BABE Of The DAY - JANE RUSSELL...

This is the sight that met me when I

came home last night: JANE RUSSELL in

her scanties, alluring as all get out.  "Make me

feel like a woman!" trilled Jane in her trademark

sensual manner.  Well, I'm only human, so did what

any other red-blooded bloke would do in the same

situation.  I threw her my shirt and said "Wash 'n'

iron that, love, but first make me a cup of tea!"

See?  I know just how to treat a gal!

TV CENTURY 21 SPECIALS COVER GALLERY...

Copyright relevant owner

I've likely shown these covers before, but these scans are new, improved versions from my own personal copies of these half dozen TV CENTURY 21 Specials.  The back page below was used again on the next two comics so I've not repeated it, and the final three comics each had different back cover ads.  If I remember correctly, I had the first three issues back in the '60s, but I don't recall having the three THUNDERBIRD ones - not that it matters, 'cos I've got 'em all now!

It's a shame there's a smudge on the back cover ad of the final Special, but that's the way it was when I bought most of these replacements many years ago.  I was lucky enough to get five of them all at one go, and finally acquired the FIREBALL XL5 cover issue a good 20 years after the others (and around 50 years since I'd bought my original copy back in 1965 - or 2065 if you prefer TV21's dating).

Did you have any of these Specials back in the day, Criv-ite chums, and if so, what (if anything) do you remember about them?  Also, did you have any of the toys featured in the ads, and if so, which ones - and what were your favourites?  The comments section eagerly awaits your visit.

(Incidentally, the above Special was actually the second one, but I've placed it first because it was always my favourite out of the three I had back then.)

BABE Of The DAY - IMOGEN HASSALL...

Oh, that reminds me - I need to park my

bicycle and post a letter.  Thanks, IMOGEN.

(She's been watching 'Give Us A Clue'.)

The DEFINITE ARTICLE(S) - From The PAGES Of SUPER DC...

Images copyright relevant and respective owners

All 14 issues of SUPER DC (see here) were copyright dated 1969 in the indicia and priced at one old shilling, despite not going on sale until September or October of 1970.  (Confirmed by the fact that the free calendar watch strap labels were for November and December of 1970, and January of 1971.)  ROGER MOORE had given up playing The SAINT in 1969, yet there it is being reported in the first issue's centrespread as if it's just happened, even though the news was a year old by the time the comic went on sale.

This would seem to confirm my theory that all 14 issues were printed before the first one appeared in newsagents, and for some reason (maybe copyright fees or distribution problems) were held back until matters were resolved.  Not that such a thing need concern us a whopping 46 years after the periodical's demise upon its fourteenth and final issue, as this post is actually about the articles that appeared in the comic's centre pages.

Most of them appear out of place in a mag about superheroes, but space has to be filled in some way, and this was the easiest way to do it, while at the same time giving the comic a British 'feel' to offset the overwhelming presence of American costumed crusaders.  Readers had the best of both worlds with this approach, and I thought Super DC was a great little monthly mag back in its day.

Here, perhaps for the first time anywhere since their initial appearance in the early '70s, are all 14 centrespread articles to help whisk you straight back to your long-vanished youth.  Ah, "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end" - but, alas, they did.  So thank goodness we can always revisit them, eh?  Even if it is only for a short while.   

This issue appeared in shops at the start of 1971, so the article is well
out-of-date, indicating publication far in advance of going on sale

An AGE UNDREAMT Of - EXCEPT In DREAMS... (Updated)

Copyright MARVEL COMICS and CPI

Must've been back around 1971 I guess.  I was sitting on the back doorstep of a friend's house, going through a pile of comics his neighbour had given him.  Among them was the first issue of a mag about a barbarian hero, in which one of the villains had a vision of space travel, oddly incongruous in a sword and sorcery tale set in forgotten ancient times I thought.  (Many years later, the story's writer, ROY THOMAS, came to the same conclusion.)

Yes, it was CONAN The BARBARIAN #1, and I read the tale again four years later when it was reprinted in MARVEL UK's weekly comic, SAVAGE SWORD Of CONAN.  (In between, I got to read the fifth issue when it was reprinted in the MARVEL Annual for 1973.)  That short span somehow seemed like an immense gulf to me back then, but I immediately 'saw' myself in my mind's eye, sitting on that very same back doorstep.  Around five years or so ago, I was in the house once more (for the first time in nearly 30 years) and took quite a few photos of the front and rear gardens, essentially unchanged since my friend had moved into the house in the late '60s or beginning of the '70s.

Not long after my visit, the back garden was remodelled and changes were instituted, making me glad I'd had the foresight to pictorially capture its appearance as it had been in 'my' day.  Sadly, my childhood friend's mother died recently, meaning that I'll probably never see the inside of the house (or stand in its garden) again, as it will eventually be sold and the proceeds divided among the family, as is the way of things under such sad circumstances.  (He himself had moved out many years ago and his mother lived alone.)

You may be wondering why I'm telling you this as if you're at all interested.  Well, it's simply because I recently acquired a copy of that first issue of Conan, and whenever I look at it, I'm once again back on that step, looking through a bunch of comics as if there's no end of tomorrows, in an age when each new day seemed to last... well, perhaps not forever, but at least far longer than 24 hours does nowadays.

And yes, Crivs, that's the cover to my very own issue of CTB #1 at the top of the post - isn't it a beauty?!  (Incidentally, I know the post's title makes no real sense, but hey - it captured your attention, didn't it?)

******

Update, Saturday 31st March, 2018:  Today, I was back in the house again, and once more occupied that back step - holding the very issue of CTB that you see atop this post and reliving the moment from nearly 40 years before.  And thus the connection between house and comic is re-established, and things have turned full circle.  The house will soon be sold, but my memories (and hopefully my first issue of Conan) shall endure.

And would you believe it - the very back garden (and step) itself

Update, Thursday 17th May, 2018:  Back again this evening, this time got a photo of myself on back step with comic, below.

Psst! WANNA KNOW SOMETHING? THEN LOOK And LEARN...

Images copyright LOOK And LEARN MAGAZINE Ltd

LOOK And LEARN was created by LEONARD MATTHEWS, editorial director of the juvenile department of FLEETWAY PUBLICATIONS, and was a weekly educational periodical designed for children.  It ran from 1962 until 1982, which means that it's now been gone from newsagents' shelves for 35 years - almost twice as long as it's 20 year run.  I never bought it back in the day, though I was aware of the magazine as it always seemed to lay around in doctors' and dentists' waiting rooms, and I'm sure the schools I attended also used to have issues of it dotted around the classrooms from time to time.  (I did start buying it around 1977 for a few months, and I still have those issues tucked away in a drawer somewhere.)

Probably Look And Learn's most famous strip was one that originated in RANGER, jumping over to the former publication when the two titles merged in 1966 - namely The TRIGAN EMPIRE by MIKE BUTTERWORTH and DON LAWRENCE.  The magazine featured the cream of the crop of British artists, names such as RON and GERRY EMBLETON, ERIC PARKER, OLIVER FREY, and far too many others to mention.  (There were also some foreign artists whose work appeared in its pages I believe.)

Look And Learn eventually became too expensive to produce for the declining number of readers who bought the magazine and it ceased publication with issue #1049, cover-dated April 17th 1982.  Enjoy looking at the following select pages from the very first issue, cover-dated January 20th 1962, and I've even included the cover of the free gift, which you can see at the bottom of the post.  Did any of you Criv-ites buy Look And Learn in the '60s and '70s?  If so, feel free to share any reminiscences you may have of this quality magazine in our cultured comments section.

******

(I don't believe it - I originally said Bernard Matthews instead of Leonard, even though I had 'Leonard' in my mind as I typed.  The decay has definitely set in.  No comments on it however, so perhaps no one noticed.)        

Below, the cover of the final issue, plus the 'special message' page announcing the comic's demise.

WHO YA GONNA CALL? SEND FOR KELLY...

Copyright D.C. THOMSON & Co., Ltd

SEND FOR KELLY was one of The TOPPER's comic strip delights, drawn by GEORGE MARTIN and first appearing in the weekly periodical in 1961.  Along with his assistant CEDRIC, Kelly was a secret agent who pre-dated the JAMES BOND movies, so he was more than a mere cash-in on the '60s spy fad that Bond created.  Here's the back page from the issue whose cover I showed you in a previous post.

BABE Of The DAY - DANA GILLESPIE...

What can be said about skull-lover

DANA GILLESPIE?  How about she's

easier on the eye than DANA ANDREWS.

(If you want anything else, then write it

 yourselves.  I'm off for a cuppa.)

The TOAD CAME HOME (AGAIN)...

Thought all my fellow Crivs might like to see this great Mr. TOAD porcelain figurine by WADE, which I acquired through eBay recently for a (surprisingly) few paltry quid.  It's based on a drawing by E.H. SHEPARD and captures it perfectly.  I thought it would be around two and a half inches high, like the other Wade figurines I have in my collection, but it's actually closer to twice that height.  Wotta bargain!

The IRON MAN From EAGLE...

Copyright relevant owner

Due to overwhelming demand (nope, not a peep from anyone), I've decided to show you The IRON MAN strip from the very same issue of EAGLE as in the previous post.  This looks as if it might've been originally published in colour somewhere else before its b&w appearance in Eagle, but if so, I don't have a Scooby where.  If you know, inform the rest of us and lift the heavy, burdensome veil of ignorance from our puzzled, furrowed brows.  Nice art, eh?  Why not extol its virtues in the comments section?

******

Come to think of it, The Iron Man first appeared in BOYS' WORLD before it was merged with Eagle, so perhaps this strip is a reprint from that short-lived title. Illustrators on the strip were GERRY EMBLETON (brother of RON), and also MARTIN SALVADOR, who I'm guessing drew these two pages as they don't look like Gerry's style.  Again, anyone know?  

TALES OF ASGARD - AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE (MAYBE)...

Images copyright relevant owners & MARVEL COMICS

The once high-flying EAGLE was in trouble by 1968 and had been for a while.  It was merged with LION in 1969, but before that happened, the comic adopted the approach of its POWER COMICS stablemates and adopted a MARVEL strip in the hope it might help change its fortunes.  Eagle had originally been published by HULTON PRESS, but was now part of the ODHAMS PRESS stable, so such an approach wasn't as strange as it might seem.

Adopted and adapted, as the strip was resized into two pages, more in keeping with the larger, panel-heavier format of British comics.  I have to say that the two-tone finish looks good on JACK KIRBY's art, only having been seen this way before in single panels on the black and white contents pages inside the front covers of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS.

I also have to say that some aspects of the resizing are deficient, as the gutters are a bit too narrow between a few panels and there's absolutely no excuse for it.  This is quite a common fault in UK comics, and with just a little bit of extra care and attention, these pages could've (and should've) looked as if they were originally produced in this format.  When I resized pages for the IPC comic libraries, I always made sure that the size of the gutters was consistent. 

Incidentally, the IRON MAN above is not Marvel's Iron Man (obviously), but an altogether different character.  Want to see his strip?  Then let me know, frantic ones, as you're the real editors of this blog.  (That's a blatant lie of course, but it sounded good when STAN LEE said it, so I thought I'd give it a go.)

CLASSIC COMICS OF YESTERYEAR: YOGI & HIS TOY #1 - COMPLETE ISSUE...

Characters copyright HANNA-BARBERA

Well, okay, it's arguable whether this particular periodical can be legitimately considered a 'classic', but that's how I regard it as I bought it when it first went on sale in February of 1972.  I was 13 years old and clearly too old for the comic, which was aimed at much younger readers, but I was always a sucker for anything to do with YOGI BEAR.  It seems to me that I inhabited the house I then lived in for quite some time after this title came out, so I'm surprised to discover that I moved to another residence in another neighbourhood a mere four months later.  Funny how the mind plays tricks, eh?

Anyway, if you had this comic back in 1972, then now you have it again - and if you didn't, then you do now.  Everybody's a winner - unless you're not a Yogi Bear fan that is.  That's unthinkable of course.

(Incidentally, I haven't cleaned up the pages too much, which still show some of the marks of time.  I've only whitened up the margins and gutters just a tad.)