FEARLESS TOMY ROBOT WALKS OVER OVEN...

Regular readers will know that I've shown a

photo of my wee TOMY robot before, but here's

a brief clip of him in motion.  "It's alive!"

RECOMMENDED READING: KIRBY COLLECTOR, BACK ISSUE, & ALTER EGO...

Copyright relevant owners

Was in a local comicbook store relatively recently and came away with a big batch of goodies.  Amongst the pile of stuff I acquired were the four mags you see before you - comics nostalgia at its very best.  So get along to your nearest shop and buy your own copies before they sell out.  You wouldn't want to live the rest of your life without them.  (Hard-sell?  Me?  Nah!)

It's APRIL - So Time For A Post About The WOOLWORTH'S SANTA...

Yeah, I'm aware it's not Christmas (though it will be before you know it), but I've been meaning to do this post for a while.  Not that it contains any earth-shaking content (when do they ever?), but I feel like wallowing in nostalgia for a bit.

The Santa in the above photo is from a set of four I bought in WOOLWORTH'S back around the mid-'80s.  Every year since then they've been trotted out to add to the festive cheer in the living-room, adorning the wall-clock above the fireplace for many a Christmas now - 'though I originally hung them from the old tree (which pre-dates my arrival on the planet).

It's a classic Santa Claus design, very similar to the one associated with COCA COLA.  And though I didn't acquire the figures until the mid-'80s, I can easily imagine them as part of the Christmases of my boyhood back in the '60s, accentuating the yuletide mood of houses that they never once saw the insides of.  Strange that, eh?

Anyway, I assumed when I bought them that they were a relatively new product at the time ('cos I'd never seen them before), but perhaps they're an old item that appeared in shops every Christmas for decades.  Does anyone else have them, and if so, can you recall roughly what year you first got them?  Let me know in the comments section, will you?

(And remember - it's only eight months to Christmas.)  

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS: The INCREDIBLE HULK #5...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

I first read this tale in an issue of SMASH! back in the 1960s.  Re-read it (and saw the above cover for the first time) in MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #6 not long after.  It was reprinted in an early ish of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL in the early '70s, as well as appearing in the comic's Annual around the same time.  One of my favourite HULK stories - one glance and I'm a kid again.  How about you?

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - CATERINA MURINO...

Lustrous hair, come-to-bed-eyes,

seductive mouth - but that's enough

about me!  Cop a load of this lovely

 lady - CATERINA MURINO.

LION'S ROBOT ARCHIE: The JUNGLE ROBOT - PART FIVE...

Copyright REBELLION

Oh, the things I do for you Criv-ites.  From LION #s 10 & 11, another two episodes of The JUNGLE ROBOT, starring ROBOT ARCHIE.  The original owner had scribbled in blue ink on the other side of the first page of the second strip (as well as directly onto the second page) and it had bled through, obscuring parts of of the art in some panels.  I had to painstakingly remove as much of the vandalism as possible with the limited computer technology I have at at my disposal, but it took absolutely hours.  I could only do a few minutes at a time as I tire easily, but I hope you think the results are worth it.

If not, I expect you to lie and tell me what a great job I did.

CALVIN The COMICBOOK FAN...

CALVIN's trying to be good in the run-up to Christmas so

 that SANTA will bring him lots of presents.  This one's fun.

RECOMMENDED READING: The SUPERIOR FOES Of SPIDER-MAN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Here's a great MARVEL OMNIBUS edition that I enjoyed  recently - The SUPERIOR FOES Of SPIDER-MAN.  It's an extremely entertaining and humorous read, and I think all you panting Criv-ites would love it.  You know the drill by now - rush around to your nearest comicbook outlet, hand over your cash, and you'll have your very own book to love and hug and squeeze and pat and pet and rub and caress and read and call George.

Read the spiel on the back cover, then grab your wallet.  You've got a date with excellence.

   

BABE Of The DAY - PENELOPE CRUZ...

Now that's what I call a pout!  PENELOPE

CRUZ, with a hairstyle that simply demands to

be pulled - and I'm just the guy to do it!

The MYSTERY Of The MYSTIFYING MEMORY...

Many years ago I had a dream.  I dreamt I was in a shop and saw a CORGI TOYS ASTON MARTIN DB5, but in a bigger scale than its previous two releases.  I opened the box, took out the car, looked at it, and was quite impressed by this new model.  Then I awoke and realized I'd only been dreaming, and was slightly disappointed by the fact.

A couple of years later I'm upstairs in JOHN MENZIES, and my eyes fall upon a familiar object.  A JAMES BOND Aston Martin by Corgi toys, and it's the bigger scale model that I saw and handled in my dream.  I'm astounded.  Had I had some kind of prophetic vision, or was it simply a coincidence?  Surely the latter, because there's no such thing as being able to see into the future, is there?  Tell me, is there?

That was back in the '70s.  The car was issued in 1978, so my dream must have preceded the actual event by a year or two.  But such things don't happen, do they?  Tell me, do they?  It's because of my doubt over such things that I've begun to consider other possibilities.  Could it be I'd seen the car, but forgotten it, then had a dream about it as if I was seeing it for the very first time?  Perhaps that's why I believe that the dream came first, but that I'm simply mistaken.

Thing is, I had the dream more than once before I saw the car for what seemed like the first time in real life.  So now I'm in the position of wondering exactly what to believe.  Did I see the car first (but forget), and then have the dream - or could it have been precisely as I thought for many years afterwards before the doubt set in?  Obviously it's got to be either one or the other, but which one?  Tell me, which one?

Or maybe there is another explanation.  Perhaps it was only in my dream that I felt I hadn't previously seen the car before discovering it on sale in a shop.  That's to say, I'd seen the car in a shop, but dreamt I hadn't spied it until after seeing it in a dream; a 'dream within a dream' in other words, that never happened despite me believing it had.  (I sure hope that makes some kind of sense to you all.)

Ever had anything similar happen to you?  Something you think you dreamt about that seemingly came true, but now you're not quite sure if you remember things as they actually happened, or whether time is merely playing tricks with your memory.  Tell all in the comments section.

RECOMMENDED READING: The BRONZE AGE Of DC COMICS...

Images copyright DC COMICS

All true comicbook fans will be sure to love this great book by TASCHEN - The BRONZE AGE Of DC COMICS - a large-sized tome with over 400 colour pages, detailing the years 1970 to 1984.  Rather than me wittering on about it, here's a selection of images to show you just how good it is.  Your local comics shop or bookstore is the place to purchase your very own copy of this valiant volume.  Get going!

DOOM PATROL OFFICIAL INDEX # 1 & 2...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Seeing as how we've been looking at The DOOM PATROL in a couple of recent posts, I thought you might like to see the JOHN BYRNE-drawn covers for the two-part official index that ICG published (gasp) 30-odd years ago.  Nice, eh?

MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #80 - INTRODUCING The DOOM PATROL...

Images copyright DC COMICS

Isn't it ironic that ARNOLD DRAKE, original writer (and co-creator) of The DOOM PATROL, also wrote X-MEN after leaving DC and writing for MARVEL?  Two misfit groups led by a wheelchair-bound idealist whose intention was to protect humanity.  Unless I'm much mistaken, both teams had their own BROTHERHOOD Of EVIL to fight against, pushing credulity a bit too far when it comes to coincidence.  Arnold Drake later said he thought STAN LEE must've heard about The Doom Patrol at the preparation stage and stolen a jump on him.  Poor Stan just can't win.  It's asserted by some that JACK KIRBY created the X-Men, not Stan - who's now also accused of ripping off Arnold Drake as well as appropriating Kirby's credit.

Hard to believe I bought this mag at least 30 years ago.  If memory serves, I purchased it from the late PETE ROOT of AKA Books & Comics in Glasgow's Virginia Galleries.  I more than likely bought it primarily because I'd read the New Doom Patrol in SHOWCASE #s 94 to 96 back in the '70s, and therefore wanted to add the original group's first appearance to my collection.  In my never-ending quest to give you a glimpse into yesteryear, I've decided to share the cover and some of the interior pages with you here.

Incidentally, I've added the covers and splash pages of #s 95 & 96 of Showcase to my post about #94, which you'll see if you click here.  Wait until you've savoured the mood and the magic of the pages on display here first though - I wouldn't want you to exit prematurely and miss them, especially after all the time and trouble I've gone to in scanning them just for you.

MY KINDA TOWN...

Above is what my town's main shopping centre looked like in the '60s.  There's a fountain and flagpoles, pillars and posts, and the whole place had a certain kind of style and charm to it that's sadly lacking today.  The centre has been roofed over, many of the best shops no longer exist, and it's not the pleasant place that it used to be.  And guess what?  They call it progress.

MONSTER OF THE MOMENT - BIG BAD BORIS...

Nope, I won't even listen to anyone who dares say that BORIS KARLOFF wasn't the best FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER ever - ever!  Nobody did it better - and it's doubtful that anyone ever will.  No point arguing.

  

(Unless you really want to - but you'll still be wrong.)

BABE Of The DAY - MARILYN MONROE...

Here she is, fellas... the ultimate blonde -

MARILYN MONROE.  Spittin' image of my

last girlfriend - honest.  (Well, okay - she wore

the same style of skirt.  Close enough.)

KLASSIC KOMIC KOVERS - AMAZING ADVENTURES #17...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

This comic is mainly reprint, in that it collects The BEAST's origin tales from the back-up stories that appeared in the X-MEN's own mag back in the 1960s.  They're topped and tailed by new segments to draw everything together, but it was probably prepared as a fill-in issue for when the regular strip missed the deadline.  However, it's worth it for the JIM STARLIN cover alone.

RONNIE RICH EGGS-ASPERATED AT EASTER...

Copyright relevant owner

Here's another Easter strip about the boy who wants to give away a fortune in order to inherit another one.  From SMASH! #116, published in 1968 - RONNIE RICH - no relation to the American RICHIE (at least as far as I know).

NEW RANGE OF CLASSIC THUNDERBIRDS TOYS COMING IN MAY FROM CORGI...

For fans of the classic series of THUNDERBIRDS, CORGI are releasing a new range of diecasts in May.  Well, to be honest, TB2 and FAB 1 were released back in 2005, but TB1 and TB3 are new.  Priced at £19.99 each (TB1 & TB3 count as one item), they're very reasonably priced considering what some people are asking for Corgi's 2005 TB2 and FAB 1 on eBay.

It's interesting to note that, unlike its 2005 release, this latest edition of FAB 1 doesn't have the ROLLS ROYCE radiator ornament The SPIRIT Of ECSTASY, making it (in my eyes) less collectable than the earlier version.  I wonder if RR refused permission, or whether Corgi would've had to pay for the privilege and decided not to in order to keep costs down.  Or maybe it was just too delicate and kept breaking off - anyone know?

Incidentally, TB1, TB2, TB3, and TB4 are clearly modelled after the MATCHBOX versions of the early '90s (though TB1 has a better finish).  FAB 1 has all the same features as the '60s DINKY classic, but its profile is less sleek-looking.  

THE ORIGINAL DANGER MOUSE EGGS-CAPES A TRAP...

Copyright relevant and respective owners

Yet another Easter strip from SMASH! - and look at that ad for the DINKY FAB 1.  CORGI were actually working on a prototype model in anticipation of acquiring the licence to produce a range of THUNDERBIRDS toys, but Dinky got given the gig instead.  A few years back, Corgi finally released a version of the car, which was essentially a copy of the Dinky incarnation, not their original design.  I've got both of 'em!

DOES EASTER GET ON YOUR NERVS...?

Waahoooo!  Yet another super Easter strip from SMASH! #61, first

published in 1967.  Which would you prefer - these brilliant comic strips

or a bundle of chocolate eggs?  If you gave the second answer, tough, 'cos

you're stuck with the strips.  You think I'm made of chocolate?  (Call the

nurse, he's talking p*sh again!)  Another strip soon - stay tuned.

  

RONNIE RICH IN EASTER EGGS-CESS...

Another slice of Easter fun from a 1967 issue of SMASH!  I'm not sure

I ever quite understood Ronnie's motivation.  If he already had more dosh

than he could ever manage to spend, then why the heck was he so eager to

get his hands on a million quid?  Sheer greed I suppose.  Typical, eh?  He

probably grew up to be a Tory politician.