My parents brought my brother and me to this remote, beguiling place in the early 70s and as you may know from this blog, I've returned four times in the last six years. Yet again I was lucky enough, after sweltering thunderstorms in Glasgow, to arrive in time for hot, blue skies- between the heavy showers that make this area so productive in cattle farming.
View of the village green and Luce Bay from my room 20th July 2016
I was disappointed that the formal pond had been drained for refurbishment:
Despite the work, it was peaceful enough to spot pheasants near the giant rhubarb-like Gunnera and the Chusan palms, seen in the original Wicker Man. Insects clouded the scarlet New Zealand rata tree for nectar. Incidentally, my mother's cousin was the first curator in the Seventies, when we first went to Galloway.
And the first comic I associate with Sandhead is Marvel's Conan the Barbarian, which launched the sword-and-sorcery genre in comics. It also led me to reading widely in the genre, in paperback novels in the late 70s, Rober E. Howard led to Michael Moorcock, to Lin Carter, Edgar Rice Burroughs and to Fritz Leiber.
I picked up this 1969 Leiber book in hardback shortly after joining Strathaven Library in 1978. I have no idea what the publishers thought this pouting Laugh-In-style lady was selling. I don't remember much of the book at all, except that, about a decade later, Terry Pratchett seemed to me very inspired by Leiber .
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser was the first of DC's attempts to rival Roy Thomas and Marvel's barbarian success. Bizarrely, the talkative thieves made their debut in the Emma Peel era of Wonder Woman and some six months later, they were launched in Sword of Sorcery (March 1973)- so I could have read them on my first visit to Sandhead, had McKenzies shop or one in Stranraer stocked it.
The five issues of the title - minus, annoyingly, the Diana Prince/Catwoman stories- have just been reprinted in a collection from Dark Horse, just like Conan the Barbarian. This was part of my holiday read this year.
.Leiber's stories are sometimes described as polished and amusing but I didn't feel much investment with the bantering heroes in these stories. For me, the highlights are the first tale, adapting "The Price of Pain Ease"; "The Sunken Land" and "The Mouse Alone". O'Neil's attempts at a literary tone has never greatly appealed and the plots have an overwrought, everything-but-the-kitchen sink quality. The title of the second story- "Revenge of the Skull of Jewels"- attests to that. I'm not sure whether they mimic Leiber since I have no real recollection of the books.
More from 1979 shortly...
As for the art, I prefer the stories by Walt Simonson, which prefigure his Thor work and even a short by a raw Jim Starlin: slightly more rough than his early Captain Marvel or Conan stories. Chaykin's artwork is similar to later, stylish fantasies at DC and Marvel: attenuated dandyish figures. and a decadent Renaissance flavour. This collection is a taste of DC's experimental phase but it's not at all essential.
In December, 73, Chaykin went on to produce more work for DC in the science fantasy vein with the Celtic space outlaw Iron-Wolf- and later, for Marvel, Monark Starstalker, who resembled his own version of REH's Solomon Kane. Maybe there was a Moorcockian/ Eternal Champion concept there?
There are few words, at this time of year, that conjure more fondness more than "Summer Special". I had bought this British comic online a few weeks ago and got to savour it by the harbour in the tiny village of Port Logan.
It really was that sunny at noon, this time last week
It's from 1979 and features three US reprints in black and white. As you may be able to tell, the lead feature came from the first issue of 1974's Giant Size Super Stars. (I have still to read GS FF 2 - which wasn't reprinted in the UK- and G-S Spidey 3 and 4- which were,I believe, found in hardback annuals.)
"The Mind of the Monster" is a Conway/Buckler adventure, with the artist in full Kirby homage mode. A sympathetic Ben Grimm, trying to aid Bruce Banner, accidentally switches minds with the Hulk. The story climaxes with a Supey-Ali style bout in Madison Square Garden. Medusa gets nothing to do but the amazonian Thundra guest stars. Like most Bronze Age FF stories, it feels stale and tired. I don't think Conway was the right fit but I prefer him to Marv Wolfman at the end of the Seventies.
Happily, we get real Kirby in "The Peerless Power of the Silver Surfer", the first solo tale of the Sky-Rider of the Spaceways, reprinted from FF King-Size Special/Annual 5. It's a lengthy short that prefigures themes and imagery in the Fourth World series.
The gargoyle form of Quasimodo is perhaps Kirby's last original villain for the FF. He would be succeeded by a parade of giant robots and androids: The Indestructible One, the Android Man, Tomazooma, Zorr and Torgo.
The final feature is "The Challenge of Loki". Here, Ditko and Bell ape Kirby as Loki tricks Doc Strange into stealing Thor's hammer. There is charming Ditko invention as Loki generates "vibrating ions" from his horns, which I can't recall seeing elsewhere.
This was exactly the kind of frothy, frenetic Marvel UK comic one wants to read with an ice lolly in the sunshine.In the next post, we'll look at some more holiday reading; this time, on the rail trips to and from Stranraer.
Coming up: the Dynamite Duo and the Two Masters
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