Further Out of this World

Out of this World 6 Thorpe and Porter 1960

Charlton Comics “Out of this World” ran for 16 issues from 1956 to 1959. British black and white reprints appeared first courtesy of Thorpe and Porter. Of course being 68 pages and square-bound additional stories, often from other Charlton comics or even other publishers were also used. For some reason the Grand Comics Database, using logic only a Gallifrayan could understand, believes that the British reprints were issued five years before the original Charlton comics when the Thorpe and Porter comics clearly use the Charlton covers and logo.

The cover image of the Thorpe and Porter reprint had to be stretched to remove the bizarre Charlton “win a swimming pool” competition.

Soon after the Thorpe and Porter series finished in the early 1960s Alan Class began his own series of “Out of this World” (and further issues would be re-reprinted in the 1970s). 

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PS: Out of this World 6 contains the classic Ditko tale “The Little Things”. Even the powers that be at Charlton must have thought it was one of their better stories as it featured on the cover when it first appeared in “Out of this World” 16. And even if you don’t like science Fiction comic strips there is always the back cover of the Thorpe and Porter reprint to enjoy. The inside back cover contains a classic Ellisdons Novelty advert and the back cover gives you a useful checklist of all the British Classics illustrated comics published up to that point.

The Little Things in black and white

The Little Things in colour

Cadbury’s Smash adverts

Sometimes they are called Cadbury’s Smash Aliens and sometimes they are known as Cadbury’s Smash Martians. To me they definitely look like robots. I guess “Martian” is just a generic term for “alien”. These puppets (now residing in the National Media Museum in Bradford) were incredibly popular in a series of late 1970s/early 1980s TV adverts for instant mashed potato. In the very first advert these cute robots spent much of their time watching a TV screen showing humans preparing mashed potato the “old-fashioned” way. The voice-over saying “They peel them, they boil them and then they smash them all to pieces” was enough to send the robots into cackling hysterics, with one in the foreground rolling around on his back.

I received this clockwork “Mr Smash” as a birthday present 1000 years ago. Alas, as with my Corgi and Dinky toys a dozen years earlier it never occurred to me to save the box it came in…..

A bunch of Charlies

The French satirical newspaper that’s been making the headlines recently has suddenly become more easily available here in the UK. The Charlies responsible for the British distribution get nul points for spelling though……..

More Taschen

I’m off to the DIY store for four kandles legs to support my latest “coffee table” book. Was it really four years ago when I purchased Taschen’s 75 Years of DC?  Marvel have now caught up with their own massive 75 year history book. With a RRP of £135, and still costing a massive £87.75 from Amazon, it won’t be for everyone. The downsides are that it doesn’t quite fit in my jacket pocket and is somewhat awkward to read whilst sitting on a bus.  On the plus side it is beautifully produced.