KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The INCREDIBLE HULK #5...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Have I shown this cover on its own before?  I don't care, I'm showing it again 'cos I love it.  I hope MARVEL do a facsimile edition of this issue.  In fact, it would be nice if they did all six - the first issue is out in October, and we've already had #6 in the form of a TRUE BELIEVERS comic mag.  Hey, Marvel, are you listening?  Do all six as individual facsimile issues please.  You know it makes sense.

TIME ALWAYS WINS - By A KNOCKOUT!

Copyright REBELLION

Increasingly, these days I often find myself as much dismayed and frustrated by things I can no longer remember as I'm surprised and grateful for the things I can.  Take the 1972 KNOCKOUT Holiday Special for example.  I purchased this in the newsagent's across from my old house while at school one day, not long after flitting from my former neighbourhood, and I recall taking it from my schoolbag to gaze at on my way home.  (I still attended the same school after flitting, you see, which accounts for my presence in the area.)

I remember being fascinated by the striking blue and red on the cover, and also the pristine, uncreased newness of the comic.  What I can't recollect is exactly how long I bought it after moving to our 'new' house - was it mere days, or perhaps a week or so?  I know it couldn't have been very long because we'd moved halfway through June, and the comic couldn't have been on sale in the shop for any great period of time, otherwise I'd have noticed it sooner as I was in every day.  For all I know, I could've bought it the very next day after flitting.

Another thing I'm no longer able to recall is whether I bought it during the lunch hour or after school - vague vestiges of seeming memory for both scenarios compete with one another in my mind.  What's certain is it was either one or the other, and as I'd probably have been at the shops (just up the road from the school) between 12 and 1 to get my 'dinner' (a Devon Split most likely), let's just go with the former.  In fact, having typed that, I seem to remember being anxious for the afternoon to be over, so I could get the comic home to read undamaged, which could've resulted from any overly-enthusiastic tussles with classmates.

The two replacements I now own of the comic (one acquired many years ago, the other having arrived only today) aren't in the pristine condition of their '70s predecessor, but they're both tidy enough to remind me of its shining newness, and of that walk home from school on a golden afternoon 47 years ago.  A lot of water's gone under the bridge since then, but I'm glad the simple sight of a comic's cover can return me to an earlier age when I thought I had forever.

Time has disabused me of that illusion, but I'm grateful I can occasionally recapture that feeling again, even if it's only for a fleeting, bittersweet moment that's as soft and swift as a butterfly's sigh in the face of a hurricane.  Here's to yesteryear - long may its echoes reverberate.

******

As a special treat, below is The HAUNTED WOOD strip from the above comic.  I'll maybe show more of the contents if enough Criv-ites request it.

A WORD TO THE WISE...

Copyright DC COMICS

Just where do I begin? By going over old ground I suppose, and drawing your attention back to the recent facsimile edition of HOUSE Of SECRETS #92.  On page 5 of the SWAMP THING tale, part of the word 'the' had been clumsily relettered (presumably because the 'th' was too faint or hadn't reproduced properly, if at all), transforming 'the' into 'me'.  Made absolutely no sense, as you can see above.  (Click on images to enlarge.)

I recently re-read SUPERMAN's KRYPTONITE NEVERMORE! series (for the umpteenth time), but instead of digging out my original issues, referred to my DC COMICS CLASSICS LIBRARY collected edition of the nine issue saga.  All the stories were scanned from actual published comics, and this would've required parts being digitally (and maybe manually) cleaned up, especially on the lettering.  On page 9 of #237, the 'o' (and the tilde above the 'n') of 'Senorita' must have dropped out, so a badly angled 'a' had been scrawled in.  (The tilde was again missing over the word on page 16, but at least all the letters remained.)  Again, see image above.

Back on page 13 of the same story, the 'hi' of 'his' was missing (see above), but at least no random letters had replaced them to transform the word into something else. Then, on page 12 of #241, the word 'transmissions' must've been smudged, because it'd been retouched to read 'transnussions' (see below), suggesting that whoever did it paid no attention to the rest of the speech balloon in order to understand what was being said.  It's almost as if they isolated the word in their mind and then tried to work out what it was (and failed).

Or perhaps there's a simpler explanation.  Maybe the person responsible was a foreigner (no, that's not a dirty word, Melvin, behave) who didn't fully understand English, and simply took a stab at guessing what the faint or missing letters actually were, hence the less than satisfactory result?  Whatever the reason, DC needs to up its game when it comes to reprinting their material, and ensure that any 'restored' dialogue matches what the writer originally wrote.  There's just no excuse for the kind of carelessness I've described here.

What think the rest of you?

******

The HOS error was also included in the two reprints below.  For further details, see comments section.

IN MEMORY'S GOLDEN GLEAM...

Copyright DC COMICS

Long-time readers with good memories will recall that I've shown these covers before, but there's a reason for their reappearance - a story behind them, if you will.  Y'see, something I only just realised while looking through the SUPERMAN edition of the DC COMICS CLASSIC LIBRARY series (which reprints the covers and tales they represent), is that it took me around 14 or 15 years to acquire all nine issues - out of sequence and while living in three different houses.  Let's call them houses A, B, and C.

I was living in house A when I acquired #s 233, 234, 240, 241 and 242, house B when I bought 237 and 238, and house C when I obtained 235 and 236. (I'd previously read the main strip from 236 in a b&w UK reprint mag in 1980 or '81, but as it contained no reference to the 'Sand Thing', I was unaware of its connection at the time.)  Houses A and B comics I bought new off the spinner-racks in the early '70s (US comics didn't always appear in sequence in the shops back then and sometimes showed up again months or even a year or two later), whereas house C comics were purchased as mail order back issues around 1985 or '86.  However, by this time, the other comics in the run were replacements (bought in my last two or three years in house B, I think), not my original copies.

Predating that though, in 1972 or '73 while living in house B, I bought new copies of 241 and 242 again, even though I still had my originals from house A. However, pristine issues of comics I already owned often called out to me to re-buy them and I usually found it hard to resist.  It's because of this that I associate these two covers with both house A and B, and I had to double-check the back-up reprint stories to confirm that, yes, I had originally bought my first copies in house A.  (In memory, I strongly associate these particular tales with house A.  In fact, I clearly recall reading them while 'perched on the porcelain' in that house, sometime in 1971 or '72.)

You don't care a rat's @rse about all this trivial detail of course, but as my memory continues to fade with my advancing years, it's important to me to record this for my own future reference "ere the gate shuts to behind me" (to quote Kenneth Grahame).  But the point I wanted to make is this: it never seemed to me all those years ago that it had taken 14 or 15 years and three houses to acquire a mere nine issues.  Nowadays, when I'm not really thinking about it, it feels that I had all nine comics together at the one time and in the one place, not obtained piecemeal in different locations over so long a period.

In fact, I have actually now owned all nine comics at one time in one place for well-over 30-odd years, but that's not how I acquired them before the run was complete. (A task which took well over half my life at the time, from start to finish.)  Funny how the mind can sometimes play tricks on us, eh?  Anyway, seeing as you're here, enjoy looking at the covers again.

(Incidentally, issue #239 was a Giant-sized reprint number unconnected to the 'KRYPTONITE NEVERMORE' saga, so I've not included it here.  Besides, without digging it out to look at and seeing what memories it may prompt, I'm not exactly sure of which year and which house I was living in when I got it.)

TRUE BELIEVERS - AKA THE INCREDIBLE HULK #6...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

As all true believers know, The INCREDIBLE HULK's own mag lasted for only six issues back in the '60s, but he was eventually awarded his own strip again in the pulsating pages of TALES To ASTONISH.  STEVE DITKO, who'd drawn Hulkie's final individual issue, again took up the art chores in Greenskin's new home, but that's a whole other story.  What we're here to rap about today is this great reprint in, appropriately enough, MARVEL's TRUE BELIEVERS series, of the Jade Goliath's sixth and last ish of his own mag.  Ain't it a beauty?!  Stop what you're doing and run out and buy one right away.

BABE Of The DAY - BUNNY YEAGER (AGAIN)...

Two 'Babes' in a row, Crivs - well,

whaddya know!  Actually, it's only one

Babe twice in a row, but who's counting

when it's the bombastic beauty BUNNY

YEAGER?  Sure, today she's a brunette,

yesterday she was a blonde, but trust

 me - it's the same Bunny.  Honest!

BABE Of The DAY - BUNNY YEAGER...

"Who the hell's BUNNY YEAGER?" some of you may be asking.  Well, take two demerits if you are, because the beautiful Bunny was a famous photographer back in the '50s and '60s, and was responsible for many striking images of BETTIE PAGE (who was also photographed by IRVING KLAW - sounds like a comicbook villain's name) in her heyday.

Bunny was also quite a pin-up in her own right, and here she is teasing us with her ample womanly charms, coyly concealed behind a lovely red towel.  Did I ever tell you that my favourite colour is red?  Well, it is.  Bunny, hold that red towel up so that I can get a better look at it.

COME ON IN AND PULL UP A CHAIR...

"You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts!" said MICHAEL KEATON to JACK NICHOLSON in the 1989 BATMAN movie, and ADAM WEST said it again in the 2016 BATMAN: The RETURN Of The CAPED CRUSADERS dvd animated film.  Guess what?  I'm saying it again now.  Why?  Basically, because some of the subjects I write about are a bit 'nutty', in the sense that nobody else, it seems to me, would ever think of putting digits to keyboard in order to warble on about anything resembling some of the things that so fascinate me from time-to-time.

Case in point: Over 30 years ago, I had a friend who lived in a top floor flat about 5 minutes around the corner from me.  He had a three piece suite, but he considered one armchair surplus to requirements, so exchanged it with me (along with some cash) for a video player/recorder I had.  The armchair moved into my back room, and I'm sometimes astounded to think that I've now had it for far longer than the family three-piece suite I grew up with for what seems like an eternity in memory.

I had another pal who often sat on that chair when he visited, and last year, he actually bought the flat that the armchair had originally come from.  Not from the other guy I knew, as he'd sold it on long before that, but isn't that weird?  Pal #2 had gone from sitting on the chair to living in the flat that the chair had come from, without ever thinking of how 'Twilight Zone'-ish the situation is - in my mind anyway.  It even took me a while to realise how bizarre a 'coincidence' it happens to be.  It's weird how seemingly random events connect up in a way that we would never imagine unless or until they actually happen.

Can you think of a similarly odd situation that's happened to you, or is it just me who reads too much significance into ordinary, everyday, pedestrian events?  You can let me know in the comments section.  Incidentally, that's a generic armchair in the above pic, as mine is covered in stuff and I can't take a good photo of it at the moment.  (I will when I can.)

DC FACSIMILE EDITION - BATMAN #181...

Copyright DC COMICS

Heads-up, Criv-ites - the latest DC Facsimile Edition is now available, namely BATMAN #181.  That's it above, and that's it again below, next to my original issue. This time, DC have gone down the convenient road by simply scanning an actual ish of the 1966 comic, so the colours aren't quite as vibrant as previous facsimiles in the series.  Still worth having though.

(Note the difference to the checkerboard strip around the DC symbol and the Code stamp, as well as the lettering next to the Batman logo.  Also, the shape of the ivy around the bottom cover blurb isn't an exact match from cover to cover.  And I wish they'd leave the dates on, like MARVEL do.)  

Below is a page from the original comic, compared to its duplicate in the facsimile. The difference is more obvious than can be seen here, because the light from the scanner tends to make old pages look a little brighter than they actually are.  At least you can get a slight indication of how the colours on the facsimile page aren't quite as deep as on the original.  Click on them to enlarge for a clearer indication of the difference.

And below, just for the hell of it, is the pin-up in the middle of the mag.  This one's taken from the '66 issue, and as you can see, the Batman figure is the one used on the base of the CORGI TOYS BATMOBILE for many years back in the '60s & '70s ('80s as well, in fact).  So what's stopping you?  Get around to your local comics shop and buy one of these beauties today!

MIGHTY MARVEL COLLECTORS' EDITIONS CHECKLIST - ON SALE NOW!!!

AVENGERS UNIVERSE #4

Copyright MARVEL COMICS.  Published by PANINI

76 pages of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!

The Vampire Nation is waging a civil war, so the Avengers recruit an expert: Blade the Vampire Hunter!

Featuring material first printed in Avengers #12, 14-16.

On sale Now!

£4.99.

 ******

WOLVERINE & DEADPOOL #4

76 pages of Marvel’s toughest heroes!  Three great stories!

Wolverine challenges the power of Persephone!

X-23 races to save her clone sister Gabby!

Deadpool becomes… Pantherpool!

Featuring material first printed in Return of Wolverine #5, X-23 #4 and Black Panther vs Deadpool #4.

On sale Now!

£4.99.

VALIANT SUMMER SPECIALS BARGAIN ON EBAY - AND I GOT 'EM... (Updated)

1966.  Copyright relevant owner

Y'know, for all the problems eBay sometimes inflicts on us, there are still a good few bargains to be had from time-to-time.  I bought six of these ten VALIANT Summer Specials from the same seller for less than the price another seller is asking for only one of them at the moment.  I already have two of the issues, but one is in better condition than my other copy, so I'm a very happy chappie as that's the one I was really wanting.  (The 1971 Valiant & SMASH! Summer Special, in case you were wondering.  Currently on eBay at an asking price of £79.99 - with a piece of the cover missing.)

I was surprised to see the very first Valiant Summer Special was a cardboard covered, square-bound book, similar (but larger) than the VULCAN Annual for 1977.  I wonder if this is the only time a Summer (or Holiday) Special has been issued in that format?  It has 80 pages, not counting the covers, and is quite a nifty little publication.  I see one seller is currently asking for £75 for this Special - I wonder if he'll ever get it?  Valiant weekly first came out in 1962, so I'm also surprised it took four years for a Summer Special to be issued.  Why did it take so long I wonder?  Anyone know? 

So if you're looking for a particular comic, don't despair at the sky-high prices some sellers are asking for.  Take solace from the thought that, when you least expect it, it'll pop up on eBay at a bargain price you can afford.  And while you're waiting for that much-sought after item on your wish-list to come along, enjoy looking at the covers of these bombastic little beauties.  But remember - they're mine!  Incidentally, if you ask me really nicely, I may post some of the contents in the not-too-distant future.  Is that something you'd like to see?  Then say so in the comments section, effendis.

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

HAVE YOU EVER ENTERED Into A CREEPY WORLD And LIVED To TELL The AMAZING TALE?

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

A few posts back, I said that the 14 issues (two of which are replacements for my originals) of ALAN CLASS comics I own are maybe all the issues I ever owned, but then I saw the above mag on eBay and it rang a bell with me.  I think (my memory having been prompted by the sight of it) that I also had this one, so that's now 15 Alan Class comics in my possession, 12 of them my originals, 11 of which were returned to me by the person I gave them to over 30 years earlier.

This one's a little beauty, having as it does, two JACK KIRBY illustrated tales, two DON HECK ones, and five by STEVE DITKO.  The Kirby ones are I Am The GORILLA MAN! and The MAN From... TOMORROW!, the Heck ones I Know The POWER Of... The GENIE! and Only ONE Is HUMAN!  The tales drawn by Ditko are as follows: I Was TRAPPED INSIDE Of The MARTIAN MAZE!, I Come From The SHADOW WORLD!, The FRIGHTENING FOG, Whose FACE Is In The MIRROR?, and The HAUNTED PAPER!  All that, as well as a two-page text story called "The EMPTY SEAT".  Now that's what you call value for money!

My original copy may have been priced at only 10 or 15p, but if so, that aside, my new replacement is exactly the same in every other way as the one I had back in the '70s.  It's also possible that my original copy was 20p, because when I bought them at 10p, they increased to 15p not very long after, so the next rise in price may have occurred within a similarly short period of time.  Anyway, having taken a look through it, I know I'm going to enjoy it whenever I get around to reading it.

Did you ever buy any Alan Class comics, Crivs, and if so, what are your memories of them?  Or maybe you even still have them - if so, which ones are your favourites?  Reveal all in the comments section why don'tcha?!

(Footnote: Yes, it's a daft title, because you'd only be around to tell the tale if you'd lived.  Got your attention though, didn't it?)

THE MISSING AD MYSTERY - OR, WHEN ADS ARE 'SUBTRACTED'...

Sharp-eyed readers who bought the recent BATMAN and HOUSE Of SECRETS Facsimile Editions, may have noticed that, on the ad page on the inside back cover, at the top far right (from the readers' pov) there was an empty space.  (Above is the page as first published in the '70s.)  I'm not quite sure why DC decided to delete one of the ads so many years after the fact, especially as none of them are likely to be valid any more, but such retroactive editing irks me somewhat.  After all, a facsimile should be a true facsimile, not a partial one.  In case you bought the mags and wondered what the blank space was about, that's the missing ad below in close-up.

What's your opinion on this, readers?  Couldn't give a stuffed monkey (might even be one in the ads), or do you think the ad should've been left in?  Rant, rave, and rage (or just leave a polite response) in our ever-lovin' comments section.  And, just in case you have difficulty imagining a blank space (the inside of my head doesn't count), that's the ad page from the facsimile editions below in all its incomplete glory.

PSSST! HEY, SAILOR - DO YOU CARRY A TORCH FOR YOUNG MEN...? (NAH, DON'T LET THE TITLE PUT YOU OFF - IT AIN'T WHAT YOU MIGHT THINK IT IS!)

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Before the MARVEL AGE Of COMICS began in 1961, publisher MARTIN GOODMAN decided to revive TIMELY COMICS' three main superheroes of the '30s and '40s and see if he could repeat the wartime popularity the characters had once enjoyed.  It was 1953, and by this stage Timely was now calling itself ATLAS - at least on the covers.  However, the indicia inside the mags usually sported a different name, as Goodman had many subsidiaries within the comicbook line's parent company, MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT.

In the case of YOUNG MEN #24, it was INTERSTATE PUBLISHING CORP., and within its interiors The HUMAN TORCH, SUB-MARINER, and CAPTAIN AMERICA made their return to four-colour comicbooks.  They only lasted five issues though, before disappearing again, and the world had to wait until the '60s to see The Human Torch (though not the original) and The Sub-Mariner in the pages of The FANTASTIC FOUR, and Captain America in The AVENGERS.  (A try-out with an impostor appeared in a Torch solo story in STRANGE TALES to gauge reader reaction to the prospect of Cap's return.)

Well, you know the rest.  All three characters are still around today in some form or other, so all's well that ends well, eh? I think I've got an issue of FANTASY MASTERPIECES somewhere that reprints Young Men #24, but the reproduction (if I remember correctly) isn't all that great and besides, I can't be bothered digging it out.  So here instead is the cover and splash pages of #25 for you to paste your peepers on.  Just think how different the future of the comicbook industry might've been had this '50s revival been successful.

OH, I DUNNO - CALL THIS ONE WHATEVER YOU WANT...

Copyright relevant owner

Something I'm reminded of on occasion is the fact that, when we're kids, not only don't we know what the future holds, it never really occurs to us to wonder.  Sure, in a sense we anticipate the future by looking forward to birthdays and Christmases and holidays and next week's comics, but our anticipation of such events is firmly set in the present reality of our current existence.

As adults, we don't know what the future holds either, but we know that we don't know, whereas kids don't ever think about it.  For example, when I had my 13th birthday, I was totally unaware that my next birthday would occur in a different house in another neighbourhood.  Same with Christmas.  On a subconscious level, I probably imagined that I'd have many more birthdays and Christmases in the same house that I'd had the previous seven.  'Twas not to be.

Looking back, I don't recall my parents ever mentioning to my brother and me that they were considering flitting (which we did a lot) until the event was practically upon us.  We never heard them propose or discuss the prospect, nor were we ever informed in advance of everything having already been arranged, with absolutely no consultation with us.  I'm sure it must've felt strange to buy a comic or watch a TV show while living in one house, then buy the next issue or watch the following episode in another.  Curiously though, I can't remember.

Sometimes I'll look at a comic which I strongly associate with a particular house, and it seems I had the comic in that house for years, then I'll catch sight of the date and realise that we'd moved not too long after.  Take the 1972 PERSUADERS Holiday Special as an example.  In memory, it seems that I'd bought it months, maybe even up to a year or so, before moving from my former house.  However, it probably went on sale around May, and as we flitted halfway through June, I couldn't have had it for any more than a few weeks (at the very most) before moving.

Y'know, I always have a destination in mind when I start a post, but by the time I get to the end I've very often forgotten where I was going.  I find it extremely difficult to maintain my stream of consciousness for longer than a few moments these days, which is extremely frustrating for me.  It's probably even more frustrating for you, wading through my woeful witterings only to be left wondering what I'm on about.  (Or perhaps simply wondering what I'm on.)

I suppose I'm just idly reflecting on how, whenever I re-read a comic from an earlier time in my life, I'm often surprised when I look up from its pages to find that I'm not still in the house where I first read it (and with which I most associate it), even if I didn't have it there for as long as I thought I did before moving.

In memory's house, though, are many mansions (clever Biblical allusion), and you can live in whichever one you want whenever the fancy takes you.  (Or maybe even in all of them at once.)  In that way, the past is always present.  As for the future?  That will be the past soon enough.          

RECOMMENDED READING: STAR TREK - The CLASSIC UK COMICS VOLUME THREE...

Copyright relevant owner

This is a book I meant to recommend when it first came out (in 2017), as I'd done with the two previous volumes, but somehow I just never got around to it.  So, simply for the sake of completion, here's a plug for IDW's third volume of reprints of UK STAR TREK strips that appeared in various comic weeklies and annuals from 1972 to '79.  There's a few bonuses and also a cover gallery, including the first combined VALIANT & TV21 comic that I showed in part two of this series.

(Incidentally, I trust you'll overlook the ripples from the protective sleeve on the cover, but I don't want to risk damaging the dustjacket by trying to remove it.)

Anyway, if you don't have these three volumes in your collection, you really should consider acquiring them.  The quality of reproduction is first class, and IDW could teach DC a thing or two about reproducing ads for their facsimile editions.