BABE Of The DAY - JERI RYAN...

Good news, lads.  I never really

watched the show, but if I understand

things correctly, there are nine of her.

Put your names into a hat and I'll pick

eight of you from among them.  (All

bribes carefully considered.)

BEST FOOT FORWARD? THAT WOULD BE FOLLY...

Now here's a blast from the past - the opening

titles of FOLLYFOOT, a popular TV series from the

'70s.  Nice to see that DESMOND LLEWELYN got

 a bit of regular work between BOND movies.

KID KLASSICS - The MEASURE Of SUCCESS...

How do you measure success?  Is it by comparing your achievements to the accomplishments of others, or against the fulfilment of your own ambitions?  And when it comes to judging the success of others, it's probably pretty pointless using your own aspirations as the standard by which to do so, because they simply may not have been aiming at the same target - nor shooting the same kind of arrows in order to hit whatever target they were aiming for.

I once freelanced for IPC's top-selling boys title, 2000 A.D. I had my name in print, people requesting my autograph, and - best of all - money!  Was I success?  Well, in one way, yes - but in another way, not really.  I'd never had any particular ambition to work for 2000 A.D. per se, only to work in comics in some way.  The fact that I started my 15-year career on the most popular adventure comic in the country was merely a bonus.

So was I any more of a 'success' than someone whose first job was as a shelf-stacker in Sainsbury's and who then worked his way up to the position of store manager?  Well, no, not really.  Is he any more of a success than me?  Just how do you measure it?  It may never have been his ambition to work in a supermarket, but it was mine to work in the comics biz - and I actually achieved that.  (Interestingly, back in 1988, MARVEL U.K. contacted me to offer me work - I never had to approach them.  That's being a failure?)

If you're happy (or content) with your achievements in life, then, in a very real sense, you're a success.  Whether you're a biscuit salesman or banker, if you've attained the goals you set for yourself then that's an accomplishment.  (Unless your ambition was to be a failure - now there's an interesting paradox.)  Remember, you can't be said to have failed at something you've never tried (after all, you've got to be in a race to win or lose it), so don't ever waste a second paying heed to those smug, self-satisfied types who regard their own personal career situation as some kind of 'international standard'.

Deep down inside, they're extremely insecure people who need to feel that they've done better in life than anyone else in order to feel good about themselves.  Sad but true.

BABE Of The DAY - LYNDA CARTER...

I know LYNDA has already made

an appearance on BABE Of The DAY,

but how could I refuse when she begged to

be on again?  Could you say no to Lynda?

 (Behave - you know what I mean.)

WINNERS, LOSERS & LIARS - Or: FACTS, FABLES & FIBS...

           Me                                                                       The other guy

Once again, I unfortunately find myself placed in the position of having to address a certain controversial matter that I imagine most of you won't have much interest in - might even be bored by, in fact.  I've dealt with the subject before, but the individual concerned seems determined to pick at the scab by constantly adding, subtracting and altering the details of his provocative and misleading remarks in a malicious attempt to malign my name and impugn my good character.  Such an attack cannot go unanswered, but if you prefer to skip such posts, I completely understand.

******

I guess his hits must be down.  Why else would he be trying to stir things up again by posting such a blatant lie on his Blog?  What am I talking about?  You remember me telling you about a comics forum I'd joined a good while back and then resigned from on account of a handful of people who resented my membership doing their best to create controversy around me? 

I grew weary of certain members being allowed to say anything they liked either to or about me without the moderators calling them to account, so I resigned from the forum.  My resignation, as far as I'm aware, is still there for everyone to see.  After I'd resigned, one particular moderator somewhat impotently banned me for - are you ready for this? - leaving the forum.  Yup, that was my 'crime' - I'd left the forum.  The site owner subsequently invited me to rejoin, but I declined because I couldn't be bothered having to deal with the handful of @rseholes who clearly regarded the site as their own personal playground and didn't want to share it with me.  No big loss.

Got that?  So what do you call someone who completely ignores the facts of the case (even though he's aware of them) and continues to claim that I was banned from this forum because of my 'behaviour'?  I'll tell you - a big fat feckin' liar, that's what!  This is a guy who has taken frequent pops at me in the comments section of his Blog (without explicitly naming me, but making it obvious to whom he was referring), prompting me to respond on my Blog in humorous, mocking fashion of his childish, obsessional behaviour.  When these responses to his provocation had eventually served their purpose, in the fullness of time I removed some of them because they were no longer topical.  Once, in a fit of one-sided generosity, I removed a few of them to give the guy a break and wipe the slate clean. 

But guess what?  He's now claiming that I removed them in order to 'play down' my 'aggression', thereby suggesting that he has some kind of 'special insight' into my motives.  Let me tell you about aggression: This is the guy who once issued a thinly-veiled 'come and have a go if you think you're hard enough' challenge to me on someone else's blog, and has been accused of being a bit of a bully on the very forum he claims I was banned from.  He has been banned from at least two Blogs that I know of, the owner of one of them being informed that a warning would be issued to this person by his Internet Service Provider for his behaviour.  (Whether it was or not I have no way of knowing, but I hardly expect him to publicly admit to it.  After all, he is a liar, remember.)

And now, as far as I can see, he's at it again in his best sly, sleekit, sh*t-stirring fashion.  I've not long been alerted to the fact that he's currently claiming to be the victim of 'trolling'.  (That usually means that someone has ventured to offer an opinion contrary to his own.)  I've previously mentioned here that I find such designations childish and immature, and the first resort of the emotionally insecure who can't handle any kind of dissent to their own rigidly-held opinions.  Well, guess what?  In two seemingly casual, throwaway sentences - "If you don't like the phrase, stop doing it.  It's cowardly and it's childish and it's not welcome here" - he appears to be pointing the finger in my direction - without actually naming anyone of course, and thus allowing him to deny having anyone particular in mind.

He's done this before on quite a few occasions - it seems to be a pattern of his.  He makes remarks that readily apply to a specific circumstance or person, but does so in such a way that allows him to deny it when challenged.  Then he levels accusations of paranoia at whoever's calling him to account, hiding behind the fact that no names were mentioned, even though it's fairly obvious just who or what his comments or accusations were levelled at.  He's fooling no one of course, apart from himself and a few sycophants, but it allows him to evade accountability for his outrageous statements.

What he perhaps doesn't realise is that I restored most of my previous posts about him quite some time back (in response to his continued attacks on me on various Blogs, forums and Twitter sites), long before he'd mentioned I'd deleted them.  Any that I didn't restore was simply down to me not keeping them on account of them being no longer topical, not because I was trying to conceal them for any reason.  In his typically obsessed way, he claims to have archived these posts, so, if he'd be kind enough to supply me with copies of any he can't find on my Blog, I'd be more than happy to re-post them.

To be completely honest with you, I find it utterly disgraceful that a 'full-time professional comics contributor' should indulge in such outrageously provocative and disingenuous behaviour, but he obviously has problems of some kind.  In the meantime, kindly remember - I've given you nothing but cold, hard facts - whereas he continues to deal in lies, distortions and insinuations.

Hardly the behaviour of someone you can trust, I'd say.

******

UPDATE: In light of ridiculous claims on the man's blog, note that all I've done is report the fact that he's revised the lies about me on his site, and pointed out that he seems to be alluding to me in his post about abusive emails - yet this he constitutes as an attack on him.  He seems to miss the point that if he didn't post lies about me and attribute motives to me of his own invention, there'd be no need for me to comment on it.  For example, he's still claiming on his blog that I was banned from a forum because of my behaviour, which is a complete distortion of the facts.  To deliberately distort the truth is to lie, in my book.  Yet he denies it without ever addressing the evidence for it.  The truth is out there!  

BABE Of The DAY - TRACY SCOGGINS...

TRACY SCOGGINS has appeared in

DYNASTY, The COLBYS, BABYLON 5,

and LOIS & CLARK - plus several dreams of

mine.  I dunno about the TV shows, but in my

(ahem) 'productions', she won an award - and

now she's made BABE Of The DAY!  Is

 there no end to the gal's talents?!

THE AIR THAT I BREATHE...

Here's k.d. lang with a classic track that she more than does full justice

to.  So sit back and relax and let her dulcet tones envelop your lug'oles.

COOO-EEE! PANEL-BY-PANEL - RENT-A-GHOST LTD...

Characters copyright REBELLION

REG PARLETT was one of the greats!  Anyone who knows anything about the history of British comics art would never even consider disputing that simple, incontrovertible fact for a second.  Anything and everything he drew was imbued with a spontaneity and deftness of line that was effective, pleasing on the eye, funny, and seemingly (and no doubt deceptively) easily accomplished.

What we have here is an episode of RENT-A-GHOST LTD., from the March 17th 1973 issue of BUSTER.  Each panel has been scanned from the original art, and I've included the published page to allow you to do a direct comparison, enabling you to appreciate Reg Parlett's artwork at its finest!

And, to my eyes, that's mighty fine indeed!

BABE Of The DAY - LYNDSEY MARSHALL...

I first became aware of LYNDSEY

MARSHALL in a television show called

'GARROW'S LAW' a few years back.  The

above pic is from another drama, though I

haven't actually seen it.  However, what

 does it matter?  She's still a babe!

PART FOUR Of JACK KIRBY'S CHALLENGERS Of The UNKNOWN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

By now, if you've seen the other three posts in this run and are really serious about collecting classic comicbooks, you'll want to add these iconic issues to your collection.  (Assuming that you don't already have them all, natch.)  Don't know where to start?  Panic not, O DC disciple.  Every one of JACK KIRBY's CHALLENGERS Of The UNKNOWN tales are available in an Omnibus Edition which should be available at your nearest comicbook store.  You might even be able to pick up the previous two volumes of the DC ARCHIVES books which featured these great tales.

Interestingly, the title was still going when Jack returned to DC in 1970, but was cancelled not too long afterwards.  A handful of reprint issues were subsequently published in the early '70s, and the series was later revived for a short time, but not 'til after JK had departed DC.  There seems to be debate over who created and wrote the strip; some sources credit Jack Kirby alone, but others say it was Jack and DAVE WOOD.  There always seems to be controversy of this kind around 'The King'.  JOE SIMON said he created CAPTAIN AMERICA on his own, Jack claimed to be solely responsible for every good thing at MARVEL, and even his best-known '50s DC work has a cloud of uncertainty over who did what.  Pattern or coincidence?

Meanwhile, it's poor ol' STAN LEE who carries the can for being a 'glory-hog'.  Hardly seems fair to me, I gotta say!

    

BABE Of The DAY - NICHELLE NICHOLS...

Captain's log - should've flushed it away, the dirty

buggah!  But enough of such levity!  We gather here today

to admire the womanly charms of NICHELLE NICHOLS.

Just think - WILLIAM SHATNER got to snog her - and

was paid for it, the jammy rascal.   I'd have done it for

 nowt - even though I was only ten at the time.

PART TWO Of The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Welcome back!  Couldn't keep away, could you?  And who could possibly blame you when there's some classic comicbook art by both Big JOHN BUSCEMA and Jolly JACK KIRBY on display?  The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR was a terrific MARVEL U.K. weekly periodical which filled us in on the then-relatively recent adventures of the Fab Four (no, Melvin, not The BEATLES), plus super classic stories from the early '60s.  Who could ask for more for a mere 10 pence?

I suppose it's a shame that all these titanic tales weren't in colour, but British readers were used to the majority of their regular weeklies being mainly in black and white. On the plus side (as I noted last time), Marvel had finally managed to master the use of ZIPATONE (that's the U.S. equivalent of LETRATONE) so that the grey tones didn't obscure the detail on the art, as had once been the case with previous titles.

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me.  I now unleash upon you highlights from another three issues of The Complete Fantastic Four.  More CFF still to come, frantic ones - be sure not to miss them!

   

MY PARTNER THE GHOST...

MY PARTNER THE GHOST was the American title for ITC's RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED) TV series when it was broadcast in the States in the 1970s.  The theme tune by EDWIN ASTLEY is a belter, but so also is the DAVID ARNOLD theme (sung by NINA PERSSON) from the 2000-'01 BBC remake.  Here's the latter in all its ghostly glory to send a shiver of pleasure down your spine.

JACK KIRBY'S CHALLENGERS Of The UNKNOWN COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART THREE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Now we're into the good stuff.  WALLY WOOD takes JACK KIRBY's superb storytelling prowess to even greater levels with his sublime delineation of DC COMICS' CHALLENGERS Of The UNKNOWN.  "Greater than the sum of its parts" is a bit of a cliche, but never was it more true than when Kirby and Wood were combined on the art duties of this iconic comicbook from the '50s.

As great as JOE SINNOTT, VINCE COLLETTA and MIKE ROYER were (and I know we'll get some stick over the inclusion of VC's name there), no one ever enhanced Kirby's art better than Wally Wood  did - bar none.  (ALFREDO ALCALA did a great job inking JK's pencils on DESTROYER DUCK, and had Jack been at the top of his game at the time, the results would've been comparable to his Wood-inked  Challs pages.  They almost were - but not quite.)

Anyway, that's my opinion on the matter.  Feel perfectly free to disagree in the comments section - or even just say what your favourite Challengers cover is.  Go on - be the first!