TOYBOX TREASURES Of The PAST: LOUIS MARX BUMP 'N' GO DALEKS...

You're looking at two LOUIS MARX bump 'n' go DALEKS from the early '60s, which I acquired recently.  Both come with the original boxes, though the one belonging to the second Dalek is a little bit battered, but not beyond improvement.  I already have the DAPOL re-releases from the early '90s, but they were replicas of later versions, which had narrower waists and smaller, slightly more accurately shaped eye-stalks.  Even amongst the early versions there were slight differences, because I've seen silver ones with blue bases and silver appendages, and heard that modern 1.5 'C' batteries don't fit the compartments properly, if at all.  However, I haven't found that to be any kind of a problem, and the batteries fit perfectly, with absolutely no squeezing, straining or pushing involved.  (Perhaps it depends on what make the batteries are.)

Anyway, thought you might like to see them - and they're both in perfect working condition.  Not bad for over 50 years old.  Did you have a Marx Dalek when you were a lad?  Then tell us all about it in the comments section right away.

  

BABE Of The DAY - JUDITH RALSTON...

Here's regular commenter McS's

favourite 'Babe of the Day' - JUDITH

RALSTON - who presents the weather on

BBC TV.  If she only knew McS stands under

the lamppost just outside her house every night,

staring up at her bedroom window, the 'weather'

would most likely be stormy.  I sure wish he'd

break the habit, 'cause I have to stand under

a lamppost further up the street and the

view isn't so clear from that one.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN LEGENDS?

Copyright REBELLION

From the SMASH! Annual for 1970, comes The LEGEND TESTERS!  DANNY CHARTERS and ROLLO STONES embark on yet another mission to test whether a legend from the past is true or not.  It's a fascinating concept and I'm surprised that the strip wasn't continued for many years afterwards as it seems a rich vein to mine for action and adventure.  I think IPC/FLEETWAY slipped up in not having Danny and Rollo in the revamped Smash!, or reviving them for VALIANT, or STARLORD, or even 2000 A.D.  They would've been a perfect fit for either of the latter two, being, as they were, sci-fi comics.

In the U.S., at around the same time that the duo first appeared in  ODHAMS' weekly Smash! comic (1966), was a TV programme called The TIME TUNNEL, although I'm unsure as to exactly when it was first shown on British television.  It's interesting to speculate whether the Smash! strip was 'inspired' by the IRWIN ALLEN TV series, or was simply a twist on the BBC's DOCTOR WHO.

  

Will The Legend Testers ever live again in new adventures?  Only time will tell, but for the moment, enjoy this look back at one of their exciting expeditions from over 45 years ago.

SIMON TEMPLAR MEETS STEVE ZODIAC...

Which he actually did when the voice of WSP spaceman STEVE ZODIAC, actor PAUL MAXWELL, appeared on The SAINT television show.  However, that's not what I refer to.  No, I'm talking about when ROGER MOORE as SIMON TEMPLAR was seen handling a QUERCETTI FIREBALL XL5 parachute toy*, containing a little astronaut figure meant to be Steve.  If I remember correctly, YOGI  BEAR also appears in the clip that this still is taken from - wotta star.  (*I won't make you jealous by showing off my two boxed Fireball examples.)

HERE, HAVE SOME GINGER...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

GINGER from The BEEZER comic always struck me as the 'English' equivalent of Oor WULLIE from The Sunday Post.  Both were published by D.C. Thomson and drawn by DUDLEY DEXTER WATKINS, but whereas Wullie was distinctly Scottish, Ginger wasn't geographically-confined to any one area of Britain.

Dudley D. Watkins was one of those artists that made drawing look easy, pencilling out 'sausage' figures and inking in the detail as he went along - essentially doing the actual drawing with a pen or brush.  He was a complete natural, and no artist since has drawn any of his strips with the same skill, style or verve as he himself, with the only exceptions being the late CHARLES GRIGG and the mighty KEN H. HARRISON.

However, don't take my word for it.  Here are four Ginger strips drawn by D.D. Watkins to demonstrate precisely what I'm talking about.  Superb stuff indeed! Enjoy!

BABE Of The DAY - HEATHER THOMAS...

I'm pretty sure this is HEATHER

THOMAS, but it also looks a little like

HEATHER LOCKLEAR, who many folk

were always mixing up back in the '80s.  HT

or HL?  Which of the tempting two do you

 think it is?  Have your say now! 

PART EIGHT OF SMASH! COVER GALLERY...

Copyright REBELLION

Wow!  Time certainly has a habit of racing away from you, eh?  Who'd believe that it's been 10 months since the last instalment of our super SMASH! Cover Gallery from way back in the late 1960s and early '70s?  WARRIORS Of The WORLD came to an end with its 46th appearance and, after a free gift issue, SIMON TEST became the permanent front cover star for the rest of the comic's run.  So here's yet another half dozen issues to remind you of what you were maybe reading back then, if you're as ancient as I am.  Got any reminiscences associated with these comics?  Then let's have 'em, Criv-ites!

   

WHOOPEE - IT'S GRAN'S GANG...

Copyright REBELLION

Sometime near the end of 1985 or the beginning of '86 (yes, Annuals really were prepared that far in advance), I was down in London on one of my regular weekly visits to what was then IPC's (almost) skyscraper headquarters, KING'S REACH TOWER, when Humour Group Editor BOB PAYNTER handed me an unfinished page of pencilled artwork and asked me if I'd like to complete it.

Apparently it was a try-out page by an artist, who'd declined to finish it when asked for some alterations, but Bob didn't want to waste it.  After 30 years, it's difficult to recall precisely, but I think I drew two panels, finished off some bits 'n' bobs in others, and then inked it.  The inks are a bit heavy, but it's not too bad overall.

This was a good Annual for me, because I lettered 38 pages, which, at around a tenner each, wasn't bad for what amounted to a couple of days' work.  (And that didn't include my regular jobs for 2000 A.D. and other IPC weeklies and Annuals.)

So, the page isn't all mine, but there's enough of me in it to justify showing it to you on this here blog.  The strip had started life as 6 MILLION DOLLAR GRAN, was then retitled ROBOT GRANNY, and finally became GRAN'S GANG, for reasons that I have absolutely no clue about, so don't ask me.

TA-RAAA - AND NOW, The TITANS #59...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS (and owned by Gerry's pal)

Here's one you won't have seen before.  Drawn by DAVE GOLDING as a commission, it was turned into a cover for the never published ('cos it didn't exist) The TITANS #59 by Gerry, a pal of the piece's owner.  Right, Gerry - your next mission, should you decide to accept it, is to create the rest of the issue.  Well, what're you waiting for?  And why does a comic dated 1976 have a copyright date of 1977?  (I've also added this cover to my previous post on The Titans.)

KID In The KOMICS - 2000 A.D. ANNUAL 1991...

Copyright REBELLION

Thought you Crivs might like to see the following page from the above 2000 A.D. Annual for 1991, featuring 'fun facts' about yours truly.  The caricature was by NICK ABADZIS (who did a superb job of capturing my devastating good looks and sizzling sex appeal - don't all rush at once, ladies - form an orderly queue), and the page was designed and laid out by STEVE COOK.

HARLEM NOCTURNE...

I remember this tune as the theme to the '80s

TV show MIKE HAMMER, starring STACY KEACH,

but here's a version (with lyrics) by MEL TORME that

pre-dates it, and which I hope you'll all enjoy.

SHIFTY, SHOCKING & 'SACKED'...

Would you trust this shifty-looking man?

MP MALCOLM RIFKIND is a perfect example of why the general public no longer have any faith in, or respect for, politicians.  Caught on film boasting of being able to see any foreign ambassador in London and having "useful access" to every British ambassador in the world while trying to sell his services to a fictitious Hong Kong communications agency, he describes the 'allegations' against him as "contemptible" and insists that he's "done nothing wrong" and "broken no rules".  That being the case, why has he now resigned as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee and announced he'll not be seeking re-election as MP for Kensington in West London?  Hardly the response of an innocent man, I'd venture.

Claiming to be "self-employed" despite being paid a salary of £67,000 per annum (not counting expenses and all the usual perks) by the British taxpayer, he also says he has an unbelievable amount of free time to read or go walking, which surely only means that he's paid a disproportionate recompense for what is essentially a part-time job.  However, it is his arrogant sense of entitlement which is truly nauseating, believing he is worth more than the immense salary he already receives.  (The very one that he seems to think no one pays him.)

He's typical of the self-important, out-of-touch politicians who seek to deny the poorest in our society the relatively meagre amounts they rely on to get by, while lining their own pockets with as much as they can stuff into them; who try to force the unemployed and the ill into jobs that either don't exist or are so poorly paid that it's not worth taking them.  "Is it right that an unemployed person should get more money than someone who works?" they disingenuously enquire.  Well, ignoring the fact that most unemployed people don't, the answer of course, is "No!"  However, in the relatively few cases that do, it's not because benefits (in the main) are too high, it's because wages are too low.  If they want to end the so-called 'benefits culture' then why don't they try coming up with some policies that create jobs which pay a decent living wage?

As disgraced Malcolm Rifkind has so ably demonstrated, they're far more concerned with creating over-paid jobs for themselves.  Anyone else sick of the lot of them?

******

And their latest 'wheeze' is to try and make people work 30 hours a week for their benefits, which is nothing other than slave-labour.  If they expect folk to work for 30 hours, then they should pay them the going-rate for doing so.

OYEZ! OYEZ! SIXTH And FINAL PART Of The TITANS COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

"And it came to pass that there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth across the land, for The TITANS had fallen."  Yes sirree, after only 58 issues, The Titans was subsumed by SUPER SPIDER-MAN and yet another mighty MARVEL mag bit the dust.  You have to hand it to Marvel U.K. though - they certainly tried, and were a major player in British comics in the '70s and '80s, but it couldn't last, alas. After 20 plus years, Marvel U.K. disappeared, and PANINI gained the licence to produce mags for a British readership.  However, in its day, Marvel's British division was a force to be reckoned with and published some memorable comics that are still fondly recalled (but not without criticism) by old farts like myself.

Okay, it wasn't as good as it could have been - should have been - but neither was it entirely without merit.  So let's raise a glass of soda pop to The Titans, as we study the covers of the final nine issues of this short-lived but power-packed comic from the far-off '70s.  We may never see its like again, but at least it made a big impression on the memories of bright-eyed readers who enjoyed it back in the day and were sad to see it go.

  

And below is one you won't have seen before.  For the story behind it, take a look at the comments section.

There were two Annuals to tie-in with the title (issued in 1975 and '76, each for the following year), so below is a selection of images from them.