Smash! 11th Oct 1969

Sticking with Smash! for my latest reading, this one came out when i was 7 and i'm pretty sure i wasn't reading the weekly at this point, just the annuals.

Inside we've inspired barminess in Janus Stark as he battles for his life in a recently constructed tunnel under the Thames, built by Isidore Royaume (great name). The bad guy could throttle our hero to death, but just stops to take look, allowing Stark to wake up. He then has a chance by knocking him out again, this time with a spanner. Does he learn his lesson and finish him off there? No, he leaves him to drown inside it. Not a very clever baddie, who gets his come-uppance by his boat being upended by Stark's escape chamber.
Fool.

Master Of The Marsh is interesting, in that we get a hint that Patchman is more than he seems, having a very Catweazle-like flashback to Norman times. It raises the question: which came first with that premise - this strip or that show?

The other highlight for me this time is the back page ad for Action Transfers, a range i collected avidly as a nipper and seeing them here really does strike a cord, even all these years later

Adios Senor Lopez

Ahhhh, no. Just heard of Francisco Lopez's passing. Anyone who's been with this Blog for a while will know what a crucial role he played in my comic appreciation growing up and, indeed, this Blog is a sort of love letter to him.
Such a sad day to hear of his passing but hopefully it'll kick start a true apprecation of just what a genius he was and what a massive influence he had on folk.
Just hope he knew it before passing

Smash! Annual 1975

Don't think i ever got this when it came out, and have just picked up a really nice condition copy off the 'Bay dirt cheap.
Far too cheap, as its a cracking read.
As usual, the factual features are horribly dated - being here all about the Wankel engine and Bisley rifle range "the mecca of marksmen".
The humour strips that i didn't care too much for - Consternation Street, Ghost Ship etc - are quite passable but, of course, top of the tree is the Swots And The Blots and we're treated to multiple helpings of their genius.

I was always prefered them to their Bash Street cousins, as even though they and their teach are almost identical clones, the strip always seemed to have a more anarchic edge over the other school. Best one here is them having Bad Penny paying a visit, with both sides trying to win her over. Can never decide what's best: the humour of the art or the humour of the sound effects and descriptive prose. Cyril Swot looks funny on his own, but being described as " a cross between Dracula and a school dinner pudding" is the icing on the,er, pudding. Ditto Cutherbert. He's funny covered in perfume, but even better with "nice niff" and "flowery fumes" coming off him.

ar opposite with Cursitor Doom, with some INCREDIBLY moody art by Eric Bradbury. The tale starts with our hero(?) looking out his window up to the next door "Devil's Wood on Haunted Hill" which "looks more SINISTER than usual tonight!". I mean, really, why's no-one ever thought to put a wall round such a place? Sure would've stopped the brilliantly named "Hezekiah Moore" wandering in looking for the long hidden Book Of Evil, only to snuff it at the hands/branches of the trees he's accidently brought to life. Its down to Doom and his aide McCraggan to get the plants under control, in the end only being able to do so with the aid of "Thor The Hammerer, Lord Of The Nordic Deities". Brilliant, moody stuff, with Eric being able to draw trees with faces and make them scary and not silly.

He's back on the Simon Test adventure and saves it with yet more moody art, as the story's not up to much, it being the tale of "Jabez Coppenger" (who thought these up?), trying to come with a potion to control birds, directing them from his island that sits atop the "Geyser Of Doom". Pretty forgettable stuff, if not for Mr Bradbury.

Last highlight is Janus Stark and its odd to see regular artist Lopez being coloured. It doesn't work, even though he's away from his grim London and in the sunnier clime of Brighton. Doesn't help either that the page sides are bright yellow as well. The tales not bad - he's arrested for burgularies that have started since he arrived, thefts that only one with his abilities could perform. He solves the mystery with some Holmes-like deductions, although the capper of "All the robberies involved agility..." seems fair enough, but then "...and the hard skin on your hands told me you once worked in a circus. A trapeze artist perhaps" would have even the great detective balking.

Meeting Pat Mills & Glenn Fabry

Had a great time last Saturday at a tiny SF convention in a small church hall in Worthing.
What made it great was that both Pat Mills and Glenn Fabry attended. Odd too in that, in the very same weekend of the San Diego Comic Con, two legends should be there rather than there.
Not complaining though - it gave us the whole morning alone with the lovely Glenn Fabry, who did this stunning Adam Eterno meets Slaine for my "Someone Old, Someone New" project, more details here:

http://someoneoldsomeonenew.blogspot.com/

And long natters in the afternoon with Pat Mills. Read tons of interviews with the guy, along with Podcasts, and he's always come across as intelligent, articulate and passionate.
Which he was on Saturday. The sheer energy and friendliness of the guy blew away any nervousness meself and the Bronze might've had meeting the bloke responsible for so much we held dear in our formative years and it was a joy to sit there and listen to him and see too that he was interested in what we had to say.
Topics included, unsurprisngly, the genesis of Hookjaw, the history past and present of Flesh and the genius of Ken Reid.
Pat also talked of the future of the strips he's writing at the moment and it was a bit of surprise, knowing what a stickler and how thorough he is, to hear he's in some cases only the outline of some of the final oucomes.
Case in point, Savage. He'd like to do a tale set after the liberation of Britain, when Bill has no further use and goes back to being a taxi driver, bitter and twisted.
As we'd been discussing the merits of having all his tales set in one universe and how he MUST show how Howard Quartz in Savage becomes "Mr Ten Percent", the brain in a robot body of Ro-Busters, i pipped up with how, in Ro-Busters, there was was a robot character who's a human shaped taxi - the fare simply sits on a saddle on his back.
And maybe Savage is real hacked off when they're introduced and loses his livlihood from these robot newcomers muscling in.
How chuffed was i when Pat says he'd forgotten about that and it was a good idea. Chuffed indeed - be even more so if one's called Eric.
Anyway, a fantastic day. Just wish we could've been there for the Sunday too.

The Squirt Ring

A free gift that seemed to pop up all over the place, given away with various titles over the years.
Where the heck did they come from? Was there a whacking great warehouse full of them somewhere and a consignment was occasionally let out?
I never once saw their like in the many joke shops around in the 70's, just as free gifts. And you never see them now.
So, did the warehouse run empty - or did someone loose the key and even now there's crates full of them stored in vast Raiders Of The Lost Ark storage unit, waiting to be unleashed on a new generation of nippers.

Black Max - coming to an end

Of course, am a massive MASSIVE fan of the strip - but have never seen the last ever episode.
I know, i know, that's not much of a fan really. But there's a heck of a lot of episodes to track down - and when i were 10 (and now) each installment had enough thrills to sustain me and i didn't really need to collect them each week to appreciate what was going on.
And i've, still, something to look forward to.
I know the end is soon here in May '72 and that eventually he snuffs it, as born out in the Demon Dwarf sequel, and it sure has changed tack by this point.
Long gone is Wilson's mission to prove that he's not barking mad, going on and on about the German fighter ace who has a squadron of Giant Bats at his command, but no-one believes him.
Here, in just THREE pages we've got:
Max under arrest in England for war crimes,
his two huge King Bats rescuing him, only to try to eat him,
Wilson teaming up with Max to try and end them once and for all,
and the Demon Dwarf re-surfacing in his Mole-like tunneling machine.
Curiously, we also have Max being dropped by the Bats at Stonehenge and finding that one of the crashed planes had "... gouged a hole in the ground... right alongside the pillars! The... The FOURTH pillar from the setting sun! Somewhere near it... is buried THE STONE OF KOTH!". Which he's mighty happy to then dig up as its "... The key to the Bat People!"
So there we have it - the first sign that things are about to change tack once again and we'll be soon seeing the Bat People - huge, manlike (including todgers) creatures with Bat faces.
Reading this far in, it does make you wonder if the writers had this in mind all along - to have Max start with a solitary Bat, then a squadron of them, then the King Btas, then the Bat People.
Or were they making it up as they went along?

Victor - Feb 4th 1978

Just bought a couple of Lion & Thunder's and they came with a couple of Victor's too.
Never was a fan of the title, hazily remembering it for not having any decent art or stories.
Boy, was i right - a truly duff issue, with absolutely nothing to say for it.
If i DID have to though, i'd say this front and back page "true story of men of war" is entertaining. But for all the wrong reasons.
So we've a two page summation of i'm guessing a real event. But i'm pretty sure, if it did happen, dialogue didn't actually go as follows:
"We're in dead trouble!.." exclaims the guy on the machine gun, "... Outnumbered four to one. Give 'em all we've got!"
"You bet!" is the cheery response from a squaddie mate.
"Wow! This is getting exciting!" says the numbskull machine gunner as the Italian planes zoom in.
Pretty unrealistic for a true tale, i'm sure you'll agree.
But then we have this jaw dropping exchange as they dive for cover:
"I'm hurt! A bullet nicked my throat" says one, who can't be too hurt if he can moan about it.
And the retort from a comrade: "And i've got a splinter in me".
Diddums.
Really, that's the highlight and its all downhill from there.
Don't think i'll be seeking out the next issue.

Lion & Thunder 28 Oct 1972

Also in the issue that has Adam Eterno taking to the skies, we also have this classic episode from "Spider v The Android Emperor", with him being his usual arrogant self - until realising that the guy he's up against isn't all he seems. Its a stunning piece of art, best seen here where we get the quite unnerving sight of Maddox's tentacles flaying about and a rare shot of the Spider actually worried and unsure.

We've also got the start of the Black max sequel, "Secrets Of The Demon Dwarf". I didn't care for this at all, what with having no Max in it and the then present day setting. Its a nice idea though - with Gratz awakening not from his months long suspended animation while he waits for the coast to clear, and waking up in the 70's.
Deciding then and there that he will take to the battle to England itself (without stopping i guess to see whether the Great War was still going on), he arrives the follwing day in his very Tnunderbird Mole-like device.
So, he's attacking England with a tunneling machine.
Does he target a power station?
army base?
10 Downing Street?
Buckingham Palace?
No, he begins his reign of terror by surfacing in Piccadilly Circus. And knocks a car over. That's it. Along with the boast: "This is nothing Englanders! This is only... THE BEGINNING!"
What's next then? Nudge a double decker? Squash a bobby?
Hmmmm... Not what i'd call a cliffhanger really.

Adam Eterno - flying ace?

Just been reading an Oct 1972 Lion & Thunder and we have the start of a new Eterno story set in WW1, with brilliantly evocative artwork from Font, up there with Joe Colquhoun's "Charleys War" in my opinion.
Its unusual in that (A) for the first time i've read the fella, he doesn't have any gold threats in the opening instaallment (B) He actually uses technology, climbing into a cockpit and taking off. And, in typical unsubtle 70's setting up, rather clumsily tips the reader off as to what's about to occur:
"In my life of centuries i have learned to do most things. I am no stranger to FLYING MACHINES." he mutters as he appears,
"By Kalizar, the machine must NOT fall in to enemy hands!" he postulates
"Time has not dulled my knowledge of engines and flying. Earlier travels have taken me both to future and past... But this skill is still with me!" he spouts as he takes off.
Subtle, not.
Here i've had him as a bit of a clod all these years and now its seems he can fly and waffle at the same time. And if he can do that, presumably i'll be coming across tales where he's a Formula One driver or whatever

"EXCITING NEWS INSIDE CHUMS!"

I've just started up a new Blog that i'm guessing you'll be very interested in.
Its... Heck, just mosey on over and feast your eyeballs:

http://someoneoldsomeonenew.blogspot.com/

Duffness abounds

Had a trip down to Hastings and, as usual, popped into the Albion Bookshop for a fix of 70's paperbacks and comics.
Have said it before, but it really is a recommneded place - an old school secondhand bookshop, full to brim with clutter and coming across like the sort of place you'd expect to find Peter Cushing in while he's in one of those Vault Of Horror anthlogies.
Anyway, picked up an issue of Bullet and Warlord and, boy, two classic examples of why i don't remember them much and why i embraced Action so much when it came out.
Warlord 21st June '76 is duff beyond belief - crappy stories with crappy art. Two things of note though: "Cannuck King" conforming to the staple in UK comics of the heero having a talent or somesuch that, would you just believe it, keeps coming into situations that addresses it.
Great with Adam Eterno's fear of gold, not so great here where the hero used to be, er, a lumberjack. Makes you wonder if the script writers were scratching their heads week in and week out trying to find ways of incorperating tree felling into the action. This week we have him hollowing out a log so he can hide inside it, float down the river and blow up a bridge.
Hmmmm... How i wish he'd been stationed in the Sahara and then see how he gets on.
Other thing of note is "Rudd's Raiders", a complete Darkie's Mob variation, with one man leading a team behind enemy lines, causing trouble for the Japanese. if that wasn't close enough, the title font is EXACTLY the same.
Bullet May 22nd '76 is a tad better. "Hunted!" has a lad trying to prove his innocence after being accused of killing someone who's taken him in with a wrench. Its pretty forgettable, aside from the heavy handness of setting up the wrench as the pivotal piece of evidence. He's shown his room and the bloke mentions "I was about to put in a new wash-basin but i don't have the right tools". Up pipes laddie: "I'll borrow a WRENCH from work tomorrow", next panel he borrows it, next panel its "I'll just leave the WRENCH on the back stairs". Hey, do you think it'll be significent somehow?
Fireball is the only other thing of note which bizarrely, spends half the story dedicated to football matters before getting on to the spy stuff.

Mike McMahon's finally got a Blog

Very happy to see that one of the true giants of 2000AD has started Blogging. One to keep an eye on.

http://tuggingyourcoat.blogspot.com/

Dean Ormston's Black Max

Just bought Dean's sketchbook, which is filled with some brilliantly disturbing imagery.
A great book made even greater in that, for a wee bit more, Dean will do a sketch of your choice at the back.
As he's reknowned for his moody, downright scary work, had no choice but to ask for his take on Black Max did i?

Smash! and Pow! 139

Another title i picked up from the trip to the 30th Century, this issue from Sept 1968 features classic Gene Colan Daredevil, Steve Ditko Spider-Man and REALLy duff art on the Batman/Superman reprints.
Three things of note with the UK-originated strips:

This odd one called "Brian's Brain" which features our hero "Brian Kingsley... the possessor of an astounding artificial brain." Not only do you get a brain in a jar, its left "in the strange house belonging to Julius Pilt". Who happens to control a prehistoric creature. What a strange little strip, that i've never heard of. Might try and track more down.

Grimly Feendish is limited to only a criminal (ha! gettit?) four panels, but is still fun.


Best thing though, and making it well worth the price, is exquisite Ken Reid work on the Nervs.
Genius, genius stuff

Janus Stark in colour

Just come across this, and what an unusual treat it is - a nice self contained story in full colour.
Normally, that'd be a ghastly notion, not suiting the Victorian setting or the character at all, but it works here in that Janus is far removed from the sooty streets of London and is instead employed to brave the traps of an Eygptian Pyramid to retrieve a piece of treasure, predating Raiders Of The Lost Ark by a good 6 years. The thing that doesn't work is the strange decision to colour in some of the speech bubbles too, which is horrible and really detracts from the art.
Speaking of art, i'm unsure who actually did it. The above splash page screams Ian Kennedy, but the close-up has me doubting. But the figure directly below looks like classic Kennedy. So i'm going with him.

Whoever it was, also did the Raven Of The Wing exactly the same.

I'm guessing both were done in colour as they were for the 1973 Valiant annual, a much more colourful title than its weekly brother.

Also in this copy is the resolution to a Kelly's Eye story i've featured here before, where he's up against the dread vampire, Count Varga. Except he's not. In true Scooby Doo style, he's revealed to be the lowly manservant all along and the terrifying giant bats turn out to be helicopter-like craft. Operated by midgets. Brilliant stuff with brilliant art by Lopez.

The return of Jesus Redondo

How nice it is to open this weeks Prog and see one of the classic artists from yesteryear making a return after such a long time away.
His style's changed somewhat, especially with regards faces - this one at the bottom looks more like Brett Ewins when he was doing Bad Company for the Prog.
But figurework and longshots are still the same, as in the panel directly above that porrait shot.
I've said it before, but Redondo is yet another one of those artists who're long overdue a re-assesment and to be given the credit and accolades they deserve.
In my opinion, the bloke was never better than on Starlord's Mind Wars:

Leigh Gallagher's Black Max

Spent a long wearing day at London's Expo yesterday and real sensory onslaught it was too, being predominatly Anime, gaming and small press titles.
But, the 2000AD stand was there and so too was Leigh Gallagher. I've many times here stated how Leigh is the worthy succesor to Lopez and Font with his incredibly moody B&W artwork on 2000AD's Defoe strip, and he's been top of my list for his take on Black Max.
When i asked Leigh for a sketch of the fella and thrust a reference pic under his nose, he only had a couple of minutes beofre needing to go to the next panel. But still produced this excellent head shot of the cranky old fella. Cheers Leigh!

The best ever Adam Eterno portrait?

As well as Max's talented Bi-Plane in that issue of Lion and Thunder, we also have the best image i've ever come across of the immortal(ish) one. Stunning work from Lopez, capturing the strength and burden of the guy all in one moment.
Sublime.

Going the other way, we have this, er, odd art in Carson's Cubs. Best i can say is its distinctive. And recognisible - whoever this artist is, he was using the same style 5 years later on Dredger in Action:

Cresta - its not frothy, man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2eEWlyVoxQ&feature=related

Black Max's Tardis-like plane

Before i get on to the issue this is from, i'd just like to show you seperately this here best-yet image i've come across of an occasional plot device in Black Max, that is: the outrageous notion that can he actually store his whacking great Bat in the tiny little locker that's just behind the cockpit.
HE would stuggle to get in there, let alone even a wing of the beastie. How does he achieve this? Is the inside bigger than the outside? Is Max REALLY good at origami? Who knows. Its just a bampot notion and totally in keeping with the spirit of the strip