CADET'S STINGRAY SWEET CIGARETTE CARDS - PART THREE...

Copyright relevant owner

Time once again, Crivvies, for some more STINGRAY cards from sweet cigarette makers CADET.  I don't know who the artist is, but he's done a superb job of capturing the mood of the programme.  Considering that kids in the 1960s would've only seen the show in black & white, these cards would've made more of an impact for being in colour, as along with the strip in TV CENTURY 21, they were just about the only way (as well as a few toys) viewers could see TROY TEMPEST and his craft and crew outside of their monochrome TV broadcast.  (Even though the show was shot in colour.)

Don't miss part four, Stingray-lovers.

BABE Of The DAY - YVONNE CRAIG...

Is there no end to YVONNE

CRAIG's talents?  Here she shows off

her world-famous impression of the letter

'X'.  She certainly has tons of  X-appeal,

wouldn't you agree, Crivvies?

NARROWING HORIZONS - YES, YOUR WORLD IS GETTING SMALLER...

Before...

I've written before about how, when visiting previous neighbourhoods where I once lived, I'd often feel that, if lost in thought, I could absent-mindedly walk up the path of any of my former homes, insert my key in the lock, and enter to find everything just as it was in my day.  It'd feel like the most natural thing in the world if it were so.

There's one old home where that illusion is becoming difficult to maintain though, due to the many significant changes, deletions and additions to the surrounding environs.  Fields vanished, schools and churches demolished (and rebuilt in a different style), more houses crammed into seemingly ever-narrowing streets, etc.

...after

Click to enlarge

Were I to sit in the living-room, I'm sure I'd be able to mentally recapture the mood of the place as it was when I resided there, but it would be a gossamer, temporary effect, which would dissolve whenever I looked out of a window at a changing terrain, in many ways dramatically different to how it was back in my day in the  '60s and early '70s.

The same thing is happening where I currently live.  There was once a quiet stretch of road between the top and bottom of the hill on which my house is situated, but new houses and flats are being erected, the result of which will be to congest a formerly open and spacious area, and destroy any remnant of a once expansive view from the top of the road.  It's called 'progress', so I'm told.

Before...

So why does 'progress' so often ruin that which seems already ideal?  Horizons are narrowing, dreams are diminishing, and hope is faltering.  The world is closing in around us, robbing us of space and sky, and vistas of distant kingdoms that once held us in their thrall.  The world is getting smaller, my friends, and soon there won't be enough personal space for anyone.

"Oh give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above - don't fence me in" run the lyrics of an old song.  Too late, alas!  It won't be too long 'til the last fence post is planted, and the final nail hammered in.  Prepare to kiss your far horizons goodbye.

...after

Click to enlarge

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL ART...

Copyright REBELLION

Just for the sheer hell of it, here's a stunning illustration by DON LAWRENCE, featuring characters from The TRIGAN EMPIRE.  For the full effect, click to enlarge, then click again.  (Note that there's something wrong with the old fella's left hand pointing at the city.  It's not up to the standard of the rest of the picture.)

******

And below is the book you'll surely be wanting to track down on eBay so you can have your own copy of the above endpapers, as well as the origins of The Trigan Empire.  Published by HAMLYN in 1978, it's a book well-worth having.   Good hunting. 

BABE Of The DAY - LINDA THORSON...

Cor!  Someone's whipped off LINDA

THORSON's top!  Don't fret, Linda, you

shall be avenged!  (Once I've had a good

long look, that is.  Can you blame me?)

HURRICANE ANNUAL 1965-'74 COVER GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

HURRICANE is another example of a British weekly periodical that was outlived by its Annual.  The comic went on sale in February 1964 (cover-dated 29th) and merged into TIGER after only 63 issues in May 1965.  The Annual, however, lasted to the '74 edition (issued near the end of '73), a whole eight years after the demise of the comic.  Here, then, are all ten Annual covers of a short-lived British weekly that is still fondly-remembered by readers of the time.

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

Here's awesome JULIE EGE

doing what she does best - looking

gorgeous.  I'm off-frame, doing what I

do best, drooling at the mouth.  (It comes

naturally to me, you won't be surprised

to learn.)  Isn't that a nice little some-

 thing Julie's almost wearing?! 

THE GHOST-WHO-WALKS (OR: YOU'RE TOO OLD FOR PHARAOH TALES)...

The PHANTOM copyright KING FEATURES SYNDICATE, Inc 

Comics creators who contributed to CHARLTON COMICS were allowed a freedom that wasn't accorded by other comicbook companies.  Charlton were reputed to pay the lowest page rates in the business, but writers felt compensated by the lack of editorial 'interference' that was par for the course at MARVEL and DC (and doubtless other comics publishing companies as well).

So, good for the writers and maybe even the artists, but that didn't always necessarily translate into a superior product for the readers.  Case in point: The PHANTOM #32, published in 1969.  The plot involves a fake Pharaoh Phantom who seeks to usurp the position of the true 'Ghost-Who-Walks'.  Strangely though, the other Phantom is in Egypt, not Bengali, where the genuine Phantom has his jungle kingdom.

It's an entertaining enough little tale.  A royal sarcophagus is discovered during an excavation in Egypt's Valley Of Kings.  The lid is pried open and a mummified figure is exposed, who soon magically unravels and is revealed as The Pharaoh Phantom, who declares the real Phantom to be an imposter.  By use of seemingly supernatural means, the fake performs impressive displays of power that puts the genuine article deep in the shade.

As you can see in the accompanying pages, he's eventually exposed as the fraud he is, but - wait a minute - no explanation is ever given as to how he managed to plant himself in that sealed sarcophagus in a closed burial chamber to begin with.  His magical images from the past are shown to be the result of a projector on a screen, but just how did he manage to create these filmed images?  A huge budget would surely be required, and if they were merely extracted from a movie, it would be obvious.  I'm sure that most readers would've liked to know how he accomplished it, and have found the story more rewarding as a result.

STAN LEE, I'm sure, wouldn't have let this story pass without these aspects being explained, but whoever edited this issue obviously thought such things unimportant.  I disagree.  Creative freedom is all very well, but it's no excuse for laziness.  The readers deserve better, and had Charlton insisted that their writers put in a little more effort (and paid them better), the company might yet be around today.  Verdict?  Charlton produced lightweight, entertaining comics, but they could have done far better.

Got a view on the matter?  The comments section awaits.

PART TWO Of CADET'S STINGRAY SWEET CIGARETTE CARDS...

Copyright relevant owner

Y'know, it's an odd thing, but I associate the 21st century more with the mid-'60s than I do with the present day.  That's doubtless because I, like many kids of the time, was exposed to the 21st century through the TV puppet programmes of GERRY ANDERSON, the pages of TV CENTURY 21, and various other items of SUPERMARIONATION merchandise.

I don't especially remember having the sweet cigarette cards by CADET - certainly not the full set of them, though I may've had a few, but one look at them takes me right back to 1964 and forward to 2064 at the same time.  That's because the images are so strongly associated in my mind with those times, that even though I may not have had the cards, it seems that I did.

However, that's neither here nor there - you Crivs are here to see the cards, not read nostalgic nonsense about my childhood.  So feel free - paste your peepers to the pulsating pictures laid before you.  The comments section awaits your input.

BABE Of The DAY - MICHELLE KEEGAN...

Here's MICHELLE KEEGAN,

again frolicking on the seashore after

I returned the titanic temptress to just

 where I found 'er a few posts back.

 (Welcome to the world of my imagination.)

SECRET ORIGINS COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Nope, hadn't forgotten, even if it has been around three months since the first two parts in this series of SECRET ORIGINS cover galleries.  So let's not waste another second of boring intro from me, let's get straight into the pretty piccies.  (Before we do though, what about that DOLL MAN?  Somebody surely must have been high when they came up with that stinker of a name.  I can't see criminals trembling at the sound of it.  Laughing, yes - trembling, no.)