Thursday 1 June 2017

June 1st, 1977 - Marvel UK. It was 40 years ago today...

As all good users of social media know, today sees the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the album that revolutionised Popular Culture by mixing the mundane with the magical to create an unforgettable landscape of the disorienting and the familiar.

Of course, I like to think this blog performs that exact same feat in the modern world but with more emphasis on the mundane.

Much more emphasis on the mundane.

In fact, it puts so much emphasis on the mundane that it makes all magic redundant and eliminates it completely.

But it is amazing to think that when I first heard that album, even though it seemed like an artefact from an impossibly distant past, it was a mere ten years old.

And the year of that first encounter was 1977.

Marvel UK Captain Britain #34

It looks like it's just another day in the life of Captain Britain.

I vaguely recall this. Doesn't our hero have to go to another dimension to fight a monster, in order to prove to Merlin that he's worthy of getting his power upgraded or something?

Then again, that's also the plot of Atlas Comics' Phoenix #4, minus the presence of Merlin, so perhaps I'm getting my comics mixed up.

Alternatively, he might have been on a mission to rescue Merlin from the clutches of some wrongdoer or other. My memories are fuzzy.

In other news, the FF are still fighting the Space Monster From the Black Space Lagoon. That story seems to be dragging on for months. Were they only reprinting it a page at a time?

Mighty World of Marvel #244, Hulk and Planet of the Apes

The Hulk seems to still be in Jarella's kingdom. Therefore, I assume the Cyclops namechecked on the cover is Psyklop?

Is that a cyborg ape I spot on the right? I genuinely have no recall of any such thing outside of the pages of the oft-mentioned Apeslayer strip.

Super Spider-Man and the Titans #225

I think this is the start of the one where The Kingpin decides to use Spidey's life force in order to restore his son to health and we find out just who's been providing the hired thugs we've seen in recentish stories.

Marvel UK, Fury #12

I believe that's a Carlos Ezquerra cover. Now I have a strange yearning for Johnny Alpha to show up - and that weird, furry alien thing he used to hang around with.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gorilloids?! That sounds like trouble to me! I'm not sure even the legendary Apeslayer is ready for that!

M.P.

Anonymous said...

The Jason & Alexander arc began in POTA #12 and, at first, was just a story about Jason being framed for the murder of the police chief's wife. Brutus, the police chief, was secretly the head of a gorilla Ku Klux Klan and he'd killed his wife when she threatened to expose him. But when Jason & Alexander escaped into the Forbidden Zone the arc got more and more wacky and sci-fi with giant talking brains, multi-eyed aliens, bat-winged "monkey devils" and ,yes, cyborg gorillas. I think this week's story was the final part and finished on a cliff-hanger as the U.S. POTA magazine was abruptly cancelled. Only two more weeks till Marvel's apes series finished forever.

I had all 39 issues of Captain Britain but I can recall hardly anything about them.

Steve W. said...

MP, "The Gorilloids," really does sound like some sort of medical complaint.

Colin, I do remember being quite relieved when the POTA reprints finally finished, which is a shame as I was always a Planet of the Apes devotee. It did, however, outstay its welcome in MWOM.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Hey UK Guys!

Over at BitBA where Steve contributed mightily today, I was inspired to check out some 1983 hits. Being from Chicago, I decided to youtube Malcolm McClaren Double Dutch and Buffalo Girls since it was sort of popular here at the time. So, by in large, in the main, what do YOU guys think of him? Was he a big deal? Or, a bit of a flash in the pan with the Sex Pistols or...? Hell, I don't even know if you guys heard of Double Dutch and Buffalo Girls?

Thanks for your replies!

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Love the Fury cover shooting down a Stuka.

My uncle, on the Murmansk Run Convoy PQ 17 (greatest convoy slaughter in history where more material was lost for the Russians than the Battle of Kursk) my Uncle Lefty shot down a Stuka from his ship with a Browning Water Cooler 50 cal.

He didn't realize it until the first mate came running over and said "Lefty - The Captain wants to know what you want for shooting down the Stuka? A pull of whiskey or $100 for? Lefty said (I quote) "Shit mate, give me the whiskey, I might be dead in another minute!"

Steve W. said...

Malcolm McLaren made a number of interesting singles. I'd say that, "Madam Butterfly," is my favourite. "Buffalo Gals," and, "Double Dutch," were both Top Ten hits in Britain.

I've heard various claims from various people who knew him that his records were pretty much made for him by producers like Trevor Horn and that he had no real input into them other than adding his voice over them once they'd been finished. Whether this is true or not, I have no idea. There does seem to be a consensus that his real talent was as a self-publicist, rather than anything else. An impression that he seemed to be happy for people to have.

Steve W. said...

Since I posted that last comment, I've listened to, "Madam Butterfly," on YouTube and I've just realised he's not even on it, which had never struck me before. So, he's not on it and he didn't produce it but he somehow managed to get his name on the label. You have to hand it to him, he was no mug.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I Wiki'd him and it sounds like he had a rich and varied life. It notes "he had a keen eye for trends."

I can't imagine he cracked the Top 100 in the USA (I really don't know) and the only reason I knew of him was b/c I was in college at the time, living in a frat house, and with 50 guys under the same roof it was quite easy to be exposed to a variety of music.

I recall one guy who just got back from a semester in London insisting to anyone that would listen to him, and a certain song, that the song was going to be the next #1 thing in the USA... in about 6 months. It was Soft Cell Tainted Love. He was right!

Ant Master said...

Tainted love by Soft Cell, is possibly the greatest song ever and would be in my desert island disks, and that is from a lifelong Sabbath/moterhead fan. I don't think I was buying any of these titles back in the day as the US issues were easily available at most newsagents, although sometimes you had to travel (bike/foot) to pick up one you actually wanted.

Steve W. said...

I love that song as well, Ant Master. :)

Charlie Horse 47 said...

What's funny is there is some pop song that samples Tainted Love which in turn sampled Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Anonymous said...

Tainted Love...meh. Here are some songs from 1983 that I loved: "They Don't Know" by Tracey Ullman, "Give It Up" by KC & The Sunshine Band (their only UK #1 hit), "Tahiti" by David Essex, "Down Under" by Men At Work, "Words" by F.R. David, "Baby Jane" by Rod Stewart, "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This" by the Eurythmics, "Moonlight Shadow" by Mike Oldfield and whoever the woman was who actually sang it, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins. I'm sure I'll think of some others :)

TC said...

Scandal, Pleasure Victim, and The Wild Heart.

Patty Smyth, Terri Nunn, and Stevie Nicks were cute and hot.

With "Billie Jean," it sounded like Michael Jackson was singing, "The chair is not my son." I wondered if that was the same chair that did not even hear Neil Diamond sing "I am I said."

John Pitt said...

It was Maggie Reilly who sang Moonlight Shadow, Col, - an absolutely BEAUTIFUL voice!

John Pitt said...

Just wanted to say that it's absolutely SCANDALOUS what they are charging for the Sgt. Pepper 6 disc box set!
I had to settle for the 2 disc!

Steve W. said...

There's no doubt that EMI have always been masters in the art of getting money out of Beatles fans.