Sunday 13 September 2015

September 13th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On September 12th, 1975, Pink Floyd released their classic album Wish You Were Here.

But what about the day after that? Were the heroes of our favourite comic company wishing they were here too?

Or were they merely wishing they were somewhere else?

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #135

Spidey clearly wishes he was somewhere else, as a prison riot breaks out and it's Gil Kane up-the-nose action a go-go.

On other matters, Iron Man now seems to have been fighting Whiplash for about fifteen consecutive weeks. Did they really manage to stretch that story out over so many issues?

Marvel UK, the Avengers #104, Squadron Sinister

It's one of my Avengers faves, as the Squadron Sinister makes its dastardly debut.

As for the copy at the top of the cover, I'm not sure what the Hoardes of Hell are. I can only assume they do a lot of hoarding.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #47

It's all high-drama in Draculaville.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #47

Unless I miss my guess, it's the start of that Tom Sutton tale where there's a bunch of apes on a gigantic ship. I seem to recall it with fondness though my recollections of it are vague.

Mighty World of Marvel #154, Hulk vs Tiger Shark

There's something very strange about this week's cover. A great big Steve Does Comics No-Prize goes to the first person who points out what it is.

Marvel UK, The Super-Heroes #28, the Silver Surfer and the X-Men

I assume this cover is symbolic and that the comic doesn't really feature the Silver Surfer teaming up with the X-Men to fight the Sentinels?

On other news, we're promised a battle issue that'll blast big brains.

But what of Doc Savage? Has his own big brain been blasted into oblivion, never to be seen again? Or is he contained within but just not mentioned on the cover?

9 comments:

Dougie said...

I suspect the Doc Savage/Silver Ziggurat story wasn't followed up because the film wasn't distributed widely enough, wasn't that popular and new B/W material wasn't ready yet. Is the MWOM mystery Tiger Shark talking underwater? I bet John Byrne had a really pedestrian explanation for undersea exposition.

Steve W. said...

Dougie, it's something much bigger than people being able to talk underwater.

Steve W. said...

Well done to @siricho4 on Twitter, who was the first to guess the answer, which is that the Mighty World of Marvel cover has no relation to the story contained within, thanks to Marvel UK accidentally using the cover meant for issue #159 on the front of issue #154. This meant that they ended up using the same cover twice in the space of five weeks, even down to using the same blurbs for both issues. This means that @siricho4 gets that ever-elusive No-Prize that men have killed for over the years.

dangermash said...

Take a closer look at that Superheroes cover, Steve. The Surfer is fighting the Torch while the X-Men fight a sentinel (the Master Mold?). Both battles take place but just not at the same time and in the same location. Still a bit of a cheating cover but not as big a cheat as it looks at first.

Steve W. said...

Dangermash, you're right. Yet again those sneaky devils at Marvel UK have pulled the wool over my eyes.

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's not fair, Steve - you can't know that about the MWOM cover just from looking at it.
Still, I'm already the proud owner of a SteveDoesComics no-prize, so I'm not actually too bothered (I was going to suggest the Hulk's upper right arm is missing)

Yeah, Tom Sutton.
Maybe not as technically accomplished as some better known comic artists of the time, but all the same I generally liked his work whenever I saw it. It had a pleasing feverish quality to it.

-sean

Anonymous said...

That POTA story takes place on the city-ship "Hydromeda" which is divided into two opposing factions. A mysterious hooded figure is sneaking around assassinating prominent apes from each faction which causes each side to blame the other for the murders and war ensues. It turns out that the hooded assassin is the leader of the human slaves who live below decks. The story ends (in No.49) with the humans escaping by boat as Hydromeda sinks. The maritime malarkey and aquatic adventures continue in POTA #81-84.

Anonymous said...

And that MWOM cover being used twice in 4 weeks is unforgivably shoddy - couldn't they have created a new cover considering they had a month to prepare ?? I can think of other Marvel UK comics that had the wrong covers - The Titans #35 and POTA #74 spring to mind but at least the same cover wasn't used twice !! POTA & Dracula Lives #99-101 featured exactly the same apes story that had been in POTA #85-86 just three months earlier - I suppose they had no new apes story to print so it was a choice between a reprint or another dose of Apeslayer :)

Dougie said...

Oh, I had completely forgotten about the twice-used cover!