Cover Of The Day

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh yes, The Thirteenth Floor! I have a feeling that then ran in Eagle for a long time, that's the one with the computer-controlled building, yes? The 'face' of the computer was the screen with 'interference' signals forming eyes and a mouth. I have a feeling he was called MAX too, for some reason...?

[MacNimon]

That's the one, Andrew!

And yes, he was called MAX

[Alex]

Blimey this is a freaky coincidence, just before I clicked on the thread I wondered if you had any plans to feature Scream, and there it is! I loved this as a kid and was gutted it was cancelled (though some strips were thankfully incorporated in to Eagle, like The Thirteenth Floor) and it definitely had an effect on my tastes in reading from then on in.

I read them all again recently as they're online here: http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/gallery.htm - and they also produced a tribute comic which has run for three issues so far, though I've not read it yet. But the original comic really impresses to this day, well, bar maybe Terror of the Cats!

I was a big fan of Look-In too, I've lesser memories of that other than that I had a preference for the sci-fi strips...I had no idea it ran until 1994 though, I think I stopped reading in about 83 or 84, though I'm not quite sure why (well, lack of pocket money and other comics interested me more, I guess!).

[MacNimon]

More covers from Scream (and others!) will follow soon, Alex. For the moment though I'm just trying to cover as many different comics as possible before starting to repeat some. Not that it's exactly going to be repeating, seeing as some managed really substantial runs. You'll never see the same cover twice in this thread...the same title, yes eventually...but not the same cover!

[MacNimon]

Not much time today, so just a quick post this morning. A classic American comic cover from 1941, drawn by one of the greats, Jack Kirby. An early Marvel title (or Timely, as they were known at the time) featuring the first appearance of one of their most famous characters...

[Stuart Wallis]

A controversial cover at the time: quite apart from complaints received from certain "right-wingers" objecting to a Jewish artist portraying Hitler getting what-for, other Americans complained, what's Cap doing fighting Hitler since America's not in the War yet. You couldn't make it up...

[Alex]

A controversial cover at the time: quite apart from complaints received from certain "right-wingers" objecting to a Jewish artist portraying Hitler getting what-for, other Americans complained, what's Cap doing fighting Hitler since America's not in the War yet. You couldn't make it up...

It's a great example of comics' writers using the medium as a way to try and influence politics. Many felt that the US should be part of the war, but of course it took Pearl Harbour (and other reasons, admittedly) before they decided to get involved.

[Rob McCow]

Someone put a pic from this cover up to celebrate how great America was for the 4th July. It's seems entirely appropriate to me that it's a depiction of a fictional comic book / Hollywood character solving the world's problems by punching a man in the face. (Regardless of how badly Hitler needed to be punched in the face...)

[MacNimon]

Today, we have a cover from a largely forgotten British reprint series, even though it ran for over 25 years.

For those unaware of the name, Alan Class Comics comprised of several long-running reprint titles: Creepy Worlds, Astounding Stories, Amazing Stories Of Suspense, Sinister Tales, Secrets Of The Unknown and Uncanny Tales all of which ran from the early 60s until Class retired in 1989 and closed down his business. He also published many other shorter lasting series over the years but these are the ones which were regulars in newsagents around the country throughout my childhood. Wherever we went on holiday, whether it was Blackpool or Arran, or visiting relations in Sheffield or Manchester or Yeovil if you went into a newsagents or gift shop you'd always find piles of these...and many issues of all titles to chose from, all dirt cheap! I always loved searching for these at holiday time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Class_Comics

Despite the names of all these comics suggesting contents of different genres, this was certainly not the case. The contents of each title were interchangeable and you'd often find the same story reprinted several times in different titles. Over the years they even reused some of the same covers! There didn't seem to be much organisation behind them, as they were always undated and often unnumbered which makes them quite hard to trace. According to Wiki, Class published 26 titles over 30 years totalling almost 1500 editions. These titles all reprinted a mix of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, ghost, mystery, monster, spy and superhero strips from a variety of publishers including Timely/Atlas/Marvel (material from all 3 eras of Marvel's history), Charlton, Archie, ACG, Fawcett and Kings Features. You'd have Flash Gordon alongside the Fantastic Four with THUNDER Agents and The Fly thrown in for good measure beside Spider-Man, SHIELD and The Phantom and many of those classic monster and mystery tales drawn by the likes of Kirby, Ditko, Wally Wood and other greats. All totally at random...if you happened to find part one of a multi-issue Marvel tale in one issue, it wouldn't be worth your while trying to find the next issue because chances were, it wouldn't be there...these tales were published totally at random!

And the best of it was, regardless of how cheap and tacky these were, they were still great!

[Andrew Curnow]

That's really fascinating, and totally new to me Mac, thanks for such an interesting post.

Of course, I will probably struggle to sleep at nights now, I'll be forever wondering... unless you can actually tell us, just exactly what fantastic things DID happen in the strange laboratory of Dr Domino?

[MacNimon]

I haven't a clue, Andrew...it makes you want to but the comic though, doesn't it? Unlike so many modern covers which just seem to have character poses, covers like these get you hooked and you want to see what happens!

I'll be including covers from other Alan Class titles as the thread progresses, possibly some of the other titles (or at least the logos) will ring a bell when you see them. Or maybe not! As I said, the range was widely available around the country until 1989 so you never know. They're easily found on eBay though, only a few pounds each. Thousands of these were printed and are out there. They're not worth much though, but certainly worth checking out even if only out of curiosity.

[Rob McCow]

If there's one thing that modern comics miss, it's hyperbole. What's wrong with putting massively over the top, sweeping statements about how brilliant and amazing this issue, next issue and indeed every issue of your thrilling comic is going to be?

"That Meep's about as gentle as a Boa Constrictor - and he's got Sharon in his grasp!"

[MacNimon]

I'll be forever wondering... unless you can actually tell us, just exactly what fantastic things DID happen in the strange laboratory of Dr Domino?

Just out of curiosity myself, I did a little bit of digging and it seems that not many fantastic things happened in Doctor Domino's laboratory, after all...the cover made it sound more exciting than it actually was...

The story was first published in Marvel's (sorry, still Atlas at that time!) Strange Tales issue #64 from 1958

More details can be found here: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/drdominost.htm

[Andrew Curnow]

the cover made it sound more exciting than it actually was...

Surely not?!

But thanks for looking into it, that's real dedication for you!

[MacNimon]

Surely not?!

No surprise there, then! Not many of them actually were, but they knew how to sell comics in those days regardless of the contents!

But thanks for looking into it, that's real dedication for you!

I don't know about that...about 30 seconds on Google did the trick! You're welcome, anyway...and I'd say the real dedication came from the guy who managed to write that pretty lengthy page based on a simple 4-page storyline!

Today, we're going back to the early 70s once again, with another TV based title. July 1973 to be precise and TV Action features an early example of a Doctor Who spoiler: the letter's page of this July 1973 issue (#126) identifies the Master's home planet (and thus the Doctor's) as Gallifrey, ahead of the name being given in the TV show's story The Time Warrior, which was filmed in June 1973 but not broadcast until December 1973.

TV Action started life a couple of years earlier as Countdown, and it's title gradually changed into TV Action over time (not as the result of any mergers). Strips at this time included The Persuaders, Dr Who, Dads Army, Droopy, Mission Impossible, Canon, UFO, The Protectors, Alias Smith & Jones and others.

[Rob McCow]

That letters page is amazing. 'Could you please tell me if Tony Curtis is married?' 'Has Robert Vaughan of The Protectors ever appeared in any major films?' No, absolutely not, never. Where did you get that crazy notion from?!

There's a person on the cover who could be Robert Vaughan from the Protectors but equally if you squint could be absolutely anyone. That Gaunt fella from The Champions? Roger Moore? Anne Widdecombe?

[Andrew Curnow]

I actually thought the likeness of Robert Vaughn was pretty good. Why he's in a story with Noele Gordon and Leonardo Da Vinci, I'm not sure...

[MacNimon]

A classic first issue today, from 1937. There's not much needs to be said about what went on to become one of Britains longest-lived and loved comics which gave us such famous characters such as Korky The Cat, Desperate Dan, Brassneck, Lord Snooty and many others...it finally stopped publication just a few months ago with some of its strips being transferred over to the Beano.

[Rob McCow]

I like Korky's eye beams in the first panel. It's a very straightforward strip, not at all reflective of the looming shadow of war that was gripping the country. Or something.

Express Whistlers! Doubt they'd still work eighty years on.

It's hard for me to imagine The Dandy without Desperate Dan. He was King of that comic for so many years.

[Stuart Wallis]

I thought you might hate Desperate Dan! A slice of McCow pie, anyone...?

[MacNimon]

We haven't had a proper Doctor Who cover yet, have we? So what better place to start than with this little gem, one of my favourite covers of the series. Simple but effective! I remember rushing out to buy this when it first appeared, with its fascinating text articles and exciting new comic strips. I loved The Iron Legion, particularly...it's all pretty simple and basic stuff compared to what we'd get in years to come, but it worked!

[Andrew Curnow]

What a classic, I remember seeing that in the newsagents for the first time.

The main thing I remember about that issue is the feature on the history of the Daleks. Having only just seen Destiny, which was the first Dalek story I'd seen, I was really 'up for it' - and the way the piece was written, it made it sound like one huge, cleverly thought-out story across the years. I can't remember exactly how it was phrased, but the article talked about the Daleks' final destruction at the end of Evil of the Daleks, which would have been the very end of the Daleks - except that in The Chase they had already discovered time travel. The whole thing was so neatly done, it sounded just so thrilling.

The other piece was the two page spread on the history of Who, as a prelude to the Archives starting in issue 2. As an 8 year old, reading (and with the photos, seeing) about Doctor Who stretching back 16 years, made it all seem such a gigantic, almost impossibly huge, story - a bit like a coal face, I might find out more and more, but it seemed so massive you could never hope to know everything. I so loved that feeling!

All this and a letter from the Doctor, how marvellous!

[SiHart]

It's a good cover! Nice simple image, made special with the starfield behind it. I didn't get it until many years later, but it's still proudly part of my collection.

Sent from my LT15i using Tapatalk 2

[MacNimon]

It's about time we featured a war comic on here! While the small Commando pocket book had been running since the early 60s (and is still running today), there wasn't a dedicated war comic on the market until 1974 when DC Thomson introduced Warlord. It was an instant hit, a comic full of wartime military adventures of all types; on land, in the air, at sea, and it ran until 1986 when it was eventually cancelled and merged into the Victor. The main character in the comic was Peter Flint, a war-time secret agent code-named Warlord.

Before Warlord, war stories were simply part of an anthology comic of different types of strips; war, adventure, humour, sport etc all in the same comic...such as Victor, Hotspur, Lion, Valiant, etc but Warlord was new in that it solely featured war stories with a harder-hitting edge to them than those earlier strips. Characters such as Union Jack Jackson, Killer Kane, Iron Annie and The Phantom Flyer. The comic was such a big hit that it inspired IPC to release a rival war title the following year called Battle Picture Weekly which was also a big success; the success of both of these titles meant that Marvel UK tried to also get in on the act a couple of years later with the release of their own war comic, Fury, in 1977 which was an almighty flop!

[MacNimon]

Today, we have a cover from one of DC comics attempts to crack the British market. While Superman, Batman etc have always been popular over here, somehow DC have always struggled to find the same level of success that Marvel has achieved over here. There really haven't been many long-lasting UK versions of DC comics over the years, probably the Batman Legends title of recent years being the most successful.

But back in the early 1980s, one reasonably successful attempt was The Superheroes Monthly, which basically copied the format of the successful Marvel UK monthlies of the time. It ran from 1980-82, and reprinted three complete stories in b&w each issue. The big difference was the specially commissioned painted covers for the series, which generally were really good, very eye-catching compared with the typical British superhero covers of the period...the Marvel ones were generally pretty dull and uninspiring at that time.

The title avoided reprinting ongoing storylines, preferring to showcase older one-off stories which allowed them to rotate the characters featured in the pages. Most of the big DC characters featured in its pages at some point, but Superman and Batman were pretty much regular fixtures. We saw Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and many more in the pages but it could possibly have had a longer run if they had reprinted some more modern and longer-running stories rather than the old ones that they did.