BABE Of The DAY - MARINA...

Don't lie - you know you would!

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - 1962 TV COMIC SUMMER SPECIAL...

Characters copyright relevant and respective owners

Just think - DOCTOR WHO hadn't yet appeared on television when the above TV COMIC Summer Special from 1962 went on sale.  Within a couple of years, the wandering Time Lord was a regular and popular strip within the pages of the weekly periodical.  Just about every programme aimed at kids eventually ended up in TV Comic, which probably explains why it lasted as long as it did.

FANTASTIC FREE GIFTS...

You're looking at the Secret Coder given away with SMASH! #109 in 1968.  What's that?  You used to have it and always wanted to find a replacement?  Well, ain't it your lucky day!  Happy to be of assistance.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS AT 50...

Images copyright IDW PUBLISHING

I became aware of this awesome anniversary publication over on another blog, and someone I know gave me a copy to swell my ever-expanding collection.  Lovely-jubbly.

Unfortunately, I can't risk opening it wide enough to scan in order to display the colourful interiors, but trust me - even if you already have the contents in other collections, it's still a great little publication to have in celebration of the first appearance of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS back in 1965.

So what are you waiting for?  Cut along to your local comics shop and buy a copy today.  You won't regret it!

AWESOME ANNUALS From The '60S - WHAM! ANNUAL 1966...

Copyright relevant owner

LEO BAXENDALE's 'Super BEANO', WHAM! comic, came out in June 1964, but we had to wait until August/September '65 to see the very first Annual for '66. There were six books by ODHAMS and one by IPC - three if you count the two combined WHAM! And POW! Annuals for '73 and '74 - so although the weekly comic lasted only around three and a half years, the Annuals themselves managed an impressive span of eight.  Nothing to be sniffed at, for sure.

'DOODLE Of The DAY'...

Here's a try-out caricature I did of someone a few years ago.  I'm not entirely happy with the result although it's recognizable, but I know I can do better.  And I will - one day when I have more energy and enthusiasm for it.

'BATGIRL' PASSES AWAY...

Actress YVONNE CRAIG, who played BATGIRL in the third and final season of the 1960s BATMAN TV show, sadly passed away on Monday.

Condolences to her family, friends and fans. There's a nice (and fuller) tribute to Yvonne on MOONBASE CENTRAL blog - the link's in my blog list.

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS: SPEEDBALL #1

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

SPEEDBALL, The MASKED MARVEL was created by TOM DeFALCO and STEVE DITKO, and first appeared in The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #22 in 1988, shortly thereafter being awarded his own magazine, which lasted for ten issues.  Ditko had left MARVEL in 1966 and returned in 1979, but like JACK KIRBY before him, never managed to attain the success of his earlier tenure there with STAN LEE.

AWESOME ANNUALS From The '60S - SMASH! ANNUAL 1967...

Copyright REBELLION

SMASH! comic came out in February 1966, so as this Annual would have gone on sale from August or September, ODHAMS PRESS were quick off the mark getting it out with the other Annuals for the coming year.  They must've prepared it at around the same time as the weekly, which isn't always the case.  Sometimes, publishers will wait to see if a new comic is a success before doing an Annual.  WHAM! comic came out in '64, but the first Annual was for '66, released in '65.

BABE Of The DAY - HEATHER THOMAS...

You want a babe?  Then

you've got a babe!  Here's the

lovely HEATHER THOMAS!

Now don't all drool at once - it's

 extremely unsightly.

PLAYMATES From FAR-AWAY PLACES - PART FIVE...

Image copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Continuing our back page feature from D.C. THOMSON's LITTLE STAR comic from the '70s, here's the next in the series.  I've got to fill CRIVENS! with something, and at least these pages are colourful and well illustrated.  Having said that, you'll be glad to know that there are only another seven to go.

AWESOME ANNUALS From The '60s - FANTASTIC ANNUAL 1968...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

I love this cover.  Traced, copied from, or painted over a stat of the splash page from THOR's first appearance in JOURNEY Into MYSTERY #83, it should be hanging on the wall of an art gallery, so magnificent is it in all its MARVELlous majesty.  Don't agree?  Then better watch out - Thor's winging his way to your house right now.  Wouldn't want to be in your shoes, buster!

ANOTHER BABE Of The DAY - RAQUEL WELCH...

Now she's what I call a woman - and I'm

who she'd call for a good time!  Never off the

'phone to me, is RAQUEL.  Well, you've either

got it or you haven't, Crivvies.  (I've got it, but

relax - my doctor gave me some antibiotics,

 and it's now clearing up nicely.)

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - WHIZZER & CHIPS #1...

Copyright relevant owner

"Two comics in one, double the fun!", but WHIZZER & CHIPS was really just one comic with two names.  However, it was a good idea to make readers think that they were getting more bang for their bucks.  (Or in this case, more pages for their pennies.)  On sale on 11th October 1969 (cover-dated 18th), the title lasted for one week past its (un-celebrated) 21st birthday before being merged with stablemate BUSTER, thereby ensuring that at  least a few W&C characters survived a bit longer.

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: AVENGERS #1...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

Released in the exact same month as The X-MEN, The AVENGERS were really the direct equivalent of DC's JUSTICE SOCIETY Of AMERICA.  The FANTASTIC FOUR may have been inspired by the JLA (or their success, at least), but the Avengers reflected the set-up of their DC rivals more than the FF did.  And they had their very own battle-cry - "AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!"

The POWER Of PICTURES...

The picture in question - sourced from MWOM rather than
WHAM! 'cos I can't open my bound volume wide enough to
scan.  (Images copyright MARVEL COMICS)

Whenever I re-read a book after many years, when it comes to descriptive paragraphs of places, whatever impression formed in my mind when I first read it, is the one that resurfaces upon my re-acquaintance.  The first time I ever read The WIND In The WILLOWS, my impression of the WILD WOOD was an amalgam of the woods at the foot of the street of where I then lived, and the woods in a former neighbourhood in which I'd stayed several years before.  I've re-read the book many times over the years, and the images conjured up in my mind are always the exact same as previously.  Same with MOONFLEET, or The HOBBIT, or TREASURE ISLAND, or whatever - it's the same each time.

That also applies to certain pictures.  For example, when I was a lad, 'twas my custom to (horror of horrors) cut certain pictures I liked from the comics they were printed in.  I was especially fond of clipping out pictures of SUSAN STORM ('cos I fancied her) from the FF stories in the pages of WHAM!, one of my favourite comics at that time.  I not only cut out panels, but figures within panels, resulting in what can only be described as 'paper dolls' which I kept in a checkered vinyl pencil 'purse' I'd found.  (I had to wait six months for it, as I'd handed it into the police - insufferably virtuous kidlet that I was.)

My former back garden

Sometimes I'd sit out on my back doorstep and go through my collection of cut-outs, acting out little adventures with them.  (Before I got my first ACTION MAN - a secondhand one from a pal of my brother - I had a cut-out picture of an Action Man that acted as a stand-in until the real thing came along.)  One morning, I was out in the back garden and saw something caught in the plants which ran along the edge of the lawn below the back window.  It was a picture of Susan Storm, which must've blown off the step on a previous occasion I was seated there, playing with my paper figures.  I was surprised, because I hadn't noticed it was missing and it was one of my favourites, so I was happy to be reunited with it.  Eventually, as I grew older, I had a purge, and consigned all my paper playthings to the dustbin of history.

Here's the thing: Whenever I look at that picture today (in reprints and re-acquired 'originals'), my main association is the back garden of my former house.  Although some later reprints also have their own associations from the time I bought them, they shelter in the shadow of my earliest impressions of that one particular picture.  So here's a question for you.  Is there any specific panel from a comic you read as a child that, when you see again, transports you right back to the time and place where you first encountered it?  If so, tell your fellow Crivvies all about it in the comments section.

Me on the back step - 19 years after moving from the house

BABE Of The DAY - BRIGITTE BARDOT...

Wotta waist!  BRIGITTE BARDOT

 shows how a belt should be worn.

PART SIX OF TOPPS 1966 BATMAN CARDS...

Images copyright DC COMICS & TOPPS

Another half-dozen TOPPS BATMAN cards for you to savour and salivate over, Bat-fans. I never kept my originals, alas, but a deluxe boxed set was re-issued in 1989, and it's those very ones you're looking at now.  Takes me back to the '60s (and the '80s come to that) faster than a fart from The FLASH!   How about you? 

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #1...

Art by JOHN BUSCEMA.  Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

The first 'official' British MARVEL comic - affectionately referred to as MWOM.  This was the comic that all true Marvel fans on this side of the pond had been waiting for, whether they realized it or not!  A whopping 40 pages for a mere 5p, a mixture of b&w, spot and full colour, the early issues had a distinct charm that was later lost when the title received a glossy cover and jettisoned the interior colour.

However, there's good news - MWOM is still available in Britain today!  With 72  full colour pages, cardboard cover, and published monthly - for only a paltry £3.50.  Rush out and buy a copy now!

The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR COVER & IMAGE GALLERY - PART NINE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Another three issues of The COMPLETE FANTASTIC FOUR for you to drool over, frantic ones, as we near the end of our series looking back at one of the more fondly-recalled titles of MARVEL U.K.'s 1977/'78 weekly output.  Containing relatively more recent stories as well as LEE/KIRBY classic tales, this comic was more than worth the 10p cover price.  Sadly, it folded with #37, which means that this series concludes after three more parts, so don't dare miss 'em!  

I saw it too, in my local cinema.  It was total p*sh!  (The film, not the cinema)

ERNIE (The FASTEST MILKMAN In The WEST)...

BENNY HILL - considered politically in-

correct in his later years by new young purveyors

of so-called 'alternative' comedy (an alternative

to comedy, some might say), but the bold Benny

was and still is one of Britain's comedy greats.

 So here he is in one of his finest moments.

BABE Of The DAY - ELKE SOMMER...

ELKE SOMMER - with my undies

on again, I see.  Oops, I didn't mean to type

that.  It's just as well nobody reads this blog

or I'd get slagged silly.  Hey, it's only on days

ending with a 'y', so relax.  (Dear me, the

  p*sh I write to try and get a laugh!) 

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The X-MEN #1...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

You're looking at the first issue of The MUTANTS - or at least you would be had STAN LEE got his way.  You see, that's the name  Stan wanted to use, but publisher MARTIN GOODMAN overruled him on the grounds that kids wouldn't know what a mutant is.  As Stan pointed out after coming up with the new name, they wouldn't know what an X-MAN is either, but he had to do what the boss wanted.  The result was worth it.  X-Men sounds better and is far more enigmatic, don't you think?

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - EAGLE #1...

Copyright relevant owner

Created by Reverend MARCUS MORRIS and FRANK HAMPSON as an antidote to American 'horror' comics, EAGLE first flapped its wings in April 1950.  The comic's most popular strip was undoubtedly DAN DARE, drawn by Hampson and his team of assistants.  Eagle lasted to 1969, nine issues short of its 1000th ish, and was then merged into LION, ironically a comic originally created to compete with it.  (Lion lasted to 1974, when it was subsumed by VALIANT.)

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: FIGHTING AMERICAN #1...

Copyright relevant owner

CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY in different costumes - that's all FIGHTING AMERICAN & SPEEDBOY really were, but with Reds instead of Nazis.  Intended as a serious strip at the start, it soon took a detour into parody, but with no more success than before, and the mag folded after only seven issues.  HARVEY later attempted to revive the comic, but only one issue was ever produced before the publishers wisely threw in the towel.