Four weeks later, they fled that house in horror.
I can only assume it was because there wasn't a newsagent nearby who stocked their favourite Marvel comics.
No wonder they were in a panic.
Conan wouldn't flee from Amityville. He'd chop its head off and eat it. And then he'd do the same to any other house that got cheeky with him.
Hooray! Death-Stalker was always my favourite Daredevil villain in my youth.
Admittedly, that wasn't much of an achievement as, until he'd showed up, Daredevil's arch-enemy had been Stilt-Man. Still, fair play to him, Death-Stalker raised the bar considerably.
I must confess to not having a clue what's actually happening on the cover - or who, "The most startling character in the annals of Marveldom," is.
The Crusader's still causing trouble.
But what dainty, delicate little blasts he's firing from his hands there.
I seem to remember the Locust being a somewhat useless villain.
I also seem to remember this being the issue in which Sal Buscema replaced Herb Trimpe as regular penciller on the book.
I'm assuming, from the setting, that that character who looks like the Sub-Mariner isn't really the Sub-Mariner?
It's the cover you thought you'd never see! Spider-Man threatening a rat!
Meanwhile, the story within sees the return of the Shocker.
It's not just the Shocker who's about to return to Marvel Land - because the arrival of the Servitor must surely mean that Zarrko: The Tomorrow Man can't be far behind.
I first read this tale in the 1977 Titans Annual. A review of which you can read by clicking on this very link.
It was in this story that I first discovered that the American emergency number is 911 and not the 999 that we have in our very own magical land of mists and crumpets.
This looks suspiciously like the issue before the Avengers fought Kang in the American Wild West.
The second part of that tale was, of course, reprinted in Marvel UK's 1977 Avengers Annual, with great chunks edited out to make it fit the page count.
It may have been the first time I ever encountered Moondragon.
This tale didn't appear in any 1977 Marvel UK annuals, as far as I'm aware.
It is, however, a tale that manages the somewhat unique feat of owing a debt to both Night of the Demon and that Star Trek episode where Kirk emerges from an obelisk, starts calling himself Kirok and takes to living with American Indians from outer space.
I think I had everyone of these comics (except Daredevil 128) back in the day - and I still have a few of them in my collection. The Namor look-a-like on the cover of Iron Man is the Black Lama, and yes Hulk 198 was Sal Buscema’s first issue after the wonderful Herb Trimpe as regular artist.
ReplyDeleteConan was my favourite MARVEL comic at this time and if I recall correctly issue 57 was a Mike Ploog issue and was pretty impressive. The X-Men issue here blew me away at the time with some excellent Dave Cockrum art and as a Scot as I was fair chuffed seeing a proper Scottish character in Marvel with Moira MacTaggert (that wasn't a stereotype)
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That has got to be one of the coolest Spider-man cover of all time. And the comic featured the Shocker, one of my favorites, him and that quilt suit and those funky vibro-gauntlets of his. I bet he's the life of the party at raves.
ReplyDeleteYou right about Conan, Steve. He would have made short work of the Amityville house.
And then proceed to dispatch Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees, and the Blair Witch, all before lunch.
M.P.