The Marvel Lucky Bag - June 1971.

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

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As you may have noticed, this week's given us Britain's final bank holiday of the spring. And how can you always tell it's a bank holiday?

Because Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory's on TV.

Except, in 1970, no bank holidays were enlivened by that oddly sinister film.

And that's because it didn't come out until 1971.

June 1971.

And it wasn't alone. Other memorable movies to debut, that month, were Willard, Klute, A Town Called Hell, and The Million Dollar Duck.

I can tell, even without checking on Wikipedia, that that final film is going to turn out to be a Disney one.

But one thing that does shock me, upon perusing Wikipedia, is that neither Willard nor its equally rat-happy sequel Ben features Roddy McDowall.

So, how come I remember them both starring him? What new and strange madness is this?

Over on the UK singles chart, a special kind of madness had also descended, as just two tracks claimed the Number One spot that June.

They were Knock Three Times by Dawn and Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle of the Road, neither of which, I would venture to suggest, is a masterpiece.

But what, then, of the British album chart?

That month's top spot was held by Paul and Linda McCartney's Ram, the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers, Tarkus by Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, in that order.

I can't help feeling that all seems classier than the stuff that was dominating the singles chart.

At last! Because it had to happen, King Kull gets his own comic!

And there is no doubt at all, given the success of Conan's book, that this will go on to celebrate years of triumph.

Then again, perhaps not. As far as I can make out, this series lasted for just ten issues before folding.

Perhaps there was only room for one sorcerer-slaying hero in the Marvel universe. Perhaps the lack of Barry Smith and John Buscema reduced its appeal to readers. Perhaps there's something about Kull that makes him less market-friendly than Conan.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it's clearly a question of, "Enjoy him while you can."

Namor's got the hump over the death of his beloved Dorma and, after a great big bout of soul-searching, self-recrimination and flashbacking, decides to abandon the throne of Atlantis and move on to... ...well, what?

Only time - and the next issue - will tell.

Who wouldn't want to read this? It features three of our favourite Wild Westerners: Gunhawk, Ghost Rider and the Apache Kid.

Admittedly, I've never heard of Gunhawk before but that seems to be him on the cover - and, by the looks of it, he's shot Ghost Rider dead.

Now he really is a ghost rider.

Just without the riding bit.

In fact, right now, he's more a ghost rug.

The Adventures of Ghost Rug.

Surely, even Shakespeare never wrote a finer tragedy.

It's the big one!

We get a reprint of the very first appearance of The Hulk, even if he's now been renamed Xemnu the Titan and is forcing humanity to build him a spaceship upon which he can flee before destroying the Earth.

If that's not enough pulse-pounding drama for any human, we're also given Escape! in which a man flees prison but bumps into a former member of Juan Ponce de León's expedition to find the fountain of youth.

Does this bring him into conflict with Tyrannus?

No, it doesn't, which leaves that escapee free to drink himself some immortality juice.

But then finds he can't leave the swamp that houses it, without ageing dramatically.

Millie the Model's still going strong, even if it is as a reprint series.

I can shed no light upon what happens in this month's stories but, with titles like Miss Cola of 1971, The Rent Riot, The Doll is a Moll, and Museum Madness, I have no doubt we'll be getting our 15 cents' worth. 

It's time to get sobbing again, as Our Love Story continues to offer us reprints of old romance tales.

This month, we get A Boy a Girl and My Broken Heart, Waiting at the Church, My Teen-Age Crush, and Office Romance.

I doubt a single one of them'll end happily.

The glamorous life of a model's all well and good but, for some of us, this is more like it. 

When it comes to Ka-Zar, Barry Smith's still on the pencils, as he and Gerry Conway serve up a tale of a returning and vengeful man-god. A tale which introduces Bobbi Morse to the Ka-Zarniverse.

Come to think of it, the previous Ka-Zar adventure told the story of a returning and vengeful man-god. A slight bit of repetition going on, there.

Meanwhile, many thousands of miles away, the Black Panther has to contend with Dr Doom when the masked monarch shows up in Wakanda, looking to gets his hands on a great big heap of Vibranium.