BABE Of The DAY - SUZANNE DANIELLE...

You want words?  Then buy a thesaurus,

'cos I'm utterly speechless in the pulse-pounding

presence of stunning SUZANNE DANIELLE!

A woman exactly like her would do for me!

WHIZZER & CHIPS #7 - PART ONE...

Images copyright relevant owner

Okay, Criv-ites, here's a little treat for you.  The first of a four part presentation of the complete issue of WHIZZER & CHIPS #7 from 1969.  This was when the comic featured not just outright humour strips, but 'action/adventure' ones also.  (Though it has to be admitted that the ones in this issue have a vein of light comedy running through them.  That would change when WONDER CAR joined the ranks, illustrated by TV21 DALEKS artist RON TURNER.)

So, are you old enough to have bought this comic regularly when you were a kid, and if so, what did you think of it?  How do the comics that your kids or grandkids buy today measure up to it in your opinion?  One thing that impresses me is the fact that it's easy to see what's happening at a glance, without getting a headache trying to dechiper just what you're looking at.  Not a facility that some cartoonists today have yet mastered, in my humble opinion.

Anyway, enjoy the pages on view, and don't forget to come back for the next three parts in this super series.

  

DON STARR In The DRAMA Of DOOM - PART THREE...

Copyright relevant owner

Welcome to the latest DON STARR episode, from the pages of TERRIFIC, a short-lived comic from way back in the swinging '60s.  It only lasted for a mere 43 issues before being merged with sister publication FANTASTIC, which itself only managed 89 issues (but what great issues they were).  I don't remember who the artist is of this strip, so if you can identify him, let me know, frantic ones.  See you in part four.

BABE Of The DAY - ELKE SOMMER...

Look at that cheeky pout on

ELKE SOMMER!  She'd just said

she had a headache - so I replied "At

least wait until I ask you for sex before

you start making excuses."  Laugh?  I

thought she'd never start.  (And I

 was spot on, 'cos she didn't.)

PART THIRTY-SIX Of FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - "PRISONER Of The DEMON"...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Haven't seen IAN McFARLANE in years, and the reason he springs to mind at this moment is because 'twas he who gave me the above comic sometime back in the '60s.  Well, my original copy that is, as the one you're looking at is a replacement I acquired a good long time ago.  I've now had it far longer than the one Ian (or was it Iain?) gave me, but I always remember him whenever I look at it.  I wonder what he's doing these days.

I've included quite a few ads from the comic, as they set the time and place far better than any words of mine could ever manage to do.  When this mag first went on sale, G.I. JOE's British counterpart, ACTION MAN, hadn't yet appeared in this country, not making his dynamic debut until 1966. And what about those awesome AURORA kits? The FORGOTTEN PRISONER always fascinated me, although I didn't manage to get one until around 1971 from a near neighbour, GEORGE COOPER, in a swap.

I remember cutting out the Superman figure in the second panel of the page near the bottom of this post, and pressing it into service as a substitute 'action play-thing'.  Imagination is truly wonderful, and I got as much fun from staging little adventures around that cut-out Supes as I ever did with more robust, three-dimensional toys.  Give a kid a cut-out figure to play with today and they'd probably just snort in contempt.  Ah, for happier and simpler times, eh?  Kids are spoilt nowadays, don't you think?

Anyway, enjoy the images on display, and feel free to leave a comment if you remember having this comic or simply want to see your name in 'print'.

       

KID KLASSICS - The MIGHTY WORLD Of YESTERDAY...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

They say that when you're dying, your life flashes before your eyes - but there's a far less drastic (and not so final) way to achieve the same effect.  Simply flick through the pages of the comics you got as a kid (if they're still in your possession) and you'll find yourself transported back in time to when you first acquired them, with such clarity that you not only remember the past, but can see, feel, smell and taste it as well.

Such is the case with The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL #51.  Look at the cover.  See the stars twinkling in the night sky?  One look, and I vividly recall the September evening when myself and one of my pals found ourselves crawling over the slated rooftops of a centuries-old public house in search of adventure.  I can remember the sudden thrill when, underneath us, someone suddenly emerged from the backdoor of the bar to obtain a fresh keg, while we hugged the roof and hoped that they wouldn't glance upwards.  Surely 'twas the exact same stars that shone down on us that night as sparkled from the cover of this comic from childhood, which I had bought the self-same morning in 1973?

Looking again at an old comic is much like rereading a half-forgotten diary entry, in as much that it invigorates the memory and spans the bridge between past and present, allowing us - for however brief a period - to revisit times and places from so very long ago.  

BABE Of The DAY - ANGIE HARMON...

Stunner ANGIE HARMON is our Babe of the

Day, Crivs.  Ain't she a beauty?!  Maybe I should let her

know I'm available, as I'd hate for her to miss out on the

date of a lifetime just 'cos she doesn't know I exist.

FAVOURITE COMICS Of The PAST - PART THIRTY FIVE: SUPERMAN - MURDERER...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Two comic mags for the price of one this time around, peeps, with ACTION COMICS #358 & 359.  The reason?  The tale is a two-parter, and I thought it only right to showcase both issues at the same time.  I associate both of them with my grandparents' itchy red bed-settee, so must have taken them with me on one of our regular Sunday visits back in the '60s.

The SUPERBOY back-up tale reminds me of that settee on at least two different occasions.  The one mentioned above, and a few years later in the early '70s, when it was reprinted in a Superboy Annual (if I recall rightly).  It was reprinted again in FOUR STAR SPECTACULAR #3 in '76, which may well have been read by me while again sitting on that same red settee on yet another Sunday visit.

Remember me telling you about me and one of my boyhood buddies, JOHN FIDLER, sitting in the doorway of my outside garden cellar while poring over a SUPERGIRL story and deciding to create a potion for turning a couple of KARA lookalikes into real life Supergirls?  (When we'd both grown-up obviously.)  Well, there's just something about the look of that back-up tale in ish #359 which suggests to me it may have been the one.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll have your own memories associated with these two issues, so why not share them with your fellow Criv-ites in the comments section?  It'll make you feel good.

HUNK Of The MONTH - WHO ELSE?

Here's a snap from a couple of years back, taken outside Glasgow University by my good pal MOONMANDO as he tried out some fancy effect with his camera (as opposed to the editing stage as I'd have done).  In the original photo my handsome features were out-of-focus, and although some people say I look much better with my face obscured, I don't agree with their assessment so applied a 'focus fix' to remove the blurring from my fizzog.  Here's the pic after 'restoration' for my many female admirers - they surely must must exist somewhere, aside from my imagination I mean?   Isn't technology wonderful?!

The TITANS ANNUALS...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Memories can be elusive things.  They lurk, concealed, in the caverns of our mind, all but forgotten.  Then, a smell, a sound, a sight of something, and the floodgates are opened and they come tumbling out as fresh as a daisy, to startle us with their sudden reappearance.  Such is the case with The TITANS Annuals.

A look at the covers, a browse through their pages, and I'm returned to the time I first bought them in the 1970s, with all the attendant reminiscences that go with them.  I remember reading the above one in a friend's house on the day I bought it, after I'd popped in to see him on the way back home from the shops.

There were only two Annuals, and the second one went on sale nearly a year after the weekly comic had been merged with SUPER SPIDER-MAN.  It may well have been scheduled before then however, and MARVEL just decided to let it run, as they knew there'd most likely still be an audience for it.

So I'll leave you to re-acquaint yourselves with these books, and your own personal recollections that accompany them.  Be sure to share any happy memories in the comments section.

  

BABE Of The DAY - CARLA GUGINO...

"Make me feel like a woman!"

CARLA whispered.  So I threw my

shirt over to her and said "Here, run

an iron over this - then make my

 tea!"  So why'd she slap me?

PART TWO Of DON STARR IN The DRAMA Of DOOM...

Copyright relevant owner

Part two of DON STARR's second adventure in the pages of TERRIFIC - all for you 'cos I'm such a generous fella and can't stand to see anyone go without.  Ain't I good to you?!  After the next instalment, I'd better start wondering where I've stashed them all, so that I can scan the rest of the series.

In the meantime, enjoy!