ROLLICKING REPOST: NOW COMES...COLOSSUS!

Whenever I first read a book, the images that form in my head

are indelible.  Even if I re-read the book twenty years later, the exact

same imagery is conjured up in my mind as before - although sometimes

a more careful contemplation of the text might reveal that what I'd en-

visioned was perhaps not in perfect accord with the mental picture the

writer was trying to paint.  (It's usually pretty close 'though.)

What do I mean exactly?  If a writer's description of a location is

similar enough to one I'm familiar with, then that's where I'll think of

whenever I read the associated piece of text.  KENNETH GRAHAME's

WILD WOOD (from The WIND In The WILLOWS) is an amalgam,

to me, of two different woods in two different neighbourhoods where I lived

as a youth.  Exactly which wood depends on precisely which paragraph (or

sentence) I'm reading, but one descriptive passage will suggest one wood,

and another the other one.  These images formed in my brain when I

first read the book, and these are the images that remain with me

to this day, no matter how many times I re-read it.

So what's that got to do with this strip from the FANTASTIC

Annual for 1968 (issued in August/September of 1967)?  Well, what

I've just waxed boringly about in the preceding preamble is pretty much

the same when it comes to comic strips.  With one difference of course, as

comic strips have their own accompanying set of images which don't require

much, if any, interpretive contribution on the part of the reader.  However,

comic strips still carry with them their own associations of where and

when they were first read, so they leave their own indelible impres-

sions on a reader's mind in a similar way to what novels do. 

  For example, I so associate the COLOSSUS strip - drawn

by the amazing Spanish artist JOSE ORTIZ MOYA - with the house

and neighbourhood in which I stayed when I first read it, that I'm right

back there again in a heartbeat on sight of this particular tale.  Regardless

of however many homes I've lived in (or ever will live in) since my initial

exposure to this story, whenever I've re-read it over the years, it's al-

ways that first house I find myself thinking of each time I pore over

this astoundingly awesome Ortiz artwork.

Anyway, it goes without saying that you all deserve a gold BLUE

PETER BADGE for having to wade through the previous paragraphs

of self-indulgent tosh to get to a point that should've taken only a few

sentences.  You know me 'though - in love with the sound of my

own computer keyboard.

If you think you recognise the style, you'd be right.  As well as

drawing Spanish strips and working for WARREN PUBLISHING,

Jose also drew strips such as The THIRTEENTH FLOOR and The

TOWER KING for IPC MAGAZINES.  He did much more than I've

mentioned here of course, and fans of the man and his work might like

to read more about his career by looking him up on WIKIPEDIA.

Sadly, he died aged 81 on December 23rd, 2013, but he leaves

behind a rich legacy of absolutely amazing artwork.

Anyway, congratulations - you've scaled the final plateau.

Now you can enjoy this 12-page strip by one of the comic strip

medium's true masters.      

Posted in: Cartoons