The Marvel Lucky Bag - August 1981.

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August 1981 saw thrills galore flood the cinemas of the world when both Condorman and An American Werewolf in London hit the big screen.

Although, rather more sombrely, that month also saw the release of World War One drama Gallipoli.

But who cares about any of that? What really matters to all true movie buffs is August saw the unleashing of Tarzan, the Ape Man, the film that proved Bo Derek could fail to be sexy even when she was soaking wet and naked. It also starred some bloke as Tarzan. It probably says it all when no one can remember who played Tarzan in a film that's about Tarzan.

Oddity of the month had to be Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, a film starring Alan Arkin and Carol Burnett. It would appear to be about a baseball player and a Carmen Miranda style entertainer and was one of the year's biggest box office flops, earning back just one-seventieth of its budget. I love a film that knows how to fail in style.

That's a very striking, if confusing, cover by Marshall Rogers.

Inside, as far as I can make out, the Defenders are called in when a town disappears through the Nexus of Realities.

When they get there, the gang battle a demon called Unnthinnk then travel to the home dimension of the Six Fingered Hand.

Is it just my imagination or have they done all this before?

Anyway, given all that's going on, it's perhaps no big surprise that Nighthawk quits the group, this month.

Barry Smith gets the cover duties while the likes of Neal Adams, Pepe Moreno, Jim Starlin, Tim Conrad, Dean Motter, Jeff Potter and John Bolton get to draw the insides.

Neal Adams gets to write the story he draws. The mind can only boggle as to what that one's like.

Smith's contribution to the insides appears to come in the form of an interview conducted by Archie Goodwin, and samples of Bazzer's work.

Hooray! The Torpedo's back!

In his guise as Brock Jones, the super-doer moves his family to Clairton, in an attempt to evade the Rocketeers.

But, when he sees ROM flying around, he mistakes the space knight for one of them, and the inevitable punch-up breaks out.

I've picked this one purely because I don't have a clue what's going on on the cover.

It would seem someone called Zapper accidentally leads She-Hulk into Doc's trap. When she breaks free, Doc injects Ralphie with a serum that transforms him into a monster who can fight her.

Tragically I've no idea who any of these people are.

Apart from She-Hulk, of course.

I know who she is.

Hooray! The comic that saved Marvel hits its 50th issue!

I can't say whether it's still saving Marvel or if the company's finances have recovered sufficiently for it to now be able to survive without the comic.

Not that it looks like it's going to have to, as the book's still going strong, as we fly into the second half of 1981.

This time out, we get a tale called The Crimson Forever. All I know is it's 40 pages long.

Star-Lord returns to Marvel Premiere, committing the ultimate sacrilege of displacing Doctor Who as its star.

Not that he manages to do so for long, because this is the book's last issue.

Seemingly, this month, the hero's up against a sentient planet but, as far as I can make out, not Ego. It's, therefore, probably not his dad.

That Pat Broderick cover looks familiar from somewhere but I don't know why.

In the absence of any knowledge, I'll make a wild guess the tiny titans have to fight a giant, glowing bear, though I don't know why.