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Tuesday, 11 October 2022

The Marvel Lucky Bag - October 1982.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon
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In October 1982, a legend was born, as John Rambo made his big screen debut, thanks to the movie First Blood.

I must confess that, forty years later, I've still not got round to watching that film. I have, however, seen Halloween III: Season of the Witch on multiple occasions and approve of it. And the first time I would have had the chance to approve of it was way back then because that's when it came out.

Then again, I suppose it would be a shock if a film about Halloween hadn't come out in October.

The Incredible Hulk Annual #11

The Hulk gets his eleventh annual and does it with The Day the Earth Turned Green in which the Leader gets a sample of Bruce Banner's irradiated blood and uses it to make the inhabitants of New York ill.

Can the Hulk, Spider-Man and Avengers foil the cranially extravagant villain?

But there's more on offer than even that because we also get a Doc Samson adventure in which the super-powered psychiatrist figures out a way to touch the untouchable Unus.

Micronauts #46

To the surprise of some of us, the Micronauts' comic's still going strong and, this month, it's doing so with a striking cover from Ed Hannigan and Al Milgrom.

Moon Knight #24

From a striking cover to a stylish cover. This time, by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Inside the book, Scarlet launches a one-woman war on the mob but Moon Knight can't decide on whether he wants to stop her or not.

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7

If the Hulk can have an annual, so can the Thing and he's clearly got his work cut out for him in this one, as someone called The Champion challenges Earth's mightiest heroes to an intergalactic boxing match.

I predict the Thing'll win that match.

Mostly because it's his comic.

Marvel Graphic Novel #3 - Dreadstar

Jim Starlin's Dreadstar hits our spinner racks and makes me suddenly realise I don't know anything at all about Dreadstar other than his links with Jim Starlin.

Annie #1, Marvel Comics

The 1980s' greatest musical gets the Marvel treatment and I, for one, can't wait to hear all those songs and...

Ah.

Yes, it's that moment when I point out the sheer illogicality of doing a comic book adaptation of a musical, bearing in mind that comic pages don't have tunes.

Blade Runner #1

No doubt, hoping Blade Runner will have the same effect on its fortunes that Star Wars did, Marvel presents its take on the Ridley Scott film.

I can't comment on whether it does the movie justice, as I've never seen the film.

Then again, I've also never read the comic adaptation either.

Conan the Barbarian Movie Special #1

Marvel's clearly gone film crazy, as, this month, we also get an adaptation of the Conan flick that's doing the rounds.

This one's brought to us by John Buscema and Michael Fleisher.

Yes, the Michael Fleisher who gave the world Ironjaw! I can't wait to see what he does with Conan.

13 comments:

  1. Matthew McKinnon11 October 2022 at 17:35

    Ladies and gentlemen…

    The greatest comics cover of all time. Well… for me, anyway.

    Moon Knight 24. Look at it.

    It was up for auction a couple of years ago, which was heartbreaking because I’m not rich.

    Also the first comic that ever made me curious about American comics.

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  2. Matthew McKinnon11 October 2022 at 17:37

    Also: the Annie comic book adaptation gives me that ‘hall of mirrors’ feeling you get when a form is adapted into another form, then further adapted from that into its original form again.

    Annie the comic strip becomes musical becomes film becomes comic strip again.

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  3. King Charlie of the Bolshevik People’s Republic of the east side of Chicago is curious to know if there are any instances of Marvel comics taking an exclusively UK property and turning it into a comic book. This was inspired by Marvel comics doing an adaptation of a musical which was originally a comic strip in the newspaper lol

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  4. PHILLIP! Regarding Alan Moore’s Comments linking comic books to a potential rising fascism, I have to wonder if he has ever seen “the boys.” Clearly that series, on Netflix, would likely be the trend regarding comic book adaptations? And it clearly points out the dangers of superhero worship.

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  5. That Annie Hall Of Mirrors thing.

    Is that like Queens Gambit: The Board Game? Already predicted to be stacked high at The Works this coming Christmas shopping season.

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  6. Charlie, I believe that Alex 'Infowars' Jones tosser credits his anti-establishment (yeah, right) 'thinking' to an early interest in science-fiction and comics...
    Moore's view seemed plausible to me, but then his arguments usually do, based on a reading of what he actually says.

    Steve, you're not missing much with Dreadstar. I loved Jim Starlin's work as a kid in Captain Marvel, Warlock, etc, so I really stuck with it - 'Metamorphosis Odyssey', The Price one-shot, that graphic novel and the first few issues of the Epic comic series - even though it was disappointing.

    Generally speaking, the occasional Sienkiewicz or Corben-level talent aside, I don't think painted comics really work, although fair play to Starlin for trying to develop in a new direction. But so far as his storytelling went, it was a bit Judo Jim on autopilot - the same themes and ideas of his earlier stuff, but with none of the flair.

    Cover of the month - Moon Knight #24. Obviously.

    -sean

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  7. The funny thing about the Moore interview was that besides a pic of the man himself, the Guardian chose to illustrate it with Watchmen and V for Vendetta film stills...

    -sean

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    Replies
    1. Matthew McKinnon11 October 2022 at 21:38

      Sean - the Guardian always do that. And they always headline EVERY SINGLE Moore interview with old news like ‘done with Hollywood / comics’ rather than the project he’s actually promoting. It’s really tiring.

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  8. Btw Steve, Michael Fleisher was a (the?) regular writer on Savage Sword of Conan at this point, post-Roy Thomas - thats probably a better place to get his take on the character than a film adaptation.
    You know, if you're really that interested.

    -sean

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  9. Yeah, there was quite a spate of Guardian 'done with comics' pieces about Moore a little while back Matthew, but to be fair in the recent interview they did cover 'Illuminations'. And while its old news to us, its not too unreasonable to discuss his history in a general publication.

    Its more the editors/sub-editors in the Culture section that piss me off - their picture research is terrible, and they're forever coming out with misleading clickbaity headlines.

    There was a good review piece in yesterdays New York Times btw -
    www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/books/review/alan-moore-illuminations.html

    -sean

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  10. Not to quibble but would one have found Dreadstar on a spinner rack? It looks bigger than the other comics...

    FWIW (and not much) I'v never seen any of these. Geeze.


    Charlie

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  11. Dreadstar was a 'Marvel Graphic Novel' ie in a book format Charlie, hence the $4.95 cover price (compared to the 60c for a standard monthly).

    On that subject, I note that Moon Knight has a 75c/35p cover price. Those were the days when the exchange rate worked for you as a comic reader in the UK!

    -sean

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  12. I can count on my fingers the number of superhero films I've seen and they've never really interested me that much so I'm probably unlikely to become a fascist. The last superhero film I watched was 'Black Panther' just to see what all the fuss was about and my reaction was "meh".

    While we're ranting about The Guardian can I express my annoyance at the moderators who remove comments which don't abide with their "community standards". I've had perfectly reasonable comments removed because of some interfering busy-body acting like God. The Guardian begs its' readers for money then treats them like children.

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