Wednesday 3 July 2013

Forty years ago this month - July 1973

Mere days ago, the Glastonbury Festival was in full swing.

And that means only one thing. Mere days ago, I was knee-deep in mud, enduring unsanitary toilets and supporting a young women on my shoulders as she waved her arms around.

Which is odd as I was in my local supermarket.

How we all thrilled to the likes of Professor Green, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, the Rolling Stones and Editors.

But what did the editors of Marvel comics have in store for us in the year when Glastonbury was mysteriously absent from the musical calendar?

Avengers #113

I must confess this is one of my least favourite comic book covers of all time. The overwrought melodrama of it's always struck me as ludicrous.

I've never been that big on the story inside either. Mostly because of the vaguely comedic detonation system favoured by the human bombs.
Captain America and the Falcon #163, the Serpent Squad

Is that the Eel on the cover?

Are eels technically serpents?

Are they not technically fish?

Shouldn't he therefore be in the Piscine Patrol?

With Attuma?

And Tiger Shark?
Conan the Barbarian #28, Beast of Zembabwei

Conan comes up against one of those pesky man-apes who seem to lurk in every Hyborean forest.
Daredevil and the Black Widow #101, Angar the Screamer

Hooray! A Daredevil story I actually remember, as Angar the Screamer gets up to confused mischief.

Angar actually gets mentioned in a book of monsters I got for Christmas one year when I was a child. I shall have to review that book at some point in the not-too-distant future.

That book was advertised in many comics of the time. Therefore, anyone who can name that book gets a great big Steve Does Comics No-Prize.
Fantastic Four #136

I really don't have a clue what's going on here.
Incredible Hulk #165, Aquon

Hooray! It's half man, half fish, all trouble, as Aquon makes his gluggery debut.

I first read this tale in the 1975 UK Marvel Annual.

More on that book, right here.
Iron Man #60, the Masked Marauder

I don't like to knock but, to be honest, the promise of the Masked Marauder returning would rarely be enough to make me buy a comic.
Amazing Spider-Man #122, the death of the Green Goblin

The Green Goblin dies and, forty years later, I still haven't got over it.
Thor #213

Is that a Jim Starlin cover I detect?

Either way, Thor's about to kick some alien butt.

3 comments:

Aggy said...

"The Green Goblin dies and, forty years later, I still haven't got over it."

Which is odd as he did...

Dougie said...

I've blogged about that Conan comic a couple of times. I got it in Stranraer during our summer holiday in 1973. I'm booking a couple of days' holiday down there today, actually.

The cover reminds me of Lyons Maid Captain Cody (3p) and Haunted House ices. I certainly wouldn't buy such a lurid-looking comic for a ten-year-old now though; probably not for a 15-year-old either!

Sphinx Magoo said...

I remember some of these covers as being previewed in Marvel's F.O.O.M., especially that Hulk one with Aquon and the Thor one which looked great in black and white. I remember picking up the FF issue and not understanding what was going on either. The Avengers story made more sense but those Human Bombs boggled my then-7 year old brain.