January 3rd, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Is there one place in this world that you know it's fun to stay at?

You know there is.

Is there one place where they have everything for young men to enjoy?

You know there is.

Is there one place where you can hang out with all the boys?

You know there is.

And that's why the first week of January 1979 saw the Village People storm to the Number One spot on the UK singles chart.

Few records say, "1979," to me more than Y.M.C.A. does, although I did, at the time, have a friend who refused, point blank, to believe there was any gay subtext to the song.

Over on the LP chart, it was great news for those who didn't like 1970s-style 1950s revivalism because, at last, the Grease soundtrack had been knocked off the top slot.

Admittedly, it was also terrible news for people who didn't like 1970s-style 1950s revivalism because the album that replaced it was Showaddywaddy's Greatest Hits (1976-1978). Much as I love Showaddywaddy (or, "The Wad," as I know them), a greatest hits package that only covers two years seems a little redundant to me. I mean, you could just buy their last two albums.

Over on BBC One on this very night of forty years ago, we were being treated to Let's Go Naked, a documentary about the rise in popularity of naturism. I do remember my Religious Education teacher, the next day, complaining that, when it came to the naked people it featured, "None of them were beauties." It's weird the things that stick in your memory for four decades.

With all that nude trauma out of the way, let's see just what our favourite comics were up to, with just three issues to go before the Marvel Revolution.

It's that rare thing, an issue of Star Wars Weekly whose cover I actually remember.

Admittedly, I remember nothing of the Star Wars tale it represents.

I do know, however, that, deep in the depths of space, Adam Warlock is becoming aware of the existence of the Universal Church of Truth. But who can be the evil genius behind it? Who?

In this action-packed issue, we get a tale in which Conan goes back to Cimmeria, only to discover his childhood sweetheart's been abducted.

At the end of the tale, she's dead and her abductors are also dead. What a happy little world it is that Conan inhabits.

We also get an article about the upcoming Conan movie.

On top of that, there's an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Black Abyss. I assume that's a Kull tale. It would appear to feature a giant, man-eating slug. How a slug can move fast enough to eat a man, I have no idea - unless he's already dead, in which case he's not going to care if he's being eaten by a giant slug.

Red Sonja, on the other hand, is up against a werewolf - something that I suspect she is going to care about.

Moonstone's still causing nothing but trouble.

Back in Manhattan, the Baxter Building's been taken over by Klaw and the Molecule Man. Fortunately, the Impossible Man's on hand to sort them out - but not before the Molecule Man takes possession of Reed!

Elsewhere, in the slippery swamps of Florida, Daredevil's up against the Gladiator and Death-Stalker, as the treacherous twosome are involved in intrigue surrounding the disappearance of Ted Sallis and the super-soldier formula he was working on.

My knowledge of this issue is extremely patchy but I do believe Lightmaster's kidnapped Hector Ayala, in the belief that he's Spider-Man, not realising he's actually the White Tiger.

I could be misremembering but I'm pretty sure that, despite appearances, the giant eyeball thingy isn't a creature of the supernatural but is, in fact, one of the many creations that inhabit Bereet's purse. Quite why they're in her purse and how they've got out, I cannot claim to recall.

I do believe that's a Jim Starlin cover, though.

Hooray! This was the first issue of Starburst I ever owned. I got it from W. H. Smiths, on my way to being inoculated against some disease or other. Happily, whatever disease that was, I didn't get it and I'm still here to boast of it.

As for Starburst, this issue's main point of excitement for me was that it contained a lengthy interview with dalek creator Terry Nation.

As I've always wanted to be a dalek, this was a very pleasing thing for me indeed. Needless to say, he also spoke about Davros and Blake's 7.