Sunday 2 August 2015

August 2nd, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This is all very exciting for me. If the Avengers issue shown in this post features the debut of Adamantium and its use by Ultron, that means that this week of 1975 was the week when I set off on my summer holidays to Blackpool.

My main memories of that journey are of the Vision turning against his colleagues, Thor setting off to fight Galactus - with the aid of bird men - and the introduction of Psycho-Man to the pages of the Fantastic Four. The coach seats had those shiny metal ashtrays on the back of them that you could take apart and put back together again and Don Estelle and Windsor Davies were on the radio. With entertainment like that, you didn't even need to go to Blackpool. You could have just spent two weeks on the coach and still felt you'd got your money's worth.

There was also plenty of Alan Class consumed on that journey - including a tale of a man who gets turned into a totem pole, something to do with a Mexican cliff diver, a scientist who's attacked by plants, and something called They Drive By Night.

If the Avengers issue didn't feature that Ultron story, ignore everything I've just said because that means it wasn't until a week later that I set off on holiday.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #129

It's the senses-shattering return of the Green Goblin - and the start of the legendary drugs story that changed the history of American comic books.

On top of that, we get Thor vs Galactus.

What sort of mad lunatic wouldn't want to get their hands on a comic like this?

Marvel UK, Avengers #98

I have no memory at all of the Butlin Super-Joker feature and therefore conclude that I was not a Butlin Super-Joker.

I also have no memory at all of a robot pterodactyl showing up in an Avengers tale, nor of a real pterodactyl showing up in an early Conan tale. I therefore suspect that this cover may be somewhat misleading.

Mighty World of Marvel #148, Hulk vs Namor

The Defenders are still experiencing teething troubles, while Daredevil goes mad and decides to try and slap Captain America around.

And you can read my review of that DD tale, right here.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #41

I know this is meant to be a supremely dramatic cover but Dracula's pose does give the impression that he was halfway through a session with his psychiatrist when he found himself so rudely interrupted.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #41

Beneath the Planet of the Apes AND The Day of the Triffids? In one comic? Surely Marvel UK were spoiling us with such fare.

Marvel UK, Super-Heroes #22, the Silver Surfer

I didn't have this issue but I do have the feeling, from what I've read elsewhere on the internet, that this tale may involve SHIELD in some capacity.

Other than that, I can not even speculate as to the contents.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many Marvel stories were called 'A World He Never Made' (or variants thereof)? And what did it mean? I believe it may be a line from a poem.. - Al

Anonymous said...

I believe it's from the English poet A.E. Housman..."trapped and afraid in a world I never made." If I'm mistaken, apologies.
In a strictly literal sense, it is a difficult passage to interpret, but poetry speaks, or should speak, to something that lies just behind the curtain of the rational.
I think most fifteen year-olds would understand it.
M.P.

Anonymous said...

I think it's actually "I, a stranger and afraid, etc." I went and looked it up. M.P.

Dougie said...

It's unfortunate that the Avengers never did battle with a robot pterodactyl since Yellowjacket is more dynamic on that cover than he ever was in any story I can recall.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Steve, were Don Estelle and Windsor Davies on a loop for the entire journey, poor you :) I had that issue of Dracula Lives and it was so interesting that I can't remember anything about it but that woman spends so much time announcing what she's about to do that Dracula has plenty of time to just roll away. And you've got to love that POTA cover - the story inside is all about Brent being interrogated by the mutants with no apes in sight but they had to get an ape on the cover somehow.