Where are those MasterMans?

Possibly one of the reasons for my collecting habit can be traced back to my grandfather, Herman. After I went to live with my grandperes, when I was 7, I discovered that hidden away in dark hall cupboards were small collections of things that brought some pleasure to the hard life he lived as a wharfie in Hobart during the 1950s & 60s.

Yours truly & his Grandfather - 1959

Most importantly for my future indulgences he had gathered issues of English war comics, those small almost square editions that you rarely see nowadays, and only at ridiculous prices. Tucked alongside copies of Battle were also vaguely remembered copies of MasterMan, a typically 60's version of limey superhero antics. These must have imprinted into my brain after many Sunday arvos laying on his bed reading these salty desert Rommel bashings and now forgotten black and white pre 2000AD scifiings.

By the time of 12 I had started to amass (courtesy mostly from my next-door neighbour Robbie who was kept in supply from his older cousin and passed off to me what he wasn't interested in) my own Marvel and DC bundles - an ongoing increasing mass that continues to this day.

I never did get to obtain his comic collection after he died when I was around 10 (still a mystery), but I still carry with me evidence of Herman's other passion - matchbox covers. As a dock worker he had access to a trade coming in from all corners of the globe and there are memories of an exotic collection, which, again did not make its way to me. Instead I carry his collection of Australian labels that he had asked me to soak off the box and display in a scrapbook. This collection probably owes more to his other passion.. smoking, which may have been the reason he died a man not that much older than I am now.

I've always loved this scrapbook, partly for the memories it evokes, and for the detailing to the quaint 1960s cover photos done by my brother Steve and I. This may also be my earliest example of future cartoonist in action..

Inside on now yellowing and crumbling pulp paper lays many a cold Warrane arvo glueing travesties. While not a completist project it conveys a serialist finickiness that tried it's best to adhere to a straight line..

There is one page missing though, a series on Roman/Greek gods and monsters that made it's way into an artwork a few years ago.. I'll go hunting for it.

Here's a cold stout raised to you Herman.. and where are those MasterMans...