Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Sometimes in life, it's the troublemakers you want to spend time with, rather than the responsible people.
And this month in 1981 was a perfect example.
After all, it saw the release of a whole heap of respectable movies, such as On Golden Pond, Reds, Pennies from Heaven and Chariots of Fire.
But I can't deny it. From that December, the film I most want to see is a thing which bears the splendid title Dawn of the Mummy. I've never heard of it before but Wikipedia tells me it was confiscated in the UK, under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959, during the, "Video Nasty," panic.
If that doesn't recommend it to the discerning viewer, I don't know what would.
This time, it's dominated by a mammoth-sized saga called Metamorphosis Odyssey, as brought to us by jaunty Jim Starlin.
Not content with even that, we also get The Last Centaur by Tim Conrad who brings us this issue's cover, as well.
Then we get Charles Vess' Children of the Stars.
Followed by The Dragonmaster of Klarn: A Game the Gods Play, from Doug Moench and John Buscema.
Next up, it's the Dave Kasakove text piece Tales of Torment: Horror-fantasy from the Underground.
And, now, Match & Set from Lee Marrs which I'm going to assume involves tennis.
And we close with Craig Russell's not very cheery-sounding Isolation & Illusion.
And, in it, he and the Punisher must unite against the deadly menace of Dr Octopus.
That's followed by a three-page feature which asks Just How Strong Is...Spider-Man?
That's followed by a one-page feature showing us Peter Parker's apartment.
And we finish off with a gallery of Spider-Man's most famous foes.
Except none of them are that famous. It's mostly made up of people like Man-Wolf and the Tarantula.
Don't ask me why but I've a feeling it would have led to a two-year-long crossover involving dozens and dozens of issues and would be universally popular with fans and attract no flack whatsoever.
I wonder if that's the conclusion this issue comes to?
But hold on to your hats because we get another treat in this book.
And that's the story of how the Inhumans moved the Great Refuge to the Himalayas.
It's true. Spidey gets yet another title, as he, Iceman and Fire-Star all move in together and have buddytastic adventures.
So, it's basically like Friends but with homicidal super-villains thrown in.
According to the Grand Comics Database; this issue, the Green Goblin busts up a college costume party, to steal his secret Goblin Formula.
I don't know what that means.
Why does a college costume party have his secret Goblin Formula?
And why does he not have it?
And can he not make some more?
Does she end up becoming his herald? Or am I just going mad?
I don't have a clue how this comes about.
Then again, he did also once team up with Red Sonja. So, anything's possible.
Maybe Kull's spirit takes possession of Flash Thompson, or something.
I can pass no judgment upon the merits of the project, as I haven't read it and haven't even seen the later film.
But I do know that, also, in this issue, we get tales with names like My Uncle, the Vampire, The Vampire Excursion and Mirror, Mirror.
It all sounds terrifying.
Posts
46 comments:
I want to know how Doc Ock can read a newspaper and hold a cup of coffee with those telescopic arms.
Because when I need to get to those hard to reach places using the telescopic tube thing that comes out of the Dyson upright hoover and looks like one of those arms, I have absolutely no control. Hoover all the way along a two metre stretch along the edge of the room? Not a chance. If there are leaves at the edge of the room that have fallen off houseplants, I find it easier to pick them up and put them into the sucky bit.
And that ASM annual. Sounds like the one where Spider-Man sorts heroes and villains into five or six shelves based on physical strength. But where Silver Surfer is ranked way too low and either Luke Cage or Black Bolt way too high. All eventually sorted out in the Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe and did Marvel give the excuse that the ranking in the ASM Annual wasn't official but just Spider-Man's personal opinion?
Dave's Cover of the Month has been a tough pick this time, as I've found them all quite bland, but I'll go for Dazzler as the one I'd be most likely to buy, cos I do like a good Galactus story.
Crystal's face on the What If cover looks a little off-model to me- it's quite a sharp facial expression compared to the way she's normally drawn.
Incidentally, what are you guys' opinions on Crystal's hair? I used to think those black bands were something tied round her hair, but now I think she has stripes like a cat.
I'm with Actuary Man on this. Doc Ock doesn't need to use his telescopic arms; he could have used his real hands. What prey tell could he be doing with his real hands when drinking a cup of mud and reading a paper?
Wait.. I thought the Inhumans actually DID move their refuge, though to the Andes or South America? Or was it the Himalays. Anyhow, this is NOT a What If story if it actually happened? I am confused...
Did anyone here actually keep up with the Spidey Clone saga? I puked up on the Gwen Stacy clone thing, having been eternally traumatized by her death in the first place. Why the hell I bought it, I do not know (Like ASM 145? DM would know!). I guess I was hopeful it would fill a hole in my young heart.
Dave S - I've been doing a lot of introspection (that's what one does when laid up on a couch for 8 weeks recovering from surgery).
Is it Galactus you like or perhaps, as I've learned, the notion of giant human-ish things?
I always dug the Sentinels. I realized I dug the Mandroids, too, from Avengers 94. I also like Galactus stories. The only common denominator is they are bigger than human. (Unless Neal Adams also drew Galactus in which case he drew all three and that could be the common denominator but me thinks not.)
The Gwen clone issue numbers for Charlie's benefit:
- PP spots her in the street in ASM #142 but loses her
- Gwen's leg is on the cover of ASM #144
- Aunt May spots her in the street and has one of her attacks in ASM #144
- Gwen clone finally revealed to us and PP in final panel in ASM #144
- Gwen leaves town at the end of ASM #149
- In ASM #150, Gwen long gone but this is the one where PP realises he's not the clone, so end 9f the first clone saga
And, on a separate matter, Charlie and Colin - hope you're all back to normal soon
I also picked up Spiderman annual, What If and Spidey and his amazing friends, on the previously mentioned US trip. Spiderman annual 15 is by O'Neil, Miller and Janson, and very much in the style of Daredevil (as expected from the same creative team). Its a really good issue and uses the Daily Bugle very effectively. Another glimpse into what Spidey would have become had Miller gotten that character instead of Daredevil. I remember the What If story as confusing, given I'd missed the whole clone storyline. Spidey and his amazing friends I recall as a little juvenile (to my then early teen self) which is probably correct given its TV cartoon inspiration.
Turning towards a more serious issue, I just flicked through the Spiderman annual and can confirm the Hostess ad was for fruit pies rather than twinkies. Everyone can stop worrying now...
DW
Hostess Fruit Pies were preferred for school lunch primarily because they were more filling (I assume more calories) IMHO.
I mean, the typical lunch was a sandwich (PBJ, salami), some kind of fritos chips, maybe some carrot sticks, an apple or orange, and a sweet (cookies, hostess, little debbie...) And of course the government subsidized half pint of milk for 4 - cents.
So as a growing 10 year old, the fruit pie seemed to top off your gut, you know? You'd feel stuffed for at least a few hours.
But those Hostess Ho Hos or Ding Dongs were truly the gold standard. In 3rd grade ( 9 years old) I remember Audrey Appleseece's older brother saying he'd let me talk to his sister, if I gave him my ding dong. I did have a crush on her.
And after the great divorce last year, out of curiosity, I did find Audrey on FB via an old classmate. The years had not been kind to her, lol. Well worth keeping my Ding Dong all for me!
Thanks Dangermash. Hope to be back on the pitch in July, lol.
B.tw. your Spidey knowledge is incredible! (Dare I ask about his parents? Or parental clones? Or whatever... like around issue 400?)
I am curious how PP determined he was not a clone, in the end? I vaguely recall reading these ASMs and still have the one (144). But... you know... it's hard to read these ASMs with anger and tears in my eyes.
It's like Marvel couldn't take killing Gwenn serious enough to let it alone... turned it into a bloody freak show.
And why Romita would claim to be the master of that sh!t show is beyond me.
In 1982 there was an issue of What If called 'What If Dazzler Had Become The Herald Of Galactus' in which Dazzler tries to keep Galactus away from inhabited planets. Eventually she quits and returns home only to find that Earth has become an uninhabited post-apocalyptic wasteland so she ends up rejoining Galactus and vowing to change him for the better.
Dave, I too thought Crystal had bands on her hair but I don't think her curious adornment has ever been explained, has it?
Dangermash, thanks for wishing me back to normal but I'm a bit puzzled, as there's nothing actually wrong with me as far as I know!
Colin
I assumed it was markings within her actual hair, which consequently means her hair doesn't grow (or grows at a very slow rate). Given she's Medusa's sister, perhaps their genetic modification is hair related, and Crystal's extra abilities manifested as elemental. I'm sure there's a tedious mini series in this. Personally I lost respect for her when she chose Pietro over Johnny.
DW
Charlie:
I’m sorry, I know Gwen’s death scarred you, and I totally get it. Seriously, pal, I do. But coming in on the Spidey saga for the first time several months AFTER that sad event, I was able to empathize with Peter’s grief without getting TOO caught up in it. Thus, when things between him and MJ started heating up, I was just relieved and guardedly optimistic for him — I hoped that he would finally be able to recover from the loss of Gwen and get on with his life.
Once he and MJ shared that first kiss at JFK, I was All In on that ‘ship’. And right after that, when he got back from Paris, and who should be waiting for him in his apartment but Gwen Fricking Stacy back from the dead, I thought it was a insanely brilliant twist. Even though I suspected from the start that she wasn’t the Real Deal, that she had to have been a clone or some other kind of impostor, I still appreciated the gleefully cruel audacity of it, and happily rode that roller-coaster all the way to the finale of the Clone Saga, which was also the end of Conway’s run.
I know it’s not the most popular opinion, but ASM 124-149 is my absolute favorite run of that title, 25 issues that I absolutely would take with me in my hypothetical Desert Island Long-box.
b.t.
Oh! And from this week’s Marvel Lucky Bag , I liked the Spidey Annual (tho not as much as the previous one with Dr. Strange and Tom Palmer inking) and thought the ‘Lawnmower Man’ adaptation was a fairly pointless re-telling of one of my least favorite Stephen King stories, graced with some good Walter Simonson art.
b.t.
Oh, and Charlie — in ASM 150 (a fill-in written by Archie Goodwin, not departing writer Gerry ‘Gwen-killer’ Conway) Peter reasoned that he wasn’t a clone because he had deep crushy / hand-holdy/ smoochy-woochy feelings for MJ, not Gwen. And no, it doesn’t really make a lick of sense.
I wasn’t around for that later storyline where the Spider-Clone came back, have no idea how he survived the incinerator the ‘Real’ Peter shoved him into, and I don’t really need to know. People get all bent out of shape over that crazy Straczynski ret-con where Gwen apparently ‘got busy’ with Norman Osborn, and had his baby or some stupid thing but I’m like, “Ehh, whatever!” Didn’t read it, never happened in MY Head Canon. Everything after ASM #149 is practically apocrypha to me.
b.t.
Crystal clearly had suspect taste in men going for Johnny Storm in the first place DW. He was young and single in late 60s/early 70s New York... and hung around with his older sister and her square husband! What a dweeb.
Steve, re: Dazzler - Terrax was Galactus' herald at this point, and did a runner into a black hole. And who better to go into said black hole than our luminescent disco diva heroine, to bring him back? Plus, iirc Galactus had a bit of a thing for our Dazz, the old dog.
No nipples were harmed in the course of the story.
-sean
Best cover here is Epic #9. Generally I find Tim Conrad's figures weak and his work a bit stiff, but thats not a problem with a pic of a statue, and he does good colour.
I like the sky - thats a nice cloud formation.
The mag itself is the usual mixed bag. Craig Russell does one of his wordless stories about some curly haired fella with wings, and Charles Vess draws cool trees, but otherwise its all fairly average to mediocre Epic-type stuff.
Generally around that time I liked Lee Marrs' work a lot - she wasn't a really polished artist, yet her stories (like, say, 'Stark's Quest' in Star*Reach) usually had a very readable quality but I can't remember anything about 'Match & Set'. Which suggests maybe it wasn't one of her better ones.
-sean
Sean
He may have been a dweeb at first but by the time he met Crystal he was Johnny F!@#$%^ Storm! The coolest cat in comics!
;-)
DW
Colin,- sorry, yes you're fine - stay well
Philip - sorry mate, hope you're back to normal soon
Charlie - the secret of my ASM knowledge is that I made the smart move of buying ASM 1-500 in pdf form on cd back in the 00s and later managed to get them onto the iPad, so I wander around with them at my fingertips. Madness by Marvel to have done something like this when there was still big money to be made from Masterworks books. On the other hand, pretty dumb of me to stop at ASM and not also buy the equivalent Avengers and FF sets.
b.t. has the answer about how PP decided he wasn't a clone. Which was why he threw Curt Connors' huge long report into the wind without reading it. I guess the fact that CC never talked about it again backs up PP's conclusion that he wasn't the clone.
The robot parents first appear in ASM #363, reveal themselves in #365, die in #388. The late Harry Osborn is revealed as the mastermind behind it all in #389.
That Spider-Man Annual remains one of my favorites! How can you beat a combination of Spidey, Ock, Punisher, Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein?
And speaking of Spider-Man, kudos to Dangermash and b.t. for your web slinging authority! Well done. And b.t.- I'm with you in fondness for that run on ASM. Good stuff, and quite a lineup of foes- even if Mysterio was a temporary replacement).
Charlie- as b.t. said, the answer to Peter's clone status was presented as a reflection of his emotions at the time. As in, his 'final thoughts' were of MJ, not Gwen. Which actually made more sense to me reading it as an adult than it did as a kid...
Johnny F!@#$%^ Storm wasn't even the coolest cat in the FF, DW.
-sean
Thanks Dangermash - I knew what you meant!
DW & Sean - Johnny Storm created the SPIDER-MOBILE - the most infamous vehicle in the history of comics!
Phillip
No one has commented on "Dawn of the Mummy" and the dangerous impact it would have had on UK youth!
Where is Killdumpster??? He surely would have seen it and given us the 411.
b.t. - yep, I think one had to live through the whole Gwenn-death thing to be torqued off for all eternity. I'd been reading monthly starting with ASM 100 when I was around 10 years old.
I have noticed numerous folks our age, who started reading ASM after her death, don't share the same views.
Well... as the man said... "timing is everything!"
But after SDC's Sunday blog, maybe he said, "What's it all about, Alfie?"
But as Sir Paul said "Listen to what the man said!"
DM - I commend you scoring the ASM run! Wow!
I've never read a comic on the screen, just in paper. Am I being a dinosaur here? Do you commend it?
Speaking of dinosaurs, you know why a T-Rex can't do yoga? Because he's extinct!
Charlie :
I can’t speak for dangermash, but I’ve read lots of comics online — scans that people have posted at their own blogs, like Destination Unknown and Diversions of the Groovy Age, and at sites like Comicbookplus. I often think it would be awesome to just have my entire collection at my fingertips on my iPad. It would sure be nice to not have all these dang boxes crowding our living space. But I still prefer to have the damn floppies. Can’t help it. Same with books — I have probably a hundred or more books on my Kindle, but I’d still rather read a physical copy.
But for some things, digital copies work just fine. I’m fascinated by Golden Age comics, but rarely LOVE them — plus they’re expensive and fragile, so I don’t own that many. Reading old Airboy and Black Terror and Captain Triumph and Spy Smasher and Midnight comics at Comicbookplus is a convenient (and cost-effective) way to enjoy them.
b.t.
If you're passionate about comics, I expect the paper versions will always beat hardback books or pdfs. It's definitely not the same seeing them on screen, even if my oldest pdfs are a bit yellow looking and all of them include all the ads, letters pages, etc
On the other hand, the advantages of having those 500 issues on pdf are space, convenience, completeness and longevity. I'm happy with that.
Now, if I had unlimited funds and storage space, would I like to own hundreds of actual hard copies of WHIZ and SMASH and CRACK and POLICE and MILITARY and PEP and PLANET and MARVEL and DARING, etc etc? Hell yes, I would! But I don’t, so reading scans of em is better than nothing. Seriously, when I first read about all those different GA comics in Steranko’s HISTORY OF COMICS and gazing in wonder at the enticing little cover thumbnails, I was sure all those beauties would be forever out of my reach. And here they are (many of ‘em) just a few clicks away.
I often complain about living here in The Future, but online GA comics and instant access to old tv shows and songs etc at places like YouTube are magical science-y things that I do very much appreciate.
b.t.
b.t. - FWIW - i had the identical experience with Steranko's History of Comics. I have a good long box of golden age comics with many of the titles you mentioned with several Lev Gleason's Daredevil and Quality's Blackhawks in the majority.
The ONLY comic that ever interested my kids, besides Archie, was Quality's Plastic Man. I have all the hard-copy DC Archives and they devoured them. But I never would have discovered Plas but for Sternako. (DC's various incarnations never interested me.) I have Police Comics 51 on display actually, as well as Don Winslow 51.
UK Gents - I theorize that the reason my kids loved the Golden Age Plastic Man so much is b/c they were raised on a steady diet of DC Thomson Dennis the Menace, etc. There are some mirthful similarities for sure.
Gents - Marvel is finally republishing paperback archives again, starting at the beginning, of at least Spidey and FF. Priced like around $15? Not bad. Quality looks good too. Saw them at my LCBS.
The $1 Marvel True Believers have ended. But you can buy them in lots on ebay for maybe $1 each + shipping. It's a great way to read a classic, while taking a bath.
I too am going for Epic as my cover of the month.
Dave, I've always assumed the black bands in Crystal's hair are some sort of fabric but I'm just as happy to assume they're part of its natural colouring.
Colin and Sean, thanks for the Dazzler/Galactus/What If? info.
I'm a bit suspicious of Charlie's claim to have never read a comic on a screen. C'mon Charlie - I've seen some of your comments at Diversions of the Groovy Kind!
Digital media and the internet are great for opening up the cultural past and present, and discovering all kinds of stuff, but if you really like something paper and vinyl are the way to go.
Steve, why bring up films released in December '81 but not mention the best, 'Reds'?
From the Wobblies to 10 days that shook the world in revolutionary Petrograd - they don't make 'em like that any more!
-sean
Shawn! I stand corrected! Vis-à-vis the blogs like Steve’s or diversions of the groovy kind I have read a few comics online. I am not sure how I could have forgotten that. Mia Kulpa, lol
Sean, I did mention Reds.
Oops, so you did Steve. I too stand corrected.
Apologies for the revisionist tendency.
-sean
I do have a bunch of digital comics book-marked on my iPad, for quick access. Lots of Tom Sutton Charlton stories, most of the Kaluta Shadows ( I might even have all of them), Archie stuff by Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey, Wally Wood Captain Science and Kenyon of the Space Patrol, things like that. Also, quite a few complete SF pulps at the Internet Archive, PLANET STORIES, STARTLING STORIES , ASTOUNDING, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES etc.
b.t.
b.t. (or anyone else) have you read Fiction House Planet Comics? Even the archives are expensive! M
y question is "are they all that?" Like, how would they compare to Wally Woods E.C. Science Fiction Fantasy?
Good stories? Good art?
sean - sorry about shawn. I was talking into the phone...
Without condoning the site in any way is readcomicsonline dot li not available in the UK or US?
DW
Oh, and 'Flame on' will always be cooler than 'Its clobbering time'.
If you'll pardon another divergence onto the digital comic sidebar:
I don't have any digital comics per se, but have scanned many comics and loaded them onto my tablet. Many of the auction lots ice picked up have some rough books, or coverless books. So if it's anything remotely interesting, it gets scanned and a cover downloaded. So there's now everything from Sad Sack to 1950s "Eerie" horror to Katy Keene romance. Does that count as digital content?
Bt - there is an fb page caled “public domain quality comic books.”
Red That sounds like a cool idea. How long does it take to scan a book though? And then how do you save it do you save all the pages under one directories treating each page has its own individual file?
DW - you may be a a down under wonder but you be upside down on that! “It’s Clobberin Time!!!”
Charlie:
Hard to compare PLANET COMICS to EC’s various SF books, they’re just very different. The EC titles are far better written and drawn, on the whole. PLANET featured various rather crude Space-Opera type adventure serials, 4 or 5 features per issue. They were VERY action-oriented, not terribly sophisticated, with Ray-gun-toting heroes blasting fiendish aliens and monsters, and more often than not prominently featuring scantily dressed, leggy damsels in distress.
‘The Lost World’ was a fairly long-running strip that had a kinda ‘Edgar Rice Burroughs’ flavor, with stalwart hero Hunt Bowman fighting savages and monsters in a post-apocalyptic future Earth. George Evans drew that one for awhile. ‘Star Pirate’ was another long-running series, featuring a dashing muscle-bound clod in the Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers mould. Murphy Anderson drew that for about 20 installments. His artwork was really pretty awful at first, almost amateurish, but got better, more polished over time. For a short while, his stuff looked almost like early Jim Starlin, with very exaggerated muscular anatomy and exuberant action staging.
PLANET also featured a few series with female lead characters. Matt Baker did his usual GGA thing on a series called ‘Mysta of the Moon’ , and a guy named Enrico Bagnoli drew a series called ‘Futura’ — both of those look pretty nice. PLANET COMICS #50 is a pretty good ‘representative’ issue, with Anderson at his ‘Starlin-ish’ peak, and a decent ‘Lost World’ chapter by Evans, and #54 has some of Bagnoli’s sexiest, most stylish ‘Futura’ art. Those two issues would give you a good idea of whether or not it’s up your alley. Both easily viewable at Comicbookplus.
b.t.
Yeah DW, readcomiconline is accessible here.
And "Flame on" sounds like a domestic appliance instruction.
-sean
I'm sensing I may be in the minority with Juan Tempesto ;-)
DW
Charlie- the whole process from scan to tablet takes about 45 minutes. The lengthiest part is the actual scanning, and then editing each image with photo shop. I then store the whole comic ( usually about 30 pages as I scan some ads too) under a file by the comic's title and issue number. Then I copy that file to the tablet from the laptop. On the tablet, the pages appear close to actual size so it's nice. A bit of a chore, but nice to build a portable comic collection...
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