A Citizen of the Universe and a Gentleman to boot

It's a grey morning- dry, at least and there's a chill in the air. We have distinctly left summer behind, up here, I'd say. I had been mulling over a post on Marvel's Captain Marvel and the art of Gil Kane but events overtook me. I think I'd like to talk briefly about the late Terrance Dicks, who died this week.

I suspect I have read more books by Dicks than any author- even the prolific Lin Carter, Moorcock or Rice Burroughs. Certainly, Terrance Dicks is the author of most of the books I read as a child and as a teenager. Malcolm Hulke was probably the better writer ( certainly more political), David Whitaker was far more magical - even alchemical-  and Ian Marter brought a transgressive dash of 70s gore and violence to the Doctor Who range. But Dicks was the first Target author I read and the one who was still writing for the character of the Doctor, into my adulthood and very nearly middle age. His crisp prose and knack for filling plot holes were his principal strengths although it could be argued that there was a period in the late Seventies when the Target novelisations were thin or slight. Of course, he didn't simply write adaptations of Doctor Who tv scripts and his other children's work is worth acknowledgement. But it is his Doctor Who books under the Target imprint that spurred the outpouring of respect and affection on social media this week. So many people were inspired to work within that fictional universe and who knows which others (pun very much intended)?

Of the Who books written for an adult market from the 90s on, there are some that, I feel, went back to the same wells too often. But I enjoyed Timewyrm:Exodus; the Eight Doctors; two books from the Players trilogy- Endgame and World Game and a very late entry, 2008's slender Quick Read Revenge of the Judoon. The Big Finish adaptations of Dicks' DW stage plays ( The Ultimate Adventure and Seven Keys to Doomsday) are also romps, to borrow from the Whovian lexicon, enjoyable for all ages). I felt quite bereft and I joined a Twitter trend for "shelfies". My Targets aren't shelved as such - I was planning to buy an additional bookcase later this year- but now I'm thinking of moving house again, so that  purchase might be postponed. So, not all my favourites have been snapped above but the photo does show the percentage of novels by Uncle Terrance.

Continuing on a melancholy note, it's forty years ago since I received the final issue of the US Marvel fanclub magazine. I had been a FOOMer since the age of nine , with the advent of the earliest Marvel weeklies. There was a "legacy" issue two years ago but it couldn't have the cachet of those original issues which made me feel like a member of something international, quite mature and very cool. Today, I bought the latest UK Avengers monthly reprint for my classroom since, unthinkably in 1979, MCU movies have made Marvel characters recognisable to inter-generational, global audiences. This final FOOM mag and some other notable fanzines and summer specials are sitting on a display rack in my cluttered second bedroom.

Finally, I added to my burgeoning collection of  Bronze Age magazines with a copy of this Captain America index with its Jim Steranko wraparound cover. I first bought this magazine in the Virgin Megastore in Glasgow's Union Street on the 4th December 1981. I can actually pinpoint the date via BBC Genome since I remember Tarzan's New York Adventure was on BBC2 in the early evening that day.

I bought it because I think Steranko is a rather overlooked artist at present and also because my original hasn't surfaced since I moved my collection here from Glasgow last summer. However, if I do move house again- an idea which has gained traction in the past few weeks- maybe I'll find I have two copies.

Coming up in the future: probably Star Trek comics and the latest War Master box set of audio plays.

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