Am I good? Bloody excellent, thanks. Fresh back from my first (of many) Abu Dhabi jaunts and suddenly inspired to get back to work! To be continued…

HoH turns up in the oddest places. I was watching an old kids tv show called KING OF THE CASTLE and in the last episode a character has to bin his comics… an issue of Howard The Duck and peeking out underneath HoH #6!

Hope you are good, mate.

Ade

l did not bid on it as l did not like Charlton comics then and Pat’s art did nothing for me. But people do change with time. l would now be more than willing to bid on that art as l think quite a few Charltons were charming and I look at Pat’s art in a completely new light now. He did some lovely stuff.

Take it EC.

Paul

But l never seemed to learn. My attempts at fanzine publishing never progressed, they simply levelled off at mediocre minus (but l had a lot of fun doing them!). And l was just joking about you going around to sort Doug out, honest.

Take it EC.

Paul.

Now it seems people are only too eager to tear things down rather than help to build them up. So much of the internet seems to be people taking pops at each other or cheap shots at hard-working creatives. Maybe it’s the ease of access. When you had to physically write a letter and mail it off, maybe people put more effort in, if only to justify mailing it. Or maybe it’s the cloak of semi-anonymity. As with mobile phones, there’s no clue to the source, the location. It’s easy to send a quick text message or a half-thought out knee jerk response. In communication terms, maybe ease of access isn’t such a good thing.

But no, I wouldn’t dream of giving anybody a good slap! It’s very flattering that he maybe used a magazine of mine as a template. I’m sure I in turn had been influenced too. Nobody works in a vacuum, so provided we all continue to improve on what has gone before, that’s a great legacy we each leave to the next generation. That is, provided they’re thick-skinned enough to take the slings and arrows of the world wide web!

He was one of the very best yet not a lot of people even remember his name. They might remember the art but not the artist, he seems to have slipped into being the UK version of Joe Maneely. Not that Brian’s art is anything like Joe’s, but both men were capable of such fine work yet only remembered by a comparative few!

Take it EC.

Paul.

Father FRANCIS HERTZBURG wrote some great articles on the 1950s UK comic scene. l loved the one he did on Lone Star comics. His is a name that will surely take you back. Francis was the very first dealer who l ever brought from through the post, after seeing one of his ads in a very early Thing. Is he still about?

The digest-sized Thing obviously owed a lot to your FA in format and layout. Did you ever consider going around to Doug’s pad and giving him a good slap?
Take it EC.
Paul.

Did you ever pop around to his place to make him an offer he could not refuse?

Sweet F/A: Interesting thought. Maybe a “Best Of” would have a slightly wider appeal, given the calibre of some of the artists and articles it contained. Out of date ads can be fun at first, but with a whole magazine full of them the joke might wear thin. But thanks for the compliment and the idea Paul.

Alan Austin: Yes, he got somewhat disappointed about the ever-spiralling prices being demanded for old comics, out of line with any other forms of print, so he switched to pulp magazines which had more realistic values. I believe he still appears at some of the London shows. No idea about Doug Gifford though.

Alan Hunter: Sorry to hear he passed away. He was a “senior member” of our earl days, having contributed fine work to SF fanzines in the 1950s. For me it was great to have such a professional contributor on board during my early Fantasy Advertiser days and I’m sorry to hear he passed away.