And here came Peter Sarstedt and Marvin Gaye who dominated the Number One slot on that month's UK singles chart with Where Do You Go To My Lovely? and I Heard It Through The Grapevine, respectively.
Which of those tracks do I prefer?
It's hard to say. Clearly, the Gaye track's a lot cooler and more credible but the Sarstedt track has a certain dated duffness about it that appeals to my sense of irony.
On the UK album chart, Diana Ross and the Supremes Join the Temptations kicked off the month at Number One before being deposed by Cream's Goodbye which was then deposed by The Best of the Seekers.
But what of Marvel and its lesser comics that bore that cover date?
Well, I get the feeling that one of them's going to give us a lesson in why we should never pay any attention to a comic's cover date.
Barry Smith gives us an image which seems noticeably influenced by Jim Steranko's cover for Agent of SHIELD #7, which came out just four months before this one.
Regardless, Barry appears to be very much Marvel's flavour of the month at this time. Could Stan be aware that Jolly Jack's about to flee to DC, and is on the lookout for a direct replacement?
That aside, two major things happen in this issue.
The first is that, thanks to Yon-Rogg, we get the death of Una, beating Gwen Stacy to the graveyard by four years. I'm assuming this is the first time we see a Marvel super-hero's girlfriend die, as I can't remember such a fatality before this.
The other major development is that, thanks to the mighty power of Zo, Mar-Vell gets a whole new set of abilities, including the gift of teleportation and the power to project illusions. Were either of these abilities ever seen again? I can't remember them ever featuring in any story I ever read.
Dr Strange and the Black Knight head off into the Realm of Tiboro, in order to retrieve the exiled Sons of Satannish, so they can tell our heroes how to stop Ymir and Surtur from wreaking havoc upon the Earth.
Yes, it's the issue before Strange's legendary team-up with the Avengers, in which they tackle that dastardly duo.
But there is a problem. Keen-eyed readers will have noticed that the relevant Avengers issue was cover-dated February - a whole month before this issue which is supposed to precede it. Surely, the Ancient One himself would struggle to make sense of such madness.
It's another Barry Smith cover, and I don't have a clue what happens in this one but I do know that, besides the Ka-Zar story, the comic also features Golden Age excursions for the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Black Knight and Marvel Boy.
I note with interest that the Ka-Zar tale's co-written by Steve Parkhouse, which is not a name I'd expect to see appearing in a 1969 US Marvel comic.
Just when Nick Fury thinks he can celebrate Christmas, the Hate-Monger is back and threatening to drop a biological bomb on New York, in order to start World War 3.
I know Captain Barracuda's the villain in this tale and that he's taken Namor captive. Other than that, I can recollect little of its events.
I do recall that Namor escapes his captivity when one of Barracuda's not-exactly-Einstein lackeys decides to throw a bucket of water on him, in order to shut him up.
Within seconds, chains are being snapped like spaghetti and Namor is, "Imperious Rex-ing," it all over the place.
Why do I get the feeling that crew member won't be getting any ship's rations today?
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17 comments:
Steve Parkhouse went with his mate Barry Smith to the US to seek his fortune in the comic biz Steve, but apparently he couldn't stick out going hungry and sleeping in Central Park to the same extent as Baz so returned to merrie old England.
Obviously after writing that Ka-Zar story, and SHIELD #12.
Gene Colan was conspicuous by his absence from the comics listed in your last post, what with cheap immigrant labour from the UK taking away his job on Daredevil, so good to see he was still making comics great again with Doc and the Sub-Mariner.
-sean
PS Thats a mad pic of Ka-Zar on the cover of Marvel Superheroes. Those knees...
-sean
I'm all for heroic poses but the Black Knight looks like he's doing the splits on the cover of Dr. Strange.
DW
Where Do You Go To My Lovely? is clearly the superior song as just seeing the title means it will be my earworm for the next several days...
...cheers....
Thanks for the Steve Parkhouse info, Sean.
DW, he's clearly been sat on that horse for too long.
Aggy, I'm still torn between them. As a youth, I would have gone for Peter. Nowadays, I lean towards Marvin.
BWS really did channel a lot of Kirby back then, never noticed it till now. Think I have a Marvel Tales reprint of that Subby issue somewhere.
A few years ago, while going thru a years-old stack of comics "waiting to be read" acquired on the cheap on Cons, I read MSH 19 with Ka Zar. It bored me out of my skull.
And Stan's Soap Box, for this month advises us that for Captain Marvel #11 we should "Be prepared to be startled!" That seems quite understating the case, no? I mean the death of a girl friend is more than startling? But what do I know... I was traumatized by CM switching from his green uniform to blue/red.
One other thing from Stan's Soapbox/ The Mighty Marvel Checklist... For Millie the Model #168, Stan writes, "We can't explain it! But honestly it's one of the best-selling mags!"
Is this reasonably correct? I mean, I never, ever bought a Millie.
Steve - perhaps this requires you to conduct a review of said issue? I'll read your review!
Charlie, I have no figures to hand but I do believe that Millie the Model was indeed one of Marvel's most successful mags in the 1960s. I shall see if I can find a copy to review.
Looked up Millie the Model on the wiki; the series began in the Timely era and lasted 207 issues - along with spin -off titles in its heyday - which must make it a notable success given the attrition rate of the comic industry (particularly in the post-Wertham slump).
As late as '69 it was doing well enough that Marvel launched a comic about her rival Chili... and yet Millie was cancelled within a few years which does suggest some sort of basic change in the American comic biz and/or reader demographics took place at the start of the 70s.
(Perhaps Night Nurse was an attempt to reach a similar audience in '73, and that only lasted four issues)
-sean
I've now checked with the sales charts on Comichron (https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/postaldata/1960.html) and Millie had Marvel's biggest-selling comic in 1962.
In 1963, she slipped to 8th in Marvel's rankings, behind their Western and former monster books and was being very very narrowly outsold by Patsy Walker.
In 1965, she had Marvel's 5th best selling book.
In 1966, she dropped to 12th in Marvel's rankings.
In 1967, she was 11th.
After that, figures aren't available for her.
Strangely, Marvel didn't start to release sales figures for Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four until 1966, so they may have been out-selling her before then but there's no way to be certain.
Yowza Steve!
When I look at that link, it's no wonder my po-dunk village had two spinner racks! One was Marvel /DC and the other was "all the other stuff."
Who'd a thunk that Casper The Ghost was outselling Detective Comics???
Not me, that's for sure, LOL.
What impresses me in 1965 is Treasure Chest was #12 in monthly sales. A long-running title, I have several at home.
But it gives me a clue as to why my older cousin, who was a big comics fan and got me started, had some lying about. TC was actually a popular title it seems at that time frame. Wonder why?
Maybe because before the mid-60s tv wasn't so common, Charlie?
Perhaps thats why those sort of titles had completely disappeared by the time colour tv was everywhere, and superheroes - hard to duplicate on the screen - dominated comics.
-sean
Good point Sean! I am clearly of the age where I am forgetting more than I once knew, lol!
As an aside, cause I don't know, were the superhero cartoons that hard to make? I only say that b/c when I think of something like "Johnny Quest"or Japanese stuff like Astro Boy, Gigantor, or Tobor the 8th Man (I watched all in the 60s) they seemed palatable for kid and they had a bit of the superhero dynamic in the them.
But in general, I have gone back to watch the 1960s Spidey and, but for the jazz music and nostalgia, they aren't all that.
The Nick Fury story appeared in the 1975 Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine, is definitely the better song.
The 60' Spider-Man cartoon had the best theme song ever! Now I'll have it stuck in my head the rest of the day.
I do have that 1975 Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag. Love those treasury-size comics!
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