SPRAGG!

Sometimes they come back...

SPRAGG! Stared at me from his lofty position on the shelf behind the counter of my favourite sweet shop. Every day he caught my eye and every day I asked my mother if I could have him. Luckily there were no other takers, and one day, having been worn down by my persistence, my mother relented. Two shillings and sixpence was a fair price for the onslaught of hideous, pre-comic code nightmares to come for this six year old boy.

A couple of disturbed decades later and I'm working on a comic called 2000 AD, watching the mail pile up on Alan McKenzie's editorial desk, and I see something poking out from under the deluge. Just a corner, but it was enough to recognize Spragg! my long-lost childhood treasure, but what on earth was it doing here? "Dunno", said Alan, "a reader sent it in, here's his letter". I read it, but there was absolutely no mention of Spragg!, or why he'd even sent him. There was however, a phone number. I called the reader and told him I'd love to buy this wonderful relic from him, but he wasn't interested in money. He just wanted a 2000 AD mug.

So, I sent him far more than that, and in return, my long lost... SPRAGG! 

… He came back to me. Don’t you think that’s weird? I think it’s weird.

I originally posted this on February 28, 2022, but having recently been back in the UK and found myself looking once more at this rather tatty, but incredibly well-loved comic book, I decided to repost it with shots of some of the more memorable interiors… especially this severed head story, which freaked me out at the time, and to a certain extent, still does!

Mystic Bumper Book (UK 1964. L. Miller & Co.) Cover and Back Cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers.

Incidentally, Alan McKenzie has a really interesting and informative blog on this link: Marvel Silver Age blogspot.