"BY KRYPTON! I FEEL LIKE A PIZZA!"

Images copyright DC COMICS

Back in 1977, PIZZA HUT had some kind of promotion which offered two reprints each of SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and WONDER WOMAN comicbooks - six in all.  I possess the two Superman issues (#s 96 & 113), which are almost identical to the originals, apart from the paid advertising and size of the mags, which were the same as then-modern comics and not the size of the 1950s mags they were reprinted from.

I don't know the details of how customers obtained the mags (whether they had to send away for them or got them in store), but they're nice little items and I thought you might like a 'taste' of them.  Here's #97, I'll post #113 later today. Anyone got the Batman and Wonder Woman issues?

   

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

What teenage lad didn't lust after

stunning MADELINE SMITH back in

the 1970s?  Why, I even once watched a full

episode of TERRY & JUNE because Maddie

was in it.  Now that's dedication.  (So forget

what ROY CASTLE warbled on RECORD

 BREAKERS - he understated it.)

RECOMMENDED READING: STAR TREK - THE CLASSIC UK COMICS VOLUME TWO...

Copyright relevant owner

Back on September 25th 1971, TV21 ceased to be a separate entity after over six and a half years and was absorbed by VALIANT (cover-dated October 2nd), a comic that had been in continuous publication since 1962.  And so ended a legend in British weekly periodicals, as TV21 had, in its heyday, been the best-selling comic for children by an extremely wide margin, and whose sales (at their height) have probably never been equalled even to this day. 

I'd been buying Valiant ever since SMASH! had been merged into it back on April 3rd of that year, and was immediately taken with the STAR TREK colour centrespread strip, one of only two (if I rightly remember) to carry over from TV21.  (The other one being The TUFFS Of TERROR ISLAND.)  The art on PARAMOUNT's TV hit, by JOHN STOKES, had nice, clean storytelling and captured the likenesses of the main actors in a way not all previous artists had been able to.

The pages were sheer quality and a visual treat to the eyes.  I'm fortunate enough to own several issues, including the first three, and it's always a pleasure to look again at these strips whenever I dig out the comics for a self-indulgent nostalgia-fest, wherein I travel back in time faster than a member of the Starship ENTERPRISE.  Now, however, I have this brilliant new book by IDW to make that trip easier, the second of a three volume set (got the first one, the third isn't out yet) reprinting all the U.K. Star Trek strips ever published.

The reproduction is amazingly crisp and clear, and if you're a Star Trek fan, or a lover of British comics, you're sure to be bowled over by this handsome, hardback volume, containing not just Valiant strips, but also ones from TV21 and its Annuals.  Available now from all good comics shops and bookstores.  (Roll on the third and final volume in the series.)

Definitely a 'must have' item for discerning collectors.

Below - the cover of the first combined issue of Valiant & TV21.  (Not in the book.  Update: it's in Volume 3 though.)

And below, from the third issue, comes the Star Trek strip.  This is scanned from the actual comic - believe it or not, I think it looks better (cleaner and sharper) in the IDW volume.

BABE Of The DAY - JENNIFER BEALS...

JENNIFER BEALS is here to brighten up

our day, Crivs, though don't ask me what she's doing

... apart from looking gorgeous obviously.  Something

that comes easy no doubt.  (It does to me!)

RECOMMENDED READING: JACK KIRBY PENCILS AND INKS...

Copyright relevant owner

Here's a book that all fans of JACK KIRBY will be sure to love, featuring stats of Jack's original pencils from the first issues of The DEMON, KAMANDI, and OMAC, alongside the finished inked pages by MIKE ROYER.  Mike tended to ink Kirby like Kirby, so the comparison is probably not as revealing as it would have been with VINCE COLLETTA inked issues, but it's still a volume well-worth having on your bookshelf.  Waiting for you at your local comics shop now!  (So what are you waiting for?) 

CRIVENS' PAGEVIEWS AT RECORD LEVELS...

Genuine un-retouched screen-grab - oh yes it is!

Despite daily hits being down by over half these last few days (no doubt due to folk being busy at this time of year), this humble blog still managed to achieve a record best of 65,500 pageviews over the month.  (And that's without the benefit of Google Plus.)

Guess some folk must like what I'm doing, eh?

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I'm currently deriving immense satisfaction from the fact that some loser is so burned up by these stats that he denies the fact of them and accuses me of 'photoshopping' them.  I just can't stop smiling.  Wrong, loser, but thanks for letting me know how much the popularity of this blog annoys you.  It does me proud.  

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

Ah, whose heart doesn't race a

little faster on sight of the beautiful

KELLY BROOK?  Perfect face, perfect

figure - perfect woman!  All she needs

now is the perfect man, so she'll be

 glad to know I'm available!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL CRIV-ITES...

May 2017 be all plain sailing, and may you float through life

on a calm blue sea.  See you in the New Year, Criv-ite chums!

BABE Of The DAY - LINDA THORSON...

Behold, LINDA THORSON - doing

the worst VAL DOONICAN impression

 I've ever seen.  Lovely boots though.

YIPPEE! ANOTHER TWO PAGES FROM THE 1978 CHRISTMAS BEANO...

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

Okay, peeps, here's another couple of pages in our last post of

the 1978 Christmas BEANO issue.  Hopefully you've enjoyed the

half dozen strips featured in this short series, and maybe I'll show

some more next year.  Just wait until it comes though, don't go

wishing your life away.  I now declare these pages - open!

  

BABES Of The DAY - VALERIE LEON & MARGARET NOLAN...

Two Babes for the price of one today,

Crivs.  Voluptuous VALERIE & magnificent

MARGARET - both asking me (off-pic, lying

in my 'scratcher') if they can do anything for me.

Posing there in their scanties?  You bet there's

something they can do!  "Bring me a cuppa

tea and a biccie, luvs - I'm parched!"

RECOMMENDED READING: The THREE DOCTORS...

Copyright BBC BOOKS

No, not the '70s Dr. WHO TV serial storyline of that name, but the three FREDERICK MULLER books published back in the '60s.  BBC BOOKS have republished them with their original dustjackets, and very nice they look too, sitting on my bookshelf together.  If you're a Dr. Who fan, you'll want to have this trilogy of handsome volumes in your collection, so why not take a trip along to your local bookshop and buy them?

Go on, revisit The Doctor's past today!

******

Curiously, the original publisher, Frederick Muller, is named as Frederik Muller in these volumes.  Perhaps someone at 'BBC Books' was thinking of the bibliographer, book seller, and print collector who was born in 1817 and died in 1881, even though previous paperback editions had the 'correct' spelling.

BABE Of The DAY - DOLORES DONLON...

DOLORES DONLON is fearless.

We're in the middle of winter, yet she's

prancing around with an open cardigan

and risking catching a bad cold.  Should

she need someone to rub VICKS on

 her, er... chest, then I'm her man.

The NERVS At CHRISTMAS...

From SMASH! Incorporating FANTASTIC #158, December 28th 1968

Still in the spirit of the season, here's the Christmas episode of The NERVS from 1968 by KEN REID.  So when was the last time you you saw such a well-illustrated strip in a modern comic?  H'mm, you're having to think about that, aren't you?

KLASSIC CHRISTMAS KOMIC KOVERS - THOR & THE X-MEN #37...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

As far as I can remember, no British MARVEL mag of the '70s and '80s followed the U.K. tradition of having snow on the cover masthead before THOR & The X-MEN #37 was published, so this one's a collectors' item on that basis alone.  And having ICEMAN's head in the corner was another n-ice touch for a winter issue, don'tcha think?

(If I'm mistaken and there was a U.K. Marvel mag prior to this one with snow on the masthead, then let me know, frantic ones!)

BABE Of The DAY - JENNIFER BEALS...

Seriously sexy JENNIFER BEALS

makes her Crivens debut today, readers,

and all I can say is - "I'm in luuurve!"

KLASSIC CHRISTMAS KOMIC KOVERS - FANTASTIC #46...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

It's still within the Festive period, so here's the cover of the Christmas issue of one of the all-time great comics of yesteryear - FANTASTIC!  It was just over halfway through its short lifespan at this point, but readers weren't aware of that at the time.  In fact, it's unlikely that publishers ODHAMS PRESS knew either.

And look at the pic below: MARVEL, DC, and Odhams characters all on the one page.  Such a thing probably couldn't happen today, so savour this classic moment from 1967.

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS, DC COMICS, & relevant owner

SANTA CLAUS CAME TO TOWN - AND STAYED...

It was 1972 or '73, getting on towards Christmas.  I'd just acquired two different Santa 'cake toppers' from a shop called W. & R. HOLMES, which was one of the absolute best shops in my local town centre.  One of the Santas was on skis and was identical to one once given to me by a neighbour (ROBERT BAIRD) two or three years before when I lived in a different house in another area.

The second Santa was smaller and, unlike the other, was more of a 'cartoon'-type figure.  I had them both for a relatively short time before they vanished into the limbo that inevitably claims most items from our youth.  In 1977, a mere 4 or 5 years later, but seeming like a lifetime (after all, I'd gone from schoolboy to working man in that time), I obtained a replacement for that second Santa in a local shop (R. S. McCOLL's) across from where I worked.

When I was in Portsmouth in 1978 to be best man at a then-friend's wedding, I saw the same Santa in a newsagent's and bought it for my pal.  Why?  Because he'd been with me when I got the two Santas from W. & R. Holmes on that Saturday morning back in the early 1970s so it somehow seemed fitting (even though he probably didn't remember it).  Whether he kept it or not I have no idea, but I still have my 1977 replacement and it's been part of the Christmas decorations every year since then.  (That's 40 Christmases in case you're counting.)

So, in yet another self-indulgent fit of sentimental reminiscing, I decided to give you the backstory just so I'd have an excuse to show a photograph of that little Santa.  As you'll have guessed by now, that's him at the top of this post.  It takes me right back to that crisp Saturday morning in the early 1970s just looking at him.  Long may it be so.

Have you got an old Christmas decoration that you'd never part with?  Go on - tell us all about it.  

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

I think all cars should be fitted

with KELLY BROOK-shaped airbags.

Why?  'Cause crashing your car wouldn't

 be quite as awful as you'd expect.

SNOWMAN IN A COOL TIN BOX...

Remember when houses once had a floor-to-ceiling cupboard in the kitchen that served as a larder?  The kitchen of the house in which I now live used to have one, but it was removed when the property was refurbished back in the mid-1980s, when my family and myself were living somewhere else.  When we returned over four years later, the larder was gone.  Y'know what?  I miss it - it somehow gave the kitchen character.

In this larder used to be a tin, on the lid of which was a picture of a little boy sitting on a raft* in the middle of a river.  Beside the boy was a dog - a Scottie, I think.  The lad may've been HUCKLEBERRY FINN or TOM SAWYER, but he was definitely in that mould.  I wish I could find a replacement for that tin, as even just thinking about it returns me to a long-vanished era.

This tin (a biscuit tin) used to reside in a drawer in the kitchen of my previous house, and also, I'm sure, the kitchens of the two homes before that.  Then, I merely took it for granted, but in this house, it acquired the status of a link to my childhood, which is sort of what happens to most items that lay around for any length of time.  At first, they're just there and we're only dimly aware of them, but eventually, we somehow come to notice them more and grow to cherish them.

At least, that's how it is with me.  Like a lot of things, the tin eventually disappeared, and I have no idea how long it was after it's disposal before I first noticed its absence.  However, the tin is not the central point of this post; no, it's a little chalk 'snowman' that, after a few years as a Christmas decoration, was consigned to the tin when he eventually became a little the worse-for-wear.  That was the old tin's purpose you see - to store various items 'til they were required again (if ever).

Close to 30 years ago, I saw the snowman's twin in JOHN MENZIES, amongst an array of 'cake-toppers' on a shelf, and immediately snapped him up.  Like the tin, I can no longer recall (if I ever even knew) when the original vanished, but it may have been around the same time as the tin, which could've been the mid-to-late '70s.  So whenever I look at that snowman today, I'm reminded of past Christmases in four houses, as well as the tin which I'd dearly like to own again.

If you happen to have one of these tins, get in touch if you'd consider selling it.  That's the snowman at the top of the post, although, as he's got a flesh-coloured face, maybe he's meant to be an Eskimo kid in a snowsuit for all I know.  Anyway, I just felt like a bit of shameless reminiscing, so hopefully you'll forgive my self-indulgence.  Is there anything you miss from your youth that you'd like to own again?  (Aside from your youth, obviously.)  Tell your fellow Criv-ites.

******

(*Update:  And below is a picture of the tin.  As you can see, it's not a raft - it's a washtub, but I was right about the rest.  And thanks to eBay, I now own four of them in two different sizes.)

DEATH OF A PRINCESS... (Updated)

Just returned from the shops to learn that actress CARRIE FISHER has died.  Saw her on a couple of chat shows not that long ago, and it's hard to believe that she's now gone.  To paraphrase a well-known saying:  "May she be with the Source."

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Sadly, only a day or two after Carrie passed away, her mother, actress DEBBIE REYNOLDS, has also died.  Let's hope we can get into 2017 without losing any other celebrities, eh?  Such a shame.

RAMBLING REPOST: SOME OLD NEIGHBOURS DIE, OTHERS SIMPLY FADE AWAY...

Art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON, copyright DC COMICS

A few doors along from me used to live a woman whose name (for the purpose of this tale) was Mrs. SMITH.  Mrs. Smith and her three daughters were living there when my family moved into the area in 1972 and had presumably lived there for a good number of years before we had ever thought to do so.  In the fullness of time, her daughters married and moved out and Mrs. Smith lived in the house by herself.

About fifteen years ago, I would occasionally see Mrs. Smith's teenage granddaughter visiting her, but her health had started to fail so I never saw much of Mrs. Smith herself, apart from the very odd occasion when she was sweeping her front porch.  Then, around six years back, I noticed that the now adult granddaughter and her boyfriend seemed to be visiting Mrs. Smith quite a lot, if their frequent comings and goings were anything to go by.

And then one day the proverbial penny dropped.  Mrs. Smith's granddaughter and boyfriend weren't visiting, but actually living there, Mrs. Smith having moved out of the house and in with another of her daughters some months before without me having noticed.  And so it had come to pass that another long-time familiar face had disappeared from my everyday life without me ever getting to bid her a last goodbye.  (Not that she'd be concerned with that.)

I've no idea if Mrs. Smith is still alive or not, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that she expired a few years back, so frail had she become.  In the caverns of my mind are many people who were once everyday participants in my day-to-day life who I haven't seen in years, and, like Mrs. Smith, I have no idea whether they yet inhabit this mortal plane or left for parts unknown a good while ago.  Alive, dead, flitted, emigrated?  Who knows?

(UPDATE: I later learned that 'Mrs. Smith' passed away on Friday, November 1st, 2013 - twelve days after I first posted this.  Her house has now been sold to someone who lets it.)

What strikes me as odd is that it can be many months, sometimes even years, before we realise that we haven't seen 'so and so' for ages, and that part of the backdrop of our lives has been altered by their absence.  I often think of folk who once perambulated past my window on a daily basis that I haven't seen in years, and wonder where they are and (if alive) what they're doing now.  (Just where is the guy with the ill-fitting toupee, who my teenage self used to see making his way to and from the local pub every night?  He must've been one helluva fighter to stop his drinking buddies continually ripping the p*ss out of him, that's for sure.)

I remember sitting in a cafe in Southsea one day, back around 1985, and noticing an elderly gentleman with a pale film over one eye and a distinctly Karloffian-type face (as BERNIE WRIGHTSON would draw it), dressed in 1950s style clothes under a black overcoat.  I only ever saw him once, maybe twice, but every now and again, my mind jumps backwards and I wonder what became of him, simply because I associate him with Southsea and have fond memories of my time living there, over thirty years ago.  

When I'm gone, I wonder if anyone will one day ever wonder what happened to the guy with his German Shepherd dog, who faithfully traversed the neighbourhood in all weathers, and, without ever having known me, sort of miss me in the same way that they miss their childhood - simply because I was once a familiar (from afar), everyday part of it.

It would be nice to think so, but somehow I doubt it.  

HOORAY! MORE CHRISTMAS BEANO PAGES FROM 1978...

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

As promised, here's another couple of pages from the 1978 Christmas BEANO - ROGER The DODGER and The 3 BEARS. I'll post a couple more in a day or so, so don't be going anywhere or you'll miss 'em - and that would never do!  In the meantime, enjoy!  And if you had this issue as a kid, share your memories of it in our ever-lovin' comments section, why don'tcha?!

BABE Of The DAY - KELLY BROOK...

There's a couple of things about

the lovely KELLY BROOK that I like,

but I just can't put my finger on them -

(otherwise I'd likely be arrested).

THE RETURN OF DR. MYSTERIO - A SHORT 'REVIEW'...

So what the hell happened?  I actually enjoyed it this year.

The Doctor is still a tad too shouty-wouty and a bit too much

of a would-be stand up comedian for my tastes, but overall, it

was an entertaining little show.  Maybe the secret is not to

 expect too much, eh?  There - that short enough for you?