Tuesday 28 October 2014

November 2nd, 1974 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Strap yourself down, tigers! It's the most exciting night imaginable, as we find out what magic Marvel UK were flinging our way exactly forty years ago this week.

One thing I do notice is that, for some reason, their two new mags cost one pence more than their longer running ones.

Eight pence for a comic? It's madness! Do they not know it's the 1970s? Have they not heard of the oil crisis? Do they not know we've still not paid off all that World War One debt yet? Do they think we're made of money?

Spider-Man Comics Weekly, #90, Silvermane and Man-Mountain Marko

Spidey's in trouble, cornered by Silvermane, Man-Mountain Marko and the Lizard.

But all of that pales into insignificance next to the chance to win ourselves one of these fancy modern colour TV things that everyone's talking about.

Apparently, you can win it by playing Charades.

I'm not sure exactly how you play Charades via the medium of the comic book but you could clearly never accuse Marvel UK of lacking optimism.
Mighty World of Marvel #109, Doc Samson

Doc Samson makes his debut.

There's no indication of what DD and the FF are up to this issue, though I suspect the FF are still up against Galactus, as they were last week.
Avengers #59, Whirlwind

Hooray! It's Ant-Man vs his own ants, thanks to the diabolical doings of the Whirlwind.

I'm completely guessing here but I have an instinctive feeling that the Dr Strange tale may be one of the Gene Colan ones.
Dracula Lives #2, Marvel UK

It's yet another chance to win a colour TV, via one of the few issues of Dracula Lives I ever had.

I think this is the one I read in Pauldins department store, which makes it a very privileged issue indeed..
Planet of the Apes #2, Marvel UK

It's only issue #2 but already those apes are having to squeeze up as they have to make room for the senses-shattering debut of Ka-Zar.

If I remember right, he comes up against Kraven the Hunter in a Jack Kirby drawn tale of drama, thrills and action.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Great selection of comics there, I think I had everyone of these except POTA and think I still have these inn my loft. The Dr Strange strip is actually by Roy Thomas and art by Dan Adkins (got that issue to hand).

Anonymous said...

Barry Smith was also an artist on those early Ka-Zar stories. I had none of these comics as I wouldn't know Marvel existed for another 3 weeks - how the first 2 years of Marvel UK managed to completely pass me by is a total mystery. Still, I had the Beezer and the Topper so I was happy enough :)

Unknown said...

As soon as I saw the first issue of Mighty World Of Marvel in a local newsagents that was pretty much it for UK comics for me-(I only bought Lion and Valiant on and off for a year or so then that was it for UK comic). Marvel (in Scotland at least) was on local TV news shows a few times in the early days ( I recall Herb Trimpe and Stan Lee on "Scotland Today") I think they also advertised some of the comics (certainly MWOM, POTA and DL) on TV but it was easy to miss a comic on the stands in those days as there were so many weeklies back then.

pete doree said...

What? Stan AND Herb on TV? Is that on youtube I hope??? Had all these by the way. POTA was the best 'cos it had Barry Smith's Ka-Zar, Gullivar Jones and of course Apeslayer...

Anonymous said...

So when are we going to see Steve doing the Beezer or Topper? A typically insightful analysis of the Numbskulls would surely rock the internet to its very foundations.

Anyone else recall seeing Jim Steranko on Nationwide? No, really - I was a kid, but definitely recall seeing him being interviewed in a kind of some people take this stuff seriously feature, but I've never come across any mention of it since. He had artwork from Shield 3, so must have been the late 70s (after it was reprinted in Capt. Britain or I wouldn't have recognized it). Can anyone confirm I am not deluded?

Btw, enjoying the new feature, Steve - hope it lasts.

-sean

-sean

Steve W. said...

Sadly, I have no memory of Jim Steranko on Nationwide nor Herb and Stan on Scotland Today.

I do remember Stan on Magpie, with him playing the part of J Jonah Jameson, whilst Mick Robertson played Spider-Man. He was there to promote the launch of Marvel UK's Savage Sword of Conan comic.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it would have made more sense for Stan to appear in a loincloth.
With Jenny Hanley in a metal bikini perhaps....

-sean

Unknown said...

I actually recall them showing issue 210 of MWOM during the interview on Scottish TV (or BBC Scotland) with Stan (and or Herb) as it wasnt the best cover but thats about all I remember so it was around 1976- I remember Stanon Magpie also not Steranko though

Dougie said...

I'm pretty sure the Black Panther/FF Lee-Kirby story is featured in that MWOM but I'm not sure which part. It still astounds me that I can remember the contents and yet I struggled to remember the names of my First Years after the Tattie Holidays.

I think I may also have seen Stan & Herb on Scotland Today- maybe with John Toye- for the Titans launch in 75.

John Pitt said...

Were the 3 x 7p comics still matt covers? Like Colin, I still hadn't discovered Marvel UK yet.

Steve W. said...

John, by this stage, all the Marvel UK mags had glossy covers.

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...

Twenty months later I just noticed that Silvermane's and Marko's poses on that Spider-Man cover are perfect mirror images. Presumably a figure was swiped from someone else's work and pasted onto the cover in two places, so the artist only needed to change their clothes and faces. In fact, looking at those poses, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the swiped character was the lizard, leaving the artist the choice of altering any two of the lizards on the three lizard cover that he was given as a starting point.