The ETERNALS Cover Gallery OMNIBUS...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Welcome to an 'Omnibus Edition' of covers compiled from three separate posts about The Eternals, featuring Jack Kirby's issues from the '70s and the Sal Buscema-drawn issues from the '80s.  Having all 32 images together in one post saves you from having to trawl through the blog's 'back-catalogue' in order to find them, so it's a lot handier.  The Eternals was the longest-lasting title Jack did when he returned to Marvel, but at only 19 issues plus an Annual, it hardly set the comics-buying world alight.  (Nor did the recent movie.)

Jack was still full of ideas, of course, but this series seemed curiously unconnected from the rest of the Marvel Universe.  Did the cosmic-powered android Hulk exist only because there was a fictional Hulk TV show, or was there a 'real' Hulk that the android was based on?  It was all slightly ambiguous.  Yeah, Shield Agents made an appearance or two, but there were no established names or characters you'd actually recognise - and did the initials of Shield stand for the same name of the agency in the MU?  Who knew?

It's a funny old world when comics by the co-architect of Marvel seemed like 'second-banana' mags and not the main and major titles published by the company, but Jack failed to make much of an impact on his return to Marvel.  Had he lost his touch?  Probably not, but Kirby was still producing comics of the kind he'd been doing in the '50s and '60s and, sadly for him, comics had moved on since then, being a tad more sophisticated and relevant than in his heyday.  The 'King' may still have held an honorary crown, but the 'monarchy' had been abolished and he no longer dominated the world of comicbooks in the way he once had.

Anyway, enjoy browsing through Jack's 'last gasp' at Marvel, and if you see things differently from me, don't be afraid to say so in our comments section.  Remember, click on images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

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(As far as I remember, I only ever had the first four [possibly five] issues and the Annual when they first came out [the ones seen here are my originals], not acquiring the remainder of the run until sometime in the early or mid-'90s.  Note that #19 is a cents copy, as is the Annual.)

And just for the sake of completeness, below is the 12-issue limited series from around the mid-'80s.  I think The Eternals may've had other series down through the years since then (not sure), but if so, as I don't have them, I can't show them.  I could never get too invested in the characters, so it's unlikely I'd buy any new issues if they were to be revived in the future.

The CENTS/PENCE DILEMMA - Guest Post By Doctor ANDREW MAY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Hail, fellow Crivvies!  I have to admit that many of my posts have been rather 'anaemic' of late, mainly due to me being distracted by some medical problems, so thank goodness for contributors like Doctor Andrew May (no, he's not my doctor), who once again has stepped into the breach to supply you all with something worth reading and looking at.  You're getting spoiled with this guest post and I'm taking a risk publishing it as you'll probably never be satisfied with anything I write ever again.  (Never mind, I can always fall back on my 'Babe Of The Day' posts.)

Anyway, be sure to tell Andrew how much you enjoy his efforts to entertain you, and please note that every cover image featured here is supplied by Andrew from his own personal collection.  (Remember to click on any image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.)

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The two comics pictured above share the same cover date, January 1974, and I purchased both of them when they originally came out, but the one on the left is priced in pence and the one on the right in cents.  This reflects two different ways that British readers could obtain US Marvel comics in the 1970s.  As Kid has mentioned previously on this blog, the only difference between the two versions lies in the cover; they were printed at the same time on the same equipment in the US, but copies destined for the British market were priced accordingly.  These were then shipped over en masse as surface freight and distributed to UK newsagents.

The problem for avid collectors (as I was at the time) was that you couldn't count on your particular local newsagent stocking every issue of your favourite comic month after month.  To avoid the emotional stress of losing out, you had the more reliable alternative of buying "cents" copies from UK dealers who imported them on an individual basis.  Since these came over by airmail, they had the additional advantage of arriving about 2 months earlier than the newsstand versions.  On the other hand, they had the major disadvantage that they were quite a bit more expensive.  In the case illustrated above, for example, the pence comic is only 6p yet the cents copies were sold on a "1c = 1p" basis, i.e. 20p in this case.  Hence the dilemma: you had to weigh up the pros and cons to decide which titles to pre-order and which to entrust to the vagaries of newsagent distribution!

Unlike Kid, I hardly ever remember when and where I bought a particular comic.  In the case of Fantastic Four #142 pictured above, however, I can say with certainty that I bought it in London in the course of a school trip to the Science Museum.  I vividly remember, as I was reading it in the coach on the way home, our physics teacher making a profoundly ignorant comment to the effect that I was "too old for such things" (this was shortly after my 16th birthday).

As for imported "cents" copies, my main source of these throughout 1974 and 1975 was the Andromeda bookshop in Birmingham - about 12 miles from where I lived in those days, and which I visited at least once a month.  Its main speciality was science fiction - a subject I was just as fanatical about as comics - but along with huge numbers of US paperbacks and magazines they also imported Marvel and DC comics.  This was where I bought all the cents comics pictured below - but not the above copy of Marvel Two-in-One #1, which predates my discovery of Andromeda.  That occurred a few weeks before Christmas 1973, and - because cents copies generally arrived a couple of months before their cover dates, I'd guess I got the January 1974 issues in November 1973.

These would have been acquired by mail order from one of the listings in Fantasy Advertiser (which was the closest thing we had to eBay in those days).  Looking through my remaining, much depleted, hoard of comics just now, the only other cents copies from those pre-Andromeda days that I still have are a few issues of Spider-Man - including #129, which featured the first appearance of The Punisher, and is now considered "important" enough to have been reprinted in facsimile form recently.

Although I was happy to wait for a pence copy of The Fantastic Four issue pictured above and also the one after it, my newsagent failed me with #144 (March 1974), which created a gap in my collection.  I promptly vowed never to miss another issue, so from #145 onwards I pre-ordered it on a monthly basis from Andromeda - along with Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Avengers, though I didn't hang onto my collections of the latter two titles.

It seems like I've been writing for ages with no pictures, so it's high time for some more.  Below are two comics from August 1974: Spider-Man #135 (cents) and Thor #226 (pence).  You'll notice a price hike in both cases, to 25c and 7p respectively - and that the banner in the latter case now reads "Marvel All-Colour Comics" instead of "Marvel Comics Group".  I guess that was to make them stand out from the line of weekly black-and-white comics that Marvel was selling in the UK at the time.

I said a moment ago that I didn't hang on to all the Hulk comics I purchased in those days.  Fortunately, I'm not a complete idiot (not all the time, anyhow) and I did have the foresight to retain the three issues (#180-182) featuring the first appearance of Wolverine.  Below is #181 (which has also been given the facsimile treatment recently) alongside another comic from the same month (November 1974) that, speaking personally, I enjoyed a lot more - Spider-Man #138, featuring The Mindworm.  Gerry Conway was my favourite Marvel writer during that period - and, as a science fiction fan, this particular tale reminded me of the similarly titled short story by Cyril Kornbluth.

I'd guess that, during the two years 1974-75, at least three quarters of the comics I bought were pence-marked newsagent copies, for blatantly obvious economic reasons.  But looking at my remaining collection now, more than half the comics I've chosen to hang on to are cents versions - presumably because these were the ones I wanted badly enough to spend more money on.  Around a dozen of them are "Giant-Size" format, which I particularly liked.  The first of these that I acquired is pictured on the left below - Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 (May 1974), which consisted of 52 pages for 35c.  I think this was originally conceived as a rotating anthology series, but then they changed their minds and the next issue (in August 1974) was simply Giant-Size Fantastic Four #2 - with a slightly tweaked format of 68 pages for 50c and a great cover by Rich Buckler.  For variety, though, I'm also showing you Giant-Size Avengers #1 (also from August 1974), mainly because I particularly like the cover by John Romita.

Finally, below are two more covers I really like, in this case by Frank Brunner: Doctor Strange #4 (pence) and #5 (cents).  I would have bought the latter comic first, because (as explained earlier) cents copies generally arrived in this country a couple of months before pence copies.  But then I saw #4 in a newsagent (probably around the time of its cover date, October 1974), and bought that as well.  All my subsequent Doctor Strange issues are pence copies, too, so it looks like I decided it wasn't in the "unmissable" category. 

Andrew would be interested in knowing which comics fellow Crivvies chose to hold onto for decades and for what reasons, so feel free to chat about your long-cherished items in our comments section. 

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And thanks again, Andrew, for taking the time and trouble to write this guest post while I sit back and stuff my fizzog with tea and toast.  I'm sure everyone appreciates your sterling efforts in producing such a fascinating article.

Once Upon A Time There Was A Tavern...

Although I've never drank alcohol in my life, I'd still go into pubs on occasion for a soft drink or a meal, either with friends or by myself.  In my very early 20s, there was one pub (among several) that me and various pals would visit now and again as it had a nice 'homey' ambience and, if memory serves, a real log fire against the back wall.  (It definitely had a fire which I think was real, but may have been an electric or gas one with log or coal fire effect.)  The pub had once been a farmhouse I believe, and though it'd likely had its interiors completely remodelled, it managed to capture (in my mind anyway) that old-fashioned feel of a coach house-type inn from a long-vanished era.

Anyway, last year sometime, I was making my way home after visiting someone and, as my route led past this very same pub, I decided to pop in for a glass of cola and a bag of crisps or nuts.  (Perhaps even a bag of crisps and a bag of nuts, simply because I'm a greedy boy who knows how to live!  Hell, maybe I'd even have two glasses of cola.)  Imagine my disappointment to find it'd had a refit, with one side partitioned off to serve as a snooker or pool area, and no welcoming fire in sight.  I'd been hoping to revisit an aspect of my past and rekindle memories of earlier times when I was a young man with what was surely going to be a glorious future ahead of me.

'Twas not to be, alas; it no longer held any hint of the familiar about it and could've been any pub anywhere in the country, with no ghosts of yesteryear to sit among for half an hour or so in pleasant dreams of reverie.  So, something else that'd been changed almost beyond recognition when I wasn't looking and my life seems diminished by it.  One of the worst aspects of aging is not just the loss of one's youth, but also the loss of many tangible 'signposts' of that youth, whatever they may be.  Not to mention one's vitality and enthusiasm to meet each new day - along with the illusion of a never-ending succession of new days stretching into infinity and beyond.  (Now where have I heard that before?)

If you're getting on in years, what things do you miss from your youth (if anything), and if you could be granted three wishes, would you turn back the clock to an earlier time in your life or would you waste them in wishing for wine, women, and song (and loads of dosh)?  Tell all in the comments section.

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Below, me standing on top of the building in 1978 when it was still a ruin.  (Check out those flared trousers - they weren't exactly 'in fashion' at the time.)

Remember, Remember - The FIFTH Of NOVEMBER...

Copyright REBELLION

November the 5th again.  Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night - whichever appellation you prefer.  I should really think of something new to write, but my energy levels are on the wane at the moment so I'm afraid it's a repost yet again.  However, if you've read it before, you've likely forgotten by now, and if you haven't, then it's new to you anyway so no harm done.

Remember, remember - er, wait just a second, I've forgotten.  No, hang on - I've remembered again.  November 5th, GUY FAWKES' NIGHT - BONFIRE NIGHT - GIVE PENSIONERS AND PETS A HEART ATTACK NIGHT - whatever you want to call it.  For all those participating in the firework festivities, here's a cut-out Guy Fawkes mask from a 1997 issue of BUSTER.  I think this was printed in the insides of the comic just about every year, and may even hark back to my own childhood - it certainly looks familiar.  (Although, back then, it would've been a cardboard free gift - with its own elastic - tucked inside the comic.) 

Anyway, take care if you're having a firework display or attending a local bonfire - fingers and skin are handy things to have, so take appropriate steps to ensure that you or your kids aren't parted from them.  REMEMBER THE FIREWORKS CODE!

(Click on images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.)

Incidentally, I only discovered sometime within the last year or two that the mask below had also been given away with the 1965 Hallowe'en issue of Buster.  Are there any earlier free gift appearances - and did it ever appear again after 1969 - anyone know?

The comic below was pulled from circulation at the last moment because Buster and his pal playing with fireworks on the cover was belatedly considered a potentially bad influence on kids, who might (subconsciously) follow their example.  I managed to acquire one from an IPC Group Editor at the time of publication so that I wasn't missing an issue.