THE MUSIC OF BARRY GRAY CD - AND IT'S MINE!

Regular readers may recall my post about Fanderson, the Gerry & Sylvia Anderson Appreciation Society, and how it seems to think that 5 months counts as a year when it comes to sending out membership renewal reminders.  Even though the original wording of the terms and conditions gave the impression of a full year's membership (as was likely intended to begin with), they've now been comprehensively rewritten to remove any such 'contractual' obligation, rendering a membership's duration far more flexible and well under a year.  A membership period now consists of three club magazines which are not published with any regular frequency, and consequently, members have no assurance of just how long their status lasts.  (Should a membership commence with the latest magazine, but only two are published that 'year', the membership isn't extended until the third one is available, which puts a lie to the claim that membership lasts for three mags.  Seems it only works in their favour, not members.)

This suggests the club's chief interest is in making members pay more often than they should have to in order to increase the Society's income, rather than provide a fixed period of membership like other clubs and organisations do.  The situation might have arisen from not having a set schedule for publication of its fan magazine, but their refusal to rectify this (by simply offering a full year's membership which would include only 3 magazines regardless of how many are published in a given year) tends to indicate a deliberate strategy to make members part with their cash sooner than should be required.  (For example, had I renewed my membership when asked to, I'd have paid £62 in a 5 month period as opposed to £31 every 12 months.)  Anyway, I only joined to gain access to their 'shop', which is exclusive to members, and having bought everything I wanted from it that was available at the time, I won't mind no longer being part of their group.

So, incompetence or lack of effective organising may have been the original cause, but having twigged to the cash benefits, it now seems that a cynical and deliberate intention to exploit members lies at the heart of their intransigence in recognising a year as a year.  I therefore had no interest in renewing my membership as I refuse to be ripped off in such a manner, but the downside of that is missing out on the latest 'free' gift currently (and exclusively) on offer to renewing members - a combined CD reissue of the Barry Gray vinyl EPs originally made available in 1986 and '88.  What a bummer!  Back in the early or mid-'90s, someone lent me their two records so that I could record them and photocopy the covers, but there's nothing like having the 'official' product, is there?  (Even though I could make CDs for myself which would appear professionally produced.)

However, I'd set my mind on acquiring this rare treat, and today I received it from a certain source, as you can see from the photo at the top of this post.  This will be bound to annoy the chairman of the club should he learn of it, but that's a 'plus' in my book, as he really needs to take a long hard look at himself and the way he runs things.  Other members should take him and his fellow colleagues to task and demand that membership should be for a fixed 12 months, not dependent on the erratic whims (or exploitative strategy) of the organisers.

Right, I'm off to listen to my CD.

MARVEL'S DR. WHO COMICS COVER OMNIBUS...

Copyright BBC TV and other relevant and respective owners

Okay, let me be honest - I've shown all these covers on the blog before on various occasions, but never together at the same time.  So here for your pulsating pleasure, is every US Marvel Doctor Who comics cover in existence - as far as I know anyway.  And in case you were wondering - yes, they're all mine!  As you'll know, the contents of these mags were sourced mainly from the UK Doctor Who periodical, but had the advantage of being imbued with full-colour, thereby giving them a fresh new look for US readers, as well as UK ones.

Did you buy them back in the day, or did you give them a miss?  Have you got a favourite cover, or do you think there's 'too-much-of-a-muchness' about them?  Record your thoughts, theories, observations, and opinions in the cataclysmic Crivens comments section.  Go on - enjoy the thrill of seeing your name in print by typing something for the perusal of your fellow Crivvies.

Incidentally, this was the television Doctor's first US comicbook appearance, though Dell had done an adaptation of the first Peter Cushing movie in the '60s.  However, the cover blurb above could arguably have been referring to the reprinted Tom Baker strip, not necessarily the character.

After a couple of two-part try-outs in Marvel Premiere, the good Doc was eventually given his own monthly mag, which lasted for 23 issues.

Obviously, a faded, washed-out photo of first Doctor William Hartnell must've
been used as reference, hence his white hair being misinterpreted as baldness

This image appeared on the back cover of any issue without an illustration

SUB-CITY? MORE LIKE SUB-STANDARD... (Updated)

If you buy comics via eBay, I strongly suggest that you don't ever purchase anything from subcitycomicsireland - they're useless.  There are two shops in Ireland, but it's the one in Mary Street in Dublin - particularly their eBay side of things - that I'm referring to.  The guy I spoke to at the other, smaller, shop has tried to be helpful, so I'm not including them in my assessment, only the larger store.

Ordered a comic on 30th December, sat back and waited for it to arrive.  Estimated delivery date was between 5th and 11th of January, but comic never turned up.  Sent a few messages to enquire when it was sent, and after my fourth message and a report to eBay, received one in return saying that they'd forgotten about me and now couldn't find the comic.  Said they'd issue a refund (the work of moments), but I still haven't received it, despite repeated requests.

They've been a member of eBay since 2019, but so far have had only 49 sales (going by their feedback), which hardly suggests a screaming success.  If you were thinking of buying anything from them, I'd recommend that you think again.  Completely bloody clueless and incompetent if you ask me.  (Not that you did, so consider it voluntary.)

(Update: January 18th - just received my refund today, several days after being told I'd get one.  So let's recap, shall we?  Forgot my order, ignored repeated enquiries about it, and took almost a week to refund me.  Customer satisfaction doesn't appear to be a priority with them, does it?  Refund should have been immediate.  Far from impressive in my estimation.

GIANT-SIZE MARVEL COVER OMNIBUS...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

I forget exactly how many of the Giant-Size individual titles I own, but having recently shown you all six of Fantastic Four, I thought you might like to see several others I can readily lay my hands on.  True, two of them are relatively new Facsimile Editions, but seven are originals from the '70s (with a new one from 2005), so the old outnumber the 'new'.

Do you have any of these issues, Crivvies (or did you have them way back when), and if so, which ones resonate with you all the way to the present day?  Feel free to wax eloquent and lyrical in our ever-welcoming comments section.  My favourite cover of the six is John Romita's Avengers one (above) - what's yours?

"AND THERE WERE GIANTS UPON THE EARTH IN THOSE DAYS..." A FABULOUS FLASHBACK...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

It was originally intended to be a single-series revolving-door showcase mag for a roster of MARVEL's mightiest heroes, but no sooner had the 1st ish hit the stands than those plans underwent revision.  GIANT-SIZE SUPER-STARS #1 starred The FANTASTIC FOUR, with the second issue scheduled to feature none other than your friendly neighbourhood SPIDER-MAN.  (PETER PARKER's amazing alter-ego would doubtless be first choice to launch any new alternating series nowadays, but, back then, the Fab Four were still accorded premier position in the Mighty Marvel firmament of Super-Stars.)

However, it soon became apparent to the 'powers-that-be' that, rather than restrict the idea to one title, it would be potentially more profitable to give each chosen group or hero their own giant-size mag.  And so, Spidey was awarded his own 68 page comicbook series and what would've been the 2nd issue of Super-Stars evolved into GIANT-SIZE FANTASTIC FOUR #2, followed by another four successive issues over the course of the next fourteen months or so.

There were quite a number of different titles in the various Giant-Size quarterly series on sale back in '74-'75.  GIANT-SIZE SPIDER-MAN, GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS, GIANT-SIZE CONAN, GIANT-SIZE CAPTAIN MARVEL, GIANT-SIZE DOCTOR STRANGE, GIANT-SIZE DRACULA, GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS and a host of others got the same treatment, proving the when Marvel has an idea, they exploit it to the full.  However, it's only the good ol' FF that we're concerned with today.

I didn't even know of the existence of these mags at the time they first came out - it wasn't until 1979 or '80 that I obtained the 1st issue when I ordered it unseen from a back issue dealer in Bournemouth.  And it was a battered copy containing only the main story, the back-up features having been 'surgically' removed from the comic.  It must have been sometime around the mid-'90s perhaps, before I was able to obtain the full six issue set and finally see the complete contents of issue #1.  (Only to find that the missing pages were pin-ups reprinted from FF ANNUAL #1, which had been in my collection for some time.)

The main stories in the first four issues were all brand-new material, with reprints from the early days of the FF as back-up content.  (Annual #1, and regular issues #13, 21 & 28.)  The last two in the series reprinted FF Annuals #5 & 6 as their main features, with #5 also including another tale from the quartet's early days.  (Issue #15, and not the MOLECULE MAN story from #20 as erroneously stated on the cover-blurb.)

So, let's return to an earlier, more innocent time; the seemingly sun-soaked, carefree days of the sizzling '70s, and enjoy all six scintillating covers in their full, unadulterated, cataclysmic glory.  And if you had any or all of these mags back in the day and would like to leave a comment, then don't let anyone try and stop you.