LOVE ME TENDER? NOPE!

Just about everyone knows the song LOVE ME TENDER by PELVIS PARSLEY (or whatever his name is), but did you know that the tune originally belonged to a 19th century composition called AURA LEE?  Here's Mr. VELVET himself, JIM REEVES, singing it live sometime back in the 1950s (I think) on some show or other.

This clip looks as if it's been filmed directly from the TV broadcast, so the quality of sound and vision isn't all that great, but isn't it interesting to hear the original version of the song?

'TEAM-UPS & TENSES' - PART SIX of 'POT LUCK' MARVEL COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Some might say it's redundant given that SPIDER-MAN readily identifies the publisher, but I can't help thinking that 'MARVEL' should be far more prominent in the above cover's rather bland masthead.  However, that's just a personal observation and no one's obliged to agree with me on the matter.  Anyway, here's yet another batch of British Marvel weeklies (although it's possible that MARVEL ACTION HOUR was a fortnightly comic, but I can't quite recall) to satiate your rabid desire for all things Marvel from many years ago.

It would be interesting to know what the sales figures were on these titles, because, with the possible exception of TEAM-UP, I can't imagine that any of them lasted for very long.  British Marvel seems to have lost its way a bit during this period, and nothing much matched the excitement that early issues of MWOM and SMCW managed to create in readers back in the early '70s.  You have to give them credit for trying, I suppose, but, for the most part (with a few honourable exceptions), it wasn't until PANINI took over the task of producing U.K. titles that 'British Marvel' at last fulfilled its potential as far as presentation goes.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Instead, let's focus on these pulsating periodicals from the past, when we were all younger, brighter-eyed and bushy-tailed, with optimism for the future burning in our hearts.  Wouldn't it be great to re-experience those elusive, enchanted emotions from so very long ago?  Well, now's our chance!  So, everyone clasp hands and focus upon the covers enclosed within this post - with any luck, we'll return to an earlier era together!

Spot the Marvel boo-boo.  The date should read 18th

ACTION & ADVENTURE: 'POT LUCK' MARVEL COVER GALLERY - PART FIVE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here's yet another bold batch of British MARVEL comic covers from over 30 years ago.  This time around it's MARVEL SUPER ADVENTURE and MARVEL ACTION for you all to salivate over, featuring KIRBY, COLAN, BUSCEMA and SMITH artwork.  I can't help but think that the LETRASET lettering on the covers did them no favours and that professional hand-lettering after the style of SAM ROSEN would've been much easier on the eye.

That's one of the things that often surprised me about British Marvel - the way they would dilute the distinctive essence of what made a Marvel comic what it was by using typeset lettering instead of the cataclysmic calligraphy that artistic giants like Sam Rosen or ARTIE SIMEK were capable of - what the heck was the editor thinking?  Such a sorry state of affairs wouldn't have happened if I'd been in charge of these mags, no sirree!  (And they only had to ask.)

Anyway, what particular reminiscences (if any) do you have about these weekly comics, dear readers?  Why not share them with the rest of us in the Crivens comments section?  You'll be glad you did!

    

CAN YOU TELL WHAT IT IS YET? REVEALED!

Okay, let's have a little fun.  Above are a few lines done with a marker pen - can anyone guess what the finished 'kwik-pic' is going to be?  Here's a clue to the mystery - it isn't a machine!

******

And here's what it looks like when finished.  Congratulations to JOE BLOKE for correctly identifying the picture above as SCOOBY DOO.  Of course, it's Scooby as drawn off the top of my head without recourse to reference, but it's recognizable.  Joe wins an air-plated 'no-prize' - well done, Joe.  Sorry for the delay in posting the completed pic, but I mislaid it.

STAR WARS STRIKES! PART FOUR Of 'POT LUCK' MARVEL COVER GALLERY...

STAR WARS copyright relevant owner

Here we are again with a humongous helping of cavortin' covers from the halcyon days of Mighty MARVEL's U.K. publications on sale in the '70s and '80s.  Does the sight of them bring a tear to your eye as you recall the long-ago days of your youth when most of your life lay before you as opposed to behind you?  Same goes for me, effendi!

In some ways, there was no real point to most of Marvel's British output back in the early '80s, because U.S. comics were freely available and still relatively inexpensive.  Nowadays, PANINI's collected editions are what British Marvel mags should have been, but sadly weren't.

However, that said, and although I was buying them mostly out of habit by that time, it's good to see again the covers from these mags that hold so many memories of the dim and distant days of my youth.  They say you can't go home again, but sometimes you can catch enough of a glimpse of it to temporarily satiate your longing for a taste of an earlier and happier period from your past.

What memories do these mags hold for you, frantic ones?  Feel entirely free to reminisce in our captivating comments section.

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

WORZEL copyright relevant owner

STAR WARS copyright relevant owner

"LET THERE BE BATTLE!" FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - PART TWENTY-SIX...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Okay, I admit it - I'm cheating a little with this one.  You see, dear readers, I never actually had this particular comic when I was a lad.  No indeed, but I did read the titanic tale when it was serialised in three (I think) issues of the British '60s title, FANTASTIC.  It was reprinted in black and white, but that hardly mattered, so powerful were marvellous MARIE SEVERIN's dynamically composed layouts and storytelling.

Sometime in the early '70s, I re-acquired a few back issues for a short time, and then the tale was reprinted in The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL.  I couldn't even guess when I obtained the original issue (TALES TO ASTONISH #100) - was it the late 1980s or the early or mid-'90s?  I can't be absolutely sure after all this time.  (Maybe I have an invoice lying around somewhere that will supply the date, but I can't even recall if I bought it in a shop or via mail order.)

Not that it matters I suppose, because the story shrieks the '60s at me regardless of which version I'm looking at.  I'd taken some Fantastics into primary school one day, and therefore associate the tale mainly with the classroom wherein I pored o'er the pulsating pages in awestruck wonder during a break in lessons.  However, I thought it was only right and proper to show the original TTA version, so that you could see how it was first presented to a breathlessly waiting world. 

COMING NEXT:  Part Four of 'Pot Luck' Marvel Cover Gallery!

   

"A RAGING FURY!" 'POT LUCK' MARVEL COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Are you all ready for some more?  (And no, the title doesn't refer to CAPTAIN HURRICANE's 'eppies'!)  Here are the covers of more British MARVEL weeklies from the late 1970s and early '80s, all from my own collection at the back of a cupboard.  FURY was an odd one, an attempt by Marvel to produce a comic more in line with traditional weeklies that were the staple of IPC and D.C. THOMSON.  I no longer remember how many issues it survived for before being merged with another title (MWOM), but not many I'd guess.  

MARVEL COMIC was the revamped The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, redesigned by editor-in-chief DEZ SKINN to resemble comics like VALIANT, LION, and a whole host of other weeklies by rival companies.  I'm not quite sure why, because most (if not all) of those comics had fallen by the wayside by the time this title was unleashed, but the strips were resized in the same way as the Marvel reprints in WHAM!, SMASH!, and POW! were back in the '60s.

I recall buying the new 'first' issue on the way into Glasgow to see SUPERMAN The MOVIE (for the second or third time), and me and a friend each having a fish tea in The BLUE LAGOON, across from Glasgow's Central Station.  Come to think of it, I also got the SPIDER-MAN COMIC that same day.  (These are my original copies by the way, not replacements.)

Anyway, in a magnificent display of self-restraint, I'll spare you further memories of the other comics in this post and let you ponder on your own personal reminiscences associated with these Marvellous titles. Why not tell your fellow Crivvies all about them in our cataclysmic comments section?!  Speaking of which, we seem to have lost some of our regulars since I did away with the 'anonymous' option (in order to avoid loads of abuse I was receiving).  If only those former (and very welcome) commenters would create a Google account, then we could all once again enjoy their sparkling words of wit, wisdom and wonder.  How about it, guys?