'NEW' SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY - PART FIVE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

What a day!  I'm knackered!  "Hooray," you cry, "he'll be too tired to bore us with all that dreary schecht he writes!"  You're right, so without any further ado, here are another six covers of SUPERMAN's new mag from the late '80s, launched in the wake of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.  Check out #s 27 & 28 - brilliant, aren't they?

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY - PART SEVEN...

Images copyright DC COMICS

A mixed bag in this latest instalment of The ADVENTURES

Of SUPERMAN covers, in that they're not an unbroken sequence,

but separated by gaps of varying duration.  Never mind, there are still

some good ones.  I guess I'd given up buying the title regularly by this

time and was only getting the issues with covers that interested me.  I

love the ones featuring JACK KIRBY characters - note STAN

LEE's doppelganger, FUNKY FLASHMAN on #613.

Got a favourite?  Feel free to tell everyone in you know where.

  

DOES THE KING'S HORSE RING A BELL WITH ANYONE...?

One day back in the late '60s, my father brought home a book for me which contained various children's stories.  The book wasn't new, so he'd most likely bought it in a jumble sale or 'The Barras'.  Amongst the tales within its pages were The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Little Red Hen, one about two kids looking after a hedgehog, and The King's Horse.  (Or it may've been The King's Bell.)  There were others of course, but those are the ones I remember.

My favourite story was The King's Horse (or Bell), which was about a King who installed a bell in the town square, for any of his subjects to ring in order to obtain justice in matters where they had been wronged.  The way I remember it, the King had a horse who, when it was no longer of use to him, was turned out into the street to fend for itself.  One cold winter's night, the bell is heard ringing in the square, and when the King turns up to see who needs his help, is ashamed to see that he himself is the guilty party, is overcome with remorse, and the horse returns to its comfy stable to live happily ever after.

The tale is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Bell Of Atri, which has been rewritten as a prose story more than once, I believe.  However, in the original version, the horse doesn't belong to the King, but a knight (or soldier), so I'm left to wonder if I might be mis-remembering the details, or a little artistic license had been taken with events in order to provide an ironic ending to the tale.  (Y'know, King who wants justice for others is himself guilty of inflicting an injustice on another - in this case his horse.)

So Criv-ites, the call goes out.  Have any of you ever read the version I remember, or owned the book of which I speak?  If any of you actually have the book, I'd be prepared to purchase it for a more than reasonable price.  You know where the comments section is.

BABE Of The DAY - RACHEL RILEY...

Brains and beauty are always a winning

combination (though not necessarily in that

order), and who epitomizes those two qualities

better than the ravishing RACHEL RILEY?

(Apart from my good self of course.)

PART FOUR OF 'NEW' SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

When these comics first came out nearly 28 years ago,

for some reason #20 wasn't put aside for me (I had a standing

order for them).  I only acquired it a few short years ago, from

the late Neil Craig's FUTURESHOCK in Woodlands Road in

Glasgow.  I only remember that because of the back issue 'lot-

tery' ticket I found within its pages when I flicked through

it relatively recently.

The ticket must have been there for years as it comes

from a time when the shop had relocated for a while to Byers

Road in the '90s, so it had long-expired by the the time I bought

the comic from the shop's original premises a couple or so years

before Neil Craig passed away.  It always gives me a sense of

achievement when I manage to fill a gap in a collection -

still got a few more to go.

Anyway, well done.  You've endured my self-indulgent

wittering for long enough, so enjoy your reward of these six

covers from a period when a SUPERMAN comic was still

a super read.  (It's been a while in my view.)

******

Incidentally, doesn't it look like there's something missing

from the 'Power Failure' blurb in the above cover (#19)?

KID KLASSICS: The ADS THAT MADE AN @SS OUT OF ATLAS...

A genuine Ad.  Copyright relevant owner

CHARLES ATLAS (real name Angelo Siciliano, born 1892) seems to have been around forever.  Practically everyone remembers the ads from many comicbooks throughout the '60s and '70s, though they actually debuted back in the '40s.  He died in 1972, aged 80, so he was an old man for much of the period that people of my age group first became familiar with his athletic frame and visage staring out from the comics of our youth.

The ads are so iconic that they have become a target for affectionate lampooning in the pages of the selfsame publications that the originals were printed in.  Here, for your amusement, are just a few of the many parodies which have appeared - enjoy. (And tell us your favourite in the comments section.)

A lampoon (as if you couldn't tell).  Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

The BUMPER BOOK For BOYS...

I was in a charity shop yesterday and bought an old book for £1.50.  It's from the '30s, I think - maybe even the '20s.  Hard to say for sure as there's no date anywhere inside.  The four colour plates evoke a long-vanished age, so I thought it worth sharing them with you here.  Couldn't say whether it ever had a dustjacket - perhaps you know?  If so, do tell.

I'VE GOT ONE, YOU'VE GOT ONE, EVERYBODY'S GOT ONE...

Radio Victory

Back in early 1985, I was busily pursuing my freelance comics career from a bedsit room in Shearer Rd. in Fratton, Portsmouth.  I usually had the radio on as I worked, and, one night, I was listening to a show by a DJ called GEORGE REID (I think)* on the local station, RADIO VICTORY.  (Whose premises were situated just along the road from me actually.)

(*Might have been Reed.)

George announced his regular 'phone quiz and offered up the following question for the consideration of his eager and loyal listeners.  "I've got one, you've got one, everybody's got one - what is it?"  Then he played some records as he waited for folk to ring in with their various suggestions.  Eventually someone did, and the bold host repeated his question and then asked for the fellow's answer.  "Is it 'penis'?" came the response.

The caller was immediately cut off and a record was played while the stunned George composed himself.  When he returned after the song's end, he bemoaned what had happened, saying that in all the many years that he'd worked on radio (in America too, he was keen to point out), he'd never once had such a rude response to one of his questions as the one he'd just had the misfortune to hear (and inadvertently broadcast).

George then took another call, and a voice (which, to me, sounded suspiciously similar to the previous one) said "I'd just like to say how shocked I was to hear that last caller say 'penis' on the radio..."  You could almost hear George's internal indecision over just how he should respond.  The offending word had been repeated, but it was in the form of a complaint, so the repetition was perhaps legitimate - or was it? George hesitated and was lost, as the caller continued "...personally, I thought the answer was 'pr*ck'!"

  

George spluttered his indignation as I (and no doubt his entire audience) had a good laugh.  Truth to tell, George sounded just a bit too far up himself, and the courts of the universe demanded that he be brought down a peg.  He was, and in hilarious fashion too.  His pomposity had been punctured, justice was served, and all was right with the world.

And what was the real answer to the question?  I'll have to disappoint you all there, because I can no longer remember.  I doubt it was as entertaining as the first one though.  What do you suppose it might have been?

Update: I was astonished to discover some time after publishing this post that Radio Victory ceased broadcasting just over a year after my stay in Pompey, on June 28th 1986.  It had first started on October 14th 1975, and was one of the first 19 independent stations to be launched in the U.K. between 1973 and '76.  It popped up again over the years in various forms and from different buildings, but I last heard it in 1985, 30-odd years ago.    

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - WARLORD #1...

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

Was never really into war comics, but I was into #1s, so when DCT released the first ish of WARLORD, I bought it - and several of the subsequent issues.  Looking at the date, I see that I was yet a schoolboy, with another 3 months to go before I joined the working world, but it seems like it was only a few short years ago, such is the paradox of time.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - JILL ST. JOHN...

I don't usually like  redheads, but I

make an exception for JILL St. JOHN

as she's an total stunner!  I also make an

exception for ATLANTA SHORE - even

if my chances with either of 'em is about

 the same - not a ruddy snowball's! 

BEANO SUMMER SPECIAL FRONT COVER GALLERY...

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

Okay, the one above is actually a DANDY/BEANO Summer Special, but it counts as the first one for both comics so I just had to include it here.  From 1963 to '73, here are the front covers of all the Beano Specials to prod a few memories.  Which ones did you have, Crivs?  Share your reminiscences in the comments section.

Oh, go on then.  As a special treat, below is the full cover for the very first one.  Don't ever say that I'm not good to you all!