The UNEXPURGATED BEANO NUMBER ONE... (PART TWO)

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

For all you completists out there, here's the second half of the first issue of The BEANO for you to salivate over.  (For Part One, click here.)  Unlike the abridged presentation on another blog, this one features the full 28 pages (in two parts, this being the concluding one).

Your very own Beano #1.  Am I good to you or what?

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DEAL WITH INFANTILE MINDS...

Recently, another Blogger made what I regard as offensive remarks about me in the comments section of his blog.  Wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been clear he was referring to me.  So I emailed him and insisted that he remove his biased, inaccurate and inflammatory insults immediately, otherwise there would be repercussions.  Obviously, any intelligent person would interpret this as 'legal' repercussions (and much unwelcome publicity on my blog), but I've since received an email from this deluded, pathetic individual informing me that he's reported me to the police.  My initial thoughts are confirmed - the man is obviously of severely limited intellect.

What's worse, however, is that in his own account of the event, so eager is he to imply sinister intent, he attributes the words "dire consequences" to me - words I never actually used.  Yet more proof, if any were required, that he's not shy in twisting the facts to suit whatever distorted picture he's trying to paint.  I previously described him as someone with no regard to accuracy - I now don't hesitate in calling him an outright stranger to the truth.  (To reality, in fact.)

What is it with some comicbook geeks?  Are they mentally retarded, or what?  The question remains though - just who's going to report him for wasting police time?  (Assuming that he has actually reported me - which I doubt.)  And to think - all this nonsense simply because he got his facts wrong three times in a row and resents me for merely supplying corrections.  (Prima donnas, eh?  Who needs 'em?)

Error #1: He claimed his Dandy scans came from the 1978 Chimera-Posner book, D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS.  No they didn't.  When he finally admitted I was right, he said that he was given the wrong information by the supplier of his scans.  What?  The guy doesn't know what it is he's scanning from?  A likely story.  Then he claimed such details aren't important.  (So why does he get uptight about it?)

Error #2: I also pointed out that his Beano scans were four pages short.  Not so, said he, claiming that several unidentified experts confirmed his assertion that he'd posted the complete comic.  (Obviously also a bit of a fantasist.)  So I emailed him the four missing pages.  No acknowledgement or thank you until over a day after I'd drawn his attention to the fact on my blog.  Then he eventually posts a grudging "thank you" and later tries to imply it was posted earlier than it actually was.

Error #3: He also mis-attributed his Beano scans to a different source than they actually came from.  Talk about sloppy 'accountancy'?  Once more, it wasn't 'til I had again identified the actual source that he tried to imply that he'd known all along and had simply mis-typed.

He's done this sort of thing before.  A couple of years ago, I pointed out an error in something he wrote.  He went back and sneakily amended the mistake, then claimed he'd never made it to begin with.  Without a screen-grab of his initial version I couldn't prove anything, so I didn't make a fuss, downplaying the situation by saying I couldn't understand what'd happened.  Given his constant squirming and dismissal of detail as being unimportant - when he gets it wrong that is - it's clear he has a massive hang-up about being seen to be mistaken about things on which he considers himself an expert.

Now he's going 'all-out' over on his blog, trying to misrepresent the facts and playing the role of the victim.  When a detractor of mine turned up on his blog erroneously endorsing his claims, he also took a sly dig at me, to which I responded.  (Strange that said detractor only visited the two posts I'd remarked upon and missed the subsequent ones.  Let's put it down to coincidence, shall we?  Even though they both know one another as members on a comics forum.  No doubt we also believe in fairies and honest politicians.)

Sadly, this was the only excuse he needed to try and wrest some kind of perverse revenge for having been shown to be wrong, seizing the factual content of my reply to said individual as an excuse to ban me from his site.  (Perhaps he's aware of the 'history' between myself and this person and is exploiting it for his own ends - as well as striking a blow on behalf of his comics forum cohort.  It's worth noting that, out of the four links (now five) on his blog to other sites, two are his own and one is my detractor's.  Something sure smells fishy in Denmark.)

Well, it's all a bit dramatic, but it's certainly one way to ensure not being picked up on all the errors one makes - ban anyone who spots them.  He likens himself to a seafarer, does this sad and 'stormy' soul - but all I see is a capricious Captain of an unseaworthy ship, adrift on troubled and turbulent waves.

"Argh-h-h-h! It's 'im!"

******

Update: This person has now deleted his provocative remarks from his blog in order to minimise his outrageous behaviour and to allow him to claim a "calm and dignified" reaction.  (Must be nice to have such a flexible perception of reality.)  Divorced from the context in which they were made, some of my comments may seem unduly forthright, though it should be remembered that I'm simply responding to smears, insults and outright lies.  I have no interest in whitewashing the facts and therefore won't be removing my posts.

PART THREE Of FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Heads up, you lucky people.  Here we have the next instalment of cracking covers (Gromit) from the ODHAMS PRESS periodical FANTASTIC, first published in the late '60s.  I believe any new back-page pin-ups were either by BARRY WINDSOR SMITH or STEVE PARKHOUSE (husband of 2000 A.D. letterer, ANNIE PARKHOUSE), and these were alternated with reprints of U.S. pin-ups or illustrations adapted for the purpose.

So without any further ado (must remember to pick up a fresh supply when I'm out), let's get started.

Don't know about all you Crivs, but I just love that pin-up of SUE STORM, originally printed in FANTASTIC FOUR #10.  Tune in again soon - for further Fantastic covers from yesteryear.

LOO MUG - WHAT A THUG...

Interesting to see that a certain comics contributor was accused of bullying tactics on a U.K. comics forum relatively recently (and no - not by me), with people threatening to leave because of his supercilious, patronising manner.  Considering that the character for whom he is best known is a bit of a brainless thug, I find the situation rather ironic to say the least.  Life imitating 'art' perhaps?

And now, in a show of 'solidarity', one his pals has banned me from his site for responding to what I saw as a provocative comment from the first individual, implying that my offer to supply pages and identify their correct source amounted to nothing more than "hassle".  As the site owner had already revealed himself as a disingenuous back-pedaller with no regard for accuracy, I must confess to regarding his actions as not much of a surprise.  Certain types tend to stick together, don't they?   

The UNEXPURGATED BEANO NUMBER ONE...

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

Recently, over on another blog, someone posted scans of the first issue of D.C. Thomson's The BEANO.  Unfortunately, he used an abridged replica edition of the comic given away with The SUNDAY POST a couple of years or so ago.  I politely pointed this out, but he disputed it, saying several experts had confirmed it was the full comic. I sent him some scans of the missing pages, whereupon he grudgingly admitted I was right, but was clearly none-too-pleased about being mistaken, claiming such things weren't all that important.  He strikes me as being a surly, ungracious, immature and slightly unbalanced individual, so I won't be wasting any more of my time trying to help him again in the future.

Anyway, so that Beano fans aren't deprived of seeing the complete first issue, I'm going to post all 28 pages in two parts.  Here's the first one.  Click here for Part Two.

THE BALLAD OF HALO AND ME...

When I was a full-time comics contributor a goodly number of years ago, I was up and down to London like a yo-yo.  I recall being given a BUSTER strip (drawn by REG PARLETT) to deliver to The SUNDAY MAIL in Glasgow during a strike, and, on another occasion, I was given a large HALO JONES pin-up to deliver to JOHN McSHANE and the lads from AKA COMICS at the Virginia Galleries, also located in the heart of the city.

This was a gift from artist IAN GIBSON, and as I knew the AKA lads, I was asked if I'd hand it across.  "Nae bother!" as they say, but when I got home, the first thing I did (apart from grabbing some sleep) was to get someone to snap a photo of me with said page, to demonstrate that I was actually considered responsible enough to be entrusted with such an artistic treasure.  As you can't see my face in the photo, I don't suppose any such conclusion can be arrived at, but let's face it - who's going to look at a drawing when my handsome fizzog is on display?  So it worked out for the best in the end.  (He said, modestly.)

Shame the image isn't sharper, but it's a cropped section of a photo taken from the foot of the stairs.  I'll see if I can dig out the actual comic it appeared in and scan it so you can all get a better look.  Trust me, however, the published version didn't even come close to doing full justice to the original art.   

A DOG'S BEST FRIEND...

...is YOGI BEAR, apparently.  Who'da thunk it?  Cute, eh?

HE IS THE LAW...

Copyright REBELLION

One of the things I really liked about the POWER COMICS of the 1960s was that characters in the U.K. produced strips would sometimes refer to the U.S. MARVEL superheroes reprinted in the same pages.  I remember the brother and sister team known as The HUMBUGS (reprinted as The Terrible Twins in SMASH! a few years later, but originally appearing in WHAM!) pretending to be The THING and The INVISIBLE GIRL in one of their tales.  Likewise DON STARR, in an issue of TERRIFIC, wished he had SPIDER-MAN's spider-sense on one occasion.  This helped foster the illusion that, whether they were humour or adventure strips, British or American, they were all the result of ALF, BART & COS and their team of writers and artists on this side of the pond.

IPC/FLEETWAY don't seem to have indulged in this kind of comics integration to the same extent - at least not that I'm aware of - so the above SWEENY TODDLER strip is a nice-but-rare example of when they did.  I'm unaware of who wrote the story, but the artwork is by the irrepressible TOM PATERSON, doing an absolutely 'pitch-perfect' impersonation of LEO BAXENDALE at his very best.  Tom captures his style so well, in fact, that I ofttimes wonder if Leo has ever looked at Tom's work and wondered why he can't remember drawing it.

It's just a shame that nothing is being done with the treasure-chest of IPC/Fleetway comics characters today. They're a neglected asset deserving of positive ex-ploitation, and which would surely be enjoyed by many thousands of would-be comics reading youngsters up and down the length and breadth of the country. 

******

Update: Since this post was first published, REBELLION have acquired the rights to ODHAMS, HULTON, and IPC/FLEETWAY characters and have published several great volumes featuring some of the better known and more popular ones - Sweeny Toddler being one of them.  Note that I referred to them as a 'treasure-chest', and that Rebellion publish their collected editions under the TREASURY Of BRITISH COMICS imprint.  Maybe they read this post, eh?   

UNSEEN DITKO...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Feast your fortunate eyes on an un-inked and unused pin-up of The INCREDIBLE HULK by STEVE DITKO, intended for an issue of TALES To ASTONISH, but presumably vetoed by STAN LEE on the grounds that ol' Greenskin was facing away from the audience instead of lumbering towards them.  Such a display of bad manners from BRUCE BANNER's alter-ego would surely never do, eh? 

This and other pages can be found in The Incredible Hulk Vol 2 in the softcover MARVEL MASTERWORKS series, which often features pages of a higher archival standard than even some OMNIBUS editions.  Why not run along to your nearest comic shop and schlep down your shekels in exchange for a copy?  You know it makes sense.

ISBN # 978-0-7851-5883-7

MOEBIUS PASSES AWAY...

JEAN HENRI GASTON GIRAUD.  (May 8th, 1938 - March 10th, 2012)

JEAN GIRAUD, also known as MOEBIUS, has sadly passed away. I have to confess that I wasn't a fan of his SILVER SURFER graphic novel, PARABLE, with STAN LEE (nor did I share his rather strange views on lettering), but when it came to doing the stuff he was good at (which was a lot), he was very good indeed.  Comics are the poorer for his passing.

I'll leave it to others better acquainted with the man's life and career to pen a more detailed tribute than I'm capable of.  I just didn't want his passing to go by without commenting upon it myself.  No doubt some of the many fine blogs in the list on the right of the page will have their own thoughts to express about the legendary artist, so keep your eyes peeled.  I'm sure they'll do him proud.