'SNOW' USE - I JUST GOTTA TALK ABOUT The SNOWMAN (& HIS DOG)...

Copyright relevant owner

I didn't see The SNOWMAN when it was first broadcast on CHANNEL 4 on Boxing Day in 1982.  It wasn't until I caught the latter half of it the following year (or even the one after that), that I bought the video of the classic cartoon-short about a Snowman who comes to life (as they all do, apparently), and which was based on the 1978 picture-book by RAYMOND BRIGGS.

I'd always assumed that DAVID BOWIE's introduction (first used in the 1983 broadcast) was the only one, so I was surprised to discover later that it wasn't.  The cartoon has now had three intros: the Raymond Briggs original, the Bowie one, one by Briggs' version of Santa (voiced by the late MEL SMITH), and (on DVD) none at all (but with all three intros as separate options).

Most folks probably think ALED JONES was the singer of HOWARD BLAKE's haunting composition WALKING In The AIR, as it was his cover which reached number five in the U.K. charts in 1985.  However, it's actually chorister PETER AUTY's soprano tones on the animated feature, although his name was missing from the credits and not added 'til the 20th anniversary version.

The Snowman and the young lad who built him (JAMES) made cameo appearances in the 1991 animated version of Briggs' FATHER CHRISTMAS, thereby suggesting that James's adventure with his snow pal wasn't a one-off.  This is borne out in the 2012 sequel, The SNOWMAN And The SNOWDOG, where a new boy finds an old  box under the floorboards of James's old home, containing a hat, scarf, withered tangerine - and a photograph of James and the Snowman together, obviously taken on an occasion subsequent to the first one.

The sequel is also delightful, though not too different from its predecessor.  However, there are a few things I have reservations about, so I'll address them here.  Coming thirty years after the original, viewers are within their rights in assuming that perhaps something close to 'real time' has elapsed in the intervening years, as the isolated house in the country is now part of a new estate.  Although surely a housing development would've simply bulldozed the house, rather than gone to the bother of building around (and next to) it.

Also, what happened to James, the original boy?  Would he really have abandoned the Snowman's accoutrements and photo of the two of them together?  I'd have preferred to see him as the new boy's father, passing on a magical secret to his son rather than his fate simply being ignored.  (We at least know he survived into adulthood and bore an uncanny resemblance to David Bowie.)  I suppose, though, that one can always interpret events as James's son and widow moving back to his boyhood home after having left some years before.  Perhaps the adult James only expired after the plans to move back were finalised, or perhaps (on a happier note) he's simply away on business at the time.

One thing I did like was the fact that, when the Snowman is given a fresh tangerine for a new nose, his shrunken, dried out one is utilised for the Snowdog.  "Waste not, want not!" as the old saying goes.  Also, a young girl is seen playing with what is clearly an item of Snowman 'merchandise', while the boy himself has a poster of Briggs' earlier creation from 1977, FUNGUS The BOGEYMAN, on his bedroom wall.  (And see if you can spot the 1966 TV BATMOBILE toy's brief and surprising appearance.)

As for the sequel's song, LIGHT The NIGHT by ANDY BURROWS (which is nowhere in the same league as the original), the makers (LUPUS) should've used either an instrumental version of Walking In The Air, or a new arrangement with perhaps a male-voice choir to distinguish it from Auty's.  (After all, it is the Snowman's 'signature' theme, in the same way that JAMES BOND and SUPERMAN have one also.)  Burrow's song is disappointingly underwhelming (though, for all I know, may be technically and musically perfect), and fails to resonate to anywhere near the same degree as Blake's original 1982 classic composition.

For all those interested, a DVD box-set of The Snowman & The Snowman and The Snowdog is available from most HMV stores and other outlets.  Or you can catch up with them on Boxing Day on TV if you're a bit of a skinflint.  Well worth watching!  One thing I'd really like to know is this, though: what gives the Snowman his individual personality?  Is it the garden he's built in, or the person who builds him?  Or is it perhaps the accessories he wears?  If James is still alive and he were to build a Snowman, would it be a different one (personality-wise) to the one he built as a kid, or the same one?  Anybody got any thoughts on the matter?

"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"

SNOWFLAKE - JIM REEVES...

Wishing all Criv-tes a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope that Santa is good to you all.  Here's JIM REEVES to take us into the big day with not exactly a Christmas song, but one that has a hint of the season about it.

Right, I'm off for a cuppa and a Christmas mince pie.  Don't forget to leave something out for Santa and his reindeer.  (No wonder he's fat, eh?) 

The COMPLETE WHAM! ANNUAL COVER GALLERY - 1966 To 1974...

Copyright REBELLION

Y'know, I don't think I ever had any WHAM! Annuals when they were first published way back when.  I may have read the odd one in Primary school when we were allowed to bring such things into class (in the relaxed run-up to holiday periods) and temporarily swap them with our classmates ("I'll let you read my BATMAN Annual if you'll let me read your BEANO Book!" sort of thing), but I can't say with absolute certainty, so it may not have been so.

However, looking at the array of books below (especially those by ODHAMS) takes me right back to the period in which they were published and the place in which I lived at the time.  I can therefore only assume that my seeming familiarity with them (and the resulting sense of association) is down to me reading the characters in the weekly comic, and perhaps even seeing the Annual covers advertised in its pages.  Or maybe I was vaguely aware of them on display in shops in the run-up to Christmas, even though I never actually had one.

In light of this, I find the realisation that these Annuals represent almost the entire period of my early years at Primary school to near the end of my span at Secondary school to be immensely mind-boggling.  After all, how can a mere nine books embody what once seemed like such a vast expanse of my young life?

Not that any of that is important to you, but you know how self- indulgent I can be when it comes to wallowing in personal nostalgia.  However, now is the time for you to do likewise, as I pull back Time's curtain and present a portal into the past, allowing you once again, in your mind's eye, to relive the sights and sounds of happy days gone by, when now-departed loved-ones were right alongside you to share in the happiness and delights of an earlier era.

******

Coming soon: the complete SMASH Annual cover gallery.

KID'S CHRISTMAS CLASSICS: A HINT OF A GLINT THROUGH THE WINDOW...

Images copyright respective owners

I love this time of year.  Autumn has its own scents and hues, and, as it starts to give way to Winter, assumes a magical, hybrid quality of the two seasons peculiar unto itself.  When any last faint remnants of lingering Summer have finally disappeared and been replaced with the preliminary signs of Jack Frost's rapidly oncoming kingdom, I can't help but think back to what an enchanted time it seemed to be when I was a kid.

Arising on dark mornings, streetlights a-twinkle; the first spidery glints of frost on the windows and pavements outside; warm milk on cornflakes to fortify me for my trek to school; sitting before the electric fire, hypnotized by shadows of dancing, flickering simulated flames; the fresh, biting chill of the air - all those memories - or any combination of them - embody that particular period of my personal history.  Even today, the alluring nature of the season is as much to do with the warm glow of memory as enjoying it for its own sake.

The walk to school, the chatter of friends, the sheer exuberance of childhood - how it all comes rushing back to me in torrents.  A large part of those memories is shaped by whatever comics I was buying at the time: TV CENTURY 21, WHAM!, SMASH!, FANTASTIC, WHIZZER & CHIPS, The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY and many more - all those publications seem to blend into one big memory (regardless of whether they were actually available or I was buying them concurrently or not), and span a goodly number of years from primary to secondary school.  (I often smuggled a newly purchased comic into the classroom in my schoolbag and then had to suffer an agony of waiting 'til I could peruse it during the interval.)

And just think what we had to look forward to at that time of the year; Hallowe'en, Guy Fawkes' Night, Christmas - and I had the added bonus of having my birthday fall at around the same time.  No wonder I tend to look back on those events with such fondness - I was just the right age to appreciate them in all their spectacular, multi-coloured, atmospheric glory.  I'm sure it's the same for most people.   

So, in an unseemly fit of sentimentality and nostalgia, I've dug through my files and unearthed some comic covers which would've been on sale towards the end of the year back in the 1960s & 1970s, in an attempt to crystalize not only my happy recollections of days gone by, but - if you're around the same age as myself - perhaps also your own.  Hope you enjoy them.

See?  You can go home again - even if it's only for a short visit.   

CLASSIC U.K. COMIC COVERS Of The PAST - PART TWO: MIGHTY MARVEL MAGS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS and relevant owners

Continuing our occasional series, here's a bunch of early British MARVEL comic covers from the 1970s, to refresh your memories and whet your appetite for Mighty Marvel weeklies from the past.  You'll have seen these iconic images on this blog before, of course, but this is the first time that they've all been gathered together to save you the effort of hunting them down in fits and starts.  Considerate of me or what?  I'll be blogging right through Christmas, but some of you will no doubt be taking a break to indulge in Bacchanalian orgies (tsk, tsk) over the Festive period, so I'll wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Hilariously Happy New Year right now and I'll see you in 2015.

As for those discerning Criv-tes who'll be keeping me company all the way through, I'll save my Season's Greetings for tomorrow night and again on Christmas day, so I'll see you then - if not before!  So what are you waiting for?  Paste your pantin' peepers on these pulsating piccies post-haste!  

Yeah, I know it's a monthly, but I didn't want to exclude it from the party!

"ARE YE DANCIN'?" "ARE YE ASKIN'?" "I'M ASKIN'!" "THEN I'M DANCIN'!"

Ooh!  Christmas will soon be here, so let's

have a good ol'-fashioned 'knees-up'!  Lissen

for the kissin' in the song, why don'tcha?!

KID'S CHRISTMAS CLASSICS: TV COMIC'S LAST CHRISTMAS...

Copyright relevant owner

Believe it or not, but you're looking at a genuine collectors' item classic - the very last Christmas edition of TV COMIC, a periodical which began in November 1951 and lasted 'til June 1984. If my simple arithmetic is correct, that means there were 33 Christmas issues over TV Comic's lengthy run, a feat not to be sneezed at.

Hopefully, the pages that follow are actually from the above issue;  I scanned them some time back along with some other Christmas strips and my folders are in a slight state of disarray at the moment, but I think I've got the right ones.  So, what are you waiting for?  Stick on the JIM REEVES Christmas CD and away you go!

The TRUE STORY Of BATMAN & ROBIN - (OR: DO YOU STILL BELIEVE IN FAIRY TALES?)

From TRUE FACT COMICS #5, 1946.  Art by WIN MORTIMER, script by JACK SCHIFF,
MORT WEISINGER & BERNIE BRESLAUER.  (Images copyright DC COMICS)

You'd think that BOB KANE, as the 'creator' of BATMAN, would be a revered figure in the world of comics, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Going by accounts I've read of people who met him, he was egotistical, self-centred, and many fans found him to be an immense disappointment.  It gives me no joy to impart any of this information to anyone who isn't already aware of it, because it would be nice if he was held in the same high regard as STAN LEE is by his fans, but it's hard to escape the facts.

In BILL SCHELLY's excellent book, SENSE Of WONDER: A LIFE In COMIC FANDOM, he has this to say about hearing Bob Kane speak (as one of the Guests of Honour) at the 1973 New York Comic Art Convention.

******

                     "The first major event of the comicon was a talk by Bob Kane.

                     While some knew that others had contributed much to make

                     Batman a great success, Kane was held in high esteem.  When

                     he was introduced and strode up to the front of the room, a tall,

                     good-looking man with a dark tan, he received a thunderous

                     standing ovation.

                     When he left the room after completing his talk, the applause

                     was a mere polite smattering.  Bob Kane had gone from hero to

                     heel in a mere half-hour.  That was no mean accomplishment,

                     given his place in the comic book firmament.

                     How did he do it?

                     Humility was not a trait that could be found in Bob Kane.

                     There was little room to admire him when he was so busy ad-

                     miring himself.  All his stories about his time in the industry, the

                     awards he'd received, the celebrities he'd met, and the movie

                     projects he'd masterminded, had one thing in common: they

                     were to reinforce how great, how brilliant, and how famous

                     Bob Kane was.

                     It was nauseating.

                     Having enjoyed the adventures of Batman and Robin for

                     so many years, I was disappointed to discover that the man

                     behind the Dynamic Duo was such a jerk.  It wasn't that Kane

                     was having a bad day, either; I heard later that stories about

                     the man's ego were legion."

******

I once read an interview with Kane in which he related the tale of someone at a convention asking him to autograph an issue of either DETECTIVE COMICS #27 or BATMAN #1.  Kane offered the fan a page (or two) of original artwork in exchange for the comic and was apparently astounded when his offer was politely declined.  "Why would anyone prefer a printed comic over original art by the guy who drew it?" he mused.  (And the pages he was offering were not from the comic he was trying to swap them for.)  No great surprise really, as, at the time, the comic was worth many thousands of dollars (which Kane must surely have known), whereas there wasn't really much demand for original Bob Kane art - especially as it was suspected that he routinely back-dated his artwork decades earlier than it had actually been produced.

I remember reading another interview (or perhaps it was the same one) in which he says he just couldn't understand the scene in FRANK MILLER's The DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, where an emaciated SUPERMAN's costume 'fills out' as he flies closer to the sun, the source of his power.  Was Kane really ignorant of this long-established piece of Superman folklore?  If so, it tends to suggest a lack of interest in any comic that wasn't by him.  (Although not many actually were, according to some.)

Having read his autobiography, BATMAN And ME, some years ago, I was struck by how unsophisticated Kane appeared to be.  There's an account of when, as a youth, he encounters a neighbourhood gang, and the comicbook dialogue he attributes to them as he dashingly and daringly (as he tells it) evades their clutches reads like pure invention.  As does his tale of meeting a young (and as yet unknown) MARYLIN MONROE and going to the beach with her for a swim; it has all the hallmarks of fiction by a fantasist who just can't see that his stories are unbelievable.

In the 1989 BATMAN movie, a newspaper cartoonist hands a sketch of a bat-like creature to one of the reporters.  It's prominently signed 'Bob Kane'; the reporter takes one look at the sketch and mutters "What a d*ck!"  Were the movie-makers delivering their verdict on Bob Kane, the creator (or co-creator) of one of the most popular icons of 20th century mythology?  Sadly, it very much seems like it.

However, this isn't meant to be a 'hatchet job' on Bob Kane.  I write this post in sorrow rather than in anger, and certainly no malice is intended on my part.  I merely want to point out that it's just a shame that Batman's creator isn't held in the same high esteem as that of his creation - even if it does seem to be largely his own fault.  At least Bob wasn't (as far as the credits go anyway) responsible for the following 'highly imaginative' account of how the daring Dynamic Duo first came to be.  Cue Jackanory theme music...

BABE Of The DAY - SUPERGIRL...

When I was a little lad, I used to

quite fancy SUPERGIRL (drawn here

by JIM MOONEY).  Now that I'm no

longer a little lad, I still do.

CLASSIC U.K. COMIC (& MAGAZINE) COVERS Of The PAST - PART ONE...

Copyright relevant and respective owners

Missing the comics of your youth?  Longing for the happy, innocent, carefree days they represent of a 'timeless' time in your life?  Then here's the post for you!  By no means comprehensive, but with enough covers of famous first issues from the past to allow you to relive those halcyon days of your childhood and bask in the glorious, golden glow of yesteryear!

Just how many did you have, and what memories to they stir in your heart?  Go on, tell us about it in the comments section.  Your nose will fall off if you don't.  (And I'd never I lie to you about something like that.)