Christmas countdown: Revisiting 1966 and the James Bond "Thunderball" movie in 2024

Like most blokes I like to keep in contact with my old friends usually for a quick pint and to talk about the old days. Although we all used to meet up regularly back in the day, we all now only manage to meet-up a few times a year, so our meetings are usually planned well in advance. This particular meet-up was originally arranged for June but was cancelled due to a health issue on my part. As a result the guys rescheduled the meeting for early December (as our Christmas night out) in my old home town where I stayed from 1960 -to the early 1970s in a pub that used to be an old cinema. As it turned out this was the cinema that I watched the then new James Bond release "Thunderball" as a 5 or 6 year old in with my mum. Although I expected to see the revamped pub retain some of the old cinema’s format I was (pleasantly) shocked to see that the pub chain (Wetherspoons) had retained so much of the original Savoy cinema as can be seen below.

Above the upper viewing deck of the old Savoy cinema where I think my mum and myself watched "Thunderball" . Below the view showing the new bar where the lower seating area, toilets and concession stall used to be. I also took a picture of the entrance area but deleted that in error.

This visit really was a bit like time travel for me as it all seemed so familiar and brought back many long lost memories of that time. Below is the original front of the old cinema that closed not long after I saw this movie.

It was realy strange to think that all those years ago my mum and myself visited this place to watch a movie, we may even have stood at the bar area in 1965/6 to buy some sweets before the film started.

Christmas Countdown: Japanese tin Robot the " Attacking Martian" by Horikawa

Without doubt one of my all-time favourite toys was the battery operated Attacking Martian Robot by Horikawa which I was given as a Christmas present by my parents around 1966/67. Unfortunately, my robots battery box was broken which eventually resulted in the toy not operating and being consigned to being a childhood ornament before being given away to a friend.

The Attacking Martian robot by Horikawa was a worldwide retail success in the mid 1960's (until around 1969/70)and became a must have toy for many young kids at this time. It came in three colours, brown (my version), silver , and (the much rarer) gold with chest doors that would open to reveal "working" light guns. I had forgotten all about this robot until around 2010 when I came across a series of robot replicas on sale in a shop in Glasgow which my other half (bless her) bought me (see below) as part of a Christmas present that year. This spurred me on to try to track down any information on the robot toy I had and loved so much as a kid back in the mid 1960's. Not as easy a task as it may sound as I found out that there were numerous Japanese robots on sale in the UK at his time

It wouldn't be until 3 years ago when on a trip to Brighton I came across the magazine below. There in the pages of this book/magazine was a picture of “my" robot along with details of what it would cost (on average) to purchase a mid-1960's model- between £300-£600. Sometimes a picture and my memory of those times will just have to suffice!

Christmas Countdown: The Mole Man's Christmas - Roger Langridge, S Garrity

I don’t normally pick up new comics (I stopped buying "new" comics around the early 1990's) but I do occasionally make an exception at Christmas when Marvel , DC etc release a decent Christmas /Holiday Special. For me a decent Christmas/holiday comic will contain fun tales of our favourite heroes by some of comics best cartoonists. One such decent Christmas comic was the "Marvel Holiday Special" back in 2005 which featured the excellent Roger Langridge illustrated tale below of the "Mole Man’s Christmas". Enjoy a festive giggle below:

Above the cover to the "Marvel Holiday Special" 2005. For fans of Mr Langridge’s work he also produced a equally fun tale in the 2006 Holiday Special (my only other Marvel Holiday Special issue) entitled “How Fin Fang Foom Saved Christmas”.

The most hated man in 1970's comics - Frank Robbins

I think it would be fair to say that for many 1970’s comic book fans Frank Robbins was a polarizing figure. When his first work at Marvel appeared on fanboy favourite titles like Captain America, he was mercilessly criticised in the fan press and in many of the letter’s pages in which his work appeared. To be fair his style was a shock to those “fanboys” used to the undoubted talents of the likes of Jack Kirby, John Buscema, and Neal Adams. Although I was never initially a hater of Franks work, I would have to admit that it took me a few years to fully appreciate his style and storytelling technique. Today, more than 50 years after first seeing his work I remain a convert to his quirky action-packed style.

Frank Robbins was a successful and highly regarded newspaper artist on strips like Jonny Hazard before he moved over to mainstream comics in 1968 as a writer at DC. However it wasn’t until 1971 when Robbins started to produce artwork at DC, presumably as he wanted to illustrate his then new co-creation (with Neal Adams) Man-Bat who debuted in Detective Comics # 400(June 1970) illustrated by Adams. It wouldn’t be until #416 when Robbins would eventually illustrate his own stories in “Man-Bat Madness”, this issue was also my first introduction to Frank Robbins art and my first thoughts were that this art must have been how the writer wrote and laid out his stories for the “real” artists to follow, and they published this in error. How wrong I was, but in my defence, I was only 10 years old. Robbins finished his tenure on Detective comics with #435 where he illustrated a Jason Bard tale.

Above: Jason Bard tale from Detective Comics #435

Above: Splash page from Detective Comics #429

Above: Page from Detective Comics #426

Frank briefly drew DC's version of The Shadow (cover to #7 above) making the character (imho) his own, not an easy feat considering he took over the art chores on the title from the excellent Mike Kaluta before moving to Marvel Comics around 1974 where he drew the adventures of characters like Captain America, The Invaders, the Man From Atlantis, The Human Fly, Morbius The Living Vampire, Dracula, Ghost Rider and the Legion of Monsters. At Marvel he was paired with inkers like Frank Springer and Frank Giacoia who seemed to understand his style, but others like Vince Coletta and D Bruce Berry did nothing for Frank Robbins reputation.

Above: Page from Luke Cage/ Power-Man #34

Above: Robbins drew a very different Captain America and the Falcon between #182 and 192 - above page from #182. (above page from the Epic collection)

Above: Splash page from Man from Atlantis #3 - If you are a fan of Franks work this 7 issue series contains some of his best art.

Above: Marvel Premier # 28 - The Legion of Monsters - another comic that contained some of Franks best work .

Above: Ghost Rider page from #18 - At heading the splash page from Ghost Rider #12.

Above: Two pages from Tomb of Dracula #2 - Robbins drew a couple of nice tales for Marvels black and white magazines.

Franks final work for comics was an excellent one-off issue of Daredevil (#155 - above) before he retired from comic books and headed to Mexico with his wife to paint. Frank passed away in 1994 at the age of 77.

Christmas Countdown: Justice League of America #74

A few days ago, I came across the cover to the above comic book on Rip Jaggers Dojo. Upon seeing this it took me back to the late 1960's (perhaps 1970) when my brother had this comic. I normally don’t chase down comics or buy them online but, on this occasion, I made an exception and managed to purchase a very nice reading copy. The Christmas connection? well it’s an early festive purchase to myself. Below are some pages to go along with the stunning Neal Adams cover above:

This issue continues from issue 73 where a living star called Aquarius uses his power (and Starman’s power rod) to attempt to erase the entire Justice Society of America from existence. Of course, this paves the way for a classic JLA / JSA fight. As is the norm with these types of storIes there are various team ups with members of the JLA fighting the JSA when Aquarius uses his powers to pit members of both teams against each other. The main event in this fun tale is that Larry Lance, Black Canary's husband is killed saving his wife’s life. This snaps the JSA out of Aquarius' control and eventually the 2 Green Lanterns defeat Aquarius. Black Canary realising that she has nothing to live for on Earth 2 now that her husband is dead, asks to join the JLA on Earth 1. The rest is of course comic book history.

I was surprised that this issue was a landmark JLA edition which reintroduced Black Canary into the Earth One Universe, perhaps that is why this issue was a favourite of my brothers as he would probably have swopped this for a couple of other US comics. Whatever the reason I’m glad I managed to pick this one up. Although I wasn’t a massive fan of US comics as a 9 year old, only a few years later I would be searching out newsagents for any American comics that I could find, and at this time the JLA was my favourite title. Perhaps this very issue started that intertest in the JLA for me.

The Comic Van - Buying and swapping comics in the 1960's

Back in the 1960's American comic books were for the most part regularly available in newsagents in the UK. While comics like Superman, Batman, The Flash etc were available , they were (compared to most UK comics) also expensive. To combat this there was a ‘Swap’ culture available amongst comic fans at the time. Although my interest in comics in the 1960's was largely confined to UK titles (being only 9 years old by 1969) I do recall my older brother and his pals "buying and selling" rules, which were predicated by the owner of the “comic book van" in my local town.

The “comic van” was a confectionary van that also sold US comic books, bubble gum card sets like American Civil War, Mars Attacks, Batman etc and other media-based items. I no longer remember the gentleman’s name that owned the van, but I can still recall the magic of visiting his van and checking his latest selection of new comics and cards. Comic sales were split into 2 section , new comics, and preowned titles with the option to swap an older comic along with some money (usually getting a new comic for half price). Batman and Superman comics were always the best items to swap as these allowed you to buy a new comic for less money, but titles like Lois Lane, US War comics, Archies etc were never in demand and these were the worst items to swap. In one of my last conversations with my brother we briefly discussed this time and the "comic van" and I wish I had taken more account of the details on these tims and the swaps/stories he told me. Below are some of my brothers original comics that he bought at the comic van (some of these are comics I have repurchased) to go with the above titles ( Justice League of America # 63 by Mike Sekowsky (a repurchase) and Jimmy Olsen #111 by Neal Adams(my brothers original):

Above : Hawkman #27 - 1968 - Cover by Joe Kubert (a repurchase)

Above: Action Comics #359 - December 1968 - Cover by Neal Adams (my brothers original)

Above: Adventure Comics # 354 - 1967 - Cover by Curt Swan (original)

Above: Adventure Comics # 361 - 1967 - Cover by Curt Swan (original)

Above: Superman # 201 - 1967 - Cover by Curt Swan (original)

Above: Action Comics # 368 - 1969 - Cover by Carmine Infantino (original)

Lois Lane # 89 - 1969 - Cover by Carmine Infantino/Neal Adams (Original)

Above: DC Special - 1970 - (repurchase)

I recently saw the above issue of Justice League of America (#74 by Neal Adams) on the excellent Rip Jaggers Dojo blog, which reminded me of the "Comic van" as this was one of my brother favourite comics. It also encouraged me to visit to my loft to look out the above comics when I found some of these in an carrier bag that my cousin gave to me ( I had loaned him some of these comics over 20 years ago and forgot all about them when he returned them a few years ago).