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| Image by Tumisu from Pixabay |
Can it be true?
Can there really be barely more than a month to go before Christmas is once more upon us?
Yes, it can.
But is that what's on the minds of dear visitors to this dear journal?
That, I cannot say.
But I know how to find out.
And that's to fling the doors of Speak Your Brain open to the world again!
That's right. It's the return of the feature in which you The Reader get to decide just what the topic for debate shall be.
Therefore, waste no time in posting that topic and we shall see in just which direction our collective wind is blowing.
Posts
33 comments:
Last month, SPEAK YOUR BRAIN died – died I tell you! - on the altar of ATLAS COMICS. I suggest those two dead SPEAK YOUR BRAIN posts are reanimated, like Hermione in the Winter's Tale! 3 topics might accomplish such a necromantic feat!
Patterns & Coincidences
Are there any strange patterns or coincidences in your comic buying history? Some examples from my childhood:
1.) The First will be Last!
a. ) My first ever Captain Britain story was C.B.'s final outing, in his original form ( in Super Spidey & CB # 247! ) Incredibly enthused, I bought earlier ones, later.
b.) The first - and only – Karate Kid I read was its final issue ( # 15). A masterclass in surrealism!
c.) The first Tarzan book I read was 'Tarzan & the Castaways' (ERB's final Tarzan book.) I know it's not a comic, but I was obsessed with Tarzan books, and it fits the pattern!
2.) It's the Super-Agents again!
Two Captain America All-Colour Comics ( # 215 & # 228 ) were all my brother & myself had, for a long time ( we got a couple more, later.) Despite being separated by 13 issues, both Cap comics' continuity was followed by Super-Agents (Texas Twister, Marvel Boy, Vamp, etc) stories. A strange coincidence!
3.) Important stories with identical issue numbers!
Number # 137! That's the X-Men's most famous issue, without a doubt ( largely because it never made it to the Newstands, disappointing thousands of kids!) But, another great comic also had that issue number – Iron Man # 137! Bethany's partner/best friend, Ling McPherson, is left critical in hospital, leaving Bethany devastated and finally needing Iron Man's help/support.
Often, stories numbered # 6 & # 9 I bought seemed good, for some reason! Shade the Changing Man # 6, Human Fly # 9, Moon Knight # 6 & # 9!
4.) A writer's swansong being brilliant – or, so it seemed!
Thor # 296 & # 299's Pollard covers were amazing! The stories inside were fantastic, too ( some members of SDC hate the Niebelung saga, I know. But not me! ) Roy Thomas got thrown out (?) at this time, despite those glorious issues!
Avengers # 156 – An amazing issue, with Wonder-man knocking Namor unconscious (something nobody had ever done before – not the Thing, not the Hulk, not Thor! ) The previous two issues were fab, too. Yet Conway got kicked out, shortly after that brilliant issue!
5.) June 1980:
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=cover&month=6&year=1980&sort=alpha
So many great comics, published with the June 1980 cover date!
2 Perez masterpieces – the Taskmaster Avengers, & MTIO Stingray issue!
Byrne's Hellfire Club, in the X-Men!
Captain America's “Joe” issue!
A reprint of the Wedding of Yellowjacket & the Wasp (or the previous issue! )
Thor # 296, with its Pollard cover brilliance – one of my Thor faves!
And that's just glancing at June 1980 - it really was a “high” month!
The only month to rival it, is covers dated June 1975 (Warlock # 180, Defenders # 24, etc) :
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/newsstand.php?publisher=marvel&type=cover&month=6&year=1975&sort=alpha
Is June a good month, for some reason? Wines ending 5 or 0 are supposedly the best vintages - are comics the same?
Anyway, those are some patterns/coincidences in my comics history (some tenuous, at best! ) Does your comics experience have any odd connections?
Phillip
Topic 2: Duos!
What Superheroic duo, do you envisage, which has never taken place before? I considered Captain Marvel & Starhawk, at first. Both cosmic characters – both Milgrom & Austin. But then, a better duo sprang to mind...
Wait for it...
Skull the Slayer & Devil Dinosaur! Here's the kicker...Skull kills dinosaurs (normally), so let's make Devil become Skull's best mate! There...we've got ourselves a show! It practically writes itself! ( Hey! No sniggering at the back of the class! )
Phillip
Topic 3: 3 Favourite corn snacks
Which corn snacks tickled your fancy, back in the day? Here's my top 3!
1.) Piglets:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/piglets--411797959665458076/
2.) Farmer Brown's:
https://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory/farmer-browns-crisps
3.) Rancheros (availabe in Malta & Ireland, but not Emgland! )
https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/rancheros-retro-recipes--60657926203142605/
Honourable mentions:
4.) Spicy Tomato flavour Snaps
5.) Frazzles
6.) Skips
7.) Monster Munch
8.) Chip Sticks
9.) Nibbits Wheels
10.) Griddles
Which top 3 corn snacks did it for you, back in the day?
Phillip
Phillip, thanks for the topics.
When it comes to corn-based snacks, the only ones I recall from childhood were cornflakes. In adulthood, I have become familiar with - and approve of - Monster Munch.
As for comic book coincidences, I suppose that the main one, for me, was Marvel UK launching in October 1972, mere weeks after I first got into US Marvel comics during the summer holiday.
Steve - With me, it was the reverse - Marvel UK first, then Marvel US a few weeks later. On these nostalgia topics, my memory's hazy sometimes, so I consult my brother, on Sundays, for a second opinion. Since drafting the corn snacks piece, I'm vaguely remembering a Worcestershire sauce flavour corn snack, with a curly stick shape - probably French Fries (not literal French Fries, of course! ) I loved those! But I'd strangely forgotten about them until tonight!
Phillip
Worcester sauce French Fries - not Worcestershire sauce. Palm slaps forehead! It looks like they're still on sale today!
Phillip
Phillip:
Mike Ploog leaves a series, then Tom Sutton replaces him. It happened on Ghost Rider, Werewolf By Night and Terror on the Planet of the Apes . That’s the only pattern I can think of, off-hand.
Duos: I dreamt of teaming up Shang-Chi and Luke Cage long before Cage actually paired up with Iron Fist. I love your idea of Skull the Slayer and Devil Dinosaur being a Prehistoric Team Supreme :)
Favorite corn snacks : I love almost any kind of Caramel Corn (Cracker Jacks, Fiddle Faddle, Screaming Yellow Zonkers, etc). My favorite kind of corn chip is a freshly-made plain tortilla chip, like the kind you get at any good Mexican restaurant. Deep-fried, lightly salted, with a bowl of salsa for dipping — YUMMY. For ‘processed’ chips, I’m partial to Tostitos (‘Original Flavor’) and Nacho Cheese Doritos. Crunchy, funky shaped Cheetos are an especially addictive guilty pleasure.
b.t.
My first Frazzles are seared on my memory. My school chess team was playing against Salt Grammar school (a more high brow school than our common as muck comprehensive. ) I lost my match, but my opponent opened a bag of Frazzles, proffering it in my direction. Clearly, a consummate gentleman! Frazzles have retained a high standing for me, ever since!
Phillip
b.t. - Your Ploog/Sutton thing reminds me of myself often remembering Byrne being followed by either Jerry Bingham or Mike Zeck. But, often I get this wrong, because Marvel UK's chronology's sometimes out of whack!
The only UK thing vaguely similar to your caramel coated corn snacks is either Treats or Minstrels, one of which was peanuts covered in chocolate. I used to get them in Christmas stocking selection packs in the 70s.
Phillip
Or was it Revels? Palm slapping forehead again!
Phillip
I think it was Treats, Phillip.
Or were they toffee?
Anyway, Minstrels are just chocolate, and Revels were an assortment.
Charlie dont know about comic book coincidences, per se, but one has to admit that Dennis the Menace UK and Dennis the Menace USA debuting on the same date like 70 years ago is a jaw dropper given they are totally unrelated.
Philip:
I go with pickled onion Monster Munch, then and now.
Second place, salt and vinegar chipsticks (and variants thereof, eg the M&S version).
Honourable mention to standard Walkers crisps. The bog-standard flavours like plain, s&v and cheese & onion.
Corn snacks back in Charlie’s yute… probably BUGLES. You could append the crunchy cornucopia-shaped things on the end of your fingers and eat them in batches of 10!
It's easy to knock Chris Claremont and the X-Men, but #137 was a pretty good comic in it's day, Phillip (I got an import at one of those new fangled comic shops before it's non-appearance at newsagents).
I don't think I ever read an Iron Man comic I actually liked much.
Cerebus #137 - the epilogue to the 'Jaka's Story' arc - was a good one though.
-sean
Phillip, I too loved those Niebelung issues - glad to hear I'm not the only one!
My first issue of Ms Marvel was the final one (#23, 1979) and my first issue of Red Sonja was also the final one (#15, 1979).
Phillip, on the subject of corn snacks you didn't mention WOTSITS.
Of course! Delicious but finger-staining snack.
If I understand the question correctly - a writer's swan song being good - then maybe Frank Miller and Give Me Liberty #1? It was his last truly great bit of writing.
I picked up the first two issues at the same time (along with Hard Boiled #1). Read issue 1 - terrific. Read issue 2 - what? The drop-off in quality was breathtaking. The good times were over for Miller from that point on.
Charlie - DC Thomson exporting Dennis to America seems strange, when Desperate Dan seems more quintessentially American!
The only finger-fitting UK corn snack I can think of is Hula-hoops, which can be worn like rings!
Matthew - Ah, crisps! I specified corn snacks, as when Redartz used to do BITBA, his discussions were always more effective because Red made the debate specific, in some way. As regards crisps, my 'go-to' was Walkers Beef, in brown 25g bags! The top of my corn snacks being bacon flavours makes this appear inconsistent. That being said, I also liked prawn cocktail, salt & vinegar, etc. To me, Walkers cheese & onion ( oddly blue bags?) weren't as good as XL cheese & onion ( green bags.)
During my Infant school days, the school sold XL crisps. Bags of crisps being dropped ( knocked out of children's hands?) The little kids would eat them off the playground gravel. As a child, I was strangely fastidious, and found that disgusting. In adulthood, my extreme reaction seems odd, to say the least!
Having salad for summer evening meals, in the late 70s/early 80s, my mum put Chipsticks (salt & vinegar) in a metal bowl on the table, which my brother & myself dipped into to. Good memories of Chipsticks!
Sean - Don't get me wrong, I loved Claremont & Byrne's X-Men, and Claremont's stuff in general. His words & phrases became my own vocabulary, as a kid! ( Plus, Claremont & Byrne's X-Men was my first 'run', following the comic from one month to the next. Prior to that, US Marvels were all random buys.) However, because I didn't get # 137 until ten years later, (Mary) Jo Duffy's ending ( What If Phoenix had not Died? ) is the one I always remember. That being said, my all-time fave Claremont & Byrne X-Men is # 112 - Magneto Triumphant. It's the quintessential issue, giving you every X-Men thing you need, in one succinct, compact issue!
Only 2 Iron Mans were ours ( Iron Man # 106, with its superlative Cockrum & Austin cover, & Iron Man # 137 - bought as a bargain in a Marvel multi-mags, fronted by Spidey & Howard the Duck! ) for a long time! Later, we got IM # 120 on holiday - a big punch up with Namor! Very good! Once Cap America Weekly appeared, lots more Cap & Iron Man, of course!
I didn't discover comics shops, until later in 1980 - with a trip to Boar Lane, Leeds. So, no dice for X-Men # 137! Still, it's strange that the # 137 thing hit you too, with Cerebus!
Colin - Yes, the Pollard Niebelungs seemed very 'polished'. Even the portrayal of 'Thor'/Siegfried staying at Hunding's cabin, and the Norse customs of hospitality, seemed a portrayal of Norsemen that was more realistic than previous depictions.
My first Ms. Marvel experience was # 8 - more action than any other comic! It started with Carol Danvers beating the crap out two bar-room thugs, who were harassing her; then the story ended with a knock-down, drag-out fight with Grotesk! I was hooked. Later, an issue with the giant Lizards in the desert; plus a second hand one, with Tiger Shark, from Leeds Market!
Still, the 'first will be last' pattern hit you, too!
My first Silver Surfer ( SS vs Human Torch in Marvel Supes Annual ) was the last one from Marvel Superheroes Comic.
Cheese snacks is a genre all of its own. In addition to Wotsits, there's Quavers, for example! That tangy stuff, I think, has been removed. That's partly why I relegated Skips, Snaps, etc. I've tried them again, as an adult, and the 'bite' their taste had, as a child, doesn't seem there, to the same extent. Unless adult taste buds are different!
Matthew - I'm mentally noting Give Me Liberty # 1 (along with your earlier strong recommendation for The Daredevils # 10! )
It's now snowing, up here in Yorkshire!
Phillip
Nobody's come up with a better duo than Skull & Devil - a pairing for the Ages!
Phillip
This probably doesn't count but an especially amazing comics coincidence for me was Marvel UK's Planet Of The Apes weekly being launched only six days after the POTA TV series was first shown in the UK. The first episode of the TV series was broadcast on ITV on Sunday, October 13th 1974 and then No.1 of the POTA weekly went on sale the following Saturday, October 19th. You'd almost think the timing was deliberate but Marvel UK couldn't have known that ITV had bought the POTA TV series or that the first episode would be broadcast on that particular date only six days before the launch of the POTA weekly so it must have been a bizarre coincidence!
My local Tesco has stopped selling Hooper's alcoholic dandelion & burdock - woe is me :(
Colin - Try some Gentiane Liqueur instead? CH
UK dudes… mr. and Mrs. Charlie need a little help here. We are watching the masterpiece theater series from the UK known as “death in Paradise” which is set on The island of Guadalupe in the Caribbean, which has strong French and English cultures.
One of our protagonists has to study for an upcoming police exam and he keeps saying he is “revisioning” For the exam.
Is that how you say it in the UK when you are preparing for an exam? Being Francophiles we were wondering if that is simply the Islanders incorporating the French word “reviser” for preparing for an exam.
Merci! CH
Charlie, I've always said "revising" for an exam and definitely not "revisioning".
UK dudes - how’s the price of chocolate oranges doing these days as we head into the holidays? I mean nothing says “STEVE DOES CHRISTMAS“more than discussions of chocolate oranges and the ranking of Christmas songs on the pop charts!
Charlie - I propose they are deliberately using "revisioning", to stress to the audience that the Caribbean's a distinct place, with its own dialect. Thus, use a variation no-one in the mainland UK uses.
Last week, Choc oranges were overpriced at £2. The supermarkets trying it on, in other words!
Phillip
You can get Terry's mint orange nowadays and caramel orange.
The new US Billboard Hot 100 includes a number of Christmas songs with Mariah Carey leading the field at #11 and Wham! at #13. Charlie will be glad to know that Andy Williams is at #47 with 'It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year' but no chart placing yet for The Ronettes and 'Sleigh Ride', Charlie.
Prowler looks at the "Holy Trinity" of corn snacks as Doritos, Fritos, and FUNYUNS!!! I know! Right? Just outside of the Top 3 in a solid fourth is Bugles! What Prowler has to deal with is the American wont of making everything, EVERY OF THE THING, Flaming Hot!!! Why!?! I've had Doritos of every flavor except Plain, Regular Fritos, BBQ Fritos, Chili Cheese Fritos, Prowler has even had Classic Ranch Fritos, and Funyons in rings and snack balls... but Prowler will not do Flaming Hot!!! Of that Prowler cannot abide...
Charlie, Pentatonix has a new track on their Christmas album that's a duet with Frank Sinatra. The estate made an unused vocal track available! I know! Right? And there it is...
The comic pairing Prowler would love to see... CLEA AND AMANDA SEFTON!!! They get trapped in Limbo and Illyana Rasputin/Magik has to mount a rescue mission.
Prowler is pushing PUBLISH NOW!
Thanks, Prowler, for getting us back on track! Keeping SDC "on topic" was Sean's thankless task, previously, before endless digressions wore even him down!
Dr.Strange was occasionally too serious. Clea poked fun at him, on such occasions. Thus, perhaps, a rescue of Clea & Mandy from Limbo by Dr.Strange & Nightcrawler could fall flat on its face, Colossus's kid sister, Magik, thus sorting it all out, in the end!
Doritos (or cheapo supermarket knock-offs, when I used to get them) are dangerously addictive. Have one, then you must eat the bag - but then still feel you've eaten nothing afterwards - and must have more!
My gut's tolerance for hot food has also declined near to absolute zero, with (post) middle-age!
Phillip
Phillip- like you, my system just doesn't apprecialte hot food anymore. A shame. However it will still allow me a few Doritos, especially Nacho Cheese.
Also pertaining to corn snacks, my Dad absolutely loved Frito's. Every car trip we made, he stocked bags in the car to munch on the way.
Prowl- thanks for the heads-up about that Sinatra track! Big fan of Pentatonix anyway, so that disc is a must find.
Considering duos: How about Ben Grimm and Howard the Duck? Have they ever met? At any rate, they could hit a cigar store and top it off with a game of poker...
Redartz - according to the internet, the Thing & Howard have met - in Marvel Treasury Edition # 12 - and have played poker!!! - in the Thing (vol 2) # 8!
So, Red - your pairing was retrospectively prescient (a kind of oxymoron?)
Howard & Ben are similar characters, in some ways - both very direct. A distaff team of Beverly Switzler & Alicia Masters might perhaps work, too!
Phillip
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