SUPERMAN SINGS 'SKIP To My LOO' - PART TWENTY Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST...

Copyright DC COMICS

I have a startling confession to make - I can't keep it in any longer (apt words when you discover my shocking secret).  Whenever I go into the toilet to 'perch on the porcelain', I can't do so unless I take something in with me to read while I go about my business.  I've been the same since I was about 7 or 8, when my mother would chide me for taking so long in the bathroom.  If I don't have something to read, the only alternative is to try and squeeze imaginary blackheads from my thighs, but that soon gets boring - so it's either a pile of comics or a book or three to help me while away the time in the smallest room in the house.

But to digress for a moment: When I was younger, I would sometimes buy a comic more than once.  See, once I'd read the original, I might cut pictures from it, swap it with a mate or, horror of horrors, even throw it away.  Then, perhaps weeks or months later (sometimes even a year or so), I'd see another copy on the spinner-rack in my local (or another) newsagent's, and be transfixed by its pristine newness and simply have to buy it.  However, as comics tend to be a means by which I remember my life - due to the fact that I associate times, places, events, and even people with them - it can sometimes be confusing years later when conflicting memories of the same issue purchased at different times and locations become mixed-up in my mind.

The SUPERMAN mags in this post serve as a perfect example.  I bought both of them when I lived in one house, and then bought them again a few months later after moving to a new domicile.  "How is that possible?" you may be wondering.  Well, batches of US comics came over to Britain as ballast in ships and, presumably, some of them would lie in warehouses for months, perhaps even years. This meant that long after many of these issues had first gone on sale, the same comics could reappear in shops several months later.  It led to an odd but exciting mix on the spinner-racks - you could buy a particular mag one month, only to find numbers preceding it (by quite a margin) on subsequent shopping trips some months down the line.

So, in my advanced years, sometimes when I look at the covers to these two comics, I might associate them with the second occasion I bought them, rather than the first.  Then again, sometimes not - it just depends, I suppose.  Arguably, I may associate the cover to #242 more with the house in which I currently reside because, for some strange reason, it made more of an impression on me the second time I purchased it.  However, its contents, especially the back-up tales, are inextricably linked to the previous house, because I remember reading them while sitting on the loo a few months before.

Which brings us back rather neatly to where we started - my bathroom.  But there's only room for one person in here at a time, so kindly close the door on your way out - and leave me (and my comics) to the privacy to which we're entitled.

PART TWO OF JACK KIRBY'S THE DEMON COVER GALLERY...

Copyright DC COMICS

The DEMON was JACK KIRBY's third longest lasting book for DC COMICS.  KAMANDI was the outright winner at around 40 issues, MISTER MIRACLE managed to make 18, and The Demon hit 16 before cancellation.  Poor Jack seemed thwarted at every turn at DC, who clearly had different ideas on how to use his talents than he did.  Makes you wonder why they ever bothered to hire him away from MARVEL in the first place.

Perhaps it was merely a ploy to deprive Marvel of what DC regarded as their opposition's 'chief creative force', but, if so they miscalculated.  Marvel hardly noticed JK's absence, and DC failed to capitalise on the powerhouse they had in their midst.  It's only now, many years after the fact, that Jack's DC work is being appreciated by the wider audience it (arguably) deserves, but failed to garner at the time.

So, having already looked at covers 1-5 here, we now turn our attention to the next five on the list.  Don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the third and final post in this series, in which we'll showcase the last six covers in this sadly short-lived title.

'The CURIOUS CASE Of The FOUR-COLOUR CUTIE' - PART NINETEEN Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST...

Images copyright DC COMICS

'Twas in WOOLWORTHS on a dark, late-afternoon - possibly around October or November of 1967 - that I spied the above comic while on a shopping trip with my mother and brother.  It was swiftly purchased and eagerly read from cover to cover, leaving a deep impression on me.  Or to be more precise, 'twas the curvaceous figure of VI LANCE, the gorgeous red-headed stunt girl in the ROBIN backup tale, that so captivated my eight-year old self.

I remember taking the comic with me on a family visit to my grandparents a day or two later, and being entranced with Vi's womanly charms throughout the entire evening.  I could hardly tear my eyes away from the four-colour cutie, and had 'butterflies' in my stomach all night long, to say nothing of a gormless, loved-up expression on my freckled kipper in the best KEN REID tradition.  How can a simple drawing have such an effect on someone?

I'd like to be able to put my somewhat extreme reaction down to the fact that I was only a kid - but, truth to tell, I find myself not entirely immune to those same drawings 46 years later, so can't pin my early lustful longings on mere youthful 'exuberance'.  Could've been worse, I suppose.  At least it wasn't Robin I fancied.

If you have any memories of this particular comic (or any other ones in which you fancied some fabulous female), feel free to share them in the comments section with your fellow Crivs.

CRIVENS! MIGHTY MARVEL COVER GALLERY - PART SIXTEEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

By the time the last comic in this particular post went on sale, the green spot-colour which had graced some pages of the weekly MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL had disappeared.  Apart from the front and back cover, the few full-colour pages were already long gone and, sad to say, MWOM was beginning to look like a sad imitation of its former self.

Dull grey tones which obscured the art were becoming a prominent feature of the Marvel periodicals and did them no favours at all.  In fact, it's surprising that, over in the States, those responsible for the weeklies allowed the situation to continue for so long, because the printing was truly dire.

And make no mistake - by and large, the murky mess was the fault of the printing, because, as I understand it, the team responsible for the tones in Marvel U.S. 'black & white' mags was the same one who attended to the British weeklies - and the American mags turned out fine.

Take a look at the full-page ad for The AVENGERS further down - believe it or not, I've lightened it up a bit so that you can see it better, but it's still far too dark in places - to the detriment of JACK KIRBY's & DICK AYERS' art.  Some of the pages in later issues were almost black, so impenetrable was the poorly printed Zipatone (Letratone to us) which afflicted the mags

However, despite all that, happy memories abound on sight of these iconic images of yesteryear - for me, anyway.  Let's hope that they produce the exact same result on you if you were lucky enough to own these mags when they first came out  - 40 years ago.  (Wow!)  All together now...

"Make Mine Marvel!"

PICKING & CHOOSING - A PERPLEXING PROBLEM...

Images copyright relevant owners

Anyone else got this problem?  Every so often I feel that I should have a clear-out and reduce my vast collection of stuff to a more manageable size.  After all, I've got books and comics that I haven't looked at in decades, so what's the point in keeping them?  Especially as it might well be eons before I ever look at any of them again.

However, I find that, when I begin to go through things, memories and associations suddenly start springing to mind at the merest glance of seemingly long-forgotten possessions that have lain hidden for years, and I find myself unable to bear the thought of parting with anything.

How do the rest of you deal with such a situation?

BOND - JAMES BOND, 007...

Copyright relevant owner

Here's one that someone out there might be able to help me with.  Above is a JAMES BOND Annual from the '60s, which resides in my vast collection of books, comics, and other assorted items from the past.

However, unfortunately there's a page missing.  Can anyone provide me with full-size scans of page 17 & 18 so that I can restore it to the book?  Or tell me if any Bond DVDs currently available have the Annual as part of a PDF file?  (I've actually got the boxed set of 007 movies, but I don't fancy going through them all to check for myself - lazy buggah that I am.)

So, if you think you can help me restore the book to its former glory, please let me know in the comments section.  I'd be much obliged.

******

And thanks to BARRY PEARL, a facsimile of both sides of the page has now been restored to the book.  Ta, Baz.

PART FIFTEEN Of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Well, another look at some covers and interior images from The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL must be long overdue, so let's remedy that situation right away.  By this time, the colour within MWOM was fast-diminishing - only the exterior covers were still full-colour and the interior spot-green was soon to disappear, leaving only deadly dark and overdone grey tones which obliterated most of the detail.  It's not too apparent in the following pages, but you'll see in the next part how evident the decline is.

So be sure to join us again then.  Meanwhile, enjoy the pretty pics presented for all you particular patrons of this pandemonious place of powerfully perfect pages and pulsating pin-ups.

I got my original copy of this ish while on holiday in Blackpool in 1973.  It contains no pin-ups, alas

MOONLIGHT, MEMORIES & MADNESS...

Image copyright DC COMICS

Above is the cover to a comic which reminds me of three other comics at the same time.  "How is such a feat of mighty memory-mastery possible?" you may be asking.  So, let us now, by the power of our imaginations, return to October 7th 1972 and the Old Village quarter of my hometown, where I, resplendent in my brother's cast-off cord jacket - slightly too big for me and worn for the first time that Saturday morning - was attending a jumble sale held in aid of the 8th Scout Troop in the 'old hall' in the grounds of the Old Parish Church.

This and subsequent images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I'd previously purchased The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #2 earlier that morning, and, later, SUPERMAN #251 en route to the village.  Now, in the kind of hall that spoke of a long-vanished age - anything from the '20s to the '50s - I was to add MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #1 and TERRIFIC #1 to my awesome acquisitions.  The previous owner seemed to have used the issue of MSH as a dartboard at some point, but it was still readable, and I think it was the first time I'd owned a complete copy of that particular Terrific, a U.K. weekly launched five years earlier which had graced the shelves for a mere 43 issues.

Looking for a place to pore over my comics as I left the jumble sale, I wandered around to the back of an adjacent, nigh-derelict building (a dentist worked in a room or two on the upper floor) which adjoined the local, centuries old public house next to the church (and overlooked the graveyard).  It was an inquisitive boy's delight, and a week or so later, under the dark velvet canvas of the star-kissed heavens, yours truly and a friend were crawling across the roof of the pub, and even using the exterior, cast-iron fire-escape staircase to gain access to the back 'courtyard' below.  This location became the source of surreptitious exploration every so often over a period of two or three years and holds many happy memories for me.

So, I can't look at any one cover without also thinking of the other three - or of that jumble sale, my cord jacket, and an old pub next to the final resting place of long-gone local 'worthies', who had doubtless quaffed many a flagon of ale centuries before in the very building over whose slates two teenage boys daringly defied death in the airy Autumn moonlight.

******

The building at the back of the pub

Interestingly, I occasionally visit the upstairs lounge bar for a soft drink and a bag of crisps, and have done for many a year now.  It's an odd sensation to think, while sitting there, that I'm under the very roof I once crawled over as a 14-year-old lad so very long ago.  I sometimes wonder if any modern-day counterparts of me and my pals have ever retraced our footsteps (and handprints) in the years since we first braved the slates, but it's unlikely.  The building at the back of the pub is now residential and access to the roof can no longer be obtained through its grounds.

******

 For an earlier mention of my rooftop adventures, click here.