How on earth did I get to 35 without ever hearing of or reading
The Crunch?
I found two yellowing issues of this late 70s British boys comic in Hackney OXFAM last week and I am now on a mission to buy the entire run. It is without doubt one of the finest comics I have ever read.
The covers are superb...
but the stories inside are even better; crazed, violent, amphetamine fuelled tales from a time when The Wild Geese was playing to packed houses, cold war paranoia ruled the world and American violence, Dirty Harry style was just coming into vogue on this side of the pond.
All the bogeymen are here.
Idi Amin gets speared through the back by mercenaries...
Before being fed to
MAN-EATING MARIBOU STORKS!!!
Read that again:
MAN-EATING MARIBOU STORKS!That damp feeling in your trousers is a nerdgasm.
The Kennedy assassination and Watergate are mashed up in a tale of Mafia/CIA conspiracy called "Who killed Cassidy?", while the nationwide obsession with World War Two and the Nazis is still going strong in a fantastic little strip entitled...
Nuff said.
But the pulse pounding Nazi action doesn't stop on earth. Check this synopsis out...
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to suit up and pitch that word for word to Hollywood. In fact every single story in The Crunch deserves to be made into a movie. They all have blockbuster stamped large on them, which is more than can be said for the bleak, but nonetheless fantastic, readers letters page...
Brilliant, brilliant stuff.
I want more! More letters and more insane stories. The Crunch has me hooked with lines like this...
I will not rest until I have the entire run.
Der Fuherer's Steam Bath! 
BABY HITLER!!!!!
Hitler is his own fucking son!
but the stories inside are even better; crazed, violent, amphetamine fuelled tales from a time when The Wild Geese was playing to packed houses, cold war paranoia ruled the world and American violence, Dirty Harry style was just coming into vogue on this side of the pond.
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to suit up and pitch that word for word to Hollywood. In fact every single story in The Crunch deserves to be made into a movie. They all have blockbuster stamped large on them, which is more than can be said for the bleak, but nonetheless fantastic, readers letters page...
Brilliant, brilliant stuff.
I will not rest until I have the entire run.
1. Captain America Comics #1
2. Headline comics #8
3. Daredevil Comics #1
4. The Invaders #19
5. Star Spangled War Stories #156
6. Super-Villain Team-Up #17
7. Strontium Dog Volume #1
8. Fantastic Four #292
9. Captain America #298
10. Midnighter #4
All images except 1, 2 and 3 taken from the LLC archives.
