Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
This week in 1982, peace came to Harrogate!
It was the week of the Eurovision Song Contest and, in that northern town, German singer Nicole only went and won the whole thing with her gentle anthem Ein Bisschen Frieden which our polyglot readers will instantly recognise as meaning, "A Little Peace," in English.
Just to celebrate her mighty win, within days of that triumph, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, in accordance with the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979.
That's the power of Eurovision.
Meanwhile, a bit further south, British troops retook South Georgia during the Falkland War's Operation Paraquet.
When it came to music, the week was a triumph for Barry Manilow who smashed straight in at Number One on the UK album chart with his platter that mattered Barry Live in Britain.
When it came to music, the week was a triumph for Barry Manilow who smashed straight in at Number One on the UK album chart with his platter that mattered Barry Live in Britain.
So popular was the LP that its debut forced Madness' Complete Madness to settle for only entering at Number Two.
Over on the British singles listings, there was no comparable drama, as Ebony and Ivory retained the top spot it had first claimed a week earlier.
Hooray! Hanna Barbera's Scooby-Doo and His T.V. Friends #10 hits the nation's newsagents!
Over on the British singles listings, there was no comparable drama, as Ebony and Ivory retained the top spot it had first claimed a week earlier.
As far as I can make out, Spider-Man and the Falcon have joined forces to bring down a vigilante gang we know is corrupt because it has the editorial support of the Daily Bugle. Will Jonah never learn how to tell the good guys from the bad?
We also get a rather dramatic poster of Captain Britain holding a Union Flag.
But, obviously, all of that pales into insignificance beside the revelation that we can win a Spidey-Tricycle!
A Spidey-Tricycle? I'm submitting my entry for it, right now!
As last week's issue featured the yarn in which Reed Richards enables Bruce Banner to become the Hulk at will - and retain his intellect - I'm going to assume this one gives us the Leader trying to steal the tripodal Murder Module. Only for the new-improved Hulk to stop him.
We also get an Iron Man story and, I would assume, a Thor one but I can shed no light upon what they involve.
Not to be left behind by Spidey's mag, this one, too, gives us a poster. This time, featuring Iron Man and the Silver Surfer!
As with that other weekly, we can win a Spidey-Tricycle.
But, sadly, it seems we can't win a Hulkcycle.
And that's all I can say about it.
If i were stranded on a deserted island i would hope these were not my only reading materials.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but where would you put up your poster of Captain Brexit with a union flag?
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether they were giving those away to mark British Eurovision, or the war in the Malvinas...
Steve, those Spider-Man TV Comic and Hulk covers were obviously drawn by the late, great Steve Dillon (for all we know he might also have done the Scooby Doo one, although it seems unlikely). In theory that should make the weeklies look much more inviting than usual, but unfortunately they aren't particularly good examples of his work.
I don't have a problem myself with characters being 'off-model', but those aren't at all convincing as individual takes on Spidey or the Hulk either.
-sean
Nicole's 'A Little Peace' also became the 500th #1 single in the UK and 40 years later it remains the last Eurovision winner to reach #1 here.
ReplyDeleteSean, I assume you were opposed to Argentina's fascist military junta and therefore you were fully behind Maggie and our boys ;)
Steve, do you have any opinions about Elon Musk buying Twitter?
ReplyDeleteTbh Colin, I was just being a bit cheeky there and don't really have an opinion on the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute, other than that it was a bit ridiculous - on both sides - to be fighting over them.
ReplyDeleteBtw, I've just noticed on that Hulk cover he appears to have nipples.
Is that a first?
-sean
Did the artist use Gumby as a model for drawing Spidey? He's got like the longest quads I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteSean -I'm not sure Hulk has nipples.
ReplyDeleteI think the first time I ever thought about comic book nipples was BWS's Conan?
IIRC, Roy the Boy said the nipples were an on again /off again subject at Marvel, lol.
Steve
ReplyDeleteDid you find an online image of the Captain Britain poster? I wonder if it's the then current Alan Davis version or the old red costume (which seemed more likely to feature a union flag).
I don't mind the two Steve Dillon covers. I reckon he's fudged the Hulk nipple issue by rendering the suggestion of nipple without the full detail. Smart.
DW
DW, the Captain Britain poster can be found here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304412683601?hash=item46e068ed51:g:~FMAAOSwc01iPcS2
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, it's very much the new costume.
Colin, hasn't Musk pulled out of buying Twitter? I do find it hard to believe that a man with a notorious intolerance towards criticism of him would allow the total freedom of speech he claims to love.
Not sure where you're getting that from Steve - last I read Musk had secured financing for a takeover, which included a billion dollar payment if he backs out.
ReplyDeleteAlthough fwiw, I agree that his behaviour is at odds with any meaningful 'free speech' for the masses - as is his investment in China, where half of Tesla production is based (and Twitter access currently blocked) - which does make his ownership bid seem like some sort of extended wind up that wasn't intended to happen.
-sean
DW, those covers aren't objectionable - they're certainly an improvement on the Marvel UK originals we usually see in this feature! - but Steve Dillon was capable of doing better.
ReplyDeleteI did wonder whether he was purposefully going for a skinny look with Spidey. That makes sense as an approach to the character, but - maybe because otherwise its a fairly generic drawing? - the result just looks like the proportions are a bit off.
-sean
Gents -
ReplyDeleteAssuming we will soon exhaust the nipple discussion and the gumby legs of spiderman, lol...
Charlie highly recommends At the Speed of Sound - The Memoirs of Thomas Dolby. It's really a fun read.
E.g., I didn't know he was supposed to do the Sound Track for Howard the Duck, LOL, but got fired several weeks in for being to non-mainstream. He does give us a few pages of insights into that film.
Plus he speaks a lot of other aspects of the UK music scene.
The dude got around.
E.g., playing keyboards for Bowie at the huge Band Aid concert in 85, working with George Clinton and the PFunk Allstars, randomly showing up at Michael Jackson's house in LA when he was horribly sick with mono and needed to escape the execs at the record studios one night in a torrential downpour...
Story after story.
Have any of the UK contingent seen the new British version of the Netflix series "TEN PERCENT" or perhaps "CAll MY AGENT" ?
ReplyDeleteThe original, in French and called "Dix Pour Cent", has taken the world by storm. There are versions now in India, Japan, and apparently UK. A full length film is supposedly starting in New York.
Wonder if it is worth a look? If so, maybe I'll need to break down and get a VPN so the internet no longer thinks I am in the USA, lol.
(The show was originally called Dix Pour Cent in the french. They changed the name to Call my Agent for the US market. But the new UK series may be called 10 Percent, same as the french.)
I've just seen on Twitter that Neal Adams has died!
ReplyDeleteGood ole Neal Adams.
ReplyDeleteLast time I saw him in the flesh was was with Redartz, Colin Bray, Doug Wadley, and Mike Saniat at C2E2 in Chicago. He had a table.
Still recall the joy of reading his works in the early 70s on GA/GL and Avengers and X-Men. Still gives me a thrill today, 50 years later.
RIP.
Very sorry to hear about Neal's passing. A huge figure in the history of the comics medium. His art was always a treat for the eyes; a real flair for the dramatic. As Charlie mentioned, we got to meet him a few years ago. Have a greatly treasured signed print framed on the wall.
ReplyDeleteI once had the pleasure of (briefly) meeting Neal Adams too, at a London con about eight or nine years ago. Some online commentary suggests he can be a bit brusque in person, but I found him to be quite friendly, especially considering how in demand he was.
ReplyDeleteArtist, writer, and speculative geologist... he was a one-off! Sad news.
-sean
*could be a bit brusque
ReplyDeleteI know - its hard to believe he's actually gone! He'd become a really visible presence in the comic field again in the twenty-first century...
-sean
I didn't know about Adam's passing. I'm sorry to read of it.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I first saw his Batman, when I was a kid, I was amazed. I didn't know Batman was supposed to be scary!
Adam's Batman sure looked scary to me. Suddenly the character made sense. Remember that classic issue where they brought back Two-Face? There was a showdown on an old ship in Gotham harbor (at night, of course). Wow. Talk about atmospheric.
I read that comic to pieces.
The guy was one of a kind.
M.P.
For myself Neal Adams was as iconic a presence in my life as other "artists" like Bowie, John Lennon, Arthur C Clarke, Kenny Dalgliesh (_Scottish soccer star) Pele , and Sean Connery etc. I can still recall the sheer excitement and wonder I felt every time I saw a Neal Adams comic.
ReplyDeleteNeal Adams wasn’t doing much comics work when I started buying and collecting comics around ‘73. I’d completely missed his legendary runs on Batman, Spectre, Deadman, Avengers, X-men and Inhumans, and had just one GL/GA comic, a short back-up story in FLASH 219, so my first full-length look at his stuff was CONAN THE BARBARIAN 37….and it was AMAZING. Much as I loved Buscema’s work on that comic (I really did, and still do) I could tell this guy Adams was something special. Right from the opening splash — an elaborate simulated ‘camera move’ on a dying sorcerer, from extreme wide-angle to extreme close-up, which sounds pretty dull but is actually quite exhilarating — that little mini-epic kicked my ass on every one of its 19 pages.
ReplyDelete‘All New’ Adams works were few and far between at that time, but I snapped up whatever I could get my hands on. The shocking ‘Thrillkill’ in CREEPY 75. Beautiful painted covers for Marvel and Atlas b/w mags (and a few for Charlton too!) and Ballantine’s Tarzan re-issues. GIANT-SIZE X-MEN 2, reprinting 3 (actually 2 and a half) of his and Roy Thomas’ X-Men Vs Sentinels stories was a happy treat, as was DC’s tabloid-sized ‘Limited Collectiors Edition’ featuring his initial Ras Al Ghul / Talia series. And of course, the stupendous SUPERMAN VS MUHAMMAD ALI — Lord Almighty, what a magnificent thing.
Over the years, I’d heard that he could sometimes be a little cantankerous with fans (and a bit, shall we say, ‘eccentric’, haranguing the unwary with his revolutionary Growing Earth Theory), so I never got up the nerve to approach him at his booth at various conventions. Also, he seemingly had only recent stuff for sale at his booth, prints and sketchbooks and whatnot, which frankly I wasn’t all that interested in. I didn’t want to be That Guy who says ‘Boy, I loved your OLD stuff, from when I was a kid’ while implying that his New Stuff didn’t exactly float my boat. But now I wish I’d made the effort. Could I have spared twenty bucks for a sketchbook full of sketches of Batman having his forearms shattered by 9mm bullets, as the admission price for telling him how much his work meant to me over the years? Of course I could have…and SHOULD have. Dammit.
b.t.
Nice rep!y b.t.
ReplyDelete