Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
Film-goers had more options than they could shake a stick at when they looked at the cinema listings in December 1982.
My pick of those would, inevitably, be Airplane II, even though I don't remember it being very good.
It's 37 pages of history being made, as Monica Rambeau becomes the new Captain Marvel!
Now it's time to get excited.
And it's not just Warlock who's getting his own comic this month.
But the big news of the month is the Smurfs have their very own Marvel comic! I can't wait to see Roy Thomas' attempts to integrate the Smurfs into the Marvel Universe.
Marvel's most speculative mag asks what would have happened had the Fantastic Four not gained their super-powers?
I am fascinated, however, to see that The Year of Living Dangerously featured Australian actor Bill Kerr, best known in Britain as Tony Hancock's slow-witted sidekick in Hancock's Half Hour. It does always seem strange to see him turn up in other things, especially serious dramas.
I've not read this one but, according to the Grand Comics Database, Monica causes a fancy new weapon to explode and it gives her super-powers.
Weeks later, stricken by excess energy, she visits the Baxter Building to get Mr Fantastic's help but, upon learning he's away, tries the Avengers Mansion and recruits Iron Man's help, instead.
All of which poses the obvious question of where's Spider-Man in all of this, bearing in mind it's supposed to be his annual?
Because Adam Warlock gets his own, brand-new, comic!
Granted, it's not that new, being made up entirely of reprints from his mid-1970s run in Strange Tales.
But you're never going to complain about a second chance to read those classics.
So is Kull!
And the tale it contains really is new!
And it's 48 pages long!
From what I can make out, while rebuilding his city, after an earthquake, Kull breaks open a previously buried tomb that's covered by serpent-men symbols.
I think we can all guess that that's going to lead to nothing but trouble...
Sadly, Roy has no involvement in this mag. Instead, the writing is credited to a man called Peyo who also draws the tales contained within.
Sadly, I can't tell you what would have happened, as I've never read it but, given how What If tales tend to turn out, I'm going to guess it would have spelt disaster for humanity, especially when Galactus shows up.
The back-up tale, on the other hand, asks us what would have happened had Nova not given up his powers.
And I can't answer that question either.
The Avengers get their 11th annual and it's another one whose contents are a mystery to me but it seems to involve a crossover with the Defenders and a battle with Nebulon and his mystery girlfriend.
I'm always happy to rush to the defence of Al Milgrom but even I can't defend that total mess of a cover.
Posts
11 comments:
Big nostalgia rush looking at those.
Not because I owned any of them then (I did pick up those Warlock reprints but I can’t remember whether it was a couple of years later in 1984 when I was getting into US comics, or around 2000 when I went eBay crazy).
More because it reminds me of when annuals and double issues and quality reprints were a fresh and exciting thing. Little bonuses to pick up at the newsagents here in the UK or on bi-annual trips to the comics shop.
And it’s Christmas. Everything makes me nostalgic at Christmas.
I got that Warlock Special Edition #1 Steve, and I actually am going to complain about it. It was printed on what they called Baxter paper, which was a heavier stock than usual and very white, the idea being you'd get higher quality reproduction of the artwork... only it also turned up the colour to 11! What worked on newsprint suddenly looked garish and messy. It was awful.
Have Marvel ever got the hang of properly reprinting their old stuff in colour?
It seems simple to me - with better paper, tone it down; or get someone to redo the colour using the original as a guide. But they always seem to f#&@ it up.
And as for Kull #1, that was a classic bait and switch - nice John Bolton cover, which was definitely appealing after the excellent b&w work he did on the character for Bizarre Adventure/Marvel Preview, but inside you got John Buscema phoning it in like on his later Conans, with deeply average inking.
And when Bolton did do the story for #2, the colour was awful (Baxter paper was the bane of the early direct market).
Sorry to be so negative this time out.
On the plus side, Groo the Wanderer #1 also came out this month.
And, from DC, Camelot 3000 #1 drawn of course by Brian Bolland, although that does bring us back to excessively bright colour (but not as bad as Marvel's).
-sean
Never seen that ASM annual but I remember seeing in the OHMU paperbacks that the Rambeau Captain Marvel first appeared on an ASM annual and thinking that was a bit odd. Very weird, as if they had ten stories they wanted to write and ten annuals to allocate them to. Sometimes when that happens in life, you end up finding nine great homes for things and decide that putting the last one of the ten in the one remaining place is worth it however weir it seems, just to have the other nine in perfect places. In my first house I ended up with the freezer next to my bed.
I've read that ASM annual (even though dangermash hasn't, which is a bit strange state of affairs really).
Anyway, iirc Monica Rambeau was in New York and attacked by muggers - as always seemed to happen to super-types in their secret identity back then - and she zapped them and, by mistake, Spider-Man who'd turned up to help. She went on her way to the Baxter Building to find Reed, then Avengers Mansion, and Spidey - who misunderstood the situation, as super-types generally did back then - assumed she was up to no good and followed her.
Hope that helps, Steve.
-sean
Quite a list of films out then! I have seen most of them; Like you Steve I found "Airplane II" a bit disappointing. But then it almost had to be, "Airplane" was a hard act to follow (it remains a big favorite; with soooo many quotable puns). Did find "Gandhi" impressive (the movie not nearly as impressive as the man, obviously).
Sean- you pretty much covered that Spidey Annual. When it came out, my thoughts were the same as Steve's. For being a Spider-Man Annual, the webslinger really played a bit part in the affair. Nice art by Romita Jr. inked by his Dad...
That Spidey annual was very formulaic, Red. I think dangermash is probably right, that they came up with a new Captain Marvel - to keep the trademark presumably - had a basic origin story worked out, and then decided where to put it. An annual made sense, might as well launch a new character with a popular one, so why not Spider-Man?
-sean
48 HOURS and TOOTSIE were my favorite movies from that batch.
I remember liking the Romita / Romita art on the ASM ANNUAL.
Sean: I never had a problem with Baxter paper myself — i usually found the ‘loud’ color an acceptable price to pay in exchange for pristine reproduction of the line art. I regularly buy Marvel’s Epic Collections for that very reason. Things like Gulacy’s MASTER OF KUNG FU and Russell’s KILLRAVEN, the Epic reprints are so gob-smackingly gorgeous, I almost never go back and re-read the original floppies. And I sure loved those Baxter WARLOCK reprints.
Complete agreement on that Baxter KULL, though. Great Bolton Cover (aside from the unfortunate Pepto Bismol cloudscape) on the outside, Big John on auto-pilot and Wannabe-Nebres inks on the inside. Issue #2 is better, but the color almost ruins it. I don’t think it’s necessarily the fault of the Baxter stock, though — the specific color choices are aggressively garish and ugly. Didn’t Bolton color that issue himself?
Some of those WHAT IF questions are hilarious. ‘What if Nova Hadn’t Lost His Powers?’ Um…I guess he’d still be Nova then….right?
b.t.
Baxter, Mando and Flexographic. Three terms only those of a certain age and calibre can recall. I'm sure the accountants were happy...
DW
Love the wrap around covers above.
Is it fair to say the first wrap arounds were Neal Adams (?) wrap arounds he did for DC 100-pagers in the early 1970s?
I really thought those were the bomb...
The cover and interior of that Warlock title show the difference between when Starlin's art was OK, and when it was not.
Charlie, I think you may be correct with that wrap around cover comment. Certainly, the first wrap around cover ( of many) that I have is the Neal Adams 100 pager from 1971 "The Worlds Greatest Super-Heroes" book. Nick Cardy also created loads of these around that time as well for DC.
Post a Comment