Flex Mentallo

Is that the copy just sold on Heritage that I forgot to bid on? I forget.

Justice divine has weighed: the doom is clear. All hope renounce, ye lost, who enter here.

Uusually bright colors on this copy (strange how a mere vg copy of a Fiction House comic can sometimes be much more colorful than a hi grade copy!)

I'm curently in denial - but I'm sure I'll recover...

Fixed that for ya! (thumbs u

Seeing the arrtwork reminds me to post this one!

I was the underbidder on this one! Nice catch. Yikes, if I'd known I was being squeezed between Billy and Jeff I'd've been sweating a lot harder. Between Scylla & Charybdis (just dont ask me which is which!)

My one and only from last night's C'Link auction, but man was I sweating over this one!

have you tried scoffing and sneering at the same time? One's facial muscles tend to go into spasm....

Lost Horizon!

Good bulletpoint, sacentaur. (thumbs u After four pages of Fawcett installations, maybe a change of pace would be an acceptable diversion (rumor has it that this book has been banned in Wisconsin). Mister Merryweather! Under which particular bushel have you been hiding this blinding copy? I've never even seen one before, let alone in such stellar grade!

Shazam! Captain Billy plucks a Church NM out of thin air!

I think you have captured it better than I - at the end of the day, however long I've been going , even though (a bit like gator) I was doing community work, it is not the same as being born there!

I guess it's called a third world sense of humour?

Thanks Pat I've sold more than one collection in service to that love affair!

Agreed, more than a bit far fetched, David! Thanks for your comments, I respect your opinion, as I do Dark Knight's. I hope my fellow boardies will forgive me the indulgence of a fairly lengthy reply, and let's not lose sight of the fact that the big news here is gator's return! For which I am duly grateful and fully agree that the place aint the same without him! You asked, what happened to the so-called second world and the answer is, it kind of disappeared when the wall came tumbling down! The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia. "Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China. "Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries, as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries. Third World Countries classified by various indices: their Political Rights and Civil Liberties, the Gross National Income (GNI) and Poverty of countries, the Human Development of countries, and the Freedom of Information within a country. The term "Fourth World" first came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel's: "The fourth world : an Indian reality" The term refers to nations (cultural entities, ethnic groups) of indigenous peoples living within or across state boundaries (nation states). As for me I work a lot in mental health & often with people suffering from stress and other disorders which significantly affect true quality of life. Such a high percentage of people will suffer from mental ill health in their lifetime it too could be thought of as a fourth world cultural entity - or at least as a community of interest! Stress-related illnesses are on the rise in the West and stress is a greater killer than we generally recognise - though there are strong indications that the recognition has begun to permeate and re-shape our outlook and values. I'm no expert, but much of this seems to me to be a product of capitalism, (for which read not a political interpretation but a values one based on materialism) - and to some extent on factors related to urban living. As for poverty, there are many layers to it - but it is possible to live a comfortable life in - say, an indian village - with very little money or possessions. And there are over a million villages in India alone. There are many contradictions! There are a great many people living lives of abject misery - but they are not confined to third world countries and of course not all misery is based on economic indices. I have found the East both humbling and enlightening. All I can say is that among village people in the third world I have never found more open hearts, made more friends, been more enriched, felt more loved, been more fulfilled. I admire gator for his work in Thailand, which I hope he has found richly rewarding and free of infectious diseases (ie cholera and hep B)! And envy him because he is going back in September! Now there is something to look forward too!

Deet! A gift to one's sanity..

Love it gator! Reminds me of that bengali village I was telling you about:

Second that (thumbs u

I was telling gator recently that his trip has reawakened my dormant yearnings... Having spent 32 years living and travelling in The East I would infinitely prefer to live there than in the first world. No disrespect to Dark Knight's opinion, which others will surely share - but I think living with the creature comforts of the first world can shorten your life! (Having said which, if there is one of god's creatures I would gladly see exterminated it is the mosquito!) What I find intriguing is that there seem to be quite a few boardies - yourself included Dark Knight? - with broadly similar experience of the east....ah me...

I had a patient called Dave who went on a journey of rediscovery to Thailand, didn't come back quite the same person and we now call her Davina Gatorina? I was thinking more...Gaytrina He's already got the hair for it You guys are scary

Part Superman, part Doc Savage, part Flash Gordon, part Adam Strange (though he of cxourse, had yet to be invented) Garth, man of mystery first appeared in a british paper, The Daily Mirror, Saturday 24th July, 1943. He was still going strong in the 1960's when I discovered him as a child, and I was enraptured. What made Garth unique was that he died many times over, only to be inexplicably reincarnated in a succession of different times and locations, giving the storytellers license to place him in settings as diverse as the Mexico of the Aztecs, the Wild West, Victorian London - and outer space. The stories were generally better than the art, until the 1970s, when the great Frank Bellamy took over. His stunning black and white artwork brought out the exoticism of the tightly spun tales. I was amazed years later to learn that his stories had been reprinted as far afield as Italy, New Zealand, Australia, France - and even the The Menomonee Falls Gazette. (And he is apparently very popular in India). Apart from the Bellamy strips, relatively few of Garth's adventures were ever published in the UK. Here are a couple of links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_%28comic_strip%29 http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/garth.htm So, begging your indulgence -and since as another boardie has pointed out it is Australia day, I will contentedly post some covers to the Australian series - which reprint the earliest adventures. They are incredibly scarce - this set was part of Steve Geppi's collection until I snaffled them on ebay after years of fruitless searching. But first, an example of the early stories:

I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting behind the table working out that deal with you. I bought it after you had failed to sell it to someone else because they didn't want to pay over guide. I was at the bootht and told the potential buyer that it was the kind of book that went for a premium and that it was smart, in that case, to pay over guide. My logic didn't work for him but when he turned it down it worked on me, and I wasn't previously even looking for that issue. Bedrock the gouger. Buttock the ... Poker This the kind of dialogue that just so warms the cockles of my heart.

That's a beauty! Do you have a #2?

I recommend a change!