Death of a lady

Sad to hear of the recent death (in the year 2127 ?!?) of former model and International secret agent Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward at the age of 88. It just goes to show how long ago the swinging sixties were. But, of course, by then she was no teenager. She would actually have been in her mid twenties when she first appeared on our TV screens in 1965/2065.

She hadn’t been seen in public for a while, having never really recovered from the death of her chauffeur/manservant/slave/devotee/Arthur Mullard impersonator/lover? Aloysius Parker. The pink Rolls Royce is showing its age with rust around the wheelarches and two of its six tyres are no longer holding air. No doubt the personalised number plate is now worth more than the vehicle itself.

Only Tin-Tin Kyrano and Brains are left to represent her former employers the Tracy family. They plan to attend the funeral in Thunderbird 2.

Skidmore comics

Due to their failure to pass the comic book code, Skidmore comics received limited distribution via normal channels. Where they were available, as they were mostly magazine-sized they would be mixed among the Men’s magazine section of the spinner racks. In parts of Europe however they were very popular.

Their range of child-oriented comics in the mid sixties were claimed to be the first ever landscape comics in the States.

The only Blog giving proper attention to this forgotten comic company is to be found right here.

Wanted

As a fan of odd comics these titles are currently on my “wants” list. I’ve managed to collect all of the Dell Monkees comics and quite a number of the UK “Lady Penelope” weeklies that contain Monkees strips. However I’ve never seen this Gold Key comic featuring their 1968 movie. “Head” contains some fantastic music amongst the often mediocre sketches. I particularly like their versions of Carole King’s “As we go along” and “Porpoise Song”, Mike’s “Circle Sky” and Davy singing Nilsson’s “Daddy’s Song”. Although care has to be taken with that one. Davy is dancing with Toni Basil whilst set and clothes flash alternately between black and a migraine-inducing white.

Here’s another one that looks interesting. I’d like to read it just for the Monkees backup strip.

Charlton comics were always oddly numbered. “The Flintstones Pebbles and BamBam” survived for five issues until in issue six it suddenly became “Team-Up”. If you were a toddler who’d been given a subscription to the Flintstones comic you were in for a shock. I just want issue 7 as it features E-Man’s girlfriend and former exotic dancer Nova.

Likewise with Miss Bikini Luv 625. She finally got her own comic after featuring for a year or so in Charlton’s “Gorgo”. However the series had originally begun a decade earlier at number 500 as “Robin Hood”. From issue 524 it changed to “Wild Western comics”. After a hiatus it continued from number 581 as “‘Lil Scamp”. It was re-named as “Jungle Warfare” from number 610 (but still had “‘Lil Scamp” back-up stories to use up inventory). Miss Bikini Luv ran from number 623 to 627. All these comics are extremely rare/completely unobtainable.