BABE Of The DAY - PENELOPE CRUZ...

Someone wanted a pic of LADY PENELOPE,

but here's one of PENELOPE CRUZ instead.  Hey,

her name's Penelope and she's a lady - what more do

you want?  (The other one's a snooty snob anyway

so just forget all about her.  She ain't worth it.)

DID YOU EVER WIN £1 By DARING DAVY?

Image copyright REBELLION

I don't suppose I ever thought much about it at the time, but I do now.  You see, the fact that comics are produced at least 8 weeks ahead of seeing print, I now realise that the first 9 (at least) DARE-A-DAY DAVY strips in POW! couldn't have been from genuine readers.

Also, several of the stories were reused a few years later in VALIANT comic, in a Davy-type strip called CHALLENGE CHARLIE, so it's a certainty that the named 'readers' were fictitious and never received £5 (that's inflation for you) for alleged 'contributions'.

Were the publishers just trying to save a few quid by inventing readers' suggestions, or did they simply never receive enough to begin with?  I once won a £1 in 1973 for a contribution to SHIVER & SHAKE, so not all invitations for reader-participation were fake, but it does cause me to wonder just how many were.

So, dear reader, did you ever win £1 for submitting an idea to Pow!'s Dare-A-Day Davy, or do you know of anyone who did?  If so, leave a comment and dispel the mystery.  And if you'd like to make a comparison between Davy and Charlie, I'll post some examples when I can.   

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO IPC'S BOB PAYNTER? CAN YOU HELP? (Updated)

The elusive BOB PAYNTER.  They seek him here, the seek him there... you know the rest.
Incidentally, Bob was posing - I didn't snap him unawares as he was putting on his jacket

Legendary cartoonist TERRY BAVE is looking to get in touch with his former editor and old friend BOB PAYNTER.  Bob, if you get to read this (or hear about it), would you contact me via the comments section and we'll work out a way for you and Terry to make contact.  He'd dearly like to catch up with you and reminisce about the good old days.  Go on, make his day.

SHIELA & TERRY BAVE

If anybody has Bob's contact details, if you let me know, I'll pass them onto Terry & Shiela.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

******

Update: And I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that, thanks to Bob's granddaughter, who chanced upon this post, Bob and Terry (no, not the ones from The Likely Lads) are now back in touch again and reminiscing over old times.  Don't you just love a happy ending?

Another update: As the comics world knows by now, Terry died on December 6th 2018, but at least he and Bob were reunited and managed to get in quite a few sessions of reminiscing by 'phone and letter before Terry passed away.  I spoke to Terry on the 'phone every so often, and he told me it meant a lot to him that he and Bob were back in touch.  Crivens is sometimes regarded as 'controversial' by some people, but without it, the pair might never have heard from each other again.  If that's the only good thing it's ever done, then it's served at least one useful purpose.

GINGER with a sketch of his mum & dad

RESPECTFUL REPOST IN TRIBUTE TO LEO BAXENDALE: PANEL-BY-PANEL - BAD PENNY...

Copyright REBELLION

Time now for some more original art, in this instance BAD PENNY by LEO BAXENDALE, from the back page of SMASH! #156, January 25th 1969.  I've scanned the first two panels as one, as they have a caption running across both of them.  And, although you can enlarge the panels by clicking on them, I've repeated the last one in two bigger halves for greater visual impact.  The strip has been drawn on two thin sheets of card, extended on the right-hand side, then stuck down on a thicker piece of art board.  To give you all an idea of how poorly these pages were treated in storage, this one has footprints on the back, indicating that it was lying face down on the floor at some stage and walked over.  (Or perhaps lay on top of a pile of art used as a step to reach something on a high shelf.)  Shameful, eh?

And look at the street name in the panel below.  Is this what you'd describe as a Nightmare on Elm Street?

And here's the published page as readers would have seen it back in 1969.

A SUDDEN GUST OF WIND BLOWS IN WITH SAD NEWS - LEO BAXENDALE 1930-2017... (Updated)

Images copyright their respective owners

Well, what can you say and how do you say it?

As most of you will know by now, LEO BAXENDALE passed away recently.  Leo was an influential creator in the world of UK comics, but due to leaving mainstream comics in the mid-1970s, is known mainly to diehard fans who read his stuff in the '50s, '60s, and '70s.  News of his sad demise will bring him a wider recognition among the great British public, but it's a poor trade-off at the end of the day.  Some people you think will live forever, some people deserve to live forever, and Leo probably deserved it more than most.  True, he has attained a kind of immortality through his comics creations, but even that seems a lesser reward than it should be.

Anyway, there's little point in me repeating facts and figures about his career; that's already been done on other blogs, in far more detail than my tendency to the superficial can match.  Suffice to say that, when it comes to comics, Leo was a lion. There have been other lions of course, and there'll be others again, but he was among the first.  Sadly, I never met him, but he very kindly replied to several of my fan letters over the years, and, at my bold request in the position of assistant editor of The ILLUSTRATED COMIC JOURNAL back in the '90s, supplied an article for publication within its pages.  True, it had appeared elsewhere first, but Leo didn't think the readership of both 'venues' would overlap, and we were glad to have it. 

With each passing day, another little piece of our childhood is eroded away, and with Leo's passing, quite a large chunk has been chipped off in one fell swoop.  For what it's worth, if anything, I'm sure readers of this humble blog extend their condolences to Leo's family and friends at this sad time.  We're frowning at the moment, but we'll all laugh again after an appropriate interval, especially when we read again some of Leo's comic creations that we enjoyed as kids, teenagers, and adults.

Rest in peace Leo Baxendale.  He may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten as long as unruly kids indulge in mischief and mayhem in any school playground.

And below is the cover of Leo's autobiography, which every fan of British comics should read.

And now, a gallery of various images.  Click to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.

BABE Of The DAY - BRIGITTE NIELSEN...

The SHE-HULK that never was -

BRIGITTE NIELSEN.  That might've

been an interesting movie, but then again,

perhaps not.  She'll likely turn green with

envy when another statuesque actress

lands the role in the future, eh?

MY HEART IS STILL A FIREBALL...

Image copyright relevant owners

When I was a kid living in the first house I remember, in the woods at the top of the street there was a fallen tree that I imagined was FIREBALL XL5.  I'd sit on the front part of it, pretending it was Fireball Junior and that I was pilot STEVE ZODIAC.  When I was around five and a half, we flitted to a bigger house a few minutes away in another street, but I often returned to those woods to play on my tree.

One day my big brother came in and told me that some workmen had turned the tree around while doing something in the woods (no, they weren't bears, so it wasn't that), so at the first opportunity I ran up to see for myself.  I was disappointed, not being a fan of change of any kind, but there wasn't anything I could do but accept the cold hard fact of the situation.

When we moved again, I visited 'Fireball' often, even taking some of the loose roots from the upturned base of the tree as mementos of my childhood.  At some stage in the '70s (mid-to-late, I think - can't quite remember) old 'XL5' was removed and I never saw it again.  (Wouldn't it be weird if there were a wooden ornament in my house made from that tree and I didn't know?  I mean, I'd know there was an ornament, but not that it was made from the tree.)

Anyway, fade out the 'TWILIGHT ZONE' theme.  I don't have a photo of the tree to show you (took some, but never had them developed), so I thought I'd show you a piccie of Fireball XL5 itself.  Don't know who the artist is, but it's a pretty neat illustration.  Always loved those jet-mobiles - anyone know where I can buy a real one?

******

(Yeah, some of my posts are pretty weird, ain't they?  Thing is, I just wanted an excuse to show you this image of Fireball XL5, hence the personal reminiscence.)

ANOTHER BABE Of The DAY - NICOLA BRYANT...

NICOLA BRYANT is so happy,

she's jumping for joy, assisted by actor

COLIN BAKER, who can't believe his

luck.  Nor can the photographer in fact,

as he's got a much nicer view than Col

 has, poor old soul that he is.

BRITISH ADS FOR MAJOR MATT MASON...

Characters copyright MATTEL Inc.

Those of a certain age will recall MAJOR MATT MASON, MATTEL'S MAN IN SPACE, and the ads that appeared in U.S. comics at the time.  However, it appears that the U.K. had their own series of ads, which I've never seen reproduced anywhere else before.  Which doesn't necessarily mean they haven't been, just that I've not seen them.  So, without claiming that the following ads are comprehensive (there may have been more), here are the ones which appeared in SMASH! in 1969.  No doubt they appeared in other U.K. comics as well.

Did you have any Major Matt Mason toys, readers?  Why not reminisce about them to your heart's content in our scintillating comments section?  And if you want to see just a few Matt Mason items from my own collection, you can make yourself jealous by clicking here.

And below are two ads which appeared in U.S. comics...