The Marvel Lucky Bag - October 1972.

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

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I don't like to boast but I've seen a housefly, a horsefly and even a botfly but I've never seen an elephant fly.

Come to think of it, I have.

I've seen it in Dumbo.

And, if I'd had a ticket to the cinema, this month in 1972, there's a fair chance it would have got me in to see that movie, thanks to it being out on re-release.

Then again, the ticket may also have been for Last Tango in Paris which was also doing the rounds. Let's hope no one got their tickets mixed up and took their kids to see the latter film when they'd meant to show them the former.

Over on the UK singles chart, it was good news for David Cassidy who began October at Number One, thanks to his smash hit single How Can I Be Sure?

Well, he couldn't. And that's why, just two weeks into that month, he was cruelly dethroned by Lieutenant Pigeon who seized the top spot with Mouldy Old Dough and then stayed there for the rest of October.

Proving totally immovable at the top of the UK album chart was the LP the world knew as 20 All-Time Greats of the 50s by that classic 1950s act Various Artists, thus demonstrating that the early-1980s Rock and Roll revival began in 1972.

But forget the Rock and Roll Revival.

Because the Doc Savage Revival is here!

And probably ends very soon afterwards.

Regardless, the Man of Bronze can finally thrill the reader of the 1970s as much as he did the reader of the 1930s.

Sadly, I can't say just what Doc does to thrill him/her, as I've never read this tale but I'm sure it's bound to be bad news for any villains he encounters.

And hold onto your swamps because the Man-Thing's also back!

After an, admittedly, much shorter absence.

In this month's thrilling adventure, Manny decides to take swift action when he discovers an infant being abandoned in the Everglades.

But that's not the only story, this issue.

We also receive The Spell of the Sea Witch! and There Is Something Strange About Mister Jones! in which a crook tries to mug Davy Jones.

That's Davy Jones of the Locker fame. Not of the Monkees fame.

Marvel gains yet another Western mag to add to the five million it's already publishing each month.

This time, it's Gunhawks that gets an unleashing, with a tale entitled The Thundering Herd.

From a launch to a relaunch, as Journey into Mystery finally returns but with no sign of Thor in it.

Instead, we get the mind-numbing terror of Dig Me No Grave!, House! and You Show Me Your Dream -- I'll Show You Mine!!

It's our fourth issue #1 of the month, as Jungle Action hits our lives for the first time.

The book will, of course, go on to achieve immortality as a home for Panther's Rage but, for now, it's happy to give us Lorna the Jungle Girl, Tharn, Bazo, and Jann of the Jungle. All highly original creations, I'm sure.

I do believe this is the one in which Subby encounters a bunch of aquatic mutants who're convinced they can never fit into any civilised society.

Namor thinks they can.

And he says so.

But then his Imperial Guards show up and - based purely on the mutants' appearance - immediately prepare to shoot them.

Thus it is that the Avenging Son must contemplate the uncomfortable truth that the outcasts may have been right.