Forty years ago today - August 1978.

The recent heatwave has died an instant death and been replaced by the tapping of rain upon window sills, and the grip of an autumnal chill.

All I can do is seek refuge in the days of four decades past, when every summer was scorching and every winter produced ten foot of snow.

The Collector's back.

Other than that, I can say nothing of the contents of this comic.

I do, however, suspect the acquisitive alien's out to capture the Avengers and add them to his collection, seeing as that's what he does every time he shows up. You do wonder if he ever thinks of getting another hobby.

Apparently, Conan, Belit and Zula have to battle deadly snake creatures, in order to escape from catacombs.

You would have thought Conan would have learned to avoid catacombs by now. It never goes well when he enters any.

I'm reliably informed that, in this issue, Thoth Amon becomes Neftha's adviser.

Frankly, I don't have a clue what that last sentence means as I don't have a clue who Neftha is.

That aside, I was under the impression that Thoth Amon is long dead by Conan's time and is a character from the far earlier Kull stories.

Or is that Thulsa Doom I'm thinking of? I always get them mixed up.

Someone called Argyle Fist puts in an appearance in this issue.

I don't have a clue who that is but he sounds like someone you wouldn't want to meet.

The Tarantula also puts in an appearance. You wouldn't want to meet him either but, given that he's basically just a man with pointy shoes, I suspect the good Captain won't have much difficulty in putting a stop to him.

Hooray! Reed Richards finally gets his super-powers back!

I do believe this is thanks to him making a journey into space.

For some reason, the Red Ghost is also on board. I don't think his apes show up - which is a source of great disappointment to me, as they were always the interesting ones in that partnership.

I genuinely have no idea what happens in this issue. It is nice, though, to see the Hulk frequenting a place of learning.

I'm pretty sure I've never read this one but the Unicorn's back and, no doubt, that means we're in for all kinds of excitement.

This is it! The story we all demanded! It's the Rocket Racer vs the Big Wheel!

Obviously, someone at Marvel decided readers might not be happy with a story that features a terrible super-villain, so they decided to make up for it by making it feature two terrible super-villains.

I can't even remember why the Big Wheel's so desperate to kill the Rocket Racer. Maybe he just has good taste when it comes to Fashion.

The Scorpion's back and convinced he can't remove his costume anymore. Apparently, this leads him to try and kill J Jonah Jameson.

I've always had a soft spot for the Scorpion. He's always seemed nastier than the average villain.

I do believe that, in this one, Harris Hobbs manages to take a TV crew to Asgard and they get there just in time to see Loki initiate the start of Ragnarok by getting Balder killed.

Isn't this the story that leads to an alternative version of Thor showing up?

Magneto's back, and giving the X-Men a good kicking.

The main thing I remember from this story is that it reveals that Magneto has a weird, robotic housekeeper.

I can only assume staff are difficult to find when you're a megalomaniac super-villain, hell-bent on humanity's destruction.