PART TWO Of BACK To The FUTURE...

Copyright REBELLION

Welcome back, all you jaunty JOHNNY FUTURE fans, as we present the second instalment of the former MISSING LINK's foray into fantasy as a costumed superhero, from the pages of FANTASTIC way back in the swinging 1960s.  LUIS BERMEJO is the awesome artist responsible for these powerful pictures, and he's as good an illustrator as you're likely to find in the cataclysmic world of comics.

Looking at the page below, there seems to be a missing caption from the top tier's middle pic.  Did it fall off, or was it removed prior to printing?  We'll never really know, so your guess is as good as mine.  Anyway, it doesn't seem to affect the story, so let's not lose any sleep over it as we surge ahead and immerse ourselves in this five - count 'em, five - page extravaganza of action and adventure!

And be sure to come back for Part Three.

  

WINDOW On The PAST...

Regular readers will be aware by now that one of the chief delights of my life when younger was gazing out of my classroom windows and losing myself in daydreams.  What cared I about matters pertaining to geography, history, maths and the like?  I was too busy flying around the sky or saving the world - in my fertile imagination, at least.  Sometimes I wasn't quite so energetic in my fantasies, and was content just to watch the clouds glide by in languid motion, going wherever it is that clouds go to.

It should therefore come as no surprise to anyone to learn that I still like to gaze out of windows today, observing the comings and goings of neighbourhood residents, the antics of assorted dogs, cats, birds, squirrels and foxes, and whatever else happens in a typical street.  And yes, I still enjoy just watching the clouds drift by or contemplating the rain pattering off the pavement.  Recently, however, I've become aware of just how few people I actually recognise in their daily perambulations past the panoramic perimeters of my property.

There are now only two faces I can identify from around the time I first came to this house over forty years ago.  One was here before we moved to the area, the other took up residence a year or two after we arrived.  There are others who've lived here for maybe twenty or thirty years, but for some curious reason I still regard them as 'newbies' and not yet established in the neighbourhood firmament.  Strange how them not living here within the first few years of my arrival makes them seem like newcomers I haven't quite adjusted to yet.

There's a possibility that one of the old, familiar faces may sell up and move on in the not too distant future, and the other is retired and getting on in years.  When the last link to how things once used to be has finally gone, I wonder just how I'll react to being surrounded by complete strangers with no connection to my younger days back in the early 1970s.  I've noticed a feeling of 'displacement' gradually creeping up on me over the last few years as more and more 'well-kent' faces have faded from my everyday experience, and sometimes I almost feel like I'm the stranger who doesn't quite belong in these here parts.

It's then that I immerse myself in comicbooks from four decades ago and re-live the early years of when I first moved to this house, in an attempt to recapture the mood, the ambiance, the atmosphere - the flavour - of what it was like to live here back in the sensational '70s, when I was practically just a lad not too far removed from the start of my journey through life and all it had to offer.

Then I lose myself in visions of the past; where long-gone local worthies yet walk the streets beyond my window - living, breathing, laughing and chatting as they did in bygone days, before they gradually fell, one by one, victims to time.  I seek refuge in a place and a period which now exist only in memory, populated by the ghosts of yesterday, and the knowledge is not lost on me that, one day, my 'continuance' will consist of being nothing more than a lingering echo in the minds of others.  Until such time as they, too, are gone, and that faint echo falls forever silent. 

PART TWO Of SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Another JIM STARLIN cover starts off the second part of our look at SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY from the year 1973.  Unfortunately, SMCW wasn't quite so lavish as its sister title had been in its early issues when it came to pin-ups and bonus pages, but by this time neither was MWOM.  Still, I've culled the best examples of titanic treats within the magnificent mag's wondrous interiors to bestow upon all you rabid readers of MIGHTY MARVEL MAGIC!

Everything old is new again, so pamper your peepers with the array of awesome images presented in this pulsating post.  And keep a look-out for Part Three. 

(If you missed Part One, click here.)

LOOKING AT THE VIEW...

As we get older, it seems to me that colours appear less vivid, flavours and smells less potent, our surroundings less able to make an impression on our conscious minds.  Maybe that's why, when we think back to childhood, summers seemed longer and brighter and bluer, and winters were whiter and crisper and colder.  (Though that last part may have been down to the absence of central heating when I was a boy.)

Our senses are keener when we're younger, and more susceptible to the 'moods' with which each season of the year enfolds us.  Also, because we're more optimistic, enthusiastic and eager to experience each brand-new day, we perceive everything around us in a particular way that is peculiar to the period of childhood and adolescence, but which does not continue with us on our journey through adulthood.

Sometimes I look at a comic or toy and get a flashback to an earlier time in my life - and for the briefest of moments re-experience a more colourful, sharper, keener, livelier, brighter and better world than the one I wake up to each day as a grown-up.  It's almost like, as children, we have a special enhancer fitted to our senses, through which every experience is routed to deliver optimum impact.  However, this enhancer has worn out by the time we reach the end our third decade, and the world never seems quite the same again.

That's why Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc., appear to be but pale shadows of their former selves as we get older.  In fact, it's only the dim and distant memory of how such times were to us as children which lends any faint hint of magic or enchantment to current celebrations.  Without the glow of past years to illuminate our present ones, Christmases and birthdays would mean little or nothing to those of a certain age.

I can remember, as a child, standing at the top of the hill on which my then-house was situated, and the horizon seemed an almost infinite distance away, the sky a vast expanse of drifting clouds against an azure backdrop a million miles high, and my surroundings were easily able to accommodate visions of fairytale kingdoms of the kind depicted in storybook illustrations.  (I remember when I first read The HOBBIT as a 10 or 11 year old - the remote mountain I could spy from my back garden was surely the same Lonely Mountain under which the wicked dragon SMAUG's stolen treasure resided.)

Whenever I stand at the top of that hill on a visit to my old neighbourhood today, the sky seems far lower and the once distant horizon only a stone's throw away, encompassed by boundaries which, if they existed in the days of my youth, I never noticed.  Metaphorically speaking, once you start seeing the frame as well as the picture within, you know that you've run out of pixie dust.

Unfortunately, you only get provided with one portion in life - and it's not enough to last the journey.

UNCANNY X-MEN COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Sometimes words are superfluous, and this is surely one such occasion.  What could I possibly say that would increase your appreciation of the first ten covers of The X-MEN as illustrated by JACK 'KING' KIRBY?  Well, to be honest - nothing.  So all that need be said is - enjoy!

BACK To The FUTURE...

Copyright REBELLION

Many of you will have read and enjoyed The MISSING LINK strips from the pages of the late, lamented FANTASTIC which I published in a number of posts last year.  With its sixteenth issue, the series took a different direction and the Link, who originally was little more than an INCREDIBLE HULK knock-off, became a bona-fide superhero called JOHNNY FUTURE!

Here then is the first episode wherein JOHN FOSTER reveals his caped crime-fighting alter ego to the world at large for the very first time.  Want to see what happens next?  Then be sure to leave your 'thumbs-up' in the captivating comments section.

(Incidentally, the symbol on Johnny's costume appears to have been added later by someone in the ODHAMS offices.  Going by how inconsistently it's rendered from panel-to-panel and episode-to-episode, it's highly unlikely to be the handiwork of artist LUIS BERMEJO.  In fact, it was missed out in the last panel.) 

SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

February 10th, 1973.  That was the day SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY first went on sale (and the secret of FOOM was revealed to the waiting world). After sharing the first 19 issues of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, the web-spinner was awarded his own mag, backed up by The MIGHTY THOR, with ol' Shell-head, The INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, joining them in issue #50.

This Sunday will be the 40th anniversary of this collectors' item classic, so I thought I'd treat you to the first part of a selection of covers and images from Spidey's very first pulsating periodical in the U.K.  He'd previously appeared in POW! back in the 1960s and then TV21 at the start of the '70s, but this was the first British weekly that presented full, uncut adventures in a publication with him as the title star.

So feast your itchin' eyes on the pics that follow, and indulge yourself in warm and cosy recollections of when you first experienced them 40 years ago.  And don't dare forget to click here for Part Two.  (And dig those dynamic JIM STARLIN illustrations on the back page of issue #1 and on the front cover of issue #3 - terrific stuff, eh?)

PART TWO Of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS COVER GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

The above image is one of my favourite WALLY WOOD covers ever, partly because it reminds me of four different houses.  I first saw it (and read the contents) back in the '60s while we were visiting friends who lived across the street from where we'd once lived some years before.  So not only does it conjure up memories of two houses in my old neighbourhood, but also the one in which I was living in at the time.  I also associate it with my present abode because I bought an ALAN CLASS comic in the '70s which bore the same cover illo.

However, ignore my personal reminiscences - no doubt you'll have your own memories which spring to mind when you look at the accompanying collection of covers which lies before you.  So, go on, indulge yourself - you have my complete permission.