Sunday 30 August 2015

August 30th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

In this week of 1975, Rod Stewart hit the Number One slot on the UK singles chart, with Sailing. What a lovely song that was, with added female warbling for oceanic effect.

But was it all calm seas for the stars of our favourite comics company?

Or were they feeling like it was time to man the lifeboats?

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #133, the Green Goblin

Spider-Man's still having trouble with the Green Goblin.

But, more importantly, we can win four Raleigh bikes.

I hope they're Choppers. I won't feel like it's 1975 if they're not.

Marvel UK, the Avengers #102

Someone at Marvel UK HQ was very fond of covers in which the Avengers and Conan square up against their foes in a curiously parallel manner.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #45

As I know from personal experience, you always know you're in trouble when a floating, glowing head appears in your life.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #45

I've now checked the dictionary and can announce that, "Dracula," doesn't spell, "Death." It spells, "Dracula." Imagine the fool I'd have made of myself if I'd believed them.

Mighty World of Marvel #152, Hulk vs Rhino

I can only assume that the, "Thing gone mad!" story is the one where the Mad Thinker sabotages one of Reed's attempts to cure bashful Benjy and it all goes horribly wrong.

Marvel UK, the Super-Heroes #26, the Silver Surfer and Doc Savage

I've no idea what happens in any of this issue's stories. I do know I'm not keen on the idea of diagonally splitting the cover though.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

We've all seen floating, glowing heads before.
I find they tend to go away after a lot of coffee and aspirin.

Conan and the Avengers is a weird combination for a cover.
M.P.

Anonymous said...

From here on the covers of 'The Super-Heroes' are just appalling - they look like they were drawn by a nine year-old.

Anonymous said...

They weren't up to much beforehand either, Colin.

Come to think of it, are there many issues of the Superheroes after this one? I'm a bit surprised that its still turning up in this feature, as I always thought it folded earlier.
It amazes me that a combination of Stan Lee's Silver Surfer, the original X-Men - surely the two most boring comics to come out of silver age Marvel-and Doc Savage (eh?!!) made for a comic that lasted longer than Conan.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Sean, The Super-Heroes lasted for 50 issues and the one shown here is only No.26 so there's plenty to go yet. I think the Silver Surfer's run ends soon though. Later characters in the comic included the Cat, the Thing (Marvel Two-In-One) and Giant Man.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Colin.
50 issues!!?? I only ever read a couple of the early ones - that was quite enough! - and always thought it must have bit the dust around the same time as the Conan weekly....

They added the Cat and Giant Man, eh? That makes 50 issues even more of a surprise - they really were trying to come up with the most tedious Marvel imaginable, weren't they?
Fury and the Howling Commandos seems to be missing from the list, but I guess they were saving that to reprint in a war comic -the imaginatively titled weekly Fury - once war comics had gone out of fashion.

-sean

Dougie said...

Looking at MWOM, I thought we'd perhaps reached that interminable second Galactus story where Psycho-Man turns up again. There's lots of Kirby coasting going on, some dull android capers and chasing after the Surfer. And that's on the heels of the equally rehashed Ben Goes Bad- Again storyline.

Anonymous said...

You have to admire the optimism of the ape on the cover of POTA. Faced with annihilation from a nuclear weapon he resolves to run away really quickly.

DW

John Pitt said...

I think the Super-Heroes should have focused more on the X-Men as the main "pull" and had the SS as the back-up strip.
UK readers had had to wait for 3 yeats before the X-Men were introduced, which, in itself, was ludicrous, because now their stories were so out-of-sync. with all the other comics, but to then tuck them away as a mere back-up was an insult! In the 60's, in the Power Comics, the X-Men were just as big stars as Spidey, the Hulk and the FF - and deservedly so!