No posts yesterday. Why? You ask...easy answer. Because we got lost.

The day started easily enough when we stumbled across a very famous house indeed. Although we didn't instantly recognize it, later it was pointed out to us.

This was our first ruin of the day. Looks great doesn't it? Pity the photos didn't quite come out, but considering what it is I might quickly cruise back today to try and get a few better shots. The more musically minded will be sitting there going, "Hey, isn't that?" and the answer is, yes, it is the house on the cover of Midnight Oil's classic album Diesel And Dust. The property is well fenced off and is signed with 'Trespasses will be shot' signs all over the place. With the warnings in mind we decided not to jump the fence, but just contented ourselves with taking as many photos as possible. I can't tell you exactly where it is, not that it's a state secret, just that I can't say the location because it…

It's now 9:00pm and I'm finally kicking back with a frosty Heineken. The other half is soaking herself in the tub, and we're staying in one of the best places you could ever hope to stay in Burra - I'll have to take a photo of it. It's great - a complete cottage on the outskirts of town. Quuiet? You can hear the night fall here. BLISS!!!

Before we arrived we popped by Redruth Gaol. Mind you Redruth is a stones throw from where we are, so it wasn't a great effort.

Front of Redruth Gaol. Anyone who has ever seen the movie Breaker Morant will instantly recognise the building in the photo as it was used for the prison in that movie. Why? Because it looked the part! Me? I kept expecting to see Edward Woodward to pop up from around the corner. Rule .303 indeed!

When we got there it was firmly closed up, but I wasn't about to allow that to stop me from getting some photos of the inside courtyards of the building. So how did I do it? Well the answer was …

Beautiful!!! We've finally arrived in Burra after leaving home at 10am this morning. It took this long because we clearly stopped along the way, several cemeteries later we finally found what I was looking for - RUINS!!! More on them later, and photos, but for now let this whet your appetitie.

We found one located somewhere between Kapunda and Taree. Beats me where, but I did manage to jump the fence and run through a paddock covered in cow-shit, which dotted the feild like landmines. I finally hit the top and snapped off some great shots - the back of this house was built into the side of the hill itself, making for the rear of the house being somewhat lower than the front.

We found another brilliant one just outside of Burra itself. Great place- HUGE high roof. Several rooms, no floor, three fireplaces and a large cellar that contained my arch enemy - not a farmer with a shotgun but a swarm of bees. Took some quick shots and managed to get back to the car unstung. Again,…

ACTION COMIC #12

Date: circa 1947

Not an easy comic to find and I was amazed to snare this one as cheaply as I did and in the condition that it's in. Headlined by Len Lawson's THE LONE AVENGER, Action Comic had at least three series and the entire book ran from 1946 through to 1956. This issue features Len Lawson's The Lone Avenger, Albert DeVine's Jet Jackson and Phil Crouch's Dennis The Menance. There's not been much written about Lawson, what is well known is that he did suffer from a major brush with the law. Lawson was a major talent on the Australian comic book scene although it's his non-comic book related work that's remembered more than his excellent art and stories. For his career he was both prolific and successful and was riding the wave of his most successful creation, The Lone Avenger, when tragedy struck.

In June 1954 Lawson was tried for the rape of two women in Sydney's Terrey Hills. Lawson was given the death penalty, although that wa…

It's been a bit since I covered any comic books and I think for the next couple of days I might focus on some of the Australian side of things, starting with some classic kung-fu. The Australian reprints of Charlton's early 1970s series House Of Yang is a classic example of how good Gredown could be be when it came to handling reprint material. Much like the Hell Rider reprints, the House Of Yang comes close to being a perfect, sequential series of reprints, but does fall short with the out of sequence reprinting of issue #2, as you'll soon see. Gredown still exists as a publishing company, but each time I've made contact with them about their comic book ventures of the 1970s I've been met with silence and total bafflement. It would appear that no-one is left there who is even aware that they once published some of the most interesting, and now collectible, comics to appear on the Australian market from the 1970s. Whatever information they might have been able to s…

Ok, so what's with the ex-mouse? Are we bored today? Not really, just kicking back and taking things too damn easy. However after looking at Merlin, and more to the point having him smell like the image opposite, we decided to bath him.

Merlin's natural colour is grey, just like the dead mouse, however of late he's become a nice shade of brown. No good. Last time he browned up we washed him and he refused to speak to us, or interact, for a good fortnight. This time we went all out and filled the bathroom sink with warm water and shampoo first, and then collared the little grey bugger. Was he happy? You can bet cash that he wasn't.

Still it took the pair of us to both hold and wash him. The struggles and yowls were incredible - you'd have thought we were chopping him up and getting the wok ready instead of trying to get the lovely scent of Old Mice out of his fur. Ole Merle can be a stupid cat at times. Clearly water, soap and cat all adds to a special kind of feline …