The Marvel Lucky Bag - November 1969.

Do you recall what you were doing on this night of fifty years ago?

I do. I was looking at fireworks.

Admittedly, when I say, "Recall," I don't recall it at all but it was Guy Fawkes' Night, so it's a safe bet that's what I was doing.

And now here I am, fifty years later, on another Guy Fawkes' Night, not looking at fireworks but, instead, typing this deathless prose.

That's how important this deathless prose is.

That's why this deathless prose will never die.

What did die, fifty years ago this month, was any hope of dramatic change at the top of the British music charts.

That's because, despite a strong challenge by Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well, the Archies' Sugar Sugar spent the whole of November at Number One on the singles listings. Meanwhile, the top of the LP chart in that period was completely hogged by the Beatles' Abbey Road.

But what of the less popular Marvel titles which bore that month as their cover date? Could they provide us with the sense of change the twin Hit Parades so sorely lacked?

Captain Marvel's great change happened last issue, of course, with the introduction of Rick Jones into the strip but there's still evolution this time round because here's where we first meet Mordecai P Boggs, and a legendary music career's born.

Even more thrillingly, the good captain rescues Carol Danvers from Yon-Rogg, by defeating his Mandroid who has no connection to the Mandroids who gave the Avengers so many problems during Neal Adams' brief stint on their strip.

Yon-Rogg may or may not die in this issue. I cannot say for sure, one way or the other.

Change is also in the air for Strange, as, for no reason I can recollect, the supernatural surgeon's now using the name, "Stephen Sanders."

Thus, Dr Sanders (thank God he isn't a colonel) is summoned to the house of an old friend who's being controlled by three servants of the Undying Ones.

Can our hero stop them and can he rescue his friend before it's too late?

Thanks to Hydra, Nick Fury finds himself hunted by Bulls-Eye.

But not that Bullseye.

Which is a bit odd as, given his obvious similarities to that other villain, I see no reason to not retcon him has having been the same character.

Still moaning about how terrible people are, the Silver Surfer decides to blunder around in one of those war-torn Latin American countries the Marvel version of our planet is rife with...

...only to have Shalla-Bal show up, just as he's kissing a local peasant girl!

Argh! Talk about terrible timing.

It's the most important comic ever published because it's the first Marvel mag I ever owned, bought from the Rag and Tag market in Sheffield, a place which, in photos, looks like shoppers were lucky to leave there without having contracted the Black Death.

But who cares about the Black Death? With this one comic, I was introduced to Spider-Man and six of Marvel's greatest villains, not to mention the Fantastic Four, Dr Strange, the X-Men, Giant-Man, the Wasp, Thor, Iron man and God knows who else, as we get a book that's pretty much a straight reprint of the very first Spider-Man annual.

The Sting-Ray makes his senses-tingling debut, as Subby discovers he can no longer fly nor breathe underwater, leading to an epic battle in the sewers and an attempt to prevent the Brooklyn Bridge collapsing.

Well and truly freed from its former limited distribution, Marvel takes full advantage, by unleashing Homer the Happy Ghost upon us, who, I'm sure, bears no resemblance at all to Casper the Friendly Ghost.

I can shed no light upon the contents of this comic, as I'd never even heard of Homer before now but I do know this issue's strips all seem to be drawn by Dan deCarlo and written by Stan Lee.

Not only do we get one new book this month, we get two!

I'm going to make a guess that this one bears a remarkable resemblance to the American Dennis the Menace strip.

All tales in this issue are drawn by Joe Maneely, suggesting that they, like the Homer tales, are Golden Age reprints.