Gosh. A Kreativ Blogger award. And how splendid that I should have been nominated for it by KB, whose fine "Out Of This World" blog I've had in my "Comic Book Blog Of Honour USA" links box since "TooBusyThinkingAboutMy Comics" began. Thank you, KB Verily, 'tis much appreciated. And it really is, too.
Now, there are traditions to the Kreativ Blogger award process, and I've been thinking about them in an obsessive way which won't surprise anybody who's ever dropped in on this blog. On reflection, I think this Kreativ Blogger Award business is all a rather attractive version of "neighbourliness", of building lines of communication and civility across this strange and considerable expanse that no-one else calls the IntraCyberBlogNet, and which I don't either. And so, British reserve and all that pushed firmly to one side, I shall happily comply with the rules and regulations of Kreativ Blogger-dom, which are;
- You must thank the person who has given you the award.
- Copy the award logo and place it on your blog.
- Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
- Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
- Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
- Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
- Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.
And My Nominations Are ...
I thought it best to start with those blogs I've chosen to be nominated as Kreativ-Bloggers. I've mostly gone for blogs which inspired me in one way or another when I was started out blogging in the far off days of, oh, about 120 days ago. So, in no order of importance except that everybody is very important indeed;
- "Too Dangerous For A Girl", a review site updated several times a week by Mart, which is good, because it is actually his blog. I've said before on "TooBusy" that I find Mart's reviews erudite and unpretentious, and that the quality of his work is such that I felt compelled to try to do something other than reviews on my blog. He's also a sterling chap and competed in the 1989 Olympics for Scotland in Curling, fact-fans.(*1)
- "The Mindless Ones", a cornucopia of delights in the form of mind-expanding artworks, reviews and discussion pieces. I find it hard to even adequately describe their great and Mindless selves, and their equally-great and certainly-not mindless works, but then I assume everybody already goes to their Mindless One's site anyway.
- "Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!", Andrew's remarkable blog where a passionate commitment to politics co-exists with a similar engagement to comics, writing, science-fiction, Dr Who, music and anything else Andrew cares to engage with. It has an impressively diverse and informed group of folks who turn up and comment and it breaks every stupid rule of "how to blog" that states how bloggers shouldn't try to speak to more than a single niche's worth of concerns.
- "Kev Lev's Blog", where Kev regularly updates his visitors on how his sterling and determined attempt to establish himself as a comic book artist of deserved note is progressing. I don't know Kev at all, but I've been inspired by his passion for his chosen career and by his optimism and perseverance. Oh, and by the fact that he's a damn good artist who is obviously going to be so successful that others will be happy to buy him 'speny pencils in bulk for the rest of his life, of course.
- "Super Doomed Planet", where Wesley blogs on writing, science fiction, comics, politics and, like so many of the folks on this list, whatever he so chooses to blog about. He's wears his damn cleverness lightly, he's obviously in love with the written word, and I never leave his blog without (a) learning something, and (b) wanting to buy something he's discussed, even though (c) he once made gentle fun of me for leaving all these (a) 's and (b) 's all over the place.
- "It's Clobbering Time", where Josh writes about comics, and associated issues, with a restraint matched with a tempered passion for what used to be called four-coloured adventures, as you'd expect in a man who is himself engaged in the business of writing. It's a fine and unpretentious example of a blog where relatively bite-sized pieces are regularly posted, and there's a joke about Fin-Fang-Foom's purple pants on there too.
- "Toy's Dream", by illustrator Mark, a blog which has all the virtues of KevLev's blog in that Mark is similarly engaged in applying his obvious and impressive talent with perseverance and good humour, which is great to see. And Mark's work is not only truly good, but often-laugh-out-loud funny too. He's obviously going to be a star, if he isn't already, and if he is, I'm sorry, I didn't know, but I meant well.
So, being that I still haven't learnt how to add those useful link-thingies into the actual text of my blogs, I have added a links collection to the right of this page containing instantaneous connections to each of my nominations, whether or not they've chosen to clasp this experience to their hearts or not.
AND NOW, A WORD FROM YOUR BLOGGER
At this point, I'm required to state 7 things about myself that other people might find interesting. To prepare for this, I've been reading a few interesting things that other people have written of, and most of them really are interesting. (Go to the link, yes, at right to Jacque Nodell's excellent romance comics blog "Sequential Crush" and she's got some fascinating things to describe, for example. Ditto with KB's points in "Out Of This World".) But I don't have 7 interesting things about my life to offer up. Oh, there's some personal stuff that could be filed under "of private and even shamefully prurient interest", but that's about all, and who'd want to read that? So I thought, since this is a blog about comic books, that I might instead briefly offer you the 7 comics which made me a devotee of these wonderful publications when I was but a boy. I may not be of much interest myself, and you can believe me about that, I assure you, but comic books; ah, comic books are always of interest where this blog is concerned.
1. The Beano
Is it actually possible that there was a kid growing up in the Sixties who didn't read "The Beano"? I don't believe it is. And I'm pleased if not proud to say that I had a joke published in "The Beano" when I was 5 or 6. I carried the letter announcing I was going to be the central attraction - in my mind - in a future edition of "The Beano" for months until I left it in my trouser pocket and, yes, it was washed to destruction. The joke? Oh, well, in the spirit of things:Q: What do you call a man with 20 000 stitches on his head?
A: A man wearing a balaclava.
I know. I'm sorry. But I still remember it, and the thrill of seeing the joke in print. (The above scan is from Lew Stringer's wonderful Blog "Blimey!", the link to which you'll find to your right too in the UK Blog of Honour box. Mr Stringer's Blog is a thing of wonder and I'll be checking later to make sure that everyone has been visiting it regularly. And look! At the top of the scan, Mr Stringer's name has been written in pencil by his newsagent. No, that's history. Isn't that just wonderful?)
2. TV21
Oh, TV21, this Blog is all your fault, and I admitted as much in a piece called "The Intrusion Of The Fantastic Into The Mundane", which you could find on any rainswept, do-nothing afternoon in the February archive over, again, to your right and then down abit. My love for TV21, for "Thunderbirds" and "Stingray" and later "Captain Scarlet", was so overwhelming that my Junior School teacher at Clarendon Road School in Ashford spoke to my parents about how my imaginative work was all re-writes of "Fireball XL5" stories. (And what could be wrong with that?) Comic book cold turkey beckoned.
3. LO,OK AND LEARN (Featuring "The Trigan Empire")
Now my parents were canny creatures, and they knew that it would be tough for me to give up the comic book habit entirely. So they convinced me to abandon my beloved TV21 for the educational comic "Look And Learn", which was full of well-meaning articles about great British Kings and three dimensional cutaways of tractors. But tucked away in those well-meaning if rather staid pages was "The Trigan Empire", an action-saturated space opera of The Roman Empire in space, with lasers and jet fighters. Rome and spaceships? Result!4. "Pow", "Smash", "Wham", "Fantastic" and "Terrific"
American super-heroes first strode my way through the hacked-up, often-reduced-in-size and still mesmerising reprints which appeared in the "Power Comics" titles. "Fantastic" and "Terrific" were the ones to find, if you could, having far more of the Marvel Comics material which were only sprinkled through the other titles in the range. All of Stan'n'Jack'n'Steve's super-powered babies were there, and there is simply no way I can explain how spooky and enthralling these American characters were in the dull grey and dull brown world of 1967 England. (The Swinging '60s was something happening to about 300 people up the railway line in London. The Sixties did not swing in Ashford, Middlesex, or if it did, it was kept a secret from me. )"Power Comics" was only around for a few years, but I would've been hooked at one week. Indeed, I was, and I still am.
5. Alan Class Comics
Alan Class Comics were everywhere in Britain in the Sixties and Seventies, and for all that they were the cheapest packages that you could imagine, they were packed with black and white reprints culled and presented at random from a host of publishers from Atlas to Charlton to Marvel. They were especially numerous at seaside resorts such as Dawlish in Devon, where my family spent two weeks every Summer holed up in The Charlton House hotel, and where I read comics and science-fiction and Greek myths, of course, rather than going into the sun and enjoying myself. (It was a rare Alan Class reprint, it seemed to me, that didn't feature a Steve Ditko feature of some sort, which at the time was an irritation and now seems to me to be a thing of wonder.) I particularly recall reading some Giant-Man stories in one of Mr Class's books late in the '60s, the first step in a fondness for Henry Pym as a character which has led to so much unhappiness in later years. Ah, but he was a contender .....
6. The Uncut Stuff - American Comics
I've written about the discovery of the above Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic in 1970 and how, in its' own minor and yet special way, a panel within changed my pre-adolescent life. For what it's worth, that tale to can be found in the February archive, under the title "The Invention of Loneliness", though in fact the piece has both a happy beginning and a very happy end. That title, though, with that "loneliness" word, was never going to be a popular success in comic-book blog land. But I was months younger then when I started this blog, and I was so independent minded and carefree in those innocent days.7. The Mighty World Of Marvel
And then, in 1972, heralded by what my memory swears were TV commercials and an appearance by Stan Lee on British evening TV - can this be true? - appeared this tidy bundle of rather-ancient reprints of Marvel flagship characters. (But look at that beautiful John Buscema cover.) Bless my parents for having it delivered to our door every Saturday, though we couldn't afford for me to join F.O.O.M. at the same time. It was as if I'd switched up from occasional snorts of the marching powder to freebasing the purest vintage product. It may have been in black and white, with ugly single-colour overlays. It may have been years out of date. It may have meant that the real Marvel comic books were no longer being imported. But it was - apparently - British and it was cheap and it came out every week. Only football, watched on the TV, girls, watched from a respectful distance, and Marvel UK comics, were of importance now. (Music was just on the horizon, and the arrival of that would complete the set of central concerns for me.)Marvel swiftly released a companion title to "The Mighty World Of Marvel", namely "Spider-Man Comics Weekly", where my final appearance in the pages of a comic book appeared. (That's the actual issue below.) My early glory days long behind me, I was by now utterly washed up, and where I'd once had an entire joke printed, I now had but my name listed in the "We have also heard from" section of the letter's page. (And right at the bottom of the letters page, too.) It seemed like quite a comedown at the time, but little did I know that that would be my last brush with the pages of comic books until, well, ever. What seemed like a low then was actually ... sob ... my last time within the covers of a comic book. Or, at least, in a way that I'd feel comfortable talking to you about.
But I'd had such dreams.
Epilogue - The Splendid Wife Shows Her Splendid ColoursTwenty five years after my not-starring role in the "We have also heard from" column, I met the Splendid Wife, though as yet she was still "The Splendid Girl-Friend". Though we had barely eaten chips together, she unwittingly established herself even more fiercely in my heart when she rang this bloke she'd just met at The University Of Bath - me! - and offered up a pile of tatty comics that'd been left in her classroom at the end of the previous term. (There are considerable advantages to dating a teacher, I assure you.) Reader, I accepted those old "Spider-Man Comics Weekly", and I married "The Splendid Wife" too.
It took seven years of hard work on my part, mind you, but I married her.
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