Tractor beam

Nuff Said 32

These are some of my favourite comicbook characters. Below is an example of WHY they are my favourites.

Alan Moore Space Adventurer

Here’s another forgotten character from comics-past. (This) Alan Moore was never as famous as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or even Tommy Tomorrow of the Planeteers. He may only have made this lone appearance in Key Publications “Weird Tales of the Future” No 2 cover dated  June 1952. This short running (8 issue) anthology title is collected now due to the inclusion of weird stories (and sometimes covers) weirdly drawn by the weird Basil Wolverton.

More Logic

I found a copy of issue No 3 at Knockabout Comics in London. Of course I should have thought of them in the first place as they actually publish the thing. I must make another visit to the “Dodgem Logic” website to see if  subscriptions are available yet. Number 4 is supposed to be out soon.

It is a good almost advert-free read for £3.50. I am pleased that magazines like this are still available in the UK in 2010. Oh and there’s a free gift of an exclusive iron-on transfer for your T Shirt or hippy tie-dyed Granddad Vest. It is a semi-clothed woman drawn by Melinda. I like the application instructions inside which say “Always ask an adult to help apply the transfer. Irons get very hot and should not be used by children”.
Lets hope they’re just being ironic because if little kids are reading this (and particularly last month’s) magazine we may soon be back around to a “Nasty Tales” type trial. Perhaps in a future issue Alan could include a free gift of one of those triangular pieces of cardboard that you used to swing through the air to make a bang/crack noise. I always liked them.

PS: I read this magazine whilst listening to “Dodgem Dude” by Michael Moorcock’s Deep Fix for the full multi-media experience !!!

Dodgem Logic

The colourful but confusing web site for Alan Moore’s Northampton-centric “Dodgem Logic” is as odd as the magazine itself. I’ve just tried and failed to buy Issue 3 there. I did manage to buy the first two issues elsewhere. Issue 1 contained a free music CD (and it looks like you can actually download those tracks free from the website …if the links work !!).

There is also a fascinating article by Alan in issue 1 about the history of underground publishing from 1200 to 1975. That too can apparently be downloaded directly from their site.

Issue 2 comes with three variant covers. I hate that ! But it also contains a free mini comic written and drawn by Alan. We seem to have come full circle from his time at the “Sounds” pop newspaper. As its title is “Astounding Weird penises” (with a cute 9d price stamp) you can guess the content.

Whether this is the beginning of a new empire or the last gasp of the underground comic/magazine format only time will tell. I’ll certainly try and get issue 3 at some point. It contains a free iron-on T Shirt transfer (which is most likely not suitable for public display ???).

100 copies

ITEM:   A couple more books have found their way onto my groaning bookshelves. A mere one hundred people will own this hardback edition. I’m sure many more will grab the paperback. A quick glance reveals that the logo was designed by Todd Klein. The book was printed in Canada. And there is a vast Bibliography at the back. Scarily I seem to own much of the weird and wonderful stuff in that list (although all my 2000ADs and Sounds newspapers were burnt in the great cull of ’86 !!).  I don’t have any of the Discography though, and I wasn’t aware that Alan produced some artwork for the 1982 B.J and the Bear Annual !!  Now might be the time for the completists out there to snap up one from their local Charity Shop/eBay whilst they are still 25p each ??

And I must look out that old copy of “Escape” to re-read Alan’s hilarious account of his visit to the USA in the mid 1980s.

Although, unlike some people, I don’t believe it to be the centre of the Universe with all ley-lines converging there, I do think that some magic has emanated from Northampton over the last 30 years.

ITEM:   Here is another book limited to 100 copies. However this is more probably to do with the steep cover price. And the fact that they will be hard-pressed to find 100 people like me that are actually still interested in what must be the most obscure comics on the planet !! 

This book is all about the long-forgotten British comics of the 1950s from the small publishers who tried to copy the American comics of the day in both size and format. These pale imitation super heroes were sometimes entertaining but more often just plain rubbish. But looking back through the prism of time fascinating all the same. At 464 pages this work is a labour of love by compiler Mike Higgs. Yes the very same guy who wrote and drew the unique and funny “The Cloak” back in Odhams “Pow” comic in the 1960s. What I’d like next Mike would be a collection of “The Cloak”. How about it ??