Look-In - May 1974

A title i've long over-looked and i really dunno why - guess it was a staple of most kids reading back in the seventies as it gave you a weekly dose of your favourite shows, albeit in FAR more ambitious adventures than the show that spawned the strip could ever hope to achieve.
Case in point here, "The Tomorrow People", which has the Jaunters trekking around a jungle planet for two pages. If Thames had tried that, it'd be all cardboard tubes for trees and an awful lot of plastic plants i guess. And the ape-like aliens would've been a couple of moth eaten gorilla suits loaned from the Benny Hill show or sumsuch. Nice art though, which i'm guessing is John Burns?

"Kung Fu" is better, by being an American show, thereby having a decent budget and even more decent locations the crew could visit, making the strip here being much more do-able. Again, nice art. Martin Asbury?

The other strips are all familiar stuff, though for the life of me i don't know why they'd be considered for comic adaptations: "Bless This House", "Doctor In Charge!","Micheal Bentine's Potty Time" etc.
One strip i didn't recognise at all was "The Kids From 47a" as i don't remember the show whatsoever. And i'm not the only one - the tale of some children leaving at home alone while their mum's in hospital is so obscure, there's not one clip of it on Youtube.
Looking at the TV ratings at the back, its interesting to see what the 12 year-old me was watching on Saturdays back then.
The kiddie bit went:

9.55 Captain Scarlet
10.20 Forest Rangers
11.00 Funky Phantom
11.30 Tarzan
12.00 World Of Sport
6.00 New Faces
7.00 Sale Of The Century
7.30 Kung Fu

"Funky Phantom" started ringing bells. So thought i'd refresh me memory by looking for it on Youtube. God, wish they'd been alarm bells ringing - i'd forgotten it for a reason:



Finally, i chose this issue to feature the title as 1974 is a looong way away now but i can so clearly remember even now waiting for that issue to come out as i SO wanted that Kung Fu medallion. And can still very clearly remember buying the issue on the way to school - then losing the medallion on the way. And the upset of being in the playground where i was seemingly the only one there not standing and admiring their new bit of fabbo jewellry.
Though looking at this ad on tips how to wear it, at least it saved me looking a pillock:

Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe

Just been reading a Battle from 1975 for the first time since then, and its a pretty duff affair.
Even the usually reliable Rat Pack was poor - dull story with dull art.
Two things to note though:
1. Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe, a story i don't recall in the slightest. Its typical British boys comic fare, of having a highly unlikely and outlandish setup that the hero is plonked down in to. In this case, Lofty Banks has escaped from a prison camp by posing as a German air ace and ends up flying for the Germans. Why he doesn't just fly his plane to the Allied lines and surrender i guess must've been addressed by now.
Or not.
It has another bampot premise in that the Germans have painted their airfield blue so it'll look like a lake from the air and the hills around said "lake" are actually fuel dumps.
In the midst of this hilarious nonsense there's an awful lot of cliche lingo. Of course, at this time, that was pretty common for the Japanese and German characters but here its the turn of the English and there's SO much iof it, you can't help feeling there was a point to it.
If so, i don't see it. What's the point of all the "Drat"'s and "Dashed"'s, calling each other "Bunny" and the downright Ripping Yarns "Drat- He's not going to give up. Better nail the cheeky perisher"
2. The other thing of note is the end of the installment of "Day Of The Eagle", which has Mike Nelson failing to stop Hitler pressing the button that detonates the worlds first nuclear bomb.
Will have to track down the next issue to see how that pans out.
"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
Quite a bit this time:
A cut short "Aiiee!" coming from a downed German fighter in "Lofty's"
Almost the same again with "AIEE!" from a German guard in "Rat Pack". Wonder if its the same unfortunate chap?
An odd "NAIEEEE!" uttered twice in "The Flight Of The Golden Hinde"
And a 100% "AIEEEE!" from "The Terror Behind The Bamboo Curtain"

Cheap Thrillpower at The Works

Just a quick heads-up for any UK readers - The Works have got the rather nice hardback Best Of Judge Dredd and 2000AD's for only £6.99 each.

Action - 10th July 1976

Another pick-up from 30th Century was this issue of Action that'd i'd not re-read since, i guess, when it first came out.
Lets have a look shall we?
First up, Dredger and, as usual, it sure don't waste no time - in THE VERY FIRST PANEL we've learnt that Dredger and Breed are at the "Hampshire Agricultural Fair", that the big guy's intent on shooting a member of the East German delegation, which is giving Breed the wobblies.
Brilliant stuff to do that in the very first panel, but the rest of the tale doesn't live up to it - pretty poor script with even poorer art.
Next, Green Grudges War has Belardinelli's art, which is always welcome. But that's it, and Hells Highway is the usual dull stuff.
But it picks up again with Death Game 1999, which has "Al Rico", the half cyborg baddie featured. He's apparently has his metal parts covered with strips of "artificial skin" to stop his team mates freaking out, but he looks the same to me. This guy is a bit of curiosity, seeming to pre-empt Judge Dredd by having an adversary of the hero called "Rico" and this "half cyborg with a psychotic hatred for a sports team" was in place long before Artie Gruber appeared in Harlem Heroes.

Hookjaw features some garish colour pages, which also seems to bend scale to its will, having the bad guy managing to get practically half a submersible in its mouth.
Back in scale for the next page though, which has a classic, and often used, rendition of someone chopped in two:


Only other thing of note is this classic ad for the Palitoy action figures. Buts its strange though - can understand the Apes bit, with the TV show on around about then, but - Star Trek? Surely it'd finished its re-reuns by then?

"AIEEEE" WATCH:
A really rather over the top "AHIEEEEEE!" from someone who'd been having a bit of trouble getting into the stadium for the match in Death Game 1999.

Major Leicht

This guy i only very vaguely remember, and i knew him as the German version of Major Eazy - but didn't have any issues of him since i were a nipper.
But me and the Bronze repaid a visit a while back to 30th Century Comics, and i bought this issue of Battle for the really lovely Ezquerra cover of the Main Man.

Pleased to have it for just that reason, but doubly chuffed to find it has Leicht in the strip.
And, being Eazy, it was typicaly off the wall.
He's in Italy just as Germany surrenders and is determined that he'll beat the Yanks to the Brenner Pass, seeing as he's fought for it and they're just there for the glory.
He meets his equivilant on the way and both decide to put such silly trivial things as war to one side to beat the Nazi's, who're are determined to blow up the very bridge the Americans plan on using to get there.
Its typical Battle barminess - neither has the means to stop the gun from doing the dasterdly deed, so instead drop a grenade-laden tank against the dam wall, blowing it up to wash the bad guys away.
It ends with Eazy indeed beating the Americans to the objective, but Leicht is mentioned no more.
No idea if he appears again, but the tag at the end saying from now on there'd be the early adventures of Eazy, guess that was it.
The only other thing of note this time is the incredibly vivid depection of a Nazi lookee-likkee of Churchill being blasted by Mike Nelson in "The Eagle Must Die!"

"AIEEEE" WATCH:
A short "AIEEE!" from a German in "Yellow Jack"
A really rather over-long "AIEEEEE!" from a Nazi in "The Bootneck Boy", who'd only been thumped by a rifle. Wimp.

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.