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Thursday, 9 June 2022

June 9th 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
***

Sometimes, no matter where he goes, a cowboy can't help bumping into dinosaurs.

And this night in 1982 was one of them!

You guessed it. On that very evening, BBC One was showing Ray Harryhausen's Dynamation classic The Valley of Gwangi in which members of a Wild West circus capture a tyrannosaurus and put it on show, only for it to escape and run rampant in the streets of Mexico. Obviously, it's basically a rip-off of King Kong but it has a dinosaur in it - and dinosaurs are better than gorillas. So, how could anyone not love it?

Almost as lovable as dinosaurs is the British 20 pence piece which was first introduced in this week of that year. It has straightish edges, instead of a smooth curve, and there's something about such a feature that always feels special.

Also feeling special, that week, was Adam Ant whose Goody Two Shoes claimed the top spot on the British singles chart, at the expense of Madness' House of Fun.

However, that band was proving insurmountable at the pinnacle of the UK album chart, thanks to Complete Madness successfully holding off the attack of 3 Sides Live by Genesis.

Did it really only have three sides? Was the fourth side just blank?

Regardless, for any who may have been affected by the issues raised in today's post, that week's British singles chart may be found here.

While the corresponding album chart lurks right here.

On that singles chart, the tracks I approved of were:

House of Fun - Madness,

Torch - Soft Cell,

The Look of Love - ABC,

Only You - Yazoo,

Island of Lost Souls - Blondie,

The Telephone Always Rings - the Fun Boy Three,

After the Gold Rush {1982} - Prelude,

Pinky Blue - Altered Images

and

Ebony and Ivory - Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

It's interesting to note that there were two versions of Iko Iko in the top 40. By what strange twist of fate did that happen?

And it's terrifying to note that the chart contained the nightmare horror that was I've Never Been to Me by Charlene.

Super Spider-Man TV Comic #483, Kraven the Hunter

I do believe this is the one in which Kraven comes out of retirement, in an attempt to prove his worth by defeating Spider-Man.

As always, he fails. This time, even with the help of both his girlfriend and hallucinogenic drugs.

We also get a free poster showing Spidey battling him.

We also get the chance to enter an electronic competition.

Although, frankly, I don't have a clue just what an electronic competition might be.

The Incredible Hulk #11, Umbu

It's another of my Hulk faves, as the green goliath takes on the power of Umbu, with a modicum of help from Ka-Zar and Zabu.

Iron Man's in this comic too but I don't know what he's up to.

But none of that matters. What really matters is that this book too gives us a chance to enter an electronic competition -  and everybody wins a prize worth £3.

Everybody?

But this is 1982. £3 in 1982 is the equivalent of £20 billion in 2022 money!

Hanna Barbera's Scooby-Doo and His T.V. Friends #16

Scooby-Doo's latest issue smashes its way into a newsagent's near you.

And it does so by showing us how to make our own letterhead, using just a spoon and a candle.

Not only that but we also get a free Scooby puppet.

And there's a Flintstones poster.

You can accuse Scooby of many things but you can't accuse him of short-changing us.

26 comments:

  1. If this was 60 years ago today we could celebrate the Amazing Fantasy 15!

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  2. £20 billion in 2022 money...? Surely you mean in early 2022 money, Steve? The way Boris Johnson and his tractor w*nker mates are running things it'll be more than that by later in the year.

    I'm a bit bored moaning about Steve Dillon's Spidey and Hulk covers, so lets go straight to the hits. Looking at that singles chart, I was about to be dismissive of the England World Cup Squad - the title really is asking for it, isn't it? - but then I noticed something even more ridiculous.
    A Spurs record.

    Anyway, on the plus side, my fave - after 'Torch' - would be 'I'm a Wonderful Thing Baby' by sometime Sheffield resident (so I've been told) Kid Creole, and his Coconuts.
    And, Monsoon's 'Shakti (The Meaning Is Within)'. Admittedly its not as good as their first hit, but who cares? Singer Sheila Chandra was - and no doubt still is - fantastic.

    Also, 'Inside Out' by Odyssey. Which was written by the Borders ambassador of funk Jesse Rae, who may quite possibly be the most Scottish person ever. Anyone interested can see him doing his version at -

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2uvyjPMjsY

    Thats pretty good, eh?

    -sean

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  3. The only comic I have here , probably the only Marvel UK comic I bought in 1982 was the Hulk issue which I still have ( a great comic).

    My favourite single from the charts is "The Back of Love" by Echo and the Bunnymen. I have to say that for a football song the Scotland World Cup single "We have a deam" is a classic ( more realistic and funny). My favourite album from this week is "Tin Drum" by Japan . I totally forgot the 20p piece was introduced in this year.

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  4. This week in 1982 I started sitting my O Levels, beginning with English Literature on June 8th.

    I failed Eng Lit and Maths but I passed all the others and got into the 6th Form.

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  5. Paul, do you listen to Radio 4? Because on Saturday night at 8pm there'll be a documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of the album 'The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars'.

    Steve, Charlene's 'I've Never Been To Me' was on its' way to #1 so the nightmare continues...

    Well, I've been to Nice
    And the isle of Greece...

    (not isles of Greece, plural?)

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    1. Colin, thanks for the info on Bowie on radio 4 ( yes I listen to R4) wasn't aware of that

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  6. I remember my father examining the new 20p coin and declaring it ugly.

    I suppose we should be thankful that Boris Johnson hasn't announced the return of shillings, florins and guineas alongside the re-introduction of Imperial weights & measures he's already planning. Surely it's only a matter of time and at least Jacob Rees-Mogg will feel at home, as if he's back in the 18th Century.

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  7. The 1982 singles chart includes a Beatles movie medley and by coincidence I've been watching a film called 'Yesterday' on BBC iplayer about a struggling songwriter who wakes up in an alternate universe where the Beatles never existed. The songwriter is the only person who remembers the Beatles so he proceeds to become famous by pinching all the Beatles' songs. If you haven't seen this film don't bother, because it's a bit crap to be honest with a corny feelgood ending. I remember reading a review of 'Yesterday' when it was first released and the review said something like: "This film makes you realise that it's not the Beatles' songs which are memorable but their performances". In other words the Beatles' songs sound rather average when sung by anybody else, OUCH!!

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  8. The 12" of Torch was great, with more Cindy Ecstasy vocals. I dont remember either of the world cup songs but do remember England being eliminated whilst undefeated. Which would have been a much better subject for a song...

    DW

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  9. The real stars of the 1982 World Cup were Northern Ireland who got to quarter final stages. As usual Scotland were knocked out on goal difference ( 3rd WC in a row).England were unlucky not to get to the semi finals drawing all there quarter final games.

    Colin, I saw that film Yesterday abd thought it was "nice". Personally I think the Beatles songs varied between very average and simply stunning

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  10. Steve - Iron Man's fighting Force, in Incredible Hulk Weekly # 11 (my brother got that issue, as a one-off.)

    This comic's one of those UK weeklies with about 6 pages of colour, which it shares out. Here, Iron Man gets 2 pages of colour - the trouble being, the colouring goes wrong on the final page!

    On the first colour page (the inside back cover), everything's fine, with Force's costume being green, with a gold chest-plate, helmet, boots & trim. Iron Man's colours are also correct.

    However, on the back cover, Force's costume changes to red/orange, with his chest-plate, helmet, boots & trim changing to green. Even wackier, Iron Man's armour is green & yellow. Crazy!

    The page count ends on one of those weird 'hugging' scenes (c.f. Captain America & Dragon Man, Captain America vs "Joe", Warlock & Thanos, etc), with Iron Man feeling his rib cage starting to crack, under Force's bear hug.

    This comic's also different, in that it has a Hulk text story, entitled: "To Make Friends with a Monster!", by David Anthony Kraft, and D.Jon Zimmerman (whoever he is!)

    The "prize" is only ostensibly £3. In reality, it's a £3 voucher towards a much more expensive electronic game! What a dirty trick to extort money out of kids' parents!

    The competition involves writing in alphabetical order as many words (of not less than 3 letters) as you can, from 'The Silica Shop'. They must not be proper names (do they mean 'proper nouns'?)

    Phillip

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  11. Thanks, Philip. It should have realised Iron Man was fighting Force, as he was fighting him last week.

    McScotty, I remember Northern Ireland playing in that tournament. What's amazing to me, in retrospect, is that if George Best had looked after himself, he could have played in that tournament, as he was still only in his mid-30s and hadn't yet retired.

    McScotty and Colin, I must confess I've been avoiding watching Yesterday. I don't get the feeling I'd like it.

    Sean and DW, thanks for your comments too.

    Anon, I assume you're Charlie?

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  12. Welcome back, Phil - we hear so little from you nowadays!

    Steve, 'Yesterday' does have some amusing bits when Jack (the songwriter) realises that other things don't exist in this alternate universe such as Coca-Cola, cigarettes and Harry Potter. There's also a big role for Ed Sheeran (playing himself) which was originally intended for Coldplay's Chris Martin but he turned it down. Anyway, this film is saying that the Beatles' songs would be internationally famous and popular sung by anybody in any era, which I dispute - in my opinion every musician or band has a certain time and place in which to become popular and if they miss that window they've had it.

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  13. Well Colin they say timing is everything, lol. However I have asked my aunt a few times over the last 60 years how she and her girlfriends ended up as Beatles fans. She saw them two or three times in concert. She said it was the hairstyle. Clearly once that jeannie left the bottle by 1965 or 1966 you weren’t going to become a top band by initially attracting everyone’s attention with hair styles or whatever.

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  14. Colin-

    I dunno what it is, but Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin annoy me. When Sheeran had a cameo on Game of Thrones, I was hoping his character would be killed.
    Maybe it's the whole "sensitive guy" business. It's like...wuss-rock.

    (In old guy voice): "this dang caturwallin' these dang kids lissen to today! It's just a lotta noise! Sounds like somebody hittin' a cat with an alarm clock! Snort! Now that Rob Halford fella, he was a crooner!"

    M.P.

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  15. Breakin' the law, breakin' the law, M.P. \m/

    -sean

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  16. Thanks, Colin! Yes, I've missed several really good debates!

    A few weeks ago, one of Steve's picks was Conan & Elric, with a discussion on Xiombarg. I really wanted to jump in, on that one, but I was preoccupied. I had a suspicion Sean knew the answer to this one too (being a Moorcock reader), but was being a gentleman, and giving me a chance to answer!

    Colin, another good one was when you, yourself, highlighted in a US Marvel Fred Hembeck superhero spoof issue, that Captain Britain was dressed in his old costume, whereas by now he'd been the new Captain Britain for several months. Strangely, in US Marvel, Captain Britain retained his old costume much longer - it also happened later in 1982 - June or July? - in Contest of Champions, when Captain Britain was fighting the Arabian Knight(?) - in his old costume:

    https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Super_Hero_Contest_of_Champions_Vol_1?file=Marvel_Super_Hero_Contest_of_Champions_Vol_1_2.jpg


    I also missed flagging up one of Charlie's interests, which appeared on 'Look North' - namely, which member of Charlie's 2 favourite Sheffield synth pop bands received an honorary doctorate, from Sheffield University, a few weeks back? _ _ _ _ Y _ / W_ _ _ !

    I also wanted to second M.P.'s praise of George Perez, in relation to Starhawk vs Korvac.

    I was preoccupied because - like Dangermash - I've had a family bereavement that hit me hard, and was occupying my attention/concentration. Hopefully, with 50 years ago's Daredevil hitting its stride, I'll soon have more to say.

    It's interesting that despite SDC's differences on most things, many of us agree that Colan & Palmer's Daredevil - in artistic terms - was the best.

    Ed Sheeran's just a name to me, as I think modern pop's garbage (me, joining M.P., cane waving!) Your favourite pop music's intermingled with your youth, and the memories tied to that music - so stuff like Ed Sheeran - or whoever - will be part of the present generation's memories, when they're our age (stating the obvious mode!)

    Phillip

    Phillip

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  17. My condolences to you, Phil. It's nice that you're back.
    Now that you mention waving a cane, (presumably like Ebenezer Scrooge or Edward Hyde) that hadn't occurred to me. But maybe I've reached that point in life when I should purchase one, if only to beat down ruffians and keep ragamuffins at bay.

    M.P.

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  18. Thanks, M.P. - much appreciated.

    As regards cane-waving, another image is a Mark Twain-type figure, sitting in a rocking chair on a porch, cane in hand! In addition to your list of ruffians & ragamuffins, I'll add scallywags & scoundrels!

    Phillip

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  19. Phil, I know you recently became a carer for your mum so is she the bereavement you mentioned? I send my condolences (and I apologise for being nosey).

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  20. I forgot to mention that in the alternate universe in 'Yesterday' the band Oasis also doesn't exist...

    ...a world without that odious little right-wing sh*t Noel Gallagher, YAAAYYYY!!!

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  21. Thanks for your good wishes, Colin. You're correct - no offence taken.

    Phillip

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  22. On the subject of modern music - the only artist who appeals to me is Lorde. David Bowie called her "the future of music" and Lorde's third album Solar Power (from 2021) was only available via streaming which probably is indeed the future.

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  23. Sorry to hear about your mum Phillip.

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  24. Thanks, Dangermash. I'm sorry for your loss, too.

    Phillip

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  25. Philip and Dangermash, my condolences and best wishes to the pair of you, as well.

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