The Marvel Lucky Bag - May 1981.

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

***

May 1981 was not a classic period in the field of Cinema.

It was, however, the month which saw the release of such gems as Lady Chatterley's Lover starring Sylvia Krystel and nobody else I've ever heard of and, also, a film called Polyester. I dread to think what that's about.

I was going to claim I've never heard of this comic before, despite it being issue #26 but it turns out I highlighted issue #25 in March's Lucky Bag. That was the one which featured the Black Widow and the Daughters of the Dragon.

This issue's made up entirely of Kull adventures drawn by John Bolton and scripted by Doug Moench and I don't know what happens in any of them.

There's so much concentrated Kullness in this book that I wonder if the tales were originally intended for a monthly comic that never happened and were then collected here, in order to make use of the material?

I must confess I've included this one purely because it's such a bizarre cover.

I'm suspecting it may have been inspired by the front of Fantastic Four #37, the one in which the FF invade the Skrull's homeworld in search of the scoundrel who killed Sue and Johnny's dad.

Whatever the case, it would appear this tale's set on Earth where a bunch of criminals have added a hallucinogen to Chicago's water supply.

I remember reading an article in the Fortean Times, once, which claimed that, in the early 1970s, the US military experimented with the idea of pouring LSD into reservoirs to make it easier to invade other people's countries but the plan had to be dropped when it was realised it would require all the LSD on Earth to even have any effect on just one reservoir.

It's a thrilling time for us all, as ROM meets the X-Men!

Granted, it's not that thrilling for ROM - because the instant they set eyes on him, they assume he's an evil mutant and attack him.

Then, they accidentally fire him into Limbo.

What a bunch of morons.

It had to happen! Spidey meets the Mole Man!

I say it had to happen but I can't remember it ever having happened before, which is a remarkable thing, given that both characters have been around since the early 1960s.

Apparently, our hero also encounters Blizzard in this one.

Master of Kung Fu hits its 100th issue, even though, as Colin's pointed out previously, it's not really the 100th, thanks to Marvel's liberal approach to numbering some of its comics.

Either way, it's been around for a long time and that's a serious achievement for a comic launched as an act of bandwagon-jumping.

We get a mighty 52 pages, this month, as a new Jack the Ripper goes on the rampage.

The spirit of Neal Adams is strong on that cover by Brent Anderson.

Exactly what happens in the story itself, I've no idea but I wouldn't be surprised if pterosaurs are involved.

Hooray! Night Rider's back!

I say hooray but I don't have a clue who he is or what he's doing.

I do know he bears a remarkable resemblance to the character I created for that Marvel UK design-a-super-hero contest, which can only prove I wuz robbed in not winning it.

Admittedly, my character was called The Masked Manhunter and was dressed all in black but, that aside...