This is my copy of THE FLASH # 252 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August, 1977).
While this IS a scan of my actual copy, it was not an "Original Purchase Comic" (...I'll claim coining the acronym "OPC" for a comic you, yourself, purchased NEW at a newsstand or comic book shop, right now! Royalties for usage are payable to me, effective immediately!)
The reason it was not an "OPC" is that I (unwisely) did not buy as many comics during the mid-late 1970s as I should have - and spent the mid-1980s thru mid-1990s (and again in the last 2-3 years) rectifying that unfortunate error.
Another reason you can clearly tell that this copy of THE FLASH # 252 was not an "OPC" of mine is (...alas) THIS!
Yes, somebody actually ordered CRAZY CRABS... and defaced a comic book to do it!
(I scanned this page with a white backing board behind it to better show the contrast of the cut!)
Really? You chose THIS...
...Over a having complete, mint copy of THIS?
Fortunately for me, the BACK of the page with the cut coupon was a DC HOUSE AD, so no story and art content was affected by this oddest of excisions. And having complete story and art content is all that really matters to me - so to each their own!
In the Bronze Age, DC was often good about putting ads (especially those with coupons to be cut) on the back of other ads, and not story content. And so it was here!
UNLIKE GOLD KEY... where somebody did the same for Sea Monkeys!
Yes, really! ...Sea Monkeys!
In the end, I still have this copy of THE FLASH # 252! ...Obviously, or I wouldn't be writing about it here!
...I wonder how long the cutter's Crazy Crabs lasted?
At least they look cute in the illustration, not unlike the Sea Monkeys! I wonder what they REALLY looked like?
Eeeeek!
4 comments:
Aaaah, the Crazy Crabs stealth operation… that takes me back. I seem to recall it was Super Goof who foiled us. In his civilian identity, that accursed superklutz was just about to fall into our trap and order some of our agents into his home — except he then realised he would have to CUT A COMIC-BOOK to do this, and guessed it could only be the handiwork (or, rather, claws-i-work) of a band of dastardly villains with no respect for comic-books!
…And he wasn't wrong! We Scarlet Crabs are pretty ambivalent about comic books. Paper copies, anyway. See, we can't turn the page without tearing them with our claws, so we've never read any. And besides, comics never did anything for us, either — the SUPER GOOF title failed to even report on our failure of an infiltration mission! The humiliation, that the only record of our masterplan be found in the ad pages!
Crabby Leader:
Sometimes, that’s the way it goes… relegated to “pages of history” that most readers routinely overlook in their eagerness to resume reading the story that your “pages” interrupted.
It’s not at all surprising to learn that noble Super Goof could not bring himself to perform the despicable act of “cutting up a comic book”, because he’s a true hero through-and-through… unlike the host of this humble Blog, who had that one shameful moment of weakness!
Besides (…and forgive me, “family Blog readers”), but who’d want to cut up a comic book AND “get crabs”? Talk about “Lose/Lose”! …Sorry!
But you can take heart in two things…
ONE: Your plan DID succeed to some degree or my (non “OPC”) copy of THE FLASH # 252 would be complete. However, since there aren’t a horde of “crazed crabs” storming my gates as I write this, I’d imagine said “success” was not particularly widespread!
TWO: Your glory days will remain forever captured on film by two great masters of sci-fi and fantasy, Roger Corman (“Attack of the Crab Monsters”, 1957) and Irwin Allen (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, 1968), as seen in this post! …Though Allen’s interpretation was officially called “The Lobster Man”, we know the real deal, don’t we?
…You know what? Yeah! I think we're going to move the Crazy Crabs operations to our “SUCCESSES” log! No more of this self-pitying stuff!
Thank you, Citizen Torcivia. You have done the Society a great service. You actually went and fixed our crabby mood! You're the one who ought to turn ‘scarlet’, that's what I think!
(No Longer) Crabby Leader:
Happy to help!
Making people – and monstrously mutated maulers costumed as cloyingly cute crustaceans – feel good is what we do around here!
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