Young Johnny Concheroo must be the luckiest boy in all of Afterword Town. That’s because he is the proud owner of an object that is both precious and magical. A totemic artefact you might say. In fact, in the history of 60s British blues it’s right up there with the black cat bone, the mojo hand, gris-gris, and even, dare I say it, the mythical John the Conqueror root.

Yes, young Johnny now has a copy of the actual Beano comic which appears on the cover of the seminal 1966 LP Blues Breakers: John Mayall with Eric Clapton (aka The Beano Album.

But let’s stop talking in this ridiculous third person fashion for a moment and cut to the chase. Yes, it arrived today, not very well packed I must say, but thankfully undamaged. I’m talking about issue #1242 of The Beano comic, with the cover date May 12, 1966. So what? you may say. What’s so special about a tatty old kids’ comic? Ah, but this is not just any old comic, it’s the very same issue of The Beano that Eric Clapton is pretending to read on the cover of the aforementioned LP

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