And that's exactly what BBC Two was giving us on this evening in 1978.
Admittedly, it wasn't the Conan of the barbaric variety that they were serving up. It was the Conan of the detective variety, as the channel gave us a drama about the legendary Cottingley Fairies, and Arthur Conan Doyle's involvement in the incident.
Were the Cottingley Fairies real?
Were they a hoax?
Who can know?
Admittedly, I can know because it's obvious.
However, as we're all aware, a fairy dies every time someone says they don't believe in them and, therefore, I shall keep my trap shut on the matter.
What I won't keep my trap shut about is the fact that Summer Nights by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John was at Number One on the UK singles chart in that week. I must confess that, by this point, I was thoroughly fed up of Grease and couldn't wait for the Boomtown Rats to come and save us all.
As always, I can say little of what occurs in the main strip but it looks like its curtains for everyone's favourite Mark Hamill lookalike.
When it comes to the back-up strips, I can give no info at all on what Star-Lord's up to this issue - assuming he's even in it - but I do know the Seeker 3000 strip is still doing whatever it is the Seeker 3000 strip did.
In a shock development, I can reveal that this issue contains an advert which shows a stunt kite being flown by the Hulk.
It would appear the Hulk's on the rampage in a university, and all of Jim Wilson's best efforts aren't enough to prevent him starting a fight with a statue.
Meanwhile, this is the issue in which Daredevil, the Black Widow, Moondragon and Captain Marvel finally get to polish off Terrex and cure Angar the Screamer.
Elsewhere, Iron Man's up against the maddening menace of Mr Kline and a man called Mikas.
Hold on. What's that the Beetle's saying? Spider-Man has a cop friend? When did that happen? Usually, New York's finest can't wait to start shooting at him.
As for the story inside, it would appear the Beetle's launched a crime wave, in order to lure the police away from their station, so that he can purloin something from its evidence room.
In other news, half of the Avengers, and Immortus, are in the Wild West and in the process of teaming up with a bunch of Marvel's cowboy stars, in order to tackle Kang.
Is Hulk rampaging or berserking? I never can figure out the difference!
ReplyDeleteI am a cyborg and snuck past the gatekeeper!
Charlie-bot - Just put "rampaging" into an online thesaurus, and it offered up "go beserk" as a synonym.
ReplyDeleteSo there isn't really a difference; although more accurately, it would seem theres no such word as "beserking".
-sean
I would always go for rampaging. Rampaging sounds like, "Raging," with, "Amp," in the middle. That sounds like the Hulk to me.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you're in favour of rampaging, Steve; the b&w mag was called The Rampaging Hulk for a reason.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't sound right if Marvel UK called one of their comics Beserk rather than Rampage.
-sean
Sean - I am shocked (!) that you, as the cultural progeny of the Bard, perhaps the greatest author of all time (!) would not appreciate my inventing a new word: berserking!
ReplyDeleteI mean, William added like 2000 new words to the English language changing French into English and nouns into verbs and prepositions into indirect objects and the like. We should embrace our "anglo-saxon" heritage and continue the fine tradition! (I admit I never met an anglo or a saxon as far as I know.)
Indeed, I would think Steve could fire up the blog with us creating new words to describe the Hulk or Superheroes in general? Or perhaps get a few favs like berserking and do a poll?
SO! WHo is up for some progenying or traditioning? Anyone? Anyone?
(Oh my, oh my. I am trepidating that the Killer Dumpster robot is going to go into overdrive any minute now! (Just kidding KD!)
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe Bard? I'll have you know, Charlie-bot, I'm the cultural progeny of WB Yeats and James Joyce...
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I don't actually have a problem with making up words. But if you're going to make them up, make up better ones!
-sean
Sean - did Yeats and Joyce make up words too? I confess to knowing zip about them though I have heard their names. I did try to read through a some of Shakespeare a few years back.
ReplyDeleteBut here is the challenge! Make up a better word than "berserking" to describe Hulk!
Charlie-bot OUT!
Charlie - Joyce made up a lot of words, generally rooted in puns. Which sounds like a cue for a really witty neologism (oooh) to describe the Hulk but um... I haven't come up with one yet.
ReplyDelete-sean
Man... it's 6:0 AM in Chicago and I have to start using the dictionary! Unfair Sean Unfair! LOL.
ReplyDeleteNeologism...Never heard the word! But I will learn it, considering it a "right of passage" for participating in Steve's venerable blog!
I was thinking about "Good Time Hulk" as a title since we know what "good times" are in a Hulk comic? (wink, wink)
Rampaging Hulk sort of implies we are buying the comic to see Hulk smash and destroy ("puny humans" no less!) for enjoyment?
While calling it "Good Time Hulk" softens the aspect of violence and I feel better about myself. Yippy!
The Hulk was way ahead of his time - knocking down statues on university campuses is quite fashionable nowadays :D
ReplyDeleteThe two girls involved in the Cottingley fairies controversy eventually admitted it was all a fake, when they were old women.
When I was in school we all loathed Shakespeare and my attitude hasn't changed since.
Ozzy said fairies wear boots. Tinkerbell would bump up her sexy with thigh high black ones, maybe with a leather corset.
ReplyDeleteAnyone out there ever read "Bondage Fairies"? Man, what a wild & sick comic.
ReplyDeleteColin, like you, my Shakespeare antipathy is still going strong.
ReplyDeleteKD, I have never read that comic. I suspect that may have been a wise decision on my part.
Bondage Fairies was one of the first adult manga books to be translated to English. Just let you imagination run wild.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at that Spider-Man I’ve wallowing in the nostalgia that comes with the Beetle's suckers and with speech laloons on the cover.
ReplyDeleteThen I started looking more closely. Can the Beetle stick to walls? Where's the floor? Where are the walls? It's only when you start asking yourself these questions that you realise what a weird cover that is.
I see Beetlemania is still alive and well on this venerable blog.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard not to like a villain who's so doggone weird looking. I think those crazy fingers of his can indeed stick to stuff, like bags of money in a bank (with the $ on 'em) or little old ladies purses. I think I even remember him pulling the door off a subway car once in the Defenders. It could have been somebody else, there were about twenty supervillains around.
What is it the wings do, is what I wonder. He must have Iron Man-type jets, or something.
M.P.
D-mash,
ReplyDeleteI think I remember a story where the Beetle was hanging on a wall or ceiling.
MP-
ReplyDeleteI think the wings were actually "functional"
Beetle looks weird. Yet there is a simplicity about it all that makes it elegant like Stiltman.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Stiltman! Two thumbs up!!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you survived the robot holocaust, Charlie.
ReplyDeleteI actually remember Terrex, not to be confused with Terrax, they were not related.
ReplyDeleteTerrex, if memory serves and it probably doesn't, was some kind of giant walking doomsday weapon planted on Earth by Thanos which in turn was inhabited by the mind of some greedy, power-hungry industrialist.
For some reason a "cosmic egg" appeared above Terrex's head and spilled on him, sending him to oblivion.
At this point, Daredevil decided he'd had quite enough of San Francisco, thank you very much, and went back to NYC. Who knows, maybe the Owl was out on parole and up to no good.
I can't say I blame him.
Both Terrex and Tarrax sound like the good name for an industrial-strength scrub pad, for cleaning ovens and bathtubs.
M.P.
Dangermash, I'm also a fan of speech balloons on covers. Especially ones that have almost no relation to the contents of the comic, a sort of enjoyable false advertising.
ReplyDeleteMP - Wasn't that cosmic egg created by Moondragon?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Daredevil had a funny old time in San Francisco - hardly surprising in a city with locals like Angar the Screamer.
Actually, now I think about it, didn't he have a run-in with the Beetle on his return to the Big Apple.
-sean
Hardly surprising with their locals PERIOD.
DeleteI think after that Beetle story Natasha gave DD the heave-hoe shortly after.
ReplyDeleteWonder who are the favorite insect-based heroes/villains. Guess the Beetle is my bad guy.
Spider-Man wouldn't count, since arachnids aren't insects.
When I got my tonsils out, the hospital magazine cart had no Marvel/DC comics. I bought Harvey (yeah,the Casper/Richie Rich guys) Comics' B-MAN. While the art was Gold-Key level, I vaguely recall the premise of the character intriguing.
Steve, I'd take an educated guess on your fav insect-inspired hero. Lol.
...But I could be wrong...
KD, for me, Ant-Man will always reign supreme.
ReplyDeleteYowza! That's what I'm talking about. "Good things come in small packages".
DeleteNow that I think about it... Get it? Ant-Man, small packages? Lmoa!
I'm my favorite comedian, and my best audience.
Thanks, and don't forget to tip your barmaid!
Y'know, I finally got around to researching Terrex, the walking industrial strength scrub-pad, which I shoulda done in the first place before opening my big yap.
ReplyDeleteI don't have my old comics handy so I hadda use the world-wide Interweb, a bottomless source for useless information.
Turns out Terrex was indeed a doomsday weapon except he was meant to be used against Thanos, not for him. He had been planted on Titan by a scientist there who apparently didn't get the chance to use him before Thanos wiped out most of the population there.
Moondragon, through means I don't know, somehow transported Terrex, a large green artificial life-form with the ability to tap into the "life-force" of any world it was standing on, to Earth. She probably figured that was the next front in the war against Thanos.
Things went awry. The dude who mind-melded with the hulking Terrex was not a corrupt industrialist, he was a corrupt lawyer. Anyhoo, Moondragon somehow used the powers of a whacked-out Angar the Screamer to create the illusion of the aforementioned "cosmic egg". Okay. Anyway, Terrex grabbed the "egg", of course, but it was actually full of "Un-Life"!!
I don't know what "Un-Life" is but you don't wanna get any on you. It messes you up and it don't wash off. That was the end of Terrex and the lawyer who possessed him.
And Captain Marvel was there too, flyin' around.
I'm going to go lie down now.
M.P.
MP - That was a treat to read! Unlife... Antimatter... It's all good!
ReplyDeleteKD, well done on guessing right.
ReplyDeleteMP, thanks for all the Terrex info.