The INVINCIBLE IRON MAN - PART ONE...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Oh, you lucky peeps.  Scanned from my very own copy and for your eyes only, the origin of The INVINCIBLE IRON MAN from TALES Of SUSPENSE #39.  So, join us now as millionaire weapons inventor ANTHONY STARK has his life changed forever - and is transformed into a man of iron.

Part Two coming soon.  And remember that this tale is available in MARVEL MASTERWORKS and OMNIBUS volumes.  Run out ant treat yourself right away!

NEVER SAY NEVER - EVER, EVER AGAIN...

When NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN came out in 1983, SEAN CONNERY hadn't played JAMES BOND 007 since the 1971 movie DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER 12 years earlier.  It's therefore somewhat startling to realize that Never Say Never Again is now almost 30 years old, because the period of time 'twixt then and now doesn't seem anywhere near as long to me as the 12 years preceding it.  A dozen years seeming longer than 29?  How can such a perplexing paradox be?  Regular readers will know that I often theorize, soliloquize and agonize over such time discrepancies, but relax - that isn't the purpose of this post.  So what is?

I was doing a little tidying up today and came across a cardboard standee I acquired from a once-local record & video shop, and which used to adorn a wall of my room in the mid-'80s.  The movie had just been released on video (remember them?) and this was one of the ads used to promote the fact in stores across the country.  The shop manager didn't have space for it so kindly enquired if I wanted it, knowing that I was a Bond fan.  He didn't have to ask twice.  At first it sat on top of my portable TV before being promoted to the wall, to better protect it from being damaged should it inadvertently be knocked from its precarious perch atop the telly.

Despite all the hype of Connery returning to the role, Never Say Never Again took a good gubbing from OCTOPUSSY at the box office, proving the folly of releasing it at the same time as the 'official' EON movie.  It also demonstrated that, at least in the minds of the general public, ROGER MOORE was the 'real' Bond and Connery the pretender - which must've been a slap in the kipper to the man who'd established the part.  After fulfilling his contractual obligations to promote the movie, Connery subsequently spoke dismissively of it - basically describing it as a piece of sh*t that he wishes he'd never been involved with.  Hell hath no fury like a 'luvee' scorned, eh?

Anyway, I thought I'd share the ad with all you Crivvies, what with it being a lovely piece of art and all.  Now all I have to do is find a space for it on my wall again - and work out why I ever took it down in the first place.

So... who was your favourite James Bond - and why?

BAR SIX - The BEST BAR NONE?

The last time I recall eating a Cadbury's BAR SIX was sometime in the late '80s or so.  I remember my maternal grandparents used to have a stock of them (and other chocolate bars) when I was a child and I probably first tasted one at their house on one of our weekly Sunday visits in the late '60s.

Am I correct in thinking there was just a hint of CARAMAC about the taste?  Regardless, they always went down well with a cuppa.  Cadbury's should bring them back at once.  Anyone else agree?  Speak up at the back there! 

FIREBALL XL5 And The MOON MASTERS...

Copyright relevant owner

Published nearly 50 years ago in January 1964, GOLD KEY's STEVE ZODIAC & The FIREBALL XL5 comic is an interesting little one-shot.  Of all the GERRY ANDERSON puppet programmes, Fireball XL5 was the only one to be broadcast on network TV in the States, making it perhaps the most successful of all Anderson's shows across the pond.

The comic contains two stories, believed to have been written by PAUL S. NEW-MAN and drawn by MEL CRAWFORD, though PAUL NORRIS and FRANK SPRINGER have also been suggested.  The stunning cover painting is by GEORGE WILSON, who some think may have been the cover artist of at least three of the four issues of the SUPERCAR comic by the same publisher.

As I said, this was a one-shot.  It's just a shame the comic didn't continue as a series. At least we can content ourselves with the stunning MIKE NOBLE Fireball XL5 artwork from TV CENTURY 21, which has recently been reprinted in a series of hard and softcover albums by REYNOLDS & HEARN and SIGNUM BOOKS.

Anyway, enjoy the first story in the comic, The MOON MASTERS, and click here to follow Steve Zodiac as he goes on the TRAIL Of The TRAITOR.

You didn't think I'd forget the cover?  Shame on you.

BLAST From The PAST...

Okay, so who remembers these PINK PANTHER bars from NESTLE'S?  (I've got the DINKY car as well - two versions - one with a big rubber wheel in the middle and one without - must  post them on the blog sometime.)  Y'know, I can still recall what this bar tasted like - wish Nestle's would reissue it just so I can check that my memory's correct.

Anyone else remember a favourite chocolate or candy bar which is no longer around?  Let's hear from you.

 Click here to see Fry's 5 Centre. 

PART TWO Of CICELY MARY BARKER...

Copyright relevant owner

Presenting the final six pictures by CICELY MARY BARKER from The LITTLE PICTURE HYMN BOOK.  Enjoy the serenity and tranquillity that these illustrations epitomize, and try to recall what it was like to be a child of another, far different era.

(Click here for Part One.) 

CICELY MARY BARKER - The FAIRY And FLOWER GIRL - PART ONE...

Copyright relevant owner

Way back in the early '80s, I was at a Christmas Fayre in my old primary school and acquired a small publication called The LITTLE PICTURE HYMN BOOK.  For no other reason than one of accuracy, I should perhaps mention that it was a Christmas Fayre on behalf of the church across the road from my old house, but was held in the school at the bottom of the same street for reasons of space.  (The Fayre was bigger than the church building could easily accommodate, you see.)  Not that it's important, but I'm fuelled by a compulsion to be as precise as I can when relating these small matters of personal history.

Anyway, the book had attracted my attention because it was illustrated by CICELY MARY BARKER (1895-1973), a celebrated artist of fairies (and flowers), much in the mould of the Cottingley fairies photographs which had so entranced Sir ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE back around 1917-1920.  The little book had a distinct charm and, through its colourful illustrations, conjured up a long-vanished era when children were children - and not the fractious, obnoxious creatures they are today. One of the hymns in the booklet was "All Things Bright and Beautiful" which, in my previous primary in a different neighbourhood, my class had sung every morning just before the start of lessons.  I only had to hear (or read) a few lines of the hymn and I was transported back to practically the dawn of my childhood, so how could I resist buying the book for my very own collection?

Sometimes, when lying in bed at night, with nothing to read and bored out of my skull, I would dig out the book from my bedside drawer and look at the pictures - and sometimes even read "All Things Bright and Beautiful" to myself to help remind me of my childhood days so many years before.  When we moved to a new house in 1983 and I found myself repeating the experience in my new abode, I couldn't do so without wistfully remembering doing the same thing in my old room in what seemed another life away.

Amazingly, just over four years later, we moved back to the previous house - where I still reside nearly 25 years later.  Now, whenever I look through my little book of an evening, not only do I remember doing so in the same room of the same house over 30 years before, I also recall doing so in the other house while looking back on the one I now reside in - almost as if I'm observing myself through a window, watching myself through another window as I contemplate myself in the room in which I now sit looking back on the past.  Yeah, I know, it's a difficult one - you'll have to think about it for a moment.

So what's the point of all this philosophical rambling?  Merely this: I wanted to explain the reasons why I now unleash upon you the first six of twelve colour illustrations by Cicely Mary Barker from The Little Picture Hymn Book.  Looking at them, don't you feel like a little kid again, playing under the hot Summer sun in the grassy green fields of your childhood when you thought you'd be a child forever?

 Someone tell me that it's not just me.

(Click here for Part Two.)

BEANO And DANDY SCANS And SCAMS - The TRUTH REVEALED...

The CHIMERA-POSNER book

I run this blog because I'm a fan - I don't consider myself an expert - on anything!  There are some things I know a little about, some things I know a lot about - but absolutely nothing I know everything about.  It's the same with most people.  Even those who write detailed and informative articles on some subject or other have to check their facts with other sources as they go along.  If I'm not sure about something, I usually say so - and I'm never dogmatic when there's an absence of proof or room for doubt.

Now, at the risk of boring regular readers, I find that I must return to an earlier topic, but bear with me - hopefully it'll be instructive.  Recently, someone posted scans of a facsimile of The DANDY on their blog.  I left a fairly innocuous comment along the lines of: "Shame you don't have an original copy from which to scan, instead of a mini-facsimile."  Well, blow me down if that didn't open a can of worms.  The indignant blog owner replied that the scans weren't from a mini-facsimile, but rather the 1978 CHIMERA-POSNER volume, D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS.  Let's take a look at the scan he posted, shall we?

Scan from site which claims image is from D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS

Click on the above image - then enlarge it and study it.  Now look at The Dandy cover below, which was actually scanned from the book that he claims his images were sourced from.  This is from my own copy of the book so there's no room for doubt - and it's because I can finally show conclusive proof that I've returned to the subject.

Scan from D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS book

As you can see, the Chimera-Posner book used a different source - one that has a tear in the cover and hasn't had an outline added to the lettering in the upper-right corner of the page. Now study the following pic, scanned from a mini-facsimile in my possession, and compare it with the cover taken from the other blog - apart from some scuffs on the first image, the two are identical - even down to the positioning of the staples.  (I've left a margin on the spine so that you can check for yourselves.)

Scan of mini-facsimile



When I pointed this out to the blogger, he claimed that someone else had supplied the scans and informed him they were from the Chimera-Posner book.  Really?  I just don't buy it.  It's hardly a mistake one could easily make, given the clear differences between the two sources.  The simplest and most obvious explanation is that the blogger is lying.  As someone else has since pointed out, he once lifted scans from another blog without permission, and only sought retroactive consent once he'd been caught out.  (If he's running true to form, he probably claimed to have been sent the scans by someone who hadn't revealed where they were from.)  Is this what lies behind his denials?  Has he been lifting scans from other blogs and mis-attributing them to other sources in a bid to escape detection?

This blogger is a member of a comics forum to which a detractor of mine also belongs, and says that he has had many a discussion with said person in the past, so the pair are certainly not total strangers.  This detractor turned up on the other's blog claiming that the facsimiles contained in the book had also been issued separately (which I have never disputed - the late comics historian DENIS GIFFORD had some in his collection), and that the blogger was therefore correct in his original assertion that The Dandy pages did indeed come from the 1978 C-P book.  The above scans confirm the erroneous nature of his claim.

Scan of SUNDAY POST's BEANO facsimile from other site

I had also pointed out to the blogger that The BEANO scans he had featured on another post were missing four pages and had come from a facsimile given away with The SUNDAY POST a few years back, not D.C. Thomson Firsts.  The blogger originally disputed the page count, saying that several 'experts' had confirmed his statement, but has since admitted, grudgingly, that I was correct after all.  So much for his un-named 'experts' - or was he lying again?  Also, contrary to what he currently appears to be suggesting on his blog, The D.C. Thomson Firsts book printed the full 28 pages of The Beano, not 24 - and a different source seems to have been used for the facsimile given away with The Sunday Post.

Scan from D.C. THOMSON FIRSTS book

So - the verdict is in.  The blogger has been consistently wrong - but blames others for supplying him with misinformation.  His honesty, however, has already been demonstrated to be highly suspect.  My detractor - who fancies himself as a comics 'expert' - in his eagerness to spite me by endorsing the blogger's inaccuracies, has demonstrated that he doesn't know what he's talking about in this instance.  The fact that he only responded to the blogger's two posts on which I had commented - in order to disagree with me and take a dig - seems highly suggestive of his motivations.

The above scans prove beyond doubt or dispute that I was right all along.  If only the blogger could have contented himself with a gracious 'thank you' - instead of a bitter tirade against me for merely trying to be helpful - both he and his forum chum could have been spared the resulting damage to their credibility.

MOONFLEET - A CLASSIC FOR ALL AGES...

You've probably seen the 1955 movie, MOONFLEET, starring STEWART GRANGER - very atmospheric, but massively abridged and with a completely different ending.  If you haven't read the book by J. MEADE FALKNER, treat yourself without delay.  Don't be put off by the fact that it's described as a 'children's classic' - that only means there's no bad language or sex scenes.  It's an absolutely terrific read and definitely a classic - but adults would certainly enjoy it too.

"Ah, sweet boyhood, how eager are we as boys to be quit of thee, with what regret do we look back on thee before our man's race is halfway run!!

Now ain't that the truth!

FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY PART FOUR...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

And here we are again, folks - with the latest batch of groovy FANTASTIC covers from the swingin' '60s. Let's not waste any time wading through waffle from me and get straight into them. Amen, brother!