BUSTER BITES The DUST...

The cover reminds me of myself when my old schools were demolished

BUSTER comic made it just over halfway into its 40th year before being cancelled, but truth to tell, it had been ailing for some time.  Featuring mainly reprints, published fortnightly, and with no continued adventure strips to entice the readers back each issue, it's surprising that it wasn't cancelled sooner.  (It obviously must've been making a small profit, or at least not losing money.) 

Long-time editor ALLEN CUMMINGS did his best, but he was hampered by a next-to-nothing budget which reflected a lack of investment by the publishers, EGMONT, in the title's future (to say nothing of a lack of interest on the part of readers), so the comic's demise was virtually inevitable.  He only learned of plans for cancellation though, when he returned from holiday to find an email informing him of the publication's impending fate.

He soldiered on like a trouper, but in the final dark days of December 1999, the last ish of what had once been one of Britain's finest and most popular comic weeklies hit the newsagents' shelves and breathed its last.  I was happy to see a reprint of a strip which I'd lettered, thereby ensuring my presence in the very last issue, but it was a small consolation in the face of Buster's disappearance after an almost 40 year span. 

Surprisingly, it announced the fact that it was the last issue on its cover, but maybe that's because there were no other survivors to be merged into.  Top marks must go to the very last page, in which a tongue-in-cheek send-up of regular characters made some startling revelations.  They should obviously be regarded as 'imaginary' scenarios, as the characters will live on forever in our memories just as we knew them, and will never die (or burst).

Did you buy Buster?  Any recollections of the comic and the times in which you purchased it will be most welcome to fellow Criv-ites, I'm sure.  

I'd lettered this strip some years before - perhaps for NIPPER

"What if?" - BUSTER style

CHRISTMAS? BAH! HUMBUG(S)...!

Copyright REBELLION

Having recently shown you the covers to all seven Annuals bearing the name of WHAM! (plus another two combined with POW! ), I thought you might appreciate seeing the inside of the very first one (for 1966).  And what better strip to show you than one which fits right in with the start of the year, what with all that snow and ice on view?  Okay, these conditions haven't quite happened yet in my neck of the woods, but they're bound to soon (hopefully).

Looking back, it seems that all the Christmases and New Years of my boyhood were like this.  It may have been only in the comics, but so powerful is the image that it leaks out into the reality of the time as well - at least in the mystic bands of memory.  The two pages reproduced here don't seem to me to have been drawn by the regular weekly artist, but they do full justice to the characters nonetheless.  Often a strip could look all the poorer for not being drawn by its usual illustrator, but that isn't the case here.

The HUMBUGS were reprinted in the revamped SMASH! in 1969 under the name of The TERRIBLE TWINS, and I was so pleased to see the familiar characters again that I don't think I even noticed the strip had been retitled until much later.  Or could it simply be that by the time the pair resurfaced, I had forgotten what they were originally called?  It's not impossible, even for one with such a mighty memory as I.

I recall one of the weekly strips referring to the FANTASTIC FOUR, which was appearing in Wham! comic at the time.  BRUV dressed up in a MICHELIN MAN costume and played at being The THING, and SIS merely hid behind a fence or a lamppost and pretended to be invisible.  Of course, it was easy to ignore that The Thing was supposed to be orange-skinned when the comic was in black and white, but had it been in colour, a mention could simply have been included of Bruv painting the costume in the requisite hue.  (Yes, I know - I worry about such things too much.)

Anyway, that's perhaps too much spiel for a mere two pages, but hopefully you'll enjoy them despite that.

(Incidentally, I suspect that the lettering is by TOM FRAME, who later worked on 2000 A.D.'s JUDGE DREDD.)

WHEN BOND WAS A BIG FRY...

GEORGE LAZENBY in pre-BOND days,

advertising FRY'S TURKISH DELIGHT.  I

remember seeing these ads back in the '60s.

BABE Of The DAY - LIZ TAYLOR...?

This babe about to take a New Year dip sure

looks like LIZ TAYLOR to me, but I'm not quite

100% certain.  (Not that it really matters, of course.)

Glad to see she's got her buoyancy aids with her,

'cause that sea looks kinda rough to me.

WHY NOT GO COMMANDO?

All images copyright D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.  Click on image to enlarge

Here's a New Year Special Offer that all lovers of war stories

might want to consider.  Go on - GO COMMANDO now!

www.Commandocomics.com

(Covers used for illustration purposes only.)

COMPLETE SUPER DC COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Strike while the iron is hot, they say, so while there's currently a bit of interest in SUPER DC around here, I thought I might as well go the whole hog and present all 14 covers at the one time, along with a few associated images.  I've shown them before, of course, in three parts a few years back, but consider this a handy omnibus edition that'll save you trawling through the archives.

I've always found it immensely interesting how we associate certain things with certain times.  To me, these comics represent the start of the '70s, though, back then, there wasn't really anything different about the early '70s to the late '60s which preceded them.  I was a teenage schoolkid who lived in the same house as when I'd been at primary, still hung out with the same pals, and all the things with which I was familiar were yet present in my life; i.e. my favourite shops, TV shows, people, places, and the like.

That's the thing about different 'eras' - they don't announce themselves with a trumpet blast to mark their arrival and make it memorable; they just sort of sneak up on us when we're not looking.  One decade segues into another with seemingly seamless ease - the 1st of January 1970 isn't really any different to the 31st of December 1969, but when we look back years later, using the accoutrements of our life as markers to distinguish one period from another, there often seems to be a dividing line between them.

One comic might represent the 1960s to us and another the '70s, but may've been bought only a few days apart.  In our memories though, they somehow become 'ring-fenced' in their own respective segments, separate and distinct, and each occupying their individual place in our recollections.  However, having just said that and in seeming contradiction, although in retrospect I mentally file these comic under the '70s ('cos I know that's when I bought them), due to that period of my life being pretty much the same as the one which preceded it, they also tend to encapsulate my entire span in the house in which I'd lived from 1965, not just one particular part of it.

A paradox I know, and one that perhaps doesn't make much sense, but that's just how it is.  I suppose time is like an onion, in that it seems like a single object, but on closer inspection we then become aware of the numerous layers of which it's comprised.  Except, perhaps, it's the reverse in the case of my above screed.  Now, if anyone can actually understand what I've just been rabbiting on about, perhaps you can explain it to me?

However, enough of such philosophical perplexions for the nonce and on to the covers, as I unleash upon you the stuff of which memories are made.  Any personal reminiscences associated with these comics that you'd care to share will be most welcome!  (So get typing!)

Batman's right leg is seriously stunted on this cover.  One step and he'd surely topple over?  And
how can Superboy be in the same place as his adult self?  Oh, that's right - it's symbolic - but even
he looks surprised

First one to say that the above scene looks like four gay guys in a gym can leave the room - we
don't want that sort of innuendo around here.  (Oo-er, it was me, wasn't it?  I'll get my coat!)

Ah, now that's a better idea - use art from the actual story itself.  What an improvement.
I bought my original copy of this comic in the Old Village quarter of my town

I'd missed this issue when it first came out, but acquired it from a pal some months later, when
he brought out a pile of comics to read on his front doorstep while I was visiting.  (That's right -
I wasn't invited inside)

This mis-coloured ad was on the back cover of all 14 issues

The one-off Bumper Book...

...and its enclosed leaflet advertising similar editions

 

Below, with a Batman who's clearly been eating too many pies (and should really be called Fatman), is the cover of a collected edition of several issues of the mag, doubtless in an attempt to shift surplus copies lying around the stockroom.

 

SUPER DC TEXT STORIES - PART THREE...

Copyright relevant owner

D'you know, I'm not at all sure that I read any of these text stories when I first bought SUPER DC back in the early '70s.  I'd have to re-read them to see if they ring any bells in my memory, but nothing comes to mind when I glance at them today.  I recall reading the stories in the Annual, but not the ones in the monthly comic, so I'll have to sit down one day and work my way through them.

If I'm not mistaken, these stories were reprinted from TV TORNADO, a weekly comic from a couple or so years before, but the original versions covered three pages whereas the re-presentations were only allocated two.  Whether this was achieved by omitting some pictures or abridging the text, I'm not sure;  it could simply have been a case of using a smaller typeface, but my copies of TV Tornado aren't on hand for me to compare.

Anyway, here are six stories from #s 7-9 to keep you occupied for a while.  The remaining tales will be along in the not too-distant future.  That should give you all something to look forward to, hopefully.  (Assuming you want to see more.) 

  

COME IN NUMBER FOURTEEN - YOUR TIME IS UP! (OR: DC? SIMPLY SUPER!)

Image copyright DC COMICS

Oh, am I a happy chappie!  A mere 15 minutes ago as I type this, I took possession of a full set of all 14 issues of SUPER DC (a sort of DC superheroes version of FANTASTIC, which reprinted MARVEL strips) that came out back in the 1970s.  I well-recall buying the first issue in a shop called CORSON'S, and pausing to pore through its pages in the open-but-covered bicycle area of the local community hall less than a minute from (and in view of) my house - I just couldn't wait!

Going by the copyright date inside and the shilling price on the cover, the comic seems to have been produced and published in 1969, but it didn't go on sale in my area until towards the end of 1970.  Perhaps the publisher, TOP SELLERS, tried it out in England first before selling it in Scotland, because there's a slight difference in size and indicia typeface between the two #1s I have, suggesting one's a reprint.  I'll have to compare them to the third #1 I received today.

A goodly number of years ago, I bought the first 13 issues from (I think) the late ROGER WILSON of WONDERLAND TOYS (he sold various other stuff as well), but #14 proved elusive.  Amiable ANDREW KERR sent me scans from his own then-recently acquired copy some months back, which I was going to use to make a facsimile, but I never had time to get around to it.  Then, at the beginning of this week, I saw the complete set for sale on eBay as a bundle, so, in order to get that final ish, I bought the lot.

I'll still be looking for another issue #14 so that I can complete my first run (I don't mind having two sets), so if anyone has one they want to sell or swap, get in touch.  I have a few spare early issues that I'd be only too happy to exchange for that one number, if anyone's interested.  Any takers?  Incidentally, I did have the comic back when it first came out, so it's a bit of a mystery as to why it's so difficult to find nowadays.  Perhaps the print-run on that ish was minuscule? 

And in case there are one or two of you who didn't already know, MARVELMAN 'creator', the late MICK ANGLO, was the comic's editor and drew some of the covers and internal illustrations.  Collector, historian and cartoonist, the late DENIS GIFFORD, also had some cartoon strips in the monthly mag from time to time.

And now I've got all 14 of them - lucky me!

******

Update: I've now got that other #14 I needed.

SENOR BUM? SENOR WILLIE? (TWO INFAMOUS SPANISH FLASHERS!) - NO! SENOR SANTA CLAUS...

As the 12 days of Christmas approach their end, let's have one last Seasonal song from JIM REEVES.  This one's a little faster-paced than usual and is just a wee bit mental, but it's fun all the same.  (There's no use hiding, McSCOTTY - we all know you're a closet Jim Reeves fan!)

BABE Of The DAY - LUCKY BLONDE HEATHER...

It's seriously sexy HEATHER

THOMAS to warm us all up on this

cold winter's night.  And it's working -

I can unplug my electric blanket now,

 'cos I don't need it anymore. 

"DO YOU TAKE PLASTIC, MAN?" FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - PART THIRTY-TWO... (Updated)

Images copyright DC COMICS

Funny how we sometimes like to 'repeat' the past, isn't it?  I first bought the above comic mag around 1973 (though it was issued in '71) from my local R.S. McCOLL'S in the main shopping centre of my home town.  The memories that resurface just typing that sentence almost overwhelm me; memories of shops that no longer have a presence in that centre - or anywhere at all in some cases.

Well-known shops such as WOOLWORTH'S, SAFEWAY, The CO-OP, GALBRAITH'S, TEMPLETON'S, KRAZY CUTS, TIMOTHY WHITE'S, HENDERSON'S, FINE FARE, and W. & R. HOLMES, have turned off their lights and pulled down the shutters one by one.  Others, like HALFORDS, have upped-sticks and relocated to out-of-town retail parks where rents and rates are less expensive.

Sorry, I got distracted there - we're not here to talk about extinct shops, but DC SPECIAL #15, featuring JACK COLE's PLASTIC MAN.  I had such a soft spot in my memory for this mag that, when the 'lost' 80 Page Giant PLASTIC MAN Annual was issued in 2003/'04, I bought it immediately just because it reminded me of the yellow covered mag from the '70s that I'd once owned.  That's what I meant about repeating the past.

One thing I thought I'd first read in this comic was that Jack Cole drew pages printed size (at least for the origin tale) - not twice up as was the custom of the time.  However, search as I might, I found no mention of that fact anywhere in my recent replacement ish, but I definitely read it somewhere way back in the '70s.*  (LEO BAXENDALE fell out with The BEANO editor for doing something similar to meet a deadline once, refusing to redraw the page when the editor insisted on it, so obviously the same allowances weren't made for him as Jack Cole.)

Anyway, enjoy the selection of images from this mag from over 40 years ago.  Time doesn't just fly, it also stretches  - at least, it does when you've got your very own time machine in the form of a classic comicbook from your youth!

******

*Update 2nd April '24: Today I obtained back issues of #s 12 & 13, and in the latter number on the letters page (Plastic Postcards) an editorial response to a comment by one Scott Gibson says the following:

Here's a trivia tidbit to increase your appreciation of Cole -- he did all the PLASTIC MAN art the same size, on 6" by 9" art boards, while his fellow artists of the forties worked on 14" by 22" originals that allowed them twice as much room to work in!  Today's artists strike a happy medium, mostly working on 10" by 15" originals.

So, although these two issues don't immediately ring memory's bell (haven't read them yet), I obviously must've had them back in the day as #13 is clearly the source of that piece of info about what size artboards Cole used.