The COMPLETE DENNIS The MENACE BOOK COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co. Ltd

Being the proud possessor of every DENNIS The MENACE book ever published, I think it's long past time that I shared them with you.  I'm referring to the run of books which started in 1955 (for '56) and continued every two years up until 1977 (for '78), whereupon it restarted in 1982 (for '83).  The book for 1987 was the last to come out two years after the previous one and the first to be issued a year before the next one, thereby becoming an 'Annual' publication.

So are you ready?  Then away we go!

The back cover was the same as the front, folks!

FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST PART THIRTY-THREE - 1974 MARVEL TREASURY SPECIAL GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG...

All artwork images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Some mental images are indelible.  Such a one is of me standing under the canopy of the entrance to my Secondary School's Technical Block, gazing at the front cover of GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG Volume 1.  I believe one of my classmates (who was a friend) was there also, and we were waiting for the bell to ring at interval's end to be allowed access to the 'Teckie' building.

The year was 1974 and I assume that it must have been approaching the holiday season for such a publication to be on sale.  If so, my schooldays were fast coming to an end, as, when the school closed for Christmas, I wouldn't be returning after the two week break.  To be honest, I'm surprised I was even there that day, because I'd gotten into the habit of 'doggin' it' (a word which had an altogether different meaning back then) and didn't usually attend with any degree of regularity.

See that building in the distance?  That was the Technical Block.
And the area to the right of the tree was the entrance...

Not for every period, that is.  I'd take my absence from a few lessons and roam around the town centre, whiling away an idle hour or two, before returning for the subjects I didn't quite mind so much.  I suspect that it was on one such unsanctioned sojourn that I'd bought the accompanying MARVEL Treasury Edition, which is why I had it with me in my schoolbag.  Looking at the replacement I received today, my now-demolished school is miraculously re-created and I'm again standing in that doorway waiting for a now-silenced bell to ring once more.

...and this was the view (sans fence) that would've been mine from
the doorway over 40 years ago.  What you see no longer exists

It seems so close and so faraway in equal measure, and the memories stirred within me are at once both sweet and sad at the same time.  Sweet because I was but a youth, standing on the threshold of the future; sad because most of that future is long behind me and I never seemed to see it as it passed me by.

Have you any fond reminiscences of this particular publication that you'd care to share?  Go on - re-live your youth once more, before the moment passes beyond your ability to recall and is gone forever!

  

FIFTY-YEAR-FLASHBACK To SPARKY & TV CENTURY 21...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Perhaps it's overstating the case to say that it's a 'little- known fact' (I'm sure that most fans of comics from the 1960s will know), but I'm often surprised by just how many people don't recall that SPARKY #1 went on sale in the very same week as TV CENTURY 21 #1, and maybe even on the same day.  One thing's for sure though: both were cover-dated January 23rd - 1965 in Sparky's case, and 2065 in the case of TV Century 21 (seeing as how it was a comic mainly featuring GERRY ANDERSON's 21st century-based television puppet programmes).

Whenever I ask any of my contemporaries who remember both comics from back in the day, none of them associate one with the other.  It's more than likely that D.C. THOMSON & Co had Sparky waiting in the wings, ready to compete with any new periodicals launched by a rival, and issued it to steal some of the thunder of CITY MAGAZINES' comic of the future when they heard of its impending release-date.  Many a parent, acting on the entreaties of their offspring to "get me that new comic", must've returned home with a different one to what was expected, which was doubtless part of any competitive publishers' plan.

Sparky lasted a glorious twelve years, TV21 around half that span, and both comics are fondly remembered by old duffers like myself who bought them way back when.  (Although, to be honest, I wasn't a regular reader of Sparky, buying it only occasionally.)  With the upcoming 50th Anniversaries of the release of these two classic titles, I thought I'd remind you all what their covers looked like and let you wallow in nostalgia for your lost childhoods.  And thanks to John Pitt for reminding me and suggesting the post.

So Happy 50th Anniversary to both comics when the day comes - shame they're not still around, eh?

Copyright relevant owner

CRIME'S HUMAN ERASER - It's The RUBBER MAN...

Copyright REBELLION

Let's see now... there was PLASTIC MAN, The ELONGATED MAN, ELASTIC LAD and MISTER FANTASTIC - Americans all and proud of it, I'm sure.  However, Britain also had its own stretchable crime-fighter in the form of The RUBBER MAN (rendered as one word, RUBBERMAN, in the strip, if not the title) who was every bit as flexible as his pals across the pond.  (And let's not forget DCT's PING, The ELASTIC MAN, a 1930s humour strip which pre-dates them all.)

I can't say for certain who produced the strip you see in this post, but it may've been written by KEN MENNELL and possibly drawn by ALFREDO MARCULETA - if anyone knows for certain, feel free to chip in.  This particular strip appeared in the 1968 SMASH! Annual and is typical of the kind of adventures in which bendy JIM HOLLIS found himself involved, in his quest to find a cure for his condition.

When I look back, Rubberman seems to have been a significant comic strip feature of my childhood.  After the MARVEL reprints, ol' Rubby, along with RONNIE RICH, BAD PENNY and BATMAN, are the characters I most associate with the original Smash!  However, I was surprised to read somewhere that the strip was in only eleven issues of the weekly comic - not counting the ones in the '68-'70 Annuals.

One day, I'll have to go through my back numbers and count the Rubberman strips for myself - eleven issues just doesn't seem right (or possible) somehow.  Perhaps it was eleven separate adventures, each of which consisted of several episodes - that seems just a little more likely - anyone know for sure?  It'd save me a crawl through the comics.  

Anyway, in the meantime, enjoy this strip from the '60s.  The plot may be a bit of a stretch, but it's sure to rub off on you!

ARE YOU READY FOR - The LEGEND TESTERS...?

Copyright relevant owner

From the pages of the 1967 SMASH! Annual comes a four page adventure of time travelling chums ROLLO STONES and DANNY CHARTERS - The LEGEND TESTERS!  Drawn for the weekly by JORDI BERNET and usually written by KEITH CHAPMAN, I presume the same pair was responsible for this tale.  Want to see more?  Then let me know, frantic ones!

SUPER DC TEXT STORIES - PART FIVE...

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For no other reason than to keep Sean Green happy, here are the final four tales from SUPER DC #s 13 & 14.  Of course, doubtless other Criv-ites will likewise be thrilled to now have the complete set of text stories from the British monthly which graced newsagents' spinner-racks way back in 1970.  (And perhaps nudged into '71.)

When I find my Bumper Book, I'll scan the text stories from that and put them up in a future post.  Then you can rest happy, secure in the knowledge that life is good and it was I who made it so.  (Hey, I'll take credit for anything that's going!  How else will I get my name up in lights?  Apart from changing it to 'Exit', that is.)   

The SILVER SURFER - CREATED BEING Or TRANSFORMED 'HUMAN'...?

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS.  The Surfer in his first U.S. issue

When MARVEL powerhouse JACK 'KING' KIRBY originated a guy on a surfboard who came to be known as The SILVER SURFER, it's obvious that he intended him to be a created being with no history, brought forth from nothing by GALACTUS to serve him as herald.  That's why the Surfer, in his first appearance in The FANTASTIC FOUR mag, seemingly had no conscience about leading his master to inhabited planets to syphon-off their energy (and thus destroy them); he was merely fulfilling the purpose for which he'd specifically been created.

STAN 'The MAN' LEE decided that it would be far more noble if NORRIN RADD had endured a great sacrifice of some sort, in fitting with the quasi-religious martyr-type that he wanted to develop, resulting in the backdrop of ZENN-LA and SHALLA-BAL against which ol' Surfy played out his personal drama in his own monthly mag.  Of course, this meant that the readers had to assume that Galactus had sneakily suppressed his herald's memory and conscience, and indeed, subsequent writers later wove this explanation into the character's history.

It's arguable, of course, which approach is the better one; I can see merit in each of them, although, understandably, Jack was miffed about the Surfer's hijacking by Stan and thereby being deprived of the chance to show what he could do in a regular series.  Gotta be honest though, I think Stan made the right choice in picking JOHN BUSCEMA to illustrate the Surfer's own mag; by that time, Jack's rendition of the Sentinel of the Spaceways (and figure-work in general) had lost much of its former grace and fluidity, and had become a bit blocky-looking and abstract.

John B, on the other hand, imbued the character with nobility and grace, and readers were treated to a tour-de-force of visual excellence that Jack no longer seemed capable of.  Having just said that however, the cover of the Surfer's first issue has always been a bit of a mystery to me.  It surely stands as one of the rare examples where Big John B failed to rise to the challenge.  A boring, straight-on view of ol' Norrin in one of the most stiff and non-dramatic positions I've ever seen of the character.  Why Stan allowed such an underwhelming cover to adorn a first issue is beyond me.  The Surfer even seems to have a gap in his teeth - look at his mouth.

However, John Buscema made up for such a lacklustre cover in the inside pages, and his 17 issue run on the 18 ish series (Jack drew the last one) are now rightfully regarded by fans as classics and are highly collectable, just as they deserve to be.

(Oh, but John - that first cover...)

So, fellow Criv-ites - agree, disagree, don't give a fig?  Or do you fancy a punch-up in the playground over it?  Let your voice be heard - get typing those comments now!

The Surfer in his first  U.K. issue

PART FOUR Of SUPER DC TEXT STORIES...

Copyright relevant owner

Perhaps one of the things that worked against SUPER DC was that it was a monthly mag, as opposed to the weekly publications that  British kids were accustomed to. Back then, U.K. readers got their comics fix every seven days, and although some also bought American comicbooks from time to time, they tended to choose from whatever was periodically available, rather than follow a specific title month after month.  That's because U.S. mags had a spotty distribution on these shores and one simply had to take what one could get.

Therefore, had it come out on a weekly basis, readers wouldn't have had time to forget when it was next due on sale.  Further, being weekly would've meant sharing the shelves with the other U.K. comics,  instead of being in the spinner-racks with the monthlies.  It was in the spinner-rack of my local CORSON'S that I spied the first issue of Super DC, and as not everyone who bought British comics also bought American ones, there were probably quite a few potential readers who never even saw it during its short existence.

However, that's by the by.  What we're concerned with for now are the text stories in the 14 issue mag, which barely managed to limp into 1970 ('71 if you lived in Scotland, where it was released a year later).  Here are another six titanic tales, from numbers 10-12, which first appeared in TV TORNADO, a weekly comic published in 1967.  The stories were slightly abridged this time around, and I suspect that some of the conclusions seemed hastily arrived at, given that explanatory sentences (and perhaps even paragraphs) were jettisoned in order to fit the page.

There's another SUPERMAN tale still to come, plus three other completely unrelated generic adventure stories.  Don't dare miss 'em - or I'll be sending the lads 'round!