The RAWHIDE KID - A REAL STRAIGHT-SHOOTER...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It wasn't until I was typing out the folder name for these scans that it struck me just how gay the name RAWHIDE KID sounds these days.  In fact, I believe the character was 'outed' a few years ago when, for whatever reason, writer RON ZIMMERMAN decided to retroactively reverse the Kid's sexual orientation.  I never read that series - didn't even see it, in fact - but, to me, the Rawhide Kid is, and always will be, as straight as they come.  In fact, he's so macho and manly, he drinks his milk from a dirty glass.

Anyway, there seems to have been a pulsatin' plethora of cowboy characters called 'Kid' in MARVEL comicbooks way back when.  As well as The Rawhide Kid, there was The TWO-GUN KID, The APACHE KID, The RINGO KID, The WESTERN KID, and KID COLT, OUTLAW.  May well be more for all I know.  The blamed West was over-run with dang kids - where were all the adults fer cryin' out loud?  Makin' kids, I guess.  (Well, a man can't  spend all his time with his horse  - it ain't natcheral!)

Surely HERB TRIMPE's finest inker was JOHN SEVERIN.  Just look at that splash page below.  GERRY TALAOC, who inked the next couple of issues, did a great job (with DAN BULANADI on #4) - but, for me, Severin is the main man when it comes to inking Trimpe's pencils.  Herb's artwork, great as it was, always looked even better for having been 'kissed' by the pen or brush of the inordinately talented Mr S, who was also a magnificent penciller in his own right.  I've yet to see a page of art that wasn't enhanced by his inks.  Who could ever forget his excellent work on KULL The CONQUEROR with his sister MARIE back in the '70s?

However, it's the Old West we're interested in today.  So saddle on up and sashay on down to the ol' saloon - where men were men and women were wild - and kids were well-past their bedtime.

WITCH'S VISIONS - COVER & SPLASH PAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

If the old memory isn't playing tricks on me, I bought the first ish of this mag quite a few years before I acquired the other three in the series.  However, before then, I'd read reprints of them in the second incarnation of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL in 1983 - not too long after the original U.S. mini-series, in fact.  It's strange to see the covers of #2 & 3 in their original form because, naturally, I associate them more with MWOM, which is where I first saw them. However, that's neither here nor there as far as you're concerned.  Your main interest is surely in refreshing your own recollections of when you first experienced these comics, back in the faded, half-forgotten realms of 'long ago and far away'.

So - happy reminiscing!

Page 1 was a rather unspectacular affair (and not even a splash page)
so here's page 2 instead, which better fits the description

The THUNDER AGENTS COMPANION...

Images copyright relevant owner

Are you a T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS fan?  Then you may be interested in this great softcover volume I picked up (and paid for, naturally) in a local Glasgow comicbook store back around 2005.  Unfortunately, it's too tightly bound to be able to open it wide enough to scan any internal pages, but it's a 'must-have' for all followers of WALLY WOOD's '60s super agents.

However, rather than bore you with my woeful waffle, check out the back cover below to see what this superb book contains.  (Click on image, then click again for optimum size.)

Probably still available, so rush out and buy one today!

Oh, go on then - I'll risk damaging the book to show you just

one page.  I'm far too good to the lot of you, I really am!

DALEKS SWEET CIGARETTE CARDS - PART NINE...

Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

Paste your peepers on the penultimate part of CADET's DALEKS SWEET CIGARETTE CARDS, all you frantic fans of the metal-cased mutant maniacs from the far-flung planet SKARO.  Produced in the mid-'60s by a confectionery company, there are only five more cards to be presented in the final part of this scintillating series until you have the complete set, you lucky lovers of DOCTOR WHO's arch-foes from the BBC TV science-fantasy serial.

So remember - don't forget to be here for the final five cards - coming soon!

ACTION MAN ADS (AND MORE)...

What do TOM BAKER and ACTION MAN have in common?  Well, if you're willing to wade through a welter of television commercials from the 1970s, all will be revealed.  Go on, travel back in time today!

"The ULTROIDS ATTACK!" COVER & SPLASH PAGE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Sometimes I post images on this blog simply because I like them and not because I have any great insight to offer on their background or creation (no change there then, some folk will be thinking) - this is such an occasion.  I first read this story in a British weekly periodical called FANTASTIC in the late 1960s and I just love DON HECK's artwork.  The examples here come from a 1975 reprint of the tale (AVENGERS #36) in MARVEL TRIPLE ACTION #28.

So - just thought I'd share the cover and splash page with all you Marvelites.  Enjoy!  (And if anyone has WANDA's 'phone number, please get in touch.  Va-va-voom!)

PART TWO OF KIRBY'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY COVER & SPLASH PAGE GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

So far, my previous post on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY has generated the same level of interest as the comicbook - not very much.  I assume that sales of the Treasury Edition adaptation were okay, otherwise it's highly unlikely that MARVEL would've green-lit the monthly mag, but the series itself seems to have seriously under-performed to last only ten issues.

Sadly, JACK KIRBY's name no longer had the same kind of 'pulling-power' it once did.  True, the die-hard Kirby fans were as rabid as ever, but the wider comics-reading public remained less than impressed by Jack's later output.  He was like an old-time ballroom dancer at a disco, in that he seemed curiously out of  step with what the comics-buying public preferred.  That's not to say that his mags were without any kind of merit, only that Kirby was now a sideline squatter rather than a mainstream maestro.

However, don't let that deter you from enjoying these 'last gasp' gyrations of a giant of the industry.  He may have been fast falling out of favour and fashion, but remember the old saying - "You can get many a nasty sting from a dying bee!"

     

And below is the front and back cover of the Marvel Treasury

Edition movie adaptation that started the ball rolling.

MARVEL LEGEND DICK AYERS PASSES AWAY...

April 28th, 1924 - May 4th, 2014

Sadly, another MARVEL BULLPEN legend has passed away.

DICK AYERS, one of JACK KIRBY's finest inkers - as well as

a great artist in his own right - died on May 4th at the ripe old age

of 90. The ranks are dwindling alas, but his work will live on. 

KIRBY'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY COVER & SPLASH PAGE GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

It started with JACK KIRBY's 1976 treasury-sized illustrated adaptation of STANLEY KUBRICK's movie, based on ARTHUR C. CLARKE's novel, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  It then continued in a regular comicbook series which introduced MISTER MACHINE, who later went on to star in his own magazine entitled MACHINE MAN.  At least, that's the READERS' DIGEST version, but, strictly speaking it's not entirely accurate.  Clarke and Kubrick worked on the novel together (based on various short stories by Clarke) at the same time the movie was being made, but wasn't published until shortly after its release in 1968 - with Clarke named as sole author.

Kirby's adaptation incorporated elements from both the book and the movie, so he'd obviously read the novel, but what you may be wondering is - whose idea was the adaptation, Jack's or Marvel's?  After all, the movie was eight years old, not a recent blockbuster hit, and was therefore hardly likely to generate much interest in spin-off merchandise.  Was this yet another sign of just how out-of-touch Jack was with reader's tastes?  Ten issues - in which the last three completely changed direction - proves conclusively that the mag failed to generate much of a following amongst the assembled masses of Merry Marvel Madmen.

Or was it Marvel who had misjudged the potential?  Doubtful.  I'm led to believe that doing the adaptation was a condition that Jack negotiated with Marvel, who agreed in order to get him to sign on the dotted line.  Licence fees for movie adaptations aren't cheap, but Marvel must have figured it was worth it to get him to rejoin the fold.  It was the Bullpen equivalent of slaying the fatted calf upon the return of the prodigal son.  The 'King' was back - but not for long, alas!

However, all that is now history - and what we're interested in is what was then the future.  So let's all go on an odyssey of our own, as we look at the covers and splash pages of one of Jack's shortest-lived Marvel monthlies from the sizzlin' '70s.

Part Two coming soon!