LEGENDS Of The SUPERHEROES - BLECCCHHHHH!!!

Characters copyright DC COMICS

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but ADAM WEST and BURT WARD reprised their BATMAN and ROBIN roles more than once over the years, and not just for cartoons either.  In 1979, they appeared alongside other DC heroes and villains in a couple of TV Specials called - wait for it - LEGENDS Of The SUPERHEROES.

The other heroes were CAPTAIN MARVEL, The FLASH, The HUNTRESS, BLACK CANARY, GREEN LANTERN, and HAWKMAN, while the super villains were MORDRU, SOLOMON GRUNDY, The RIDDLER (yup, Mr. FRANK GORSHIN), The WEATHER WIZARD, Dr. SIVANA, SINESTRO, and GIGANTA.

The ATOM and AUNT MINERVA turned up in the second Special, but I have to be honest and say both episodes are excruciatingly awful, and you should all count yourselves lucky if you've never seen them.  Shot on videotape, with a laugh-track (yup, they're meant to be funny - but aren't) these two low-budget shows are the way not to do superheroes.  And here's why:

You never see The Flash run, Hawkman fly (or even flap his wings) and Green Lantern merely points his power ring at himself and disappears.  Captain Marvel does a spot of flying, but it's a poorly executed piece of back (or maybe front - what do I know?) projection for a few seconds.  You have to hand it to Adam West for throwing himself into things, but he really should have tucked the neck of his mask inside his cape, like in the '60s TV show.

Take it from me, you can safely give these two shows a miss - unless you're a diehard fan of 'car-crash' TV.  They're both genuinely execrable, though the second one, The ROAST, is even worse than the first, The CHALLENGE.  I suppose if there's anyone you really hate, you could give them this as a present, secure in the knowledge that they'll lose the will to live while watching it.

But no - that would surely be too cruel!  (Remember the rumours of torture at GUANTANAMO BAY?  They were true - they showed this DVD to the detainees.)

"WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO ALL YOUR STUFF WHEN YOU DIE, DADDY?"

I sometimes find myself worrying about what will happen to my massive collection of toys, comics and books when I fall off the twig in around 100 years or so (I'm not planning on going early or easily).  Will I ever get around to establishing a museum of childhood, or will all my stuff end up in charity shops or dustbins?  It's a bit like being a parent and having to think about making provisions for your children when you're not here.

Are you a proud collector?  What would you like to have happen to your beloved treasures when you eventually have to cast off this mortal coil?  None of the "I'll be dead so I don't care" cop-outs; what would be the ideal fate of all your material companions through life that would allow you to bow out with the assurance that they'd be cared for and cherished after you've gone exploring in that 'final frontier' ?

And what's the absolute gem of your collection, the one item that, if everything else was jettisoned by your heirs, you'd breathe a little easier in the hereafter (if there is one - and if you can breathe) so long as it survived and was looked after and appreciated by its new owner?  Too difficult a question?  Okay, you can pick three items.  So what are they?  Reveal all in the captivating comments section, Criv-ite chums.

TRIVAGO BABE Of The DAY - GABRIELLE MILLER...

Here's GABBY - what

 more do you want?

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: CAPTAIN AMERICA #106 - "CAP GOES WILD!"

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Always liked this cover.  True, JACK KIRBY's more abstract style was becoming more prominent by this time, but no one can deny that this image has impact!  If you don't have this mag, you're probably unaware that Cap's fighting a Life Model Decoy of himself (STEVE ROGERS), but the LMD has certain advantages that the real Star-Spangled AVENGER doesn't, making it an uneven battle!  So who wins?  You'll have to read the issue to find out, 'cos my lips are sealed.  Reprinted in the new CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION Volume 2 - on sale now!

BABE Of The DAY - MICHELLE KEEGAN...

Amazing the stuff you find lying on the

beach while taking a stroll along the seashore.

Nobody wanted her, so I just took her home with

me.  (Well, 'finders keepers' innit?)  Says her name

is MICHELLE KEEGAN and babbles on about

some place called 'Weatherfield', though I've

 no idea what she's talking about.

STRANGE TALES COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

In 1975, MARVEL decided to reprint Dr. STRANGE in the mag where he'd first appeared - STRANGE TALES.  The reprints lasted for seven issues, each featuring two stories, though some of the continued tales were edited into one, omitting up to two pages in the process.  This resulted in an adventure consisting of 60 pages in total being reduced to 50.  In #183, the Dr. Strange 'half' of #130's cover (by JACK KIRBY) was enlarged and used as the full cover, making this ish the only one of the seven to reuse a '60s cover image.  (The others sported new art.)  Here then is a look back at a brief time in the sizzlin' '70s - enjoy!

RECOMMENDED READING: CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION VOLUME TWO...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Ooh, here's a great big beauty of a book for you - CAPTAIN AMERICA EPIC COLLECTION Volume 2.  With artwork by KIRBY, STERANKO, COLAN, ROMITA, and BUSCEMA, that sure is a roll-call of some heavy duty illustrators contained within the covers of a single softcover tome.  If you bought the first volume, then you'll definitely want to add this second one to your collection.  Now, which establishments would stock a book like this?  That's a tough one.  Wait a minute - I know!  All good comics shops and bookstores of course.

RECOMMENDED READING: DOCTOR STRANGE OMNIBUS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Do I need this book?  I've already got the stories.  I've got a few original issues of STRANGE TALES, various reprints in MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS, MARVEL TALES, and MARVEL MASTERWORKS, etc.  So I already have all the stories - several times over.

But hey, it's STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO, it's DOCTOR STRANGE, it's a great big deluxe hardback OMNIBUS volume - of course I need this book!  And so do you, so buy one as soon as you can!  And remember these immortal words - "May your amulet never tickle!"

BABE Of The DAY - LYNDA CARTER...

Here's WONDER WOMAN

without her striking costume - the

 stunning LYNDA CARTER.

RECOMMENDED READING: The ADVENTURES Of The FLY...

Images copyright relevant owners

Once, in an alternate universe, JACK KIRBY showed a SPIDERMAN (no hyphen) logo by JOE SIMON to STAN LEE, and pitched to him the idea for a superhero who'd been rechristened The SILVER SPIDER before metamorphosing into The FLY.  In this alternate universe, STEVE DITKO did not advise Stan of the similarity of Spiderman to The Fly, and MARVEL's newest character got his wings clipped, either as a result of poor sales or a plagiarism lawsuit from rivals RED CIRCLE/ARCHIE COMICS.

At least, that's what could've happened if we're to believe a dissenting account of the events that led to SPIDER-MAN's creation.  We'll never know for sure whether it's true or not, but imagine PETER PARKER as a teenager who rubs a magic ring to transform into his alter-ego and you have an idea just how different things might've been in the Marvel Universe of the '60s.

Which brings me to this softcover book from 2004 which someone kindly gifted to me recently.  It contains the first four issues of The Fly, produced by Simon & Kirby (with others) before the duo quit the title.  The tales are simple, unsophisticated fare from an era when comicbooks were aimed squarely at kids, but they have their own distinct charm that makes the collection worth owning.  Though after reading the book, it reminded me just what an immense contribution Stan Lee made to the comicbook biz, something for which we should all be eternally grateful.

Some of the art and lettering restoration is a little dodgy, with at least one story appearing more like a tracing than a reprinting, but that aside, it's still an interesting look back at an earlier time in US four-colour comicbook history.  I imagine you'd be able to track down a copy on eBay or Amazon without too much difficulty or too great an expense.  Get hunting!

Ah, yes - how different things could have been indeed!

  

No 'Wide Angle Scream' in this ish apparently

Why no lettering?  Is it a reprint oversight or how it first appeared?

RECOMMENDED READING: COMIC BOOK FEVER...

Images copyright TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING

A book you may enjoy is COMIC BOOK FEVER by GEORGE KHOURY, which celebrates comics from 1976 to 1986.  To be honest, my impression was that some chapters are stretched pretty thin as far as written content goes, with the author saying something because he has a book to fill, rather than because he has something interesting to say, but the visual images and chapters containing comments from comicbook stalwarts (like JOHN ROMITA and SAL BUSCEMA, etc.) compensate for this occasional inadequacy somewhat.

Anyway, read the back cover spiel and make up your own minds.  You could certainly spend your money in worse ways.  Available at all good comicbook shops and (I think) bookstores.

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - JULIE EGE...

JULIE EGE gives me 'the eye' as

I strut around in my toga in the movie

version of 'UP POMPEI'.  Of course, I

wasn't in the completed film as I finished

up on the cutting room floor.  However,

Julie was under me at the time, so it'd

 be churlish of me to complain.

GIANT-SIZE POWER MAN #1 (1975)...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

POWER MAN, as all true MARVELITES know, was the name of a villain who fought The AVENGERS in #s 21 & 22 of their own mag back in the '60s.  However, in the '70s, the name was dusted down and applied to LUKE CAGE's superhero alter-ego, a mercenary HERO FOR HIRE, who wasn't necessarily spurred to random acts of goodness merely out of a sense of altruism like most other characters in the superhero 'business'.

I never quite understood why black heroes usually had the word 'black' prefixed to their names, as if we needed to be made aware of the fact.  (BLACK GOLIATH, BLACK LIGHTNING*, etc.)  We had eyes, didn't we?  It was different with The BLACK PANTHER, as the word referred to the colour of his costume, not his skin, but I'm so glad Luke Cage wasn't called Black Power Man, as that would've been simply silly.

(*Black Lightning, of course, is a DC COMICS hero.)

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me - enjoy some pages from the first (and perhaps only - anyone know?) issue of his own Giant-Size reprint mag from 1975.  Did you own this ish?  Then let's hear from you in the comments section.

  

BABE Of The DAY - ELKE SOMMER...

ELKE SOMMER is practising

hypnotism.  "Look into my eyes" she

trills, seductively.  H'm, kind of difficult

in that revealing outfit, luv - go and put

 on a cardie and cover yourself up.

"THIS TIME - - THING MUST DIE!" (OR: 'NEW FOR OLD')...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

It was a pleasantly sunny afternoon in 1979, probably in June or July.  I was working in my town's central library back then, and had become pally with a summer worker who was also a comics fan.  We'll call him Bob Billens to spare his blushes should he ever see this, and we'd been sent out by our 'library masters' to collect overdue books from houses around the town.

During our break, we'd driven along to his in-laws' house where he and his wife were then staying and, while sipping tea in the back garden, he showed me some of his comics collection.  He even gave me a few which were surplus to his requirements.  (I'd given him some of mine on a previous occasion, so he was merely reciprocating my friendly, generous gesture.)

Among the five or six comics he gave me (all MARVEL, as he wasn't so much a fan of their mags as he was of DC) was The FANTASTIC FOUR #111, wherein The THING meets The HULK.  I eventually cut out the final two panel tier of the last page and affixed it to my bedroom wall, where it remained until my family moved to another house in 1983.

Then it went up on the wall of my new bedroom for a few years, until we returned to our former residence in 1987, whereupon it resumed its previous place on the wall.  And there it stayed 'til the early hours of this morning, when I replaced it with a duplicate of the tier, scanned from a replacement copy of the comic acquired quite a few years back now.

It was time, you see.  The original had rippled and faded after 35-plus years stuck to a wall, and my room had taken on a distinctly 'aged' appearance.  The new picture is brighter and whiter, and adds a much-needed splash of colour to the room.  Still, I'm not exactly comfortable in disposing of something that's been part of the decor for a significant proportion of my 'adult' life, and I feel a bit of a callous b*st*rd for doing so.  Surely it deserved far better consideration for its many years of faithful and uncomplaining service?

So far, I've replaced six browned and faded pictures and intend to do more from time to time until nothing looks old.  It'll be good to once again see white margins surrounding these pictorial presentations which adorn the wall, looking just as fresh and new as the day they were printed.  If there were only some way of rejuvenating the originals I'd do it, but substitution with a 'double' seems my only option.

Anyway, what's done is done and, in time, maybe I'll eventually forget that the doppelgangers in my room aren't the originals and delude myself that they're the ones that have always been there.  Still, it'll be a while before I can look at the fresh, flat, bright, new incarnation of that old picture and not feel guilty for so cruelly abandoning its predecessor.

I try and console myself with the thought that at least its image yet graces its accustomed spot on the wall, and hopefully will still be there in another 35 or so years.  Whether I'll still be  around then is, of course, far more open to question.  

BABE Of The DAY - LINDA THORSON...

Here's lovely LINDA THORSON

telling me to get my kecks off so she can

chuckle at my YOGI BEAR boxer shorts.

I wish now I'd never lent her my new water

pistol.  (Er, that is the water pistol I lent

 you, isn't it, Linda?  Please say it is.)

TOUCHING A NERVE - The MIGHTY ONE... (Updated)

Images copyright REBELLION

"Kid Robson is a tall, handsome, articulate, windswept and interesting Scotsman who is easily the best lettering artist ever to work in comics.  And he also wears lovely trousers!" are words that you won't see in STEVE MacMANUS's new book, 'The MIGHTY ONE'.   Stevie Mac was the editor of 2000 A.D. who offered me work at a Glasgow comic mart in 1984, and is therefore the man responsible for unleashing me on the world of U.K. comics for 15 years (so blame him).

I acquired the book in Glasgow today and began reading it on the journey home, starting at the chapter relating the events of Steve's working life in 1985, as that's when I began my freelancing lettering career for 2000 A.D.  I've now worked my way through the beginning and have only a few middle chapters to go.  It's an engaging enough read, but I think it'll be of more interest to former and current comics pros, and avid (but ever-dwindling) 2000 A.D. fans than casual readers.

Comics editors aren't generally well-known outside of professional circles, so Steve's name alone probably won't be a huge draw (yeah, I know - nor would mine), but his association with 2000 A.D. will be sure to attract some attention, and he certainly deserves a nod of recognition for his many years of dedicated service to British comics after all this time.

Surprisingly, only six pages into the first chapter, Steve mistakenly identifies LEO BAXENDALE as the creator of DENNIS The MENACE, when, as every true fan knows, it was writer IAN CHISOLM and artist DAVEY LAW.  Some times even editors need an editor - that right, Steve?  (Hey, I'd have been happy to do it - and for nothing too!)

Don't let that put you off though.  If you're a 2000 A.D. fan, you're sure to enjoy the backstory to 'The Galaxy's Greatest Comic!'  Buy a copy today - only £9.99. 

******

Steve relates a tale about meeting someone who showed him lettering samples at Glasgow's The ROYAL STUART HOTEL in 1982.  However, that was me, and it took place in The MITCHEL LIBRARY (MOIR HALL) in October of '84.  Unless, of course, the same conversation occurred on two different occasions, but I'd consider it unlikely.