The Marvel Lucky Bag - October 1971.

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

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The cinemas of the world felt like very grown-up places in October 1971, with the release of such classics as The French Connection, Play Misty for Me and The Last Picture Show.

It was also the month that saw the release of a film called Duck, You Sucker! which sounds like it's going to be the least subtle blaxploitation movie of all time, until you discover it's just an alternative title for Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dynamite.

I've seen three of those films but don't believe I've ever seen The Last Picture Show. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure what it's about.

I have, however, heard Rod Stewart's Maggie May/Reason to Believe, which is hardly shocking, bearing in mind it spent the whole of that month at Number One on the UK singles chart. Clearly, there was no power in the world that could stop Rod.

Or was there?

Because, over on the British album chart, Rod also looked unassailable, with his LP Every Picture Tells a Story spending the first half of the month at the pinnacle. But, finally, even Rod had to make way for John Lennon's Imagine which smashed straight in at Number One to dominate the month's second half.

But here's a strange turn of events. I mentioned in my last post that several of Marvel's key titles had failed to appear with an October cover date.

And it wasn't just them. Right across the line, the number of Marvel mags published that month was down dramatically, to such an extent the company which was soon to become the United States' largest publisher of comics only brought out fifteen books - the same total as Charlton, and fewer than Archie, Gold Key and Harvey. Truly the readers must have thought the outfit was doomed!

It does, though, mean this post and the previous one, between them, include every Marvel book published in the space of one calendar month. I'm fairly certain this has never happened before in this feature and it almost certainly never will again.

It's that classic tale in which a bunch of German and British sailors, trapped in the Savage Land, are still fighting, unaware WWII ended decades ago.

Needless to say, it's one of my favourite Ka-Zar tales, even though it's clearly a rip-off of The Land that Time Forgot.

In a shocking twist, sandwiched between this book's usual features, we get a tale that introduces the Link Brothers, a pair of siblings I can claim to know nothing of.

And we finish off with a legendary adventure that sees Dr Doom fight a creature of Satan's choice, to win back the soul of his mother.

Will Doomsie triumph?

Who can know?

Such are Marvel's reduced circumstances, this month, that I'm forced to include Western comics to make up the numbers.

And, in this one, we get eight tales from the likes of Stan Lee, Reed Crandall and Doug Wildey.

Tragically, I can shed no light upon what transpires within those tales, although I'm sure much shooting's involved.

And now I'm even being forced to include a Sgt Fury issue.

We get two thrillers, one called Some Die Slowly! and the other called Into the Jaws of... Death!

The former is from Al Kurzrok and Herb Trimpe, while the latter's delivered by Roy Thomas and Dick Ayers.

Not to be outdone by the Outlaw Kid, the Rawhide Kid has a string of adventures too, varying, in length, between 5 and 7 pages.

This is more like it, a comic I'm actually interested in.

Five tales of horror assail our senses.

They are:

The Sandman Cometh which has nothing to do with the Spider-Man villain but deals with a sand-based alien who seems unstoppable until a child dissolves him in water and traps him in a bucket.

I Dared Enter the Haunted Forest! in which a bigoted billionaire buys cursed woodland but its keeper takes him to another dimension, revealing he's been seeking a man no one would miss, to display in his alien zoo.

It Fell From the Flying Saucer! in which an artist finds an alien pencil that makes whatever he draws become real, until his selfish use of it prompts the aliens to reclaim it.

The Thing From the Hidden Swamp in which a plain girl helps a stranded alien who then makes her beautiful, as a reward.

And In the Shadow of Tragg -- He Who Walks Beneath the Earth! in which a reporter investigates the closure of a New York subway line and encounters a monster that kills every human it meets.

It's true! Millie the Model's still going, thanks to a whole heap of 1960s reprints! Can nothing stop the gal?

Our Love Story's still going, as well.

Admittedly, it's only been around for thirteen issues, so it's got a bit of a way to go to catch up with Millie in the success stakes.

I shall pass no comment upon the stories, as I've never read them, but they possess such breathless titles as I Can't Forget You! So Much in Love! Wallflower! Too Many Kisses! Third Finger, Left Hand! and I Dream of Romance!

Once again, they're all reprints.

And back to the new stuff, although not necessarily the good stuff, as Namor's confusing and annoying battle with Aunt Serr continues when he meets the inhabitants of Starkburg who she's transformed into monsters.

Thankfully, Namor and her victims put an end to the madwoman’s plans.

But what's this? This tale's randomly part of the Mr Kline saga, as seen in Daredevil, which means two seeming aliens appear, for no noticeable reason, halfway through the issue, spout some baffling dialogue and then vanish.

On the upside, the book still only costs one shilling.

But for how long?