MURGATROYD The MAGPIE...

Copyright relevant owner

"One for sorrow, two for joy..." - I'm sure you can finish off the rest of the theme by yourselves.  Remember The SWOTS & The BLOTS from SMASH! comic?  Well, describing MAGPIE as the Blots' equivalent to the Swots' BLUE PETER is perhaps the easiest way to state the difference between the two programmes.  The easiest maybe, but far from the most accurate - I never really bought into the myth that Blue Peter was designed with middle-class kids in mind.

There wasn't much difference (if any) between the Magpie and Blue Peter offerings - the contents were pretty much interchangeable, and it was obvious that THAMES TELEVISION was merely following the formulaic format of the BBC's yearly publication.  Only the pics of the presenters distinguished the two books, with Magpie featuring (initially) SUSAN STRANKS, PETE BRADY and TONY BASTABLE.

Magpie was first broadcast in 1968 and was intended to compete with its BBC counterpart, though it tried to be more "down with the kids, innit".  What can I say?  Well, the latter is still with us - the former disappeared, never to be seen again, in 1980.  Here are some piccies from the second book, just to give you a taste of it.

  

The EAGLE TAKES FLIGHT - And CAPTAIN PUGWASH SETS SAIL...

Copyright relevant owner

EAGLE #1 - a landmark in British publishing history.  However, nowadays, not many people know that not only did the new comic launch the career of DAN DARE, it was also responsible for unveiling another swashbuckling 'hero' to the waiting world - none other than CAPTAIN PUGWASH!  Yes, that's right - JOHN RYAN's master of The BLACK PIG first appeared in the premier issue of MARCUS MORRIS's and FRANK HAMPSON's 1950s masterpiece - the Eagle.

This comic was the top-selling title of its day - and arguably the most famous adventure weekly that Britain ever produced.  Even today, a dedicated fan club exists to commemorate the glory that was Eagle.  And just think - it would probably never have existed if not for horror and crime comics of the '40s giving rise to a desire for more 'wholesome' periodicals for young and impressionable readers.  From every fire a Phoenix rises - although in this case it was a Phoenix in the form of an Eagle.

Anyway, enjoy the front and back covers of the first edition - along with the debut of ol' Captain Pugwash, Britain's best-loved pirate. 

"HERE'S ONE I MADE EARLIER..."

Copyright BBC TV

BLUE PETER, non-British readers of this blog may be surprised to learn, is not a German porn channel, but rather a popular children's television magazine programme which first hit our screens in 1958 and is still running today.  (Making it fifty-four years old come October.)

Surprisingly, it took a whole six years for the first-ever Blue Peter Book (never called an annual until near the end of its run) to appear in shops, which it did in the latter part of 1964.  This first book was published by LUTTERWORTH PRESS, which may explain the uncharacteristic use of advertising in a BBC-associated publication.  (The naming of AIRFIX model kits would surely never have happened on the TV programme.  [See page at foot of post.]  That's why SELLOTAPE was always referred to as "sticky-back plastic" and FAIRY LIQUID bottles described as "washing-up detergent containers".)

The second book in the series was published by the BBC themselves and, sure enough, a feature on model aeroplanes described them only as "plastic kits", with no mention at all of the manufacturer.  The books tended to follow the format of the TV programme (no surprise there) and had a variety of articles, stories and illustrated adventures.  All rather 'twee' actually, but not without a certain undeniable charm.

The main presenter of Blue Peter was CHRISTOPHER TRACE (body-double to CHARLTON HESTON in the 1959 BEN HUR movie), assisted first by LEILA WILLIAMS and then ANITA WEST.  Both are largely forgotten now, obliterated from public consciousness by Chris's third female co-host, VALERIE SINGLETON.  Perhaps if the books had been around when either of Valerie's predecessors were presenting the programme, they would be better remembered today, rather than just as curious footnotes in the programme's history.

When JOHN NOAKES joined the show in 1966, things really started to move, as he soon became a daredevil action-man prepared to tackle practically anything.  JAMES BOND could've taken some tips from John Noakes, believe me.  When Christopher Trace departed the line-up after nine years, ex-Dr. WHO assistant, PETER PURVES, took his place and the dream-team was complete.  To those who lived through this particular period, nobody has ever come close to emulating the magic that Val  John and Peter (and Lesley) created between them.

Here, then, is a brief glimpse at the first-ever Blue Peter Book, to whet your appetite and give you a look back at more innocent time in kids' publishing.  We shall never see its like again - more's the pity.

   

SUPERMAN COMMEMORATIVE STAMP...

Copyright DC COMICS

Talking of stamps (as we were in the previous post), here’s a nice item by the U.S. POSTAL SERVICE – a First Day Issuance SUPERMAN stamp from September 10th, 1998 – along with a Commemorative replica edition of ACTION COMICS #1 featuring the first appearance of CLARK KENT and his alter-ego.  Unlike the mini DANDY replica which consists of only twelve pages from the original comic, the USPS facsimile is a complete and unabridged, standard U.S. comic-sized issue.  The only thing missing is the 1938 price of 10 cents on the cover.  You’ve got to hand it to our American cousins – when they do something, they do it properly.

 

“Up, up and awaaaaaay!”

STAMP THIS OUT AT ONCE...

Characters copyright relevant and respective owners

The new ROYAL MAIL Comic Stamps Presentation Pack, released on the 20th (yesterday) is a nice little set to have in one's collection.  I bought mine in the afternoon from my local Post Office and was told they only had a couple left.  Priced at £5.10, an abridged, mini-facsimile of The DANDY is included so, if you haven't purchased yours yet, I'd advise you to get your skates on.  In the meantime, here's what you're missing...

MIGHTY MARVEL PIN-UP PAGE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

As all true SPIDER-MAN fans will know, the original STEVE DITKO cover of AMAZING FANTASY #15 was (gasp) rejected in favour of one by JACK KIRBY (although Ditko inked it). If I remember correctly, the unused cover was eventually published in an issue of MARVELMANIA (or somewhere), but one of the earliest reprintings (and the first British one) was as a back-page pin-up in The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #2.

The original cover can be seen here - but above is the MWOM pin-up from October 7th (issue dated 14th), 1972. And for the completists amongst you (and who isn't?), below is the cover of the issue from which the pin-up comes.

A MARVEL "STICK-UP"...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Nowadays, we live in an age where publishers think nothing of putting a couple of quid or more on the price of a comic and adding a load of useless junk to justify doing so.  I remember when a poster or some stickers were the only inducements required to tempt us to purchase a comic that we probably would've bought anyway - and all at no extra cost to the reader.

Here's an example: The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #3 from 1972 (dated October 21st, but on sale from the 14th) - plus the free gift included in that week's issue.  Though let's be totally honest - the JIM STARLIN and (perhaps) JOE SINNOTT cover would've sold the comic on its own.

"The NAME'S BOMB... JAMES BOMB..."

Copyright DC COMICS

I must've ordered several back numbers of this particular issue of MAD back in the day.  I loved it so much that, whenever I inadvertently dog-eared a corner or creased the spine of my latest copy, I immediately ordered another one.  Until the day that THORPE & PORTER informed me that they had run out - no more back numbers of #146 to be had.  I eventually managed to buy one from a pen-friend on the Isle of Wight, and that's the one from which I've scanned the following pages.

I remember waxing lyrically and eloquently to one of my school friends about the JAMES BOND parody contained in its pages.  "How do you manage to DO all these things?"  "Magnificently... of course!"  Hell, I'm still using that line today.  Whenever I'm showing off to someone by doing a doodle of OOR WULLIE or POPEYE, inevitably I'll be asked:  "How do you do that?"  And, equally inevitably, I utter my stock reply, stored in my memory banks since 1973.  I guess I'm a creature of habit. 

Brilliantly drawn by the amazing MORT DRUCKER, this parody has everything. Great art, funny one-liners and James Bond - sorry, Bomb - himself.  What's not to love?  If you haven't read it before, you're in for a treat - and if you have, you're still in for a treat, albeit one you've experienced before.  When this issue first appeared, Bond double-bills still regularly featured in Saturday matinees in cinemas all across the country.  It wasn't 'til about 1974 that the Bond movies back-catalogue was sold to television stations, although it was at least another year 'til the first one in the series (Dr. NO) appeared on the box.

Rereading this issue today, I'm pleased to see that it still holds up very well.  And who'd ever have thought that typeset lettering for the speech balloons and captions would work so good - better even than hand-crafted ones?  They just seemed, against the odds, to suit Mad to a tee - bestowing upon it a literary respectability that normal comicbook lettering probably couldn't have achieved.

Just how did they manage to do it?  (C'mon - you must've seen that one coming.)  All together now...

"Magnificently... of course!"

SUPERMAN - FROM THEN 'TIL NOW (ALMOST)...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Most of you will likely have heard of the book "SUPERMAN From The '30s To The '70s", which was published in the U.K. by HAMLYN BOOKS in 1972. (CROWN BOOKS published the U.S. edition the previous year.) With an infor-mative introduction by E. NELSON BRIDWELL, the book featured a mixture of black and white and colour reprints of Superman tales from down through the decades. It was described as a compendium of Superman 'firsts', but not every story really qualified in that department. 'Twas a nice, big, thick book though, and well worth £1.25.

In 1979, Hamlyn reissued the tome in the wake of the success of the blockbuster Superman The Movie, which had been a huge hit only a few months before. Interestingly though, the Other Media In Which Superman Has Appeared list wasn't updated to include the movie - the book being simply a straightforward reprint (on slightly thinner paper) of the earlier edition from seven years before.

Cut forward to 1983, and Crown released a revised edition, called, funnily enough, Superman From The '30s To The '80s.  Apparently DC itself had very little to do with the contents of the earlier volume, which had mostly been chosen by an editor at Crown.  This time around though, it was a different story.  Gone were some of the more whimsical, run-of-the-mill tales, being replaced with newer classics like "The Miraculous Return Of Jonathan Kent" two-parter and "The Origin Of Superman" tale from The AMAZING WORLD Of SUPERMAN tabloid-sized treasury special.  E. Nelson Bridwell revised his introduction from the '70s, but retained the spirit of the original.  If I have one minor quibble, it's that the "Kryptonite Nevermore!" story was omitted this time 'round.  SWAN and ANDERSON at their very best, too.

As far as I know, there was no Hamlyn British edition, so the Crown volume is a nice little collector's item which is well worth having, even if you already own its pred-ecessor.  Start your hunt on ebay today.  In the meantime, enjoy the scans from my personal copy of the book.

THE AVENGING ANGELS...

For those of you who may not already know, AIRFIX (now owned by HORNBY) reissued their 1968 CAPTAIN SCARLET ANGEL INTERCEPTOR model kit a little while ago.  Having had this kit back in the '60s, I recently managed to get my hands on the current one and look forward to doing it justice this time 'round.

Although the box has been redesigned, it still features the original 1960s artwork.  I understand the recent release is a limited edition - but, if you're quick, you should still be able to get your hands on one.

Spectrum Is Green.

THE RETURN OF BATMAN'S BADGE...

You'll perhaps remember me telling you about my childhood adventures of playing at BATMAN back in the '60s.  (If not, you can read about it here - go on, I'll wait for you until you get back.)

Anyway, above is a replacement I acquired a few years ago of the badge I used to wear on my jumper while running around in my mostly homemade Caped Crusader outfit.  (Only the mask and badge were 'official' items of merchandise.)  Until, that is, it fell off my jumper one night while I was in the school playground at the foot of the street.

I later learned that IAN FREW, who lived in the bottom house in my row, had grabbed it seconds after it hit the ground.  I chapped his door, but he denied having it, so there wasn't much I could do.  It only took me about 40-odd years to acquire a replacement for it.  I was glad to finally have it back in  my possession - it was like saying hello to an old friend. 

FAVOURITE FANTASTIC COVERS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Don't worry, all you FANTASTIC fans - the following covers will appear in their appointed place in my Fantastic Cover Gallery when the time comes.  However, someone from another blog isn't getting any younger.  He may well be an old man by the time I get around to publishing them, so I thought I'd feature some of his favourite covers all in one post.

So, these are for him - feast your eyes on these Fantastic favourites.

Back page Pin-Up from issue #38

Unfortunately, I don't have the gift - but here's a b&w interior illustration