The Marvel Lucky Bag - March 1971.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 

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March 1971 can only be viewed as a varied month for the dedicated lover of Cinema. Not only did we get the release of George Lucas' first movie THX 1138 - without which Star Wars would, no doubt, have never been made - but we got the unleashing of Up Pompeii and The Andromeda Strain. I'm not personally convinced any of those three films are actually good but they are all, at the very least, memorable.

Not so memorable - for me, at least - was the song at Number One in Britain as that month began.

That was Mungo Jerry's Baby Jump. Out of curiosity, I listened to it on YouTube, a few nights ago and have already forgotten it. I feel I've let Mungo Jerry down quite badly with my strange lack of ability to recollect one of their classic tracks and can only apologise to them.

Regardless, halfway through the month, that song was dethroned by a brand new sound, as T. Rex suddenly rose to supremacy with Hot Love. Truly, the 1970s had now arrived.

Over on the UK album chart, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass proved its point by losing the top slot, halfway through March, to Andy Williams' Home Lovin' Man which saw out the rest of the month, in that position.

Roy Thomas and Neal Adams give us yet more Inhuman fun, although I'm not sure of its details. Have we yet entered the phase where Black Bolt's lost his memory and hooked up with a teenage sidekick on the streets of Los Angeles?

Or was it San Francisco?

As a kid, I always used to get the two mixed up.

I can offer no information at all about the Black Widow adventure, other than it features a character called The Astrologer, which would possibly explain why her foes on that cover have stars all over their pyjamas.

It, of course, doesn't explain why they're wearing pyjamas.

Creatures on the Loose launches its sensational first issue upon the world, which is labelled #10, as it continues the numbering of Tower of Shadows.

No, I don't have a clue how that makes sense either. 

A man who probably doesn't care either way leads the book's charge - and that's King Kull. Is this his first appearance in a colour comic? I couldn't say.

Apparently, Kull's arrogance leads to the release of an ancient menace he's barely able to defeat.

Judging by that cover, it looks like it might be the octopus thingie Beowulf was having trouble with in my last post.

The third issue of Fear gives us the tale of ZZutak, the thing that shouldn't exist.

And, apparently, it only does so because an artist is given a bunch of paints that make everything he depicts come to life.

Quite why he's painted a fifty-foot tall monster is anyone's guess. Most people would have painted a vase of flowers.

We also get I Must Find Korumbo, The Man Who Hated Monstro, The Gentle Old Man, Journey Into Nowhere, A Monster Waits Outside, Save Me! Save Me!, The Lifeless Man and I Dared to Battle Rorgg... ...King of the Spider Men.

I would like to claim that's all one story but it is, indeed, a number of stories.

But I think we can safely say this book's 68 pages are packed solid with thrills.

The comic may be titled Ka-Zar but he's very much a guest in other people's adventures, as this issue concentrates on reprinting Amazing Spider-Man #57 and Daredevil #14, in which those two heroes had their first-ever encounters with the jungle lord.

We also, for no noticeable reason, get solo action for the Angel, in which Warren Worthington must confront The Dazzler but, seemingly, not that Dazzler.

When an experiment in controlling the weather threatens to cause ecological chaos, Subby, the Silver Surfer and Hulk team-up to prevent it.

But that just leads to the Avengers being called in to protect the experiment and, needless to say, a massive punch-up instantly breaks out between the two sets of super-doers.

Gorgilla's back, and out to make friends with humanity.

Sadly, it's not to be and he's shot dead by the US military.

But not until after he's destroyed a group of communists.

You see? Even monsters know to hate The Red Menace.

Also in this issue, we get Something Missing and He Waits in the Dark.

The former of those features an astronaut miffed about his girlfriend stowing away on his mission to Mercury. But he's soon singing a whole other song when her presence saves him from the wrath of the Mercurians.

While the latter tale gives us a janitor out to thwart a malevolent landlord.

Here's a turn-up for the books because this issue's cover's brought to us by the unusual team of Marie Severin and Bernie Wrightson.

In the main story, an explorer learns of an invasion plot by four-armed aliens. He attempts to alert humanity but then realises his own nurse is one of them.

Next, we get It Happened on, "The Silent Screen," in which a monster repeatedly steps out of a movie and into the real world.

Run, Rocky, Run presents us a criminal seeking to flee in a rocket ship, who then makes a nightmarish discovery about it.

And, finally, Dream World gives us a man with a levitating bed.

This month gives us No Man is My Master, He Never Even Noticed, And Then I Found You and Don't Ask Me to Marry You.

I've no idea what any of those masterpieces involve but I'm sure there are yet more tears to be shed and hearts to be broken.

It'd be great if Gorgilla turned up in any of them.

I suspect he doesn't.