Friends/Frendz

“Friends”, soon to change its title to the hipper “Frendz” was an underground magazine/newspaper along the lines of OZ and IT. Dunno why the cover says “The end of the Bonzo Dog”. “The end of the Bonzo Dog Band”, or “The end of the Bonzos” would have made more sense.

And if the cover wording isn’t bad enough why on earth is the title of the article “Britain’s zaniest pervert”?? Zany yes, mad perhaps, an alcoholic certainly and often very very funny. Vivian was a lot of things but I’ve never heard him being called a pervert before.

As this blog is titled after a UK 50s/60s/70s board game, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band named themselves after the cartoon dog from the 1920s that appeared in newspapers, books, film and numerous postcards prior to WW2.

If you wish to read the full interview with Viv it’s right here.

The Tubes on The Tube

Believe it or not “The Tube” went out live every friday teatime. Channel 4? No warning messages or disclaimers needed about what you were about to see in faraway 1983 when the UK was still a normal place to live in.

Vanity

Vanity first appeared in a four page strip at the back of Pacific Presents No 3. It was announced that she was shortly to have her own comic. Alas just two issues were published.

I really thought the concept of Vanity and her caveman partner being thousands of years old and piloting a five-mile-long spaceship had “legs”?!?

PS: What does a five-mile-long spaceship look like? Why is there another sidekick known as Prof? He smokes a pipe. Where does he get his supplies of Condor Mild from in outer space? The matter transmuter??

More Vanity

The first issue of Vanity’s comic is almost as bonkers as the introductory short story in PCP3. She admits that she hasn’t actually built the five-mile-long spaceship herself?!? It had crash landed and the injured pilot (sole occupant of a five-mile-long spaceship?!?) tells Vanity how to fly it before he dies.

The Americans and the Russians seem to be aware of the existence of Vanity and her spaceship and don’t seem perturbed when she beams in and out with transport technology like we saw in the Star Trek TV show.

There is still time for a bath in 1984 before we get a couple of pages that flashback to neandertal times and the comic ends on a cliffhanger of Vanity being thrown off a cliff!

There is no explanation as to why the Neandertal but obviously intelligent Vanity and her lumbering, stupid boyfriend born on earth thousands of years ago are alive and well in the C20th. And where does the pipe-smoking “Prof” fit into the equation? Perhaps more will be revealed in the next issue.

Yet more Vanity

And so to issue number 2. The final issue and the best in terms of artwork and paper quality. Pacific Comics appear to have ceased publishing comics about the time this issue appeared. It’s a shame the title wasn’t picked up by another company as some of the other Pacific titles were.

Oh I couldn’t be bothered to even try and recall the bonkers plot which culminates with intelligent dinosaurs landing their spaceship on the moon. Buy your own copy. I think it will be valuable in the C22nd.

Moon in June (version)

American Secrets

I’m finally getting around to reading this. Only owned it 30 years. The plot is as bonkers as the Vanity comics. This time it is shape-shifting lizards disguised as humans. Actually I always had a problem with the Martian Mnhunter’s powers. Invisibility? How? Why? Shape Shifting? Come on! Initially in the 1950s adventures his powers varied wildly depending on whatever was required for the plot. In the 1960s he appeared in the JLA as a replacement for Superman. (They didn’t want to “overuse” Superman even though he already featured in a number of titles).

The only thing of note in this book is one panel. Do they/did they proof read comics or was it just up to the letterer to get it right? Or was the letterer just following the script as written? Either way surely “shouldn’t of” should be “shouldn’t have” shouldn’t it?

Spelling mistakes are one thing but grammatical errors annoy me more. To this day I still regularly get an email from someone trying to sell something or other that begins with “Hope your well”. Every time I have to force myself not to reply with “Hope my well what? Never runs dry?”.

I found a reason (version)

Unauthorized Comics

Supposedly just 100 copies of this fanzine were printed in 1980. The artwork isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. In fact the whole comic is quite interesting.

A13

A1three

Lighter than air