HOW CAN I PERSUADE YOU TO READ THIS POST?

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Acquired recently (and inexpensively) via an eBay charity shop auction, The Persuaders Annual for 1973 (issued in '72) is a book I don't recall previously knowing about - unless I've just forgotten seeing it advertised way back when.  It'll go nicely with my Persuaders Holiday Special issued a few months earlier (and which I did know about and bought at the time), and is a nice souvenir of the TV Show which never managed to make it to a second series despite the calibre of its stars.

Interestingly, one of the three comic strips (the rest of the contents being a mixture of illustrated text stories and features), entitled 'Avalanche', is a sort of alternate version of a story that appeared in the Special, called 'Slippery Characters'.  It's the same plot, but with different names for the baddies, and it's almost as if the same script was accidentally given to two different artists to draw; then when the mistake was realised, the script was reworked to make the similarities less obvious so that it could be used for future publication.

Or maybe the writer pulled a 'fast one' and reused the same plot - something Terry Nation, who wrote for the show, was known to do (reusing old Saint stories for The Baron), so maybe he was responsible for penning the strips in this book too (or this one at least).  I'd show you a comparison if the spine wasn't too tightly bound to open for scanning without risking splitting it, but if you type 'Danny & Brett - The Persuaders...' into my blog's search box, you can see the earlier version of the story.

If anyone has this Annual, can they check and tell me what the interior endpapers are at the back of the book and tell me how many pages it has in all?  The front endpapers are a double-page spread, whereas the back ones in my copy are two separate pictures, so I just want to make sure there are no missing pages.  I think it's complete, but would appreciate some confirmation.

And hey - wasn't John Barry's theme tune for the show brilliant, eh?

THE CURSE OF THE COMPLETIST...

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Ah, the curse of the completist!  I've already got two sets of all 14 Super DC comics, two copies of the single Bumper Book, and now the Giant Superman Album, which is naught but a collection (think Double Double Comics) of several various issues of Super DC (sans covers) with a new cover based on that of its first ish.  (Cop a gander at Batman - he needs to go on a diet, pronto!  No need for a detective to figure out who ate all the pies.)

I only learned of this book's existence around a year or so ago, and now it's part of my vast collection, having recently acquired it on eBay.  Is there anything you've bought, Crivvies, that you don't really need (in the case of a comic, already having another version of it), and if so, can you remember why you purchased it?  The comments section awaits.

ZHA -VAM THE INVINCIBLE - IN ACTION...

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It was on a sunny late afternoon in 1971 when I came back from the newsagent's across the road from my house with at least two comics, maybe more.  The two I remember in particular were Superman #233 and Action Comics #353, which was an old comic from 1967, but still available in brand-new condition from the spinner-racks, as wasn't unusual back then.  US comics didn't always appear in sequence in the UK, which had its pluses and minuses.

The minuses were that you didn't always get to read continued stories in the order they were published; the pluses were that you could catch up on earlier parts you'd missed of a storyline you found yourself immersed in somewhere further along.  Swings and roundabouts is probably the best way to describe the way things were at the time.

What's odd (from my perspective) is that I have a feeling that Action Comics #353 wasn't the first time I'd bought this particular issue.  There's a little voice nagging at the back of my mind that I'd previously bought it on another occasion, maybe years before, and purchased it for a second time because I remembered once having it, and also due to its pristine newness appealing to my aesthetic sensibilities; I did that on more than one occasion.

However, I suppose that's neither here nor there, but airing the thought will perhaps enable me to remember in future whether I had it before or not.  Sometimes things I think I've forgotten suddenly spring to mind with stunning clarity at a later date, and that might be the case in this instance one day.

Another odd thing is that I'd always assumed AC #353 was a stand-alone story - until I discovered many, many years later (decades in all probability) that it was the third episode of a three-part tale which had started in #351.  It just didn't read (to me anyway) like part of a continued saga; I thought the splash page was just a symbolic teaser of the events in that ish, not also a reminder of what had happened in the previous two.

Many years ago I acquired (and have owned for yonks) a replacement copy for the one I'd bought in 1971, before eventually obtaining #351.  A few years back, I picked up a coverless copy of #352, but the story really is overstretched and, from what I recall, would work better as a single ish, two at the most.  Anyway, I recently purchased another copy (this time with a cover) of #352, so decided to show all three issues together.  At some stage, I'll sit down and re-read them all just to see if my opinion could be revised as to the merits of this trio of mags.

Anyone else got them, or had them in the past?  If so, what was your view, and what associations do you have when you look at or remember them?  Feel free to share in the comments section.  Incidentally, if you think there's something vaguely familiar about Zha-Vam, it's because he's based on Shazam, the world's mightiest mortal - namely Captain Marvel.

BABE Of The DAY - LOIS LANE...

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How did they get away with it?  A barely clothed Lois Lane, reclining in a dreamy, satisfied way while tiny characters seek to enslave her by tying her down.  (So what's not to like?)  I think the Comics Code Authority must've been looking the other way when this cover was prepared - and thank goodness they were.  So what's the story about?  Are you kidding - who the hell cares?  It's a fit burd in a swimming costume pressing all the right buttons.  And that's why Lois is today's Babe of the Day.

LOIS LANE IN 25 CENTS, 52 PAGE, BIGGER & BETTER COMICS COVER GALLERY...

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Okay, I'll admit from the off - I probably bought Lois Lane mainly for the sexy drawings of her on the covers at this time, but also because it was a Superman mag in all but name.  Well all right, his name was on the cover, though it was smaller than Lois's, but she sure looked good flaunting her feminine charms in these alluring images (#121 aside).  Issue #113 (below) wasn't one of the 25 cents 52 pagers - it was a 35 cents 68 Giant issue, but I've included it here so as not to interrupt the numbering.

I didn't realize until I dug them out for scanning how tired, condition-wise, some of the covers are, so I'm going to have to consider upgrading to better copies in the not-too-distant future before the prices go up, but they'll do meantime for the purpose of this post.  Were you brave (and lust-driven) enough - like me - to buy what was probably considered a comic for girls back in the '70s, or did you stick with the obvious comics for boys?  (Superman, Batman, and all the Jack Kirby titles, etc.)

Feel free to unburden your soul for buying such near-pornography in our understanding and forgiving comments section.  

BABE Of The DAY - LOIS LANE...

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Coming soon on Crivens - the 25 cents, 52 pages, 11 issue run of Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane.  Before that, however, the first ish to return to 36 pages - mainly because Lois looks hot on this one!  So today's Babe, fellas, is The Man Of Tomorrow's burd (as we say in Glasgow) - Lois Lane.  (Drool!)

KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD, 25 CENTS, 52 PAGE, BIGGER & BETTER COMICS COVER GALLERY...

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Still got a taste for the covers of the 52 page magazines that DC unleashed upon the comics-buying public back in the swirling '70s?  Then you've come to the right place, Melvin!  Most of them are by Jack Kirby, but Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, and Mike Royer (and others?) also played a hand in some of them to a greater or lesser degree.  Got a favourite (or three)?  Then tell your 52 page fellow fanatics what they are (and what they mean to you) in our comments section.  We're all dying to know.