ZHA -VAM THE INVINCIBLE - IN ACTION...

Copyright DC COMICS

It was on a sunny late afternoon in 1971 when I came back from the newsagent's across the road from my house with at least two comics, maybe more.  The two I remember in particular were Superman #233 and Action Comics #353, which was an old comic from 1967, but still available in brand-new condition from the spinner-racks, as wasn't unusual back then.  US comics didn't always appear in sequence in the UK, which had its pluses and minuses.

The minuses were that you didn't always get to read continued stories in the order they were published; the pluses were that you could catch up on earlier parts you'd missed of a storyline you found yourself immersed in somewhere further along.  Swings and roundabouts is probably the best way to describe the way things were at the time.

What's odd (from my perspective) is that I have a feeling that Action Comics #353 wasn't the first time I'd bought this particular issue.  There's a little voice nagging at the back of my mind that I'd previously bought it on another occasion, maybe years before, and purchased it for a second time because I remembered once having it, and also due to its pristine newness appealing to my aesthetic senses; I did that on more than one occasion.

However, I suppose that's neither here nor there, but airing the thought will perhaps enable me to remember in future whether I had it before or not.  Sometimes things I think I've forgotten suddenly spring to mind with stunning clarity at a later date, and that might be the case in this instance one day.

Another odd thing is AC #353, which I assumed was a stand-alone story for many, many years (decades in all probability), until I discovered it was a three-part tale which started in #351.  It just didn't read (to me anyway) like part of a continued saga; I thought that the splash page was symbolic of what was going to happen in that ish, not a recap of what had occurred in the previous two.

I acquired a replacement copy for the one I'd bought in 1971, which I owned for yonks before obtaining #351.  A few years back, I picked up a coverless copy of #352, but story really is overstretched and, from what I recall, would work better as a single ish, two at the most.  Anyway, I recently added another copy (this time with a cover) of #352, so decided to show all three issues together.  At some stage, I'll sit down and re-read them all just to see if my opinion could be revised as to the merits of this trio of mags.

Anyone else got them, or had them in the past?  If so, what was your view, and what associations do you have when you look at or remember them?  Feel free to share in the comments section.  Incidentally, if you think there's something vaguely familiar about Zha-Vam, it's because he's based on Shazam, the world's mightiest mortal - namely Captain Marvel.

Posted in: Cartoons