Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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Big budget blockbusters were not abundant in the cinemas of November 1971 but there were a few films of note.
In my opinion, they were Time Bandits, Porky's and, eerily and topically, The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper, a film about the infamous mystery hijacker who leapt from a plane, with $200,000 in ransom money, over Washington State in November 1971 and was never seen again.
This website seems to have become the D. B. Cooper Memorial Site, lately, judging by the number of times he's been mentioned on it.
The film starred Robert Duvall and Treat Williams and, given that Cooper's true identity remains unknown, as does his fate, it was, by all accounts, a highly fictionalised retelling of events.
Regardless, as we might guess, the main tale sees the return of Man-Wolf - although I can shed no light upon just what he does once he's returned.
Following that, we get something called Aunt May's Photo Album. The mind boggles at the thought of what that might contain.
And we finish off the book with a string of pin-ups dedicated to Spidey's many friends and foes.
It's an exciting day for all fans of the American Dennis the Menace, as he gets a Marvel comic of his very own.
In it, Dennis has to stay with the Wilsons while his dad's at work and, later, convinces his family to put up Christmas decorations, even though it's scorching hot outside.
Blimey.
As Jarvis would, no doubt, say if he were here to say anything.
This leads to Thor travelling to Dormammu's dimension to try and put a stop to it.
But, hold on. Odin's playing chess?
The man's a blithering imbecile. How's he ever going to be able to win a game of chess?
Also, since when does Odin get to hold the fate of the universe in his hands? Won't the Celestials, Galactus, Eternity and a whole bunch of other entities have something to say about all this?
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28 comments:
That Avengers Annual includes the fallout from what happened to Ms Marvel in Avengers #200, a comic I understand left a lot of questions unanswered.
The Avengers Annual is also the first appearance of Rogue.
Yeah, even though she doesn't have blue hair the 'mystery guest' on the cover of Avengers Annual #10 is Carol Danvers, Steve.
dangermash is correct about it being a follow up to Avengers #200. When even Chris Claremont thinks a story about invasive mind control of a female character was out of order you know it needed a response/retcon.
The notable guest though imo was Michael Golden. The look of that annual was obviously a huge influence on a generation of artists that emerged later in the decade, and went on to define 90s superhero comics.
But it would be unfair to blame Golden for this.
-sean
Just checked out The Virtues Of Captain America. My turn to be introduced to a blog I've never seen before. Cheers Sean.
Dave's Cover of the Annum- Avengers Annual 10, for the sheer comicbookiness of it.
Pity about the story contained within though. I think it says something about how distasteful it was that not one person involved in the creation of it has ever even attempted to justify it.
Still, 100 issues later, the Avengers would celebrate its incredible 300th issue by treating its loyal readers to a senses-shattering new lineup starring such awesome assemblers as err... Gilgamesh and Mr Fantastic.
Dave:
Are you possibly conflating AVENGERS 200 and AVENGERS ANNUAL 10? The former is the notoriously stinker, the latter is Claremont’s 38-page ‘SHAME ON THEM!’ epic.
Also, as Sean points out, one of the comic art highlights of the era, for a huge swath of young up-and-coming comics artists. It was pretty much my favorite comic that year, for the artwork alone.
b.t.
Were King-Size Annuals even available in the UK? I never saw any. How many pages did they have?
b.t., Theres a lot of skill and a fresh, original approach on display in Michael Golden's artwork for that Avengers annual, but I have to confess - trigger warning: controversial opinion ahead - for some reason it doesn't quite work for me.
I love Golden's Dr Strange, Howard the Duck and Etrigan stories - a shame they were (more or less) one-offs - but theres something about the figures that makes his more regular superhero stuff look slightly awkward to me. At this point anyway.
Its obviously still way better than the Lees, McFarlanes and Liefelds though, who really shouldn't have tried to do that kind of thing at home without adult supervision.
-sean
Colin, the annuals were basically double-size comics, and were just as poorly distributed here.
-sean
Thanks, Sean :)
Gnasher would rip Ruff's head off and shove the USA's Dennis the Menace in the hole.
Hard to believe both comics started on the same date, no?
Regarding Thor...
Were Dormammu and Odin that powerful as to play chess for the universe?
Round these parts dangermash is the man for questions about chess Charlie - I was actually a bit surprised he didn't have anything to say about that game on the cover.
Especially as the board appears to have only 7 squares along the visible edge.
-sean
Sean,
No trigger warning necessary regarding Golden’s art, yay or nay. There is definitely a lumpiness and awkwardness to his figures at times. A friend of mine once described his people as looking like they were made of mashed potatoes :). His draftsmanship isn’t at all ‘realistic’ like Garcia-Lopez or Bolland, or even Neal Adams (whose work I’ve never really considered all that ‘realistic’ either but that’s neither here nor there). But I find there is something compelling about his stylized approach to figures and faces, and his overall style is incredibly immersive. But I totally get why some people wouldn’t dig him as much as I do.
No denying that Golden was a huge influence on the Image boys. I think Arthur Adams was at least as strong an influence on that ‘Lee/ MacFarlane/ Liefeld Look’. For awhile Arthur was considered by some people to be ‘Golden done right’, which I don’t really agree with, but I can kinda see what they mean. ‘Golden with more structure’ maybe or ‘Like Golden but less weirdly stylized’. Personally, I like them both about equally.
b.t.
I was going to say the DENNIS THE MENACE cover was my favorite, the best of a dodgy lot. But then I noticed that it doesn’t have any Marvel trade dress design elements — is that the Standard Comics logo? So then I found the actual Marvel DENNIS #1 cover on the GCD, and it’s pretty good too.
The AVENGERS ANNUAL cover is somewhat infamous. The story goes that Golden had done a cover himself that was rejected for some reason or other, and the Milgrom cover was dashed off as a replacement at the eleventh hour. Golden did a ‘re-creation’ of his original cover as a fan commission years later, but I’ve never found a scan of the original on-line anywhere.
The FF ANNUAL cover — does anyone remember what the ‘Ou La La Badoon!’ title is a (weird and too cute by half) reference to? Hint: blue denim was involved.
b.t.
BT - I am 100% confusing that annual with Avengers 200! Thanks for setting me straight, I think my brain (such as it is) was confused after a long day!
Dave, I think I'll go for Thor as my cover of the month, although none of them exactly knock me out.
Bt, you're right. I managed to post completely the wrong Dennis the Menace comic. I've now corrected it and people can see the right one in all its glory.
Sadly, I don't have a clue what, "Ou La La Badoon," refers to.
Dormammu might have been powerful enough, Charlie but Odin definitely wasn't. As far as I can remember, he and all the Norse Gods combined struggled to bring down even one Celestial.
Colin, the only US annual I ever saw was the 1968 Amazing Spider-Man one.
Sean, I liked Golden on the Micronauts. I don't think I liked him on anything else.
It does indeed, Selenarch. It's always surprising to me when I discover X-Men characters first appeared in non-X-Men comics, like Sabretooth and Deathbird did.
Dangermash, thanks for the info on Avengers #200. :)
I had that Avengers Annual issue 10 but wasn't really that impressed by Goldens art. He is a great artist but his pages here looked overly busy and the detail wasn't there. I gave my copy away a few years ago to a local charity shop along with about 50 other comics only to find on a trip to a comic back issue shop in Glasgow it was on sale for £30 and someone bought it. The charity shop sold all 50 comics for £5.
Dennis the Menace - I must say I preferred the first cover posted in its simplicity.
Anyhow, the american "fun" comics like Dennis, Hanna Barbara, Looney Tunes... the charming innocence is a welcome respite from the world most any time.
Same with your scottish DC Thomson. Wonderful!
As a kiddo I'd buy the occasional Beetle Bailey or Flintstones. But DC Thomson ruled the roost in our house with the Annuals which is all we ever saw via a scottish great grandmother.
McScotty -
The past year I've been purging various aspects of my comic collection. (Nothing like a good divorce to make on down size in a hurry, lol.)
The interest in XMen, via ebay, is still there but nothing like the fan-boy era of the early 1990s.
I was basically selling off 5 - 6 XMens at a time, issues 140 - 190, for maybe $20-$40 ish. They really had been "read once and put away" which could explain why I really don't remember the stories.
God knows why but I had 4 - 5 issues of the Badoon Annual shown above. It did nothing to boost sales as far as I can tell. I had put one in each of the 4 - 5 lots I sold off. So how that dude by you is going to 30 pounds for it is beyond me.
Anyone else prefer Man Wolf when his costume looked a whole lot more like Killraven, lol?
I assume this Man Wolf is still JJJ's son?
Does "ooh la la" generally have the sexual connotation in American that it has in English?
Because if it does I worry about Claremont or whoever it was that came up with that title about the Badoon.
-sean
So I had a look online, and it seems that X-Men title references a contemporary US ad campaign slogan, "ooh la la Sasson".
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS8Rd2DmA1k
I still don't get it though. It isn't even an exact rhyme.
-sean
Steve:
In the early 80s, there were TV and radio commercials for Sasson high-waisted, super-tight, designer jeans that seemed to be everywhere at the time, inescapable. The jingle featured a chorus of breathy women singing, ‘Ooh — La la — Sasson!’ I assume spelling ‘Ooh’ as ‘Ou’ is more French or something? Claremont had a habit of using unusual spellings, for that little dash of Extra Twee. ‘Magick’ with a ‘k’, slapping an ‘e’ on the ends of words like ‘Darkholme’, things like that. Exotique! For awhile there, ‘K-TAU!’ was a favorite sound effect in his Iron Fist and X-men books. Maybe it was supposed to rhyme with ‘KA-POW!’, but it looked weird to me.
Charlie:
I agree that the other Dennis cover was better, for its simplicity, dynamic composition and color scheme. But I do like the Marvel one quite a bit too. A few days ago, some of us were complaining about that restrictive frame on Marvel covers in ‘71 / 72. That was nowhere near as off-putting as those ugly eyesore banners slapped across the top of Marvel covers in the early 80s.
b.t.
I figured Badoon was rhyming with the shampoo product (Vidal )Sasoon.
Sasson - Sasoon? Maybe it was a naming error and Badoon should have been Baddon to rhyme with Sasson?
Who knows.
All Charlie knows is your Dennis the Menace was way more entertaining than ours. Ours was really meant for older parents and grand parents to get nostalgic as far as I could ever figure out. I mean, I read it in the daily paper but it was only a one-panel strip during weekdays anyhow. (I can't recall on Sundays.) Dennis was usually doing something naive, often aggravating his neighbor.
Sean:
Yes, ‘Ooh la la!’ is meant to be sexy-cute in America too. ‘Sasson’ doesn’t quite rhyme with ‘Badoon’ , it’s true, but it kinda/sorta does. At least, I always remember Vidal Sasson’s last name being pronounced as ‘Sassoon’ unless he himself was saying it. In any case, that title is all kinds of strange. Conjures up an image of half-dresssed Parisian chorus girls at Crazy Horse flirting with reptilian space monsters.
b.t.
I assumed it must have been a typo for Sassoon when I looked it up, but checking for the ad on Youtube it clearly wasn't.
But yeah, either way doesn't really explain it.
Whatever next - Thanos, You Sexy Thing?
-sean
I guess it was Claremont’s version of Stan Lee’s story titling convention, turning TV / Film / Topical Pop Culture references and whatnot into weird non-sequitur pun thingies — ‘The Good, The Bad and The Uncanny’, ‘As The Earth Spins Madly!’ Etc. Roy Thomas was pretty ‘good’ at that too : ‘This Beach-head Earth!’ and ‘They Shoot Hulks, Don’t They?’
As ‘awesome’ as those all are, I think ‘Ou La La Badoon’ ‘wins’.
b.t.
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