and allowed the then-modern reader to imagine what it must have been like to live through the original Marvel experience of the '60s.  True, some slight changes were made to the covers (sometimes flipping an image or subtly altering a figure's position to accommodate the bar-code box), but unless one was performing a side-by-side comparison with the originals, most readers wouldn't have been aware of these subtle amendments.  (In fact, some of the variations were due to being printed from proofs of the artwork as originally drawn, made before they had been altered for their initial '60s printings.)

Here then, for your enjoyment, are a few Marvel Tales covers, which, to me, conjure up memories of the '60s and the '80s at one and the same time.  Despite the superior printing of the OMNIBUS editions which Marvel currently publishes, I'm sure you'll agree that nothing can quite beat the thrill of holding an actual comicbook in one's eager hands.  There's something about the glossy cover and interior paper (especially the smell) - plus all the ads - which is difficult to surpass. 

The illo below is one that particularly rings my bell, having first seen it in 1967 as the cover of POW!, a UK weekly by ODHAMS PRESS that reprinted Marvel stories alongside home-grown funnies and adventure strips.  I acquired the '82 reprint from a newsagent's under the bridge at the back of Glasgow Central - and one look whisks me thirty years back in time faster than I can blink.  (Interestingly, a good many years ago, I purchased a DOCTOR DOOM figure which closely resembles Steve Ditko's 'individual' interpretation of the character as depicted on the cover and in the interior artwork.)  

Enjoy whatever memories the above covers may conjure up for you - if you were lucky enough to have had them at the time.  It's hard to believe that thirty years have now elapsed since these '80s reprints were published, far eclipsing the twenty year period between them and the original '60s issues.  It just doesn't seem possible.  Ah, how time flies, eh?

For Part Two, click here.

HOW SUPERMAN CAME TO FLY - (A PARABLE)...

Copyright DC COMICS

As most 'old-timers' will know, SUPERMAN couldn't actually fly in his early years - he jumped.  Hurdling a skyscraper or leaping an eighth of a mile was how he got around at the start of his career and that's pretty impressive when you think about it.  I'd certainly be happy with being able to do that, wouldn't you?  Then something changed - he seemed to be no longer just propelling himself through the sky by the power of his legs, but hovering in mid-air, changing direction, etc.  Just how did the 'Man of Tomorrow' acquire this startling new power?  Simple - he started to fly simply because he looked as if he was flying.  And he first started to look as if he was flying in the MAX FLEISCHER cartoons of the early '40s.

If you watch these cartoons today, you can clearly see that Superman is launching himself into the sky via the method of leg-propulsion - jumping, in other words.  However, this is Supes we're talking about - he can't simply be careening through the clouds in an uncoordinated, haphazard manner.  Superman has to be in charge of the situation (and himself), has to appear graceful, noble, dignified, to say nothing of 'god-like' - someone who is as much at home up in the heavens as he is down here on Earth.  That's why, once he was airborne, the animators depicted him as being able to twist, turn and hover, quite unaffected by gravity.  However, he wasn't really flying (or, at least, in the early cartoons, he wasn't supposed to be) - it just looked as if he was.

And because he looked as if he was flying, audiences came to think that he was flying.  And because audiences thought he could fly, it was thus ordained.  "People think he can fly - so make 'im fly!"  Simply put, the thought became father to the deed.  It wasn't long before Superman was flying in the cartoons and the comics.

******

Call me cynical, but it seems to me that's how certain minority interest groups who exist on the fringes of society gain ground.  Whatever agenda they're pushing, their first step is to silence dissent by slyly casting doubt on the motivations and credibility of anyone who is the slightest bit dubious or critical of their aims - and embarrassing or bullying them into silence.

Then, in the seeming absence of criticism, over time it looks as if there's no resistance to them - that they've been accepted and approved by the mainstream.  Then, because it appears as if they've been assimilated into the wider community, people eventually come to believe that they have been.  And because people believe it to be the case, it thus becomes so.  Like rushing water erodes the rock beneath it, we are eventually worn down into submission - without even realizing it or how it happened.  Then we wake up one day and the world has changed - and not necessarily for the better.

  

Perhaps we should all exercise caution in what we allow ourselves to believe, eh?  And not just believe or accept it because it appears to be the case or because we are told that it is so.  As someone who I'm sure was very wise once said: "Appearances can be deceiving."

So let's not be deceived.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE...

Copyright relevant owner.  Cover art by WALTER SIMONSON

As has been said many times over the years, a picture is worth a thousand words - so there's no point in me bleating on about the following four pages from a 1975 one-off SHERLOCK HOLMES mag by DC.  If you can't see for yourself just how good they are, then nothing I can say will ever convince you of their worth.  This ish was intended to be the first of an ongoing series, but was the only one ever published.  Never mind though - just sit back and enjoy the exquisite art of E.R. CRUZ, Filipino artist extraordinaire.

  

NEW COINS FOR OLD...

If you're around my age, you'll no doubt remember L.s.d. from back in the 1960s.  No, not the hallucinogenic drug of which hippies were reputed to be so fond, but Britain's system of currency (pounds, shillings and pence, from the Latin, 'librae, solidi, denari') before decimalisation was officially introduced in 1971.  (Although usually pronounced and written as 'L.s.d.', apparently the proper way to render it is '£sd'.)  



What most of us tend to forget however, is that two years before 'D-Day', some decimal coins were introduced into our £sd currency.  In 1968, the five, ten, and fifty 'new' pence coins were issued, mingling quite happily with the threepenny (pronounced thruppenny) bit, sixpences, shillings and florins (two shilling piece), until the new decimal system officially took over.  The old sixpence (tanner) continued in circulation until 1980, and shillings and florins were interchangeable with their counterparts for many years after, until the size of the new coins was reduced in the early '90s.

When I bought the above set around twenty years ago, I was amazed by how many of my pals claimed to remember it, saying that they were given one of these little blue plastic wallets at school.  They can't all be mistaken, so I can only assume that I was off the day they were handed out because I definitely never received one.  I didn't even know they existed until I saw them in a coin catalogue back in the early '90s.

So, if you were one of the lucky ones who received a decimal coin set as a child, enjoy this look back at a moment in time which I never got to share - and then feel free to reminiscence about it in the ever-lovin' comments section.