PART TEN OF NEAL ADAMS' BATMAN COVER GALLERY...

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS.  Copyright DC COMICS

Alas, we're now at the end of the trail with our NEAL ADAMS' BATMAN cover gallery, but don't despair.  I'm pretty sure that the talented Mr. Adams artwork will pop up again on this Blog in the not too distant future.  In the meantime, savour the covers on display in this post - then go back and revisit the previous nine parts in the series.  Hey, there are worse things to do with your time.

Got a favourite in this batch?  Then feel entirely free to wax lyrical over it in the comments section.

Pencils by NEAL ADAMS, inks by DICK GIORDANO

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencils & inks by NEAL ADAMS

Pencil & inks by NEAL ADAMS

ISBN:  4012-0407-4

The FINEST FEELING In The WORLD...

Image copyright DC COMICS

I've got a question for you all, but first let me waffle on for a bit.  In 1969, I bought The MIGHTY THOR #158, which was the first of a two-part story examining the origins of the thunder god.  It was around six years before I finally got to read the conclusion, which was reprinted (in two episodes) in the pages of a 1975 British weekly MARVEL title (SMCW #s 125 & 126).  Ten years later, I managed to obtain Thor #159 - along with a replacement of #158 - both of which I still have today.  It's good to eventually catch up with one's past.

Another occasion was when I finally tracked down a copy of the third WILLY The KID book by LEO BAXENDALE - a mere 31 years after the fact.  Being able to place it on the shelf alongside the previous two books (which I'd purchased when first released) gave me a feeling of immense accomplishment.  Same goes for when I obtained two missing issues for the 17 ish run of X-MEN: The EARLY YEARS a whopping 19 years after the series had finished.  Then there was the 40 years between buying the first CAPTAIN AMERICA King Size Special and finally adding #2 to my collection.

However, the record time it's taken me to track down a follow-up issue of a mag to find out how a story ends is a whopping 46 (possibly 47) years.  The periodical in question is WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #180 which I received today, acquired from eBay for a modest price.  (For the story behind its predecessor, click here.)  What's interesting (to me anyway) is the fact that the door of the room in which I've just read the wrap-up, bears the actual number plate of the house in which I lived when I read the initial part of the tale all those years ago.  (I bought the number from the then-current tenant of my former abode back in 1991.)  A nice touch of continuity, I thought.

So, was it worth the wait?  Well, it's nice to finally know what happened, but the issue was never going to make the same impression on my consciousness as that of its predecessor, simply because I'm not as impressionable as I was at 9 or 10.  One look at the first part of the tale and I'm back in my old house again, the intervening years yet to occur, but I haven't had WFC #180 long enough for it to conjure forth any associated images in my mind.  That'll take time.

Anyway, enjoy the cover and a few pages from this latest acquisition to my cataclysmic comics collection.  And here's the question I mentioned at the beginning of this post: What's the longest period of time it's taken you to find and fill a missing gap in your collection?  Can you beat 46 years?  Do tell, if you'd be so good.

Is this the first U.S. splash page to continue from the cover?  If you know of any others, spill...

BUT YOU LOVE ME, DADDY...

The studio version of this song featured JIM REEVES and 9 year old STEVE MOORE, but if I recall correctly, there was a demo version with DOROTHY DILLARD.  This one combines Steve's & Dorothy's contributions.

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

KELLY BROOK combines the look

of a genuine sex goddess with that 'girl

next door' quality.  Let me tell you, if the

girl next door to me looked like Kelly,

 I'd be wanting to live next door.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - TV CENTURY 21 1965 SUMMER EXTRA...

Copyright relevant owner

Don't ask me what went wrong with the cover of TV CENTURY 21 SUMMER EXTRA, released back in the summer (natch) of 1965.  (Or should that be 2065?) Why, what's wrong with it you might be asking.  'Make your own GARTOON characters' says the cover blurb.  Catch that?  'GARTOONS', not 'CARTOONS'.

There are at least three possible explanations, so let's speculate for a moment.  It's just a mistake is the most obvious one, but let's stretch it out for a bit, because I need to fill space and, when it comes to what I write,  I'm my own biggest fan.  (No surprise there then, eh?)

The cartoonist's name is 'Garfield', or 'Gartshore', or something beginning with 'Gar', so it's intended simply as a pun.  Not convinced?  Nah, neither am I.  How about this?  The designer had run out of the letter 'C' in his LETRASET rub-down transfers - used a 'G', intending to turn it into a 'C' - and then got distracted or just forgot.

Right, that's all I can think of, but if you've got a better idea, impress your fellow Criv-ites with it in the comments section.

KLASSIC KOMIC (ANNUAL) KOVERS - THE BEANO BOOK 1967...

Image copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Ah, The BEANO BOOK 1967 (released in '66).  To those people of that 'certain age' I'm always referring to, this cover will usher them straight back to the 1960s faster then you just read this intro.  The '60s - the era of The BEATLES, BOND, BATMAN - and The Beano.  The comic was never better than it was then - although if you read it in the '50s perhaps you'd disagree.  No matter.  I'm the boss around here and I overrule you, so there!  (Ha!  The unlimited power that comes from having a blog.)

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - TARZAN'S FIRST DC ISSUE...

Copyright relevant owner

The preceding 206 issues of TARZAN had been published by DELL COMICS (1-130) and then GOLD KEY, making DC's first ish #207 - but, hey - the number 1 in big letters always looks good on a cover, so this 1972 mag had both sets of numerical identification on its JOE KUBERT eye-grabbing illo!

LET'S HAVE A MONSTER MASH-UP...

Images copyright TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

Just look at this superb book all about the monster craze of the 1960s (which actually started in 1957 and lasted until the early '70s).  It's called MONSTER MASH and covers practically every aspect of the subject that people of a certain age are bound to find fascinating.  (If you're quick, you may still be able to buy a copy at your local comicbook store.)

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

It's a little known fact KELLY BROOK

fancies me. True, it's on a parallel Earth in

an alternate universe in another dimension,

 but that surely counts for something?

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - DETECTIVE COMICS #359...

Images copyright DC COMICS

DETECTIVE COMICS #359 introduced BATGIRL to the BATMAN family.  What was Bats thinking of?  He should have copyrighted the franchise and charged BARBARA GORDON to use the name.  Doesn't matter that BRUCE WAYNE is already a millionaire - it's the principle of the thing.

BABE Of The DAY - LYNNE FREDERICK...

Well, do you believe in ghosts,

Mr. Blunden?  The lovely and (alas)

 late LYNNE FREDERICK.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - BUSTER #1...

Copyright REBELLION

Lasting nearly 40 years, BUSTER, in its heyday, was one of the most successful British weekly comics of all time.  The lead character was initially the son of ANDY CAPP, a daily comic strip by REG SMTHE which appeared in The DAILY MIRROR, but this connection was soon forgotten.  Not difficult to do, considering that Buster's mum looked little like FLO, Andy's beleaguered wife.  Were we to assume that Buster was the illegitimate son of Andy and another woman?  If so, how subversive!

Regardless, Buster was a hit - with or without Andy as a father.  However, all things have their time, and Buster the comic breathed its last at the end of December 1999.  By then it was a fortnightly, so it was dated into 2000 when the next issue - if there had been one - would've appeared.  It's hard to believe that it's been over 15 years since Buster comic's demise and, aside from one reprint special a few years ago, Buster and has pals haven't been seen since.  Could Buster one day live again?  It seems unlikely.

******

It appears that Buster was supposed to be Andy & Flo's kid after all, as announced on page 7 of The Daily Mirror on Saturday, May 21st 1960.

WHEN YOU WERE SWEET SIXTEEN...

Ah, The MILLS BROTHERS - now they

knew how to sing.  Go on, have a listen.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - MARTINE BESWICK...

The magnificent MARTINE

BESWICK.  Any other words

 would be totally superfluous.

OH HOW WE DANCED...

Can you remember dancing with the

love of your life at your wedding reception?

AL JOLSON certainly can, and here he is to

 sing about it in his inimitable style.

AWESOME ADS From The PAST...

I'm lucky to have three of the models in the above AURORA ad, the exception being WONDER WOMAN.  Wish I'd bought the MOEBIUS reissue of the kit when I had the chance.  Do you have any of these models, and which one did you covet the most when you were a kid in the '60s?

The MILLS BROTHERS - UP A LAZY RIVER...

Like music?  Like good music?  Then you've come

to the right place!  Criv-ites & Criv-kids - I give you -

The MILLS BROTHERS!

TUFTY'S ROAD SAFETY ADS - REMEMBER THESE?

Here's a little slice of yesteryear for all those of a certain age.  It doesn't seem all that long ago that these were regular ads on British TV, but I was very likely still a teenager the last time I saw them.  (Not counting '100 best ads' type programmes, of course.)  Whatever happened to TUFTY, eh?  Was he replaced by an American grey squirrel called RUFTY, do you think?  (Silly.)

BABE Of The DAY - RAQUEL WELCH...

I liked the last pic of RAQUEL WELCH

so much, I thought we'd have another.  Any

complaints?  I thought not.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS: The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

At last!  It was what we'd all been waiting for!  STEVE DITKO's hitherto unpublished (at least on the front of a comicbook) cover for AMAZING FANTASY #15, finally appearing on what was touted as the last issue of The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.  So why did STAN LEE reject Steve's cover and have JACK KIRBY redraw it - photostatting the speech balloons and lower caption on Ditko's version and transferring them over to Kirby's?

Could it be that it looked as if Spidey was going to swing into the wall of the building rather than past it?  Or was it because he was revealing his secret identity to more than just the guy under his arm?  (Who we can assume was too frightened to be listening anyway.  And besides, the cover scene was merely symbolic.)  Did Stan just not like the composition of Steve's design, or was it for some other, indefinable reason?  I guess we'll never know for sure, but it was good to see the original finally grace an actual Spidey mag.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - KULL THE CONQUEROR #1...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

Before CONAN, there was KULL, who first appeared in CREATURES On The LOOSE #10, before eventually being awarded his own magazine, which you can see above.  Incidentally, I'm proud of myself - I managed to resist the compulsion to type KULL The KONQUEROR as the title to this post.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The FOREVER PEOPLE #1...

Image copyright DC COMICS

"KIRBY'S HERE!" screamed the cover blurb, but it was mainly AL PLASTINO's SUPERMAN and JIMMY OLSEN inside the magazine, as their faces (and Superman's figure) were mostly redrawn to render them more 'on-model' than JK had drawn them.  I sometimes suspect that the only reason DC lured Jack away from 'The House Of Ideas' was more to do with them thinking it would damage MARVEL in some way, rather than because they really wanted him.  Why else would they seemingly seek to sabotage his work by diluting the full 'Kosmic Kirby' effect?  It's like hiring MICHELANGELO and then getting him to creosote your garden fence.  Despite the interference, Jack managed to shine during his tenure at DC, but nowhere near as brightly as he had shone at Marvel, alas.    

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - CAPTAIN ACTION #1...

Image copyright DC COMICS

H'mm, a guy with a panther pushing SUPERMAN out of the way?  Well, I suppose with his 'coins of power', it was possible for the comicbook incarnation of CAPTAIN ACTION to do so, but he bore little relation to the concept of the IDEAL toy figure he was based on.  Hardly surprising, seeing that the articulated figure was little more than a clothes horse for various superhero outfits, not all of which DC held the copyright on - hence the different approach with CA's five issue comicbook run.

PART TWO Of DETECTIVE COMICS COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Part one of this DETECTIVE COMICS cover gallery had 11 covers, this part has 13, so why didn't I do 12 covers each?  Simple! I wanted to keep the issues where BATMAN operated on his own separate from the ones with ROBIN The BOY WONDER.

I'm not really into sidekicks, to be honest.  The only one that ever worked (initially anyway) was RICK JONES (seeing as he was the catalyst for The HULK's origin), but even he soon wore out his welcome.  In the case of Batman, I always thought that he worked better on his own, which is why I loved the early '70s tales where Robin went to college and disappeared from the scene - apart from his own back-up tales that is.

Anyway, that's enough prattling preamble from me - enjoy these 13 classic covers from The DARK KNIGHT's earliest days. (And be sure to let me know which ones you prefer.)