Sunday 19 July 2015

July 19th, 1975 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

This week in 1975, the Bay City Rollers were sat supreme at Number One on the UK singles chart, with Give a Little Love. I remember sinking into a deep trough of despair at the time, when this happened, and standing outside a shop, peering in through its windows and praying their careers would die.

Obviously, now that I'm much older, such frustration is gone and I can now appreciate the Bay City Rollers and their contribution to Popular Music.

Well, alright, I can't. I can merely mock their memory, in a graceless manner unbecoming of me. But, after forty years, I do at least feel that I can afford to be magnanimous and finally forgive them their sins. Plus, nostalgia has a strange way of lending charm to even the most unlikely of things.

I do get the feeling though that the heroes of Marvel UK's mags weren't being quite so forgiving of their tormentors' sins.

Spider-Man Comics Weekly #127, London

Blinky blonky blimey, governor, Spider-Perisher's in London and fighting those blighters who are out to blow up Her Majesty's Big Ben, like dirty rotten cads, what ho?

As you can hear, I do have a quite superb British accent, having been practising it for many years.

In other news, I am quite impressed by terrorists who drive around in Rolls Royces.

Marvel UK, Avengers and Savage Sword of Conan #96

It's more action than the human mind can possibly hope to even dream of accommodating, as the newly merged mag flings everything it can at us.

Mighty World of Marvel #146, Hulk vs Hulk

The Hulk's well and truly back in Jarella Land.

I've got a feeling that this issue may have had an advert for Dinky Toys' Space: 1999 Eagle on the back but I couldn't swear to it for certain.

If it does, it was the first time I learned of that show's existence.

If it doesn't, it wasn't.

Marvel UK, Dracula Lives #39, Dracula vs Werewolf By Night

Given the total lack of fighting skills, tactical nous and intelligence of Jack Russell's hairy alter-ego, it's hard to see how a fight between him and Dracula could be anything but a one-sided smackdown but, nonetheless, that tussle reaches its second issue.

Marvel UK, Planet of the Apes #39, Beneath the Planet of the Apes

What a nice cover. It was always a treat when Marvel UK decided to reprint one of the US originals instead of commissioning a new one.

Marvel UK, The Super-Heroes #20, the Silver Surfer vs the Overlord

I've no idea what's going on here but the bad guy does have an air of the villains in Marvel's adaptation of Gullivar Jones about him.

8 comments:

20 cent aka Mike in Jersey said...

I remember the Bay City Rollers had a show on NBC. I was not a fan either, probably because their fan base was teen girls who were hysterical over them. You are so right about how nostalgia will change one's opinion. I used to think ABBA and Barry Manilow weren't cool, but now I find their songs enjoyable.

Steve W. said...

I seem to remember ABBA being viewed as painfully uncool in Britain until about 1992, when they suddenly became wildly fashionable and have been wildly fashionable ever since. It's strange how these things happen.

Dougie said...

I have a feeling this would be the week we spent in Rothesay on the island of Bute. It was the last holiday we had before I went to secondary school. It was very hot, as such a summer should be.
That week, I got the first issues of Dc's Justice Inc. and Stalker. I listened to the radio a lot - Typically Tropical; Jive Talkin'; Mama Never Told Me by Sister Sledge. I also bought a paperback based on the Star Trek cartoon series.
But the biggest deal was the photo in the Sun (or the Mirror) of Angie Bowie as the Black Widow!

Ant Master said...

I certainly did not recall teh Angie Bowie pic:- http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/01/remember-when-david-bowies-wife-did-a-black-widow-tv-show-me-neither/

Steve W. said...

This week in 1975 was a week or two before we went on holiday to Blackpool. I also remember that Angie Bowie photo. I think it must have been in the Daily Express that I saw it, as that was the paper my dad mostly read at the time.

My musical memories of that holiday are of Don Estelle and Windsor Davies, the Bay City Rollers and Ray Stevens' version of Misty.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I didn't know the Bay City Rollers ever had a song besides "Saturday Night."

Steve W. said...

Which, ironically, I don't think was ever released in their home country.