Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
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We all know there's no technology more state-of-the-art and of-the-now than a 3D printer.
Except it turns out there is because that particular device was invented a whopping 40 years ago this month, by someone called Chuck Hull, a man who sounds like the offshoot of a nightmare union between Chuck Norris and Rod Hull.
But that wasn't the only technology of the future to hit us that month because it was also then that the compact disc first went on sale in the UK. Truly, we were living in a veritable sci-fi wonderland.
The UK singles chart was, no doubt, filled with artists who couldn't wait to take advantage of the new recording format. And, at the top of it, March launched with Bonnie Tyler reigning supreme, thanks to her power ballad Total Eclipse of The Heart. However, even Wales' gravelliest tonsils couldn't forever hold off the challenge of Duran Duran who, in the month's second half, dethroned her with their noticeably less grandiose single Is There Something I Should Know?
Meanwhile, things were highly lively on the British album chart, with U2's War winning the month's first week. The second week was won by Michael Jackson's, Thriller. The third was won by Tears For Fears' The Hurting. And the month's final week was won by Pink Floyd's The Final Cut.
And she's not even had the chance to turn into a Japanese psychic ninja-mutant yet!
In New York, Ben Urich continues to dig into Matt Murdock's past while Daredevil takes on Bullseye and friends, in order to rescue the Black Widow.
And your friendly neighbourhood web-slinger finds himself up against Doc Ock in a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #53.
There's also a look back at the 2nd Doctor's Cyberman-packed thrill-ride The Wheel in Space.
And, for those less nostalgically inclined, there's a look forward to what the brand-new season will offer.
At least, you could be forgiven for thinking so, thanks to the cover image.
In fact, this is issue #395 which is an impressive feat for a book that's only been running for 42 issues.
Inside, during Jean Grey's funeral, Cyclops gives a potted history of the X-Men. He then quits the band, only to be replaced by Kitty Pryde.
Meanwhile, at the Avengers Mansion, Ms Marvel gives birth to the son of Immortus...
And the body and mind of Conan, I have no doubt.
And we can tell that because Indiana Jones is on the front cover!
What nightmare shenanigans are these?
Elsewhere, R2-D2 meets The Darker. Whoever he/she or it might be.
While we look forward to that, there's also a chance to vote in the Starburst Fantasy Awards.
And see these eyes so blue? The mag anticipates the arrival of the movie the world can only know as Cat People.
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30 comments:
Is the Dr.Who reader supposed to guess a Nyssa poster is included in the magazine, by looking at Blake's 7 monthly, beside it on the newsstand? At least Blake's 7 tells the reader that the giant Servalan patch, with a red border, on Tarrant's shoulder, means it's a poster! Incidentally, that carefully chosen cover shows Tarrant was far more vulnerable to Servalan's machinations than Avon!
Phillip
How ridiculous to use that cover for 'Marvel Superheroes' when the giant 200 meant nothing to UK readers. And it wasn't #395 either - Marvel Superheroes just continued the numbering from Marvel Comic which had continued the numbering from MWOM. Why didn't Marvel Comic and Marvel Superheroes just start at #1?
Right, Colin - and if Marvel Superheroes Monthly was continuing the numbering from any weekly, it should have been from Marvel Superheroes Weekly, not MWOM! By that reckoning, it should have started at # 51! Marvel Superheroes Weekly definitely has some great covers:
https://britishcomics.fandom.com/wiki/The_Super-Heroes_(Marvel_UK)_Vol_1
# 44 & # 45 provide the Human Top & the Thing, respectively, for the 1977/78 Marvel Superheroes card game - plus there are a couple of classic Silver Surfer covers.
Phillip
Oh - just noticed - # 12 & # 13 Galactus & Mephisto from the pack, too!
Phillip
Phillip, as you said 'The Superheroes' lasted until #50 but #9 was the only one I bought.
Funny that Pink Floyd had a number one album in '83 ten years on from 'Dark Side of the Moon', Steve, which famously didn't reach the top spot. Especially as it's not generally a highly regarded one, although I find it interesting as one of the very few contemporary cultural protests at the war in the Malvinas/Falklands.
This month's Captain Brexit episode in Daredevils #3 is another disappointing one, at least if you come to it with expectations because its by Alan Moore. Unlike his contemporary work on Marvelman - which around this time was nearing the end of 'book one' with Warrior #10 out at the end of March - he's basically just trying to write a Marvel UK comic strip. Which, to be fair was his job.
There's a parallel with the way Moore wrote, say, Spawn spin offs or Wildcats in the 90s - ok for what they are maybe, but... nothing to get excited about. I mean, the return of Slaymaster? Zzzzzzz
Better than Avengers #200 I guess, but thats not saying much really. Still another issue to go before things pick up with the arrival of the Special Executive in #5.
-sean
Colin, don't you usually complain about the way comics revert to #1 regularly these days?
There's no pleasing some people (;
-sean
I think there are a couple of interesting things in this month's Captain Britain. The fight takes place in Forbidden Planet's old Denmark Street shop, which in my mind remains the 'pwoper' Forbidden Planet locale. Also, the Burger shop manager that tries to help Betsy is Les Chester, who was involved in British fandom, at the time, and helped Alan Davis early in his career. Les was actually featured in the first Alan Davis' first episode (way back in Marvel Super Heroes #377) as the face on the British National Party poster. However, Paul Neary redrew the image as Hitler, when it was first published, but oddly Marvel US used the original art when they reprinted the story in colour in the 1990s (under the X-men Archive title).
Best not to give that Avengers #200 reprint any more oxygen but it's telling that it was so bad that even Christopher Claremont felt compelled to correct it, in a later X-men story.
I had War and The Hurting on LP, plus a tape of Thriller. The Hurting remains my favourite of the three. Who'd have thought two teenagers from Bath would record a debut album, based upon primal therapy, that held its own against both Jacko and Bongo & the lads?
Was the Nyssa poster the same image that was used on the cover? If so, they could have chosen a nicer shot. I remember Nyssa being a lot more attractive, although it may be that I was only fifteen at the time...
DW
Obviously there's a extra 'first' in that post. Damn basic spelling and grammar... And proof reading...
Sean
Moore actually 'wrote' his issue of Spawn by laying out the pages with basic illustrations (doodles). Apparently he initially tried to write a 'full' script but Todd couldn't follow it (allegedly). He must have used this technique a lot (possibly to ensure the page layout worked) because Eddie (Campbell) became aware of Moore's versions of some From Hell pages, years after the books were published. Moore only sent Eddie the full scripts, but had his own (very basic) version of the pages, which surfaced when Gary Millidge was collection material for his Story-teller book (on Moore). I think some were included in the book.
Sadly (I'm guessing) he didn't do these for Big Number, preferring the infamous spread-sheet. Moore's doodles of issues 4 to 7 would be a welcome find (all that re-constituted issue 3 that surfaced decades later).
DW
Yeah, I'd read that about Moore working with the Toddmeister on Spawn, DW. Have you ever seen any of those Cartoonist Kayfabe videos on Youtube? They've done some pretty entertaining stuff on that Image era, like reading out depositions from the Gaiman/McFarlane dispute, and interviewing Rob Liefeld about hiring Moore. Seems like there was something of a culture clash going on there at the time...
Fwiw, I was under the impression that's how most of Moore's scripts started out, as very basic thumbnails (for himself, as most artists are able to read). I'd have thought that was the case with a lot of comic book writers; I mean, it just makes sense as a way to figure out pacing a story through how ever many pages for a full script, right?
Btw, I think Daredevils #3 might have 'Blinded By The Hype' in it, Alan Moore's 'affectionate character assassination' of Stan Lee. Which would be hands down the best thing in any of the Marvel UK mags this month.
Although even I can see the appeal of a Servalan poster...
-sean
PS DW, are you suggesting teenagers from Bath were a match for the lad from Cleethorpes, Rod Temperton, who wrote the hits on 'Thriller'? Careful now, Northerners around these parts might take umbrage...
-sean
Another slightly odd Paul Neary cover there for DDs 3: It’s better than the previous two but DD has a very evil grin going on: he looks more like Bullseye.
DW - Denmark Street is still the home of FP in my mind, too. It was on my walk to work for a few years in the 2000s/2010s and it always gave me a thrill of nostalgia as I passed. Also, a couple of friends had an office above it briefly and I went to their opening party and was enthusing about the building’s heritage to blank faces. Ever since FP moved to New Oxford St and now Shaftesbury Ave, they seem to have adopted a grubby white-on grubby white, fluorescent-lit aesthetic which gives me a headache. The store is big but still somehow claustrophobic. Not a pleasant environment.
Out of curiosity… what was the problem with Avengers 200?
I wasn’t into pop music yet, but I did pick up Thriller later in the year. I have subsequently tried to get into The Hurting but it doesn’t do it for me.
I’ve only recently become aware of the sheer epic scale of Roger Waters’ twattery - even my Dad who was a huge fan and went to see him a few times can’t be doing with him now.
Sean - I’ve heard a podcast interview with Leifeld (? - or someone else from the era?) talking about Moore at Image, where he does a really regrettable impersonation of Moore’s accent. I find it a bit odd and puzzling that Image have such a tarnished rep based on the nest-of-vipers origins of the place, but they publish more of the comics I buy these days than anyone else. They do great SF titles.
Sean
Funnily enough Road Orzabal almost wrote for Michael Jackson after Songs From The Big Chair spawned a couple of US no. 1s. Michael Jackson also requested a meet with Adam Ant, but rather than a song he simply wanted to know where Adam bought his Hussar jacket ;-)
Matthew
Avengers #200 has a dodgy Freudian time-travel plot in which Ms Mavel is sexually assaulted by her rapidly ageing son, before falling in love with him choosing to join him in Limbo (I think he was a child of Immortus or something). There's plenty of on-line judgment about the story and Chris 'Christopher' Claremont wrote an apology for the issue as Avengers Annual #10, before adopting Carol Danvers into the X-men. The whole plot is, at best, sleazy. I read this within a year of publication (late 1980) and even as a naive twelve year old, recognised the unpleasant implications.
DW
When even Chris Claremont thinks a story about a female character is out of order...
The Tears For Fears track I liked - 'Listen' - was on 'Songs from the Big Chair'. And used as the theme for a mid 80s tv programme about Alan Moore (which is a complete coincidence, honest).
Matthew, Rob Liefeld is a bit of an annoying twat, but even so I have to confess I thought his Alan Moore impression was pretty good. It made me laugh anyway.
Don't most people specify '90s Image' when they're being a bit dismissive about McFarlane, Liefeld and that lot? That era doesn't seem to reflect too much on the modern company, and Saga or whatever it is they're currently publishing thats doing well.
-sean
I should say, even as a twelve year old recognised it was not exactly covering the industry in glory.
DW
Sean - the original Slaymaster was good value. Four villains for the price of one! The Tarantula's toe-knives; a twiddly moustache, like Batroc's; a target/cross-hairs, in the middle of his forehead/chest(?), as per Bullseye; and, finally, a gun strapped to his leg, the same as the Hitman. Oh, and calling people, "You money-grubbing berk" must be a first, for Marvel comics.
Maybe that Moore impression's worth a listen. What's a Northampton accent sound like? Do they elongate vowels, like southerners - or shorten them, like northerners? A while back, Radio 4 did a show by a Northampton writer, about how most counties have stereotypes attached to them, but people (outsiders?)find Northamptonshire difficult to 'place'. It isn't in the south or north - nor is it in the midlands, etc.
As regards 'Thriller' tracks, 'Wanna Be Startin' Something?' sounds like something a northerner might hear, on a night out, when inadvertently making eye-contact with someone else. Strangely though, Temperton didn't write that song.
Phillip
That Liefield guy doesn't look promising, so listening to Moore himself, to me, there's definitely a Midlands sound to his accent.
Phillip
RecLling the earlyb90s and the nog who-ha Image caused… why was there a bumch of who-ja on the first place??? I remember reading about Peter David debating McFarlane at a comicon (?) and Todd showed up in boxer trunks. But why the debate and all the sensation around Image?
There seemed to be a lot of moaning the the Buyers Guide for Comic Fandom about too many splash pages, distorted female bodies, very simple plots but 30 years on I still say “so what.” Charles
Recalling the early 90s and all the who-ha that Image caused… (need to proof read Charles!)
And 30 years on Peter David is quite broke? Tony Isabella was in the same boat until Black Goliath popped a few years ago? What a way to make a living.
Charlie -
I wasn't 'there' at the time [the only Image comics I picked up were the Spawn superstar writer guest spots], but the Image thing was perhaps that the comics were pretty crude and childish, and seemed to be riding on the back of some pretty regressive tendencies - big boobies, fighting and spandex - at a time when comics *seemed* to be taking steps towards, if not adulthood, then at least late adolescence.
Also, the founders were all egomaniac jocks who instantly fell out with each other [the best description of Todd McFarlane I've ever read was that he could start a fight in an empty room].
But still - these days they publish 'Saga', 'Descender', 'Gideon Falls' and 'Decorum'. If you needed a prehistory populated by cavemen to evolve to this level, then fair dues.
Sean -
I have a hard time with most Tears For Fears. The tracks I like I mostly like for their heavy 80s drum programming ['Mothers Talk', 'Shout' etc]. But they fancy themselves as songsmith and artists, so there's rarely a middle ground. I did also like their Beatles pastiche 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love' though.
DW -
Re Avengers 200. Ugh.
War, Thriller, Tears for Fears… wow, what a month!!! Great time to be alive!!!
Avengers 200; still the low point in anniversary issues. Not only an unpleasant, uncomfortable plot, but somehow forgettable as well...
I heard "The Hurting" only after "Songs From the Big Chair" was out. I dearly loved the latter, and the former as well- wondering how in the world I missed hearing it earlier. As for "Thriller", it held the top spot on the US lp chart seemingly forever. I think everyone I knew had a copy. Incidentally, Michael also contacted Thomas Dolby about some songwriting. Dolby's album was on my constant playlist, alongside Jacko and the Police...great times for music...
Indeed, read, indeed! Reading Dolby‘s autobiography, and his interactions with Michael Jackson, are very very amusing to say the least! Somehow, Michael Jackson was not interested in songs with titles like “I am a dissident. “L O L!
Indeed Red indeed…! Charles
Regarding Image and the early 90s… i reasonably enjoyed Spawn and Savage Dragon through 30-year-old eyes. Not like reading Lee-Kirby through 10-year-old eyes but what is??? That’s what we keep looking and hoping for? Outside of discovery of some superior golden age stuff (plastic man, the spirit) or some silver age stuff like Legion of Superheroes, it aint likely to happen.
But it can happen. It did to me in the late 90s. I thought I couldn't possibly enjoy super-hero comics like I did as a kid, but I went to a comic shop - something I did occasionally at that point - and picked up Promethea #1, not knowing much about it (beyond the obvious writer credit).
What a fantastic comic... straight away I tracked down the other America's Best titles that had come out, and then regularly looked forward to and bought the issues that followed. Tom Strong, Top Ten, League of Extraordinary Gentleman, the various spin offs, Tomorrow Stories... besides the obvious skill of the writer and artists, they were full of enthusiasm and love of old comics which came across to the reader (well, they did in my case).
You think there's not much that can be done with an artistic genre as basic as super-hero comics after decades of the same old, same old, but their history shows its always possible for someone with an idea and fresh approach to reinvigorate them. If the publishers are open to it...
-sean
Talking about Tears for Fears, I was always partial to the song "The Working Hour."
It slowly builds in intensity and complexity. I'm still moved by it.
Sadly, it seems to go off the rails near the end and turn into something of a mess.
A later track I like is "Break it Down Again." That track strikes me as almost an homage to the Beatles, but Orzabal sings it with such energy he sounds more like Roger Daltrey to me.
Concerning Moore, I think I need to check out more (no pun intended) of his post-D.C. stuff.
I was amazed by the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Particularly how funny it was! Remember the letter pages and those advertisements?
If I ever need to purchase some leeches, high-end absinth or hysteria-proof restraining devices (all for legitimate medical purposes, I assure you) I'll know where to go.
M.P.
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