WHILE sorting through some papers the other day I came across a treasured, if battered, copy of a comic called The Rover.
In its day it was one of the biggest-selling British comics, enjoyed by a generation of Fifties schoolboys.
There will, I am sure, be many Flashback readers who still recall such publications - besides The Rover, the Scottish publisher DC Thomson produced some of the best, including Adventure, The Hotspur and Wizard.
They were required reading, filled with stories rather than comic strips, improbable adventures carried out by such characters as Wilson the super athlete, Rockfist Rogan, the boxer who took on all comers and always won, and flying ace Matt Braddock VC (naturally) who, it seemed, won the Second World War single-handedly, destroying whole cities in just one raid, while shooting down the Luftwaffe at the same time.
Heroes all and, to a generation of schoolboys, well worth risking the cane for as you surreptitiously read of their exploits below school desks.
They were affordable, too, even if pocket money was limited. Three old pence would buy you a whole day's un-put-downable reading.
One such paper featured school badges from across the cover on its front cover. Others had a drawing relating to what was inside.
But all carried the exploits of daring and heroism the like of which could only be produced by the fertile imagination of their authors.
Remember Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track, Morgan the Mighty, Nick Smith, the football genius who played inside left for Granton United, HK Rodd, the "sensational" cricketer said to have transformed the English side, not forgetting the Racing Rogers, Britain's brilliant family of speed kings?
There was no sex, no bad language, just great adventure to stir young imaginations.
Down the cliff at the end of one episode would go Morgan.
Next week's story would start with the immortal line "With one giant leap he hurled himself skywards and to safety..."
Rubbish? Yes. But good rubbish nonetheless.
They bring back memories do these old papers, recollections of happy, innocent days of half a century ago.
I wonder what happened to the writers who invented those great characters, many of them struggling reporters trying to make a few bob on the side. Like the heroes they created they are now forgotten and their work consigned to the dustbin of publishing history.
But for some of us they played a small part in the greatest adventure of all - that of growing up.
Did you have a favourite comic? Remember those heroes from long ago? Letters please to Stuart Russell, Flashback, Mail News and Media, Blundell's Corner, Beverley Road, Hull HU3 1XS or e-mail
stuartgjr@hotmail.com
