Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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It's weird how you can assume people died long before they actually did.
And, so, it was a surprise, when researching this post, to discover that, on this night in 1980, BBC One's Where Are They Now? had David Jacobs going to Hollywood to find out what Fay Wray was up to.
For some reason, it had never occurred to me she was still alive in 1980, even though there was no reason she shouldn't have been.
In that edition, he also set out to learn what had happened to Brian Poole of the Tremeloes, and the young girl from the BBC Test Card.
I think I've lost count of how many TV shows have set out to discover whatever happened to the girl from the BBC Test Card.
But I must confess the Test Card always perturbed me, as I was convinced that both she and her sinister clown doll were in the habit of moving when you weren't looking.
Over on the UK singles chart, The Jam were deposed from their top slot and replaced by Kelly Marie's Feels Like I'm in Love.
Obviously, the greatest thing about that single was that it was written by Mungo Jerry's Ray Dorset, not the most obvious man, you would have thought, to write a Disco smash.
Definitely not setting the discos of Britain alight was Gary Numan, unless they were very sombre discos but that wouldn't have mattered to him because his LP Telekon was now top of the UK album chart.
All I know about this one is J Jonah Jameson's had a breakdown and is seeing tiny
Spider-Men everywhere.
Also, it seems we're going to see more
Hulk than ever before!
Which is, no doubt, very exciting.
Exactly which strip has been banished to make way for all this extra Hulkiness, I could not say.
And, just to make my life even harder work,
Marvel UK launches yet another comic upon the world.
I think this means it's now publishing fourteen books a month. Will this madness never end?
In our first tale, Spider-Man and
Daredevil team-up to rescue a girl, from the Unholy Three.
Then we find out what would've happened if Spidey'd stopped the villain who went on to killed his Uncle Ben.
We get a reprint of
Ms Marvel's debut adventure which I'm pretty sure Marvel UK had already reprinted in the not-too-distant past.
Morbius gets a solo outing drawn by Paul Gulacy, which, it seems, recaps his origin.
Then we ask, "What would have happened if a spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?"
I'm no expert but I assume it would have died.
And we finish off with Jack of Hearts in solo action.
This all sounds like a massive amount of content but some of these strips are just two pages long, which must be a frustrating read.
All I know about his one is the ghost of, "Frank Charlesworth," takes possession of a dead pilot, as his Spitfire's about to crash, in order to sock it to the Luftwaffe.
It's a tale drawn by Herb Trimpe who was put on this Earth to draw war stories.
My knowledge of this one's limited but, obviously, Han Solo's still in Carbonite trouble.
I also know
Gullivar Jones is well on track to rescue his girlfriend and on the brink of squaring up to her abductor, thanks to the pencilling skills of Gray Morrow.
I would assume we're also being treated to the latest shockers from Tales of the Watcher and Monsters of the Cosmos.
It's my birthday today. I've celebrated with a nice curry, so I'm pleasantly full & ready to engage with Steve's fantastic selection. Where to start?
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Faye Wray reminds us how often apes & ape themes infest this blog!
As regards the BBC Test Card, I always associate it with either 'Pop Corn' or 'Love is Blue'.
As Ms Marie might say, Steve's selection, tonight, is enough to put our heads in a spin.
First of all, Spider-man & Hulk Weekly # 392. Steve is a little hazy about the Spidey story. Well, it's a Stern & Byrne job (like Captain America). Jameson's breakdown has been caused by a criminal genius, called Jonas Harrow, who is also responsible for Hammerhead, Kangaroo (c.f. the Australian spotter last week!) & Will-o' the Wisp. Jonas Harrow has very large spectacles, so he must be a criminal genius. Criminal geniuses never have good eyesight. The device Harrow used on Jameson also makes the Bugle's employees start attacking each other (a Star Trek plot), and Peter inadvertently displays his Spider strength (whilst wearing a Wonderman 'W' shirt), pushing Marla 'Spider Slayer' Madison & Robbie apart.
In the Hulk story, a nuclear power station is at risk of going critical (is there any other kind?) & Banner goes to help. A car crash turns him into the Hulk - will Jade Jaws save the nuclear plant or destroy it?
She-Hulk is holding a suspension bridge together & there's no sign of Richard Rory anywhere in the story.
In Spider-woman, the hangman has tied her up, so he can make her listen to another one of his interminable, boring monologues.
The Green Cross Man is on the back cover! Stop, look & listen!
The first ever issue of Team-up started a great run. Daredevil & Spidey have a fight, but just as Spidey's about to cream Daredevil, DD stops the fight as Cat-man must be allowed to escape, so they can follow him & the ransom to his hideout, & find the girl & save the day!
I wonder what would happen if the gorilla from the Unholy Three had a fight with the gorilla from the Red Ghost's Super Apes?
The one thing I really remember from this comic, from when I read it as a kid, is in the Fantastic Four story, the Thing has to catch a falling crane, and he explains that he has to catch it just right, or it could go right through him, as he isn't in the Hulk's class, for invulnerability. As a kid, I thought this distinction was very important. Of course, this is restating this point - as it was made much earlier in the classic John Buscema battle between the Thing & the Hulk (surely one of Marvel's greatest battles?)
Oh, on top of Dez Skinn's "scattergun" approach of lots of different stories, there's also a funny, role reversal one, with Roy Thomas as the Watcher, entitled, "What if the Spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?"
In 'Forces in Combat' # 18, the Frank Charlesworth story is definitely by Herb Trimpe, but it says Editor Paul Neary & Art Asst Jerry Paris - so, there may have been some cutting & pasting involved!
Rom finishes last week's battle with the human inhabiting Firefall's armour. Kull's still fighting Shimmenon, that god of frost & flame, who looks like a giant skeleton encased in crystal - or is it ice?
Machine Man's fighting a mysterious Machine Man-lookalike, called Barry Witherspoon. We also discover Machine Man weighs 2,000lbs - that's twice the weight of the Hulk!
There's also the Rawhide Kid, Shang-Chi, Fury, & a funny story called "I was Adolf's Double."
"Forces in Combat" also plays that D.C. style trick of asking readers which story gets kicked out of the comic - that's democracy, folks!
I can offer no help whatsoever on that issue of Star Wars Weekly - I mean Empire Strikes Back Weekly!
Phillip
"There may have been some cutting & pasting involved"
ReplyDeleteSurely not!
Cheers Phillip - I'm assuming it was the Defenders that got the push from Spidey & Hulk Weekly... and just as Devil-Slayer was due to turn up. British Blue Oyster Cult fans missed out. Ah well, no harm done then.
Btw, not to be pedantic (who, me?) but SezDez left Marvel UK earlier in the year (I think Paul Neary was in charge at this point, which, given that he previously worked as an artist, makes the shoddy covers even more inexcusable).
-sean
I should probably point out that Feels Like I'm In Love is the song I've performed in karaoke the largest number of times. I must have done it four or five times in one evening at one particular all managers in the company get pissed together and stay over at an external location event. They had about 20 songs on rotation and every time Kelly came up I was dragged away from my beer and up to the mike.
ReplyDeleteMy fantasy football team that year was called Tonight I’m Kelly Marie, which caused much mirth in the FF call centre every single time I had to phone in my substitutions.
C'mon, how long do we reckon anyone spent on that Team-Up cover? Blow up an old Gil Kane Spidey, add some stock pics of other characters at random, and letraset lettering... thats, what, ten minutes work maybe? And for a first issue!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Marvel UK were having difficulties...
-sean
"Tonight Matthew I will be Kelly Marie"
ReplyDeleteNo offence intended dangermash, but this is where the anonymity of the internet comes in handy, as I suspect thats not an image I want in my mind.
-sean
Happy birthday, Phillip, and thanks for the in-depth round-up of this week's contents. You're a true hero of the internet. :)
ReplyDeleteSean and Dangermash, in a very real way, aren't we all Kelly Marie?
I actually don't mind the SM & Hulk and Team-up covers. I'm guessing the marketing strategy was no more complicated than 'let's have a big Hulk and Spidey on the cover of every issue'. The Hulk illustration looks original. Possibly a Paul Neary?
ReplyDeleteThat Kelly Marie single must have had a reasonable shelf life because I remember it still getting a lot of airplay over that Christmas period.
Is Darth Vader playing 'guess which hand it's in?' to torment some poor rebel?
DW
That Hulk cover looks to me like the hand of Alfredo Alcala was involved somewhere along the line DW. Maybe it was taken from an issue of the Hulk magazine?
ReplyDeleteNo doubt you're right that the marketing strategy would have been fairly straight forward. I worked for a studio that used to package kids comics in the 90s, and they were pretty cynical about the target audience - they really didn't give a shit.
Maybe they were right not to be bothered, but I reckon enough kids notice a little bit of effort that it does make a difference to the bottom line (see for instance 2000AD surviving past the collapse of IPCs comic line).
Steve, dunno about us all being Kelly Marie.... but so long as we're not Gary "I love Margaret Thatcher" Numan in any way at all I won't argue the point.
-sean
PS Happy birthday Phillip (sorry I forgot to mention it earlier)
Anyone know where Herb Trimpe's war story first appeared? Was he good with this genre?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am wondering since Mungo J did Kelly Marie's song, did it too have the totally incoherent, unidentifiable sound of a Triumph racing back and forth in it? Per one of SDC's earlier blogs on this song, a few months ago, none of us stateside had clue as to what the hell the sound was, LOL!
Happy Birthday Phillip! If I may ask, when you Brits say you had "curry" how should I interpret that here in the USA? Reason being, we (at least Charlie and I) get curry at the Thai restaurants but they have many different kinds. So are you referring to a particular curry that all you Brits know as "curry" or it's just a generic reference and generally referring to the red or yellow or the other various colors they have?
Charlie, The Trimpe story first appeared in War is Hell, possibly issue #13. Trimpe's strength was drawing military hardware, so, war stories were perfect for him.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can remember, Kelly Marie was totally lacking in the sound of Triumph.
Steve, Sean & Charlie - thanks, lads!
ReplyDeleteSean - that Hulk cover could well have Alcala involvement, as the Hulk story inside the comic is definitely Alfredo Alcala - although there are no credits. In terms of Alcala Hulk art, it's quite weak, though, and not as good as "Feeding Billy" ! (In terms of the art! - I know "Feeding Billy" is probably the furthest thing from a "nice" story you could possibly imagine!)
Charlie - You were correct with your second suggestion. In the uk, a "curry" is usually a generic reference for an Indian meal.
Phillip
Phillip, I really like Alfredo Alcala's work, but as with most of those Filipinos Marvel tended to use him mainly as an inker, and there was a period in the late 70s when they often seemed to pair him with iffy pencilers.
ReplyDelete"Feeding Billy" sounds like a bit of an exception to that - not read it, but I looked it up and apparently it was with Jim Starlin, which definitely sounds worth looking into (Judo Jim's b&w Hulk story with the mighty Alex Nino is a fave of mine).
I was thinking more of, say, Alcala working on Ron Wilson's Hulk. Basically, even someone with a phenomenal inking technique will be limited by what they're given.
-sean
Now that I think about it, the only "war story" I specifically recall is when Hulk finds Phantom Eagle thanks to Kang the Conqueror around Hulk 130-ish. SOmething about sending Banner back in time to kill his grandfather so that Banner is never born? (I dare not google this b/c I am afraid it will tell me my memory is so FUBAR'd that I should take the gas pipe!)
ReplyDeleteInteresting you chaps think of Curry for Indian cuisine and we (me and Charlie) really only see it for Thai cuisine (seems every city has a couple of Thai) which seems more fairly prevalent than Indian over here.
ReplyDeleteWhy more Thai??? We Wonder Why!!!
You had the colony and we had the Vietnam War leading to different immigration patterns?
We (me and Charlie) will say we greatly prefer the Thai: flavors seem smoother, not as hard.
Sean - Yes, you're right - I'd forgotten "Feeding Billy" was Jim Starlin penciling, with Alfredo Alcala inking. Strangely, the inks struck me much more than the penciling - probably because I'd never seen anything like it ever before, at that time.
ReplyDeleteCharlie - in the UK, Thai restaurants are popular, too. There aren't as many Thai restaurants as Indian restaurants, but they are rapidly catching up.
As regards "Indian" cuisine, this is a massive topic - South Asian cuisine ("Indian" is an over simplification) has every variation under the sun. People normally think of Thai as being more mild - like you suggest - but "Indian" cuisine also has many mild dishes; and what they serve for the customers often isn't the same as the "real" dishes.
I've only had Thai food once. What stuck in my mind was the dishes being defined by colour - a green curry, a red curry, etc.Other people reading this will know a lot more than me.
My brother, who has worked in India, discusses dishes from Southern India, which I've never even heard of. They aren't served in my home town, but are served in restaurants in big cities in the UK. Again, it's a massive topic!
Phillip
Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy only thoughts are that we do have numerous Indian restaurants, some of higher quality and cleanliness than others, and they all offer buffets. I don't know if that is for those of non-Indian descent but it works for us!
They are like around $15 - $25 all you can eat.
I think for the uninformed palate it is an excellent idea b/c most of "us" are not huge fans of the various foods but we do like some. The buffet allows you to learn what you like / don't like and then fill up on what you prefer. (And ordering a la carte is actually expensive!)
They all (except in the vegetarian ones) bring this Chicken Tandoori and piping hot Nann to the table too! So it's a good experience in the main.
Charlie - You seem to know at least as much about this as me!
ReplyDeleteIn the UK, the buffet thing's more with Chinese restaurants - the larger ones - although I've known one local Indian restaurant do it, too.
If they'd had buffets when I was young, I'd have probably stuffed my face. But, with middle-age, reflux with overeating, etc, I now can't eat enough, at a buffet, to get my money's worth.
I think that's the trick to it. The buffet is more expensive than a starter & a main course, so the middle-aged people pay for more than they can eat. The young people, in contrast, get more than their money's worth. I suppose it all balances out!
Still, Charlie, like you say, with the buffet, at least you get the choice!
We seem to be wandering further & further away from Steve's selection for this week!
Phillip
Didn't Herb Trimpe draw a seen of Hulk walking up to a buffet or restaurant and looking inside through the window?
ReplyDeleteSteve's selection is a veritable smorgasbord of life! I think (if I dare say) he would be hurt if we did't talk about Indian food and then said nothing else anyhow b/c we'd exhausted the original posting.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we love Steve and I am a proud Patron!
Unless things have changed a lot over recent years, in most of India - especially the further south you go - you usually get all you can eat (but not so much in places catering more to tourists).
ReplyDeleteIts great if you're a veggie - probably the only part of the world where vegans can easily eat out pretty much anywhere.
Don't know about the US, but in Britain most of the "Indian" food is actually British; or maybe Anglo-Indian would be a better way of putting it, as most dishes have been devised here for sale in the west (they do tend to be based on north west Indian food though, as Phillip suggests).
-sean
PS As it happens, a lot of Indian restaurants in the UK are actually Bangladeshi.
ReplyDelete-sean
Howdy!
ReplyDeleteYep, I suspect most "foreign" cuisines are adjusted to suit the locals. Plus the ingredients are not necessarily available.
But here, most of the Chinese restaurants are likely run by Filipinos so I'v learned. Their cuisine is not found in restaurants. Koreans too. But one can find a smattering of Korean restaurants though not many.
One does find the odd Korean and Mongolian BBQ restaurants. It usually involves folks sitting around a really hot steel disk, upon which you cook your meat. But this is Chicago, with MM of people. I'm not sure what one finds in the hinterlands.
I would be curious if MP from North Dakota or KD from the bowels of Pennsylvania find this stuff?
Here you get Indian and Chinese restaurants in most places Charlie, and these days its not that hard to find other kinds of fancy foreign food in reasonably large towns.
ReplyDeleteBut it does seem tricky to get, say, a decent Tibetan momo if you're not a metropolitan elitist living under Sharia law.
-sean
Happy birthday Phil! Long may you wave.
ReplyDeleteI too am a fan of the "Filipino invasion" in comics in the '70's. I grew up with Ernie Chan covers and saw the fantastic stuff some of those guys did on Swamp Thing. Nothing else looked like that, and it fitted that genre perfectly. I'm not smart enough about art to explain why. There was a like a school, a style. I have a theory that when these guys were kids they found comics American G.I.s left laying around, and got hooked.
There probably wasn't a lot else around to grab a kid's imagination, which I think was the same case with us when we were kids.
These dang kids today, I dunno...with the computer games and weird hair and the hippity-hop...get 'em outta my yard! (Kaff!) Time to take my meds.
M.P.
That sounds right about GIs leaving comics lying around the Philippines M.P. - a bit like when the ballast from transatlantic shipping was discovered by kids like Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore.
ReplyDeleteKevin O'Neill actually used to call himself and the rest of that lot the "new Filipinos" when they started working for American comics. Mainly because the then exchange rate made them cheaper for DC and Marvel to hire (they recruited from the Phillipines in the 70s to reduce costs too).
Globalisation, eh?
-sean
I'm positive that was the case, Sean. There was a lotta talent that came out of the Philippines. What's interesting to me is that there seems to be a general style, or approach, with those guys that seems to lend itself to horror, western, or war comics. It's more realistic and detailed and less exaggerated than superhero stuff. it's...moody. Like these guys grew up reading Sgt. Rock as drawn by Joe Kubert.
ReplyDeleteWhich they probably did! G.I.'s loved comic books in the '80's, I know, so I bet they were reading them over there in the '50's too. Probably gave them to the little kids when they were done reading them. The kids probably went nuts over 'em. I would've.
Either way, those guys gave D.C. Comics a much-needed artistic shot in the arm in the late '70's-early '80's.
M.P.
M.P.
Dang it, signed off twice again.
ReplyDeleteMP - I was expecting you to advise on the types of restaurants you have in NOrth Dakota... population.. what.. 500,000?
ReplyDeleteTHough it is was nice of you to pick up on FIlipino artists and not Filipinos posing as Chinese cooks.
I do that sometimes too M.P. (maybe the meds have kicked in?)
ReplyDeleteYou can definitely see the influence of US comics before superheroes took over completely, but I think those Filipinos had something of their own too, unique to that time and place. Particularly Alex Nino, although I suspect he might actually be from another planet (how else do you explain him?)
Presumably GIs gave comics to kids elsewhere too, but that didn't seem to have the same results...
-sean
Charlie, for your information, I live in South Dakota, population, around 882,000 people.
ReplyDeleteDon't confuse us with North Dakotans, we have nothing to do with those bastards.
Funny thing is, just this week I had to take my shit-box car over to my personal mechanic (I'm putting his kids through college) and one of his mechanics gave me a ride home. I liked the guy; he was a Latino from L.A. and told me he never wanted to go back there.
I said, "Don't you hate the winters?" He said, "Yeah I do, but people suck."
M.P.
Didn't the BBC test card girl end up working at the BBC as a secretary or something? Obviously it was her destiny...
ReplyDeleteAlfredo Alcala was the artist (and inker) on Marvel's adaptations of 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes' and 'Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes'.
The only Thai food I've ever eaten is a Thai-flavoured pot noodle - does that count?
I need a POTA omnibus, to see that Alcala adaptation of Beneath the Planet of the Apes again. The SSOC stories pencilled by J. Buscema and embellished by Alcala are tremendous.
ReplyDeleteColin and Dougie, Alfredo Alcala was indeed a remarkable artist. I particularly loved his work on DC's horror titles.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I can't recall just what the Test Card girl did when she grew up.