WHEN THE SCARLET WITCH WAS GREEN...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

I'm assuming that whoever coloured the interiors of The X-MEN #4 didn't do the cover as well, else it's a bit strange that the costumes of QUICKSILVER and The SCARLET WITCH don't match up.  Green for WANDA on the cover instead of scarlet, and a mercury-blue for PIETRO instead of green.  Almost the same thing was repeated on the next two covers - I say "almost" because Wanda's cossie was right on #6, but not Pietro's.  Funnily enough, a few years later, as a member of The AVENGERS, Pietro's costume became that same silvery-blue.

The cover above is a scan of the actual published issue, the one below comes from a MARVEL MASTERWORKS volume.  I think the slight differences in hue can be attributed to the different printing processes and paper used, rather than the way they've been coloured.  Besides, there could sometimes be a colour variation between copies of the same issue back in the '60s & '70s, due to the vagaries of printing.

  

Below is a side-by-side view for easier comparison.  (Click to enlarge.)

I'VE GOT IT TAPED...

Back in the late '70s and throughout the '80s and early '90s, I kept in contact with friends living in England or abroad via an interesting variation of the 'Cassette-a-Letter'.  Rather than just record a 10 or 15 minute voice message, I'd turn it into an hour long 'radio' show, with records and comedy clips punctuating my meandering monologues about what I'd been up to.

I called these shows 'Groan With Gordie', and soon some of my pals adopted the habit themselves.  'Boak With Brian' and 'Ramble With Campbell' were the sorts of titled tapes that popped through my letterbox at semi-regular intervals.  I still have all of the ones I received, though I suspect that the ones I sent have long since been consigned to the dustbin of history.

These days, of course, there's no need for cassette tapes to keep in touch with anyone.  Skype and the Internet now enable people to have easy access to friends or relatives dotted around the world - almost instantaneously in some cases.  So the advent of emails ended an era for me, and my recorded 'radio' shows shuffled offstage and into far too early retirement.

It's more than likely that I enjoyed recording my tapes far more than the recipients ever enjoyed listening to them, but it was something that I looked forward to doing.  "What should I talk about?  What songs and clips shall I play?", etc.  The new revolution in technology may have changed the way people maintain contact nowadays, making it far easier and quicker, but for any benefits gained, there's always something lost in the swap-over, in my humble estimation.

Let's pause as Gordie sadly gives one last groan in melancholy remembrance of a now-vanished age that will likely never be seen again. 

PART TWO OF THE BAXENDALE LETTERS...

Way back in the mid-1980s, I wrote to comics legend LEO BAXENDALE (c/o of GERALD DUCKWORTH publishers) and offered to letter any strips he was doing  for free.  (Not that there was anything wrong with his own lettering, but I thought it might save him some time.)  I never heard anything back and it's likely that Duckworth's never forwarded my letter in the first place.  However, in January of 1992, I had occasion to get in touch with him again and happened to enquire if he'd ever received my letter from a few years before.

I got a nice handwritten 9 page response, which is rather amazing when you think about it.  What other comics legend back then would have gone to all the time and trouble to do that?  Very few, I'd wager.  Because Leo's letter offers some interesting insights into what he was doing at the time, I thought all you crazy Criv-ites might like to read it, so here it is in all its unexpurgated glory.  Leo's handwriting is a bit hard to decipher in places, so I've provided a transcript  to make reading easier.

Incidentally, when Leo says that the WILLY The KID Annuals sold around 80,000 per book, he's referring only to the first two; the third only had a print run of 10,000 and, as a result, is difficult to find and is much sought-after.  Have you got one?  I've got all three, so yah-boo to you!

******

Incidentally, A.V.F.B. refers to the title of Leo's 1978 autobiography, A VERY FUNNY BUSINESS.  (Duckworth.)

TRANSCRIPT:

      Eastcombe.  Saturday 7th. March '92

      Dear Gordon,

      Many thanks for your letter of 14th January, and I hope you won't mind

      that my reply is belated.  (I've had a lot on in recent times)

      I can't remember whether Duckworths ever forwarded your letter to me,

      but it's 14 years since A.V.F.B. was published, & a lot's gone on since then...

      Immediately after A.V.F.B. and the third Willy the Kid Book were published

      in the Autumn of 1978, Duckworths decided not to continue with any more

      (though sales of the Willy Books were respectable @ circa 80,000 each, being

      low-priced hardback annuals didn't make them v. profitable, & Duckworths

      are mainly (smallish) academic publishers, so they fell back exhausted.)

      At exactly that point (Autumn 1978) I was approached by the Managing

      Editor of the Dutch Magazine 'Eppo' to write and draw Willy the Kid strips

      for him, which I did for the next 18 months.

      The lettering on these (being of course in Dutch) was translated and

      lettered in Haarlem, not far from Amsterdam.

      Then I began a High Court action over the rights in my creations for The

      Beano (Bash Street, Minnie the Minx etc), and this action in Chancery

      lasted for 7 years, from May 1980 - May 1987.  There was a pre-trial

      settlement in May 1987.

      Naturally, I did no drawing in those years, as the legal work took all my

      energies.)

      I had decided to stop drawing after that, & in fact didn't do any for 2 3/4

      years, until I happened to call in The Guardian for a drink with Richard

      Boston, & the editor asked me to create a weekly strip, which I did -

      "I Love You Baby Basil!".

      After two years on this strip, I've just decided to have a break from weekly

      production (the last Basil appeared in today's Guardian) & give my eyes a

      rest.

      In 1987 I set up my own imprint, Reaper (as in Grim Reaper) Books.  So

      far I've published 3 books (all written by me)...well, it's a step up from

      Samizdat, & is fun.

      The first (1988) was 'The Encroachment', an A4 paperback about power

      & ideology in history, & part autobiography.

      The second (1989) was "On Comedy;  The Beano and Ideology" - an A4

      paperback, a racy account of my 9 years for The Beano, but dealing in

      much greater depth than in A.V.F.B., with what was "going on" in the

      drawings, and in my head while I was creating and drawing them.

      The third book, published last year, was a v. swish hardback, "I Love

      You Baby Basil!" (The Collected Strip Cartoons from The Guardian

      March 1990 - March 1991) and with a 5,000 word Prologue which

      deals with the history of the previous ten years (I encase* everything in

      history nowadays.)

      Again, many thanks for writing, Gordon, and my best wishes for the

      future with your work.

      With kind regards,

      Leo Baxendale.

(*That's my best guess - I can't make out the word at all.)  

BABE OF THE DAY - SOPHIA LOREN...

SOPHIA LOREN - doing what

she does best - looking amazing!

'NEW' SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY - PART FIVE...

Images copyright DC COMICS

What a day!  I'm knackered!  "Hooray," you cry, "he'll be too tired to bore us with all that dreary schecht he writes!"  You're right, so without any further ado, here are another six covers of SUPERMAN's new mag from the late '80s, launched in the wake of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.  Check out #s 27 & 28 - brilliant, aren't they?

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY - PART SEVEN...

Images copyright DC COMICS

A mixed bag in this latest instalment of The ADVENTURES

Of SUPERMAN covers, in that they're not an unbroken sequence,

but separated by gaps of varying duration.  Never mind, there are still

some good ones.  I guess I'd given up buying the title regularly by this

time and was only getting the issues with covers that interested me.  I

love the ones featuring JACK KIRBY characters - note STAN

LEE's doppelganger, FUNKY FLASHMAN on #613.

Got a favourite?  Feel free to tell everyone in you know where.

  

DOES THE KING'S HORSE RING A BELL WITH ANYONE...?

One day back in the late '60s, my father brought home a book for me which contained various children's stories.  The book wasn't new, so he'd most likely bought it in a jumble sale or 'The Barras'.  Amongst the tales within its pages were The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Little Red Hen, one about two kids looking after a hedgehog, and The King's Horse.  (Or it may've been The King's Bell.)  There were others of course, but those are the ones I remember.

My favourite story was The King's Horse (or Bell), which was about a King who installed a bell in the town square, for any of his subjects to ring in order to obtain justice in matters where they had been wronged.  The way I remember it, the King had a horse who, when it was no longer of use to him, was turned out into the street to fend for itself.  One cold winter's night, the bell is heard ringing in the square, and when the King turns up to see who needs his help, is ashamed to see that he himself is the guilty party, is overcome with remorse, and the horse returns to its comfy stable to live happily ever after.

The tale is based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Bell Of Atri, which has been rewritten as a prose story more than once, I believe.  However, in the original version, the horse doesn't belong to the King, but a knight (or soldier), so I'm left to wonder if I might be mis-remembering the details, or a little artistic license had been taken with events in order to provide an ironic ending to the tale.  (Y'know, King who wants justice for others is himself guilty of inflicting an injustice on another - in this case his horse.)

So Criv-ites, the call goes out.  Have any of you ever read the version I remember, or owned the book of which I speak?  If any of you actually have the book, I'd be prepared to purchase it for a more than reasonable price.  You know where the comments section is.

BABE OF THE DAY - RACHEL RILEY...

Brains and beauty are always a winning

combination (though not necessarily in that

order), and who epitomizes those two qualities

better than the ravishing RACHEL RILEY?

(Apart from my good self of course.)

PART FOUR OF 'NEW' SUPERMAN COVER GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

When these comics first came out nearly 28 years ago,

for some reason #20 wasn't put aside for me (I had a standing

order for them).  I only acquired it a few short years ago, from

the late Neil Craig's FUTURESHOCK in Woodlands Road in

Glasgow.  I only remember that because of the back issue 'lot-

tery' ticket I found within its pages when I flicked through

it relatively recently.

The ticket must have been there for years as it comes

from a time when the shop had relocated for a while to Byers

Road in the '90s, so it had long-expired by the the time I bought

the comic from the shop's original premises a couple or so years

before Neil Craig passed away.  It always gives me a sense of

achievement when I manage to fill a gap in a collection -

still got a few more to go.

Anyway, well done.  You've endured my self-indulgent

wittering for long enough, so enjoy your reward of these six

covers from a period when a SUPERMAN comic was still

a super read.  (It's been a while in my view.)

******

Incidentally, doesn't it look like there's something missing

from the 'Power Failure' blurb in the above cover (#19)?

KID KLASSICS: THE ADS THAT MADE AN @SS OUT OF ATLAS...

A genuine Ad.  Copyright relevant owner

CHARLES ATLAS (real name Angelo Siciliano, born 1892) seems to have been around forever.  Practically everyone remembers the ads from many comicbooks throughout the '60s and '70s, though they actually debuted back in the '40s.  He died in 1972, aged 80, so he was an old man for much of the period that people of my age group first became familiar with his athletic frame and visage staring out from the comics of our youth.

The ads are so iconic that they have become a target for affectionate lampooning in the pages of the selfsame publications that the originals were printed in.  Here, for your amusement, are just a few of the many parodies which have appeared - enjoy. (And tell us your favourite in the comments section.)

A lampoon (as if you couldn't tell).  Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Click on image to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

THE BUMPER BOOK FOR BOYS...

I was in a charity shop yesterday and bought an old book for £1.50.  It's from the '30s, I think - maybe even the '20s.  Hard to say for sure as there's no date anywhere inside.  The four colour plates evoke a long-vanished age, so I thought it worth sharing them with you here.  Couldn't say whether it ever had a dustjacket - perhaps you know?  If so, do tell.

I'VE GOT ONE, YOU'VE GOT ONE, EVERYBODY'S GOT ONE...

Radio Victory

Back in early 1985, I was busily pursuing my freelance comics career from a bedsit room in Shearer Rd. in Fratton, Portsmouth.  I usually had the radio on as I worked, and, one night, I was listening to a show by a DJ called GEORGE REID (I think)* on the local station, RADIO VICTORY.  (Whose premises were situated just along the road from me actually.)

(*Might have been Reed.)

George announced his regular 'phone quiz and offered up the following question for the consideration of his eager and loyal listeners.  "I've got one, you've got one, everybody's got one - what is it?"  Then he played some records as he waited for folk to ring in with their various suggestions.  Eventually someone did, and the bold host repeated his question and then asked for the fellow's answer.  "Is it 'penis'?" came the response.

The caller was immediately cut off and a record was played while the stunned George composed himself.  When he returned after the song's end, he bemoaned what had happened, saying that in all the many years that he'd worked on radio (in America too, he was keen to point out), he'd never once had such a rude response to one of his questions as the one he'd just had the misfortune to hear (and inadvertently broadcast).

George then took another call, and a voice (which, to me, sounded suspiciously similar to the previous one) said "I'd just like to say how shocked I was to hear that last caller say 'penis' on the radio..."  You could almost hear George's internal indecision over just how he should respond.  The offending word had been repeated, but it was in the form of a complaint, so the repetition was perhaps legitimate - or was it? George hesitated and was lost, as the caller continued "...personally, I thought the answer was 'pr*ck'!"

  

George spluttered his indignation as I (and no doubt his entire audience) had a good laugh.  Truth to tell, George sounded just a bit too far up himself, and the courts of the universe demanded that he be brought down a peg.  He was, and in hilarious fashion too.  His pomposity had been punctured, justice was served, and all was right with the world.

And what was the real answer to the question?  I'll have to disappoint you all there, because I can no longer remember.  I doubt it was as entertaining as the first one though.  What do you suppose it might have been?

Update: I was astonished to discover some time after publishing this post that Radio Victory ceased broadcasting just over a year after my stay in Pompey, on June 28th 1986.  It had first started on October 14th 1975, and was one of the first 19 independent stations to be launched in the U.K. between 1973 and '76.  It popped up again over the years in various forms and from different buildings, but I last heard it in 1985, 30-odd years ago.