Killer Crabs and School Kids (1980)

Night of the Crabs (1976)

 

Killer Crabs (1978)

 

The Origin of the Crabs (1979)

Crabs on the Rampage (1981)

 

Crabs' Moon (1984)

....and Crabs: The Human Sacrifice (1988) and Killer Crabs: The Return (2012) but the 1970's were over by 1985 so who cares about those two!

My introduction to the works of Guy N Smith was in the summer of 1980, when one of the first three books - I'm not sure which one - was passed around the boys dormitory of the residential outdoor education centre in Wales for five days of the summer holidays.  We were twelve at the time and overly keen to educate ourselves of the adult pleasures of sex and horror.  We didn't know that to begin with but when one of our number produced the lurid novel, "borrowed" from an older brother, the keenness with which we all demanded a read of certain pages, would have staggered our English teachers beyond belief.  Not being adverse to regular reading myself, I think I managed to read the whole thing, sexy bits and all, in one torch illuminated session.  Although, apart from the general memory of consuming the forbidden fruit and the "bloody stumps" of  hands being snipped off by giant pincers, I actually remember very little of the story itself.

I stumbled over the 3rd book in a charity shop a couple of days ago and at two quid for a near perfect copy, I snapped it up.  I found the 1st book, in similarly excellent condition, about a year before and for only half that price.  I'm going to read them over the next few months to see if and what memories they might shake free.  Could be interesting.  I might also have to invest in book 2

On reflection, that week away in North Wales turned out to be quite an education that I only came to recognised as such many years later.  I'll almost definitely write more about it here.  There were dead sheep discovered on the hillside.  A jukebox battle between Bowie and the theme from MASH, probably any number of ghosts lurking in the corridors and toilets and  kids being mean and horrible to each other almost every hour of the day.  Oh! and.I also proved that Déjà vu was a real thing, by blurting out the impending sequence of events just ahead of them actually happening.  Only my friend Mark heard me though so the rest of the world remains sceptical to this day.

But who cares what other people think!

Steve

The Crunch #1 (1979)

I had lost the memory of ever owning this comic until I stumbled over a copy on  EBay.  Once I saw the cover again it all came flooding back. Well at least the smell of it did. I swear just looking at this image is enough to make me be able to smell the cheap paper and printing ink and the Saturday morning high street of the town I brought it in. Never mind the mind's eye, who knew there was a mind's nose lurking in there too.

After that initial olfactory hit came the remembrance of how much I loved that first free gift and the sense of loss at the fact that not only did I no longer own it anymore but that I had also allowed it to fall down the back of my memories and remain unnoticed there for so long.

It may have looked like a simple ribbed black plastic strap with room for a sticker but it almost certainly allowed me to communicate with Command HQ, most probably fired lasers and almost definitely had the power to teleport me anywhere my imagination dictated. What a wonderful device and what a terrible loss to technological advancement.

It broke, I now recall, from the constant use but there's little doubt that even if it hadn't I would have almost certainly thrown it away a hundred different times between now and then; a casualty of growing up. I'll also wager that not only would it not go round my big old man-wrists anymore but it would also be unlikely to perform to its previous high-spec. So, on reflection, the physical loss is negligible but its nice to get the memories back; I suspect they are worth far more anyway.

But to get back to the reading matter at hand, checking the cover scans on a couple of comic fan sites, I think I owned the first half a dozen issues of The Crunch and although I retain virtually no memory of the comic's content the covers are vaguely familiar.

As to the remaining free treasures given away with the first few issues. Well the poster with No2 would never have gone on the wall and probably hit the bin with a huge sigh of disappointment but I do recall the skull badge being worn and even the little plastic car being kept on the shelf for a while.

The comic its self didn't last for all that many more issues before being merged with something else - Which is how they used to kill comics back then - but I think I probably knocked it on the head after just a few weeks because it simply wasn't sci-fi enough for who I was back in 1979. Perhaps that's how the rest of the UK kids felt.

 

 

 

Steve

Star Quest Roboworld (1979)

 

1979

1978                                            1981

Star Quest Roboworld was one of my first ever book purchases, chosen from the Bookworm book catalogue that they used to run through middle school. It's actually the second book in the series although I didn't know that at the time, I just fell in love with the cover and the promise of the story within. I seem to remember liking it a lot although I never did get round to reading the first or third books in the sequence. Pocket money was limited and I was in the early stages of putting together a collection of Doctor Who paperbacks which were far more captivating, even if the vast majority of them were also written by the prolific Terrance Dicks and published by Target Books.

Artwork, according to The Target Book by David J Howe is by either Jeff Cummins or Bill Donohoe although it doesn't clarify who did which ones.

 

I passed my first copy of Star Quest Roboworld on many years back, However I have since bought another copy, along with the rest of the trilogy.  Primarily I just want to own them again but I reckon they're a quick read so I might find the time to discover how it all started and where it all ends.

 

Steve