PARKER... WELL DONE (AND YOU TOO, DARWYN)...

Images copyright IDW PUBLISHING

Something I discovered only recently is this series of books by RICHARD STARK (pseudonym of author DONALD E. WESTLAKE) and artist DARWYN COOKE, the latter having adapted and illustrated the former's novels about hard-as-nails master thief PARKER - not to be confused with LADY PENELOPE's chauffeur.

Graphic novels in the truest sense, Darwyn Cooke was initially contracted to adapt four books, which was then extended to five, but, alas, the fifth one never happened.  The four he did do though, are riveting reading, and I'm looking forward to starting the original novel of The HUNTER, for which he provided full-colour illustrations.  IDW intended that he'd illustrate all 16 Parker books, but disappointing sales of the first put paid to further editions.

Available from all good book shops, why not add them to your Darwyn Cooke collection today?

SHIRLEY BASSEY SINGS THUNDERBALL...

Back in 1992, SHIRLEY BASSEY recorded an

album of JAMES BOND themes which included a

cover version of TOM JONES' THUNDERBALL.

On reflection, Shirley wasn't too happy with the album

and had it pulled from distribution, so chances are

you've probably never heard it.  Well, now you

can - so what do you think?

Mr. KISS KISS BANG BANG - SHIRLEY BASSEY...

This was the theme originally intended for the

1965 JAMES BOND movie THUNDERBALL,

before the 007 producers jettisoned it in favour of

TOM JONES' now classic song.  Mr. KISS KISS

BANG BANG is how Japanese fans refer to

Bond, in case you were wondering.

BABE Of The DAY - DIANE YOUDALE...

DIANE YOUDALE is a fine looking

gal, I'm sure you'll agree.  She was once a

GLADIATOR, but appears to have put all

that behind her.  (And may I just say what

a mighty fine behind she has.)

ALICE COOPER - The MAN With The GOLDEN GUN...

Believe it or not, ALICE COOPER wrote and recorded a theme song for the 1974 JAMES BOND movie The MAN With The GOLDEN GUN, but it was passed over in favour of LULU's version.  I have to say, I think the producers made the right choice.

Have a listen and see what you think.

BABE Of The DAY - 'INDIANA JANE'...

I call her 'INDIANA JANE', but

her 'real' name is ABBY DARKSTAR

(or Dark Star - and even Dark-Star - I've

seen it written all three ways).  However,

whatever moniker she goes under, she's

 a total Babe - and so say we all.

RECOMMENDED READING: WILL EISNER'S THE SPIRIT - BY DARWYN COOKE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

I first learned of The SPIRIT in the 1967 edition of The PENGUIN BOOK Of COMICS when I borrowed it from my local library in '72.  Read a few stories over the years, even met WILL EISNER in 1985 or '86, but I couldn't say I was ever a massive fan of DENNY COLT, alias The Spirit.  Probably because I'd simply never read enough of his reprinted adventures for the series to click with me.

I'm closer to being a massive fan now though, since reading these two collected editions of the late DARWYN COOKE's run on the character.  Other creators pitched in too, but Cooke best captures the (dare I say it?) spirit and the mood of the original Eisner strips.  Funny thing is, I bought the debut issue of the comic when it first came out, as well as the team-up with BATMAN, but I never read 'em.  Have now though, 'cos they're in the first book in this two volume set (sold separately).

So if you're a fan of either The Spirit or the late Darwyn Cooke, then these two books are sure to tickle your sporran and float your boat.  Straight 'round to your local comicbook store with you.

SUPERMAN Versus MUHAMMAD ALI...

Hear NEAL ADAMS talk about this 1978 classic.

See Neal Adams talk about this 1978 classic.  Laugh

as Neal Adams talks about this 1978 classic.  "Father of

comicbooks"?  Really?  Got it, read it, enjoyed it, but

it's not exactly the best comicbook I've ever seen.

What do the rest of you think?

BABE Of The DAY - SOPHIA LOREN...

SOPHIA LOREN was hammering

on my bedroom door for several hours

this morning, so there was nothing else for

it but to get up, unlock the door and let her

out.  (Ha, the old ones are the best - jokes

 I mean, not gals.  H'm, then again...)

RECOMMENDED READING: BATMAN - EGO & OTHER TAILS (YES, TAILS - THINK ABOUT IT)...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Here's a belter of a book that's sure to please all fans of the late, great DARWYN COOKE.  As usual, I'm going to take the lazy way out and let the spiel on the back cover do the 'talking', but considering how long-winded I can sometimes be, that's probably a good thing.  So, you all know the drill by now - if you don't already have this valiant volume, race around to your nearest comicbook store and get yourself a copy as soon as you can.  You'll simply love it!

  

BABE Of The DAY - MARILYN MONROE...

It's not exactly warm outside, but I didn't

realize it was quite so cold inside.  I guess that's

why MARILYN MONROE is a little 'perky'.

'BREXIT' AFFECTS COST OF COMICS - BUT DON'T PANIC, IT'S NOT AS BAD AS YOU MAY THINK... (Updated - AGAIN)...

The good ol' days.  (Sigh!)

According to one site a few days ago, DIAMOND DISTRIBUTORS are increasing the price of some U.S. comics by up to 25% as of today (as a result of the BREXIT vote) and others on Monday 18th of this month.  I'm told by those 'in the know' that the average increase will actually be much lower than this and won't come into effect until the new titles go on sale on Wednesday 20th.

Update as of July 19th:

Whooaaa!  Even more good news!  It now seems that the price rise won't take effect for at least a further week - possibly even a fortnight.  I'll let you know when I get any more news, so stay tuned, Criv-ites!

Update as July 20th:

It's next week, frantic ones - July 27th.

RECOMMENDED READING: DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION VOLUME ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I've got all of these stories already, but I can never resist the allure of a brand-spanking new collection of classic comics, and the recent DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION certainly fits the bill in that department.  Read the spiel on the back cover, then steal your wife's Bingo money that she keeps in the cookie jar on top of the fridge (she'll only waste it on frivolities), race around to your nearest comics shop and buy yourself a copy.

Hey, I've just noticed that my skin has turned purple.  (If you're a DD fan, you'll know what I'm talking about.)  Let's see if it works.  "Go and buy this book now!"

KIRBY 'KOCK-UPS' PART ELEVEN - REJECTED COVER For THOR #141...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

This one's a real turkey.  The figure of REPLICUS is awkward, distorted even, and the size of his right foot doesn't match his left.  Former KIRBY assistant MARK EVANIER has expressed uncertainty that the rejected page is even by Jack and, in doing so, thereby demonstrates that one can sometimes be too close to a subject to be truly objective.  One could argue that Jack's autograph is the last word on the matter, but not necessarily so.  If he was attending a comics convention and was presented with a page to sign that looked like his work, unless he had cause to doubt its authenticity, he would've smiled and added his mighty moniker. 

Signed or not, however, it's clearly pencilled by Jack (and inked by VINCE COLLETTA), but it's undoubtedly a 'Kirby Kock-Up' that STAN LEE was correct to reject in favour of a cobbled together cover using enhanced panels from the interior issue.

(Incidentally, the original art for the cover still exists, and Jack's pencils can be seen under Vinnie's inks.)

NINA PERSSON & DAVID ARNOLD - THEME FROM RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED)...

Here's a theme you're bound to like.  If not, I offer a full refund guarantee.  Of course, as it didn't cost you anything, your refund will comprise of nothing, but it's the thought that counts.

RUEFUL REPOST: THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE?

There's a time in every young person's life when they assume, without ever really thinking about it, that they're not only invincible but also immortal.  Usually it's around the teenage years and early 20s when we labour under this delusion, and I have to confess that I was no exception. When we're young, we think we're going to be young forever, and old age and death seem so distant as to be unimaginable.  Then one day we wake up and realise that, not only are we 'over the hill', we're also actually halfway down the other side and somebody has cut the brakes.  What's more, we don't even recall getting to the top of that hill to begin with.  Shouldn't we at least remember the view?

When we're young the world is ours for the taking, and everything seems geared towards us and runs in perfect synchronicity with the pace of our lives.  Then, one day, it dawns on us that we're no longer participants in life's race, but merely observers, sitting on the sidelines, watching younger people revelling in a world that appears to have been created exclusively for them.  How one can be relegated to the benches without being aware of when it happened is a bit of a mystery, but trust me, that's the way things go.

Now, believe me when I say that I'm not the kind of person who revels in anyone's death, but I sometimes wonder if younger people's untimely expiration is Nature's way of reassuring us 'oldies' that being young isn't necessarily an indication of being accorded favoured status, and that, young or old, we're all equally subject to termination at short (or even no) notice.  If being 20 is no guarantee we'll reach 50, then perhaps 50-year-olds shouldn't feel so threatened by the passage of time as they do.  Life's a lottery and our numbers can come up at any moment.  Not quite a 'lucky dip' - but you get the point, I'm sure.

I feel that I should somehow find the above notion reassuring, but for some reason I remain unconvinced.  How about you?

******

Harvest Gate

                                           I lingered by a gate a little while

                                           and watched some children play in fields of green.

                                           Their joyous voices gave me cause to smile

                                           and filled my troubled soul with thoughts serene.

                                           If only I could once again be young

                                           and join them in their happy escapades,

                                           then all my years would be a song well-sung

                                           and I could claim I've lived my life in spades.

                                           But as I leave the gate, my mood turns low,

                                           the chills of age envelop my frail frame.

                                           I know I haven't very long to go

                                           'til he who wields the sickle calls my name.

                                           But I have lived and loved, both lost and won

                                           and now the course of my life's race is run.

(Iain Osborne.)   

BABE Of The DAY - BARBARA MULLEN...

Who remembers BARBARA

MULLEN who played housekeeper

JANET in Dr. FINLAY's CASEBOOK

back in the 1960s?  "But Janet was an old

woman!" I hear you all cry.  True, but she

wasn't always old, and was quite a 'Babe'

in your father's day.  (No, Crivvies - it

 definitely isn't April 1st.)

BITCHIN' 'BOUT THE KITCHEN...

When I was a kid, kitchens had their own sort of 'feel' to them.  What's more, all of the kitchens in all (well, almost all) of the houses I lived in had exactly the same ambience.  There were two porcelain sinks side-by-side, one bigger and deeper than the other, in order to accommodate washing.  Not washing dishes - washing as in laundry.  I'm ancient, remember, and most of the houses I've lived in were built before washing machines were a common appliance in most domiciles.

There was also often a larder or pantry for storing food, as well as cupboards and drawers and all the usual trappings of a kitchen.  Every house I ever inhabited but one (built in the early 1980s) also had a clothes-airer attached to the kitchen ceiling for hanging laundry to dry, which was lowered and raised by a cord and pulley system.  When I flitted from one house to another, the kitchen always had the same 'feel' about it; the same 'mood', the same ambience.

The first kitchen of ours to have a stainless steel sink was in a new-built house we moved into in 1983.  This was also the first kitchen to have a slightly different feel to it than previous ones, on account of having up-to-date (for the time) cupboards and work-tops, instead of the 1950s and '60s style ones we were accustomed to.  It also had a dining area within the kitchen rather than in the living-room.  It was also the first one without a clothes-airer on the ceiling.

Today, in my present house, the kitchen is relatively modern and doesn't have that same feeling as of old, on account of not having the same fittings it did when I and my family first lived here in the '70s.  (We lived in the same house twice, with a gap of just over four years in between.)  I don't know about anyone else, but I really miss that old atmosphere that kitchens had when I was younger.  Everything nowadays is too spick-and-span and high-tech, and looks like the sort of kitchen JAMES BOND would have.

Tell you one thing for sure: the first time I see one of those overhead clothes-airers anywhere, I'm nabbing it for my kitchen, just to try and restore part of that familiar feeling of old which I miss so much.  What about the rest of you?  Any other Criv-ites feel the same?

******

Update: Managed to get a clothes airer in HOME BARGAINS a little while ago, but haven't found time to fit it yet.  Won't be too much longer hopefully.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - MADELINE SMITH...

MADELINE SMITH looks a tad

apprehensive as I approach her with a

romantic glint in my eye, though actually

she's just taken aback 'cos she's never seen

one quite so large.  (The enormous bunch

of flowers I'm holding, you dirty-minded

 Crivs.  Kindly behave yourselves.)

THEY CALLED HIM 'RAGS' - EDMUND VANCE COOKE...

                                            

                                           We called him 'Rags'.  He was just a cur,

                                           But twice, on the Western Line,

                                           That little old bunch of faithful fur

                                           Had offered his life for mine.

                                           And all that he got was bones and bread,

                                           Or the leavings of soldier grub,

                                           But he'd give his heart for a pat on the head,

                                           Or a friendly tickle and rub.

                                           And Rags got home with the regiment,

                                           And then, in the breaking away -

                                           Well, whether they stole him, or whether he went,

                                           I am not prepared to say.

                                           But we mustered out, some to beer and gruel,

                                           And some to sherry and shad,

                                           And I went back to the Sawbones School,

                                           Where I still was an undergrad.

                                           One day they took us budding M.D.s

                                           To one of those institutes

                                           Where they demonstrate every new disease

                                           By means of bisected brutes.

                                           They had one animal tacked and tied

                                           And slit like a full-dressed fish,

                                           With his vitals pumping away inside

                                           As pleasant as one might wish.

                                           I stopped to look like the rest, of course,

                                           And the beast's eyes levelled mine;

                                           His short tail thumped with a feeble force,

                                           And he uttered a tender whine.

                                           It was Rags, yes, Rags! who was martyred there,

                                           Who was quartered and crucified,

                                           And he whined that whine which is doggish prayer

                                           And he licked my hand - and died.

                                           And I was no better in part nor whole

                                           Than the gang I was found among,

                                           And his innocent blood was on the soul

                                           Which he blessed with his dying tongue.

                                           Well I've seen men go to courageous death

                                           In the air, on sea, on land!

                                           But only a dog would spend his breath

                                           In a kiss for his murderer's hand.

                                           And if there's no heaven for love like that,

                                           For such four-legged fealty - well!

                                           If I have any choice, I tell you flat,

                                           I'll take my chance in hell.

YOU GOTTA LAUGH...

Go on, you know you're dying to say it - a bit like my

    once-current experiences have become on this blog.    

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND...

Okay, so after the pic of JANE RUSSELL

in the previous post, you may be left wondering

"Just what in blazes does Kid see in her?"  Well,

let me show you.  I find this seriously sexy!

BABE Of The DAY - JANE RUSSELL...

JANE RUSSELL is a top

'Babe' - that's why she's wearing

 a topper!  ('Hats' all, folks!)

TEDDY BEAR - ROBERT W. SERVICE...

                                       

                                             O Teddy Bear!  with your head awry

                                             And your comical twisted smile,

                                             You rub your eyes - do you wonder why

                                             You've slept such a long, long while?

                                             As you lay so still in the cupboard dim,

                                             And you heard on the roof the rain,

                                             Were you thinking... what has become of him?

                                             And when will he play again?

                                             Do you sometimes long for a chubby hand,

                                             And a voice so sweetly shrill?

                                             O Teddy Bear!  don't you understand

                                             Why the house is awf'ly still?

                                             You sit with your muzzle propped on your paws,

                                             And your whimsical face askew.

                                             Don't wait, don't wait for your friend... because

                                             He's sleeping and dreaming too.

                                             Aye, sleeping long...... you remember how

                                             He stabbed our heart with his cries?

                                             And oh, the dew of pain on his brow,

                                             And the deeps of pain in his eyes!

                                             And, Teddy Bear! you remember, too,

                                             As he sighed and sank to his rest,

                                             How all of a sudden he smiled to you,

                                             And he clutched you close to his breast.

                                             I'll put you away, little Teddy Bear,

                                             In the cupboard far from my sight;

                                             Maybe he'll come and he'll kiss you there,

                                             A wee white ghost in the night.

                                             But me, I'll live with my love and pain

                                             A weariful lifetime through;

                                             And my hope: will I see him again, again?

                                             Ah, God!  If I only knew!

PART FORTY-SIX Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - BATMAN #320...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Dug out some old BATMAN comics recently, after reading my TALES Of The BATMAN, GENE COLAN volume.  When my eyes gazed upon the above cover, images of my bedroom in another house popped into my mind, and I mentally dated it circa 1984.  You can imagine my surprise when I read the indicia and saw that it was, in fact, an early 1980 mag that went on sale (in America at least) in late 1979.  So how the heck did I get it so wrong?

As regular readers will know, I've lived in my current abode twice.  The first period was between 1972 and '83, and the second period from 1987 to the present.  As it was during my first 'term in office' when I bought the above mag, I should mainly associate it with this dwelling and not the one in between.  I can only assume that for some forgotten reason, something caused the cover to impress itself upon my subconscious mind while browsing through my comics collection in that other room one evening, and supplanted my earlier memories of when I first got it.

However, I suppose there's always a slim chance I didn't acquire the comic until a few years after it first came out, and that I bought it in '84 to fill a gap in my collection.  I considered that possibility, but a vestigial memory of owning it in this house before I flitted yet persists, though my later association now appears to be the primary one.  (At least, it does today - that might not be the case tomorrow.) I always find it disconcerting when that happens, as I tend to use comics as signposts to various points in my life and I hate it when there's a blip in the process.

Have you ever looked at an old comic and recalled the place, the month, or the year you bought it, only to find upon checking the date on the cover (or in the indicia) that your recollection is off and that you couldn't possibly have bought or owned it where or when you thought you did?  Tell all in the comments section.  In the meantime, take a look at the pretty pics on offer.