Sunday 17 January 2016

January 17th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Hooray! There's snow on the ground that surrounds Steve Does Comics Towers! It's a perfect time for me to rush outside and build the greatest snowman ever, before bursting into ten verses of Walking In The Air and then melting.

But such is the lure of Marvel UK that, instead, I'm locking myself indoors and looking at what our favourite comic company was giving us in this week of forty years ago.

Will what I find chill my blood?

Or will it simply sleigh me?

Marvel UK, Avengers #122, Grim Reaper

The Lethal Legion are making trouble for our heroes.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #65, Blade

Dracula finds himself up against the man who was the first to prove Marvel heroes could be box office gold, and therefore paved the way for all the success they've had since. I can't help feeling that this means he should get a share of the box office from every Marvel movie from now until the end of time.

Or should I say, "He should own a stake in every Marvel movie"?

I'll get my coat.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #153

"This is the big one, Marvelite! The senses-shattering end of the Spider-Slayer!"

I would suggest that's a very liberal definition of the phrase, "Big one."

It's just occurred to me that I've never in my life leapt through a huge sheet of paper. It's a piece of negligence I shall have to put right before long.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #65, Conquest

That is a very nice cover that I remember copying once, as a child, with my trusty HB pencil.

Mighty World of Marvel #172, Hulk vs the Harpy

Betty Ross is still out to prove that, when it comes to the Hulk, she's Betty Boss.

Marvel UK, Titans #13, X-Men

No sooner have the X-Men disappeared from The Super-Heroes than they arrive in The Titans.

More excitingly for some of us, Captain Marvel's now been reborn into the form we all know and love.

Marvel UK, Super-Heroes #46, Hulk vs Thing

I believe the cover story is the one that sees the return of Kurrgo, as he teams up with the Leader in a tale drawn by Jim Starlin.

I love the Thing. I love the Hulk. I love Jim Starlin. I love the Leader. I even love Kurrgo. How was I ever not going to love this tale?

4 comments:

dangermash aka The Artistic Actuary said...

It's starting to become clear that Titans has overtaken Superheroes as Marvel UK's number 4 magazine. Cap? SHIELD? X-Men? Titans all the way.

And do we know which strip dropped out of Titans to accommodate the X-Men? My money would be on the Inhumans.

Dougie said...

Conan is in the middle of that "Flame Winds"/ China story that was less interesting than the original covers suggested. The Amazing Adventures In humans stories had all been reprinted and the Werner Roth X-Men is one of my favourite eras but yet again, I didn't get that issue. I'd say the Inhumans never worked, outside of FF stories. They were a more cosmic Brotherhood of Evil Mutants- or Space Munsters- and too removed to invest in.
That Starlin Hulk/Thing tale is fun but it's symptomatic of 70s Marvel going back to the early 60s well.

Anonymous said...

I remember that Hulk/Thing from The Hulk Treasury Edition which must have come out around the same time. I used to love some of that 100 pages for only 50p action.

DW

Anonymous said...

Good 'ol Kurrgo, would-be intergalactic conqueror. In his native language, Xanthan, his name means "Guy with a head like a hairy coconut."
M.P.