Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Three was the number of classic films that were released in October 1980.
Those three were Superman II, The Elephant Man and Private Benjamin.
In fact, so classic were they that I've actually seen them all.
I would say Superman II is my favourite of them and Private Benjamin my least favourite. In fact, I actually preferred the TV spin-off of that movie. I'm not sure what that said about me.
But which of our random assortment of Marvel mags with that cover date am I going to prefer?
Admittedly, I only know that from having recently watched too many videos, on YouTube, about the beasts.
My knowledge of this month's contents is less impressive but I do know there's an Elric of Melnibone tale written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Craig Russell, a Jim Starlin story starring Vanth Dreadstar and an Almuric adventure written by Roy Thomas, among the many fantasy-packed tales and features that are crammed into its 100 pages.
"Dr Doom lives!" declares the cover, to a shocked world.
And there was me convinced he was dead and would never be coming back.
In fact, I don't know anything about the stories in this annual, other than the Dr Doom tale's drawn by Tom Sutton, which is a revelation that intrigues me. One of comics' great horror artists drawing Doomie is a highly appealing thought.
The main strip, meanwhile, clearly involves Skrulls and Captain Marvel but I don't know to what end.
I've included this one purely because that's a striking cover by Walt Simonson. I'm not convinced it's one of his better efforts but it is impossible to ignore.
Inside, we get a tale called A Personal Hell, written by Jim Shooter and drawn by John Buscema who I've no doubt was delighted to find himself inked, once again, by Alfredo Alcala.
We also get a six-page Hulk adventure from Roger Stern and Brent Anderson, and a Dominic Fortune tale bearing the unfortunate title of Moo Over Manhattan.
Either that's a misprint of Moon Over Manhattan or someone's put Howard the Duck in charge of creating story titles.
I've no idea what goes on in this one but we clearly get a slew of yet more fantasy tales; this time, from the likes of Joe Jusko, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Denny O'Neil and Frank Miller.
Not to mention a Clyde Caldwell cover.
Concerned about her increasing anger-management problems, Jen Walters has decided to have a sample of her blood tested by a renowned scientist.
That scientist is Michael Morbius!
I think we call all guess where that's going to lead.
Meanwhile, Jen's set out to infiltrate a mind-controlling cult and finds herself up against the female power-house that is Ultima.
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35 comments:
Yes, Dominic was technically the Scorpion, Steve, but you already knew that. You cheeky son-of-a-gun.
In my opinion, Superman II was the last good Supes movie.
I only got the first issue of Epic, and found it a very pale imitation of Heavy Metal. Very much like Marvel's MAD rip-off, Crazy (Frantic in the UK).
Probably the last doctor you'd want to screw around with your blood is Morbius.
The FF shouldn't have had that many problems with a bunch of Skrulls, especially with Mar-Vell on hand. Unless Super-Skrull was in the mix.
Then again, maybe Marv wasn't that much of a factor, since we all know he was such a better character in his green & whites.
I know I may have "opened a can of worms", but I couldn't resist!
Charlie, sorry I didnt respond to your horror film question in Steve's last post. As far as movies that are "family friendly" (I.E. little blood & no nudity or swearing) I can recommend all of Universal's original key Monsters, up to and including Abbott & Costello meet Frankenstein. The First 2 Invisible Man's & Creature From The Black Lagoon's also.
Universal's Mummy films are a different story. The first one with Karloff is great, but it's more atmospheric with mild suspense than horrifying. The rest has a shambling Mummy that anyone could get away from. One of the best Mummy movies is Hammer's The Mummy. Chris Lee was like an elemental force in that one. Plus it's in color.
Also Hammer's Curse Of Frankenstein & Horror Of Dracula. Terrorifing back-in-the-day, now relatively tame, but still suspenseful.
Dan Curtis, who did Jack Palance's Dracula, made the original Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark for tv, as well as Trilogy Of Terror featuring the legendary Zuni Fetish Doll. He rules! He returns again in Trilogy Of Terror 2.
Curtis did theatrical PG horror with House Of Dark Shadows & Dead Of Night.
On the sci-fi/horror note the original Blob, War Of The Worlds, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers,Village Of The Damned, and Day Of The Triffids.
Think I've droned on enough. You should be able to get alot of that stuff free on the internet. Hey, didn't I do this last year? Lol.
Killdumpster - in the U.S., do you know about the short UK public information film, 'The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water' ? It has almost legendary status, over here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb00H6mCTM8
Phillip
Marv in green & white? At least you didn't open the Rick Jones can, Kd.
Back in the day I was a bit down on Epic, but in retrospect I'm nostalgic for a time when Marvel's big new project was a magazine size anthology full of new stuff by its top creatives, who got to own their work. Who could imagine such a thing today?
Sure some of it was a bit sub-Heavy Metal, but even the fairly slight "Libido" by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy in #3 - bare tits aside - still had something of the flavour of a better b-list 70s Marvel comic.
The main problem was a lack of decent writers who hadn't been shaped by regular newstand comics. Roy Thomas' work on Elric was competent enough, but the later Stormbringer adaptation Russell did with Neil Gaiman was much better.
(Being British too Gaiman would have had much more of feel for Moorcock's original Dreaming City sub-text, what with Melnibone being an island wrapped up in post-imperial delusion)
Btw Steve, as you know I'm not usually one for contradicting you, but I'm afraid despite Howard the Duck's absence from the credits "Moo Over Manhattan" is actually the correct title of the Dom Fortune story in that Hulk mag.
Theres even a picture of a cow on the first page!
-sean
Sean - what I find strange is:
1.) The Moorcock novel, 'The Weird of the White Wolf' contains 'The Dreaming City.'
2.) The P.Craig Russell graphic novel, 'The Weird of the White Wolf' does not include 'The Dreaming City.'
3.) Both the Moorcock novel & the P.Craig Russell graphic novel version of 'The Weird of the White Wolf ' start with the chapter concerning Earl Aubec & Myshella - yet, in the Orion Elric collected edition (mid-late 90s?), that first chapter is expunged from the 'The Weird of the White Wolf'.
Ever talking about a definitive version/edition of Elric seems like a waste of time!
Phillip
Sean, I can't imagine The Scorpion ever agreeing to star in a tale called Moo Over Manhattan.
Phillip, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water is indeed a magnificent creation.
KD, I agree with all your horror nominations that are suitable for children.
Apart from Trilogy of Terror. Only two films ever scared me when I was a child. One was Trilogy of Terror. The other was The Innocents.
Phillip, I definitely will look that up. Thanks.
I was going to get a Zuni Fetish Doll action figure/model once, but decided against it.
With the occasional drunken, clumsy stumbles I experience at times, I maybe tempting the fates. Lol.
Phillip, isn't Weird of the White Wolf a collection of stories rather than a novel? (Maybe Moorcock went back to it and linked it up more for a later edition, which is quite possible).
Craig Russell's Dreaming City was published as Marvel Graphic Novel #2 so probably thats why its not in his Weird...
Gollancz published a definitive Elric in seven books a few years back but I reckon reading the series in chronological order like that would still seem strange, what with the way Moorcock inserted new stuff into it. I mean, Stormbringer is good but it was also one of the first, and coming at the end must read oddly after books written much later, especially if they really go into all that Eternal Champion nonsense (which does generally piss me off when it becomes a big deal in his books).
-sean
Steve, YOU KNOW DAM WELL Big John wouldn’t be chuffed to have his pencils inked by Alcala. Cheeky!
Is that the Jim Shooter HULK! story where Bruce Banner is menaced by a gang of stereotypical Homosexuals in a prison shower?
Dominic Fortune was a ‘kinder, gentler’ reboot of The Scorpion. Fortune was earthier, more ‘human’ than the cold, steely-eyed Scorpion. Personality-wise, Fortune had more in common with Reuben Flagg (I think Chaykin had James Garner’s Bret Maverick in mind for those two) while Moro Frost / The Scorpion was more like Monark Starstalker. The Fortune back-up stories in THE HULK! are a little TOO happy-go-lucky for my taste. The MARVEL PREMIERE story is inked by Terry Austin and looks pretty sharp.
- b.t.
PS Phillip, the Earl Aubec story is at the start of the first book now, which makes sense I guess.
-sean
It wasn't a prison shower b.t., it was at the YMCA. Seriously.
-sean
Sean, I was thinking that the FF story happened after Marv & Rick were separated, when Marv & the Avengers fought the Super-Adaptoid. Am I wrong, Steve?
Back in the early 80's I lived at the YMCA in downtown Pittsburgh for a couple months.
Written inside the wall of a toilet-stall in the community bathroom was written "showertime fun every midnight".
Freaked me out a bit. Made sure I did potty business before 11:00 pm.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that". Just not my cup o' tea.
Killdumpster - You speak with great wisdom! It's a known fact, based on SDC's poll, that the green-white Marvell is the preferred Marvell. Not to mention Captain Marvel #3, vs. the Skrull, is the most favorite cover for obvious reasons.
Riddle me this lovers-of-green...
Why would She-Hulk go see Dr. Morbius and not Dr. Curt Connors? I mean, at least Connors transforms into something green and back, thus there is this synergy galore.
Also, Connors is able to grow appendages. So... well... if She Hulk wanted to grow an appendage...
(Admittedly my understanding of Morbius is a dim recall of when I read ASM 101-102 off the spinners a long, long time ago. I think he was stuck on a wooden ship and ended turning into a vampire? God help if I look at Google and it's not even close cause I would be heading straight to the doc for testosterone injections to clear up the brain fog!)
Charlie, oh my brother! You are a gas, man! Ha ha!
Steve - why did that skeleton have to be of a Pterosaur? It doesn't say anything on the cover like "Comely Lass explores Pterosaur only to find..."
Both Connors & Morbius, while great characters, are scientists that screw up alot.
Why not a pterosaur skeleton Charlie?
(Although I suspect it might not be entirely coincidental that pterosaurs were associated with Heavy Metal, courtesy of Moebius' Arzach)
-sean
Sean - I'm not saying it is or isn't a Pterosaur. But, how much do we really know about them and their various variants? I mean, could it not be something else? Could it not be a sub-variant of a Pterodactyl?
(I'm sure if Henry Fonda were here and gave a convincing performance a la 12 Angry Men, he could convince us it isn't!)
Oh, I get it now Charlie (I think?) - you mean maybe it could be a skeleton of something that looks like a pterosaur.
Dunno. I mean, surely if an artist paints something that looks like a pterosaur in a stand alone pic he intends the viewer to think its a pterosaur, no?
(Paul Gulacy probably just didn't allow for Steve's expert knowledge of pterosaur anatomy)
-sean
As for a ‘Defintive Elric Saga’ — Moorcock apparently has to re-shuffle the order and add some interesting odds and ends to freshen it up every five years or so.
Otherwise, it’s actually dead easy to do a ‘Definitive Elric’ — just read the five original stories from SCIENCE-FANTASY that make up THE STEALER OF SOULS, then the four novellas that make up STORMBRINGER, and you’re done.
Skip the underwhelming Eternal Champion crossovers — ditto FORTRESS OF THE PEARL and REVENGE OF THE ROSE, and ESPECIALLY the Moonbeam Roads trilogy — no ill-fitting Earl Aubec episode or Zenith the Metatemporal Albino fan-fic.
- b.t.
Charlie, I believe She-Hulk consults with Morbius because he's a blood specialist. You have to remember that the world is unaware of Curt Connors' transformations and probably just thinks of him as a man who hangs around with reptiles a lot.
Bt, thanks for the Dominic Fortune info - and the Bruce Banner YMCA alert.
KD, I would assume the FF tale happened after Rick and Marvy were separated but I couldn't say it definitively.
Sean - yes, 'The Weird of the White Wolf' is a collection of short stories, made to appear to follow each other.
b.t. - I don't think I could have said it any clearer than you did! In the Moonbeam Roads, one thing I find particularly annoying, is Elric (when he finally turns up) speaking to the reader in the first person. This is completely out of character, for someone disdainful of most people, and who hates familiarity of any kind!
Sean - if Melnibone is post-colonial UK, Lormyr could be America ("first to cast off Melnibone's shackles & declare herself a free nation"). Does that make Lormyr's legendary hero, Earl Aubec, George Washington? If so, then who's Myshella? If you feel Roy Thomas didn't have an instinctive feel for post-colonial stuff, maybe he would have been suited to write the Lormyr bits (if Lormyr is America)? - A bit tenuous! This historical figure spotting's like historians who read Hamlet & say Hamlet's father was Lord Darnley (James I/James VI's father).
In the UK, we had Dominic Fortune in 'Savage Action' monthly, along with Moonknight & the Punisher (all three being soldier of fortune types) - oh, Night Raven was in it, too!
Maybe the Earl Aubec/Myshella chapter (which doesn't really relate to 'The Weird of the White Wolf ' ) would be better at the start of 'The Vanishing Tower', as Myshella pops up in that collection, later on.
Previously, M.P. mentioned Warlock's connections with Elric. In 'The Weird of the White Wolf ', when Elric meets Balo, the cosmic jester, Balo turns Elric into an enormous figure, of cosmic proportions, who is so large others pass through him. Warlock tranforms into this kind of form, too. I think it was in the Star-thief story (c.f. ' The Medusa Touch'), after Warlock goes through a white-hole.
Charlie - the She-Hulk goes to Morbius, rather than Connors, Banner, Pym or Richards, because Morbius is a bad boy.
That dinosaur skeleton has wings like a bat - hand/finger like.
Phillip
Agree with b.t. on the Elric books - skip anything from Sailor on the Seas of Fate on - but seems like the need to freshen it up regularly is more down Moorcock's bank balance, by the man's own admission.
Not that theres anything wrong with that - a working writer's gotta eat - but it does result in diminishing returns for the reader (well, this one anyway).
Phillip, I reckon being American gives Roy Thomas a better feel for Robert E. Howard.
You can generalize too much in that direction of course, but I don't think its a complete coincidence that Moorcock is such a big influence on that whole wave of British comic writers: Alan Moore, Gaiman, Pat Mills, Bryan Talbot, Grant Morrison Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire etc
-sean
Sean - 'The Sailor on the Seas of Fate' was the first Elric book I read, so made a big impression on me, at the time. At that age, I particularly likes the determinism, & the self-absorbed, introspective stuff ('Sailing to the Present'), just before Elric met Count Smiorgan. Also, the Saxif D'Aan section is excellent, as is the Jade Man's Eyes, in the ancient deserted city of R'lin K'ren A'a. Moorcock often uses those - I don't know what the grammatical term is - diacritic apostrophes (?) - Charlie's the linguist - maybe he knows? Moorcock seems to have influenced Chris Claremont, in this respect, as he uses these a lot, too (Sh'iar, M'Kraan crystal, D'bari, N'Garai, etc.)
To me, 'Stormbringer' (the novel - I haven't read Gaiman's one) has an incredibly powerful ending - that ending's the crowning glory of the series. But, if you read 'Stormbringer' on its own, a lot of stuff wouldn't make sense. 'The Weird of the White Wolf' (the book) explains how Elric sacks Imrryr & becomes a renegade; how Cymoril dies; also, how Elric first meets Moonglum; how Dharmit's death puts his sister on the throne. The section in which Shaarilla buttonholes Elric in the tavern is also good, for first-timers, as Elric provides a thumbnail character sketch of himself, also explaining how he suffers from nightmares (something that crops up later).
As regards the "Englishness"/ "English influence of Moorcock, I associate Imrryr's pastel coloured towers with Ray Davies' music, for some reason - e.g. Waterloo Sunset.
To make a connection with Morbius, he's got white skin, too - so may be Elric even had some influence there!
Elric's brother in arms, Rackhir, is known as the Red Archer, as every accoutrement (?) of his is in red. I wonder if Moorcock got this from the Green Gallant, the count of Savoy, in medieval times, who sported green in everything. M.P.'s the history buff - maybe he knows!
As regards Elric art, my loyalties are divided. I think some of the Michael Whelan covers were fantastic - particularly for 'Stormbringer' - and it's a real pity that for the collected editions (Orion) - far worse art was used, instead. However, in Michael Whelan's covers Elric never looks physically weak, as he is without Stormbringer - P.Craig Russell, in contrast, does convey this, in the graphic novel version.
Sean - I agree with you about Roy Thomas. As Jim Shooter said, Roy did far more with Conan than Robert E. Howard did!
Phillip
Stormbringer was the first Elric book I read Phillip, and fwiw I don't think the details of what came before really make much difference to appreciating it, any more than knowing how it all ends spoils, say, Elric of Melnibone (my next, and the first one chronologically speaking).
On the other hand, I do accept Sailor on the Seas of Fate might well come across differently if its your first one.
On the subject of narrative tics, I would like to flag up Moorcock's use of the word "obsidian". It wouldn't surprise me if its turned up in all his books (it seemed to be in every one I read as a teenager, which is loads). Its his "ziggurat".
-sean
Sean - it's always hard discussing sequence & chronology with the Elric series. I think Moorcock wrote 'The Dreaming City' first (although I could be wrong), with 'Stormbringer' (despite being the final book) not long after, with other books fitting around these two.
As you say, 'Elric of Melnibone' is the first book in terms of the chronology of the series, but it was published after some of the others. On some of the Grafton/Granada editions I've got, all the titles in the series are listed on the back, and 'Elric of Melnibone' isn't even included on the list! It's as if Grafton published it later than the other books.
The later Elric stories - 'Revenge of the Rose', 'Fortress of the Pearl', & the Moonbeam ones, aren't as good as the original series, as d.t. says. I agree with you about 'obsidian'! The problems with chronology probably confused Moorcock himself. In 'The Dreaming City' Imrryr is described as the oldest city in the world, but in 'The Sailor on the Seas of Fate', R'lin K'ren A'a is described as being much older than Imrryr. Another inconsistency has Moonglum being described as a 'stocky eastlander' on most occasions, but on another, being described as of thin build.
Phillip
I rarely get to say I have any of these US issues, but I must have had one of our infrequent family seaside holidays in 1981 and picked up a particularly sun-bleached copy of that Marvel Premier.
One thing I’ll say for Moorcock’s constant re-sorting of the Elric material: it’s given me a new-found appreciation of James Cawthorn’s art. I’d always found his stuff somewhat crude and unappealing before, but some of his pieces in the most recent reprints from Del Rey and Gollancz look really otherworldly and fascinating. Titan books has been reprinting his comics adaptations of the Hawkmoon books in their ‘Michael Moorcock Library’ series, and they’re pretty great.
- b.t.
Personally I find Cawthorn's work a bit stiff b.t., but if you're interested Titan are putting out his Stormbringer soon in a book together with Druillet's early 70s Elric.
Have you - or Phillip - seen Frank Brunner's Elric? Its was in Heavy Metal - not too long before Russell's Dreaming City appeared in Epic actually - and its some of his best work; theres a few pages posted at
www.heavymetal.com/carousel-gallery/frank-brunner-alice-in-wonderland/
(if you scroll down past the Alice stuff).
-sean
What interesting comments. The only thing I know about Elric of Melnibone is the time he teamed up with Conan in a couple of early issues of Conan The Barbarian. The only fantasy stories I've read are Robert E. Howard's original Conan tales (is that fantasy or sword & sorcery?) and Ursula Le Guin's first three Earthsea novels (A Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore published from 1968-72).
Colin, I too only know Elric from that Conan team-up. I think the only Moorcock books I've ever read are a trio of Count Brass adventures.
Tim, I never had any of this month's comics. I suspect the She-Hulk tale is the only one I've even read in reprint form.
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