Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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A wise man once said, "It's CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!!!!!!"
That man was Noddy Holder and, once again, that man is on the UK charts, thanks to his lead role in Slade's evergreen classic Merry Xmas, Everybody.
But was he on the chart exactly 40 years ago?
More of that chart, in our monthly look at Marvel UK's output, later this week.
But, for now, what was on TV, as we made our way through Christmas Day, back then?
That afternoon, BBC One was serving up a plateful of Top of the Pops, featuring Duran Duran, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Culture Club, Haircut 100, Spandau Ballet, Captain Sensible and Bucks Fizz.
Later that day, it treated us to International Velvet, Jim'll Fix It, The Paul Daniels Magic Christmas Show, Last of the Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Death on the Nile, Perry Como and, spookiest of all, Charles Dickens' The Signalman.
ITV, that day, was offering Journey Back to Oz, Enid Blyton's Island of Adventure, Andy Williams' Christmas Special, The Parent Trap, 3-2-1, Game for a Laugh, Bruce Forsyth's Play Your Cards Right, The Black Hole, Chas and Dave's Christmas Knees-Up, Cleo and John, and Christmas at Radio GOSH.
Thrilling stuff indeed but all of that was doomed to pale into insignificance the moment we sat down to read whatever annuals Marvel UK could be motivated to throw at us that year.
And it could be motivated to throw four of them at us.
It seems we can always rely on the Hulk to have an annual, whatever the fate of his weekly comics.
And, this time, our hero finds himself battling a whole host of corny old Marvel monsters, thanks to the machinations of Xemnu the Titan who, himself, once went by the name of, "The Hulk."
Happily, the current holder of that title quickly sees off those lesser monsters and, finally, wins out with the help of a collapsing dam.
I also happen to know there's also at least one text story in this book but don't ask me what happens in it.
Too right he can. It's going to take more than a cut-price Swordsman knock-off to stop everyone's favourite wallcrawler.
As with the Hulk's annual, this too contains a text story whose plot escapes me.
We also get what seems to be an episode guide to the TV show. A feature I'm sure we've all been praying for.
And, most nostalgically of all, there's yet another chance to read Lee and Ditko's Secrets of Spider-Man which, I think, appeared in the first US Spider-Man Annual and, also, Fleetway's 1972 UK Marvel Annual.
Or are we?
Infamously, this year, thanks to a printing error, the book was entirely filled, not with tales of a loveable scarecrow, but with reprints from Skywald's horror mags and it, thus, treated us to tales of mutilation, blood loss and cannibalism. An event that caused a major scandal, an investigation by Esther Rantzen's That's Life TV show and even led to questions being asked in Parliament.
Fortunately, the following year, things were back to normal.
Well, that's not strictly speaking true. I think I can guess it features the likes of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader.
Exactly what they're up to, though, I cannot claim to know. Sadly, when it comes to this summary, The Force is very definitely not with me.
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15 comments:
By a weird coincidence 'The Signalman' was on Radio 4 this afternoon following the first Christmas message from you know who. As for Christmas Day 1982 it's 'Death On The Nile' that was the big event for me. I watched it in my bedroom on my portable TV and my mother watched it with me. When it was over she said the plot was ridiculous and totally far-fetched but that's true of all of Agatha Christie's books.
Top Of The Pops always had a special edition on Christmas Day reviewing the big hits of the year and this continued even after TOTP was cancelled in 2005 but no more. The TOTP Review Of The Year has been demoted to a late night spot on BBC2 on Christmas Eve - how are the mighty fallen!
I never see Christmas cards featuring Victorian scenes anymore. It used to be common to see Christmas cards adorned with stagecoaches and men in top hats but no longer. Those once-familiar festive images have gone out of fashion it seems!
Looks like three covers by Paul Neary there.
Paul Neary: discuss…
I only recently found out he had a pretty good run in the 1970s, the Hunter material is really nice. What’s he been up to recently?
UK annuals - not 2000AD ones - were a minor source of frustration for me in the early 1980s:
I was really into then-minor UK artists (David Lloyd, John Higgins, Steve Dillon, Neary etc). And annuals like this - and even crappier TV tie-in ones for the A Team and BJ & The Bear and that sort of thing, which my mate used to have sitting around left over from his childhood - often featured a few pages of original art by these folks. But definitely not enough to want to actually own these crappy books. It was annoying.
Yeah, I reckon anyone tracking down the 1982 BJ & the Bear annual for the Alan Moore text story and artwork would be disappointed once they got hold of it, Matthew.
There are some late 70s tie ins that are better - I used to have a Logan's Run annual with a couple of comic strips drawn by David Lloyd, and there was a Planet of the Apes one the same year ('76?) featuring John Bolton.
Steve, the Worzel Gummidge annual doesn't have the words 'A Marvel Publication' on the cover like the others, so should it really he here? I suppose they did publish a Worzel monthly for a while... but as you've included annuals before that don't have their own regular title, logically shouldn't you add other Grandreams tie-ins?
Like that years Dukes of Hazzard annual (I know they did one because it had work by Alan Moore in it).
-sean
Last I heard of Paul Neary he seemed to be working as an inker pretty regularly - which made sense, as his own stuff often did have a fair few swipes - but that was a while back.
That Spidey cover is pretty poor, like something you'd expect to see in a fanzine rather than on the front cover of nationally mass marketed book.
-sean
Sean, I included the Worzel Gummidge annual because not only did Marvel UK have a monthly Worzel mag but, in early 1983, they launched a weekly Worzel comic. So, I felt it was an appropriate thing to include.
Of course, the alternative explanation could be that it didn't occur to me that it wasn't a Marvel annual.
Colin, the loss of the BBC One Top of the Pops Christmas Day special is a scandal I shall never be able to forgive the Beeb for.
Matthew, I remember a 2000AD summer special containing a story that swiped spectacularly from John Byrne's Starlord. I'm wondering if that tale was drawn by Neary?
Steve -
Ooh, not sure. I’m not at all familiar with Byrne’s STARLORD, but a Google search of images from that title reminds me of a story from the 1979 or 1980 Summer Special that had people running around in sexy skintights: I’d always assumed that was some very early Gary Leach though, as he had a predilection for depicting, er, ‘anatomy’.
OMGosh… that TotP must have been new-wave mond blowing! Charlie wishes he was there!
Not sure what you're thinking about there Steve, but I doubt it was drawn by Paul Neary. Pretty sure the only work he did for Tharg back then was a handful of Future Shocks - including the last Abelard Snazz story - around say prog 250ish.
Good news: Arsenal beat West Ham 3-1.
-sean
I got up at 6am to watch the West Ham game. Its bad enough losing to the big teams, but we're now losing to the likes of Arsenal...
Gonna be a long season.
DW
Up at 6am to watch West Ham? You are an optimistic man DW.
Still, at least you got to enjoy being ahead for a bit early on. Thats got to be an unusual feeling, eh?
-sean
We are never far from bloody football talk on Steve Does Comics...sigh.
Those obscenely overpaid footballers should be paying considerably more tax.
DW - i watched the game too but it came like 13:30 Chicago Time. Perhaps tou want to relocate? We have many comic book stores, vinyl stores, and pizza/ hotdog/taco joints to satisfy the most discriminating tastes! But these games are such an emotional let down from world cup! Just a fragment of the emotional engagement.
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