Savage Sword Of Conan

I'm sure i've brought this subject up before here - are Marvel UK titles considered British comics? As far as i'm concerned they are: (A) They're reformatted to UK comic size, (B) they have UK letters pages, (C) they're have UK adverts (D) most crucially - they're in B&W over the original colours. To this day why i can't read any Marvel superhero comic, along with their Star Wars strips, in colour. They just look wrong to me. In the case of "Conan", along with "Dracula" and "Planet Of The Apes", having them in black and white helped immensly with the tone of the strips, giving added gravatas and mood to a strip that might've not been there to begin with. Personally, this was my first taste of Robert E Howards hero and Barry Smith's art, at the time, was pretty darn neat. It wasn't till the later monthly titles with art by John Buscema and, at the same time actually reading the novels that spawned the tales, that i realised how reedy Smiths version was. And then Alfredo Acala came on board - and the definitive version was born, one i imagine whenever i re-read the books today. But this is a page for UK titles, so lets stay on track - a typical early Smith tale from 1975, showing a rather crude, slim Conan, but great dynanism all the same. But best thing though are the ads - did we really want to "support our super-heros"? by not missing out on this "tantalising treat" of a badge/patch combo for a mere 70p?

Return of the (Black) Max

Its occured to me lately that i've not featured any Black Max for quite a while. Think that its because, subconsciously, i was blocking him out. When i started this here Blog, it became quite a love letter to my favourite ever Britsih comic character and a while back, deep down, i chose to veer away away from him. But, think enough's time passed now, so went ahead and bought me an issue lacking from my collection - Lion & Thunder 8th Jan 1972:

Although my choice of issue was a random one, it turned out to be rather fortuitous, at least with "Black Max". Turning to the tale, we start with the aircraft of both sides being batted (ha!) out of the sky by "a shrieking, whirling wheel of air":

Max gets one of his Giant Bats to check out something coming out of the ground, something i've seen before in later episodes:

Its the craft of Doktor Gratz, "The Mad Dwarf":

So here we have the first meeting of Max and his future ally, and eventual replacer for him in the comic. Elsewhere, we have "Adam Eterno" and a setting that's just crying out for the magnificent art being produced on the strip, the Great Fire Of London:

But, its odd. Most tales of the Big Guy follow a trusted formula: (A) Escape gold-themed death trap, (B) Plot advance, (C) Gold-themed deattrap. Here we have neither. It starts with Adam being hung up to be consumed by the fire, and ends with him in more non-golden peril, but seeing a vision of a chair of gold. Most odd. "AIEEEE" WATCH: None.

Back with some Action

Okay, lets go to the polar opposite with the next post - Action dated 14th August 1976.

We're getting close to cancellation at this point, and the cracks are beginning to show. Not from the themes and tone, which are as strong as ever (and would lead inevitably to the titles downfall), but art-wise. "Dredger" hasn't got bad art, just a really duff tale that's dated badly - the Germans are still our enemies and it plays out like a WW2 drama. Instantly forgettable. "Green's Grudge War" is not much better story-wise, but i react the same way now as i did back then, Belardinelli' stunning work sure makes you sit up and pay attention. Any strip he worked on i'd read, just to marvel at the talent on show:

"Hookjaw" was almost at the bottom art-wise at this point, and the colouring sure didn't help. Its a shame Strip magazine has ceased re-running the tales, as i'd loved to have seen what changes they'd have made to this tale. But, ignoring the art, the tale is fantastic - some poor sod is trapped on a remote control shark that Hookjaws chasing. The big beastie first destroys the robot, then takes off the poor schmo's legs before swallowing him whole in front of Mason. Mason's response is hilarious - a guys just been eaten about six feet in front of him and, rather than swimming away as fast as he can while his nemesis is busy chewing, he floats there shouting "Hookjaw, you monster... One day i'll kill you!"

The other thing of note this time is from "Death Game 1999", where Taggart finally has his showdown with his foe Rico. And it ends very oddly - no battle to the death here, just Joe watching Rico slowly drown:

"AIEEEE" WATCH: Surprisingly, none.

Ever seen someone's moustache and eye-brows take off?

Really had to go back to my post yesterday and show this fantastic panel of Percy the Dentist losing his afore-mentioned hairy bits pinging off at the shock of seeing the shark. Total and utter genius.

Back - with a Pow! and a Wham!

Well, belated Happy New Year to you all. Sorry that i've not updated for a while, but i worked all over Christmas, then went to France, then worked all over New Year. It was while at my in-laws in France that, for some reason, my mind turned to Ken Reid. Don't know why - guessing it was the combination of fine food, cheese and wine that did it? Anyway, as soon as we got back, i had a hankering for a piece of Reid magic and decided to take a chance and get me a Smash! and Pow! from the late 60's as i knew he was on the title then. And this is what i got, the 30th March 1968 issue:

"The Tiddlers and the Dolls" on that there cover is yet another "Bash Street Kids"/"Swots and the Blots" type tale of warring school factions that was so prevelant back then, although this pair doesn't have anything like the charm nor memorable characters of the other two i've mentioned. Inside we've got classic Marvel superhero reprints, predating what Marvel UK would be doing for a good few years, here with some classic Dikto Spider-Man:

"Georgie's Germs" again is part of a trend, the hook this time of lil' creatures inhabiting our heroes body. What's interesting here is that this tale seems to be riding on the tail of the Batman TV show (odd, in that its a partial Marvel title) by having "Catgerm" and "Batgerm". Its a nice tale, although let down by some so-so art:

In this issue as well we've got "Sammy Shrink" (pretty forgetable), "Experiment X" (ditto), "The Cloak" (widely held up as a classic. But i don't get it), "The Two Faces Of Janus" ( a story i don't know at all, but will be looking at soon), "The Greatest Goalie Ever! (its football, so i didn't touch it then, and sure won't now) and another classic Marvel strip - Lee/Kirby "Fantastic Four". 'Nuff said. Its sure a case of leaving the best to last though as, nestled at the back, we find "Dare-A-Day-Davy" by the Master, Ken Reid. A fantastic idea, give Davy a dare to do and Ken will depict it for you. This time we've got "Robin Brown of Manchester" who gives Davy the task of pulling a tooth from a shark. Enlisting the aide of Pericival Puller "Dentist, whose hair fell out when an all-in wrestler lost his head and tried to beat his brains out with a cannister of laughing gas". Its brilliant, surreal, barking mad and hilarious stuff. Made all the more impressive/awe inspiring in that its all on ONE PAGE. With NINETEEN panels. And a heck of a lot of text:

Jaw dropping stuff, even more so when each panel is examined and the level of detail is revealed. Astonishing stuff:

It finishes with a toothless shark in London Zoo (predating "Jaws" by quite a bit) and threats to contributor Robin Brown. Really, can't see any modern kids title threatning its readers eh?

Merry Christmas from Tharg

Things are getting real busy now as we near Christmas and i may not have time to post again before then, so thought dig out a Christmas-themed cover comic. Prog 44 then, and a brilliantly barmy cover it is, Kev O'Neil showing his forte - outrageous action, superbly executed. Dredd's the only holiday-set tale, albiet up on the Moon, where he's serving his duty as Luna Marshall, and he's having to face an old enemy. Who's not exactly a threat - page one is the set-up,, its not until halfway down page two that Dredd speaks to him via Vid-phone, and the sap's arressted at top of page five. The last page and a half is given over to Walter showering Joe with pressies - and the old softie returning the favour with a tap for his Droid. Lovely, lovely stuff, which ends on Dredd actually smiling. Don't think there'll be anything like a repeat of such things again in the Prog

"Invasion" has truely stunning art by Mike Dorey. If "Action" had continued, wouldn't it have been great to see art like this in there?

Said it before and i'll say it again - pleeeease can we get the Dan Dare/Dave Gibbons tales collected and reprinted? Its SUCH great stuff and deserves to be out there on the shelves, garnering a new audience.

And while on great art, Belardinelli does it again on "Inferno". Really, could anyone else have done these characters justice?

"AIEEEE!" WATCH: A shortened "Aiee" from a Volgan, soon to be flattened by a circus tent (yes, really). HURRAH!!!! What a Christmas treat - a 100%, all there "AIEEEE!" from a Star Slayer, stabbed by Dan Dare

Sark The Sleeper

Well, that's a let down - the next few issues of Lion & Thunder that i'd bought were right dull affairs, even Adam Eterno. Where's Black Max when you need him? At the 15th Dec issue though, a new tale begins, one i don't remember and have never seen written about anywhere:

"Sark The Sleeper" is unusual in that its a SF tale in this title, normally the nearest we get to it is the odd alien popping up to confound our heroes. Also unusual is how this first episode drops straight into the story - no formal introduction to the two characters and no place setting other than "It was unknown, unexplored territory - on all sides the jungle lay, evil and menacing." in the first box. Of course, this is intentional for the twist at the end of the three pages - the two medieval-appearing lads shelter from jungle beasties and find themselves in a laboratory and awaken "The Sleeper", a mythical God-like being to them, who turns out to be a regular joe who they've accidently woken up aftera thousand years in suspended animation. It jolly good stuff - very Twilight Zone, with a touch of Planet Of The Apes about it. And the arts nice too. No idea who's it by, but still nice:

POW! annual 1971 - #6 - The Esper Commandos

At Number Six we have the annuals only stab at a superhero team - the Esper Commandos. Coming across as a mix of the X-Men and tellys The Champions (and pre-dating tellys Tomorrow People), it consists of folk (or "mental Freaks" as their boss so compassionatly calls them) who have certain mind powers - Crag Taylor with the ability to lift things with his mind, Slim Parker can read minds, Big John Slansky can transport himself with his mind and, in a classic example of how un-pc things were back then, "Goggles Grant" - who wears glasses. And can make folk see what he wants them to see:

Reading it now, its hard to see why i placed it as high as Six. Its a pretty duff tale, involving the rescue of a kidnapped nuclear scientist, but i'm thinking it was the art that held all the appeal. Guess this was my first exposure to the work of Enrique Badia Romero and i'd eventually be familair with his work on Modesty Blaise and AXA, but this was the start and i remember loving it and its another case of "fascinated by one panel in a tale" here - used to just look and look and look at Goggles impersonating a crab:

Lion and Thunder 24th November 1973

Just bought a bunch of Lion & Thunders off of the 'Bay real cheap - 99p - as they're in pretty ropey condition, covers and page edges pretty rough:

But the insides are okay, so i'll be taking a look at each in turn shortly. First issue is, spookily, from this week 39 years ago and features one of those rather naff covers, where it looks like the figure is an englargement from a panel, rather than a specially created piece. Here the Spider's coloured yellow, which i've seen done before, but just doesn't look right at all:

The mix inside is the usual affair - true classics alongside not so memorable fair. I'll skip by "Spellbinder", prefering as i do, Catweazle and have a quick look at "The Team Terry Kept In A Box". A story i don't remember at all and have never seen an article on anywhere, its a textbook example of tales from these times - take a conventional strip theme (footballing) and add a fantasy element, here Terry Turner finds a box of 3D photos of a football team, which come alive when he turns a knob on the Viewmaster-like device. Hmmmm... So he can summon footballers. Who then play football. Think i'll move on. Next thing of note is another strip i don't remember, and is SO bizarre that i had to reread the opening text twice before it sunk in just what i was reading. "Marty Wayne. He's Heading For Fame!" has this premise (and i'm not making this up, promise): "A lull in work for MI6 had given Marty the chance to concentrate on his showbusiness career. He was presently appearing in a TV show called The Impersonators". Yep, a spy hasn't got much work on, so becomes an impersonator on the telly? My heads threatning to implode at the sheer lunacy of the notion, only held back by being distracted by the awful, awful art. No idea who the culprit is, but i recognise him for being the same guy responsible for "Dredger" going down the pan over in "Action" when the first artist left:

"Adam Eterno" art is always fantastic but after that tosh, its elevated even higher. Its not too good a tale though - our hero is helping a guy trying to get inheritance back and there's a bit of highwayman action, but its pretty standard action, with no outrageous set-pieces the strips famous for. Until we get to the last panel and Adam, surviving all manner of tortures, shrugs off the thought of being garrotted until up pipes one of the torturors: "Use the garrotte! The GOLDEN ONE kept for traitors who are high-born!" Gulp goes Adam

Another strip i don't remember, "Lost In Limbo Land", another outrageous premise - Barry Smith is reading a book on Norse Mythology when he's hit by lightning and transported to the realm of Norse Gods and Monsters. Don't recall it at all, but the arts interesting, coming across as a cross between Lopez and Eric Bradbury:

Last up is "The Spider versus Spider-Boy", which i've already covered before. "AIEEEE!" WATCH: Nowt

Marwood coffee shop

Bit of an aside here, but we were in Brighton yesterday and popped into Marwoods, a cafe my Sister has been on at me for ages to visit as "its right up your street". Boy is it - great food, great staff and great atmos, brought about by the tons of retro goodies strewn all over the place. Real fun to eat my Ken Dodd fry-up while reiminiscing over this toy, that toy, that phone, that picture etc etc. And a nice bunch of comic art too. Highly recommended if you're down that way.

Strip magazine - Issue 5/6

Finally, finally got me mitts on this issue and what a corker of an edition to mark the end of this first phase - a double sized issue with a VERY nostalgic cover strap line: "Don't miss Hook Jaw - he won't miss you!". Ah, its like its 1976 all over again. Having a read of the bumper episodes, "The Devil's Hertitage" pips "Age Of Heroes" to the post for favourite new tale this time and i'm guessing its down to me reading a lot of "Blake & Mortimer" just lately and "Devil's" does seem similar in tone and art style. Hoping this'll be released as a graphic novel at some point, as i'd like to read it all in one go, in one edition. Of course, best of the bunch is "Hookjaw" and, as usual, there's the multi-level joy of (A) reading it in a just-bought comic, (B) on lovely glossy paper, (C) taking the tale as presented, (D) comparing the new coloured strip with the old B/W, (E) comparing script changes. So, what's of particular note this time round? Well, in the first of the two episodes here, we've this classic sequence, with the shot of diver "Pat Mills" floating away with his guts all gone being one of my Top Five Action iconic moments. How i used to pour over and studying this page, morbidly fascinated by it:

Move forward 35 years and there's been changes to just this one page: "Pat Mills" is now going under the name of "Matt Hills" (why? Did Pat object after all this time?. The explanation of how a squid "drinks its victims alive" has gone in favour of it having just a razor beak, which doesn't make sense now in the art: Pat/Matt is hollow - where'd his insides go? And there's a bunch of script changes, which i can see the sense in - reading an old copy from back then, that style of script certainly suits as its a product of its time ie explaining everything and real gung-ho out-bursts. But the new script is tailored for the new reader reading a new comic. Which is fair enough.

The other episode i'm most pleased about as, not only does it have another iconic shot on panel 1:

But the rather underwhelming outburst of the guy being eaten ( i make more of a fuss than that when i stub my toe) has ben replaced by a very close to home "AAIIEEEE!":

John had let me know it was coming yonks back and i was chuffed to bits to see it then, even more so now to see it in print. I am a happy bunny. Also of note here is what i was on about re the scripts - the originals look really rather corny compared to the much more naturalistic replacements. So, a all in all, a good end to Phase 1. Shame there'll be no more Hookjaw in Phase 2 but (A) its not that far away before the art takes a serious nose-dive in quality, as does the script, so maybe its for the best, (B) We get Dredger instead - ahugely under-valued character. And i can't wait to see Carruthers severed head come out of that box in colour.

The Beano annual 1972

I've rather unfairly been ignoring the Beano, focussing more on true boys comics rather than titles that appealed to both boys and girls. But, with the new annuals in the shops now, i thought i'd have a return to when i was 10 with this edition. When talking Beano, there was always a bunch of strips that i read, but didn't really enjoy: Minnie The Minx, Dennis The Menace, Roger The Dodger, Lord Snooty, Biffo The Bear. Then there were strips i enjoyed, but instantly forgot: Pup Parade, Little Plum, Bash St Kids. And then there were those that i adored and read over and over again: The Three Bears. Total and utter genius in just a few pages and it didn't matter that the scheme was always the same - it was like Tom & Jerry cartoons, you know how its going to pan out but the joy was going along for the ride to get there. Here we have the usual extravagance of the time, devoting two whole pages of the annual just to have the Three Bears welcoming the readers:

There's two tales of the Bears here, with exactly the same plot,them trying to break into Hank's store while he's away. The second tale has a happy Crimbo ending and, was it just me, but didn't a slap-up feast in comics always look SO much better than any amount of food served up in our real world?

The other tale i adored was Billy The Cat. Here i had weekly superhero adventures, so much different to the American reprints i was ingesting - characters, locations and set-ups that i could relate to much more than the likes of Marvel and DC were giving me. I could actually BE Billy - just needed a crash helmet, black togs, rucksack and be good at sports. I thought. Billys two tales here are a bit of an oddity. After another unnecessary, but brilliant opening page:

We start with Billy talking directly to us readers from the comfort of his deck chair, letting us know about his latest exploit of stopping a burglar and sorting out "five toughs". When he's done with that, he lets us know he'll have another tale for us after the next two pages - which are given over to a Billy The Cat drawing guide:

He's back to let us know how he'd mistaken a Fire Brigade house fire simulation and rescued a dummy. Two real light tales, with very light art - there's an awful lot of blank, white spaces in those panels, but it works a treat with the stories. Great Stuff. "AIEEEE!" WATCH: Not suprisingly, none.

POW! annual 1971 - #7 - The Phantom

About time i returned to this countdown and i think this takes the Number Seeven slot not for the hero, but the bad guy of the tale - a wall climbing, dart-firing villain called The Bat, sporting a cape Batman would be proud of and in the habit of leaving folk his calling card - a picture of a bat with "The Bat" over the top of it - in case folk didn't realise who'd robbed them. Anyway, our story centres on Jim Maguire, crime reporter, who - stand by for yet another bizzarro plot/device/set-up that makes these stories so special - needs to stake out a chemical factory where he thinks the Bat will appear, but has to attend a fancy dress ball, sneaks off while still in his natty outfit, gets to the factory, is chased by the Bat's men, falls into "electronic equipment", survives that, tumbles into a "huge drum containing a chemical powder" and emerges super-strong, glowing in the dark, and is mistaken for The Bat.

Anyway, he captures The Bat in a real humdrum tale and sets off on his new life as a crimefighter. Humdrum just about sums it up - The Bat is the only reason then and now for reading it as visually he's really neat. But now, as an adult, i can see the European artist was completly lifting from European superhero villain, Diabolik: