October 27th, 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 time to stick a safety pin through your nose and practice your gobbing because this was the week that saw the release of New Rose by the Damned, seemingly the first single ever to be marketed as punk rock.

Elsewhere, racing driver James Hunt became the Formula One world champion.

But of far more interest to me would have been that, on October 27th, BBC Two was showing The Mind Beyond: Stones; a drama in which a series of strange events related to Stonehenge lead an Oxford historian to wonder if it's true that stones and curses go hand in hand.

I have no memory of this masterpiece but news of it makes me feel I may have found a worthy bedfellow to Children of the Stones and that BBC Ghost Story for Christmas in which a man and woman decide to move a fallen standing stone in their garden, only for it to cause nothing but trouble.

And the good news is the thing's on YouTube, in its entirety and accessible by clicking on this very link.

Speaking of TV, later the same evening, that selfsame channel broadcast I, Claudius: Part 6: Queen of Heaven.

And what of music?

Still top of the UK singles chart was Pussycat's Mississippi, while its adjoining album chart was now being dominated by Various Artists' Soul Motion.

Hooray! It's the first issue of Captain Britain I ever read!

As I've said elsewhere, I wasn't overly impressed by the star of the book but did like that the coloured ink in his comic always smelled like marker pens.

From what I recall, Brian Braddock's at the bank when a bunch of heavily-armed men try to rob it.

Needless to say, our patriotic pole vaulter soon pounces to preclude such plundersome pilfering. 

But the Fantastic Four?

Reed's latest attempt at turning the Thing back to normal has resulted in turning him back to evil. And now the brick-faced bludgeoner is on the rampage around town!

Elsewhere, as far as I can ascertain, Captain America introduces Nick Fury to his old pal Jimmy Woo - not to be confused with Jimmy Choo - and I assume there's flashback action going on as regards the famed Northeast Blackout of 1965.

In this week's thrilling sequel to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the aftermath of the latest clash between apes and men sees Caesar spare Governor Breck's life and prevent Aldo from killing McDonald.

However, that leads to Aldo challenging Caesar to a battle to the death to decide just who leads the apes from now on.

My knowledge of the rest of the issue is limited but that cover tells me Ka-Zar's against the sinister Skull of the Lizard-Men which suggests to me he's still up against Sheesa, following the abduction of the Zebra-People.

I can shed no light upon just what is this week's venerable short story that's narrated by Dracula, nor what the Man-Thing may or may not be up to.

But I do know that, in Marvel's adaptation of the original Apes movie, Zira's nephew liberates Taylor and Nova from their cage.

I detect the arrival of the world's greatest poetry-spouting triceratops. And it's not every issue you can say that about.

And it all happens when the Hulk, Thunderbolt Ross and Clay Quartermain are prisoners of the Gremlin in his Siberian fortress Bitterfrost. 

Not to worry though because SHIELD soon destroys that fortress, with a nuclear satellite!

Elsewhere, having accidentally gained super-powers and escaped from prison, the man called Lucas adopts the name of Luke Cage and becomes a hero for hire on the streets of Harlem. An act that soon attracts the attention of the criminal known as Diamondback.

Elsewhere, Conan joins Murilo’s Crimson Company and travels to Ophir where they discover an ancient temple containing a mysterious ring.

But when a guard picks it up, he transforms into a monstrous shadow creature!

And, in the guise of Kid Gawaine, Daredevil would appear to still be in the process of busting the Phoenix Organisation’s criminal boxing activities. Is it just me or does this story feel like it's been going on for months? I mean, in his first issue, it only took Hornhead about six pages to bring down the Fixer's racket and he spent half of that time falling out of a window.

But can it be?

Yes, it can.

The Scorpion returns, for the first time since the days of Steve Ditko.

Considering how epic his first appearance was, it seems strange that he was used so sparingly in the strip from that point on.

Perhaps more importantly, Peter Parker's told the fingerprints of the mysterious Gwen Stacy lookalike exactly match those of the real Gwendolyne!

Having given up on fighting Durok the Demolisher, Thor returns to Asgard to confront Loki who intends to marry Sif - but the thunder god gets separated from his hammer, leaving him on the brink of turning back into puny Donald Blake!

Iron Man continues to be up against a security guard powered by Lucifer.

In the Invaders' strip, the Sub-Mariner takes on the Atlantean villain U-Man who's working for the Nazis and may be out to kill Churchill.

And, with Spider-Man dying from a toxin, the X-Men defeat Morbius to rescue the one scientist who can save our hero.

How can you not love it? Ares is out to stir up a war on Earth and we get the return of both Hercules and Hawkeye. Not to mention the chance to see just how much Barry Smith's style's changed since his previous stint on the strip, way back in Adamantium's origin tale.

Then, it's a drama we'll never forget, as Captain America asks psychiatrist Dr Faustus to help him overcome his recurring nightmares about Bucky.

But, unbeknownst to Cap, Faustus is actually driving him insane with drugs, disguises and elaborate hallucinations!

Next, Triton leaves Attilan, in search of adventure but, after mistaking a monster-movie production for a genuine attack, he assaults the film crew and is captured and transported to New York, in a water tank!

Subby, in his strip, confronts Naga, ruler of Lemuria, who's deceived him about Lady Dorma's death. In fact, the victim was Karthon's sister. Enraged, Karthon kills Naga and leads Lemuria towards peace and freedom. Hooray!

And Satan snatches Roxanne Simpson away to Hell and torments her with visions of her father's suffering, in a bid to break her spirit and make her renounce her protection of Johnny Blaze!

Speak Your Brain! Part 137.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

Talk is cheap but speech is free.

What a bombshell discovery.

But one that leads us into the senses-shattering return of the feature that all of humanity and beyond is talking about.

It's the one in which you and you alone, as well as everyone else, can choose the topic of debate.

Therefore, make sure to register that topic in the comments section below, before it's too late and we're forced, by time, to move on to contemplating the contents of Captain Britain's third issue in our Thursday post.

The DC Lucky Bag - October 1976.

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

***

DC comics are back.

But do they have much front?

Thanks to the power of television, a brand new heroine makes her debut and the world of comics will never be the same again!

Exactly what happens in this month's main strip is sketchy within my mind but I do know it's all delivered by Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano and titled Isis... As in Crisis!

Happily, the tale also includes her origin!

That's followed by a Captain Marvel tale in which Billy Batson and his friend Whitey are filming a documentary about young adults throughout history. Except their production's soon sabotaged by Dr Sivana!

It's a long time since I visited the House of Mystery in this feature and I know little of this issue's contents but I do know its main story's a chiller called Death-Vault of the Eskimo Kings, while the second feature's known to all mankind as Tomb It May Concern.

I'm starting to think it's my month for investigating DC's long-established-but-neglected-by-me books because now I find myself looking at Detective Comics and discover that Bats must track down a villain called the Black Spider before that evildoer kills again.

Then that's followed by the Black Canary adventure A Hot Time in Star City Tonight which I believe sees the blonde bombshell up against the deadly menace of the Calculator.

From that name, I'm going to assume he's the company's equivalent of the Mad Thinker.

And it's more Batman for us when the cowled crusader investigates The Only Crime in Town!

In it, our hero investigates an actual crime-free hour in Gotham City.

Yes, only Batman would investigate a lack of crimes.

It all leads him to uncover a scheme by a mobster and two coin dealers to steal a valuable numismatic collection.

And if we can have a return to the Lucky Bag for Batman, we can also have a return for Superman.

Kicking off, our protagonist battles the Purple Pile-Driver but he also observes two boys having experiences similar to the origins of Batman and the Flash.

When Supes summons those two heroes to the scene, the boys insist it is they who are the real Batman and Flash!

Meanwhile, this month's Private Life of Clark Kent sees the reporter lumbered with the job of showing a visitor around Metropolis.

However, while doing that, he has to keep distracting the man so he can slip away and deal with whatever emergencies are befalling the world.

The sharp-eyed and elephant-memoried reader will recall that I covered this issue last month.

And that's because I failed to read the cover date properly.

So, here it is again.

And I still know little of the action within but I do know that, thanks to Martin Pasko and Ramona Fradon, Wonder Woman helps the Freedom Fighters clear their name.

I somehow also managed to include this one in September's post.

As before, the Joker's book reaches the end of its road, with its final issue seeing the clown prince of crime confront the feline femme of felony.

And it all happens because each of them has foolishly decided to kidnap the same movie star.

October 20th, 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. 

***

Sometimes, coincidences are too great to seem like coincidences.

A perfect example of that occurred this week in 1976 when the Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince was struck by another ship, causing the deaths of 78 people.

At that very moment, Number One on the UK singles chart was the song Mississippi by Pussycat.

Fortunately, no such tragic synchronicity was to be found on the accompanying album chart, with ABBA still holding sway, thanks to their Greatest Hits album.

Britain's most sensational super-hero gets his second-ever outing.

Not that the creative team in America are going for every British cliché available but, after encountering Merlin and Stonehenge in his first appearance, he now comes up against a knight in shining armour. Next he'll be driving to fights, in a double-decker bus and setting up base in a red phone box.

Regardless, until then, our hero recalls his first encounter with Merlin and how - offered a choice between the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might - he chose Right over Might.

However, he might not have been as right as he might have thought, as that decision leaves the sword available for a man called the Reaver to claim.

Nightmare in the Negative Zone! sees Reed Richards trapped in that very universe and pursued by Annihilus. Fortunately, he's still back home in time for his tea.

However, things quickly head south, as Ben dumps Alicia and quits the team, vowing revenge on the lot of them!

Then we get Spy School! in which, as far as I can make out, Nick Fury experiences dizziness caused by an invisibility pill.

But forget all that. What really matters is, this issue, we faithful readers are gifted with a free boomerang!

And it's red!

In the tale that bridges the gap between Conquest and Battle, it's nothing but chaos for Caesar when the humans capture and threaten to kill his wife Lisa! Now how's he going to convince the gorillas to cool it?

From that cover, I think you can guess that he doesn't.

For the millionth week running, Ka-Zar, Tongah and the Zebra-Men are up against Sheesa and her army of the dead.

That's followed by Dracula, Lee, Lieber and Reinman's I Lived a Ghost Story! in which a man insists on spending a night in a haunted house.

Needless to say, he's chased from the building by spirits. Which is a relief to the estate agent who's also a ghost.

The Man-Thing appears to have left behind La Hacienda and its Fountain of Youth and gets involved in a tale called Deathwatch!

It's a tale I know little of but I do believe it involves an elderly character called Zeke and his equally aged wife.

Finally, in Marvel's adaptation of the original Apes movie, Taylor continues to be on trial for the crime of being able to speak.

Sweet Christmas! It's a ground-breaking day for Marvel UK, as none other than Luke Cage gets his own strip in its flagship title!

This is very big news indeed, as the only time I remember him appearing in Marvel UK before this was when he tackled Spider-Man, straight after the death of Gwen Stacy.

But before we reach that, the Hulk, Thunderbolt Ross and Clay Quartermain are imprisoned in the Gremlin's Siberian fortress.

And the villain erases what little there is of Glenn Talbot’s mind!

But what of the aforementioned Hero for Hire?

As I'm sure you know, a man called Lucas is framed for murder and imprisoned. It looks like a life behind bars awaits our man, until a dodgy scientific experiment gives him superhuman strength and bulletproof skin, allowing him to escape and set up a new life as Luke Cage!

Elsewhere, I think Conan's still carrying on in some way with Princess Stefanya.

And Daredevil's still investigating a criminal sports syndicate. By disguising himself as the boxer Kid Gawaine, he exposes the gang’s antics and brings its leader to justice.

As that cover makes clear, Spidey continues to be in France and battling the mind-boggling power of the Cyclone!

But none of that matters.

All that matters is the tale's epilogue - and its impossible return of Gwen Stacy!!!

Meanwhile, as a favour to Thor, the Silver Surfer tackles Durok the Demolisher, eventually depositing the brute in a distant and devastated future where it can do no harm.

In Iron Man's strip, a security guard accepts supernatural powers from Lucifer who's out to escape his dimensional prison. That guard battles Iron Man but changes sides when his wife appeals to his better nature, thus tanking Lucifer's fiendish plan.

A Tale of Asgard reveals Loki's childhood jealousy of Thor and his growing desire for power.

And, finally, Spider-Man's wrongly blamed for a scientist's abduction, leading to a clash with the X-Men who then discover the wall-crawler's dying from an inconvenient toxin!

From out of the blue, the Avengers move to The Titans, abandoning The Mighty World of Marvel!

And from out of the blue, Golden Age heroes erupt from the dimmest recesses of Rick Jones' dimmest psyche!

It can only be the end of the Kree-Skrull War and the return of Big John Buscema to the fray.

But exactly what's happened to Clint Barton?

In his own strip, Captain America battles a robot duplicate created by Chinese agents seeking to discredit him via a film studio. However, that plan ends badly for the treasonous studio owner.

Elsewhere, the young Black Bolt is released from isolation - only for Maximus to try and force him to use his deadly voice!

In another elsewhere, the Sub-Mariner confronts the tyrant Naga whose deception leads Karthon to kill him, finally bringing peace to Lemuria.

And it's more trouble for the Ghost Rider when Satan shocks us all by - just for a change - targeting Roxanne Simpson.

This time, he offers to release her father's soul from Hell if she abandons her protection of Johnny Blaze!

Speak Your Brain! Part 136. Computer games you have known.

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

***

Image by Tumisu
from Pixabay

A wise woman once said the sun'll come out tomorrow.

But tomorrow is of no use to a man like me.

And that's because this is the website that lives for today.

But what is today?

It's not just the day that lives between Monday and Wednesday. It's the day that sees the return of the feature humanity fears and covets in equal measure.

Gadzooks! It's only the one in which you and other humans can decide just what's to be the subject for discussion.

Many and varied have been the subjects covered by Speak Your Brain in the past and many and varied are likely to be the ones covered by it in the future. Therefore, before that future even has a chance to get out of bed and put the toaster on, make sure to register that subject in the comments section below.

2000 AD - September 1988.

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

***

It does strike me the number of times random strangers in the street demand to know just how I achieve my stunning levels of fitness.

And, of course, it's because I'm still in training for the Olympics, knowing, as I do that, one day, if I keep plugging away at it, I'm bound to get selected.

People who have already managed to get selected are the people who took part in the 1988 Seoul Olympics which, as I'm sure you're aware, began in September of 1988.

And they weren't the only ones with reason to get sports fever. So could the ones with a taste for snowbound sports because, in that selfsame month, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1994 Winter Games to Lillehammer.

Good news was also to be found by those whose ambition was to go even higher than Olympic high jumpers. And that was that NASA resumed its Space Shuttle flights which had been grounded since the Challenger disaster.

And the world's cinemas?

Just what was managing to fill them with punters that month?

They were mostly being filled with punters eager to watch The Deceivers, Eight Men Out, Rocket Gibraltar, Moon Over Parador, Running on Empty, The Beast, Doin' Time on Planet Earth, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Bird, Gorillas in the Mist and Dead Ringers. All of which was fortunate because it was the month in which those films came out.

I'm fairly certain that, of those offerings, the only one I've seen is Gorillas in the Mist. Therefore, I shall declare it to be the Steve Does Comics Film of the Month.

Come to think of it, not only have I not seen any of the others. I've never even heard of most of them.

What I have heard of is Phil Collins, and part of the reason for that is that September 1988 began with him at Number One on the UK singles chart, thanks to his latest smash Groovy Kind of Love. However, even the mighty Phil couldn't stay at the top forever. And so, before the month was out, his track had been dislodged by the re-release of the Hollies' He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother which I have a feeling reappeared thanks to inclusion in an advert.

Needing no such aid to hit the top was Kylie Minogue who managed to rule the UK album chart with her self-titled LP. However, that was then deposed by Various Artists' Hot City Nights which itself then had to make way for Bon Jovi's New Jersey.

But what of the galaxy's greatest comic?

As regular readers may have expected, it was still serving up a familiar diet of Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Tharg's Time Twisters, Zenith, Tharg's Future-Shocks and Sláine.

However, Prog 590 saw the launch of new Judge Dredd series The Mean Machine which was, as far as I can make out, created by reprinting the character's Daily Star newspaper strip.

But that's not all that was novel. Prog 591 saw the debut of Moon Runners, as brought to us by Steve Parkhouse, Alan McKenzie and Massimo Belardinelli.

And there's another matter we need to recognise because September also saw the launch of a brand-new comic from the same publishers as 2000 AD.

And that was Crisis. 

I'm not going to cover that each month, as such an effort might cut into the time available for my Olympic training but I shall at least feature the first issue here.

I must confess it's not a book I could claim to be overly knowledgeable about but it seems issue #1 featured two strips: Third World War and New Statesmen, brought to us by such talents as Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, John Smith and Jim Baikie.

Despite struggling to achieve strong sales, the mag managed to last for 63 issues, switching to a monthly schedule from issue #50, was often politically aware and featured early work by the likes of Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, John McCrea and Grant Morrison.

Also, it appears to have been owned by Robert Maxwell before his not at all suspicious demise.

October 13th, 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. 

***

I think we all remember the joke that went, "Mississippi is a very long word but can you spell it?"

And we never needed that joke more than we did, this week in 1976.

That's because seizing the top spot on the UK singles chart was none other than Mississippi by Pussycat. How well I remember the video that went with that one.

But what of the accompanying album chart?

Its pinnacle was still being gripped by ABBA's Greatest Hits, being, as it was, sixteen years before their Gold album would arrive to destroy all challengers.

I must confess I'm not totally convinced that Mississippi is an all-time classic but there were songs I approved of more on that week's Hit Parade. And among them were:

Dancing Queen - ABBA

Sailing {1976} - Rod Stewart

Blinded by the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band

The Rubberband Man - the Detroit Spinners

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

The Killing of Georgie - Rod Stewart

Couldn't Get It Right - Climax Blues Band

The Tears of a Clown {1976} - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading

Benny and the Jets - Elton John

and

Without You {1976} by Nilsson.

If you've personally been affected by the above content, that week's UK singles chart can be found here.

While the adjoining LP chart dwells within.

But now for bigger news because it was a more than momentous week for comic fans in this very land, as Marvel UK launched its second-ever super-hero (Apeslayer having been its first) with the debut of a comic that would no doubt fill our souls with swelling patriotic pride.

And it was in full colour!

Apart from the bits that weren't.

This is it! A hero like no other - apart from Spider-Man and Nova - is here!

And he even gives us a free gift of a super-hero mask while he's at it!

Tragically, I never had that free gift because I never had issue #1 but the strip's written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Herb Trimpe. So, even with my absence, how could it not be a success, guaranteed to run and run?

As far as I can surmise, it all begins when posh boy Brian Braddock arrives at the Darkmoor Research Centre, for work purposes, just as it's attacked by Joshua Stragg who plans on capturing its nuclear scientists for use in his dodgy business ventures!

A hasty strategic withdrawal on a motorcycle sees Brian fall off a cliff!

Which might seem like the end for our not so plucky protagonist but, thanks to the intervention of Merlin the Magician is, in fact, only the beginning!

Following that, the Fantastic Four are in crisis, with Reed Richards trapped in the Negative Zone and headed for the fate he seems to be headed for every time he enters that realm.

And only the babysitter can save him!

And then we experience From Hell -- Fury! in which Nick of that surname meets new agents Sidney Levine and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, only for Captain America to reveal he's uncovered information about a mysterious past event known as, “The Big Blackout.”

Will man and ape ever learn to live together in peace and harmony?

Judging by the cover, I'm beginning to suspect they may not.

But I am always impressed by how easy humans in these comics find it to beat up gorillas. I'd like to see the writers and artists of these strips try to beat up a gorilla and see just how far they get with it.

Regardless, our focus this week is not on humans but on apes, as Caesar and Aldo explore the ruins of a city destroyed by nuclear conflict - and Aldo gets his hands on a rifle!

Far, far south of there - and in the present - Ka-Zar, Tongah and the Zebra People are still having trouble with Sheesa and her army of the dead!

Dracula introduces us to a shocking short titled The Monster in the Cellar in which a writer decides to compose a horror story in which a writer has a monster in his cellar.

Needless to say, it's not long before that story starts to come true for him.

And to finish the issue, Taylor's still on trial in Marvel's adaptation of the first Apes movie.

And that's when he discovers just what's happened to Landon.

We encounter another twist in the mission to rescue Glenn Talbot from the clutches of the Russians, when the man his rescuers think is Talbot declares himself to be Soviet agent Gregori Kronski!

I do believe the Avengers continue to battle the Skrull fleet in space.

Conan helps Princess Stefanya tackle the corrupt rulers of Phalkar.

And Daredevil tackles a corrupt sports syndicate by disguising himself as a boxer called Kid Gawaine.

Forget Captain Britain. Clearly determined to not be outdone by its neighbour to the north, France gets its very own super-doer when the Cyclone makes his first appearance but only hangs around for long enough to be defeated by a fan.

Thor's not had much luck against Durok the Destroyer either. Will the Silver Surfer fare any better?

Iron Man's probably still tangling with Midas in some way or other.

The Invaders, however, discover the three Norse gods they've been battling are aliens manipulated by Brain Drain. Freed from his control, those aliens choose death.

And The Power to Purge! sees Spidey and the Human Torch tackle Morbius the Living Vampire. During that confrontation, the vampire known as Jefferson Bolt dies.

But hold on. What's this?

The Fantastic Four are not only in Captain Britain's mag? They're also still in The Titans?

It's clearly madness but, no doubt, a cunning marketing ploy.

Anyway, Janus is destroyed in the Negative Zone and that leads to the FF's latest clash with Annihilus.

In Cap Goes Wild, the hero comes up against a Life Model Decoy designed to look like and discredit him.

Then, gasp as we encounter the origin of Black Bolt. His origin being that he was born.

In A World Against Me, Subby battles Naga for the Serpent Crown but accidentally kills a woman who's been impersonating Lady Dorma.

And the Ghost Rider's still fighting the awesome power of the One Man Zodiac, who doesn't last very long.