May 1st, 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 not a happy one for fans of comedy, as it saw 62-year-old actor and Carry On mainstay Sid James die from a heart attack, on stage at the Sunderland Empire Theatre. An event most of the audience assumed to be part of the show.

It was, though, a far happier time for Southampton F.C. who won their first major trophy when a Bobby Stokes goal gave the Second Division club an unexpected 1–0 victory over Manchester United in that year's FA Cup Final.

When it came to music, there was still no change at the top of the singles chart, with the Brotherhood of Man's Save Your Kisses for Me continuing to rule the roost.

The accompanying LP chart, on the other hand, did see movement, as the TV soundtrack album Rock Follies reclaimed the Number One spot it had previously lost to Led Zeppelin.

As far as I'm aware, the issue kicks off with Conan trying to get his hands on a bag packed with priceless jewels - but a giant demon has other ideas.

Then, the Avengers are still on an alternate Earth and trying to help the Squadron Supreme put an end to the deadly antics of Brain-Child.

And Shang-Chi continues to be aboard a ship, with a mysterious blind woman who, I'm sure, will turn out to be more than she seems...

No sooner have the Fantastic Four flown the coop than the X-Men arrive to take their place.

And in their new costumes!

But, first, the Incredible Hulk's still in the Great Refuge and causing trouble for the Inhumans as they seek to launch themselves off in a rocket pointed at Counter-Earth.

It can only mean Black Bolt's going to have to use his secret weapon.

You know, the one he always uses.

When it comes to the life of Daredevil, not only does our hero reveal to Karen Page that Mike Murdock never existed, and that he faked the death of Matt Murdock, he also asks her to marry him

And, amazingly, after those revelations, she agrees!

As for the X-Men, it turns out they're not in their new costumes at all, despite what the cover suggests. They are, however, having to fight the members of Factor Three!

Jason and Alexander return to Ape City - only to find conflict is everywhere.

Conflict that's about to get a whole lot worse when someone shoots the Lawgiver, with a crossbow bolt!

And things are getting heated in Wakanda too, as Killmonger and his men attack the capital, aided by giant dinosaurs!

Speaking of men who know about dinosaurs, there's trouble for Ka-Zar, as, under instruction from Maa-Gor, El Tigre gains control of Zabu's mind and orders the sabre-toothed cat to attack his best friend, the lord of the Savage Land!

It looks like our hero's bitten off more than he can chew when a mysterious telegram sends him off to Canada and an encounter with a man you won't like when he's angry.

But, back home, Harry Osborn's not feeling very well...

Elsewhere, Dr Strange visits the Dark Dimension, in search of Umar but is drained of magical knowledge, by the G'uranthic Guardian.

Meanwhile, thinking him to be Loki, Odin's banished Thor to the realm of Mephisto - and now his friends have to get there and rescue him!

I know little of this week's Iron Man tale but I do know it's called The End of Tony Stark! I feel like I detect another of those stories in which the hero fakes his own death to fool the world into not guessing his secret identity. Like the one we've just had in Daredevil's strip.

And the Puppet Master's concocted his latest wheeze, which is using the power of Radion to super-charge his special clay and make the mighty Thor do his bidding.

I suspect the Thing is going to have to step in and do something about that little scheme.

In our main strip, while the lord of vampires is feeling weak - thanks to the machinations of Dr Sun - Brother Voodoo prepares to visit the United States where it can only be a matter of time before he comes into conflict with the star of this comic.

Then, we encounter more of the origin of the Ghost Rider - and how he came to have a flaming skull where his head should be.

And a moment of historical significance arrives in the Man-Thing's strip when, in the middle of the swamp, a talking duck appears...

What with Power Man and the Swordsman on the scene, it looks like Captain America's got his work cut out for him.

But, first, we must encounter the Fantastic Four who continue to be trapped in Latveria, as Dr Doom re-enacts the premise of The Prisoner for them.

Following that, the Sub-Mariner's having problems with Mentallo who, it seems, knew his father.

Then, when Captain America receives a distress call from Bucky, he has no choice but to go to the island where his supposedly late sidekick claims to be being held.

But is it a trap?

And who can be behind it all?

The Black Panther's not the only Marvel hero whose domain is under siege, this week. So is Nick Fury's when the colonel and his men must protect their barber shop from an attack by the forces of AIM.

And Captain Marvel battles the Thing, thinking him to be the Super-Skrull in disguise. But it all comes to a head when the Super-Skrull's mysterious employer shows himself.

And it turns out he's Thanos!

Speak Your Brain! Part 123.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Speke is a well-known suburb of Liverpool.

However, Steve Does Comics has no suburbs. So bustling is it that it has been officially designated 100% Central Business District.

And that business is chat. 

For it is not Speke of Liverpool that concerns us tonight.

Rather, it is Speak, of the, "Your brain," variety.

This can only mean one thing.

That we're witnessing the return of the feature in which you - not I - must decide the topic for debate.

And that can only be done by posting it in the comments section below.

Therefore, make haste to do so before the opportunity has passed.

The DC Lucky Bag - April 1976.

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

***

It's here!

As seen on TV! mentioned on this site, mere weeks ago, the launch of a brand new feature in which I take a look at a random selection of DC comics which boasted this month as their cover date.

What magical treats await us from the company that Marvel could never quite kill?

You've thrilled to his adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Now thrill to his adventures without them, as the man so good they named a totally unrelated movie franchise after him abandons the two elements that gave him a reason to exist - the Legion of Super-Heroes and the future - and trails Nemesis Kid to the 20th Century before deciding to stay there.

How long can it be before he's bumping into Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and the Sons of the Tiger?

Quite a long while, I suspect, but I could be wrong.

The magnificently unpredictable 1st Issue Special brings us the Return of the New Gods in which Orion fights Kalibak, and the New Gods are attacked by Parademons on New Genesis.

Meanwhile, Orion visits Earth, in search of Darkseid - but finds just Kalibak and Granny Goodness!

It's not the most memorable cover for a man who's had plenty of memorable covers.

And, in truth, I know little of this one's insides, beyond them being labelled The Solomon Plague and being the handiwork of both David Michelinie and Nestor Redondo.

This month, Marvel brought us the distinctly retro Liberty Legion and, clearly not to be outdone, DC offers us The Freedom Fighters who move from Earth-X to Earth-1, in order to fight crime.

It would appear the Silver Ghost turns Doll Man, Black Condor and Phantom Lady into statues - and Phantom Lady begins to turn into a real phantom!

And yet another new mag enters our lives.

This time, being one devoted to reprints.

Within it, two Xelthunians secretly replace Ma and Pa Kent, to carry out a secret mission, without knowing the duo are Superboy's foster parents.

Then, Wonder Woman takes someone called Bobby to a zoo where they discover one of the lions can speak, which takes our heroine and Steve Trevor to Cairo for an entanglement with spies.

Speaking of the ancient land of Kemet, when Hawkgirl's teleported out of a museum, Hawkman traces the radiation to the Egyptian lair of the Criminal Alliance of the World!

And, at the annual meeting of The Liar's Club, Jay Garrick relates the unlikely tale of the Flash and his battle with sand!

And what's this?

Another reprint mag makes its debut when DC Super-Stars brings us Monster Bait and Skis of Death! Both reprinted from the 1960s.

But that's not all.

We're also treated to a brand new feature. One known as Introducing the Teen Titans.

Drama smashes us in the eyeballs when we have to survive a thriller titled The Real Batman Dies Next!

As far as I can recall, someone's killed while dressed as Batman, leading our hero to try and find the killer.

I think tattoos may be involved.

As if that wasn't enough, we also encounter Man-Bat in Peal of the Devil-Bell!

April 24th, 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. 

***

It was starting to look like nothing could dislodge the Brotherhood of Man from the top of the UK singles chart, this week in 1976, as their Eurovision-winning ditty Save Your Kisses for Me continued to see off all challenges - even that of ABBA's Fernando!

But there was change atop the corresponding LP chart, as a new record smashed straight in at Number One, in the form of Presence by Led Zeppelin.

That cover is a salutary warning to us all to never trust evil children who have gigantic heads, flying chairs and super-powers.

It's a warning I shall make sure to heed at all times.

When it comes to Conan, I do believe the scrapping Cimmerian finds himself up against The Fiend from the Forgotten City.

It certainly is forgotten. I have no memory of it at all. Nor of the tale that contains it.

Then, the Avengers are on an alternate Earth and having to battle Brain-Child in the thriller that Watchmen could only dream of being.

Back on our own world, Iron Fist is gone from the mag but Shang-Chi returns.

And does so in an adventure in which the master of the martial arts finds himself on a boat leaving Marseilles, with various other passengers, including a mysterious blind woman.

And, in World War One, the Phantom Eagle must prevent German airships from attacking the United States!

As far as I'm aware, in Ape City, while Jason and Alexander are off somewhere else, Brutus kills an ape called Xavier and the locals immediately assume he must have been killed by rebellious humans.

I suspect this can only lead to trouble for everyone.

In Ka-Zar's strip, Maa-Gor the ape-man has a spot of luck when he wanders into some mist and emerges from it, transformed into a super-intelligent being who instantly demonstrates his smarts by recruiting the services of the man called El Tigre!

And Venomm's snakes are on the brink of killing the Black Panther, before Taku talks their master out of it, with a philosophical debate about the value of revolutions.

Dracula's still causing trouble in the New World, while a horror writer promises his editor that he's going to get an interview with an actual vampire.

But what's this?

There's no Werewolf by Night in this issue?

Instead, we get the first appearance of the Ghost Rider?

And that means we get his origin.

And that means stunts, pacts and Satan.

And the Man-Thing finds himself in a strange world in which warriors from different eras must fight each other, for reasons that are not altogether clear.

It's the big one for all lovers of politics because, at last, the true identity of the Disruptor is revealed!

And it turns out he's exactly who we all thought he was.

Elsewhere, Umar the Unstoppable attacks Dr Strange, and Dormammu emerges from a big crack in the ground, planning to attack our lovely planet.

That's followed by a tale called Iron Man and Iron Man! I'm going to assume that's another of those tales in which the armoured Avenger must fight an inferior version of himself.

Well, there may be two Iron Men but Marvel's most inescapable character, right now, is the Ghost Rider who, this week, manages to be in not one but three Marvel UK books. He turns up in this one, courtesy of a team-up with the Thing and a tale called Christmas Eve Panic! In which I'm assuming the pair are still trying to bring a halt to the latest activities of the Miracle Man.

Meanwhile, Thor and Loki have switched bodies and, with his usual genius, Odin, unaware of this fact, banishes our hero to the realm of Mephisto!

But the bigger news is that Jack Kirby is gone from the strip and Neal Adams has arrived.

As that cover makes clear, the Hulk is back in the Great Refuge. However, the Inhumans have built a rocket to take them to Counter-Earth where, for some reason, they think they'll be happier.

But the Hulk?

And a space rocket?

In the same story?

With his reputation?

I think we all know how that's going to go.

And what drama hits us when it comes to the man without fear. Not only does he defeat Death's Head but, at the denouement, our hero reveals to Karen Page that he is, in fact, Matt Murdock.

Thank God that decision will never come back to haunt him.

And then we get even more of the Inhumans, as the Fantastic Four and their Himalayan allies derail Maximus the Mad and his plan to control everybody's minds.

But, hold on. Something odd is about to happen...

...and it does because, no sooner have they left the Great Refuge than the FF find themselves simultaneously teleported into The Titans where they'll have to deal with Dr Doom and his recreation of the Prisoner TV show!

More importantly, this issue also marks the return of this book to my local newsagents, meaning I'll miss none of the FF's adventures!

After that, the Super-Skrull tricks the Thing into a potential fight with Captain Marvel, as we discover just who that villain's employer is.

Captain America, meanwhile, has a big PR problem when the leader of a gang of crooks takes to wearing a replica of his costume during heists, thus causing everyone to think the hero's gone bad!

Subby manages to prevent a war between Atlantis and the surface world but it leads to his people thinking he's dead.

And, in Nick Fury's strip, the authorities still seem not to have realised that AIM and Them are the same organisation.

Speak Your Brain! Part 122. Favourite super-characters.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

A man far wiser than I once said, "Happiness. Happiness. The greatest gift that I possess."

All I can assume is he didn't possess a Chopper bike.

Nothing could be a better gift than that.

However, there is something I do possess.

And that's ignorance.

For, if blessed are the ignorant, I have been amply gifted by the gods, as I don't have the slightest notion what we're going to be talking about tonight.

That's because it's the mind-melting return of the feature in which you - not I - must decide the topic for debate.

Therefore, make sure to suggest that topic in the comments section before. And soon we shall see just how tickled I am.

2000 AD - March 1988.

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

***

Who could stop Kylie Minogue in March of 1988?

No one, it seemed, as she sat proud at the top of the UK singles chart, thanks to her smash hit I Should Be So Lucky.

But then it turned out that someone could stop her. And it was in the not totally expected form of Aswad, most famous for one of their members having been in the 1970s children's TV show Here Come the Double Deckers. Now grown up, he and his mates dethroned Kylie, thanks to their single Don't Turn Around. it seemed that only the power of reggae could defeat the antipodean superstar.

On the accompanying album chart, the month arrived with Introducing the Hardline According to ... Terence Trent D'Arby on top before that was displaced by Morrissey's Viva Hate.

But even hate must give way to the soothing charms of music.

And, so, Mozzer was quickly vanquished, as the month drew to a close, by Now That's What I Call Music! 11.

In the real world of food, the month saw the first McDonald's restaurant open in a country run by a Communist party, when one was launched in Belgrade, later to be followed by one in Budapest.

And it seemed Communism was under siege everywhere because Bratislava saw the Candle Demonstration - the 1980s' first mass protest against the government of Czechoslovakia.

When it came to the cinemas, it was a month that saw the release of a whole slew of thrilling new movies, including but not restricted to Doom Asylum, Babette's Feast, Pulse, Masquerade, Vice Versa, D.O.A., Little Nikita, Police Academy 5, Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw, Biloxi Blues and Beetlejuice.

March also saw the unleashing of Roger Vadim's And God Created Woman which turned out to have nothing to do with the earlier film of the same name from the same director.

Obviously, I'm going to vote for Beetlejuice as Film of the Month, from that list.

And what of the galaxy's greatest comic?

It was, as so often, offering us a diet of old favourites Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future-Shocks, A.B.C. Warriors and Nemesis the Warlock.

But it also saw the arrival of new strip in the shape of Tyranny Rex by John Smith and Steve Dillon which followed the adventures of the last survivor of her species of reptilian humanoids, turned mercenary.

And Steve Dillon also presided over the return of  Hap Hazzard.

interesting to note that not one of this month's issues features Judge Dredd on its cover. I wonder when was the last time that had happened?

April 17th, 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. 

***

What's this that stands before us?

Is it the Veil of History?

Let us sweep it aside and discover just what it conceals!

It's a dramatic cover that promises broken teeth all round but, before we get to that epic clash, we must visit Conan the barbarian.

And it's bad news for the brawler, as he's been tied to a stake and is about to be fed to a giant crocodile that's been terrorising a seaside town for years.

Of course, it's even worse news for the crocodile because it means it's about to get totalled by Conan the barbarian.

Then, the Avengers get to fight the Squadron Supreme.

Or, at least, some of them, before they manage to convince those some of them that they too are good guys and that the Squadron's world is in mortal peril!

And Iron Fist and Radion manage to inflict yet more damage on the Post Office Tower before the neon-fingered knucklemeister manages to transform his foe back into a normal human being.

As we can all see from that cover, the Hulk's having a return match with the Inhumans. I do particularly like the way he takes out Quicksilver by tapping him with his fingertips.

Except, as far as I'm aware, the Inhumans are nowhere in sight in the Hulk's strip.

Instead, he's still battling the Cobalt Man who explodes at the tale's climax, joining a healthy list of characters who've experienced an unscheduled violent self-disassembly event during encounters with the Hulk.

In no mood to fly apart is Daredevil who's just worked out that Death's Head is none other than Karen Page's dad!

And the Fantastic Four are prisoners of Maximus the Mad - and the pesky tyrant has plans to gain control of all humankind!

Now our heroes are in trouble because the giant brains have escaped!

Even if they do look like giant maggots.

Anyway, it would appear it's curtains for those giant brains, as Jason, Alexander and their allies set about trashing their subterranean base.

Next, Shanna and Ka-Zar defeat the Red Wizard who turns out not to be a Wizard at all and has been using technology to fake having magic powers. Not to mention using robot dinosaurs. Methinks a nod towards The Wizard of Oz is occurring.

After that, the Black Panther discovers that All Our Past Decades Have Seen Revolutions!

More importantly, Venomm makes a bid to break out of jail.

And it appears it's going to be successful!

Iron Fist is in England. Dracula is in America. It's like some sort of super-powered foreign exchange programme.

Exactly what Drac's up to in the States, I'm not at all clear about but I suspect he may have arrived in search of - not paradise - but Dr Sun.

Elsewhere, as agreed, Moon Knight delivers Jack Russell to the Committee but then has a change of heart and helps his captive thwart the evil organisation.

And the Man-Thing's up to something or other in a tale called The Survivors!

Politics comes to the Spider-World, as the Disruptor shows us all how to do democracy the direct way and Mary Jane reveals she votes for candidates purely on the grounds of how dishy they are.

Definitely not dishy is Umar the Unstoppable who decides to attack Dr Strange, while Mother Earth is warning Clea about something or other.

I do believe this week's double-page pin-up features the Man-Thing vs the Werewolf by Night

In a rather more technological vein, Iron Man's still battling the Mandarin, in an episode ominously titled Unmasked!

And, in the Thing's strip the Miracle Man is back and again causing trouble for Wyatt Wingfoot's tribe. With opposition on that level, it looks like the help of a Ghost Rider shall be required.

And, when it comes to Thor's strip, our hero manages to convince his friends that Loki has swapped bodies with him and has to be stopped. However, Neal Adams doesn't appear to have arrived yet.

Subby makes the cover but our lead tale is one in which the X-Men are having trouble with the Mutant-Master.

And even the villain's lackey, the Changeling, is starting to have doubts about the wisdom of his plan to destroy the planet Earth.

Following that, as the cover makes clear, Subby's having problems with the Plunderer.

Captain America's up to something with an agent in a communist land and, while he's at it, has time to help destroy that land's brand new secret death-ray thing.

After that, we encounter a short tale in which a pre-X-Men Charles Xavier travels to Washington, in a bid to convince the FBI that not all mutants are bad.

And Captain Marvel's assailed by a number of his old foes.

Including Rick Jones!

But it turns out to be a trick by the Super Skrull, on behalf of his mysterious boss.

But who could that boss be?

Who?