January 10th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

This week in 1976 was a great one for all lovers of human rights, freedom and liberty, as it was the week in which the Pol Pot regime proclaimed a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.

I think it's a good rule in life that if you live in any country that has the word "Democratic" in its name, get out of there as fast as you possibly can.

Closer to home, the Third Cod War heated up when British and Icelandic ships clashed at sea.

But that is all conflict. What of the art form that has the power to soothe the savage breast?

Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was still Number One on the UK singles chart, while, on the neighbouring LP rankings, Perry Como's 40 Greatest Hits reclaimed the top spot it had previously surrendered to that group.

Bohemian Rhapsody is, without saying, a landmark event but other events I approved of on that week's Hit Parade were:

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine Ft Chill Wills - Laurel and Hardy with the Avalon Boys Featuring Chill Wills

I Believe in Father Christmas - Greg Lake

Let's Twist Again/The Twist - Chubby Checker

Art For Art's Sake - 10cc

Mamma Mia - ABBA

You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate

Itchycoo Park {1975} - The Small Faces

Midnight Rider - Paul Davidson

In For a Penny - Slade

Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra

and

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon.

Should any wish to pursue, further, the issues raised by this post, that week's UK singles chart lives here.

While the neighbouring album chart dwells within.

And television?

On January 10th, 1976, BBC One was showing The Brain of Morbius, that nightmare Dr Who serial in which a brand new monster is stitched together from bits of other monsters, to give us a terrifying creature with a lobster's claw for a hand, and a goldfish bowl for a head.

Clearly such a tale could inflict madness upon the strongest of minds. Therefore, I shall have to take refuge in whatever it was that Marvel UK was offering us in that very week.

This would appear to be an issue in which, if the cover's to be believed, you can find out if you were at the Roundhouse with Stan.

Sadly, I never had this issue and, so, I shall never know if I was at the Roundhouse with Stan.

I suspect the Man-Ape wasn't there either, as he was far too busy planning his vengeance against the Avengers.

No doubt, missing out on a meeting with Stan is why he's so angry on that cover.

Speaking of which, I'm not sure what's going on with the cover's Savage Sword of Conan lettering looking like it's been coloured in by someone who's become hopelessly besotted with a packet of Opal Fruits.

Meanwhile, inside, we discover the Avengers are not just up against the Man-Ape - as we'd been assuming - but are, in fact, headed for a confrontation with the Lethal Legion!

And Dr Strange is still caught up in that adventure involving Baron Mordo and Cagliostro 

It's the Titans' second Emergency Issue in a row!

And who better to deal with such a thing than the Inhumans, who know all about emergencies, as they spend all their time having them.

And, just to prove it, Magneto's still trying to make them work for him - and Black Bolt still has amnesia!

Meanwhile, Subby's in a mood because it looks like Lady Dorma's run off with Warlord Krang.

And our hero's quest to retrieve her could bring him into conflict with a certain man in armour.

Hydra are still threatening to blow everyone up, with a huge bomb.

Captain America continues to try and stop the Red Skull's giant Sleeper robot as it terrorises Germany.

And, at last, Captain Marvel discovers just who Zo is.

And it seems he's some creep working with Ronan the Accuser to overthrow the Supreme Intelligence.

And, thanks to all this, Cap gets a new costume and yet more new powers which, as far as I can make out, are the power of flight and of super-strength which I'm pretty sure are powers he already had.

Anyway, for reasons I don't remember, it's all a fat load of use to him because he then gets himself trapped in the Negative Zone.

Could it be? Has Dracula turned into a damsel-rescuing hero?

Not really. He's still evil but he does, at least, make an attempt to prevent Shiela Whittier from killing herself.

Elsewhere, we encounter a three-way fight between the Werewolf, DePrayve and Hangman. I have noticed that three-way fights seem to be a thing, of late, in that strip.

The Man-Thing's up to something or other.

And to wrap up this issue, we, somewhat randomly, encounter a short tale from the early days of the Sub-Mariner's Atlantis.

As we can all see, the Spider-Slayer's still causing trouble for our hero.

But not to fear. According to the cover, I'm going to thrill to Spidey's Greatest Triumph!

Iron Man's still having to deal with the return of the Crusher.

And Thor's up against dying zillionaire Kronin Krask who wants to transfer his mind into the body of the thunder god!

I must confess Conquest is my least favourite of the original Apes films. I'm sure it was well-intentioned but I did find it overly dull and sterile.

It also didn't answer the question of why the moon had gone missing in the first Planet of the Apes movie.

Anyway, this week, I do believe Caesar's starting to discover there's something rotten in the state of Denmark.

In our present-day, Ka-Zar remains caught up in a tale that involves drug dealers on the streets of New York - and the abduction of Dr Wilma Calvin.

Meanwhile, the Black Panther discovers that But Now the Spears Are Broken and gets to have a fight with a rhino.

It's the story where, after all these years, Betty Ross finally gets interesting.

But I am intrigued by the colour scheme for the dialogue on this week's cover! I don't think I've ever seen speech coloured quite like it! It's like one great big mass of hyper-links!

Regardless, now blessed with a giant robot body, MODOK is on his way to abduct the gal from the nuthouse, except the Hulk keeps getting in his way.

Just when Daredevil fans might have thought Starr Saxon's finally out of the way, the villain flees captivity and our hero has to go off in pursuit of him, tailed by the Black Panther.

And can the Fantastic Four possibly survive the latest attack of the Wizard and his Wonder Gloves?

But, just when we think it's all over, we get a Lee/Ditko short in which an alien sets out to conquer the Earth, with the aid of an untrustworthy chair!

Big changes would appear to be afoot, as the Thing and Bloodstone both land strips in the mag that never quite knows what it is.

And that would suggest that both the X-Men and Scarecrow have been given the boot!

Fortunately for all lovers of stability, Giant-Man's still with us. And he finds himself facing The Coming of the Magician!

Next, we find a minor classic, as the Leader and Kurrgo have a bet as to who'd win a fight between the Hulk and the Thing, and we get to see it all brought to life by the pencil of Jim Starlin.

Finally, Bloodstone must battle The Dweller From the Depths!

The Marvel Lucky Bag - January 1976.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

You know what legendary films were smashing us in our faces when we entered our local cinemas in January 1976?

These legendary films were smashing us in our faces.

Jim the World's Greatest, Killer Force, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde and The Four Deuces.

I do feel like my face has been well and truly smashed.

Although, I'll admit that, in all honesty, I've never heard of any of those films.

However, they're the only ones I can find that seem to have been released, that month. So, they'll have to do.

I'm sure, though, that readers of this site will have encountered them on many an occasion and have photo-sharp recall of every single one of them, and of their plots.

Speaking of films we all recall...

We all love a good Treasury Edition, and I'm sure we'll love this one, as Jack Kirby brings us his 70-page adaptation of the landmark epic of the same title.

But just how will the King's all-action, slam-bam, style handle the notoriously sterile and emotionless Kubrick movie?

And what of David Anthony Kraft who provides us with a ten-page text article about the movie?

It's great news for all lovers of sci-fi, as Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #1 hits our spinner racks.

Sadly, it also then kicks the bucket, as this will be the only issue published.

It will, however, provide Marvel UK's Star Wars comic with lots of reprint material.

Among its offerings are: A Martian Odyssey, Journey's End!, The Forest for the Trees!, Clete, Preservation of the Species, Sinner and Threads.

And we shouldn't forget The Last Horizon: A Conversation with Theodore Sturgeon! conducted by Alan Brennert with pictures by Mike Kaluta.

It had to happen!

Howard the Duck gets his very own comic!

I would tell you what happens in this one but all I know is it's called Howard the Barbarian.

And Howard the Duck is in it.

Who says reading comics can't be an Improving Experience?

Not me, because Marvel unleashes its adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's famous novel, as remodelled by Doug Moench and Sonny Trinidad.

Despite having seen at least two movies and one TV serial based on the book, I'm still completely vague as to what the story's actually about.

And more literature's here to embiggen our brains because Marvel has controversially removed Killraven from War of the Worlds and given us a chance to see how things would have played out had he not been around.

Needless to say, Martians invade our world, and things look bad for humanity, while Chris Claremont and Yong Montaño are here to let us know all about it.

Good God, even more culture is being flung at me!

And this time, it involves pirates!

No doubt, plenty of Jim Lads'll be, "Aaaarrrred," and lots of legs will be pegged, as Bill Mantlo, Robert Louis Stevenson and Amado Castrillo reveal their take on whatever it is that happens in Treasure Island!

It looks to me like a new superstar enters our lives when Star-Lord shows up to guide us into space!

But we don't only get that man in sensational action, we also get The Sword in the Star!

Both of which will also be reprinted in Marvel UK's Star Wars comic.

Less thrillingly to me than Peter Quill's debut is the fact that the Punisher lands himself a slot in a brand new mag.

And does so, thanks to a tale called Accounts Settled... Accounts Due!

Meanwhile, Bobbi Morse stars in a brand new thriller called Red-Eyed Jack Is Wild!

Next, Dan Hagen writes an article about paperback serials, such as The Executioner and The Destroyer.

Then, we encounter An Ugly Mirror On Weirdworld.

Plus, there's a brand new Dominic Fortune adventure!

I've no idea what's going on with this one but it's brought to us by Ann Robinson and Ross Andru and involves Spider-Man battling the Prodigy.

No, not the scary band who brought us Firestarter, but a green alien from the planet Intellectia, who wants to introduce false ideas on sexuality and, thus, promote teen pregnancy before abducting babies for slave labour!

Blimey.

I think we can all agree that's a major problem in our modern world and it's a shock Marvel has never tackled it before.

And that's why I'm not surprised this comic has, as far as I can make out, been produced in conjunction with a Planned Parenthood campaign.

But, hold on. Would babies be much use as slave labour? I can't help feeling the green alien's not thought this through.

Fifty years ago today - January 1976.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

It's a brand new year.

Let's find out what kind of horrors it intends to inflict upon us.

I believe this is the story in which the Avengers go back to the Wild West, to deal with Kang's latest act of naughtiness and, along the way, they get help from Kid Colt!

Having said that, I don't remember any of the members from this cover actually appearing in that tale. I may, therefore, be completely wrong.

If it is that story, I have noticed that an awful lot of the content of the 1977 UK Marvel annuals was culled from comics that came out in this time period.

Bêlit makes her debut...

...which would be fine except we're now going to have to put up with her for years, before she finally dies.

A feat she managed to achieve very quickly in the Robert E Howard version of events.

Anyway, a ship that Conan's on is hijacked by she and her pirates and, needless to say, it's not long before he's bonking her and having adventures alongside her and her men.

Jack Kirby returns to the character he co-created - just in time to give us a tale in which that character is having trouble with mad bombs!

I don't think I've ever read this one but it seems the Matador convinces the Man-Bull to steal a Golden Bull.

Whether that's the one Thor once tried to steal while under the control of the Ringmaster, I cannot say.

However, Daredevil messes up the plan, and the Man-Bull reacts with his usual good grace, by taking it out on the Matador.

If this is the story I think it is, then it's yet another tale, from this period, which showed up in a 1977 Marvel UK annual.

Sadly, that annual only used the first half of the tale, leaving us all cliff-hanging until the second part was eventually published in the weekly comics.

Anyway, the FF are on a jumbo jet when it collides with the Hulk. Once the team have made sure all the passengers and crew survive, they set out to capture the monster.

And they succeed.

But just what will that victory lead to?

And just how is the Thing going to react to these events?

This story didn't appear in a 1977 UK Marvel annual but I believe it's the one in which Hulky teams up with the Abomination, convinced the fiend is his only friend.

A belief which proves the Hulk's even stupider than we all thought he was.

I have very little recollection of this one but, if that cover's to be believed, Iron Man's about to come up against the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes!

This pleases me, no end, as I've always had a soft spot for those apes.

But what's this? How can it be? Iron Man rescuing Tony Stark? Surely, madness must have claimed us all!

The Shocker's still causing trouble for our hero - and for New York - by attacking electrical sub-stations, in what I assume to be an extortion attempt.

It's the one in which Zarrko recruits Thor and his mates for a trip to the future, to tackle a bunch of sinister beings who travel backwards in time but do so by moving in a spiral, bringing death and destruction wherever they go.

Obviously, all the discerning reader really cares about is it features a battle between Thor and a T-Rex!

I think we've all been thrilled by what we've just seen from Marvel but we should remember its creatives are not the only people on God's green Earth who can thrill us.

So can those of DC!

And that means I shall crank up the starting handle on my quantum computer's £200,000 AI-powered mega-randomiser and see what a haphazard selection of its comics which bear the same cover date are up to.

Things always seem to get a little strange when Batman meets Sgt Rock. Probably because such a team-up seems inherently unlikely but, also, because Bob Haney always seems to be the writer.

And so it is that we get a thriller in which a shipment of the military's new rifles are stolen and Rock must unite with the dark-night detective to retrieve them. 

This might seem like a tough task but the duo are assisted by Jim Aparo, Haney and Murray Boltinoff who use their creative powers to make sure the good guys triumph.

There are few things in this plane of existence that are capable of being stranger than absolutely anything created by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti.

And, so, yet more weirdness is unleashed upon the unsuspecting minds of the world when 1st Issue Special gives us The Outsiders, a bunch of "unusual" people who even arrive at emergency scenes while singing their own theme song.

As far as my scrambled senses can recall, this issue's composed of the origin tales of its various cast members, and a tragic lot they are.

Does this book contain a one-page article about Tod Browning's Freaks? I have a feeling it does but can't officially confirm it.

I'm not convinced many people have been crying out for a Man-Bat comic but we're getting one anyway.

And, to be fair, I'll go on to buy this very issue in 1978, from a shop in Lytham, near a miniature golf course. So, clearly, I must have been crying out for a Man-Bat comic.

In it, Conway and Ditko weave a tale in which the Baron Mordo-esque Baron Tyme takes control of our hero's wife and turns her into a homicidal maniac.

Needless to say, her spouse isn't going to put up with that kind of thing and tracks the villain to his lair, for a life-or-death confrontation.

Sadly, this book will have its own life-or-death struggle and only survive for a mere two issues.

But my main memory of this adventure is of Ditko's strangely faceless Batman.

The Sandman hits his final issue, with an intriguing 

Bill Draut cover that leads us into The Plot to Destroy Washington D.C.!

It seems Doctor Spider's kidnapped the Sandman and Glob, meaning Brute must get Jed to help free the pair and thwart the Doctor's villainy!

Michael Fleisher supplies us with the words, while Jack Kirby and Wally Wood produce the pictures.

Well, that's all fine and dandy but we all know the real treasure is the friends we made along the way. 

And we've not just made friends, we've made super-friends!

I must confess to never having seen the cartoon of the same name but I can reveal this mighty tome contains a mix of new and reprinted material, including Operation: Jail the Justice League!, The Case of the Disabled Justice League! and a 10-page text article called TV Cartoons.

However, I see no hints of a 3-D diorama.

Wait!

What?

No 3-D diorama?

What kind of madness is this?

January 3rd, 1976 - Marvel UK, 50 years ago this week.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

***

Hooray! It's a brand new year!

But have no fear. I'm still going to be serving up the same old rubbish.

Sadly, 1976 started badly for the UK, with its first week seeing hurricane-force winds of up to 105 mph killing 22 people across the country.

When it came to the music industry, there was no change atop the UK singles and LP charts, with Queen maintaining dominion over both, thanks to Bohemian Rhapsody and A Night at the Opera.

I know for a fact that Conan's in this issue.

And I know for a fact that I don't have a clue what he's up to in it.

I do, however, have a clue what the Avengers are up to.

And that clue is the front cover.

Thanks to that, I know the malevolent Man-Ape is back, attacking the Avengers Mansion and determined to wage war on our favourite super-team!

Dr Strange, meanwhile, travels back in time, a couple of hundred years, in a bid to thwart the latest scheme of Baron Mordo.

And it all ties in with a man called Cagliostro!

It's the legendary Emergency 8p Issue, which I never had and was totally unaware of until I gained access to the internet.

I'm still not totally sure what the emergency is and why other Marvel UK mags are unaffected but it does mean we get a non-glossy cover and a temporary price drop!

Inside, Magneto's still convinced the Inhuman royal family are mutants and is still determined to make them serve his cause.

Elsewhere, Subby's still trying to protect Atlantis from a giant sea-monster controlled by Warlord Krang who's got the Puppet Master to make him a useful maquette of it for that purpose.

Captain America's got a battle on his hands, trying to stop the Red Skull's giant Sleepers as they blunder across America, in a decidedly unwieldy but destructive fashion.

As they seem to have been doing for several months now, Hydra are hoping to set off a giant bomb and Nick Fury's trying to stop them.

And Captain Marvel's having some sort of meeting with Zo, the mystery being who gave him his thrilling new powers that I can't remember.

Dracula's out, causing mayhem, in the streets of England, and Shiela Whittier's male friend has decided its time to get over to Drac's gaff and stick a great big stake through him.

The Werewolf by Night is having to endure the return of the Hangman.

And the Man-Thing's having trouble with demons.

I do always wonder why MODOK messes about with daft schemes when he's the inventor of the Cosmic Cube. Can't he just make another one and take over the world?

Regardless, like any sensible person, he's decided the best way to destroy the Hulk is to turn Betty Ross into a Gamma-mutated monster.

But, first, he's going to need a giant, robot, body.

As far as I'm aware Daredevil and the Black Panther team-up to finally bring down Starr Saxon.

While, when it comes to the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards is making yet another bid to cure the Thing.

But will he have time to do it before the Wizard shows up, armed to the teeth with his awesome Wonder Gloves?

As we can all see, Spider-Man's stuck with the latest incarnation of the Spider-Slayer!

In Iron Man's strip, the Crusher's finally found his way back to the surface from the centre of the Earth.

And, of course, he wants his revenge upon the armoured Avenger who sent him there.

In Thor's strip, Jane Foster is back but is, also, a captive of a zillionaire called Krask who wants to conduct a mind-swap operation that could be bad news for the thunder god.

What's this? No sooner has Escape from the Planet of the Apes concluded than we're flung straight into Conquest?

When it comes to the Black Panther, he's still having trouble with Malice who attacks his palace, in a bid to liberate Venomm.

And Ka-Zar's still on the streets of New York and trying to bring justice to the drug pushers who inhabit it.

"Once again, Giant- Man must face the horrifying Human Top!"

I think they may be slightly overplaying the Human Top's ability to cause a sense of terror in an observer.

And, speaking of not being able to inject much terror into the human heart, the X-Men defeat the Locust by making his own insects turn against him.

Meanwhile, the Scarecrow's up against a bunch of demons summoned by the Cult of Kalumai!

I have no doubt he shall prove to be victorious but I do believe this is to be his last-ever appearance in the comic.