Friday 18 March 2011

Ou est the Abomination?

Silver Surfer #12, the Abomination
As you can see from the above title, I have a phenomenal mastery of that language they speak all of twenty miles away.

Sadly I don't have a phenomenal mastery of my memory which is a wayward and unreliable thing.

As I've mentioned elsewhere on this blog, when I was a kid my first ever exposure to the world of Marvel Comics came not through reading Marvel comics but through the unlikely source of TV 21, a comic famously devoted to the TV shows of the magnificent Gerry Anderson.

However, it seems that towards the end of its run it started to reprint the not-at-all Gerry Anderson originated Spider-Man and Silver Surfer stories.

I remember having three issues of TV 21 from this phase and recall dutifully hiding them behind our immersion heater, as a sort of time capsule to be retrieved when I was grown up.

Sadly, somewhere along the way they went missing, possibly when the local council fitted us with a new immersion heater, and so they were lost to me forever. Now all I remember of those three comics is that one issue featured the Silver Surfer turning up to find the Abomination destroying a city which I now know to be London, although I then thought it to be New York.

Obviously this was reprinted from Silver Surfer #12, as seen above . However, I don't have a clue in which issue of TV 21 it was reprinted. So, if anyone in the vast recesses of the Internet knows what that issue is, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Thank you very much for your time, and for whatever else you may be sacrificing by being here.

6 comments:

Kid said...

I also remember reading part of this story (it was edited into at least a couple of weekly episodes, if I remember correctly) in TV21 back in - what? - 1969 or '70, but I can't recall the issue number. I bought a pristine copy of SS #12 from a comic rack in a shop on Blackpool pier in 1973 or '74. (Went there on holiday two years in a row, so it was one or the other.)

Interestingly, quite a few shops in Blackpool had late '60s Marvel and DC comics readily available for sale in perfect condition back in the early '70s - it was like a time warp. I even got several Kirby FFs and various other titles. They must have languished in a warehouse for longer than they should have before being distributed to the shops - lucky me. All at cover price of one shilling/five pence.

But that doesn't answer your question, does it? If I find out, I'll get back to you.

Steve said...

I too was in Blackpool in the summers of 1973 and 1974. It just goes to show what a small world it is.

Sadly, I never, to my knowledge, bought any comics on any of its piers. I did though buy them from pretty much every other outlet available.

Kid said...

DADDY!

Steve said...

I'm saying nothing.

Anonymous said...

Silver Surfer #18 was reprinted in TV21 #105, so it's possible that Silver Surfer #12 was reprinted in TV21 #99. But I don't know if they reprinted consecutive issues in order.

Steve W. said...

Thanks, Anon. tracking it down has now become much easier.