If you're British, I'm going to guess you were watching Live and Let Die on ITV.
That's because a walloping 23.5 million viewers were tuned in to it, meaning 42% of the entire UK population were watching. Needless to say, this was an all-time British record TV audience for a movie.
I suspect slightly fewer people were watching BBC Two on this night in that week when that channel's Arena arts show was broadcasting Lene Lovich Sleeping Beauty.
Perhaps its greatest revelation was that Lovich had been a professional screamer in horror films. This is a discovery that definitely needs further investigation to discover if I've seen any movies in which she screamed.
Wikipedia also claims she was part of the audience singing along with Chuck Berry on his 1972 Number One smash My Ding-a-Ling.
However, it also says, "Citation needed," so take that bombshell with a dose of salt.
Hold on, what's happening?
With one mighty leap, Hulk Comic suddenly becomes The Incredible Hulk Weekly and gains an extra eight pages. Dez is clearly tireless in his endeavours to shake up Marvel UK.
So, what do we get in those extra pages?
We get the arrival of the Beast's very own solo strip and the start of a Spider-Man tale in which the wall-crawler has to seek out Reed Richards when a group of Russian super-doers including Darkstar, the Crimson Dynamo and that bloke with the hammer and sickle kidnap Peter Parker's female college friend whose name I've forgotten.
In the main strip, the Hulk's still in the Andes and enmeshed in Tyrannus' plot to regain his lost youth.
Valkyrie's in a bad mood when her sometime husband Jack Norris is abducted by Nick Fury on behalf of Scorpio.
The Silver Surfer's still having his scrap with Thor.
The Black Knight's still having his scrap with a fire-breathing dragon.
And Ant-Man defeats Mr Mysterious, or whatever he's called, and saves the Avengers Mansion from whatever dire fate the villain had in mind for it.
Hooray! Marvel UK's most profitable mag hits the Big 100!
There's not much I can say about this issue. I don't even know if the normal back-up strips are in it; or if it's all Star Wars this week, like I suspect it is.
I do know the comic contains a listing and plot summary for every Star Wars tale that's so far featured in the book, and also a very brief retrospective on the various back-up strips it's given us over the years.
It also has a wrap-around cover with the comic's rear featuring the TIE Fighter that the front cover's X-wing fighter is shooting at.
I do believe this is William Hartnell's first ever cover, which I would have thought is quite a brave thing, sales-wise.
I do remember that, back in the 1970s, William Hartnell seemed a very mysterious figure indeed, as I'd never seen any of his episodes and they'd never, to my knowledge, been repeated, meaning that all I knew was that he was the Doctor who was so incredibly old it was a miracle he could even move.
He was in his mid-fifties.
Elsewhere, the fourth Doctor's still up against the City of the Damned. I like to think that's a city in which everyone dresses like the punk band the Damned, and that Captain Sensible is the mayor.
We also get a text article dedicated to the inside of the TARDIS, more of Marvel's adaptation of The Invisible Man, a text retelling of the First Doctor story The Romans (I wonder if it includes the fridge jokes?) and a story called Death World which seems to feature Ice Warriors and Cybermen.
Spidey's mag doesn't get eight extra pages this week, nor does it get a wrap-around cover but Spider-Man does at least get a good strangling as he tangles with the Iguana at Bronx Zoo.
Fortunately, our hero survives that murder attempt but how long before he succumbs to another one?
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55 comments:
That Hulk comic was one of the first comics ever bought for me as an excited 5yr old. I wasn't interested in reading in school but I did live the Hulk TV series. Between them my parents and grandparents thought buying me a comic with him in could ignite an interest in reading. It worked but I think if my dad had known how many comics I'd collect over the years he'd have preferred to have an illiterate son.
Steve, were the Beast stories from Amazing Adventures? It took until 1980 for you folks to get those stories? Wow... They were great!
I'll never forget the first time I saw AA #11. The Beast was my fav X-Man, and as soon as I saw the cover I thought "That's not the Beast!"
Flipped through the book real fast, saw Hank McCoy, and grabbed it with a Hero-For-Hire.
Being a "monster kid" I fell in love with the book. I'd buy Amazing Adventures when they were on the rack, as I was a fan of Marvel's split-books.
Kirby & Neal Adams on the Inhumans! John Buscema on Black Widow! What's not to love?!!
The death, at least in the 70's, of Marvel's split titles bummed me out. I was also fan of Astonishing Tales, with Ka-Zar & Dr. Doom.
Those Beast stories, though, had me eyeballing the magazine/spinner racks when I was able to encounter civilization.
It was a good thing they were bi-monthly, lol!
KD, I believe they were from Amazing Adventures. They were the ones where he first became furry,
Steve, I hope you did what I always did and insisted they'd be worth millions one day.
Those solo Beast stories were excellent. Virtually overloaded with angst, paranoia, and self-loathing. I was excited when I found out he joined the Avengers, until I learned that they changed him into the class clown.
From being the most articulate of the X-Men, then going through an almost Jekyll/Hyde mask facade period to keep up a human appearance, to becoming the jolly jokester?
"Oh my stars & garters!"
Man, I LOATHED hearing him say that catch phrase.
Then when he changed back into "human" form in the beginning of the X-Factor series, he's more or less back to Hank McCoy again. The only reason his vocabulary wasn't as large was because Lee didn't write it.
If there's a common theme in the comment section today, it's how we never forget the early thrills we mighta got from a comic when we were young. And even now, grizzled old farts that we are, we still get excited talking about it.
Every once in a while, Steve, you review a comic here from long ago and I am utterly compelled to say something about it, 'cause I remember where and when I got it decades later and why I thought it was great!
A doff of the cap, Steve.
M.P.
While the X-Men movies are hit-n-miss, I was surprisingly impressed at Kelsey Grammer's portrayal of the Beast.
Probably my biggest beef about the Beast, as a want-to-be artist, is how they transfered his fur to blue.
When introduced he had grey hair. After his battle with Quasimodo, his fur turned black. For coloring highlights, as in Black Panther,etc, they used a little blue. In the Avengers he was just full blown blue. Blue mutants now almost seem like a different race.
If any of you folks never read the 70's Beast stories, I highly recommend.
Lots of turmoil & great battles with Iron Man, Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants, and Juggernaut.
Also an unofficial crossover with DC, involving the big Halloween party in Vermont.
M.P.
You said it in a "nutshell", oh my brother. Lol.
Thanks, K.D.
Man, them early appearances of the new furry Beast were weird. They didn't have a handle on the character yet. He was basically a guy who turned into a monster and was on the run. That story where he fought the Juggernaut was rather odd. Juggy had apparently just returned from an alternate dimension after a bizarre encounter with Doc Strange, and then found himself sucked back into it. They were really going for a Halloween vibe there, and I don't think it was till the Beast showed up in the Avengers that the writers (was it Englehart?) saw him as comic relief.
The Avengers needed comic relief. Nobody on that team had anything approaching a sense of humor. Thanks to Roy Thomas, they were all out-grimming each other.
M.P.
Yeah M.P., the furry version of the Beast came into his own in the Avengers. Besides the much needed lighter characterisation - not unlike that of Ben Grimm, come to think of it - he made a cute couple with Wonder Man.
Steve, I see Spidey is now Marvel's tv sensation. Poor old Hulk - the viewing public are so fickle.
But I thought the tv series wasn't on here for another year or so, til around the time of Spider-Man TV Comic...?
Or maybe they mean the "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can" cartoon. But even if that was still on, it wasn't exactly a sensation, was it?
-sean
I always told him they'd be worth a load of money but it didn't stop him moaning. Unfortunately after looking after my comics for years when my wife and I moved house in 2012 they were all stored in the shed temporarily. Bloody mice chewed most of them so all but a hundred or so Marvel and DC monthlies ended up in recycling. Doing that felt like burying a member of the family.
You UK guys loved your superhero TV sensations! Love it!
I do very fondly recall the split titles with Inhumans, Black Widow, Beast, Ka Zar, Dr. Doom...
In my vague hindsight, I recall the best thing to come out of all that was a Colan - Everett drawn Black Widow? Perhaps the sexiest depiction of her ever? Is my memory firing on all 8 cylinders?
Alas the furry Beast only had Charlie confused for years and years b/c Charlie missed the transition issue. So while Charlie assumed fur ball was X-Men's Beast, he never was 100% sure and had a lagging doubt. Finally a few years ago I ordered the Marvel Archive of Beast (I think it has him and Iron Man on the cover)? All was explained...
Steve, how do you know ITV were showing Live And Let Die on this particular date? Have you discovered an ITV version of Genome or did you happen to have a 40 year-old copy of TV Times?
Charlie - I do remember a Black Widow story drawn by Colan and Everett that appeared in the "Giant Superhero Holiday Grabbag" along with MTO #1, Daredevil vs Submariner from around DD #7 or 8 and that FF and Avengers vs Hulk two parter somewhere around FF #25.
The Widow story is from one of those early issues of the comic she shared with the Inhimans. I don't know what issue but some kid that she was trying to save from a miserable life of crime dies at the end, maybe saving the Widow. At the end, some cop asks if she knows who the kid was and she just replies "You could call him a friend of mine.", which made for a great closing panel.
In terms of sexy depictions, this beats John Romita's version in ASM #86 for me.
Charlie, I recall seeing Dr Strange on tv around this time, the old US pilot with John Mills as the Ancient One (back then, the quota system for middle aged white men on tv was identity politics gone mad, no?)
So I look forward to Doc being described as Marvel's latest tv sensation on an upcoming Rampage cover...
-sean
Dangermash-
That Holiday Grab-bag issue was one of my favorite Treasury Editions. I tried not to wear it out, as I read it over & over.
Sean-
Whenever there was a Marvel pilot airing, that was definitely a "must-view".
Marvel had sold the rights for the Human Torch for a pilot. Really wish they would have made it.
I really don't recall this iteration of Hulk Weekly at all, think I must have been down to just Star Wars and Rampage at this point. How long till we get the hideous 80s 'graphic design' Hulk logo version, can't remember if it is before or after the merger with Spider-man Weekly?
Tim, I don't recall that Hulk logo. I shall await its arrival, with eager anticipation.
MP, it's nice to be of service. :)
Steve, you have my sympathies.
Sean, the Spider-Man TV series really did take a long time to appear on British screens but I wonder if the pilot "movie" showed up on TV earlier than that, what with it having already had a theatrical release?
I do vaguely remember that Dr Strange pilot but so mangled by time are my recollections of it that John Mills being in it is the sole thing I recall about it.
Charlie, I think my favourite strip from those early Amazing Adventures comics was Dr Doom's solo run. Wally Wood's art on it was a thing of beauty.
Colin, I only know about the Live and Let Die TV showing because its record-breaking audience was mentioned in a page on Wikipedia. I am, sadly, unaware of any TV listings info for ITV from that period.
Dangermash and Charlie, I don't think Marvel UK ever reprinted those Black Widow tales, so I never got to read them.
Steve, those Black Widow stories in Amazing Adventures were entertaining, but they usually lacked costumed supervillians. I think the Red Guardian made his debut in that title, though. I may be wrong.
One of my favorite things about those tales was Natasha's chauffeur, Ivan.
He learned English by watching old movies. He used Bogart-slang quite a bit. Now I wonder what happened to him.
You're right, Sean, there was quite a few shows that featured older male characters from the mid-70s into the 80's.
Cannon & Quincy come to mind.
Andy Griffith had a program called Salvage One, which was light Sci-Fi adventure, before he did Matlock.
Dick Van Dyke had a sort-of forensic detective show, an attempted Quincy rip-off.
Hell, they even tried giving Fred Gwynn (Herman from the Munsters, Car 54) a detective show. Lol!
Heck Ramsey was another one. My dad watched all those.
I knew it! Something about Amazing Adventures agitated me!
Perhaps the best art of the Black Widow ever rendered, by Colan and Everett, came to an end starting with issue 6 b/c they replaced Gene the Dean with.... drumroll... the same guy who gave me gas on Daredevil.
But what also is Marvel Awesomeness is The King was drawing the other half of the book... The Inhumans! I really need to read those again!
IN a few short years, though, I would read Superman vs. Cpt Marvel/SHazam look alike! Weird world! How did Marvel lose me?
Charlie, the Inhumans vs Mandarin storyline, by Kirby, was the bomb.
Charlie, at the risk of sounding like a smart arse, Kirby had already left the Inhumans before Don Heck started on the Black Widow, so the other half of the book would have been drawn by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer.
In fact, wholly smokes brother Rockwinkle - Kirby had already left Marvel completely!
-sean
Hey guys, I have the Marvel TV pilots. If anyone wants copies, let me know. I believe my Dvds are "all region", but curiosity dwells.
Everytime I post my email for free stuff, I get no takers. With the exception of Charlie Horse 47.
Over the last year or two we've built quite a good communal fellowship.
Being a movie guy that's all I got to share, and I love burning stuff if someone will watch it. So don't be shy.
K.D., I catch reruns of Cannon once in a while.
Every episode he would get shot at, and despite the fact that he was large and round and moved like a glacier, they kept missing. The crooks were all really bad shots, apparently. How could you miss William Conrad? All he could do was tumble behind cover, and he even tumbled slowly.
Cannon also got run off the road every episode by crooks. He and his enormous Lincoln Continental Mark IV, which was about the size of a small space ship, got forced off into a culvert or something. That giant car with a hood 15 feet long kicked up a lot of dust when it spun out.
Judging from T.V. and movies, people in the '70's were constantly being forced off the road by other drivers.
Or by aliens or Bigfoot. Highways were pretty chaotic back then.
M.P.
By the way, Sean & Steve, I still have Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein & Silver Surfer promo cards laying around to pop in an envelope. Lol.
In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, "One more time...!"
K*I*L*L*D*U*M*P*S*T*E*R(at)GMAIL(DOT)COM.
Make Killdumpster all lower case, with no asterisks, then @gmail.com.
Man, to paraphrase Barbie, "Socialism is hard!" ROTFLMAO!!!
M.P.-
Here's some William Conrad trivia for you:
He originally started as a radio-star.
Conrad was Matt Dillion on the radio version of Gunsmoke, before the tv show. They used a few actors from radio to tv, except Conrad.
Go FIGURE! Pun intended!! Lmao!!!
In his defense, William Conrad did an excellent job on some radio program called "Linagen Versus The Ants."
It was pure tension & suspense, or at least how I remember it from literature class in high school.
It was so popular that it inspired the film NAKED JUNGLE, starring Charlton Heston. I highly recommend that film.
If Hank Pym would have seen or heard the movie or radio show, and incorporated those themes in his bouts of insanity, he could have ruled the world.
So much potential for Ant-Man. Good thing I don't have his powers, lol!
And he was a fighter pilot during the war. I dunno if he saw combat or not, but that's impressive either way.
Hell of an actor and hell of a voice. My favorite actors are guys who weren't exactly pretty boys. I know I ain't.
M.P.
Yeah, MP, oh my brother.
American tv detectives, for the most part, were pretty sorry drivers. Getting forced off the road, getting stuck in ditches, or the infamous " rolling-off-the-cliff-and-explosion" while the STAR looks up, laying on a bank.
Rockford (James Garner) and maybe Mannix ( Mike "Touch" Connors) seemed to avoid that cliche, for the most part, anyway. Guess it boiled down to the budget.
Or the writers. Just like in comics.
Columbo is my favorite.
That show was about class warfare, pure and simple. And the suspect, somebody rich, successful or accomplished when confronted by this absurd working-class clown, would go through stages of nervousness, exasperation, even amusement, anger and finally fear when they figured out he was way smarter than he acted.
M.P.
Sean - Didn't Kirby do Inhumans same time COlan and Everett were doing Black Widow in AA? Then they both split... with DH taking over for C&E?
MP- I only recall one scene from Canon, from my yute. I was watching with my grandfather and I recall Canon laying on the ground, nearly dead from poison, when he spies a bowl of cat's milk nearby. He drinks it, recovers, and... well... I guess saves the day? You remember that episode?
KD - Yowza dude! FLash Conquers the Universe was as good as the latest Star Wars, which I DO recommend!!!
Touching back on the Beast's transfiguration into a version of JLA's Plastic Man, Hank McCoy already had a sense of humor.
In the original X-Men series, Hank & Bobby Drake had a comedic trade-off. Which didn't diminish Hank's intelligence.
Whether they were in uniform mode, or in a dating scenario, they always had snappy patter.
When he was in the Avengers he was turned into Rip Taylor. The only thing missing was tossed confetti... Eerr..
I actually believe he did that once!!!
Awful.
The whole Wonder Man/Beast pseudo-Laurel & Hardy thing was pretty weak.
Sorry, but I didn't mind when the Avengers were on the grim side.
While moments of humor can bring a light-hearted moment into an intense story, turning an established character upsidedown for silly comedic effect ercked me.
Especially one of my favs.
If I wanted laughs there was always Mad magazine, or National Lampoon.
Guess I wanted serious adventure, not a "funny book".
Sorry guys. I'm tired, drunk, and hungry.
Sorry, Charlie, only the good tasting Star Wars gets to be the original trilogy. Lol.
Man, I'll bet Steve would've never guessed William Conrad's 400 lb, 3 1/2 ft tall detective would be a point of conversation on his site.
Hokey Smokes, Cannon-winkle!
Oh, but I think he knew karate & judo. Lmao!
Charlie, if I had seen on T.V. William Conrad on the floor drinking milk from a cat bowl, I woulda remembered it. Jesus H. Christ.
That scene, as you've described it, sounds like the stuff of nightmares.
M.P.
Ha Ha! Cannon's martial arts skills must've also included a black-belt in CHINESE BUFFET!!!
An EXPANDING black belt!!! Lol!!!
I'm here all week folks. Don't forget to tip your bartender.
MP-
Columbo ruled!
I was so sad when I heard his family watched the show with him in the end of his days.
His Alzheimer's was so bad he couldn't remember filming a single episode. That sounds horrible.
Peter Falk was a very good actor. RIP.
The only thing I remember about Cannon is that it had a voiceover artist reading out the credits. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was William Dozier.
Steve, I follow Graeme Wood on Twitter who often tweets images of Radio and TV Times. @woodg31
I'm sure I saw a tweet about Live & let Die in the TV Times this week.
I got a hardback collection of the Amazing Adventures Beast stories in the Pop Up shop in Elgin last month.Still on the reading pile.
You're right Charlie, more or less (I think Colan left an issue or two after Kirby). Sorry, I thought you were suggesting that you could live with Heck on the Black Widow as half the comic was Kirby's Inhumans.
Adams was awesome too of course - especially with Tom Palmer on inks - and a worthy replacement, although you still miss Kirby's writing. Well, I do - he's very underrated as a writer imo.
Have you been enjoying the Dingbats book then?
How brainless does a publisher have to be not to have put out Soul Love at the time?
-sean
Those Amazing Adventure books are blazed into my mind from the spinner rack! A small grocery store, in Gary, Indiana, with two racks... one for Harvey and one for everything else.
Kirby's writing was really Kirbyesque. No doubt about it! Dingbat Love will be on my reading list in the nearer future, no doubt about it!
One thing about Amazing Adventure, is after they blazed (heh, heh) their way through Inhumans, Black Widows, and Beasts, they landed on Kill Raven!
Kill Raven ties in nicely with conspiracy theories (I hope y'all said your piece on Back in the Bronze Age!) and France Gall's immortal song Resiste! As pictured in the Link below, I would follow France Gall and let her lead the resistance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPBVplEp7xE
MP, et al... the site of a 300 pound poisoned Frank Cannon laying on the floor, sweating profusely is one of those things that "once you see it you can't unsee it." Plus to roll (LMAO) his ass across the kitchen floor to drink the cat's milk... (Sorry Frank, once the poison's in your blood it's too late, no?)
Unfortunately that sight doesn't fall into the same category as Hee Haw's Barbie Benton, as revealed in Playboy, which I don't mind "unseeing." LOL.
Speaking of Barbie Benton, do you UK Chaps have exposure to Tijuana Bibles? My Uncle had "those tacky little pamphlets stashed in his bottom drawer" for sure.
Indeed there is a joke in our family about him having to stoke the coal burner in the basement (back in the 40s) and my grandmother finding him with the bibles and stoking more than the fire!
(KD - that bit of Frankie Z was to help you recover from your blazing hangover which I assume you must have after that barrage you unleashed on us last night, LOL! What'd you do, go watch 1917 and decide to hit us with the big guns??? You crazy man, you...)
Holy Moley Bullwinkle! There are 125 episodes of Cannon out there. And there was a DVD release!
If you have a hankering to see a 300 pound man, sweating all over the place, laying on a kitchen floor, roll around to drink the cat's milk... this is your chance!!!
Disclaimer: I remember all this like when I was 9 years old. For all I know Cannon crawled and did not roll over the floor and it may have been the dog's milk???
The only memory I have of Cannon is an episode where some scientists receive a signal from aliens but it then turns out to be a hoax perpetrated by a murderer, in order to divert the blame away from himself. Needless to say, that revelation was a massive disappointment to me.
Charlie, I have no knowledge of "Tijuana Bibles." The only thing from Tijuana I'm familiar with is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
Dougie, thanks for the tip-off. I shall pay closer attention to his account, from now on.
Tijuana Bibles... Google them... there's a site or two where you can read them, even.
I have never heard of them until that fateful family gathering in my late teens.
That said, I only recommend the ones from the 30s and 40s: clean, wholesome debauchery. THere was a revival of sorts in the 70s and 80s I think... which obviously look like they were drawn 50 years later.
It's amazing what trouble Blondie (I assume you know the newspaper comic strip) could get into when the plumber had to come over and fix a leak???
Charlie, the only connection to the JFK hit I recall from Killraven is one of those hallucinations he sometimes had.
Although I may well have missed an issue revealing that there was a Martian tripod on the grassy knoll, or something.
Maybe they were actually from Cuba, and not Mars?
Btw, if you think that many Cannon episodes and a dvd are astonishing, the Brits actually put him in a comic!
https://britishcomics.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/tv-action/ - scroll down past those Dr Who covers and you'll find ones with Cannon. And Alias Smith and Jones, and assorted forgotten early 70s cultural detritus.
-sean
Holy Frank Cannon Bullwinkle!
Sean - Even the Atlantic Ocean could not stop America's detritus from landing on your bonny shores??? I am sooooo sorry! Truly!
But what a blast from the past dude! Thanks!!! And the drawing is crazy accurate!!! I mean, it's obviously Frank Cannon!!!
Did you ever read those TV Actions?
To be fair Charlie, America also sent over works by Jack Kirby, Miles Davis and Captain Beefheart to Europe, so... swings and roundabouts.
And anyway, the Brits inflicted Genesis, Duran Duran, and Downton Abbey on you lot, so they can't really complain.
Yeah, I read TV Action aka Countdown aka Countdown For TV Action aka whatever else they happened to call it from week to week (don't ask).
It had full colour printing, and included old TV21 stuff like Frank Bellamy's Thunderbirds - he could make even a puppet show look amazing - so was generally pretty good.
The weird thing was the (sometime) title series Countdown, a sci-fi strip drawn by the great John M. Burns that had the rights to use spaceship designs and whatnot from 2001, but not the film title or storyline. Not sure how they managed that (it confused me for ages).
-sean
Sean, I have a hard time believing they made a comic out of Cannon.
I think it's more likely that you were just really drunk and reading the Hulk.
M.P.
Well M.P., I find it hard to believe there are re-runs of Cannon in the twenty-first century, with actual viewers. Its a funny old world.
(Please tell me they don't still show McMillan & Wife in the US, or at least you don't watch it)
-sean
Sean - over here there's been an explosion of stations, broadcasting (not cable as far as I can tell) reruns from the 50s - 90s.
Point being McMillan and Wife is probably on the air somewhere as I type... as is Columbo, the Monkeys, Batman, Brady Bunch, Twilight Zone, Car 54... But honest to cripe I haven't found Cannon!
Charlie, Cannon reruns on MeTv or MyTv, or some such station. There are a few of those channels that are also available on cable, like Comet.
I apologize for my drunken barrage Friday night, gents. I wasn't winning any money and was bored.
YOu can google meTV and they are probably the mother lode of all that retro TV. They also have a radio station more/less nation wide (big cities only?) at 87.7 FM.
But they don't stream the FM which sucks.
What also sucks is most new cars apparently don't go below 87.9 on the FM now, so they are hosed at 87.7.
I generally listen to meTV FM if listening to the radio on the commute. All those groovy 60s songs I haven't heard in 50 years!
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