PART FOUR OF FAVOURITE COMICS OF THE PAST...

As I lay in bed on that lazy March or April mid-morning in 1972, I was unaware that, in a few short weeks, I'd be moving house for the fourth time in my thirteen and a half short years of existence. Through the slightly open window the sound of kids in the playground of my old Primary school at the bottom of the road reached my ears, as I sipped American Cream Soda and enjoyed not having to attend the Senior Secondary educational facility a couple of streets away.

Surrounded by a monumental mountain of comics, the inconsequential illness which had kept me from school was soon forgotten, as I luxuriated in the privileged status of idle absenteeism while my classmates busied themselves with the enforced academic application that such scholarly study demands. Looking back, it's strange to realise that, were it not for the date on one particular comic establishing almost the exact moment in history, my recollection of events would suggest them as having occurred many months before their actual point in time.

The comic in question? The fifty-ninth issue of COUNTDOWN, which also happened to be the first issue of its relaunch under the title of TV ACTION. Cover dated April 1st, it had gone on sale on March 25th, and perhaps the subsequent issue may even have been amongst that pile of comics on top of the blankets. I'm not 100% sure, hence my hesitation in pinpointing the exact month of that school 'sickie' all those years ago. All I know is that it was either in the last week of March or the first one in April.

However, as I said - that was only a mere six or seven weeks away from moving to a different house in a different area. I was blissfully unaware of the fact, although no doubt my conspiratorial parents had been making the arrangements for some time. I was informed of the move only about a week or so in advance, which, with hindsight, I'm actually glad of, as the knowledge would probably have ruined the last occasion I had a day off from school in the house I had lived in since I was seven years old.

One glance at the above comic and I'm once again lying in bed on that morning in 1972, listening to the faint noises from the street as they drift in through my inch-open window - the knowledge that one chapter of my life was about to end and another begin still concealed behind the cover of Time's cascading curtain.

******

See Part 3 at http://kidr77.blogspot.com/2012/02/part-three-of-favourite-comics-of-past.html