November 7th, 1979 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

It's two days after Guy Fawkes' Night and that can only mean one thing.

That it's time for me to grab a jungle vine, launch myself from a tree and swing through the forest, yelling, "Ahoohoohoohoohahahahaahaaaahhahh!"

That's right, it's what I do every November the Seventh.

And how lucky I was, therefore, that on this date, forty years ago, I wasn't the only one doing so, because, that evening, BBC One was giving us the Tarzan cartoon that always seemed to be on TV in my younger days. Apparently, in this exciting episode, Ekima is mistaken for a monkey god.

I've no idea who Ekima is but I assume he's a monkey. It's going to be a bit strange if he's mistaken for a monkey god and he's an elephant.

Speaking of elephants, in this week of that year, Fleetwood Mac's Tusk rose two places to claim the Number One slot on the UK album chart, which isn't bad for an LP that's often spoken of as a monumental misfire.

It would seem our heroes are still having trouble with the Tagge family.

Other than this and the knowledge that that's a very striking colour for a dress, I know little of this tale.

I do know, however, that even though the cover blurb announces the presence of The Guardians of the Galaxy and Tales of the Watcher, the real big news is that this issue contains the origin of Deathlok.

I could claim to be excited about that but, as I've lamented in the past, I always found it impossible to get into his strip.

Meanwhile, the Guardians are still battling the Reavers of Arcturus and the Watcher's telling us the terrible tale of a bunch of space explorers who find themselves on a planet surrounded by a deadly mist.

The title of that tale is The Forbidden Planet.

I wonder where Stan got that title from?

The Hulk and Machine Man finally collide, as the former seeks to rescue Trish Starr from the latter, even though the latter doesn't have her.

Speaking of Trish, in his strip, Ant-Man, still stuck at insect size, finally manages to rescue her from Egghead, despite spending a chunk of the story trapped in the back of the villain's van.

You have to hand it to Ant-Man, there aren't many super-heroes of whom you can announce that they're, "Trapped in the back of a van."

Elsewhere, we're still getting our very very very prolonged potted history of Captain Britain's career so far.

Meanwhile, the Eternals have vanished, without trace, from the book, to be replaced by the Defenders who find themselves battling Solarr and the Rhino.

Nick Fury's still out to clear his name, with all of SHIELD against him.

I'm not sure what's happening in the Hulk tale but I suspect terrorism may be involved.

Clearly, the New X-Men are up against the Sentinels, which means we must be approaching issue #100 of the original US mag.

And Dr Strange is up against Lectra, a villain I have no recollection of. I suspect she's not a female version of Electro.

Yet more of the Iron Legion. Yet more of War of the Worlds. Yet more of The Dead Planet. Yet more of the Daleks.

But, this time, we also get a feature on the Yetis, those robot menaces who once took over the London Underground, with their guns that fire cobwebs.

No, I can't see any logic in having yetis in the London Underground and having them carry guns, let alone ones which fire cobwebs. But who cares? That story was great and that's all that matters.

Ant-Man may have trouble getting out of the back of vans but he has no such difficulty taking on the entire might of the Avengers.

Come to think of it, this may be the Scott Lang version but I'm not certain.

I think this all ties in with Ultron trying to create a bride for himself, though memory lets me down when it comes to knowing just how it all ties in.

But who is the X-Men author who speaks out? Is it Chris Claremont? If so, why's he speaking out in Marvel Superheroes, rather than Rampage which is the mag that reprints Claremont's X-Men tales?

Then again, maybe it's Rascally Roy who's speaking out.

Maybe it's Stan.

Who can say?

Not me.

Conan's having problems beyond the Black River, which, I believe, is a Robert E Howard tale.

I think this may be one of the ones that goes a bit Davy Crockett about things, which always felt a little strange in a Conan tale.

Red Sonja's still up against Balek and I still keep misreading it as, "Dalek."

Hooray! We get coverage of Quatermass, Doctor Who, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and more, more, more.

We also get news of something called Gandahar, a thing I can't say I've ever heard of. It would appear to be a French cartoon about a bunch of people fighting a bunch of metal men.

It also would appear that an English language version is available, starring Glenn Close.

The dying Spence Smythe's decided to get his revenge on Spider-Man and JJ by chaining them to a bomb that's set to go off in twenty four hours from now.

No, I don't know why he's set it to go off in twenty four hours, instead of just blowing them up straight away.

And that's why I'll never be an evil genius.