AWESOME ANNUALS From The '60S - SMASH! ANNUAL 1967...

Copyright REBELLION

SMASH! comic came out in February 1966, so as this Annual would have gone on sale from August or September, ODHAMS PRESS were quick off the mark getting it out with the other Annuals for the coming year.  They must've prepared it at around the same time as the weekly, which isn't always the case.  Sometimes, publishers will wait to see if a new comic is a success before doing an Annual.  WHAM! comic came out in '64, but the first Annual was for '66, released in '65.

BABE Of The DAY - HEATHER THOMAS...

You want a babe?  Then

you've got a babe!  Here's the

lovely HEATHER THOMAS!

Now don't all drool at once - it's

 extremely unsightly.

PLAYMATES From FAR-AWAY PLACES - PART FIVE...

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

Continuing our back page feature from D.C. THOMSON's LITTLE STAR comic from the '70s, here's the next in the series.  I've got to fill CRIVENS! with something, and at least these pages are colourful and well illustrated.  Having said that, you'll be glad to know that there are only another seven to go.

AWESOME ANNUALS From The '60s - FANTASTIC ANNUAL 1968...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

I love this cover.  Traced, copied from, or painted over a stat of the splash page from THOR's first appearance in JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #83, it should be hanging on the wall of an art gallery, so magnificent is it in all its MARVELlous majesty.  Don't agree?  Then better watch out - Thor's winging his way to your house right now.  Wouldn't want to be in your shoes, buster!

ANOTHER BABE Of The DAY - RAQUEL WELCH...

Now she's what I call a woman - and I'm

who she'd call for a good time!  Never off the

'phone to me, is RAQUEL.  Well, you've either

got it or you haven't, Crivvies.  (I've got it, but

relax - my doctor gave me some antibiotics,

 and it's now clearing up nicely.)

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - WHIZZER & CHIPS #1...

Copyright relevant owner

"Two comics in one, double the fun!", but WHIZZER & CHIPS was really just one comic with two names.  However, it was a good idea to make readers think that they were getting more bang for their bucks.  (Or in this case, more pages for their pennies.)  On sale on 11th October 1969 (cover-dated 18th), the title lasted for one week past its (un-celebrated) 21st birthday before being merged with stablemate BUSTER, thereby ensuring that at  least a few W&C characters survived a bit longer.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: AVENGERS #1...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Released in the exact same month as The X-MEN, The AVENGERS were really the direct equivalent of DC's JUSTICE SOCIETY Of AMERICA.  The FANTASTIC FOUR may have been inspired by the JLA (or their success, at least), but the Avengers reflected the set-up of their DC rivals more than the FF did.  And they had their very own battle-cry - "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"

The POWER Of PICTURES...

The picture in question - sourced from MWOM rather than
WHAM! 'cos I can't open my bound volume wide enough to
scan.  (Images copyright MARVEL COMICS)

Whenever I re-read a book after many years, when it comes to descriptive paragraphs of places, whatever impression formed in my mind when I first read it, is the one that resurfaces upon my re-acquaintance.  The first time I ever read The WIND In The WILLOWS, my impression of the WILD WOOD was an amalgam of the woods at the foot of the street of where I then lived, and the woods in a former neighbourhood in which I'd stayed several years before.  I've re-read the book many times over the years, and the images conjured up in my mind are always the exact same as previously.  Same with MOONFLEET, or The HOBBIT, or TREASURE ISLAND, or whatever - it's the same each time.

That also applies to certain pictures.  For example, when I was a lad, 'twas my custom to (horror of horrors) cut certain pictures I liked from the comics they were printed in.  I was especially fond of clipping out pictures of SUSAN STORM ('cos I fancied her) from the FF stories in the pages of WHAM!, one of my favourite comics at that time.  I not only cut out panels, but figures within panels, resulting in what can only be described as 'paper dolls' which I kept in a checkered vinyl pencil 'purse' I'd found.  (I had to wait six months for it, as I'd handed it into the police - insufferably virtuous kidlet that I was.)

My former back garden

Sometimes I'd sit out on my back doorstep and go through my collection of cut-outs, acting out little adventures with them.  (Before I got my first ACTION MAN - a secondhand one from a pal of my brother - I had a cut-out picture of an Action Man that acted as a stand-in until the real thing came along.)  One morning, I was out in the back garden and saw something caught in the plants which ran along the edge of the lawn below the back window.  It was a picture of Susan Storm, which must've blown off the step on a previous occasion I was seated there, playing with my paper figures.  I was surprised, because I hadn't noticed it was missing and it was one of my favourites, so I was happy to be reunited with it.  Eventually, as I grew older, I had a purge, and consigned all my paper playthings to the dustbin of history.

Here's the thing: Whenever I look at that picture today (in reprints and re-acquired 'originals'), my main association is the back garden of my former house.  Although some later reprints also have their own associations from the time I bought them, they shelter in the shadow of my earliest impressions of that one particular picture.  So here's a question for you.  Is there any specific panel from a comic you read as a child that, when you see again, transports you right back to the time and place where you first encountered it?  If so, tell your fellow Crivvies all about it in the comments section.

Me on the back step - 19 years after moving from the house

BABE Of The DAY - BRIGITTE BARDOT...

Wotta waist!  BRIGITTE BARDOT

 shows how a belt should be worn.

PART SIX OF TOPPS 1966 BATMAN CARDS...

Images copyright DC COMICS & TOPPS

Another half-dozen TOPPS BATMAN cards for you to savour and salivate over, Bat-fans. I never kept my originals, alas, but a deluxe boxed set was re-issued in 1989, and it's those very ones you're looking at now.  Takes me back to the '60s (and the '80s come to that) faster than a fart from The FLASH!   How about you? 

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1...

Art by JOHN BUSCEMA.  Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

The first 'official' British MARVEL comic - affectionately referred to as MWOM.  This was the comic that all true Marvel fans on this side of the pond had been waiting for, whether they realized it or not!  A whopping 40 pages for a mere 5p, a mixture of b&w, spot and full colour, the early issues had a distinct charm that was later lost when the title received a glossy cover and jettisoned the interior colour.

However, there's good news - MWOM is still available in Britain today!  With 72  full colour pages, cardboard cover, and published monthly - for only a paltry £3.50.  Rush out and buy a copy now!

The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART NINE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Another three issues of The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR for you to drool over, frantic ones, as we near the end of our series looking back at one of the more fondly-recalled titles of MARVEL U.K.'s 1977/'78 weekly output.  Containing relatively more recent stories as well as LEE/KIRBY classic tales, this comic was more than worth the 10p cover price.  Sadly, it folded with #37, which means that this series concludes after three more parts, so don't dare miss 'em!  

I saw it too, in my local cinema.  It was total p*sh!  (The film, not the cinema)

ERNIE (The FASTEST MILKMAN In The WEST)...

BENNY HILL - considered politically in-

correct in his later years by new young purveyors

of so-called 'alternative' comedy (an alternative

to comedy, some might say), but the bold Benny

was and still is one of Britain's comedy greats.

 So here he is in one of his finest moments.

BABE Of The DAY - ELKE SOMMER...

ELKE SOMMER - with my undies

on again, I see.  Oops, I didn't mean to type

that.  It's just as well nobody reads this blog

or I'd get slagged silly.  Hey, it's only on days

ending with a 'y', so relax.  (Dear me, the

  p*sh I write to try and get a laugh!) 

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The X-MEN #1...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

You're looking at the first issue of The MUTANTS - or at least you would be had STAN LEE got his way.  You see, that's the name  Stan wanted to use, but publisher MARTIN GOODMAN overruled him on the grounds that kids wouldn't know what a mutant is.  As Stan pointed out after coming up with the new name, they wouldn't know what an X-MAN is either, but he had to do what the boss wanted.  The result was worth it.  X-Men sounds better and is far more enigmatic, don't you think?

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - EAGLE #1...

Copyright relevant owner

Created by Reverend MARCUS MORRIS and FRANK HAMPSON as an antidote to American 'horror' comics, EAGLE first flapped its wings in April 1950.  The comic's most popular strip was undoubtedly DAN DARE, drawn by Hampson and his team of assistants.  Eagle lasted to 1969, nine issues short of its 1000th ish, and was then merged into LION, ironically a comic originally created to compete with it.  (Lion lasted to 1974, when it was subsumed by VALIANT.)

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: FIGHTING AMERICAN #1...

Copyright relevant owner

CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY in different costumes - that's all FIGHTING AMERICAN & SPEEDBOY really were, but with Reds instead of Nazis.  Intended as a serious strip at the start, it soon took a detour into parody, but with no more success than before, and the mag folded after only seven issues.  HARVEY later attempted to revive the comic, but only one issue was ever produced before the publishers wisely threw in the towel.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: DEVIL DINOSAUR #1

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

DEVIL DINOSAUR was JACK KIRBY's final fling at MARVEL.  None of the mags he worked on seemed to click with the readers enough to keep them going for long, and DD (and I don't mean DAREDEVIL) only managed nine issues before cancellation.  Jack, with STAN LEE, had kick-started the Marvel Age, but it seemed that there was no longer a place in it for him.  Jack's time had passed, alas.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The FANTASTIC FOUR #1...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

This is how it began - with the first issue of The FANTASTIC FOUR, which heralded the start of the MARVEL AGE in the comicbook world.  Pencilled by JACK KIRBY and thought to be inked by GEORGE KLEIN, the layout was reminiscent of the DC comic cover that was the impetus for the FF's Creation - The BRAVE & The Bold #28, starring The JUSTICE LEAGUE Of AMERICA. 

Well, you know what they say - "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."  I wonder if the Cosmic Quartet realize to whom they owe their existence?

WAYNE BORING'S SUPERMAN...

Image copyright DC COMICS

Here's a nice WAYNE BORING poster, which was given to members of the SUPERMEN Of AMERICA club as part of the paraphernalia they received upon joining.  There'd been an earlier version featuring JOE SHUSTER's version of SUPERMAN (although I'm unsure whether or not it was actually drawn by him), but this one is the better of the two, I'd say.

JOHN DILLINGER WANTED POSTER...

Here's the poster that was included with the first (and only) issue of JACK KIRBY's 'In The DAYS Of The MOB'.  When I bought the magazine back in 1972 or '73 (that's when it appeared on spinner-racks in my neck of the woods), I put the poster up on my bedroom well for a short while.  Perhaps I didn't feel comfortable displaying a poster of a killer, but whatever the reason, it wasn't up for long; I now no longer recall what I did with it, but I only have a smaller A3 reprint of it these days, which I've put on a cupboard door.  Not that I'm a fan of John Dillinger, but just to remind me of when I was young and foolish.  (The two usually go hand-in-hand.)

GALACTUS & The SILVER SURFER By JACK KIRBY...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

A dramatic poster for sure, but JACK KIRBY's art was far looser and more 'blocky' than had once been the case.  To me, The SILVER SURFER doesn't have the grace and fluidity with which Jack had previously been able to imbue him.  STAN LEE was right to give the Surfer's own mag to JOHN BUSCEMA, in my opinion - big John had it nailed.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - LOIS LANE 80 PAGE GIANT #68...

Image copyright DC COMICS

Here's a nice KURT SCHAFFENBERGER cover of the character he's probably best known for - SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE.  (He drew a pretty 'hot' SUPERGIRL too.)  Interesting that Lois was usually described as Supes' 'girl friend', not 'girlfriend' - did he regard his relationship with her as purely platonic, I wonder?  H'mm.

DANCING BABIES AD - FUNNY...

Cop a gander at this and put a smile on your face.

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

Well, one thing's for certain -

KELLY BROOK will never drown

 with 'buoyancy aids' like hers.