But just what were those landmarks?
And were they good ones or bad ones?
Landmark No.1.
Not only does our favourite space saga reach its 50th issue but the old Kirbyesque corner box is replaced by a segment of the Brothers Hildebrandt movie poster.
We also get out our first ever photo cover - something that'll become a common practice for a brief spell.
When it comes to the insides, we get an article confirming there'll be a second Star Wars movie and that all our favourite stars'll be back for it.
The comic's Illustrated History of Science Fiction has reached the subsection, "Heroes." I've no info on who's covered by it but, bearing in mind his influence on Star Wars, I'll be amazed if Flash Gordon doesn't get a mention.
In the backup strips, the astronaut who's been mistaken for a demon, by a bunch of old-style witch hunters, gets his revenge when his mates show up.
Meanwhile, Adam Warlock's fighting a man called Autolycus, in his attempts to get to the heart of the Universal Church of Truth, and the comic announces the Micronauts' strip will be beginning next issue, mere weeks after it was first launched in the States.
Landmark No. 2.
It's time for tears as this week brings us the last ever issue of the original Mighty World of Marvel.
Admittedly, it'll be revived at a later date, as a monthly title and, as far as I'm aware, it's still going now but the weekly incarnation, which had launched Marvel UK, all the way back in 1972, breathes its last with this issue.
Bearing in mind its significance, I wish I could reveal details of its historic contents but, other than the Hulk tale, I'm in the dark.
Having said that, I don't know much about the Hulk tale either. He seems to be up against some sort of robot parrot from outer space. I'm assuming this issue reprints the December 1978 dated Incredible Hulk #230 and involves farming and crops and other things a city slicker like me would never understand.
Landmark No. 3.
It's time for even more tears because this is the last issue of the comic that began life as Spider-Man Comics Weekly in 1973.
Granted, it'll be relaunched next week, as Spider-Man Comic but, somehow, despite the strips within continuing seamlessly from this issue, it never felt like it was the same book.
At least the old title goes out in style with a rather appealing Keith Pollard cover.
I do believe the Scorpion's still out to get J Jonah Jameson.
Meanwhile, the Avengers are tackling the Black Talon, the man I can't resist calling, "The Human Chicken," - or at least the Scarlet Witch is, as he's already taken the other Avengers out of the fight.
Elsewhere, the comic trumpets the imminent arrival of the New X-Men in the pages of Rampage Monthly.
Historic week indeed. Will you be recreating the fun of the next few weeks when the Marvel Revolution coincided with industrial action that meant missing issues?
ReplyDeleteI shall do what I can, Tim.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Marvel revolution comrade Steve - you can't have a revolution without strikes!
ReplyDeletePower to the people!
-sean
Pretty sure the soon to be released Marvel Comic (top name marketing chaps) missed at least one week and possibly had a couple of issues out of sequence. Probably the most stressful time of my young life up until that point.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard growing up in the 70s Tim.
ReplyDeleteTry telling kids these days with their Panini colour reprints about Marvel Comic and they just wouldn't believe you.
-sean
Dudes...
ReplyDeleteThe suspense is killing me... I hope this revolution of which you write is more eventful than say the Russian Revolution in 1917? Or the Whiskey Rebellion of 1796 here in the USA? Or the French Revolution of like 1790?
What kind of industrial action was going on in the UK 40 years ago?
Charlie, the strikes in early 1979 in the UK are known as the Winter of Discontent, when the British workers rose up in an attempt to prevent the launch of Dez Skinn's new look Marvel weeklies.
ReplyDelete-sean
Good lord! You guys take this comics stuff seriously!
ReplyDeleteWhat's funny is that I find nothing comparable to your Dennis the Menace here in the USA and your DM rocked!!! Your Dennis could have led the British workers as they rose up against Dez!
Oor Wullie rocked too! Though I remember my sister getting a bit chaffed when we dressed my young nephew William in dungarees and started calling him Wullie. It was Will or William... Wullie would not do! Though, she did laugh when I took a photo of him sitting on a bucket, lol.
Did the Spider-Man strip really continue seamlessly from where it stopped? I have vague memories of it starting with a reprint from years before (maybe ASM #90?) and there only being 2-4 pages of Spider-Man in the comic, which is why I cancelled my order after only one week. Of course, it’s possible that the comic that turned up at the village newsagent was the wrong one.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile in the world of English cricket, genuine cricket fans are in uproar at the ECCB's plans to introduce "the hundred" in the peak summer months. This is a 100-ball limited over competition. 100 isn't even divisible by six, so it's not even a whole number of six ball overs. There will be barely any first class cricket during those peak months and we'll just get worse and worse at test cricket. Apparently the idea of the hundred is to attract more mums and kids to games. So they're trying to bring along people that have no interest in cricket and pissing off the real cricket lovers in the process.
ReplyDeleteDez Skinn must be behind it all. It's too much of a coincidence otherwise.
Marvel UK's golden age ended here but at least SSM and MWOM went "into that good night" with decent covers.
ReplyDeleteLimited amounts of Spider-Man and cricket?!? No wonder the government fell during the spring.
ReplyDeleteClearly Dez Skinn is to blame for (cue Darth Vader music) Margaret Thatcher.
-sean
Would someone kindly translate what Dangermash said, LOL? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDangermash, I don't recall whether the Spider-Man strip continued seamlessly from the issue before. I'm fairly certain the Avengers strip did, as I think they were still up against The Human Chicken and his Wonder Man revivalism.
ReplyDeleteI've just been looking as some stuff Dez Skinn has put up talking about his revolution. He had a couple of problems in his early days.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like I might have missed the first few issues because of a logistical problem (with first few issues coming out while the pre-revolution issues were still being published). And then there were some production problems which meant that there were a couple of issues that needed to be filled with inventory stories. One of these turned out to be the first one I saw. And when the first post-revolution issue I see reprints ASM #90 I'm offski.
And a translation for Charlie. The Dez Skinn revolution was about trying to attract new readers that weren’t really into what Marvel had to offer and the diehards (as DS called us) hated everything he was trying to do. There are people in the U.K. planning to do something similar with cricket In the next couple of years.
Des did create an excellent jumping on point for new readers, unfortunately it was equally effective as a jumping off point for those who liked what Marvel UK had been offering up until that point.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, dangermash was complaining about changes to cricket which meant matches didn't have enough overs before they were over.
ReplyDeletedangermash, I'm afraid I have to disagree with the implication that only the "diehards" genuinely appreciated Marvel comics. Comics are largely aimed at a young audience which drops off over time so the publishers have to reach out to new readers regularly to survive.
If they don't, you get the diminishing returns of Marvel and DC over the last few decades, chasing the same, declining hardcore readership. Er, in my opinion.
Mind you, having said that, I didn't like the relaunched weeklies either! But then, it was the monthlies that were targeted at me, so...
-sean
Good golly miss molly... I need to look up "overs" for Cricket. I mean, we do have a handful of Pakistani or India guys playing around here (lots of IT guys) but they can't explain the rules in a way I can understand, lol.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, I understand neither Cricket or the NFL, even though I watch American football sometimes.
ReplyDeleteWhat am I, a scientist?
Too gosh-darn complicated.
Read your remarks about the Shutdown, Charlie, and I couldn't agree more.
I have a sister who's not getting paid, and she's got bills. But she's gotta work anyway.
This is stupid and moronic beyond belief. It doesn't save the government money, in fact it cost more, and a lotta working people and local economies get hurt.
Sorry but this pisses me off. If you work, you get paid. On time.
M.P.
"Jumping off point". Perfect choice of words from Tim. I was in my teens and being given subliminal messages from my parents about how I should at some point tell my grandmother she could stop getting me this Spider-Man comic. Well, Dez gave me that jumping off point.
ReplyDeleteI love Charlie's story about Oor Wullie. The Dundonian adventures of a'body's Wullie and the Broons were not really part of my childhood. I would glimpse the annual strip collections in the houses of people like my dad's pal, Campbell Ralston from Larkhall (who had a breathy, menacing voice like Clint Eastwood and a Boxer dog named Rebel).
ReplyDeleteMWOM does indeed continue as a monthly. I buy it for my classroom and it's popular with lots of kids from 11-15 (boys, generally). The Flash is also hugely popular.
The Sci-Fi text feature in Star Wars Weekly was almost more exciting than Warlock. I learned about Stella Star from "Starcrash" and Barbarella, which both sounded amazing. I've still never seen Starcrash. Or the Humanoid.
Hey UK GENTS! THIS IS IMPORTANT!
ReplyDeleteCharlie Horse, KD, and others (?) are living through a mini-snowmageddon! This means that I can't run outside and get to my phone booth to change clothes, nor can KD get to his cave to get to those bracelets!!!
It looks like you guys are on your own!!! God Speed!!! Anon, anon, and such!!!
Well, I now have a perfect excuse to do nothing but read a spot of Oor Wullie, Broons, Beano, and then, when I have enough energy to agitate everyone around me, Dennis The Menace!
I can feel the "Beano 1973" Annual Cover working its way up, inside of me!!! Look out all!!!
If Rick Jones can drive onto a supposively high security government bomb-site, then lazily relax & play his harmonica, I think I can drag my old ass thru the snow to get to those damn bracelets.lol!
ReplyDeleteWho's to say that I don't already have them.....?
Dougie, Stella Star as played by the lovely Caroline Munro. Met her when I was 10, never quite recovered.
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't ME going to the Negative Zone after the "clang", I'd fly to Hollywood and give Brie Larson a what-for.
ReplyDeleteGood of reason as any to go to a warmer climate.
Oh my brother Charlie. You pot-stirrer, you.
Mr.Fields-
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing up Caroline Munro.
I'll do a Hammer marathon this weekend!
What a truly lovely woman.
Tim, KD, All I can say is "Yowza!" I had / have no idea who she is.
ReplyDeletePer IMDB Caroline Munro: Leggy, brunette-maned pin-up actress Caroline Munro was born in Windsor and lived in Rottingdean near Brighton where she attended a Catholic Convent School.
W.t.h... I went to Catholic School for 2 years and didn't see any "Carolines" LOL.
Any of you UK guys know her, growing up?
Charlie, Caroline Munro is a bit of a cinematic legend, having appeared in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, At the Earth's Core and The Spy Who Loved Me.
ReplyDeleteAs Dougie and Tim mentioned, she was also in Starcrash which is one of the worst films ever made but is a movie that all film fans have to watch at least once before they die.
Caroline Munro was also a hostess on 3-2-1. Presumably the only reason anybody ever watched that pile of bum curry.
ReplyDeleteWould it be fair to say Caroline was the UK's Raquel Welch or Pamela Anderson?
ReplyDeleteKind of, sort of, an acting career that probably never would have left the starting gates if the other "attributes" weren't there to engage us?
From what I can remember, Munro was a competent actor but there's no doubt she was cast primarily for her looks. It wasn't uncommon for her to be re-dubbed by other actresses. The most egregious example being Starcrash where she's re-dubbed by an American actress who is absolutely terrible.
ReplyDelete