O SUPERMAN

It was difficult to share my excitement with all my other comic book collecting friends when I saw this particular cover by John Byrne.

They were mostly excited by it's collectability, which I won't bore you with now except to say it was a real must have and one to stash away for future profit. The writer, Chris Claremont, had used the highly original title for this edition of 'Days Of Future Past'. Very Moody Blue.

But I digress. Look at the cover as I did and how I relished those words: Slain. If there's one thing more enjoyable to my mind than one dead superhero, it's two dead superheroes!

I've never really liked then but alas I have always been surrounded by comic fans who did. Worse still I let them influence me. So, I gave up my love of horror comics, war comics and SF comics to a bunch of prats in capes and tights.

Of course I regret that.

But for one brief shining moment I thought superheroes had had their day and good riddance to the lot of them. Except possibly for Batman, who wasn't an alien, didn't get exposed to gamma rays or get bitten by a radioactive spider. Some one simply slaughtered his parents and that sent him off the deep end.

Except Days Of Future Past was set in the future and the tights and spandex weren't really dead at all.

I cried for days mind; so near and yet so far.

It Really Isn't Over Till The Fat Lady Sings

Stray what? Well, yes, exactly, that's what I thought. But that did not stop me buying all four issues of this little oddity from Bill Sienkiewicz. Which I dutifully read, bagged and slotted into my comic collection; waiting for the value to increase and my fortune to be made.

Which it never did. I sold the series on eBay a few years ago to a French man who knew pretension when he saw it and lapped it up. I think I made my money back but then again, maybe not.

But I enjoyed the actual sale more than usual due to my ex-wife sighting all four issues of Stray Toasters in our divorce settlement; along with a copper bottomed pot. I never really got her way of thinking when we were actually married and I certainly didn't get it after.

I'm not sure her lawyers did either but monkeys preform remarkably well when you pay them. I never agreed to hand over the Stray Toasters and that was that.

I think she's still singing for them now.

Pretentious, Moi?

Heavy Metal was not, in this case, a magazine devoted to loud music by socially challenged men in beards and jeans that could stand up on their own.

It was an Americanised version of the French magazine Metal Hurlent, which published European comic art and stories. However, although some European art sneaked through as Heavy Metal progressed it became more and more Americana in it ways. Not quite superhero a go-go but pretty close.

And it rapidly moved away from its origins of progression and development in comics and quickly settled on a tits and ass approach; even to robotics.

It was more likely to attract the sort of male, 14 - 22, who's ideal fantasy of sex and complete female adoration, could be catered for. You, know, the ones with the hygiene issues.

But for a short time it was less Playboy and more art movement for comic books in general. Which also made it incredibly pretentious! But guess which of those two evils I would have settled for?

Moi!

QUIET GENIUS AT WORK - Will Eisner Gone But Not Forgotten

One of the few memories I treasure of buying comics at specially set up indoor markets (my first were at Chelsea Town Hall, on the Kings Road, 1978ish, very posh, very punk), are the comics I didn't buy. But I won't bore you with that here. It's tempting, but no. You have a life to live and, hey, so do I!

Glancing around at the various tables, strewn with new comics, old comics, over priced comics, there was a cover less hard back book, gold lettering which spelling out: A Contract With God by Will Eisner. I heard some stuff about this but I wasn't thinking too hard at the time (I was a teenager after all). I recalled it was the work of some famous comic book artist who was big in the 1940s and 50s, so probably not that good really. I passed it by, probably headed for the that month's X Men comic.

I'd also heard it was a graphic novel, whatever that was; it sounded beyond my tastes anyway. And ooooh look who's in this months Fantastic Four!!

Even a few years later when Will Eisner's Spirit comic book character was popular with comic collectors, I'd just frown and say I just don't get what all the fuss is about. Eisner's art wasn't too my taste then. It seemed old (the Spirit was being reprinted from the 40's and the 50's) and old meant boring, and old meant past it and old meant it wasn't for me!

Except. It was for me.

It would just take me me three decades to understand that Eisner was a genius of the medium. A Contract with God, contains no superheroes, no fisty-cuffs, no bland dialogue, no childishness, just stories about real people, in real times, facing real dilemmas. You know, you and me.

Eisner's Spirit series (I'll scan one of the covers in real soon) has been reprinted in hardback and I'm buying them when I can; just another 37 or so volumes to go. But, regardless of age, the good always shines through. It's just sometimes I overlook it. Like a lot of things in life.

Thankfully, with comics though, there's often a chance to go back and correct mistakes and misconceptions. Life, on the other hand, is hardly like that at all.

Now you know why I became a comic book reader.

OH MAN LOOK AS THOSE CAVE MEN GO, IT'S THE FREAKEST SHOW

The less than factual Chariots Of The Gods, by Erich von Daniken, got the whole aliens from out of space kick starting intelligent life on Earth speculation going. But Erich was less than truthful in this and subsequent tomes.

Which was a real pity for this 14 year old, who took the whole concept in, hook, line and sinker. I practically kept a well thumbed copy of Chariots by my bed for years. Ah, the gullibility of it all. Hmmmmm, wonder if I can find a copy on eBay and put it back by my bedside.....er purely for erm......does nostalgia count? I mean maybe there's more to this than meets the eye?

But even knowing the truth did not stop me from making sure I brought this 1975 copy of Marvel Preview; a black and white magazine sized comic, that turned von Daniken's scam into a tale of crafted escapism. The cover is Neal Adams at his best, whilst the interior art was handled by the very underrated but admired by me (and at least one other, where are you Floyd Hughes?) Alex Nino.

Marvel Preview had an in depth interview with Erich, which I lapped up and that's when I suspected Erich was less of a scientist and more of a game show host.

Ah, the bitter disappointment.

There's A Monkey On My Back

Drug abuse isn't a new concept and here, with this cover from long gone EC comics publisher, we face it again. This though is the 1950s and for a short time the EC (Entertaining Comics) would shine and take the genre into more adult lead themes.

Unfortunately, this would be EC's undoing and it would be investigated by the Un-American Activities Committee and found guilty of corrupting 1950s children, a famous US doctor made a small fortune writing a book to prove this point. True story and EC was hounded out of the comic publishing busy, with the exception of its single title, the humour magazine, Mad.

I suppose I'm back to my old hobby horse here, and maybe the theme of this blog that comics are not necessarily for children. And the other theme would be society's need blame things for the behaviour of their off-spring.

Rock and Roll music, comics, video nasties, drugs, console games. But I'm a foster carer too and the thing that I find corrupts children the most is their unthinking and uncaring parents.

Whereas a EC comic book would really be there to put them straight. Drugs, as you can clearly see from the cover, suck.

Protest And Survive Because Big Brother Really is watching us all!

AAAGH!

Not the sound that comic book characters make when punched by a villain. No, it was in fact the sound made by protesting comic book artists and writers: Artists Against Anti Government Homophobia.

Published in 1988 to combat the Tory Clause 28, which was designed to outlaw the promotion of homosexuality in any way shape or form. A nasty spiteful attempt at victimisation.

The publisher was Mad Love, a start up company formed by British comic book writer Alan Moore (taking the USA by storm at that point) and his partners. This was the only publication from Mad Love but it proves a point.

Comic books can and do offer a forum for adult protest, it isn't just a child's medium; serious issues can be tackled and debated. The cover by Dave McKean is chilling enough and references the media support for government views on homosexuality in the late 80s.

Dark days that hopefully will never return....except there's a cctv on every corner of every street and ID cards insisting on knowing your sexuality.