Comic book film adaptations you have owned.

Last week's post about Marvel's stab at doing Close Encounters of the Third Kind made me realise that, as a youth, I had very few comics that adapted famous movies.

In fact, the only ones I can remember ever reading were Marvel's Planet of the Apes adaptations, one issue of their take on Logan's Run, their version of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and their mighty adaptation of Battlestar Galactica.

Admittedly, some might claim Battlestar Galactica was a TV show, not a movie but I'm fairly sure I remember its first two episodes being stitched together and released in cinemas for the benefit of those who didn't know better.

From what I can recall, the Planet of the Apes adaptations were solid and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad was workmanlike, while the George Perez drawn Logan's Run was better than the movie.

The Battlestar Galactica adaptation lodged so strongly in my mind that, even having looked at several pages of it, on the internet, in the last twenty four hours, not one panel of those pages rings a single bell for me. Despite me having fond feelings for it, I take this as a worrying sign that it might not have been the most memorable thing ever published.

Yesterday, I discovered that Marvel at one point descended into total madness and did an adaptation of Robert Stigwood's Sgt Pepper movie.

I've previously argued that it was potentially unwise to do an adaptation of Close Encounters, what with it having a piece of music as its key moment. Bearing in mind that Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is a musical and basically has nothing at all going for it apart from music, how on Earth could it possibly have been made to work as a comic, when comics can't do music?

Clearly, it couldn't because it would appear that the whole project proved to be so disastrous that Marvel refused to even release the thing in America, thus robbing the English-speaking world of what is no doubt an act of magnificent madness. Seemingly, if you want to read it, you can only do so if you can read French or German.

Anyway, those are my heartwarming memories and thoughts on the matter. Which comic book adaptations of movies have you read? And which have been your favourites and not-so-favourites?

August 25th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Hooray! I've got my bucket and spade ready and I'm sat astride a donkey while wearing a, "Kiss Me Quick," hat.

Why?

Because I was on holiday in that Rio de Janeiro of the north, Blackpool, when I first read these tales.

But just how holiday a mood were our favourite heroes and villains of Marvel UK in at the time?

And did they remember to pack their trunks?

The Sub-Mariner certainly remembered to pack his trunks. As always, it's the only item of clothing he has remembered to pack.

And thank God for that as he once again shows his awesome intellect by teaming up with a super-villain, having totally failed to spot that he's up to no good.

Needless to say, it all leads to war with the surface dwellers, and Subby suddenly realising he's been a bit of a wally.

That's quite a dramatic cover.

I do believe it's by Ron Wilson.

Admittedly, I only know that because the Grand Comics Database tells me it is. Frankly, I didn't have a clue who'd done it until they told me.

As always, I have no idea what the Ka-Zar story entails.

It's that one where the Hulk comes up against his own shadow - or at least an alien masquerading as his shadow. You'd struggle to call the tale a classic but I have a soft spot for it.

I believe it was in this tale that I first discovered that you can tell Hollywood movie fake dust from real dust by licking it to see if it tastes like soap.

This is a piece of knowledge that has, so far, not yet proven to be at all useful to me in my life.

Nonetheless, I bear that information in mind, just in case I need it one day.

Sheffield's Most Wanted. Part 18: Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. Marvel Super Special #3.

It's back! That legendary feature where I talk about comics I never had as a youth but always wanted.

And that means it's time to get cinematical!

How well I recall the adverts for Marvel Super Special #3. Then again, it's hard to forget them, as they seemed to be a regular feature on the backs of Marvel UK's mags for months - if not years - on end.

But, even without that, how could anyone have forgotten them, seeing as the book featured a movie close to the hearts of all of us who love to make mountains from mashed potatoes?

In retrospect, exactly why I wanted this adaptation, I'm not sure, bearing in mind that I'd already seen the film and it was therefore hardly likely to contain any surprises for me.

I suspect my interest was almost entirely down to Bob Larkin's thrillingly dramatic cover and the never-ending appeal of flying saucers and little grey men. Not to mention the flat-topped mountain whose shape so reminded me of the slag heaps of South Yorkshire and the North Midlands that I was so familiar with in my youth. You see? If Steven Spielberg had grown up where I did, that film would have had a whole lot less mystery and glamour.

Then again, if he'd grown up where I did, E.T. would have been called Ee! Tea! and been a much different experience.

All that aside, my critical faculties tell me there's an obvious problem with doing a comic book adaptation of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And that's that the whole movie hinges on a piece of music.

Bearing in mind that the one thing that comics can't do is music, how could it possibly be viable to do a comic book adaptation of it?

I have no idea.

Given that I've still never seen a copy of the thing, I fear the matter will have to remain as great a mystery to me as the true motives of the alien visitors who kidnap me from my bed every night and subject me to their nightmarish experiments.

I wouldn't mind but they're experiments in comedy improv.

Reader, words cannot express the dread horror of it all.

August 18th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

In August of 1976, the UK finished the Montreal Olympics with three gold medals. As I type this deathless prose, we have twenty one gold medals.

Does this mean the past was rubbish compared to the present?

Yes it does.

Does this mean we were downhearted in 1976?

Of course it does.

Does this mean I wasn't interested in the 1976 Olympics?

Of course it does.

Fortunately, I didn't need sporting glory. Why would I? I had the power and majesty of Marvel UK to keep me going.

It's that tale where the Fantastic Four find themselves up against the Maggia - and having all kinds of trouble with them.

Maybe it's just me but the very idea of the Maggia turning up in the FF's book seems like near-heresy. Surely the people who took on Galactus, Annihilus and Dr Doom shouldn't be lumbered with fighting a bunch of small-time gangsters who can't even beat Daredevil.

Zzzax is back!

And I still don't have a clue how many times the letter Z should feature in his name.

Neither does he, I suspect.

Neither does the Hulk, I suspect.

Then again, the Hulk probably doesn't know how many times any letter should feature in any name.

That aside, I always liked Zzzax. He had an appealing air of menace about him.

It's a tale of pulse-pounding drama, as the Tarantula continues his reign of terror.

Perhaps more importantly, Harry finally finds out Peter Parker's secret identity.

Surely no good can come of that.

Happy Herb Trimpe gives us the cover to a story I have no memory of.

All I know is that here we are, in the future and they still haven't got round to building a psychedrome.

What on Earth are the fools playing at? Why are they wasting all that money on the Olympics when they should be building a psychedrome?

I still remember our childhood chant, "Psychedromes, not velodromes!" Have they forgotten it already?

2000 AD - July 1978.

July 1978 was about as sci-fi a month as you could get, as the world's first test tube baby was born in Manchester. Truly we knew at that moment that we were getting closer to the year 2000 with every moment that passed.

And we didn't even have to wait to discover just what that landmark year would be like - as, each week, we had a publication that told us with chilling accuracy.

Writing this post is an exciting event for me because, for once, an issue of 2000 AD contains a story I actually remember. That's because Prog 71 brings us the start of Ant Wars in which titanic titular termite-like terrors go on the rampage.

Why they're so gigantic, I don't recall but I have no doubt that DDT or radiation or some such other unpleasantness turns out to be to blame.

Meanwhile, even as that's happening, Progs 71 and 72 are cheerfully getting IPC into legal trouble thanks to the unauthorised misuse of the McDonalds, Burger King and Jolly Green Giant trademarks. It's a dispute that'll see reprints of the story banned until a 2014 EU law declares that trademarked characters can be used for purposes of satire, enabling the issues to finally appear in TPB form in July 2016.

Prog 73, meanwhile sees the first appearance of the dinosaur Satanus in Judge Dredd's strip. How, exactly, did a bunch of dinosaurs end up being in the Cursed Earth? Were they normal animals that had somehow mutated into dinosaurs? Had they been created by scientists? Were they robots? Were they a figment of Judge Dredd's imagination? Had they somehow time travelled to the future?

Elsewhere, The Suit is apparently a M.A.C.H. Zero story, which is odd as I don't remember M.A.C.H. Zero ever having his own series. I just remember him turning up in M.A.C.H. One's strip. I recall him as having basically no brain and no conversational skills. So, just how he managed to carry his own strip, I have no idea.

Prog 75, meanwhile, gave us the Cursed Earth board game which I vaguely recall.

But only vaguely.

August 11th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

On this day in 1976, the BBC's Sky at Night show was broadcasting and analysing photos sent from Mars by NASA's Viking 1.

Sadly, Viking 1 was a big letdown, as it turned out its pillaging function wasn't working and it just sat there taking holiday snaps.

On top of that, it had no eye for a decent photo. The pictures it sent back contained no Martians and it made the Red Planet look like one of those Sussex quarries that Dr Who was always trying to pass off as alien worlds. Who would have guessed that that show would prove to be so scientifically accurate?

Fortunately, if Mars was letting us down, we at least had the output of Marvel UK to keep us thrilled.

Hooray! It's that one where the Fantastic Four come up against robot duplicates of all their greatest foes - and of the Mole Man.

To be honest, it's not a great tale, as the robots can't fight their way out of a carrier bag and the Mad Thinker and the Red Ghost - who're behind the scheme - manage to blow themselves up.

What a pair of idiots.

I assume the Sub-Mariner tale is the one where he and the Thing tussle over the Serpent Crown, and Betty Dean shows up and bemoans the fact that she's now the horrifically old age of, erm, fortyish.

The Sub-Mariner in this era had some of my favourite John Buscema art ever.

I really don't have a clue what's going on now. I assume that's the Last Gasp Magick Man who's being abducted?

The Tarantula makes his stabby debut.

I always had a soft spot for the Tarantula. He might not have been very good at being a super-villain but he had an appealing costume and you had to admire his optimism in thinking he could take on a super-powered foe, when he himself had no powers at all.

Has there ever been a good super-villain whose talent is jumping around? The Kangaroo was rubbish. Batroc was rubbish. Leapfrog was rubbish. The Toad was rubbish. I am starting to spot a pattern here.

It's a nightmare come true. It's the week when The Mighty World of Marvel finally increases in price to 9p. No wonder the government had to go to the IMF for more money in 1976. They clearly wanted to be able to carry on buying all four of Marvel UK's mags.

Meanwhile, it's the fight we all wanted to see, the Vision vs the Super-Skrull.

Well, admittedly, they never quite get round to having a fight, as the Vision acts like a big sad quitter and departs the scene but it's all beautifully drawn and it's always fun to see the Super-Skrull up to no good.

Forty years ago today - August 1976.

Even as I type these breathless words, I'm watching Roger Moore in The Man Who Haunted Himself, a film I've not seen in decades.

Well, Roger Moore might be being haunted by himself but, right now, I'm being haunted by just one question; "What were my favourite Marvel heroes up to in this month of 1976?"

Here's where I find out.

It's a, "Spectacular 150th anniversary special!"

It's amazing to think that that means that, with this issue, the Avengers had been around for a hundred and fifty years. At the time, it must have seemed like barely more than ten.

It's just a shame the cover tells us nothing of what happens inside such a landmark issue.

To be honest, that's not the most compelling Conan cover I've ever seen. Plus his head is too large, which makes him look like a mere hot-headed youth rushing into a scrap he's sure to lose, rather than a battle-hardened warrior who no one can stop..

Captain America celebrates his two hundredth issue by celebrating America's two hundredth birthday.

Amazing to think that this means that his home country was just fifty years old when The Avengers comic was launched. It means there were very probably people who fought in the American War of Independence who read that very first Avengers issue. First Benedict Arnold and then Loki; their minds must have reeled that such treachery could exist in our world.

Things are not looking good for everyone's favourite horn-headed crime fighter.

It's all building up to the fight we've all been waiting for - Galactus vs the High Evolutionary. I loved this storyline when I was a youth, even though I thought the High Evolutionary didn't get enough screen-time when it came to the big fight.

It was in this tale that I first discovered that the population of the Earth was three billion people. They can't say comics aren't educational.

Jarella's back.

I have a feeling this isn't going to end happily.

I don't think I've ever read this one, and I therefore have no idea as to what the Blood Brothers' plan is.

Spidey's still having trouble with Doc Ock and Hammerhead.

Hooray! This issue was my first ever exposure to the New X-Men!

I first read it on a beach. I didn't have a clue who they were or what was going on in it but I knew at once that I loved them in a way that I'd never loved the Original X-Men.

Yet another Marvel hero celebrates a landmark issue this month.

I think this is the third time Mangog's been on the loose now and the third time he's tried to draw the Odin Sword. You'd think he'd have come up with another plan by now. Possibly getting his hands on the Cosmic Cube or the Infinity Gauntlet or both or something.

August 4th, 1976 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Doctor, grab that syringe - because I may be in urgent need of tranquilisers.

Why? Because I'm about to watch a very old edition of Robot Wars Extreme.

But, way back in 1976, we wouldn't have dreamt of watching robots bashing each other up. We were far too busy watching the stars of our favourite comic company bashing each other up instead.

That's the difference between the past and the present. And that's the brave new world of sci-fi Space Ageness we currently inhabit.

You couldn't accuse this of not being a landmark issue. Hammer and Anvil make their fearsome first appearance, Crackajack Jackson makes both his debut and his exit and the Hulk learns how to read and write.

More importantly than all that, I'm pretty sure this is the issue where the Hulk first discovers he likes baked beans.

I do believe this is a tale where the Torch goes on the rampage in the Great Refuge, in an attempt to find Crystal.

I think he might encounter a talking yeti along the way.

Other than that, I can recall little of the tale, other than that the Torch is very annoying in it.

What a striking and memorable cover. You can click here to find out if it made the legendary list of my favourite Planet of the Apes covers way back when I blogged on that very subject.

But, hold on. I detect a 9p price tag, meaning The Mighty World of Marvel is now the only Marvel UK publication that's still available for 8p.

According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, 9p in 1976 equates to 58p in current prices, while 8p equals 52p.

At the time, 9p equalled 16 cents  and 8p equalled 14 cents.

Spidey's still having trouble with the Molten Man.

Even more excitingly, Dr Strange is having trouble with Dracula in a tale drawn with sorcerous style by Gene Colan.

I seem to recollect that tale not having a happy outcome for the good doctor.