March 24th 1982 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

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

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In these times of conflict in Europe, it's always reassuring to know there are certain things that can unite the continent.

One of those is the Eurovision Song Contest.

Granted, it mostly unites Europe in a stampede to award the British entry zero points but, still, that's at least some kind of accord.

And so it was that, on this very night in 1982, BBC One was broadcasting A Song For Europe, the event at which the nation got to choose its entry for that year's competition.

I can exclusively reveal the nation's choice on that evening was Bardo's One Step Closer which bore a more-than-passing resemblance to Manfred Mann's version of Blinded by the Light.

No one, after all, ever accused Eurovision of originality.

Sadly, Bardo were destined not to go on to win the main contest. That was won, as I recall, by German teenager Nicole with her lovely song A Little Peace.

Elsewhere, that week, it was all getting heated in the nation's theatres, as a court case brought by "decency" campaigner Mary Whitehouse, against the National Theatre of Britain for its production The Romans in Britain, ended when the Attorney General dismissed proceedings after it became clear her expert eyewitness had been sat too far away from the stage to have clearly seen the body part he claimed to have seen.

In the South Atlantic, that week, Argentine scrap metal workers raised their national flag on South Georgia in the Falkland Islands and set off a whole heap of trouble.

Over on the UK singles chart, Tight Fit finally lost their Number One spot. They lost it to the equally non-credible Seven Tears by the Goombay Dance Band, a song which bore no resemblance at all to Auld Lang Syne.

On the album chart, Barbra Streisand's Love Songs reclaimed pole position from the Jam's The Gift.

As you've probably guessed from the cover, this issue features the tale in which the Vulture has given up on life until he meets Aunt May's boyfriend whose positivity inspires him to return to a career of crime.

Oops.

We also get to see a selection of the readers' drawings.

And we get the chance to win a fabulous work of art.

I don't have a clue what that work of art is.

I suspect it's not one of the readers' drawings.

We also get to see readers' pencillings in this one. I don't know if they're the same drawings that appear in the Spider-Man book or if they're a totally different set.

I can say, though, that Cap's still battling the robotic horror that is Adonis.

Of Thor and Iron Man, I can say little.

But I do know this book also gives us the chance to win a fabulous work of art.

In a shocking development that will shock no one, information about Scooby-Doo and his TV Friends #5 is hard to find on the internet. Thanks to eagle-eyed reader McScotty, however, the cover has been unearthed. And it's this one.

I can reveal little of the contents, although, it being Scooby-Doo, I suspect we can guess at what they may be like.

And, if that's not enough to keep us happy, we can at least console ourselves with the fact that, this issue, we can win the Worzel Gummidge annual of which we've always dreamt.