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Sunday, 11 January 2015

January 11th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

A quick look at the Radio Times Genome site tells me that if this really was January 11th, 1975, I'd currently be settling down for an evening of Dr Who, Bruce Forsyth and Match of the Day. My, how British broadcasting's changed over the last forty years.

Still, there was an Ayn Rand movie on BBC2, which is not something you can say every day.

But why do I suspect Marvel's heroes were far too busy to be watching TV on this very day forty years ago?

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #100

Spider-Man hits his hundredth issue with a battle against the Kangaroo.

Possibly not the dream choice of foe for such a landmark edition but it's Spider-Man - and Spider-Man's always great - so who cares?

You can read my review of this issue, right here.
Marvel UK Avengers #69, Dr Strange, Sons if Satannish

I did always feel Satannish had a strangely non-committal name for a bad guy. It was like he vaguely fancied being Satan but couldn't quite be bothered.

But what a lovely and striking cover by genial Gene Colan.
Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #12

At last the Planet of the Apes movie adaptation's over and we get a brand new story featuring Jason and Alexander and some fabby artwork by Mike Ploog who seemed to be pulling out all the stops for the tale's first instalment.
Mighty World of Marvel #119, The Hulk vs the Colossus

From the caption at the top of the cover, I'm assuming this features the tale where Daredevil fights a bunch of aliens near a university campus. Mostly because that's the only early Daredevil tale I can recall where he's having to fight to save the Earth.
Marvel UK Dracula Lives #12, Neal Adams cover

Neal Adams produces what's always struck me as a jarringly atypical cover for a Marvel Dracula comic but there's no denying that it's memorable.

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 January 2015 at 05:20

    You're right Steve - that is a lovely Gene Colan cover. No big surprise there, but it is unusually considerate of the colourist not to bugger it up, which seemed to be standard practice with the old weeklies.

    Ayn Rand flick on the tv? Maybe the beeb scheduler was a Steve Ditko fan celebrating the 100th issue of Spiderman....

    -sean

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  2. Gey Blabby12 January 2015 at 11:25

    I've never seen it before full size, but the figure (esp. left hand) and cape of the Dracula figure on that cover look very Gil Kane-like - any chance that it's a collaboration with Adams?

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  3. Steve W.12 January 2015 at 13:08

    It's possible. Kane was the regular cover artist on the mag, so he may have touched it up a bit. Then again, I think Adams always claims that Kane was one of his big influences. So he may have been trying to do a cover in the style of Kane.

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  4. Anonymous12 January 2015 at 13:43

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  5. Dougie14 January 2015 at 16:55

    I had never heard of Rod Serling until I read this POTA. I knew of the Twilight Zone because the likes of Bashful Benjy Grimm often made reference to it- but I didn't see it 'til the early 80s (?) and BBC2 repeats

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  6. Steve W.14 January 2015 at 17:20

    Same here, Dougie. Other than reading about him in POTA, I think my first exposure to him was watching his Night Gallery show in the late 1970s.

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  7. Anonymous16 January 2015 at 13:30

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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