IT TOOK 33 YEARS - DID I SMASH A RECORD?

A staggering 33 years ago, in a shop in Edinburgh,

I laid a claim on 73 issues of the relaunched version of

SMASH!, 13 years after it had ceased being published

as an individual weekly periodical.  (It was merged into
VALIANT, as all readers of a certain age know.)  I took
#1 home with me that night, and the rest were either
posted to me, or I picked them up when the seller
later came through to a Glasgow comics mart.

There were 22 issues missing from the set I pur-

chased, and it took me over 30 years to finally track

them all down. To be fair to myself, 'though, it wasn't
really until the latter few years of that period that I ac-
tually attempted to find them in any determined way,

but eventually I did.  I found the last one I needed

only a year or two ago, completing the set.

Anyway, last year, I decided to finally read them,

and worked through the first 12 issues before tucking

them away again.  A couple of weeks back, I dug them
all out once more and continued from where I'd left off.
I'm now up to #30, but I'll be giving them another rest
for a while soon, as I don't want reading them to be-
come a dreary chore rather than a pleasure.

But that's mere incidental detail I suppose.  The

thing that astounds me is that it took me so long to

finally get around to reading them.  Having said that,

it sometimes feels like that day in Edinburgh was only

a little while ago, as opposed to the 33 years it actually

is.  Time really has flown, and it seems as if I did a

'RIP VAN WINKLE' and fell into a deep sleep

that lasted even longer than his 20 years.

So readers, that prompts a question.  Do any of

you ever look at some item in your possession that

you remember buying with such clarity that it seems

not too long ago, only to be amazed when it suddenly

hits you that it was 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years ago?

How does that realisation affect you, if at all?  Go

on, share all with your fellow Criv-ites.

Posted in: Cartoons