The Beginning...

When I started this whole "blog" thing, I never intended a constant "theme", but it seems to've morphed into one that's mostly based around comics. That's not a bad thing, because comics are great and all that - but just to mix things up a bit, here's the first book about dinosaurs I ever read:

Dinosaurs, from Ladybird Books in 1988.

See? Beautifully drawn by BH Robinson, and as I found out earlier this year, this is a "pocket-sized" version of a much bigger, wordier book. Found it in a 2nd-hand place back in March (or thereabouts), but THIS is the book that matters.

Desirable Things I'm Not Likely To Own

Presented here are several, several things that'd be great to have, but it isn't very likely in the immediate future. All of them either NEVER show up anywhere, or if they do show up, they sell for crazy stupid prices. So, unless I either become a millionaire somehow or get VERY lucky, these'll only remain as JPEGs on my hard drive. At least I've got my health etc (although I did wake up this morning with the taste of blood in the mouth, oh my!). 

Oh, and I've been collecting these images for years, without noting where I found most of them. So if you recognise any of your own pictures in this lot, let me know and I'll be sure to give you a bit of credit.

To start with, and so that the page doesn't look empty before being clicked on "properly", here's the Astral Moat Monster from Thundercats in TWO variations!

Classy stuff, yes? And it only gets better. Let's see what else...

Max Overload! - Part 3

So what's next from Max Overload!? Why, it's something about that smashing caveman-romp of a game, Chuck Rock! Written by Cefn Ridout (editor of Doctor Who Magazine back in the 1980s) and scribbled by David Lyttleton who's done mad stuff for loads of different publications - most notably Red Dwarf Smegazine, Fortean Times, NME, The Guardian, Punch, The Independent, etc. The story here seems like it takes place sometime between (or during) Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck and BC Racers. Enjoy!

The Scary Book

Well, as book titles go, you can't get more obvious than that, can you? Published in 1985, and purchased in 1990 (I remember getting the teacher to read it to the class, somehow), it's a book of short poems/verses (there's really no difference - it's only poetry snobs who refer to poems they don't like as verses, apparantly) by Sheila Front, each accompanied by wonderfully smudgy illustrations by Charles Front (either a couple, or siblings, or coincidentally named creative partners - I don't know). 

Before beginning - what a cover! Seems more "sinister" than "scary" - the fate of the pale-faced hat-wearer and his pet owl is never revealed. What that skeleton is beckoning him t'wards, or what the cat is so antsy about, we'll never know... But at least the book's survived long enough for the rest of us to see.

The title page is a good one:

A mad woman with a big nose, possibly naked under that hair, with a handful of snakes and a nice big tarantula. Again, like the miserable thing on the cover, this woman makes no further appearances in the book - which as you'll see covers a huge amount of things that could possibly be the worst nightmare of at least some kids. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED (scary music to listen to whilst looking at it)