A note from the dorm, 77 style

Imagine instead of it being 2016, it was actually 1977 where we'd made major technological breakthrough where instead of being sat typewriting a letter leaving a space for illustrations, we'd actually got the internet?

Well, one thing I'd of been writing about from our dorm is my comics because back in 1977 our newsagents had a few shelves full of them for boys and girls of all ages, not mini magazines or tat infested fim, toy and footie tie-ins.

Comics that had stories existing in a self contained world we'd all drift into.

I remember Tiger from Juniors but the one I really got into big time was the War Comic, Warlord that launched in September 1974, to the point my parents went all over Nantwich, Cheshire to get me some back issues I was missing.

It fitted in well with my mania for Action Man.

Roy of the Rovers was a boyhood institution that gave rise to popular phrases, the inspirational footie figure who combined ball control with the kind of emotional control to be a mature player on and off the pitch.

It also had features on the actual game although strangely enough then there were weekly footie magazines for boys our age 10-14 like Score! 

Comics reflected life as we lived it, to the boy of today it may seem another land with different rules and expectations.

The grown ups were our enemy, we'd always be trying to get out of things, playing tricks on them, forever pushing the boundaries but our luck would run out and soon enough our bottoms were made to pay the price.

That's the thing you notice when you re-read a good number of the comics and their annuals today, you were always shown cheek, bullying, lying and damaging other peoples stuff would be punished and adults wherever we were did with immunity.