Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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April Fools' Day came and went without me noticing a single April Fools joke. Which means that either there weren't any or I fell for every single one of them.
But what fools lurk within the pages of the comics we'll be tackling in this post?
I think we can guarantee the only fools will be the villains who dare to pit their wits against the finest heroes Marvel has to offer.
Some say the Hulk has no musical talent.
They're completely wrong.
On this very cover, he gives us his rendition of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney's monster-hit The Girl Is Mine.
Astonishingly, this is a full ten years before the song will be released. Truly, the Hulk is a man ahead of his time.
On other matters, this is the issue in which his battle with Hell's Angels, Havok and Polaris sees him lift up a cliff - and I don't mean Cliff Richard.
It's the return some of us never demanded.
Because the Spider-Slayer's back!
And more tentacular than ever!
I don't care what anybody says. If it's not got J Jonah Jameson's face on its screen, it's not a real spider-slayer.
No sooner do the Avengers get the Kree/Skrull War behind them than they're back at war again. This time, with the hordes of Olympus.
First, Neal Adams. Now, Barry Smith. When it comes to artwork, this era of The Avengers is positively spoiling us.
The bad news is the Red Skull activates his Fifth Sleeper and attacks Las Vegas with it.
The good is Cap's on hand to thwart it.
I'm assuming this is the one in which he teams up with the Kingpin to fight the mechanical menace?
The Ox gatecrashes a party attended by Daredevil, which gives the man without fear no choice but to battle him.
But that's not what really matters.
What really matters is that Karen Page leaves our hero, and the Black Widow takes over as his love interest!
The Fantastic Four are having all kinds of trouble with Gabriel the air walker.
That is until it's revealed he's just a robot.
Unfortunately, the team have better things to worry about because it turns out he's the latest herald of Galactus.
And that means the Big G can't be far away.
I can, however, confirm that, for the true comics aficionado, Gabriel's secret isn't as mind-blowing as the cover would have us believe.
I can, however, confirm that, for the true comics aficionado, Gabriel's secret isn't as mind-blowing as the cover would have us believe.
Asgard's facing doom at the hands of Mangog - and Odin's just lying around.
Get yourself a new ruler, Asgardians.
I'm available
And I'm only 75% as useless, mad, irresponsible and despotic as Odin.
Granted, I don't have any actual super-powers, but no one's perfect.
The Mimic's back but I can't say much about the tale, as I've never read it.
That's Marvel's big hitters covered. But what of the competition? How does a totally non-representative sample of DC's output look, in the same period?
In this one, we're treated to The Grey Lady of Coburn Manor as written by the appealingly named Dorothy Woolfolk.
Apparently, the ghost of the Grey Lady's trying to drive off intruders who want to buy the mansion and convert it to a hotel. Zoinks!
And, indeed, jinkies.
From this, I can only assume it continues the numbering from that of whichever company's been publishing Tarzan tales up until now.
Once inside the book, we get the origin of Tarzan, for those who don't already know it.
But we don't only get the lord of the jungle. We also get the warlord of the red planet, as, in the back-up strip, we're treated to the launch of an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars.
There's also a back-up tale called Battle of the Mermen! in which Wonder Girl and Renno battle sea-centaurs who've attacked the Mer-Man world!
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23 comments:
Cover of the month this time round is definitely Wonder Woman #199 imo, Steve.
Its a bit disappointing to find the main feature inside drawn by Don Heck, but Dick Giordano's inks do actually make it look ok.
Even so, the cover isn't particularly representative of the story, which is fairly standard jump-suit era action, and I do wonder if Jeff Jones had originally drawn it (and the next one for #200) for one of those Secret House Of The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name-type gothic romance comics DC were experimenting with at the time - maybe the cancelled Dark Mansion...? - and new WW editor Denny O'Neil just tweaked his script a bit so he could use it.
Tarzan #207 - you're right about the numbering being consistent with the series put out by previous licence holders Gold Key - is the most impressive of the comics here that I've actually read.
Joe Kubert did some fantastic work on the series, and you even get one of Hal Foster's old Tarzan Sunday pages - extended by the addition of text - presented as an illustrated story.
-sean
You're not the only one who didn't come across any April fools jokes, Steve.
I thought I did when I read a news item on Friday claiming DUP MP Ian Paisley jnr gave an interview about how he believed Ulster Unionists had always got a better deal under Labour governments.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ian-paisley-jr-conservative-party-dup-labour-english-b2047757.html
But that turned out to be genuine. Which is actually pretty funny.
I suspect currently theres just too much competition from the 'real' world to leave much room for jokes.
-sean
Holy moly, this is an impressive crop of comics you've given us to ponder, Steve.
This was a good period for Thor. I think Gerry Conway took full advantage of the kinetic energy of Big John Buscema's pencils to the point in which that comic just blasted forward on all cylinders. And Conway wasn't afraid to throw some in confounding mystical and cosmic bullshit to make things interesting.
I didn't always know what Conway was talking about but I didn't care much. I'll read anything with Mangog in it.
And right around the corner? Ego-Prime.
I'm not gonna try to explain Ego-Prime here. I'm not sure I understand it, but that's not the point. It was a classic "70's comic.
On another note, I think it was here that the Red Skull and the Kingpin locked horns for the first time. I think the Kingpin's son was involved and also the last and final Sleeper (one hopes). After the flying drone with the Skull's head on it they should have abandoned that storyline.
The Kingpin was cast in an almost sympathetic light, because Americans have historically had more sympathy to gangsters than Nazis.
I'm not sure why. To me it's simply a difference of scale.
I dunno what that Wonder Woman comic is about, but all I know is, after seeing that cover I wanna read it. Good Lord!
M.P.
Yet another magnificent posting and display of comics from Steve! I certainly recall getting Tarzan Captain America and fantastic four off the spinner. Somehow I even ended up with two copies of that Tarzan, lol. Good stuff by Joe Kubert!
But I think it was approximately one year later that my aunt, coming back from England, gifted us a big, hardback, Tarzan book by none other than Burne Hogarth. In young Charlie’s mind Joe Kubert didn’t stand a chance against Burne Hogarth.
Young Charlie was able to negotiate a deal with his parents to secure that captain America, lol. So not a trend at the time Charlie’s parents took the family to Fort Lauderdale Florida in February for spring break. Charlie‘s parents wanted to go out and have Charlie watch his siblings so he negotiated a comic book to help him pass the time. Charlie’s parents were agreeable so he ran quickly inside to theDrugstore and grab that Captain America as if his life depended on it, lol. So it was the fifth sleeper, Charlie still thought it was cool. It was only the preceding summer that he really was exposed to the first three sleepers in a reprint for a king size captain America. Also he had seen them in the Marvel cartoon series from 1967… Or was it 1966?
The first time Charlie ever saw a man gag was when Thor was held in his hand being crushed. The cover was by the king himself. All subsequent covers which have Thor and man gag the same size just don’t seem right to Charlie. Also, man Gaaga supposed to be in yellow and red based on that first appearance in Thor
Steve and Sean, the Guardian's online news had an April Fools story about a Tory MP who was demanding that the recently seized Russian superyacht should be given to the Royal Family. It seemed plausible at first until the MP's name was revealed as Shiva M' Timberzz or something...shiver me timbers, geddit?
I thought you read the Guardian, Sean? I too saw the Ian Paisley Jnr story which did sound like an April Fools joke now that you mention it! There was also a Guardian opinion piece about how Northern Ireland's days are numbered and in the comments section somebody complained about the term "British Isles" which did make me wonder if it might be you ;)
I've been perusing a list of the number one songs in France - lots of French stuff I've never heard of but the French certainly loved Boney M too! The Buggles' 'Video Killed The Radio Star' spent 12 weeks at #1 in France and Kim Wilde's "Cambodia' was #1 for 13 weeks!
Colin, I remember it always being claimed that Kim Wilde was huge in France where they supposedly saw her as the English Brigitte Bardot. It never seemed an obvious comparison, to me but there certainly seems to be plenty of footage of her on French TV, on YouTube.
Charlie, I'm getting the impression that the autocorrect on your phone is made of pure awesome.
Thanks, MP. I think the comic, from those above, that I'd have opted to buy is the Tarzan one (even though I'm not that interested in Tarzan), just for its cover.
Sean, British politics is indeed getting increasingly difficult to distinguish from satire.
Re: KIM WILDE
Having been married to a a French woman from the south of France for 30 years, Charlie can attest to the hugeness of KIM WILDE's "Kids in America" and The BUGGLES "Video killed the Radio Star."
Charlie could never figure it out since the songs weren't nearly as popular in the USA and Charlie assumed France always had its own indigenous thriving music industry.
Regarding "VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR"
Charlie has been reading Thomas Dolby's Memoirs and Dolby had a role in that song.
Dolby said he helped write, or at least performed on, a version written by Bruce Wooley Horn and Downes. I guess Bruce had a band called Bruse Wooley and the Camera Club which release a moderately successful version (?) of this.
Horn and Downes went on to become BUGGLES and release a new version of it, which is the one we know. Apparently it was a monster hit and it was the first song played by MTV.
Horn and Downes went on to become part of prog-rockers YES and also were founders of ASIA.
And while THE BUGGGLES and VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR was MTV's first-ever video played, I have often heard it was DOLBY'S SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE that "saved" MTV? I'd always heard he specifically wrote it for the visuals at the request of MTV.
But I am not at that chapter of his memoirs yet.
Steve - any chance you can reference the original XMen issue for these Xmen reprints coming up for yet anther year or two? Your skills are superior to ours!
I shall endeavour to do so, Charlie.
I believe the above X-Men comic is a reprint of issue #27. Cover-dated December 1966.
Charlie, I also got that Burne Hogarth book - for my birthday - not too long after Tarzan #207 (although it probably seemed like quite a while at the time). Much as I liked Kubert's version, you're right that it didn't stand a chance in comparison.
A bit tough on poor old Joe really, being up against a full colour book - not only did you get page after page of Hogarth's luxurious Tarzan adaptation, but there was a lengthy illustrated introduction about his work including a number of his old Tarzan Sundays. Amazing.
I'd never seen anything like it, and in retrospect it wouldn't surprise me if it was the first comic story published as a book (I can't think of any earlier ones in English).
And yet whenever you read any of those articles about 'the origins of the graphic novel' it never seems to get a mention.
Also, like Steve I am impressed by your phone's autocorrect.
-sean
Trevor Horn seems like he must be an interesting fella. In the early 80s - just in the few years before Frankie Goes to Hollywood - he produced Yes, ABC, Grace Jones (getting the geezer from Pink Floyd in to play guitar on 'Slave to the Rhythm'), Dollar, and Malcolm McLaren.
Which seems like a crazy mix of things to have done before even getting to what he was best known for.
Colin, yes I do read the Guardian but missed the superyacht story. Tbh, apart from the made up MP's name it doesn't seem at all unlikely, so I don't think it really works as a joke.
Like, earlier today I read in the paper that one of the government people fined for partying during lockdown was their chief ethics advisor.
You really can't make up stuff better than that.
-sean
SEAN I could not agree more with you about the Burne Hogarth Tarzan book. At this point it seems fair to say that he has all but forgotten?
And part, I think that must have a lot to do with how widely his Tarzan strip was distributed in US newspapers. I don’t know for certain but I suspect it was not as broad as strips like dick Tracy or Little orphan Annie.
I suspect the same goes for Eisner amd his Spirit newspaper strip.
It might be an interesting case study to see how Eisner became “The Eisner Awards” whereas Hogarth (and Hal Foster / Prince Valiant as far as that goes) faded into obscurity.
Pity really.
Sean, I must confess that when I saw the superyacht headline I rolled my eyes and thought "typical Tories" but I didn't click on the story to read it - I only discovered it was an April Fools joke a bit later when the subject cropped up in the comments section of another story.
Charlie, the Spirit survived well because Eisner was a shrewd fella who owned the rights to his work and was able to keep it regularly in print in accessible formats, and - more importantly - it feels quite modern (when I first read post-war Spirit stories in the early 80s they didn't seem at all dated compared to, say, even early 60s Lee/Kirby Marvels, let alone 'golden age' comics).
Whereas Hogarth and Foster seem more like illustrators from an earlier time than actual modern comic artists. Even after his newspaper heyday Hogarth's 70s Tarzan still had blocks of text instead of word balloons... which actually quite a few early 'graphic novels' did - like Steranko's Chandler - but it seemed completely old fashioned by the 80s.
Plus, it probably didn't help that Tarzan went very out of style very quickly around the mid 70s (and Prince Valiant-type 'history' even earlier).
-sean
The news that various countries have been seizing the super-yachts of various Russian oligarchs gives me hope for mankind.
I'll take any good news I can get.
On another note, Trevor Horn also produced Seal's first album!
...Well, I liked it anyway. M.P. is a cat of many moods, some of them mellow and introspective.
M.P.
Charlie, Video Killed The Radio Star was a #1 hit in the UK too but for only one week so it was rather a surprise to discover it had been at #1 in France for a whopping 12 weeks!
(In fact I was a bit surprised it had been at #1 in France at all).
That is a very uninspiring logo on the Captain America and the Falcon issue.
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