PART FOUR Of SECRET ORIGINS COVER & IMAGE GALLERY...

Images copyright DC COMICS

With this instalment in our SECRET ORIGINS series, I'm cutting the number of internal pages on show and restricting them mainly to splashes. Why? Simply because it's getting more difficult to find truly outstanding (or even interesting) images that are worth scanning.  The pages seem to consist primarily of talking heads, and even though they're competently drawn, I have to be honest and say most of them are pretty boring.

However, when there's a page I think is worth looking at, I'll include it for you, so that you don't feel I'm depriving you of anything purely out of laziness.  I have all 50 issues in the run, but I've only ever read the first few, presumably because I wasn't particularly enthused by them when I first got them back in the day.  Maybe I'll get around to remedying that before I fall off the twig, but it's still satisfying to have a complete set of these mags - even though they're mostly unread.

Perhaps you disagree with my lacklustre assessment?  If so, then fight your corner in the comments section.

BABE Of The DAY - MICHELLE KEEGAN...

I reckon if they ever remake The

AVENGERS, MICHELLE KEEGAN

would be perfect for the role of EMMA

PEEL.  And I'd be a fantastic JOHN

 STEED.  (A man can dream.)

THE 'MYSTERY' OF THE MISSING 'IF'...

Dr. WHO copyright BBC TV

'It seemed to me as I were speaking perfectly naturally...'

What's wrong with that sentence?  Well, obviously, the word 'if' is missing - it should more correctly read: 'It seemed to me as if I were speaking perfectly naturally...'  It's a line from the fifth chapter of David Whitaker's book, DOCTOR WHO in an Exciting Adventure with the DALEKS, first published in 1964.  However, ever since the book was reprinted in the 1970s, right up to the present day, every new edition has rendered the line with the word missing.  I don't know about you, but such carelessness annoys me.  Anyway, should you ever decide to read (or re-read) this book, but don't possess an original 1964 hardback edition or 1965 paperback, when you get to this line, add in that little missing 'if', eh?  Just for me.  (And, of course, David Whitaker.  He used it for a reason.)

******

('It seemed to me as though I were speaking perfectly naturally...' would also have been equally acceptable.)

RECOMMENDED READING: BATMAN & The BEANO - TOGETHER...

BATMAN images copyright DC COMICS

Okay, so they were only together in my carrier bag yesterday, but having reeled you in with that devious deception, you may as well stick around and read the rest of the post.  First up is TALES Of The BATMAN, featuring the stories of writer ALAN BRENNERT and illustrated by a host of artists.  It's a slim volume, containing all of Alan's work for DC COMICS, and is available from all good comics shops and bookstores.  Buy one today!

BEANO images copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

Next up is BEANO Annual 2017, available, if you're lucky, from WH SMITH for only £1.99, depending on whether your local shop has any left, obviously.  However, the branch I was in yesterday had around a dozen copies, so yours may be similarly stocked.  I decided to purchase it because it's the first Annual with the new masthead (without the article), so it's sort of a collectors' item.  Buy one if you can.

  

H'mm, just noticed that the cover design seems to be based on MARVEL's GIANT SUPERHERO HOLIDAY GRAB-BAG from 1974.

BABE Of The DAY - DREW BARRYMORE...

CHARLIE was right- DREW BARRYMORE

is an Angel.  Well, you've gotta admit - she sure has a

'heavenly body'.  (Ouch!)  As do I, incidentally.  (In

that it gave up the ghost quite some time back.)

CHILDHOOD CAPERS - CHAPTER FOUR: CHEEKY & JOEY...

Have you ever met someone and become friends, only to learn much later that, when younger, they lived near to you or even attended the same school in a previous neighbourhood?  If you're anything like me (I'd imagine that not many people are), you can't help but wonder if your paths might've crossed before without either of you knowing or remembering.  Y'know, like standing in the same queue in a local shop, or in the same bus shelter or whatever.  So, with that in mind, "I wanna tell you a story."

(Cue wavy lines as we indulge in a flashback.)  My father once had a pair of budgies, Cheeky and Joey.  For some unstated reason, he eventually decided to part with them, though I suspect it may've been because he'd read an article saying that budgies carry diseases and so decided it was better to be safe than sorry.  I remember as I was leaving for primary school one day, my parents saying:  "You'd better say goodbye to the budgies - they won't be here when you get back."

I simply shrugged, but on reaching the back gate I was overwhelmed by a sudden wave of sadness and hurried back in to bid Cheeky and Joey au revoir.  Cut to many, many years later, and me and my pal Moonmando (whom you've seen comment on the blog) were in that former neighbourhood and I pointed out my old house to him.  You can imagine my astonishment when he informed me that he and one of his brothers had once collected a pair of budgies in a cage from that very house.

I didn't meet Moony 'til around 2nd or 3rd year in secondary school, so to discover he'd actually been in my (by then) former house without me knowing was quite a surprise.  What's more, his brother had been in my class at primary school at some stage, though I never knew him then, or even remembered him.  In fact, it wasn't until I was looking at an old school photo (which you can see here) in adulthood that I recognised his brother - as, by this time, I had known them both for quite a number of years.  (Though learning they'd both once been in my old residence to collect our budgies came later.)

What's more, the realisation that I'd later visited their house many times without ever knowing it was the very domicile to which Cheeky and Joey had 'retired', was likewise a source of amazement to me.  This was a connection of which we'd all been previously unaware.  It goes without saying that Moony isn't anywhere near as impressed with this incident as I am (or at all in fact), but to me, it's one of those 'Astounding Tales' that makes life so interesting.  (Then again, I always was easily impressed.)

So, anything like that ever happen to you?  Do tell!  

"GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST! I FANCY ANOTHER PIZZA!"

Images copyright DC COMICS

As promised, here's the 1977 PIZZA HUT reprint of SUPER-

MAN #113, first published in 1957.  As with #97 a couple of posts

back, the only pages I've omitted are the text-story pages, of which

there were a couple (to qualify for 2nd class mailing privileges).  Now

you should have a fairly good idea of what DC comicbooks were like

back in the '50s, which makes the exercise of scanning these pages

worthwhile.  Feel free to express your gratitude with a comment.

BABE Of The DAY - SALMA HAYEK...

Thanks, SALMA - you've just reminded

me I meant to post  a letter, so I'd better buy

a stamp.  (Wotta beauty she is, eh?)

"BY KRYPTON! I FEEL LIKE A PIZZA!"

Images copyright DC COMICS

Back in 1977, PIZZA HUT had some kind of promotion which offered two reprints each of SUPERMAN, BATMAN, and WONDER WOMAN comicbooks - six in all.  I possess the two Superman issues (#s 96 & 113), which are almost identical to the originals, apart from the paid advertising and size of the mags, which were the same as then-modern comics and not the size of the 1950s mags they were reprinted from.

I don't know the details of how customers obtained the mags (whether they had to send away for them or got them in store), but they're nice little items and I thought you might like a 'taste' of them.  Here's #97, I'll post #113 later today. Anyone got the Batman and Wonder Woman issues?

   

(BOND) BABE Of The DAY - MADELINE SMITH...

What teenage lad didn't lust after

stunning MADELINE SMITH back in

the 1970s?  Why, I even once watched a full

episode of TERRY & JUNE because Maddie

was in it.  Now that's dedication.  (So forget

what ROY CASTLE warbled on RECORD

 BREAKERS - he understated it.)

RECOMMENDED READING: STAR TREK - THE CLASSIC UK COMICS VOLUME TWO...

Copyright relevant owner

Back on September 25th 1971, TV21 ceased to be a separate entity after over six and a half years and was absorbed by VALIANT (cover-dated October 2nd), a comic that had been in continuous publication since 1962.  And so ended a legend in British weekly periodicals, as TV21 had, in its heyday, been the best-selling comic for children by an extremely wide margin, and whose sales (at their height) have probably never been equalled even to this day. 

I'd been buying Valiant ever since SMASH! had been merged into it back on April 3rd of that year, and was immediately taken with the STAR TREK colour centrespread strip, one of only two (if I rightly remember) to carry over from TV21.  (The other one being The TUFFS Of TERROR ISLAND.)  The art on PARAMOUNT's TV hit, by JOHN STOKES, had nice, clean storytelling and captured the likenesses of the main actors in a way not all previous artists had been able to.

The pages were sheer quality and a visual treat to the eyes.  I'm fortunate enough to own several issues, including the first three, and it's always a pleasure to look again at these strips whenever I dig out the comics for a self-indulgent nostalgia-fest, wherein I travel back in time faster than a member of the Starship ENTERPRISE.  Now, however, I have this brilliant new book by IDW to make that trip easier, the second of a three volume set (got the first one, the third isn't out yet) reprinting all the U.K. Star Trek strips ever published.

The reproduction is amazingly crisp and clear, and if you're a Star Trek fan, or a lover of British comics, you're sure to be bowled over by this handsome, hardback volume, containing not just Valiant strips, but also ones from TV21 and its Annuals.  Available now from all good comics shops and bookstores.  (Roll on the third and final volume in the series.)

Definitely a 'must have' item for discerning collectors.

Below - the cover of the first combined issue of Valiant & TV21.  (Not in the book.  Update: it's in Volume 3 though.)

And below, from the third issue, comes the Star Trek strip.  This is scanned from the actual comic - believe it or not, I think it looks better (cleaner and sharper) in the IDW volume.

BABE Of The DAY - JENNIFER BEALS...

JENNIFER BEALS is here to brighten up

our day, Crivs, though don't ask me what she's doing

... apart from looking gorgeous obviously.  Something

that comes easy no doubt.  (It does to me!)

RECOMMENDED READING: JACK KIRBY PENCILS AND INKS...

Copyright relevant owner

Here's a book that all fans of JACK KIRBY will be sure to love, featuring stats of Jack's original pencils from the first issues of The DEMON, KAMANDI, and OMAC, alongside the finished inked pages by MIKE ROYER.  Mike tended to ink Kirby like Kirby, so the comparison is probably not as revealing as it would have been with VINCE COLLETTA inked issues, but it's still a volume well-worth having on your bookshelf.  Waiting for you at your local comics shop now!  (So what are you waiting for?)