Wonder Woman Is 80 Years Young - Andy's Singapore 60s Music, Comic Book Fans Cheer

Image - mycomicshop.com

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=Wonder+Woman+72

DC COMICS COPYRIGHTED.

Wonder Woman is 80 years young. 

https://cutewallpaper.org/21/lynda-carter-wallpaper/view-page-21.html

Lynda Carter [1975]

Miss World USA - 1972

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I was crazily consuming comic books as a child, reading Batman, Superman, Plastic Man, Captain Marvel  and my favourite lady superhero, Wonder Woman. So engrossed in these colourful, attractive, addictive magazines that I forgot breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. Homework was left aside as a last minute jeopardy time and done in convenience within a few minutes. And my own wonder woman, - wonderful mum - shakes her head in despair.

The addiction went on to living room craze in the 70s and 80s, watching her again, enacted by the beautiful and magnificent Queen Lynda Carter.  These episodes lasted for a while, and then in  2016, Gal Gadot came along to take over the role. She is an enigmatic choice for the part, strong, remarkable and definitely eye-candy for her fans. A wonder lady from Israel. Whew... 

On 21st October, 2021, Wonder Woman celebrates her 80th.

https://www.wallpaperbetter.com/en/hd-wallpaper-pycut

Gal Gadot [2016] 

Miss Israel - 2004

Wonder Woman 1984 - Official Premier Performance

Hans Zimmer/Water Tower Music.

[Gal Gadot is on the left in white.]

Happy Birthday Wonder Woman.

 1970's from the TV series

YouTube video by TheRealWhatTheFudge.

[2] the 2016 theme from the movie

YouTube video by Arjun Pagidipati

Gal Gadot

Images

Used for fun and the love for 

DC Comics 'Wonder Woman'. 

[If illegal, please write in and images 

will be deleted immediately. Thanks.]

Marvel Super Hero Stan Lee Is Gone @ 95 EXCELSIOR!

Stan Lee
28 December 1922 - 12 November 2018

Marvel Comics creator of many of their superheroes, Mr Stan Lee is dead at 95 years young. He's gone, *ever upward! To the heavens.

He will certainly be missed by many who love comics since he had created famous superheroes like Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Captain America and others. These characters have depths in their personalities and the series is considered to be a form of modern Literature.

He became a phenomenal success and profited from his corporation since the 60's. If I am not mistaken the comic market crashed in mid-1990's and the business was affected much.

The 1960's Spiderman Theme song from the television series. In the 21st Century, it was revised and became a bigger hit on the big screen.* Check the details below. Above video by battyguy. Thank you.

With CGI (Computer Generated Images), the heroes came alive on the giant cinema screens and the whole world of superheroes thrilled the world once more.

Stan Lee was huge in Singapore with thousands of fans buying his comics and watching movies of the superheroes he created. Even Seniors are buying up these comic books to read or collect. Local cinemas are always full when Marvel superhero movies are screened.

Stan Lee's comic characters from the covers of older booklets. The paper was newsprint and if touched for periods of time, the ink would smear on our fingers.

As a child, I started reading this colourful booklet every day but it was another superhero from a different comic label. I remember the paper was made of newsprint and had my fingers all dirty with the ink on them. But the comics were cheap. And you pay a few cents for first-class entertainment in your hands. 

RIP Stan Lee. *EXCELSIOR!

Spiderman Theme Song:*
It was first produced for the TV series and elevated to full orchestration scale with Spiderman Homecoming (2017). As human beings, we can allow ourselves to improve and expand just as well. We're all superhumans one way or another.

Comic Stories Connections on this blog:

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2014/04/fun-fifties-comic-capers-and-pennies.html

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-theres-anyone-as-good-looking-as_06.html

https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2012/04/cartoonist-lat-n-frankie-rock-in-ipoh.html

'Spiderman Homecoming Theme 2017'. Thank you. Video Benjamin Squires.
Composed and arranged by Benjamin Squires. Original Spider-Man theme composed by Paul Francis Webster and Robert "Bob" Harris.

Images: Google and Stan Lee's Twitter masthead below:

Part 1: Equating D.H. Lawrence With Pornography

Bras Basah Road bookshops, right, near Cathay Building - Images: singas.co.uk

That Knowledgeable Owner in a Bras Basah Bookshop in the 1960s.

Dear Andy, 

I loved your feature on comics and I'm glad so many people responded. You obviously struck a nostalgic nerve in all of us.  I have a few anecdotes relating to comics/magazines when I was in Singapore in the 1960s.

When I was stationed at RAF Changi I used to buy paperbacks from the second-hand book stalls in Changi village and Orchard Road, but I don't recall any of them selling comics.  There were several book shops in Bras Basah Road and I occasionally bought textbooks and hardbacks there. I remember calling at one of those shops on my way to the Capitol cinema and seeing a huge pile of Dandy and Beano comics from the 1940s and 1950s on top of the glass counter.  

There must have been about a hundred comics and I asked the Chinese shopkeeper how much he wanted for them.  I can't recall the exact price but they were amazingly cheap.

I asked how long they had been in stock and he told me they had been there for several weeks.  I didn't want to lug a pile of comics to the cinema so I left them, intending to call back later in the week to buy them.  Why I didn't pay for them and ask him to reserve them, I will never know. Needless to say, when I returned a couple of days later, they had gone.  Very sad.

On another occasion, when I was looking for a particular short story by D.H. Lawrence for my English Literature course, I tried all the book shops in Bras Basah Road.  None of them had his collected short stories or any anthologies containing the story I needed. In the last shop I tried, the Chinese owner was quite knowledgeable.  

"D.H. Lawrence?" he said.  "He write Lady Chatterley's Lover?"  I nodded.  "You wait," he said.  He gave me a bottle of Coke and a Consulate menthol cigarette and told me to sit down on a chair before disappearing upstairs.  I could hear him moving around above my head and when he returned, he beckoned me to follow him, leaving his young male assistant to mind the shop.  We went up two narrow flights of stairs and emerged on to a balcony with a low table and some cane chairs.  A suitcase lay on the table.  

"Sit! Sit!" he said excitedly, so I sat down on one of the chairs, still clutching my Coke and cigarette.  Then, with a triumphant flourish, he lifted the lid of the case.  It was crammed full of glamour magazines with garish covers featuring over-developed young ladies wearing very little, if anything, at all.  I was astonished.  After a brief look at one or two of the *magazines, I told him they were not quite what I was looking for.  

He looked puzzled.  "But D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley - very naughty. No?"  "Very naughty, yes," I replied, "but not exactly what I was looking for, thanks."  He obviously equated anything written by Lawrence with pornography.

Best wishes, 

Allan Thompson**

Silver Bells Hanging On a String

Dear Allan, 

Thanks very much for your contribution.  Here's some inspiration from Chuck Berry and 130 very sporty ladies. We're not going to equate this song with pornography are we folks? 

Andy.

 Chuck Berry - My Ding-A-Ling - (1972)

You Tube by: TrackProTeam175.

  

(Only 3 verses of a 6-verse song):

When I was a little bitty boy
My grandmother bought me a cute little toy     
Silver bells hangin' on a string
She told me it was my ding a ling

And then mother took me to Grammar School
But I stopped all in the vestibule
Every time that bell would ring
Caught me playin' with my ding a ling

Once I was swimming cross Turtle Creek
Many snappers all around my feet
Sure was hard swimming cross that thing
With both hands holdin' my ding a ling
 
(My Ding-a-Ling was originally recorded by Dave Bartholomew in 1952.)

Image 1: http://www.singas.co.uk
Images 2,3,4,5:  from Allan Thompson and Google.
Video: You Tube.

** Allan has written up to 20 articles for this blog, documenting his experience on Singapore in the 1960s both as a uniform personnel and a lover of life.  Check him out by clicking on his name under Labels below.

Fun Fifties: When Bash Street Kids Meet Be-Bop-A-Lula

Dennis The Menace from Beano

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Many people would remark that I really had bad taste! My mum did.  Desperate Dan, The Two-Gun Man. This was my reading fare in the 1950s and as a school boy I was focused on buying every comic book that was hanging on clothes-pegs at the corner Indian shop near my home.  My mother was furious and put on a frown whenever I came back with a copy.

Desperate Dan from Dandy

"Today, Beano. Yesterday Dandy..." she remarked sarcastically. "Tomorrow what? Batman! The comic books are dirty. They are made from the cheapest paper! And your hands turn black with printing-ink and since you don't wash them, they make you sick. You get sniffles all the time gluing yourself to the comics. You better stop reading them! They smell after a while!  Some are already starting to disintegrate in our weather."

Plastic Man. Whatever happened to him?

But I ignored her, piling up my new ones on top of maybe 10 or 15 stacks of the greatest comic collection this side of the world.  Smelly or otherwise, I had them all and I kept them under the study table in my bedroom.  

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling!

I would consume these comics as I would a plate of chee cheong fun, spending the afternoons and evenings at home filling away the hours as I followed the antics and adventures of these exceptionally naughty kids and super humans.  They thrilled me beyond words!

Lord Snooty

Minnie The Minx

There were the DC Comics heroes.  Now these comics had attractively glossy covers and promoted Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel (alter ego of Billy Batson), Green Lantern and Plastic Man at their heroic best.

Then there were the funnies like Beano and Dandy comics which consisted Dennis the Menace, Bash Street Kids, Desperate Dan and if I remember correctly, Roger the Dodger.  There were also Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty and the very popular Biffo the Bear. These characters were the ultimate in comedy and mayhem and kept me in stitches!

The Bash Street Kids - Ultimate in Mayhem

But wait a minute. What had all these characters and reading of comics got to do with pop music?  Well the melodies came in the background because as I read my favorite cartoon, I had Frankie Laine singing High Noon.  Then Vic Damone would come on air with, Stranger In Paradise. After that  Gale Storm with Dark Moon and a radio song-requester asked for an earlier hit, Billie Holiday's Pennies From Heaven.  Good choice.

 

Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps - First Singer In Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

There was Gene Vincent too with his echo-chamber revolution, Be-Bop-A-Lula and Little Richard screaming, Rip It Up.  Many of them sounded squeaky on 78s and over the radio but they were great. Yes, I heard them all from my dad's PYE radio before Rediffusion even established a line of cable in Singapore.

Billie Holiday - Squeaky On 78s.

My mother was irked. "How can you be reading The Beano and yet appreciate Gale Storm and Billie Holiday..." she would question. I kept my mouth shut and smiled. The worst taste in comic strips and music choice?  Perhaps.  But this period I call the Fun Fifties as I lived my teen life.

Today children spend their time going for tuition classes and modern dads pay a fortune per session. Those days, I learned my English from comic books and pop music.  No iPads nor Tablets. And no Singlish too because many of these comics come from England and the US.  Hooray for Beano, Dandy and Billie.  These tokens of joy during my teenage years were truly pennies from heaven.

             Pennies from Heaven - Billie Holiday - You Tube video by direfranchement

Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven?
You'll find your fortune's fallin' all over the town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
 
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love, you must have showers
So, when you hear it thunder, don't run under a tree
There'll be pennies from heaven for you and me...
  
Shazam! Boom!

Captain Marvel (Alter Ego Billy Batson)

Roger The Dodger.

So as I conclude this short story here's a thought. What about Singapore school girls?  What do they read in the 50s?  Ah, they read School Girls Picture Library.  But that's another tale.

Credits:

1. Song from You Tube: Pennies from Heaven (1936),
American pop by Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke.

2. Images from: Google, DC Comics, Beano, Dandy.

3. An Original Article.

Cartoonist Lat n Frankie Rock In Ipoh Kopi Tiam

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Malaysians say jokingly that if you want to know the truth about the country don't read the newspapers; read LAT. 

For those who have not been initiated, LAT is not an acronym but the name of Malaysia's most famous cartoonist, Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid.

I searched my little library at home and found Lat's collection of cartoons. They included,  Kampung Boy, Lat's Lot and Town Boy. It's not the whole collection but it is in the last book that I found what I wanted. 

 Lat's love for 60's music shows in his depiction of the rock and roll hey-day after he left his kampung life and went to Ipoh town.

The cartoons above enact his meeting with a Chinese boy called Frankie who told Lat, "I like pop music also. Do you want to exchange records with me? I have ALL the records! You just say it - I GOT IT! What record you want? Elvis... Cliff Richard... I got all! Bobby Darin, Ricky Nelson, Paul Anka, Pat Boone, Neil Sedaka, the Patters, Connie Francis, Bobby Vee. You have heard a new group called the Beatles? (from: Town Boy - Sixth reprint 1992)"

When Lat told Frankie he had no records for exchange, Frankie took Lat to his home.  They went into a 60s kopi tiam (coffee shop) called Kedai Kopi Ah Hong.  

But as we are taken illustratively beyond the won-ton mee stall and the kopi drinkers, through dark, winding staircases and long wooden corridors, the reader finally finds himself in a large family room where his friend shows Lat his father's collection of a treasured radiogram with the latest 60s vinyl records of Bill Haley, Ricky Nelson and other pop hits (images 1 and 2). 

To Lat it was the thrill of a lifetime as the final double-page image 3 shows them screaming and yelling  to the roof tops to the surprise of Frankie's grandmother and sister.

Have you read Lat's cartoons. You're missing plenty if you haven't.

Quotation and Images from: Town Boy By Mohd. Nor Khalid, Berita Publishing Sdn. Bhd. A Member of The New Straits Times Group, 22, Jalan Liku, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sixth reprint 1992. Printed by Percetakan Cergas Sdn. Bhd. 58100 Kuala Lumpur.

Original article/images: Andy Lim Collection.

Ricky Nelson 1940-1985 Comics

If there's anyone as good looking as Elvis Presley, it's Ricky Nelson and it wasn't his songs that attracted the American public in the beginning but his lovable antics with his family in the DC comics series called, The Adventures of Ozzie And Harriet (image), where the Nelson family, that meant his parents, brother David and the dog had their family life, sometimes fact and sometimes fiction, made into humorous episodes.

Personally, a collection was kept up to the 80s, before the comics were thrown away into the dustbin. Such a pity! Computer scanning in the 90s could have saved the beautiful and colourful images. Many Singaporean comic lovers had them too in the 50s. Anyway...

The Nelson family was also family fare on radio and TV but as he grew up, Ricky Nelson began a singing career and "became a teen idol sensation from 1957 up to 1962, where he had thirty Top-40 hits, more than any other artist at the time except Elvis Presley and Pat Boone."

"When Billboard introduced the Hot 100 Chart on August 4, 1958, Nelson's single, Poor Little Fool became the first song ever in the number one position on that chart." He also became an actor, made a few movies and appeared with Dean Martin and John Wayne.

His songs are so well-known internationally and they are perennial favourites. The songs include, Someday, Lonesome Town, Hello Mary Lou, Travellin' Man, Young World, It's Late, Stood Up, Garden Party, Dream Lover with a personal favourite, Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? Nelson was active all the way up to his death at 45 years.

                          Ricky Nelson - Travelling Man - from You Tube Video

Like Kyu Sakamoto (Sukiyaki), he passed away in a plane crash in 1985. Cliff Richard has only 3 favourite rock and roll idols and Ricky Nelson is one of them.

Acknowledgement:
Vinyl: EP/Imperial Record: 156; EP/IMP: 163; Decca: ED 2760.

Quotations: Wikipedia.

Original article/image: Andy Lim Collection

Comics image: http://www.kaskus.us/

American Idol - Superman or PAT BOONE?

Pat Boone with Superman and Lois Lane.

Pat Boone is a superstar and like Elvis Presley dominated the pop music charts from the mid 50s onwards. With his clean cut, debonair and baby face image, this all American boy was a craze among the *teeny-boppers those days.

I remember watching his two movies, Bernadine and April Love where he sang many of his hits. They include the title songs and also chart busters like, Love Letters In The Sand, I'll Be Home, Friendly Persuasion, Don't Forbid Me, There's A Goldmine In The Sky and sober versions of Tutti Frutti and other rock and roll hits. When the older generation thought Elvis Presley the over sexed idol, Pat Boone was the ideal boy next door.

In a special edition (image above) even DC comics featured him and he was an icon for many years. (Note the price of comics then, 10 cents.)

*Term used in the 50s early 60s for teens, esp. girls, interested in the latest fashion, films and music.

Image: Google.

Nancy, Sluggo, Transistor Radios, Change Alley, T-Dance In Singapore 60s

In reply to Lucy's note, Sluggo, Nancy's boyfriend, provided a warning shot:

"But then Lucy, I was with Nancy and if you see our personal snapshot (above) here she wouldn't have allowed any hanky panky so going to tea dances with you would've been a no-no."

I cannot remember the context of the above quote but found it somewhere during a read. 'Lucy' could have been the kay-poh (busy body) girl in the other strip series, Peanuts and with whom Charlie Brown had problems (left image). 

But then how the Lucy character could wander into Nancy's comic strip kept me wondering. She might give Nancy's transistor, A Heartbreak Radio. 

For me, the interest were the keywords, the combination of Nancy and Sluggo cartoon characters, tea dances and the transistor radio on the image. This formula, I thought, would make interesting music stories.

Nancy Comic Strip In Newspapers

Nancy and Sluggo became famous from about 1933 after the introduction of the Fritzi Ritz comic strip in 1922. Nancy soared in popularity up to the 70's and beyond, syndicated in nearly 900 newspapers all over the world.

This comic strip was part of the fun I had during the 1960's when transistor radios also became very popular. 

Transistor Radios

Meanwhile, as I grew up, patronising tea dances in the middle of the day at a cinema in Katong wasn't part of my schedule but it was interesting to know that such a past-time existed.

So one day, cycling all the way from my house in the East, I bought my first transistor radio in 1960, from a row of shop houses at North Bridge Road (image for illustration) but have lost this beauty somehow. National brand it was, popular and cheap.

This transistor invention and revolution relieved me of having to sit beside my father's PYE radio and my neighbour's Rediffusion set just to listen to pop music. I could just carry it around. Portability!

I still keep one transistor radio today (above) but this one has AC/DC attachment; so it is being used at home.  I bought it in the early 80's.

Change Alley

I remember too taking a bus all the way to Clifford Pier or was it Shenton Way to look for a more expensive and exclusive transistor radio. And they sold these pocket radios at a place called Change Alley. It was about opposite Clifford Pier, an alley with rows of shops on both sides, selling stuff from fountain pens, watches, tourist souvenirs, curios to clothes and toys. The alley penetrated through to the other end to a huge departmental store called Gian Singh.

Change Alley was actually a shopper's paradise and catered to most tourists wanting to experience an eastern shopping atmosphere. I remember going there because you could bargain for a cheaper price for whatever you wanted to purchase. To avoid the crowds I would go there either before lunch or the best bet was to visit it at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a very shady alley and reasonably cool because it was open-air.

Heartbreak Radio: Roy Orbison

YouTubeVideo from: hirosh58

Thank You.

Tea Dance

Tea Dances too were the in-thing those years when it started. You could go dancing on a week-end afternoon at some of the dance halls at cinemas like the Odeon-Katong and Palace in the East or the one called the Celestial Room where Dhoby Gaut MRT stands today. And a soft drink was like two Singapore dollars. Buy a glass and dance the whole evening to your hearts' content. Two bands were usually on stage to rock your souls out. One band would be the highlight of the evening and the other, the guest band.

So for the younger readers - how many new words have you learnt today? Transistor radio? Nancy and Sluggo? Change Alley? Tea Dance and, snapshot? Now that's a word I haven't heard in years.

A Tea Dance in Singapore 60s night spot. 

Crowds of teenagers sweat the evening away.

*PYE
https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2012/08/searching-for-my-favourite-chinese.html

Original article: Andy Lim.

Videos and Images from YouTube and Google.