In fact, there's only one.
That film is Kes and, in November 1969, it hit the cinema screens of Britain. Who could fail to be gripped by the tale of a schoolboy who finds a sense of purpose through the adoption of a kestrel? And who could forget the scene in which Brian Glover plays a doltish sports teacher fantasising that he's Bobby Charlton, while flinging his weight around?
No one can.
And that's why I haven't.
But it wasn't the only thing making its debut that month because so did the legendary TV puppet show The Clangers which told the senses-shattering truth about life on other planets and, in its own way, helped make Soup Dragons of us all.
When it came to music, Pink Floyd released their album Ummagumma which I believe I've still never heard.
On the football field, Brazilian legend Pelé scored his 1,000th goal, in a game against Vasco de Gama.
In a rather grumpier mood, John Lennon returned his MBE, in protest at the British government's involvement in the Nigerian Civil War or its involvement in Biafra or its support for the Vietnam War or all three of those things or any combination of them, depending on which Wikipedia page you look at on the subject.
The Avengers take on the Justice League of America - or at least their vile simulacra - as the Grandmaster's game of chess with Kang kicks off.
But, hold on. What strange games do the gods play upon us?
In the same month that Ken Loach and Barry Hines give us that tale of a schoolboy finding purpose through his pet bird of prey, Marvel Comics gives us a man bashing up the Red Skull, with the aid of his pet bird of prey.
Why, now that I think about it, this comic is practically a remake of Kes, with the Red Skull as Brian Glover.
Any road up, Captain America and his brand new sidekick give the Red Skull the kicking he deserves, mostly thanks to Modok deciding to melt the Cosmic Cube, by remote control.
You do have to feel sorry for the Red Skull. Not many people would have the misfortune to have their Cosmic Cube melted.
Rev up your engines because the Stunt-Master makes his wheelie-popping debut.
I've a feeling there's something in this story about Karen Page launching her Hollywood career and leaving Matt Murdock behind, never to return but my recollections of this tale are a little fuzzy, so I could be completely wrong.
But here's a tale I'm definitely not fuzzy about, as the Thing finds himself on a Skrull planet and forced to fight in gladiatorial games - but not before meeting Torgo the robot.
It's one of my Hulk faves, as our anti-hero roams the swamps of Florida and encounters an escaped convict who's turned into another of those muck monsters which have proven so irresistible to comic book writers, over the years.
I really don't recall what happens in this one.
I gather, from Googling it, that this involves Tony Stark having a bad dream. Beyond that, I can say nothing.
It's non-stop peril for Spider-Man, as the wallcrawler finds himself up against the greatest menace of them all - a window cleaner.
Thor returns to Earth, fresh from discovering the origin of Galactus, only to find our planet under threat from the terror of the Thermal Man in a tale noticeably reminiscent of the one where he fought Replicus.
I do believe that Jack Kirby's original plan was for Thor and Galactus to team up to defeat the rampaging robot but Stan, wisely, I feel, vetoed the idea and left it to Thor and The Warriors Three to tackle the fiend, instead.
Sauron finds his way to the Savage Land where he teams up with Magneto and his current bunch of mutant allies.
Can the X-Men and Ka-Zar stop them all?
I suspect they can.
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45 comments:
I want to express heartfelt thanks on behalf of my 23 year old daughter and 21 year old son to Sean and KD! I informed the "kids" that these two super sleuths have determined which Flash Gordon serial we were watching 15 years ago and never finished!
I made the unpardonable error of returning the DVDs to the library while Zharkov was tied up and ready to get laser-beamed to death my Ming!
They've been busting my chops ever since, about this, and now this Thanksgiving we will finish this!!!
SO this Thanksgiving I give thanks to Steve and his posse at SDC!!! You guys rock! May you find a cosmic cube (square or round or 14th gen with a Modok hologram) under your Holiday Stocking, Shoe, Tree...!!!
Cap 119... the Skull's ability to use the Cube has advanced remarkably. In the previous issue the best he could do was transport himself to the end of a hallway to escape Cap's fan club wanting autographs (recall Skull and Cap have switched bodies).
Now, he cleverly uses it to transport Cap and Falcon half way around the world to crush them first hand, given the Exiles were not up to the job. (Clearly not! when they get chased away by a group of rock-throwing natives before finishing off Cap and Falcon.)
And of course Cap and Falcon beat his a$$, lol.
Honest to heaven I think Billy the Cat and Katie, from Beano 1973, or even the Leopard from Lime Street (awww what the heck, even Softie Walter from Dennis the Menace UK who is now a member of the UK parliament) could beat the Skull's a$$.
Truly, if Cap in Skull's body, was beaten by the Exile's Bellini, whose only weapon is his 10 foot long scarf his grandma knit for him back in the Depression, then the Skull is a panty waist.
In a couple weeks I'll cut you copies of that serial, Charlie. You'll have them before Thanksgiving.
DO I correctly recall this is where DD actually faces off against Stunt Master on the Brooklyn Bridge. The dude is riding his motorcycle up the suspension cables as I recall?
Was Roy the Boy on the weed at this time???
A mere dude on a motorcycle, albeit a really good moto, fighting the Man without Fear on a foot-wide suspension cable hundreds of feet over water? Like where in the world is he going to maneuver with the bike? The only way is down, down, down like a rock lobster.
Roy, Roy, Roy...
No worries about Flash, Charlie, don't mention it (seriously, don't - its embarrassing enough as it is that I knew that).
Kinda surprised you're not raving about the Falcon really - no sooner did Captain Marvel go blue and red and already theres a new superhero with a green costume drawn by Gene Colan.
Steve, I think that issue of Daredevil might have been the one when Karen Page found out his secret identity. She was still around for a while after that as late as the start of the Black Widow era (and later returned to DD in the rather excellent run by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli anyway).
Perhaps you were associating her Hollywood career with the Stunt-Master based on their appearances in Ghost Rider?
-sean
PS Steve, was Brian Glover Barnsley's greatest cultural export to the world, or is he claimed by his birth place Sheffield?
-sean
The Squadron Supreme/Sinister are in my top 10 Avengers villains. They had cool origins, powers, and costumes. Except Nighthawk. His Defenders suit is far superior.
Speaking of costumes, maybe I'm nostalgic,but I prefer Falcon's green suit over the white & red thing. After he got the new suit I don't recall if he ever wore the greens again.
Hooray for swamp monsters! I LOVED the Glob!! I was really perturbed when they changed his appearance in Man-Thing, which then went into Hulk's book. He was like a walking pile of grey Play-Dough. Probably no plankton in that constitution.
Reminded me when they changed Snorkey from a little wooly mammoth into a regular elephant in the Banana Splits.
Man, I was so angry about that.
Though I love motorcycles, and was an Evel Knevel fan, I never cared for Stunt Master. I'd put him in the same bad-guy category as Rocket Racer & Big Wheel.
Along those lines, did "Evel-mania" touch down at all in the UK, late 60's-early 70's?
Evel was super big here in the states. Every stunt got press coverage. He had a sizable toy line. Tons of commercial endorsements, and I believe he had a Saturday morning cartoon.
When the George Hamilton movie came out, my dad took the family to the drive-inn. At full price no less.
Cars were on the shoulder of the highway from the entrance of the theater, backed up for a couple of miles!
I'm uncertain if Knevel performed any stunts in Britian. Would've been cool if he'd jump a double-decker bus or two. His rocketcar definitely could have done the Thames. Lol.
Evel K, 1975, Wembley... 13 buses. But I don't think double-deckered? I remember watching this live? I assume we were getting live feeds finally on Sports, not like originally with the tape flown over on the Concorde.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJHol4wwGIo
As it was rare for me to get a Spidey book at the newsstands (the local towny kids got to them first) I wasn't introduced to the Prowler until a Marvel Tales issue.
I thought he was an alright villain/hero.
Sean - I much prefer the woodsy, earth tones tones on Falcon. You may be knowing me better than I know me?
And he was able to take on Bellini! Or at least his Falcon did? I can't recall... it was a couple weeks ago now, that I read Cap 117-119 and my skull can only hold so much Roy the Boy goodness.
I need to pay attention to the Flash Gordon's this time around! Was Ming a superior villain as compared to the Red Stunod?
Charlie, how was the landing on that? Do you remember if he wrecked?
Amazingly enough, Charlie, Charles Middleton portrayed Ming slightly different in each of the 3 Flash Gordon serials.
Ming in the first one seemed kind of like Fu-Manchu.
In Trip To Mars he seemed to have his evil turned-up to "11". That's what I recall anyway, having only seen it twice. Once on TV as a kid then again as an adult. Happy Hapgood didn't annoy me as a child, but later I wished they would've killed him off in a cliffhanger.
In "..Conquers The Universe" Middleton portrayed him almost aloof & pompous, at least in my opinion.
As far as Ming vs Red Skull, the Skull wins in my book.
Skull's consistant evil mania and unhesitance to take things in his own hands when flunkies fail tops him over.
Ming is kind of like the Mandarin without rings.
Agree with you, Steve, in the opinion that Thor didn't need Galactus' help to take out Thermal Man.
Ka-Zar makes a great guest-star, but he seems to not be enthralling in headlining a whole book by himself.
The Astonishing Tales split-book with Dr. Doom was great reading, but the stories when he had it on his own were hit-or-miss. I did enjoy the Ultimus/Gemini/Gog storyline,though.
Even hooking him up with sexy Shanna the She-Devil couldn't help his sales.
He always seemed to go well with the X-Men. Probably my favorite, though, is the DD tale were he found out he was related to the Plunderer.
There's an action-verb villain for you, Charlie!
By the way, Charlie, Steve technically didn't put the books this post in alphabetical order.
Evel Knievel crashed in Wembley Kd, like a dodgy tory prime minister in a snap election.
-sean
I remember EK crashing quite well... He took numerous practice runs down the ramp and everyone in TV land was getting quite irritated like he was milking the time. I have to imagine he may have been to some degree b/c the whole thing only takes maybe 5 - 10 seconds if it's "one and done."
I read the dude never planned any of this out... all trial and error.
B.t.w he has far more spectacular crashes than at Wembley. There's one where he literally looks the rag doll end over end. I mean, you aren't really thinking "this is a human being" because you've only had experiences of dolls, frisbees, boomerangs, etc. flying through the air like that.
Sean, as far as I'm aware, Brian always saw himself as a native of Barnsley. Up until you mentioned it, I never even knew he was born in Sheffield.
KD, Evel Knievel got some coverage in Britain but I always felt he was seen as more of a curiosity item over here, rather than being, "big." The only stunts of his that I remember seeing on TV were his almost disastrous attempt to jump over 85 million buses at Wembley and his almost disastrous attempt to jump over Snake River Canyon.
We had a show called The World of Sport which often featured "sport" from around the world and would feature people like him and The Human Fly and Bigfoot wrestlers and log rollers and world champion redwood fellers, superstars of fence-painting, and other such oddities.
Lmao! Thanks Sean.
Ol' Evel had quite a few bad landings. You gotta admit he tried. If he had the the technology that we have now back then he could've have used that to enhance the structure of the ramps, needed trajectory, power & speed necessity, weather, etc.
I'm sure that a certain amount of math was involved, but also an amount of estimatation.
He also had the "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants/balls-out" attitude. King of the Daredevils.
Will hoist a beer to that man tonight.
Steve - would The World of Sport cover Conkers?
That was the thing about the Human Fly. I never even heard of him till Marvel Comics, and never saw him doing stunts.
Evel & the Human Fly should've done some kind of stunt Conkers.
On an area covered in plankton. With werewolves.
Charlie, I don't remember them covering conkers. Perhaps the rights were too expensive.
Oh man Steve!! "85 million buses"!!
Can't stop laughing!!!
I recall seeing the Human Fly on World of Sport at least once though, so obviously they couldn't have been too fussy.
-sean
Ah, you already mentioned the Human Fly on World of Sport Steve. Oops.
-sean
There was a great question on Only Connect this week. What have these four things got in common? They get revealed one at a time...
- The fountain at Caesar's Palace
- A crate of rattlesnakes and a tethered mountain lion
- Snake River Canyon
- A 90 foot long shark tank.
Any guesses. Give up? Turns out they were all jumps that Evel Knievel failed at, all resulting in nasty injuries. I'm not making this up. It's on BBC iPlayer, series 15, episode 8.
My man Evel failed a lot, and when he did it was spectacular.
Let's face it, humans goggle at train wrecks & auto accidents.
Evel's mentality could be pulled out of at least 25% of any psychological manual, but I've always just considered him a glory-hound with a need of adrenaline rushes.
Here in the states during the 70's, there was a TV show called "Lie-Detecter". Hosted by F. Lee Baily, former co-founder of Gallery magazine and future O.J. Simpson attorney.
In the show celebrities and accused criminals would get hooked up to a polygraph to proclaim innocence on various matters.
Evel went on the show, claiming folks were saying he crashed the Snake River jump on purpose. I never heard anyone say that. Yay. He passed. Can anyone say "publicity stunt"?
Evel loved attention, just like most celebrities.
I guess I look at Evel's jumps different than most folks. If he made the obstacle and lived, he won.
Like pilots used to say "Flying is easy, landing is hard."
They also used to say "Any landing you walk away from is a good landing."
Evel flew. With no gliding capability. What a wacky way to make a living. My friends & I, and a lot of other folks couldn't wait for more. Everybody knew his name.
His motorcycle & figure toy had a cranking mechanism to power it up for stunts. We called it the "Evel-thingy"
When you have something in your legacy called the Evel-thingy, you are probably cool.
I had the Evel action figure with the bike until my dog got a hold of him.
The dog also tried to kill Stretch Armstrong, but that thing severely tested his abilities.
Those things weighed as much a bowling ball and were filled with weird red jelly that probably tasted awful.
I loved that dog more than anything, but he could be a bit of a bastard sometimes.
On another note, a strong crop of comics reviewed here, Steve-o!
I'm a big fan of the Squadron Sinister.
Also, I liked the story arc with Ben Grimm on the Skrull gangster planet. There was a Skrull who assumed the shape of Edward G. Robinson. When he told the Thing that nobody likes a mouthy slave, see, Ben Grimm flatly replied that he "didn't figger to win any popularity contests in this dump."
That's how you talk to aliens when they march you into a gladiatorial arena. Don't take any guff!
M.P.
Charlie's said it before and he'll say it again. Folks suggest Kirby was disinterested in Marvel at this time and was "just phoning it in." But those FF stories in issues 80s and 90s are rockin! Charlie loved this issue and just don't think it's fair to tar Jack with a less-than-100% effort.
Perhaps the work a few years earlier was simply 1000% and this stuff looked mundane. But let's face it... did anyone else came out with huge characters after those great FF ones like Surfer, Galactus, Inhumans, et al???
I would say that F.F. was a great comic for years, and for a few of those years, it was absolutely brilliant. Almost shockingly so, if one considers the time and the context.
Not always, but to look at it a different way, it's a pretty good baseball player who hits the ball three times out of ten.
M.P.
Ah Evel, seemed like my 'gang'of pals followed every move he made. You'd swear the man had rubber bones.
That FF /Skrull tale was great, and that cover was a real winner. As for Spidey and the Prowler : decent story, not spectacular (or even amazing). He was no Kingpin, but miles ahead of the Rocket Racer and such.
Woke up this morning with a huge headache (as usual currently) and turned on the tube. They were playing the "Being Knevel" documentary!
All the great footage!! Caeser's, Wembley, Snake River, etc!! What a blast from the past!
Outside of Avengers, and maybe solo stories with Iron Man & Thor, I wasn't aware that the Squadron Supreme had their own series/storyline.
I need to find used copies of collected editions/graphic novels on those guys. Hopefully cheap.
The Prowler sure looked cool, ya gotta give him that.
Climbin' up buildings with them funky claws of his.
Knievel kinda epitomized what was cool about the seventies, didn't he. It was a weird decade. You had Bigfoot, U.F.O.s, witchcraft, Sonny and Cher (okay, they were lame).
Just a lotta weird-ass behavior, generally speaking. Spooky.
M.P.
Ah, the cool 70s M.P. - hospitalize someone with a baseball bat these days and even in the land of the free I expect the SJWs will have you doing a lot more than a couple of months in stir.
Its political correctness gone mad.
-sean
M.P. and Sean- ohhhh, the 70's. Funky disco, disco ducks, Howard the Ducks, Robert E Howard Conans. Shag carpeting and leisure suits. ABBA and Aerosmith. Jeez, I'm getting sentimental in my old age...
Redartz--those Conan Ace paperbacks with the Frank Frazetta covers. There ya go.
Yeah, Sean, it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops I guess.
Patty Hearst, Watergate, Donny and Marie, the Son of Sam...bad stuff happened.
But, like Redartz pointed out, we got ABBA outta the deal.
I remember doing a lot of roller skating in the '70's.
Was that normal?
M.P.
I remember a lot of weed in the 70s as a teen. But it was a kinder, simpler weed when you could smoke one among 4 of you and nobody would really be high. Now, the poor kids, they take one toot and their head is ready to explode the stuff is so strong. What's the fun in that?
And the music! Listening to Donovan's or The Moody Blues greatest hits. Who could beat that for fun?
And we didn't have to be all buff and stuff. We could look like string beans and it was OK.
And we could have pimples and white heads and you'd sit there popping that stuff on the mirror.
And long, greasy-looking hair and shampooing with $.50 bottles of that Suave shampoo Mom would buy on sale at the grocery store along with the bar of Dial soap.
And spray on deodorant. Who didn't love to let the Right Guard rip under each armpit and freeze if off! And if some dude in gym class was willing to risk getting suspended, spraying it with the lighter going, to make a flame thrower!!!
And showering together in the communal shower after gym class! That prepared me for being in a frat house, it did! I always felt sorry for the dude who'd always pop the boner in the shower. Had to be embarrassing.
Well, that's the highlight of the 70s for me.
I remember my older sister buying an 8-track tape player which was the height of sound technology.
The bands sounded like they were playing underwater.
I remember in the summer of '76 my aunt giving me a bunch of her son's comic books (probably because the big dumb son of a bitch couldn't read) and that was great.
Nothing like reading Bronze-age D.C. comics in the shade in the summertime.
M.P.
M.P. Those DC Comics would be even better enjoyed with Mellow Yellow, Jennifer Juniper, or Hurdy Gurdy Man and, of course... Wear your love like Heaven.
Lord, what a mesmerizing song...
Donovan ruled!
I am just amazed at the UK's musical talents! Donovan, Moody Blues, Heaven 17, Level 42, The House Martins...
"B..B..B...Build... Add a new bit everyday..." Absolutely lovely! Gotta love The House Martins!
Aren't you heading into the 80s a bit there Charlie?
The 70s in the UK was more glam rock, folk rock, prog rock, pub rock, punk rock, reggae (giving us a break from rock) and terrible Eurovision songs. And Hawkwind.
With snap elections, arguments about being in Europe, and right-wing "send 'em back" loonies it was of course a different time...
-sean
Charlie, I assume you're either drinking heavily or smoking weed whilst listening to Donavan or the Moody Blues.
That's a tricky combo. I advise you not to drive.
M.P.
The 70's were indeed a magical time. There was so much fun stuff that the nasty crap wasn't completely overpowering.
Great music, comics, & movies. Tv was only 50% horrible.
Awful events and politics didn't have the ability to tear folks apart to the extremes that exist today.
Oh, to wax nostalgia.
NEWS FLASH! Charlie hacked my account last night! Anything written that doesn't seem rational or me-like was due to Charlie.
We were celebrating the time change in the USA and being 6 hours different than the UK again! With 6 hours,UK's Talk Sport's Hawksbee and Jacobs come on when I'm driving to work, not when I'm already at work! And we were happy about that! (Everyone needs a thrill or two, no?)
And then we celebrated too much and Charlie was just going on with heroic pantomine showing Princess Python (Circus of Crime) vs. Bellini (The Exiles) and I was laughing so hard and bonked my head. Well, sure as heck the rascale ran tout suite over to the computer and started typing stuff... But it was too late for me to stop him.
Any remarks about Donovan are surely his. There's other 60s UK groups I found to be better and would have written about them though I can't think of them cause I bonked my head last night...
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