SEEING DOUBLE: The STORY BEHIND The COVER To The SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #14...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

You're looking at the cover of The SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #14, pencilled by MARK TEXEIRA and inked by HARRY CANDELARIO.  However, it was originally supposed to be drawn by BRIAN BOLLAND, but the comic appeared with the one you see above.  I seem to recall reading an explanation for what went wrong at the time (1990), but I no longer remember precisely where. (MARVEL AGE perhaps?)  Therefore, all I can do is relate whatever faint vestiges of the facts yet remain in the back of my cavernous cranium.

It goes something like this: After submitting a 'rough' of the cover and getting approval for it, Brian Bolland drew the finished version and sent it in, only for it to get lost in the post or mislaid in the MARVEL offices.  With deadline looming, a substitute had to be created, and, using Bolland's cover rough as reference, Texeira and Candelario produced their own version of it, which was the one that was printed on the published comic.

Then Bolland's original art turned up, and was released as a wraparound giveaway in comicbook shops, so that #14 could be fitted inside - thereby making things as they were supposed to be from the start.  At least, it's something pretty much resembling the scenario I've just described.  If you know the precise details, let me and your fellow Criv-ites know, frantic ones.  You wouldn't want us to lose any sleep over the matter.  And, as you've guessed, that's Brian Bolland's version below the following splash page, so that you can compare them and decide which one you like best.  I've got a feeling I already know what your preference is going to be.

******

I've just checked Brian Bolland's site to see if there was any info about the cover, but there doesn't appear to be.

BABE Of The DAY - NICOLA BRYANT...

What's better than a Babe of the

Day? Two babes on the same day -

so here's the second one - sensational

stunner NICOLA BRYANT.  She's

a pure honey and no mistake.

PART SEVEN Of 'ON The SCENE'...

Copyright DC COMICS

Well, we've finally reached the last article in the 1966 one-off issue On The SCENE Presents SUPER HEROES, but that's not the end of it.  The mag contains some great ads, which scream "1960s", and it would be remiss of me not to feature them in a future post.  A post comprising entirely of ads?  Sure, why not?  So the final part in this occasional series is yet to come, but it'll be worth it when it gets here!

In the meantime, enjoy reading this "exclusive" feature on the then-upcoming BATMAN movie, starring ADAM WEST and BURT WARD.  "Holy actors, Batman!"

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - MARTINE BESWICK...

MARTINE BESWICK gets horny -

literally!  (Sometimes these lines just write

themselves.)  Ain't she a pure cutie?

DARK KNIGHT OVER METROPOLIS...

Images copyright DC COMICS

If I were a proper reviewer, I'd tell you all about the plot of the

three comicbook titles you see before you - but in order to do that,

I'd have to re-read them to refresh my memory.  Which, by the way,

I am going to do at some stage, but why should you have to wait

until then to see these impressive images?

What concerns me more at the moment is that these mags are

now a quarter of a century old.  Yup, 25 years ago is when they

first hit the stands in comicbook stores on both sides of the pond.

I nearly said spinner-racks then, but I'm uncertain if they were still

around back then - for comic mags anyway.  (The comics are

dated June, but probably went on sale around March.)

When I think of the people I knew who are now dead that

were alive back then, it's hard to get my mind around sometimes,

as 1990 still seems fairly recent to me.  However, I haven't opened

the door on this trio of tasty treats in order to depress you with such

thoughts;  no, I merely want to encourage you to seek out these

issues for yourselves, if you haven't already got them.

And if you have, what are your memories of them?  Go on,

leave a comment - this blog needs something worth reading! 

SANTA IN SENSATIONAL 'STITCH-UP' SCANDAL...

Okay, I'll admit it's a little early for SANTA CLAUS to be raising his bearded head, but there's a reason for this post.  Not a great one, admittedly, but any excuse to indulge in a bit of personal nostalgia is always good enough for me.  Anyway, you got in here for free so you'll take what you get and be thankful for it.  (Don't you just love it when I'm masterful?)  Here's the story.

Back in the '60s, after school one day, a classmate by the name of RAYMOND BENNIE (may even have been Benny, can't remember) invited me back to his house.  During my visit, I noticed a stuffed Santa figure, which was probably a cat's plaything, though that thought likely never occurred to me at the time.  Raymond kindly said I could have it, and so little Santa came back home to live with me.

He immediately fell victim to terrible abuse, as me and my brother utilised him to play 'dodge ball'.  I'd kneel on my bed and try and hit my bruv with Santa by throwing him across the room at my ducking and diving sibling.  Then he'd return fire from his bed, chucking Santa back at me as I tried to avoid being hit.  Eventually, SC became a bit loose around the seams, so I undid his stitching and took him apart, intending to sew him back together again and tighten and tidy him up a bit.

Alas, it never happened, and eventually poor old 'cotton wool' Santa suffered, I assume, the fate of most things in a state of disrepair, and was unceremoniously discarded without even a thanks for the moments of enjoyment he had afforded me and my older relation.  I think I still had his pieces when I spied his twin in a back garden across from the house of one of my mother's friends whom we were visiting one day in 1968 or '69.  (Early '70 at a push.)

I'd just acquired my second QUERCETTI FIREBALL XL5 parachute toy from a superb shop in Rutherglen, called JOHNNY'S, and it had overshot it into a neighbour's garden as I played with it in the backyard of my mother's friend.  As I went to retrieve it, I noticed the double of my stuffed Santa lying on the neighbour's back lawn.  It did occur to me for a second to 'liberate' him, but my virtuous nature won out.

Anyway, I've never again seen another duplicate of that Santa since then, but several years back I bought the one in the picture at the top of this post, merely to 'fill the space', as it were.  Apart from the fact that it's a Santa Claus, he's really nothing like the one I used to have back in the '60s - but he reminds me of him, if you know what I mean.

I sometimes wonder if Raymond Bennie, who emigrated down under with his family in the late '60s, ever thinks back to the stuffed Santa Claus that he (or his cat if he had one) used to have once upon a time when we were both young and innocent and thought we had forever.  And does he recall giving him to me - or even remember my name?  Probably not.

I occasionally think of Raymond and wonder what he's doing now.  More often, however, I think of that Santa and wish he were still mine.  There are two other Santas I wish I still had - maybe I'll tell you about them one day, too.

A Merry Christmas when it comes. Ho ho ho!

Raymond Bennie in July 1967

Update: In December 2023 I managed to obtain via eBay a replacement for the Santa I got from Raymond when I was yet a primary school pupil.  I did a separate post about him, but thought I'd add a photo here as well.  If you'd like to read that other post, click here.

BABE Of The DAY - DENISE VAN OUTEN...

Stunning DENISE VAN

OUTEN is a very messy eater.

She's spilt some beetroot juice

 down her stomach.

PART SIX Of CAPTAIN BRITAIN COVER, SPLASH PAGE & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Four issues for the price of three this time around, chums, as we wrap up the colour issues of CAPTAIN BRITAIN in this post.  Next time, as we continue the series, it'll be mainly black & white images (apart from the covers) that your awestruck orbs will encounter.  However, it's not all bad news - JOHN BUSCEMA & TOM PALMER take up the artistic duties on the good Captain, which can in no way be defined as a demotion. 

So why was the comic transformed into a b&w publication after only 23 issues?  It seems obvious that the weekly title wasn't selling as expected and savings had to be made.  Losing the colour content would've reduced overheads considerably, so it's likely that's why the decision was made by the head honchos at MARVEL.  Sadly, it didn't help, as the mag only lasted for another 16 issues - which we'll start taking a look at in the very next post in this series.  Don't forget to be here or you'll miss all the fun!

DID YOU EVER RIP A VAN AND THEN DO A WINKLE?

Have you ever been so 'lost in the moment' that you've been completely oblivious to what was happening around you?  I suppose it may've happened more than once in my own life, but I can only recall the one specific instance which I'm now about to relate to you.

The stage and a glimpse of the classroom behind it

Return with me now to the mid-1960s, to behind the heavy stage curtains of my primary school's gym and dinner hall.  This was, in effect, a classroom, in which I remember being instructed in arithmetic, though other subjects were also taught.

The desks faced the wall, which once had a blackboard.
The lectern would've been out on the stage in my day

Many years later, long after I'd left school altogether, the large windows which allowed me to gaze out at the sky, lost in daydreams, were covered over.  However, in my time, pupils could still watch the chalk dust floating in the rays of the sun which streamed through the panes on sunny summer afternoons and caught us in their spell.

The wall on the right once had more windows, which were blocked
off or removed sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s

On this particular day, I was reading RIP VAN WINKLE by WASHINGTON IRVING, though it may've been a simplified, abridged version designed for younger readers of the age I then was.  (Then again, it may not.)  I remember finishing the tale, raising my head from the book - and being amazed to find the classroom empty.  Vacant desks met my bewildered stare to the front and sides of me, but when I turned around, there were my classmates and teacher waiting at the door to see how long it would take me to realize that the bell had gone and the lesson was over.

This is a photo from around '86 or '88 of part of the exterior of the
stage classroom.  As you can see, it had a lot of big windows

I gaped at them in embarrassed silence, then gathered my stuff together and joined them, filing out to another class or playtime break.  I was amazed that my attention could be engaged to the extent of being unaware of what was going on around me, and that's probably why I've never forgotten the occasion.  I sometimes wonder if I'd dimly heard the bell, but then become so engrossed at that point so as to immediately forget it, or it had completely failed to register on my consciousness.  Who can say?

The wider of the two doors is the one into and out of the room.  The teacher was standing
at the door, with the pupils to the right of it, watching me with much amusement

Anyway, that little reminiscence permits me the opportunity of presenting some nice art by ARTHUR RACKHAM, and a few photos of my old school (which is now demolished), the better to indulge my wallowing in nostalgia.  It also prompts me to ask the question of whether you've ever become so 'wrapped up' in a book or comic as to forget everything and everyone around you? If so, spill the beans!  We're all dying to know the details.

Incidentally, I've just re-read the story and much enjoyed it.  You could do worse than give it a read yourself, so rush out and buy a copy at the earliest opportunity.