"Great News Chums!" was the dreaded phrase that met British comic fans in the 1970's when they opened up their favourite weekly only to find that from next week, it would be merging with a crap publication you never bought. I can't guarantee that we won't merge this blog with one on, say, Taiwanese politics. But for now, enjoy a trip into pre-1985 graphic goodness.
We've been silent these last few months, but with good reason - Great News Chums is about to be reborn as a fully-fledged website!
With extensive galleries, reviews and news, hopefully this will be just what any GNC fan loves.
The site will be online from the end of November, launching officially at the beginning of 2010. Stay tuned for more details.
Meanwhile, this blog will undergo some changes to help it complement the new site. Possibly more of a commentary / opinion page... possibly not. We're still working on that.
Thanks for your patience (if you've been patient). The best is yet to come!
Tornado was a 1979 IPC weekly, aimed at the 2000AD readership. It failed because its mix of strips was too broad (and mostly not good enough) - after 22 issues it merged with 2000AD ('great news chums!') and any vaguely popular, vaguely sci-fi-ish stories (including Blackhawk, which clumsily transmuted from a story of Roman slavery to an intergalactic adventure) were transferred over. Superhero editor Big E was portrayed in photographs by an awkward looking Dave Gibbons.
I know, I know, it's been awhile... work, weddings (not mine) and other things have conspired to keep me away from the all-important job of collating rubbish from the past. Expect such shortages from time to time. But as a reward, here are the first five volumes of groundbreaking erotic video seriesElectric Blue, from 1979 - 1981 (approx). Electric Blue used a magazine format, and in these early editions, aspired to the sort of pseudo-sophistication found in most girlie mags of the 70's (most notably Mayfair and Penthouse). After the 10th edition, it was all downhill; censorship dealt a severe blow after volume 20, and the series finally died, long forgotten, in the 1990s.
Although there were Dr Who novels and annuals from the late Sixties on, the merchandise only really began to kick in with the Tom Baker era.
Marvel's Dr Who Weekly proved an instant success with its mix of new material, reprints and photo features. Rubbish free gift though.
This dreadful poster magazine from the mid-Seventies was bought at the Dr Who exhibition in Blackpool.
The series inspired this Top Trumps card game.
The basis of the game was that the various monsters, aliens and villains from Dr Who were attacking Earth, and only a coalition of the Doctor and earth's greatest heroes could save us. Annie Oakley vs the Cybermen? Possibly the shortest war in history.Note that the designers have got their monsters muddled in the examples above.
A range of Dr Who action figures also appeared, including - oddly - the one-shot monster The Giant Robot.
Cult movie star David Carradine died today, aged 72. The star of TV series Kung Fu, Death Race 2000, The Silent Flute (aka Circle of Iron), Kill Bill and dozens of B-movies was found hanging in his hotel room closet in Thailand. Thai police suspect suicide, though certain ambiguities - the BBC report he was found "with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body" (my emphasis) - may lead to other conclusions. Whatever the truth, we'll miss him.
British soft porn mogul had made a star of Fiona Richmond in the Seventies, and she appeared in a handful of typically dismal movies (Hardcore, Let's Get Laid, Expose etc). In 1980, Raymond produced this vanity project, mixing bland sexual romping from Euro porn star Brigitte Lahaie with footage shot at his legendary Revuebar in Soho. Heavily pushed at the time - probably the last time any British 'sex' film got this level of promotion, it quickly became something of an embarrassment for Raymond - who appears in it - and it's been buried for the last 25 years. Now the producer is no longer with us, maybe I should ask my chums at Paul Raymond Publications to lobby for a re-release.
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