February 14th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

All we lovers of Love know that today is Valentine's Day.

And, you know what? It was Valentine's Day in 1979 as well. Who would have thought that Love and Romance were around so long ago?

Clearly, the mood of Love was in the air, back then, because we got the signing of the Saint Valentine's Day Concordat between the Trades Union Congress and British Government, which ended The Winter of Discontent and meant the nation could look forward, at last, to getting its full quota of Marvel comics.

But, only days earlier, on February 12th, over a thousand schools had closed due to a heating oil shortage caused by the lorry drivers' strike. I remember that strike very well and felt it was a thing they should have made a regular event.

Someone else with something to crow about that week was Trevor Francis who became Britain's first ever £1 million footballer, as Nottingham Forest "bought" him from Birmingham City for that sum.

Actually, if I remember right, Forest signed him for £999,999, as they didn't want him to bear the burden of being Britain's first £1 million footballer. Needless to say, everyone ignored that £1 difference and burdened him with the tag anyway.

On this night of that year, BBC Two was showing Tigris: The Sumerian Voyage of Thor Heyerdahl  which seems to have involved the legendary adventurer sailing down the Tigris and arguing that reed boats were the technology which allowed civilisation to spread across the world.

Around the same time, BBC One was broadcasting an edition of The Risk Business which detailed Clarks' move away from making sensible shoes and into producing experimental shoes.

What experimental shoes are, I have no idea but I do, of course, remember Clarks shoes fondly, from my childhood, as they were the company who famously put compasses in the heels of their shoes so we could find our way home if we were ever lost in one of Britain's many vast rainforests - and also included small replicas of animal footprints in their soles so we could identify the tracks of any mystery species we might encounter.

As genuinely wonderful as this was, I must confess that, in all my life on this planet, I have never had need for either of those shoe modifications.

Thanks to Clarks' shoes, we all knew where we were going. And someone else who blatantly knew where they were going were Blondie who were Number One on the UK singles chart and the album chart, with Heart of Glass and Parallel Lines respectively.

But, when it came to that first chart, for how long could they hold off the threat of ABBA's Chiquitita which was lurking menacingly at Number Two?

The album chart was looking quite New Wavey. Not only were Blondie at Number One but Elvis Costello was at Number Four with Armed Forces, while Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties was at Six. Granted, something called Action Replay by Various Artists was at Number Two and the Bee Gees' Spirits Having Flown was at Number Three, while Don't Walk - Boogie by Various Artists was at Five.

I'm assuming, from their titles, that both those Various Artists albums were Disco compilations.

But that's enough waffling about side issues. All that matters is Marvel - of the UK kind - and, with all that strike action finally over, no doubt there'll be plenty of Marvel UK goodness for us to look forward to.

No there isn't.

Clearly, it's going to take some time for the Winter of Discontent to be made glorious summer by that son of Skinn because Star Wars Weekly is the only comic Marvel UK has to offer us this week.

And I don't have a clue what happens in it. I can't even determine which issue of the US mag is being reprinted here.

I would assume that Warlock and the Micronauts are still present. Based on previous form, I also suspect there'll be a Tales of the Watcher type story, as well.

Beyond that, all is mystery.

But, then, what is Valentine's Day without a little mystery?