January 31st, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Do you like to climb into your car without bothering to open the doors first?

If so, this week of forty years ago was a great one for you, as it was the week that saw the launch, on CBS, of The Dukes of Hazzard.

How I loved that show and...

Oh, OK, I admit it. I hated it. It made me want to tear my own head off to get away from it. It never even made any sense to me. It just seemed to be people driving around in dust, hollering needlessly.

Fortunately, there were other TV shows which appealed to me more.

For instance, on BBC Two, on this very night of that week, Gavin Millar was interviewing up-and-coming director John Carpenter, on location in Los Angeles, about such works as Assault on Precinct 13, Dark Star and Halloween.

When it came to tunes, Heart of Glass was at Number One on the UK singles chart, giving Blondie their first British Number One.

But there was also darker news on the music front because January 29th saw the Cleveland Elementary School Shooting in San Diego, in which Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire, killing two people and wounding nine others. It might seem to have nothing to do with music but it turned out it had plenty because this was the incident which inspired Bob Geldof to write I Don't Like Mondays.

I genuinely have no idea what happens in this issue, other than that it features the title strip, the Micronauts, the Watcher and Warlock.

I know all this because it says so on the cover. With me possessing detective skills like that, it looks like Sherlock Holmes suddenly has a major rival.

This post might be dated January 31st but this book isn't, because Marvel Comic has moved its publication date to Thursday, meaning this is, technically, cover-dated February 1st.

Except it's not cover-dated at all.

It's also unnumbered.

Dez is clearly out to confuse me.

What I do know is that, jealous of the Hulk having his own TV show, the Thing turns up at the relevant studios, out to land himself a show of his own.

Unfortunately, straight after that, the Hulk arrives, aiming to bang executive heads together for making him look bad on TV.

A clash between the two strong-men can only be a matter of minutes away.

Meanwhile, some criminal types are looking to take advantage of the disruption...

Just so that Marvel Comic won't feel lonely, Spider-Man Comic's also moved its publication date to Thursday.

Not that Spidey cares. He's got enough to worry about, with The Sorcerer, in a tale credited to Lee and Andru. I don't think I've ever seen a Spider-Man story credited to that pairing before. It does make me wonder if it's an inventory issue.

Unless it's that legendary but obscure Spidey story Andru drew before he became the strip's regular artist, which has been dusted down and published right here.

Then again, that story might not exist and I could be imagining it.

What I do know is the art looks distinctly odd, as though it's been heavily reworked by either Marie Severin, Larry Lieber, Bill Everett or all three of them simultaneously.

When it comes to the villain, The Sorcerer seems to be some kind of Puppet Master type who's out to take possession of Spider-Man, via a voodoo doll.

But then, it's clearly an issue for possession because this week's Thor tale features a fake seance going wrong when one of its organisers is taken over by the ghost of a three million year old caveman, in a tale reprinted from Mighty Thor #231. The main point of interest about it, for me, is that the artwork is by the epic duo of John Buscema and Dick Giordano which isn't a combination I can recall ever seeing anywhere else.