BABE Of The DAY - PENELOPE CRUZ...

When I was a boy and regularly buying

TV21, I thought LADY PENELOPE's name

was pronounced 'Pen-eh-loap' - was I ignorant

or what?  One thing I do know, however, is that

this Penelope is most definitely a lady.  (Wrap

 her up nicely now - I'll take her with me.)

GARDENS Of The MIND...

I was passing my former house in an old neighbourhood yesterday and, acting on impulse, decided to 'catch a swatch' at the back garden.  I was saddened to see that the clothes poles and lawn were gone, and that the garden had been re-slabbed to cover the whole area.  It was a bit of a shock as the last time I'd seen it, it was pretty much as it had been in my day.

I'm glad I'd managed to get photographs of the garden back in 1988 and again in 1991, and preserved it as it used to be in the halcyon days of my childhood.  For 20-odd years after we'd flitted, the house and gardens (front and back) had remained mostly as I recalled them, but since then several significant changes have been made, and things as I'd known them are now a mere echo in the hallowed halls of history.

If I were ever to win the Lottery, I'd buy every house in which I've ever lived and restore them as much as possible to their former glory.  In a completely self-indulgent wallow in nostalgia, I thought I'd take another walk around my old garden and permit you to accompany me.  It wasn't much, but it was mine - and shall forever remain so in the mystic bands of memory.  Now, follow me - the past is this way.

******

Update:  Sadly, I now see that the outside 'cellar' has been demolished and replaced with what looks like an acrylic storage area.  It looks absolutely terrible and in no way improves the garden's appearance.  Why some people make such unnecessary and arbitrary alterations is beyond me.

PART FOUR Of LION'S ROBOT ARCHIE: The JUNGLE ROBOT...

Copyright REBELLION

From the pages of LION comes another two instalments of ROBOT ARCHIE, The JUNGLE ROBOT.  If there were any justice in the world (or a real comics industry in this country), we'd be reading brand-new Robot Archie adventures today - along with his U.K. comic chums like The SPELLBINDER, ADAM ETERNO, JANUS STARK, The SPIDER, KELLY'S EYE, and The STEEL CLAW.  You really should all start praying that I win the Lottery - then I could buy the rights to all these characters and start publishing them in new stories.

So just imagine that it happens - what do you think would be a good name for a new comic with all these greats from the past?  Leave your title suggestions in the comments section.  And don't forget to come back for part five in this super series.

BABE Of The DAY - ALIONA VILANI...

Hey, it's ALIONA VILANI -

 dance, woman, dance!

ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS COVER GALLERY - PART SEVEN (THE B&W MAGS)...

Images copyright relevant owner

I first suspected that ATLAS/SEABOARD wasn't destined for longevity when I read an article in one of their b&w mags (at least, I think it was one of theirs) on The SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, featuring an interview with LEE MAJORS, star of the TV show.  He mentioned author MARTIN CAIDIN's book, 'SIDEBOARD', which made me do a double-take as the book was actually called 'CYBORG' - something I knew for certain 'cos I'd previously read it (and still own it today - or maybe it's OPERATION NUKE I have).  Obviously the article had been transcribed from a recorded interview (either by 'phone or in person), but with that kind of sloppy journalism, I figured that both the mag and the company were fated  for a short life.

Well, it gave me no pleasure to be proved right, and I'm certainly not crowing about it, but MARTIN GOODMAN was paying higher rates than other companies, so he was surely entitled to expect a far better standard than he was receiving in some cases.  Ten months after it had started, the age of Atlas came to an end.  Not so much an age, more of a moment.   They'd tried just a little too hard to look like MARVEL, and in so doing, failed to establish an identity of their own.  Would-be publishers would be wise to take note.

Hope you've all enjoyed this series of cover galleries looking back at the Atlas/Seaboard output, frantic ones.  If so, let's hear from you in the comments section.  Your appreciation is always appreciated.  (Why, that's almost profound.)

PART SIX OF ATLAS/SEABOARD COMICS COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright relevant owner

VICKI was an attempt to attract ARCHIE and MILLIE The MODEL female readers I assume, but the odd thing is that all four issues were reprints from TOWER COMICS '65-'69 title TIPPY TEEN, with a little bit of redrawing to update the hairstyles and clothes fashions of the day.  Having said that though, the cover of issue #4 was clearly cribbed from KATHY #1, published by MARTIN GOODMAN's original incarnation of ATLAS in 1959.

I didn't much like TARANTULA for the same reason that I didn't care for TIGER-MAN - I just can't relate to heroes with heads like animals or insects.  After The GRIM GHOST, WULF The BARBARIAN, despite similarities to MARVEL's CONAN, probably had the most potential to succeed.  In fact, I think I should read them again to remind myself of what they were like, by Crom!  (Oh, hang on - that's the other guy.)

Don't miss the final part in which we take a look at ATLAS/SEABOARD's black and white magazines.  Isn't this fun!  See you soon, Criv-ite chums.

Compare this cover to the one below

KATHY #1 (1959) published by the original ATLAS COMICS

And here's an ad for the unpublished (as far as I know) 4th issue

TWITS & TW*TS - ONE AND THE SAME...

A screen-grab of the actual Twitter response

Remember me telling you about some @rse starting a Twitter acount in my name and using my avatar?  I was informed by Twitter themselves that the account was inactive.  Now it's started up again, presumably because the diddy who started it enjoyed the attention his handiwork received on my blog.

Oh, the vitriol.  Clearly the work of a disturbed mind.  Oh, well, guess I'll have to contact Twitter again.   Watch this space for further developments.

KID KLASSICS: SOME 'SMASHING' FACTS & FIGURES From 1966...

Copyright relevant owner

Fifty years ago, back at the end of January, a new comic periodical went on sale in Britain - SMASH!  It was the sister publication to WHAM!, launched a year and a half earlier in June of 1964.  That's the cover of the first issue above, just in case you ignore the pictures and immerse yourselves in my award-winning, witty and absorbing writing style, the envy of many a blogger across the land.  (What award?  Well, you award it your full attention, don't you?  That's a big enough award for me!)

Guess what though?  I haven't yet scanned the complete contents of Smash! #1, but a few years ago, I presented a three-part series of the contents of issue #2.  So being a benevolent sort of fella, I decided to show them again, but this time complete in one post to save you the inconvenience of keeping track of three separate instalments.

So what are you waiting for?  Wonderment aplenty lies ahead!

 

Something you won't know is that the ODHAMS PRESS bound volume of the first 50 issues of SMASH! didn't include #2.  It wasn't pulled out later - it was simply missing when the comics were gathered for binding.  Luckily, I have a spare copy of that 2nd collectors' classic (as I do of #1 also) - and it too is an Odhams file copy, the one with details of who did what and how much they got paid for doing it.

If I recall correctly, I had practically a full year's worth of these issues, each with a label on every strip noting the financial facts and creative cast of those involved. (Odhams kept two sets - one with labels and one without, and I was given both.)  I gave the labelled ones away, but retained #2 so that I could transplant it into my unlabelled volume and complete the set. First, though, I carefully steamed off the labels to conserve the information for comics historians everywhere.

So, enjoy reading some sensational strips from one of Britain's brightest comics of the '60s, and indulge your curiosity at how much the contributors got paid for their labours.  Sadly, there just aren't as many opportunities available nowadays for budding cartoonists, as weekly comics (with the exception of The BEANO) are mainly a thing of the past. 

So gaze upon these pages of Smash! and recall a time in the nation's history when seemingly countless high-circulation comic periodicals for girls and boys proliferated all across the country. Sadly, it appears unlikely that we shall see such times again.

******

(And in case you wonder why The GHOST PATROL was 'free', it's because it was a retitled reprint of The PHANTOM PATROL from SWIFT, a few years before.)