PART NINETEEN OF MIGHTY MARVEL COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

A shorter than usual MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL cover gallery this time around, I'm afraid.  That's because I need to scan some more issues before I can present them for your eager appreciation, which I intend do to at the earliest opportunity.  Number 53 was the first birthday issue, while #54 was the last issue to have 40 pages, reducing to a meagre 32 with the very next edition.

Sadly, the best days of MWOM were behind it (although it made a slight recovery around '74 or '75), so savour these images from a time when the title yet retained a glimmer of the Mighty Marvel Magic it had once contained in abundance.   

ROLL UP! ROLL UP! STARBURST COVER GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright respective owners

Another half-dozen STARBURST covers completes the first couple or so years of a magazine started by British comics guru DEZ SKINN in 1978.  Issue #20 was the last one that Dez was officially involved with before leaving for pastures new in pursuit of other projects.

I'll feature further covers from sporadically-purchased later issues as I find them, so keep your peepers peeled for future posts.

PART TWO OF STARBURST COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright respective owners

Here are the next six covers in our STARBURST gallery, faithful Crivvies, bringing the total thus far to eighteen.  There'll be another six in a future post, frantic ones.  Looking at these covers today, doesn't it seem like the movies featured on them only came out a couple of years back, instead of the thirty-plus it actually was?  Oo-er, I'm beginning to feel old. 

ROGER MOORE AS JAMES BOND - IN 1964...

When did ROGER MOORE first play

JAMES BOND?  1973 you say?  You'd be

wrong.  Here's Roger as Bond in 1964.

(BOND) BABE OF THE DAY - MESMERISING MADELINE...

Two simple words are all that's

needed: MADELINE SMITH.

PART TWO OF THOR & X-MEN COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Number 37 of THOR And The X-MEN is one of the few British MARVEL comics (if not the only one, in fact - up to that point at least) ever to have snow on the cover masthead.  That alone probably makes it quite a collectors' item, but it certainly makes for a nice festive effect, to be sure.  Number 39 is dated 1983 instead of '84, but as it's the last issue, I don't suppose there's much point in getting bent out of shape over it.

And that, as they say, dear readers, is yer lot.  We've completed  our journey through all 20 covers of this particular title, so it's now up to me to see if I can lure you back here with the promise of something interesting.  Let's see what I can come up with for the next post. 

STAR WARS - BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY...

Just watched this over on MARK EVANIER's site.  This you gotta see.

THOR & X-MEN COVER GALLERY - PART ONE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I have a feeling that the X-MEN segment of the above cover was used before somewhere, but I know that the art on #22 was originally a cover on an issue of the mid-1970s weekly, The SUPER-HEROES.  MARVEL UK certainly believed in re-cycling, that's for sure.  Anyway, presented for your personal perusal, are the first ten issues of the merged The MIGHTY THOR And The X-MEN comic from the early '80s.

We'll be looking at the final ten issues in an upcoming post, but, in the meantime, if you have any recollections of these comics, feel free to share them with your fellow Criv-ites in the comments section.

THE VOLUPTUOUS VALERIE...

Remember HAI KARATE aftershave

back in the 1970s?  The voluptuous goddess

in the TV adverts was VALERIE LEON, who

appeared in quite a few movies and TV shows. 

We're not interested in her acting CV though,

we only want to admire her stunning and

 intoxicating looks - so admire away.

PART TWO OF TV TORNADO #1...

All characters copyright their respective owners

When you think about it, TV TORNADO had quite a line-up within its pages - SUPERMAN, BATMAN, The MAN From U.N.C.L.E., etc.  Trouble was, the real biggies were text stories rather than comic strips, which is perhaps not the best way to present superhero adventures.  It's interesting to speculate on whether the mag might've enjoyed a far longer run had the artwork been of the same high-quality as in TV CENTURY 21.  Can you imagine Superman and Batman being illustrated by ace artists like MIKE NOBLE or RON EMBLETON?!  Wow!  Of course, whether NATIONAL PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS would've allowed anyone else to produce brand-new tales of their top superheroes is open to question, as is whether CITY MAGAZINES could've afforded the licensing rights to do so.

Anyway, enough of 'what-ifs?', let's just enjoy the second half of the first issue of TV Tornado together.  Just think, you lucky collectors - now you have the complete comic to add to your collection.

Click here for Part One.