What, with the Avengers and Spidy at the cinema again, comic Super Heroes and Villains are everywhere nowadays, but when I was a wee Superboy you had to go to the newsagents for a dose of your favourite characters. Fortunately I had brothers [still have!] who read comics too, so the house was full of 'em. To be honest it was some of the less obvious US titles, which I loved to lie down with on the floor and read [why did we do that and not get on the settee?].
I particularly loved 'Sad Sack', about a dopey soldier in the army. I also loved 'Casper the Friendly Ghost' as well as 'Archie'. British comics I liked where anything with monsters in like Grimly Fiendish, but I forget the title. 'Fantastic' was a British marvel issue and often came with free gifts like an elastic band pistol. I remember there was always a cool poster on the back of 'Namor' or 'Thor' or some other fabulous person.
The distinction between a comic and a magazine is a fine one, but 'bigger' comics were in the house to be enjoyed too: the brilliant Creepy and Eerie by Warren, Psycho and Nightmare by Skywald [remember their Horror Mood!] and some truly gruesome- covered ones called Terror or Witches Tales [my Dad once threw some of these out all because of the covers!]. For light relief I read 'MAD', courtesy of my brothers too. I loved to fold the back cover, as shown by the arrows on it, to make a new crazy picture!
Later fare lying around the house got cerebral and manly and were definitely magazines: OMNI, Inside King Fu, Easy Riders [big shiny motorbikes], Disc and Sounds [music papers] and with access restricted to only big brothers [they thought!], Men Only and Mayfair.
And so, as our thoughts turned from Lady Penelope and Wonder Woman to the girls in the Sixth Form, as quick as a slick of grease through the hair, the comics, sadly, were well and truly gone!
What were your experiences with comics?
The main comic I recall with pleasure was TV21, although I also liked Dan Dare in Eagle.
ReplyDeleteGrimly Feendish was drawn by Leo Baxendale, creator of the Bast St Kids etc. and the comic was Wham!
"laying on the floor reading comics"...that is the best Woodsy! Lucky enough to begin childhood with stacks of my Dad's comics (Classics illustrated and Flash Gordon). He was keen to buy me Marvel's versions of CONAN and Warlord of Mars from his own book reading experience which opened the door to all things Marvel.
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