HOW SUPERMAN CAME TO FLY - (A PARABLE)...

Copyright DC COMICS

As most 'old-timers' will know, SUPERMAN couldn't actually fly in his early years - he jumped.  Hurdling a skyscraper or leaping an eighth of a mile was how he got around at the start of his career and that's pretty impressive when you think about it.  I'd certainly be happy with being able to do that, wouldn't you?  Then something changed - he seemed to be no longer just propelling himself through the sky by the power of his legs, but hovering in mid-air, changing direction, etc.  Just how did the 'Man of Tomorrow' acquire this startling new power?  Simple - he started to fly simply because he looked as if he was flying.  And he first started to look as if he was flying in the MAX FLEISCHER cartoons of the early '40s.

If you watch these cartoons today, you can clearly see that Superman is launching himself into the sky via the method of leg-propulsion - jumping, in other words.  However, this is Supes we're talking about - he can't simply be careening through the clouds in an uncoordinated, haphazard manner.  Superman has to be in charge of the situation (and himself), has to appear graceful, noble, dignified, to say nothing of 'god-like' - someone who is as much at home up in the heavens as he is down here on Earth.  That's why, once he was airborne, the animators depicted him as being able to twist, turn and hover, quite unaffected by gravity.  However, he wasn't really flying (or, at least, in the early cartoons, he wasn't supposed to be) - it just looked as if he was.

And because he looked as if he was flying, audiences came to think that he was flying.  And because audiences thought he could fly, it was thus ordained.  "People think he can fly - so make 'im fly!"  Simply put, the thought became father to the deed.  It wasn't long before Superman was flying in the cartoons and the comics.

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Call me cynical, but it seems to me that's how certain minority interest groups who exist on the fringes of society gain ground.  Whatever agenda they're pushing, their first step is to silence dissent by slyly casting doubt on the motivations and credibility of anyone who is the slightest bit dubious or critical of their aims - and embarrassing or bullying them into silence.

Then, in the seeming absence of criticism, over time it looks as if there's no resistance to them - that they've been accepted and approved by the mainstream.  Then, because it appears as if they've been assimilated into the wider community, people eventually come to believe that they have been.  And because people believe it to be the case, it thus becomes so.  Like rushing water erodes the rock beneath it, we are eventually worn down into submission - without even realizing it or how it happened.  Then we wake up one day and the world has changed - and not necessarily for the better.

  

Perhaps we should all exercise caution in what we allow ourselves to believe, eh?  And not just believe or accept it because it appears to be the case or because we are told that it is so.  As someone who I'm sure was very wise once said: "Appearances can be deceiving."

So let's not be deceived.

THE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE...

Copyright relevant owner.  Cover art by WALTER SIMONSON

As has been said many times over the years, a picture is worth a thousand words - so there's no point in me bleating on about the following four pages from a 1975 one-off SHERLOCK HOLMES mag by DC.  If you can't see for yourself just how good they are, then nothing I can say will ever convince you of their worth.  This ish was intended to be the first of an ongoing series, but was the only one ever published.  Never mind though - just sit back and enjoy the exquisite art of E.R. CRUZ, Filipino artist extraordinaire.

  

NEW COINS FOR OLD...

If you're around my age, you'll no doubt remember L.s.d. from back in the 1960s.  No, not the hallucinogenic drug of which hippies were reputed to be so fond, but Britain's system of currency (pounds, shillings and pence, from the Latin, 'librae, solidi, denari') before decimalisation was officially introduced in 1971.  (Although usually pronounced and written as 'L.s.d.', apparently the proper way to render it is '£sd'.)  



What most of us tend to forget however, is that two years before 'D-Day', some decimal coins were introduced into our £sd currency.  In 1968, the five, ten, and fifty 'new' pence coins were issued, mingling quite happily with the threepenny (pronounced thruppenny) bit, sixpences, shillings and florins (two shilling piece), until the new decimal system officially took over.  The old sixpence (tanner) continued in circulation until 1980, and shillings and florins were interchangeable with their counterparts for many years after, until the size of the new coins was reduced in the early '90s.

When I bought the above set around twenty years ago, I was amazed by how many of my pals claimed to remember it, saying that they were given one of these little blue plastic wallets at school.  They can't all be mistaken, so I can only assume that I was off the day they were handed out because I definitely never received one.  I didn't even know they existed until I saw them in a coin catalogue back in the early '90s.

So, if you were one of the lucky ones who received a decimal coin set as a child, enjoy this look back at a moment in time which I never got to share - and then feel free to reminiscence about it in the ever-lovin' comments section.

PART SEVEN Of FANTASTIC COVER GALLERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

And once again, for your delight and delectation, we present you with yet another half-dozen comic covers (and their bombastic back-page pin-ups) from the late, lamented ODHAMS PRESS POWER COMICS publication from the latter half of the swinging 1960s - FANTASTIC.  Yes, Fantastic - both the comic and the era.  If you were around back then and purchased this Power Pack paper, enjoy reliving the heady days of your youth.  If not, then allow yourselves to imagine what it was like to live through the era of 'the three Bs' - The BEATLES, BOND, and BATMAN.  Plus, of course, MARVEL COMICS - in their British Power Comics incarnation.

I associate all of these comics with the house and neighbourhood where I lived at the time, but a couple of them I have more specific memories of.  For example, I remember surreptitiously reading #38 during lessons in one of the annexe huts at school, and studying the cover while showing it to a friend in the playground during the mid-morning interval.  And I recall purchasing #39 on the Saturday my parents took my brother and me along with them to watch The SOUND Of MUSIC (two years after it was first released) in the LA SCALA cinema (now gone) in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street.  If I remember correctly, I purchased a DANDY from the bus station kiosk that day as well.

Anyway, have fun re-experiencing whatever childhood memories of your own that the accompanying images may conjure up - the present will still be here when you decide to return. 

See Part Six here.

PART SEVEN Of TERRIFIC COVER GALLERY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

And now, for all you pulsatin' POWER fans out there, here's another five fabulous covers from the titanic TERRIFIC, published by ODHAMS PRESS back in 1967.  There are only ten more issues to go in this super series before you've seen the complete set of all forty-three comic covers and their back-page pin-ups, so stay tuned for the next part - coming soon.

Regular readers may remember me mentioning the 'cellar' in my back garden in which I sometimes sat when it rained, reading a pile of comics.  Sometimes, on sunnier, drier days, I would sit on a rug just outside that cellar door, and that's the image which springs to mind whenever I look at the cover of Terrific #31.  These covers are a window into the past, and I look through them often.  Why not do likewise?  You'll be surprised to see that what you thought was a long-vanished view still exists.

  

For Part Six, click here, and for Part One, click here.

The AWESOME ORIGIN Of The 'FIRST' SWAMP THING...

Copyright DC COMICS

I doubt there can be many readers who are unaware that ALEC HOLLAND wasn't the first unfortunate individual to become a "muck-encrusted mockery" of a man... a SWAMP THING!  That dubious gift of fate goes to ALEX OLSEN, who - in The HOUSE Of SECRETS #92 (July 1971) - fell victim to the all-consuming jealousy of DAMIAN RIDGE, his co-worker and supposed friend, who resented him being married to LINDA, whom Damian had secretly loved and coveted for, oh... ever such a long time.

However, if I assumed that most of you already knew these things, then I'd have nothing to write about, so I'll imagine, dear readers, that you're only aware of the second incarnation of Swamp Thing, who debuted in the first issue of his own magazine in November of 1972, and who was a bio-restorative research scientist working for the U.S. government along with his wife, LINDA HOLLAND.

ALAN MOORE grafted his own take onto the character back in the '80s, and ol' Swampy's probably undergone a few more revisions since then.  Truth to tell, I'm currently completely in the dark over the current status of Doc Holland's alter-ego - DC seem to change the histories and continuities of their characters faster than ALAN SCOTT can scream "I'M FREE!" in his best JOHN INMAN voice.

However, whether you're up to speed on on what's happening to ol' tuber-tonsils or not, whether you can differentiate between all the subsequent versions since Alec Holland first crawled out of the mire back in the early '70s or are as completely clueless as I am, I thought you'd still enjoy seeing the story that spawned - The STARTLING SAGA Of The SWAMP THING!  Enjoy.

The above tale, plus the first 'baker's dozen' of the original Swamp Thing saga by LEN WEIN, BERNIE WRIGHTSON and NESTOR REDONDO are reprinted in the excellent DC COMICS CLASSICS LIBRARY volume, entitled ROOTS Of The SWAMP THING. Wein only wrote the first thirteen issues before moving on to pastures new, so if you were thinking of buying a book about our favourite bog-birthed man-monster then it has to be this one.

ISBN: 978-1-4012-2236-9.

PART FOUR Of BUSTER, SON Of ANDY CAPP...

Images copyright relevant owner

Carrying on from where we left off, let's take a look at the final part of the 1968 issue of BUSTER which I've been serialising over the last few weeks.  Apart from a few ad pages, you now have a complete issue of ANDY CAPP's lad's very own comic to peruse at your leisure.

 

MICKY MARVEL'S MULTI-GUN first appeared in the issue dated for January 20th, 1968, and ended a year later on January 18th, 1969.  The strip was drawn by CARLOS CRUZ GONZALEZ, who'd illustrated quite a few features for IPC/FLEETWAY and also D.C. THOMSON.  He was one of the artists who drew DAN DARE in the relaunched EAGLE back in the '80s. 

So, just what can I tell you Crivs about CRUNCHER, The TINY TERMITE With The BIG APPETITE?  Well, for a start, he was a... er... termite, and he had... er... a big appetite.  That's about it really.

I've included some ad pages just to give you a taste of the times.  Anyone know how many of these games are still available today?  (Probably all of them... if you haunt the charity shops.)

BIG CHIEF POW WOW was, in some ways, a return to LITTLE PLUM territory for LEO BAXENDALE.  The character debuted in the cover-dated September 14th, 1968 issue and concluded in the one dated for January 31st, 1970.

Look at the above ad.  Nowadays, a CORGI TOYS MONKEEMOBILE from the '60s would probably set you back at least a couple of hundred quid for a good condition model in its original box.  Bet you wish you'd kept yours, eh?  Too late, it's gone.  Get used to it.

The HAPPY FAMILY (does such a thing exist these days?) was drawn by the always excellent REG PARLETT.  Apparently, early episodes were reprints of a strip called The HARTY FAMILY, which had first appeared in TV FUN, but whether or not it was based on an actual TV series, I'm far  too lazy to try and ascertain.  The strip made its first appearance in Buster in the cover-dated issue for August 17th, 1968, and took its final bow in the issue dated January 4th, 1975.  Though whether or not it was an uninterrupted run I'm unable to say.  ('Cos I don't know.)

Another ad - I doubt the readers were ever too enthused about the exploits of RACE REVELL, though the model company which spawned him still exists to this very day.

NUTTY SLACK  is a type of coal, as well as a brittle toffee sweet containing nuts.  However, in the case of the character appearing in Buster, he's exactly what it says on the "tin" - a gentle grappler.  First turning up in the issue dated for September 10th, 1966, he ended his run in the December 28th, 1968 issue.  Drawn by DOUG MAXTED, who also illustrated HIS SPORTING LORDSHIP in the new SMASH! comic from 1969 onwards.

CAPTAIN SWOOP first appeared in a short-lived comic called GIGGLE (of which I have the bound volume of FLEETWAY file copies from the period), moving over to Buster when the two comics merged on January 13th, 1968.  (Issue dated 20th.)  It was a translated reprint from a French comic strip, and managed to hold on until the issue dated for April 19th, 1969, whereupon it retired into history.  Whether or not the original strip still runs in France is anyone's guess.

Anyway, there you have it.  A complete issue of Buster (minus a few ads) from 1968.  Hopefully, you've enjoyed this glimpse into the past as much as I enjoyed my red-hot date with SALMA HAYEK last night.  (Whaddya mean dreams don't count?)

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See Part Three here.

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COMING SOON: The first appearance of SWAMP THING!