On Frances Castle’s “Stagdale Part 1”. (3 of 3)

concluded from here. 7 That gap, between pristine myth and overripe reality, is constantly on display in Stagdale’s pages. A double-sided spread of the town centre – see above for part of it – looks at first like the kind of rural Shangri-la that estate agents would haul each other viciously through any […]

On Frances Castle’s “Stagdale Part 1”. (2 of 3)

contccontinued from here; 5. At first glance, the very format of Stagdale Part 1 suggests a gently nostalgic read. Although hardly commonplace in 2019, Stagdale‘s particular shape and size – roughly that of a medium-formatted paperback turned on its side – was frequently used in the post-war decades, and indeed right up until the Eighties, […]

On Frances Castle’s “Stagdale Part 1”. (1 of 3)

1. Please do be forewarned: here there be spoilers, although I’ve tended far more towards the general rather than the specific in what follows. 2. This isn’t going to be a short review, it really isn’t, so if you’d rather just cut to the chase, here’s what my conclusion’s going to be; I genuinely enjoyed […]

On The Dandy Comic No. 461, Tuesday, May 6th, 1950.

Pointing at the narrow margins of the cover of The Dandy Comic from May 6th 1950 that he was trying, rather successfully, to entice me with, the bookseller declared that the issue’s reduced dimensions were the result of post-war shortages. His certainly was such that I didn’t think to question a matter that I’d never […]

On Tim Bird’s “Asleep In The Back” & Detective Comics #1000.

When do our lives become magical? Why does that alchemy occur? What is it that might, if only occasionally, transform the raw stuff of everyday existence into a moment that’s not just meaningful, but, perhaps, every once in a while, even transcendental? A great mass of our fictions still insist that life’s most vital moments […]

Superboy Did It, Jimmy Olsen & Lois Lane Tried, The Challengers Fell Short: On Kirby’s DC Covers 1957-9 (Part 1)

1. June/July 1959’s Challengers Of The Unknown #8 contained the very last new Jack Kirby work to appear in a DC Comic until 1970. It’s hard not to regard its cover as a prime example of the vitiating effect of DC’s constant attempts to rein in Kirby’s dynamic style. It is, all at the same time, […]

The Road To The Fantastic Four, The Road To The Fourth World: On Two Jack Kirby Comicbook Covers From June 1958,

In which the blogger, keen to learn more about the period, writes about two different 1958 Jack Kirby covers and the way in which each appears to point forwards in time to several of his most notable later triumphs. 1. Challengers Of The Unknown #3 arrived on America’s newsstands and spinner racks in June 1958. […]