PRESENTING: A PULSATING PINNACLE OF PRACTICAL PERFECTION PERTAINING TO A PROFOUNDLY PERTINENT POWER-PACK PUBLICATION FROM THE PAST, PROUDLY PARADED FOR YOUR PARTICULARLY PASSIONATE AND PERSONAL PERUSAL...



Pencils: Werner Roth. Inks: Dick Ayers. Layout: Jack Kirby

Here's the comic that would've been on sale from October 21st (dated a week ahead, naturally) forty-three years ago. The cover has been extended to accommodate the different page size to the original American dimensions and, to be honest, hasn't been done too well. That was one of the problems with the "bodgers" of yesteryear (and no doubt some of today) - they just weren't competent artists when it came to executing such tasks. Look at CYCLOP'S arm and neck - they're far too thin and out of proportion to the rest of the figure. And ICEMAN doesn't seem much of a threat - on account of him being 'armless. That's what comes from merely extending the curve of a line (or the line of a curve, even) without giving thought to what the "missing" part of the picture should look like.

A Power-House Pin-Up by Barry Windsor Smith (?)

That said, FANTASTIC (published by ODHAMS PRESS) really was a fantastic comic, and I have some very happy memories from when it was being published back in the '60s. It only lasted for 89 issues, a Summer Special and three Annuals - and I've got a full set. (Nope - they're not for sale. Getcher own!)

89 issues - almost only a year and nine months. Funny how periods from the past, once they've been dated and placed in their own little compartments, don't seem to measure up in duration to our perceptions of them.