Welcome!

When I was a kid, there were several books that altered my brain in a big way. First, the awesome Doctor Who paperbacks from Target books (the first books I ever read of my own accord). It must have been a year or so later, aged about 7 or 8, that I discovered Denis Gifford's 'A Pictorial Guide to Horror Movies' & Alan G Frank's 'Horror Movies' 

hidden away on the bottom shelf in West Denton Library in the West End of Newcastle. I'd thumb through these books repeatedly, loan them month after month, absorbing every thrilling, scary image until I got my own copies in the late 1970's and they had pride of place in my growing science fiction and fantastic film library. 

Many of the images in the Gifford and Frank Horror Film books were hard-wired into my memory like old family photographs...

Long before I saw even a fraction of the films covered in the books, I'd gaze at the photographs and imagine the film. Those original copies have now long since vanished. Lost in time along with so many other childhood treasures, but since replaced and still capable of inducing fits of nostalgia.

 I was still hooked on the Target books too, though again, they all vanished or were lost over the years. In the past couple of years I've been picking them up again, a couple at a time, purchased for a few pence on eBay and now have a collection of sixty or so.

 

Which I suppose, is an example of exactly why this blog has appeared from out of nowhere, hemorrhaging nostalgia all over your nice screen interface whatsit! 
'Portrait of a Mutant' (named after a classic Strontium Dog story in 2000AD) exists as an outlet for my many obsessions and fanboy musings...British/European/US Comics - Everything from 2000AD to vintage British humour and boys adventure comics. But it won't just be comics. Classic Cult TV and Movies, Monster films, Pin-Up Glamour and an host of other freakygeekery!

So, welcome! I hope you'll find something here to frazzle your thrill circuits.

I'm off to curl up with a pile of comics, a bottle of fizzy orange pop and a Nutty bar! 

Happy Days.