Download Strange Sports Stories #2
Curtis Douglas Swan studied art at the Pratt Institute and was a staff artist on Stars & Stripes during World War II. After the war, he signed on with DC and remained there from then on. His early work, on such features as The Boy Commandos and Tommy Tomorrow, was stiff and rather bland. Gradually, however, Swan developed an effective and forceful style. He first drew Superman in 1951, remaining with him until 1986. He returned in 1988 to draw him for three more years. He worked on other characters while with DC, but Superman remained his favorite.
In his final years personal problems curtailed his production in comics.
Script: Frank Robbins
Pencils: Curt Swan
Inks: Murphy Anderson
Warrior, when I saw what you'd posted up this time, my little heart fluttered because I instantly recalled buying it at the time.
ReplyDeleteAll the little details of what happened that day came flooding straight back to me: going into the newsagent's that morning to buy the Sun, the Mirror and the Sporting Life, (me Dad was a dead bad punter!), and being shocked to behold an American comic in a place which'd never previously displayed them.
I asked the shop-owner's pretty daughter how much it was, assuming it'd be a similar price to the second-hand American comics I normally bought over at the porno magazine place at the top of our street, but it turned out it was brand new and an eye-watering 10p!
Yet that only made it all the more glamorous and exotic and me all the more desperate to have it.
I remembered begging me Mum to send me on as many errands as she liked to justify getting the 10p I needed out of her, pointing out to her it was actually an investment because it was a #2 and therefore guaranteed to be worth an absolute fortune in the future.
I remembered endlessly zipping up and down the high street to the butcher's for pre-cooked pork rolls, the grocer's for a huge bag of broken biscuits, to the local corner shop for sterilised milk and nasty tasting Echo Margarine, ("because it's cheaper than Stork"), and later that afternoon, feeling incredibly rich as I finally handed over my 10p.
What I couldn't understand was why I couldn't remember reading the actual comic itself - until I read the Tall In The Saddle story you included and it all suddenly came flooding back to me how incredibly ripped off I'd felt, and how cross and stupid I felt for not sticking to my usual routine and spending my 10p on 3 or 4 of the second hand comics I'd've normally bought at the porno shop!